Inheritance Crystal, One Million Spirit Crystals

"Next item up for auction."

As the Construct made the announcement, a holographic projection materialized above the stage, and the item's information panel appeared alongside it.

**[Transcendent Gene: Water Arrow]** **[Grade: Elite]** **[Primary Enhancement: Spiritual Perception]** **[Secondary Enhancement: Constitution Defense]** **[Upon Inscription: Grants Combat Technique — Water Arrow, and strengthens self]**

The projection drew wide eyes from everyone on the ground floor.

"An Elite Grade Transcendent Gene?! They actually have an Elite Gene up for auction this time?!"

"Yeah — Elite Grade genes have an absurdly low drop rate even from Elite Feral Beasts. This must've come off a Boss Grade creature. And someone's actually selling it?"

"It's an Elemental Type attack technique on top of that — that's gotta cost a fortune, right?"

Up in the VIP box, Zhuo Ming turned to Lu Yuan. "Yuan-bro, isn't this the Transcendent Gene you put up for auction?"

Lu Yuan glanced at the projection and nodded. "Yeah. That's mine."

For a moment, it was as if someone had hit the mute button.

The Blond-haired Young Man broke the silence. "If it's that useful, why didn't you keep it, Yuan-bro?"

Lu Yuan gave him a flat look. He remembered this guy — he'd been one of the survivors during their last ruin run. *I'm Guardian Type. What would I do with this gene?*

Gelin had an odd expression on his face. "An Elite Gene... 'that's all'? Elite Grade genes start above a hundred thousand. On top of that, this is Elemental Type, and Water Arrow is nothing to sneeze at for damage output — the price won't be low. I'd estimate somewhere between a hundred and eighty to two hundred thousand."

For his part, Lu Yuan didn't share the blond young man's sentiment. He was Guardian Type — an Elemental attack gene was simply useless to him.

Before Gelin had finished, the Construct's voice rang out:

"Transcendent Gene: Water Arrow. Starting bid: 98,000 Spirit Crystals. Minimum increment: 3,000 Spirit Crystals. Bidding is now open."

"Hss... Ninety-eight thousand just to open?"

The noise below surged. Almost immediately, the first bid came in:

"Bidder B301 — 110,000 Spirit Crystals."

"Bidder B320 — 115,000 Spirit Crystals."

More bids followed in rapid succession, the price blowing past 150,000 in no time. Increments fell from 15,000 at a stretch down to 3,000 at a time as the competition stiffened.

Since their box couldn't see into the other private boxes, there was no showboating — just the numbers climbing.

After Liu Xi put in her bid, a second offer came on its heels almost instantly.

In the box, Zhuo Ming's expression turned odd. "Isn't that Supervisor Liu's box? Didn't expect her to be bidding too. Why didn't she say anything to Yuan-bro before the auction?"

Gelin glanced at him. "Lu Yuan already consigned the items in advance. What would be the point of her bringing it up? That would just come across as petty."

"Right, fair enough."

The others nodded.

"It's almost over," someone murmured.

Sure enough, the Construct's voice came not long after. The final hammer fell at 195,000 Spirit Crystals — almost exactly in the range Gelin had called.

Gelin's face immediately darkened.

Beside him, the Blond-haired Young Man said without thinking, "Captain Gelin, how do you know all this so well? It's not like you can actually afford—"

"..."

*Are you trying to be a professional heartbreaker?*

Gelin shot him a glare. "I'm practically at the First-Rank breakthrough myself — can't I look into a second Transcendent Gene?! You want me to rearrange your face?!"

The blond young man snapped back to himself, looking embarrassed. "Oh — right, right, haha..."

When Gelin did the arithmetic, 195,000 Spirit Crystals was more than he could earn in an entire year. Even scraping close to 100,000 would take over half a year — and that didn't even count the downtime between hunting runs to recover. Even on a good day, he barely cleared three or four hundred Spirit Crystals. On a bad day, probably less.

Gelin and the others couldn't help stealing glances at Lu Yuan. They weren't going to pretend they weren't envious.

For Lu Yuan, though, an Elite Grade gene barely registered on his radar. He hadn't realized it would sell for this much on the open market — not that it mattered. All he needed were the Spirit Crystals themselves. With 200,000, he could train at full capacity for nearly a month.

He hadn't expected the bidding to be quite that fierce.

Even for himself, hunting hard in the Ancient Sea Oasis would've taken over a month of Land of Origin time to accumulate this many Spirit Crystals. Of course, that was before. Now, he could do considerably better.

