1492 Excited Checking
Alex walked out of the auction house and met up with the other kings as well as Lady Zhan. He thanked the two as soon as he met them, which was not surprising to the other two monarchs.
The Silver Queen had contacted everyone else most likely and by now they all knew who had won the artifact.
"Congratulations on winning the final bid, Your Majesty," she said.
Alex smiled. "You nearly beat me too, Queen Mao," he said. "I have to thank you that you stepped back at the last moment. I had no more spirit stones after that."
The Silver Queen's eyes looked at him in surprise and then it grew incredulous when she realized he wasn't lying. "So… I lost because I gave up?" she asked.
"Did you have any more to spend?" Alex asked.
The Silver Queen nodded. "I had just found someone to aid me after you refused to help me," she said. "But once the bid crossed 250 thousand, I thought it was better if I didn't continue."
"I see," Alex said. "I got lucky then. Thank you."
The woman didn't know what to say and sighed in the end. "Luck is a skill as well, I suppose," she said. "Congratulations all the same."
Alex smiled and they continued back to the palace. Along the way, Alex handed over 100,000 of the spirit stones he had to Elder Liang, who took it to the other auction house where Hao Ya and Jai Heiyun would still be vying for the final item in the auction.
He would meet with them when they walked out, but for now, he was more than excited to check on the items he had received up close.
Once they arrived at the palace, Alex first finished his with the two he had borrowed his money from.
To the Emerald King, he gave a few more pills than he had asked for.
To Lady Zhan, he gave the two pill recipes as he had promised. He made sure that she made an oath as she had said she would and then had her remember the recipe before destroying it.
At that point, he had nothing to worry about.
Once the both of them were dealt with, Alex walked into his room, along with the Elders who were as excited as him to watch the whole thing.
Whisker and Pearl were ready to watch the whole thing as well, so he didn't waste a single second.
He started with the tiny things. An earring for his mother, and a pink dress for his daughter. A sword for his sister and a bracelet for his master.
He pulled dozens of things out before anything of significance started coming out at all.
The first thing that came out was the Dragon Heart Gauntlet.
He put on the gauntlet and looked at it for a moment. The greenish blue scales on the gauntlet shined under the light of the room and glimmered light onto the walls like waves of water.
He placed a few spirit stones inside as instructed and activated the item. He attacked a dummy he placed in the distance with the technique that was carved into the scales.
The attack was barely any strong at all, but that was not why he bought this thing anyway. He used the second defensive skill as well, but that wasn't that good either.
Finally, he activated the third skill which increased his weight by a large amount. He felt heavy all of a sudden as if a weight had been put onto his whole body, distributed equally.
'Good,' he thought. He would've found it terrible had it only increased the weight on his arm.
"Father might not even notice the increase in weight," he said as he took it off and let the elders try it out. They were surprised by the weight much more than Alex could ever be.
Alex pulled out the next item from the bag which was his Frostfire Inkbrush. He handled the brush around in his hand, memorizing the weight, texture, and balance.
The swirling red and blue pattern on the shaft of the pen made it look far better than it actually was.
Alex put it to the side for others to check if they wanted to and brought out the next thing.
The Bottomless Jade Flask. Of course, it wasn't bottomless. But it did have a lot and lot of storage space it in, all meant to be for liquid.
He looked at the wines that were there and thought of making some in the flask too, but what was the point? He didn't really have the time to learn how to make wines anyway.
Maybe some other time.
He pulled out the next item which was a triple set of formation flags for a formation known as the Enriching Mists formation, meant for enriching alchemy gardens, which Alex intended to have back in his own Palace.
They were a set of masterfully designed formation flags that worked as if they were 3 different Saint Formations, when they were, in fact, a single one.
There was no way to test the flags, so he had to trust the auction house's words and put them aside.
He then brought out the Nine Clouds Wind Fan and gave it a flip. A subtle breeze moved through the room, carrying hints of understanding into the Wind Dao.
Alex did so again, stronger this time, and the Dao became a little more clear, albeit completely elusive to everyone in the room.
He looked at the fan with a bit of a smile and put it down on the bed as he would look at it in detail at some other time.
There were only two more items left for him to check now. One of them was obviously the Mountain Crushing artifact, which he was excited to check for sure.
But he was equally as excited to check the other artifact as well. So, he brought it out and let everyone see it.
The Mirror of Barren Truth
