Chapter 160: Auction

After spending a good portion of the day, Yang Ling finally got a grasp on the Magical Beasts in that world. According to the explanation on the Magical Beast Knowledge Guide, space element beasts were extremely rare, but someone once discovered traces of a Steelback Eagle in Terras Forest. Perhaps he could try his luck deep in the untraveled portion of the forest one day.

Since he could not capture any space element Magical Beasts for the time being, he decided to instruct Goode to do a small excavation of the Five Colored Crystal Vein first. Developing land required many of crystal coins, setting up a Troops Association required many crystal coins, and building the Black Lake City required many crystal coins… He had to find a way to balance the income and spending as soon as possible, or he might go bankrupt.

In order to keep it quiet, Yang Ling adopted Goode’s suggestion and decided to sell the crystals in small batches. As a safety precaution, Goode would personally transport the crystals using the Space Ring, then sell them secretly to Harribell as if they were treasures from the Anca family.

This way, even though he would not earn many crystal coins in the beginning, it was at least much safer. The Anca family had been built on piracy. They had robbed many tribes, and it was believable that they had kept some premium crystal ores for themselves. He believed that this would not attract anyone’s suspicion. It was not too late for them to sell the crystal ores themselves after the development of the Wissen Merchant Team matured and his territory had a stronger defense.

After leaving his instructions on the more important things, Yang Ling cultivated his Wizard Techniques.

After forming his Crystal Core, even though he could gradually start to cultivate higher level Wizard Techniques, it was hard for him to achieve a quick breakthrough given that he was still not powerful enough.

For example, in terms of evasion techniques, the stele said that there were six kinds, namely Metal Evasion, Wood Evasion, Water Evasion, Fire Evasion, Earth Evasion and Wind Evasion, with each kind split into beginner, mid and high levels. So far, he had only gained a preliminary mastery over the Earth Evasion, which allowed him to instantly teleport twenty steps away, but he could only use it three times per day.

But as his Wizard Power and mental energy increased, he would be able to gradually increase the teleportation radius, as well as the number of times he could use the skill in a day. It was rumored that after cultivating it to a high level, he could teleport thousands of miles away, making it extremely powerful.

While he was cultivating the Earth Evasion technique, Yang Ling could feel the trees in the yard release tendrils of strange energy ripples. His body trembled gently, giving him the feeling that he was about to fly. It was as if his soul was about to leave his body. According to his experience with the Earth Evasion, he would be able to gain mastery over the beginner level Wood Evasion technique with just a little more effort.

Fast speeds, rich Wizard Power, the mysterious Tree Eye ability, and the Earth Evasion and Wood Evasion spells…

Yang Ling believed that his abilities would be taken a notch higher if he could master the Wood Evasion technique. When that time came, he might be able to escape safely even if he encountered a sage level fighter in the luscious Terras Forest, or even a Heaven-ranked Assassin.

Every time night fell, he would do two things simultaneously, cultivating the Starlight Wizard Mantra and the Psychic Spell at once, and giving his best effort in absorbing the energy released by the skyful of stars and trees around him.

Just like what had happened in Taildon Valley, the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda expanded rapidly as the pagoda shaped mark between his brows absorbed energy from the stars and from the green life force. The white fog released by the Wizard’s Pagoda thickened, and the pond in the middle of the grassy fields grew.

Just like that, Yang Ling cultivated the Wood Evasion Technique in the day and took the time at night to cultivate both the Starlight Wizard Mantra and Psychic Spell. Three days passed in a flash.

If it is expanding at this rate, would the pond expand to become the size of a reservoir, than a large lake the size of the Dongting Lake, and finally a sea like the Mediterranean?

On that day, after absorbing a large amount of green life force and clearly sensing that the pond had once again expanded, Yang Ling felt a wave of doubt. Until that moment, he had still been unclear of what exactly was going on in the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda.

Yang Ling saw the Heavenly Fox Yuna silently training with her eyes closed, so he did not disturb her. He left quickly after making his way around the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda once.

The auction of the Anacardia forest would happen after daybreak. Even though he trusted that Goode had already prepared everything, he also had to make preparations for himself and learn about each situation. After all, this was the very first auction in the history of Wissen Town. He couldn’t afford to botch it.

The people once again broke into a commotion when the news of the auction of the forest of Anacardia spread out. The Anacardia were valuable because of the paint-like sap. Rubbing it on the skin could prevent bug bites and protect against the elements… It was widely used in many high-grade tents and military items.

The demand for the tree sap was very high in powerful countries like the Banto and Rossi Empires, and they usually went for a dozen Purple Crystal Coins per gallon. In the abundant summer, each mature Anacardia could produce one gallon of sap every three days, thus getting an entire forest of Anacardia was equivalent to obtaining a treasure trove.

In the past, even though the people knew that there was a forest of Anacardia in the Terras Forest, they had been unable to do a large scale sap collection because of distance and bandits. But it was different now. Yang Ling had spent a great deal of effort to pavE roads and send armies to clear off the bandits along the merchant routes since becoming the leader of the town.

It could be said that under his efforts, the cost of peddling tree sap not only decreased greatly, it was also many times safer. In the past, the people had only set their sights on the rich number of Magical Beast Essence Crystals in the Terras Forest. Now, they were gradually eyeing the resources such as the mineral ores, wood and tree sap.