As for Liu Xi — he genuinely hadn't expected her to be bidding. She hadn't said a word about it beforehand. Not that it surprised him in hindsight: she represented the Tianfu Consortium, and the Consortium certainly had talents capable of inscribing an Elite Grade gene.

After the Water Arrow gene sold, two Boss Grade Gene Armaments went up next.

Lu Yuan had zero interest in either of them. Both were ultimately claimed by VIP bidder B315 — whoever that was, Lu Yuan had no idea.

After a Boss Grade armor came down, Gelin said, "That should be everything at this point."

He was right. By now, every item Lu Yuan had consigned had sold. Added together, the total came to a clean 270,000 Spirit Crystals.

"Next item up for auction."

While the two of them were still talking, a new projection appeared above the auction stage — a transparent crystal, floating in a shaft of light.

Alongside it, the information panel materialized.

**[Inheritance Crystal: 'Frost Wolf' Freeze Cannon]** **[Grade: Elite]** **[Description: Contains 'Frost Wolf'-grade freeze cannon schematics and all related technology.]**

Those two brief lines of text were enough to bring the entire hall to a standstill.

Then, all at once —

"A Civilization Inheritance Crystal?!"

"Sandy Rock City actually got one of these?! Aren't we a starting city?!"

"What lunatic is putting an Inheritance Crystal up for auction?! This is going to be one hell of a show."

"What kind of Auction House even has something like this for sale?!"

A massive wave of shock rippled through the hall.

In the VIP box, Zhuo Ming stared at the crystal projection, a flicker of undisguised envy crossing his face.

Inside his own box, Lu Yuan's eyes had gone wide. He sat staring at the Inheritance Crystal with genuine astonishment.

He'd heard before that the Land of Origin was a source of technological inheritances — but he hadn't expected to encounter one so soon.

Amid the crowd's continued uproar, the Construct's voice cut through, as unhurried as ever:

"Inheritance Crystal: 'Frost Wolf' Freeze Cannon. Starting bid: 1,000,000 Spirit Crystals. Minimum increment: 50,000 Spirit Crystals. Bidding is now open."

The hall went still.

Then erupted.

"The starting price is already one million?! Isn't that insane?!"

"Hss..."

Gelin raised an eyebrow. "I wonder what this ends up going for. It's probably the most valuable item this Auction House has ever put up."

"One million is *expensive* to you?" He continued without missing a beat. "Think about the Spirit Crystal to real-currency exchange rate — that's the equivalent of a hundred, maybe two hundred million real money. This is cutting-edge engineering schematics *and* all the underlying knowledge. Is a hundred million expensive? I'll bet by the time the gavel falls, the final number is somewhere in the tens of millions of Spirit Crystals."

*...Surely it won't go that far?* Lu Yuan thought, thrown off.

Hearing Gelin's logic, the others in the box found themselves nodding along.

Lu Yuan had to admit the man had a point. The technology inside a freeze cannon wasn't isolated — the underlying principles had applications well beyond the weapon itself. And the value of knowledge, fundamentally, was simply too high to put a ceiling on.

For that matter, Black Steel Force was probably worth even more than this technological item. But Lu Yuan had absolutely no intention of selling his.

He was still genuinely curious where the final number would land.

He also noted, almost with amusement, that he was technically someone who had obtained a Civilization Inheritance Crystal himself. Back in the ruin, he'd acquired the Shiman Race's body cultivation legacy — a martial inheritance meant only for that race's own prodigies, which made it rather difficult to put on the open market. Not that Lu Yuan would sell it anyway.

In the box, Zhuo Ming turned to Gelin with a puzzled look. "Isn't that Supervisor Liu's box? Didn't expect her to participate in this one too. Why didn't she mention it to Yuan-bro?"

Gelin replied, "Lu Yuan already consigned his items beforehand. What would be the point of her saying anything? That would just come off as petty."

"Oh... right."

Lu Yuan was equally caught off guard that Liu Xi would be bidding on this — she hadn't mentioned it once. Well, it didn't really matter to him. As long as the Spirit Crystals ended up where they belonged.

The Construct had barely finished announcing the terms when a voice cut in.

"A VIP bidder right out of the gate?"

"Obviously. Who else could casually throw down that kind of number?"

The crowd buzzed with anticipation.

"Now it's going to get interesting. Those VIP box people up there are about to tear each other's throats out."

In his box, Lu Yuan sat genuinely stunned, eyes fixed on the glowing crystal above the stage.