novelraw Chapter 276: High-Stakes Gamble at the Auction
Chapter 276: High-Stakes Gamble at the Auction
The late-night meeting with Knight Templar Guillaume, which involved probing and negotiation, concluded in a restrained manner.
Both parties exchanged some of the information they possessed regarding the Black Lotus Sect's activities in the Saigon area, yet both tacitly retained their most crucial trump cards.
Julian learned that his sacrificed Paris branch colleagues had been tracking a batch of stolen high-purity alchemical experimental mercury, following it all the way to Saigon, where they ultimately and unfortunately fell into a trap set by the Black Lotus Sect.
The Night Shadow was merely a local cleaner hired by the Black Lotus Sect to handle the scene's traces.
They did not agree on any follow-up cooperation plan. Just before dawn, like two unrelated shadows, they silently vanished into Saigon's damp night fog.
The next night, as the waning moon hung over the Mekong River, the entire Saigon Bazaar fell into a strange and fanatical agitation.
On the secret waterway leading to the underground auction house, black-canopied boats arriving to participate in this high-stakes gamble came in an endless stream.
Every guest disembarking from the boats, whether a wizard from Siam, a tribal chieftain from the South Seas, or a wealthy merchant from the Qing Dynasty, wore an expression of greedy anticipation on their face.
Everyone knew that tonight, a "divine object" capable of overturning the Southeast Asian inner world would have its final ownership decided here.
Julian was still dressed in his elegant French scholar attire.He sat calmly in an independent booth on the auction house's second floor with an excellent view, a glass of iced black tea emitting a lemongrass fragrance placed before him.
His face showed no tension, but only Julian himself knew that his hand, hidden under the table and gripping the Withered Thorns, was sweating profusely with cold sweat.
Through the booth's window, he could see the entire auction hall.
The massive glass container holding the thousand-year-old Tai Sui had been placed on a slowly rotating circular display platform made of brass and rosewood in the center of the hall.
Under special lighting, the deep red, blood vessel-like patterns inside that humanoid fungus appeared increasingly eerie and full of vitality.
The seats below the hall were completely filled.
At exactly eight o'clock in the evening, the auction began on time.
A graceful, beautiful female auctioneer wearing a traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai stepped onto the display platform.
In a sweet voice, she directly announced the starting price for the night's only auction item.
"Kunlun Divine Flesh, the Elixir of Immortality—the thousand-year-old Tai Sui. Starting price, one hundred thousand... French Indochinese piastres."
As soon as this price was announced, over half of the ordinary buyers below the hall let out sighs of despair.
One hundred thousand piastres in 1889 Saigon could buy the most luxurious street in the French Concession.
This was clearly a game belonging only to top players from the very beginning.
"Two hundred thousand!"
Before her words faded, a hoarse and resolute voice immediately came from the Black Lotus Sect's booth.
They unhesitatingly raised the price by one hundred thousand piastres.
"Three hundred thousand."
Guillaume's booth followed closely.
Julian was in no hurry to make a move.
He picked up his teacup and took a gentle sip.
This was just an appetizer; the real slaughter was yet to come.
Sure enough, in the next dozen or so minutes, the price soared like a runaway wild horse, climbing at a heart-stopping, frenzied pace.
"Five hundred thousand!"
"Six hundred thousand!"
The Black Lotus Sect's Deacon and Knight Templar Guillaume engaged in a head-on, unyielding war of money.
Every bid increase was like a resounding slap, fiercely striking the other's face.
The air in the entire auction hall grew scorching hot because of this high-stakes gamble. Everyone held their breath, witnessing this frenzied bidding war that would be recorded in the annals of Southeast Asia's inner world history.
At that moment, a discordant voice erupted from a corner below the hall.
"Enough! You damn robbers!"
A roar mixed with jealousy drew everyone's gaze to its source.
It was a man who looked like a minor lord from Siam.
His face was flushed red, his eyes bloodshot.
He abruptly stood up from his seat, pulled out an ancient-looking serpentine dagger inlaid with emeralds from his bosom, and pointed it at the thousand-year-old Tai Sui on the display platform.
"This divine object is ours! A gift from the great Serpent God to mortals! Why should it be bought with your filthy money?!"
He screamed hoarsely, his body trembling.
This sudden turn of events plunged the entire hall into an eerie silence.
A chuckle of amusement came from the Black Lotus Sect's booth.
The sweet smile vanished from the female auctioneer's face, her eyes looking at him as if he were a corpse without vital signs.
"Sir, it seems you are not very familiar with the rules of our Saigon Bazaar."
"Rules?!" The Siamese lord laughed maniacally, seemingly having lost his mind. "Here, whoever has the hardest fist makes the rules! I'm taking this thing today!"
With that, he actually raised the serpentine dagger in his hand, recited some ancient incantation, and the blade instantly lit up with a sickly green glow!