In this period of time, everyone, be it the merchants that have gathered in Wissen Town, or the troops and adventurers, or the townspeople who had grown up there, they had all heard the news of the building of Black Water City and the harbor. Those that were a little more intelligent knew that the Magical Beast Territory would invite rapid development.

There were treasures all over the Terras Forest. Merely a ship full of the Flower Rocks that could be seen everywhere might earn them a fortune when transported to other cities, much less the Magical Beast Essence Crystals. Some of the troops and adventurers even opted to stop doing missions and pool money to set up a small merchant team, hoping that they could earn their first bucket of gold in Wissen Town.

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As news spread around, Goode did not have to advertise it any further before everyone came to know about the news of the auction. As a result, the people had swarmed into Wissen Castle early that day. Other than the merchants in Wissen Town, there were also several troops, adventurers and townspeople.

Good made his way to the front of the crowd and addressed them. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Terras Forest has ample rainwater and a suitable climate, creating the most premium tree sap in all of the Tailun Continent. It is rumored that five hundred year ago, it was the tree sap that was produced here being brushed onto the bottom of the ship that Earl Magellan managed to lead his fleet of boats in traversing the Carribean Sea and discovering the faraway Lunqin Continent…”

After expounding for some time, Goode took out a magnified map and said, “Please look here. This is Wissen Town, and this is the Liep Harbor that is soon to be built. Heading west on the sea and making your way past the Cape of Good Hope would lead you to the rich Bavaria Plains. As long as you set up a fleet of ships, you would be able to transport goods to the rich Bavaria Plains for sale directly.

Even though they had heard of the rumors, the people became truly excited after seeing the plans in person. The development of the Magical Beast Territory became much more real to them. Even Arismede, there representing the Aragon Merchant Team, was no exception.

Bavaria was the most prosperous port city in the Banto Empire. Traffic was well established there, and there were countless merchant teams journeying to and from the area every day. If they could reach there by ship and directly transport the goods from Wissen Town to Bavaria, they would be able to save fees and time.

As per his previous discussion with Yang Ling, Goode tried his best to paint a rosy picture of the development of the Magical Beast Territory to the group, enticing their desires. Indeed, under his temptation, the people became more and more excited.

“Today, we are here to auction the rights to harvesting the Anacardia forest. The starting bid is five hundred thousand Purple Crystal Coins, and bids jump in intervals of ten thousand Purple Crystal Coins. We would extend our invitation to merchant teams that participate actively and have a good performance to participate in various high profile projects in the Black Water City, harbor and pier!”

Many of the small merchants felt as though they had just been splashed with cold water. The troops that had intended to pool their money were even more disappointed. They would never be able to cough up five hundred thousand Purple Crystal Coins.

“Five hundred and fifty thousand!”

The small merchant teams were powerless to join the auction, but a starting price of five hundred thousand Purple Crystal Coins was nothing to a large merchant team with capital. Soon, an old man in a gray robe raised the price, fifty thousand at one go.

Tsk tsk, the rich sure are different. Fifty thousand Purple Crystal Coins at one go?

Oh Yiblis, five hundred and fifty thousand Purple Crystal Coins? We can’t furnish that sum even if we spent it on eating pancakes for eternity. It is fun to witness the activity even if we cannot win the bid!

Seeing the big merchant teams start to raise the bid, the people engaged in discussion, asking around for the background of the gray robed old man.

“Five hundred and sixty thousand!”

A plump man raised the bid by ten thousand. He appeared to be the representative of the Boulade Merchant’s Association, but in reality, he was merely an actor Yang Ling had hired.

“Five hundred and sixty thousand, anyone wish to raise the bid?” Looking at the representatives of the big merchant teams sitting at the front, Goode paused, then continued, “We are about to sell off the premium forest of Anacardia in the Terras Forest, five hundred and sixty thousand, anybody want to bid any higher?”

“Aragon Merchant Team, six hundred thousand!”

After taking a sip of jasmine tea, Arismede raised the price to six hundred thousand, and even brought out the Aragon Merchant Team name. Even though he was only a tactician and did not have any natural authority, he had been authorized by the merchant team before he came to Wissen Town, and had more flexibility when it came to dealing with some matters.

After hearing the name of the Aragon Merchant Team, a few of the merchants that were about to bid shut their mouths. As a merchant, almost all of them had heard of the Aragon Merchant Team. If the other party were determined to get the forest of Anacardia, nobody would be a match for them.

“Boulade Merchant Association, six hundred and ten thousand!”

Responding to Goode’s subtle signal, the plump man pretending to be Harribell’s subordinate once again raised the price by ten thousand Purple Crystal Coins, directly reporting the name of the Boulade Merchant Association. The group erupted into chaos. No one expected the two great merchant associations in the Livenza Alliance to both be in Wissen Town engaged in a bid war.

“Six hundred and fifty thousand!” After a moment’s hesitation, the gray robed old man raised the price to a large degree, once again attracting the attention of the people present.

Just who was this gray robed old man, for him to dare compete with the Boulade Merchant Association and Aragon Merchant Team?

The people muttered and shuffled their feet. An ordinary person would have backed off after hearing they were competing against the Boulade Merchant Association and Aragon Merchant Team. To think that his gray robed elder did not back down, but instead moved forward and increased the price directly to six hundred and fifty thousand Purple Crystal Coins. It was shocking!

Could he also be a representative of some large merchant association?

The people tried to guess the background of this gray robed old man. Goode, looking from the stage, creased his brows. He had a cold glint in his eyes, as if he was thinking about a troublesome matter.