Chapter 239
Chapter 239
Kyon was sitting in the chair on the balcony, studying the guests in the hall with his upgraded vision. There wasn’t a single Stone! The elders and the high-ranking members of the family had tightened their belts, foreseeing the imminent collapse of the family.
Kyon noticed his old acquaintances in the crowd, an old man and a girl. Their faces were hidden under the hoods, but it was no obstacle for Kyon’s vision. Flitz looked terrible, to say the least. His eyes were hollow, almost lifeless, his face was pale, haggard, his lips were dry. Marina was the exact opposite of him, radiant with life. She must be doing all right.
The old formacist once shared his plans with Kyon. He had been saving money to buy sunflower Ra and heal his seed. He was hoping that Marina could have his child. He’d been waiting for this day for so long. The rare miracle was rumored to appear at this auction today.
A sudden cry of surprise resounded throughout the hall. The eyes of all the high-ranking guests focused on the VIP balcony, where princess Kara took her place, crossing her slender ivory legs. Her sexy, sensual figure was enhanced by the exquisite burgundy dress that matched the color of her hair and her eyes. It had an indecently deep slit up the thigh. The low cut in the dress fully revealed her juicy boobs.
Her indecent outfit attracted like a magnet. Young men blushed shyly, married men risked to get a squint or a reproachful look from their spouses, and the girls looked gloomily at the floor with toxic, bitter, hopeless envy.
However, several people didn’t fall under Kara’s charm. The director of Cernos, for example, did not even look in her direction. Timothy cast a fleeting bored glance and continued to radiate his arrogant aura. Cornelia’s coldness didn’t seem to be a mask of envy. She was pretty and she knew it. She was of a different type, perfect in her way. Cornelia clung to XiaoBai, purring like a happy cat. The fat guy cringed like a snail that was being removed from its shell.
No one in the hall considered the proud, dazzling princess to be pretentious. She behaved according to her status, which was well-earned. She was the first student of Cernos, after all. Many wanted to deserve at least a second of her attention.
A faint smile played on princess Kara’s full lips. It was evident that she had arrived here to win a bid. She didn’t care about anything else.
When Kyon looked at the charming demoness, a violent emotional storm swept over him. His hatred, keen, sharp, severe, had woken up stronger than ever. Then came a feeling scorching like magma, and toxic like deadly poison. This tangle of emotions rushed to his heart, and then down to his pants. The cursed love had lost its innocent, romantic shade. It had become something truly obscene, like in the case with Dinah after neuro programming.
{What the hell?!..} – Kyon gritted his teeth and calmed the destructive passion with the help of Synergy. Fortunately, the intermediate level of the second degree Synergy was enough to cope with it.
Meanwhile, a tall, elegant man, apparently the auctioneer, stepped into the center of the hall. He greeted the guests, delivered a solemn opening speech, touching upon the upcoming tournament, explained the auction rules and presented the first lot.
«Noble impermeable cloth of the highest quality! No spiritual sense or scanning will pass through it! Wrap up your weapon with it and hide it on your body, and your opponent will be in for an extremely unpleasant surprise! The best thing for the upcoming tournament of the families! The starting price is 100,000. The bid decrement is 5.000!»
Several people raised their numbers, intending to buy the lot. Soon, the price rose to 195,000. The fabric made it possible to create an effect of surprise in the most challenging battle. Many bidders wanted to offer the highest price for it. Meanwhile, the price had already doubled. The bidder who had offered the latest bid was visibly worried.
Kyon’s eyes flashed dangerously. He raised his number with full confidence and won the lot for 200,000.
With this cloth, he would be able to hide rings and bracelets from any spiritual scanning. Placed under carbon skin, his cache would be invisible even for the imperial security department. It was definitely worth it!
After a dozen lots, the auctioneer presented medicine for the unique body destruction. It was an expensive pill that could destroy a unique body of the 1st or 2nd stages up to B rank inclusively. The risk for the recipient (such as losing the level of the current cultivation) was minimal. If someone had made a stupid mistake and started developing a wrong unique body, it could be destroyed to create a better one.
Kyon thought for a while, then nodded to himself and bought the lot for 250,000 spheres.
The next few lots didn’t attract Lovr’s attention. However, when he saw the next one, he jumped from his chair. The auctioneer demonstrated a breakthrough pill of the best quality for the practitioners of the 2nd phase.
Kyon whistled enthusiastically. Any opportunity to increase the chances in the upcoming tournament was worth a lot. It would be a profitable investment, especially considered the prize he would receive when he won.
«The lot goes for 300,000 to our wealthy guest number thirty-three!» – The auctioneer announced joyfully, rubbing his palms with glee.
The noble guests in the audience started whispering to each other. Judging by the impressive, clearly visible figure on the VIP balcony, it was XiaoBai Stone, the patriarch’s grandson. The person next to him must also be a Stone. The guests were curious where the Stones got the extra income. They didn’t notice any other Stone in the hall.
Half an hour later, they started to offer costly items, even by the royal nobility’s standards.
Three pretty girls with fox ears were brought into the hall, chained and collared. They were dressed in bright, smart clothes that left little space for imagination. Their clean, fiery red hair had been elegantly done up, their legs bare to the knees. Their bewitching looks made a strong contrast with their furry tails twisted in a panic, their fangs bared desperately, and their big eyes the color of freshly cut grass filled with fear and hopelessness. Their free life had been long over. Their future was dark and full of horror in the role of lifelong slaves for dirty, vile masters, the people.
«Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the representatives of the supreme beasts, three members of the royal fox family. It cost indescribable efforts to capture and bring them here! They are clean, obedient, elegant, fluffy and, you will not believe it, virgin! They will warm your bed, cook your meals, do the cleaning, and fight for you to the death! They are willing to serve until the end of life, fulfilling any whim of their master! The entire army had to get into the very thicket of the ancient forest and destroy the carefully hidden village of these red animals. Our warriors had met fierce resistance… This trophy cost a lot of victims. Hundreds of imperial soldiers have sacrificed their lives for victory. The starting price is 300,000. The bid decrement is 20,000.» – The auctioneer announced.
The royal foxes belong to the priceless species of the supreme beasts. They are highly intelligent and can transform into humans as soon as their cultivation reaches the 2nd phase, not the 4th, which is necessary for other wild creatures.
The guests enthusiastically raised their bids.
Kyon felt heavy disdain rise in his heart for these people caught up in a bidding war. It made him sick, sick as never before.
«Vilent, if you win this lot, I will gladly pay you three hundred thousand for one beast. My son Glen is too young and hot-tempered. He needs to let off steam, or it will prevent him from fully realizing his talent.» … «Damned creatures, I hope their future master will slaughter them all.» … «These nasty animals look healthy. My granddaughter needs laboratory rats to hone her skills in formateutics and alchemy.»
Kyon could hear hundreds of comments like this throughout the hall. He knew that no one would express their dirtiest ideas in public, but he didn’t have to be a professional psychologist to understand what was on some guests’ minds. The lewd glint in their eyes spoke for itself. Kyon knew what the unfortunate and so adorable foxes were in for the moment he saw the winner of the lot smile lasciviously at them.
{This world needs to be changed.} – Kyon thought.
Kyon had no intention of saving them. He had no time for nonsense if it didn’t help him become stronger. He had a lot of things to do in the future that would make this world a better place.
People enslaved demons and harnessed the supreme beasts to unleash their basic desires. They used them in inhumanly hard work, starved them, slaughtered them for food and resources for medicine. All parts of the body were used: skin, fur, blood, keys, hearts… At least, people didn’t eat the flesh of demons being afraid that their depravity could be contagious. They also seldom used their parts with the exception of the keys.
Demons would do just the same. Only their instincts were even more evident due to their hot temper.
The supreme beasts were second to none in cruelty. They preferred to use the captured representatives of the other races for food. The beasts especially valued hearts, genitals as well as brains and tongues. It depended on the type of animals and their preferences. The elite of the supreme beasts, for example, had taken to raising beautiful human or demon kids as pets. Such pets enhanced the status of their owner. There were competitions to find out whose person / demon was stronger, more beautiful, who had a more noble bloodline. The best, most talented, high-born species were paired for breeding to raise high-quality offspring. Sometimes this dirty action turned into a whole show. Pet arenas were also widespread. In the beast kingdom, they loved everything related to the humiliation of the lower races. They treated them in much the same way as people handled wild dogs.
In general, each race paid the other the same courtesy. The three of them deserved each other. Millennia of irreconcilable hostility had taken root in the minds of all the inhabitants of this world, accustomed to racism since childhood.
There were lots of wars that had almost determined the winner, but every time, the losing side received support from the third party that remained neutral until a certain moment, which brought the political map of the world into a perverted balance.
Half an hour had passed.
«Ladies and gentlemen.» – The auctioneer announced pompously. – «Recently, our guild was lucky enough to meet a person from Vatican (2). He has brought an item that contains an advanced formation created by the highly-classified technologies of the elite formacists of their empire!»
Solemn music played when two beautiful girls brought a stand with a collar to the center of the hall.
The guests of the hall whispered, enthusiastically sharing their guesses.
«It has long been believed that arcanums could enslave only supreme beasts, stupid, principled animals who think they are proud beings. However, the formation enclosed in this collar is the prototype of the arcanum for cunning and treacherous demons! This information comes from a trusted source! It can enslave a demon with cultivation up to the fifth phase inclusive! All you have to do is to put the collar on the creature with a trace of your energy inside. The nasty, despicable demon will obey you all year long!»
The loud buzz of conversations filled the air. All those present were stunned!
It was known that arcanum was a subjugating formation, usually working exclusively on supreme beasts. Arcanums could be created using a minimum amount of resources (compared to other subjugating formations). They didn’t require a high level of cultivation to enslave the supreme beast forever. And today, all of a sudden, there appeared an arcanum that worked on demons?! It was unheard of! It could change the balance in the world!
The auctioneer added with a conspiratorial smile:
«Winning this lot will give you access to the internal structure of the formation. If there are talented formacists in your family, you can try your luck and learn new technology! You might glorify your family in the entire empire!»
A hundred of excited voices flooded the hall at once. Each family tried to shout the loudest to acquire the arcanum at an outrageous price and discover its secrets.
Kyon was about to give in to general enthusiasm, but then he wondered. – {A trusted source? Try your luck? Prototype?} – The scam was so obvious that even the most suspicious wouldn’t believe it at first. Even the great trading guild turned out to be fooling its customers as if there was ever any doubt. The well-chosen words absolved them of responsibility. It was beyond reproach!
Kyon heard XiaoBai’s muffled grunt that might have been a laugh. He sounded like a satisfied squealing pig. Cornelia glanced into the fat fellow’s small eyes, stroking his soft meaty hand with her graceful thin fingers.
«Why are you laughing? Is it all your doing?..» – Kyon asked, squinting suspiciously.