A foul, fishy wind swept toward the direction of the display platform!
He dared to publicly attempt to seize the auction item here!
"Foolish."
Two words of disdain came from Guillaume's booth.
The female auctioneer didn't even blink. She gently clapped her hands.
The next second, two ghostly black shadows appeared behind the Siamese lord without any warning.
They were two guards dressed in black martial attire, wearing bronze Yaksha masks on their faces.
Their appearance was abrupt, as if they had been standing there all along, just now stepping out from the shadows.
They each held a peculiarly shaped weapon.
One held a pair of arm blades resembling mantis forelimbs, gleaming with a metallic cold light. The other held a flexible whip, resembling a spine, made of countless white bone segments strung together.
Before that Siamese lord could blow his ridiculous "poisonous wind" to the front of the display platform, those mantis arm blades had already, like two intersecting bolts of lightning, silently swept across his neck.
No blood sprayed out.
The lord's head was "displaced" from his body in an extremely smooth and bizarre manner.
His neck remained perfectly intact, but his head appeared between his own legs, as if he had bowed to himself in a gesture of penitence.
The crazed expression hadn't even faded from his face yet.
Immediately after, that bone whip coiled around his body, which had instantly lost all support and gone limp.
The bone segments on the whip writhed strangely, cleanly extracting every single bone from his intact skin and flesh within a second!
In the end, all that remained on the seat was a perfectly intact yet completely empty human skin sack, and a pile of stark white bones, still stained with warm blood and flesh, neatly stacked beside it by that whip.
The entire process was smooth, fluid, and incredibly fast, presenting a chilling, "Butcher Ding dissecting an ox" level of artistry.
The two Yaksha guards retreated back into the darkness after completing the cleanup.
Everyone was so shocked by this bloody, efficient, and intimidating enforcement of the rules that they dared not make a single sound.
"One really can't cause trouble casually here," Julian thought to himself, watching the horrifying scene below with heightened vigilance.
"The auction continues." The sweet smile returned to the female auctioneer's face. "The current price is six hundred thousand. Does anyone... wish to raise the bid?"
This time, no one dared to speak recklessly.
"Eight hundred thousand." Guillaume's voice broke the silence.
"Nine hundred thousand." The voice of the Black Lotus Sect Deacon now carried suppressed anger.
"One million two hundred thousand."
Just as everyone thought this duel would continue between these two parties, a French voice came from Julian's booth.
He had finally made his move.
And with his first move, he directly raised the price to a new, suffocating height that left everyone breathless!
The Black Lotus Sect's booth fell silent.
The Knight Templar's booth also fell silent.
Neither had anticipated that this French scholar, who had remained silent all along, possessed such terrifying financial power and audacity.
"One million two hundred thousand, once." The female auctioneer's voice held a trace of barely concealed excitement.
"One million two hundred thousand, twice."
"One million two hun..."
"One million three hundred thousand." The Black Lotus Sect Deacon's hoarse voice sounded again, but this time, it carried difficulty and hesitation.
"One million four hundred thousand." Guillaume followed closely, not yielding an inch.
"Two million."
Julian's voice cut into the battle situation again at the most critical moment.
He gave the other side no chance to catch their breath or think. Every bid increase was a devastating blow capable of shattering the opponent's psychological defenses.
This was no longer a simple contest of wealth, but a high-stakes gamble concerning willpower and courage.
Julian intended to use the nearly limitless credit of the Redgrave family to ruthlessly crush these two powerful opponents off the gambling table!
This time, the Black Lotus Sect's booth fell into a prolonged silence.
They had reached the upper limit of the funds they could bear.
Finally, a cold snort came from that booth.
"Very well... very well... The Redgrave family's money is indeed as reputed," the hoarse voice said coldly.
The Black Lotus Sect gave up.
Now, only Julian and the Knights Templar remained at the table.
"Two million one hundred thousand." Guillaume's voice remained steady, but Julian could detect a slight tremor in it.
This price was also beginning to touch the limits of the funds they could mobilize.
Julian gave him no further opportunity.
"Two million five hundred thousand."
He calmly announced this decisive price, one that could make the entire French colonial government take notice.
This time, Guillaume's booth also fell into complete silence.
Several minutes later, a voice came.
"Congratulations, Mr. Belloc. You... have won."
Won?
Julian looked down at the thousand-year-old Tai Sui bathed in light below, yet he felt no joy of victory in his heart.
On the contrary, a strong sense of foreboding enveloped him.
He looked through the window toward the Black Lotus Sect's booth.
He saw the Black Lotus Sect Deacon, who had been hidden in the shadows, stand up and precisely direct his gaze toward him.
On his face, Julian did not see the anger and resentment of a failed bidder. What he saw was a gaze filled with pity.