Even Cai Yan couldn't help but chuckle, covering her mouth as she said, "The most impressive one is still the Lord; he conjures up a faction with no background out of thin air. I reckon those people would never guess that our Lord has absolutely no backing whatsoever."
Zhou Yan also felt a surge of pride, wrapping his arms around the three women. "When you're out and about, it's all about putting on a show. Otherwise, how can you make it in the world!"
"I wonder what will appear at this auction. I'm so looking forward to it," Zhen Mi said.
"The heads of those four merchant associations mentioned that many materials above eight stars will appear this time, and quite a lot of them. It seems like there will be many competitors today."
Cai Yan opened the window slightly, and the boisterous sounds reached everyone's ears. They found that the outside was already packed with people.
"This auction all uses Spirit Coins for bidding. Comparing their wealth to our Lord, I suspect they'll all be in for a rough time," Diao Chan smiled.
Even they were unsure of how much money their territory actually possessed, let alone others.
Therefore, anything that could be bid on with Spirit Coins was basically already guaranteed to be in their hands, unless they didn't fancy it or didn't need it.
Ten minutes later, an auctioneer appeared on the stage, holding a microphone and beginning his opening remarks.
Following the auctioneer's enthusiastic speech, the auction finally began. Right from the start, a building of S-grade quality was presented, surprising everyone.
"Lord, this auction is no simple affair. They've brought out such a building as the first item. You'll definitely bid for it, won't you?"
Upon seeing the auction item, Diao Chan and the others immediately knew that Zhou Yan would not miss this.
Nodding, Zhou Yan said, "That's a given. I only saw one S-grade building in the black market this time; all the others were ordinary buildings. Since we've encountered an S-grade building, I absolutely cannot let it go."
Zhou Yan examined the building's attributes.
[Building: Evil Spirit Legion]
[Type: Barracks]
[Quality: S]
[Description: Can be constructed in the territory.]
This was not just a barracks, but a peculiar one.
However, such barracks were somewhat specialized for the inhabitants of a territory. Seeing as this was clearly a demon-type barracks, its power would likely be greatly diminished without special buffs.
Therefore, this barracks had a certain degree of specificity for a Lord. But for Zhou Yan's territory, this situation posed no requirements whatsoever, as his territory had buffs for any race's barracks.
Still, an S-grade barracks was quite valuable, and there would surely be competition. However, for someone who had no interest in money, who could possibly compete with him?
"The starting bid is ten million. Bidding begins now!"
"Fifteen million!"
"Sixteen million!"
"Seventeen million!"
...
"I didn't expect so many people to be competing for such a niche barracks," Diao Chan said, looking at the crowd below, who were still bidding, with some surprise.
"The price has already reached twenty million. I estimate it won't be secured for less than forty million," Zhen Mi said.
If this building were just a generic S-grade [Barracks], it would typically fetch around twenty million. However, this barracks was called the Evil Spirit Barracks. While somewhat niche, its price could easily double.
When the price reached thirty million, very few people were still calling out bids, indicating that the price had exceeded their expectations.
"Lord, aren't we going to bid?" Cai Yan asked.
"Then let's add ten million," Zhou Yan replied.
"Understood." So, Zhen Mi opened the window and shouted, "Forty million!"
Everyone instinctively glanced towards the private boxes above. However, each box bore a special marking, making it impossible to see inside, leaving them with only a sense of detachment.
"A friend from private box number 6 offers forty million. Are there any higher bids?" the auctioneer on stage inquired.
This price had already surpassed their expectations, so no one continued to bid.
"Forty million, first call!"
"Forty million, second call!"
"Ding!"
"Congratulations to the friend from private box number 6 for successfully acquiring the first item of this auction for forty million Spirit Coins," the auctioneer announced.
Following this, the first item was taken away, and the second auction item was brought out.
As the red cloth was lifted, a crystal appeared, accompanied by a storage bag. The material was something everyone recognized: Soul Crystal.
Everyone was surprised, not expecting them to start auctioning materials so soon. This was far quicker than they had anticipated.
"As you can all see, the item being auctioned this time is the familiar material, Soul Crystal. Its uses are, I'm sure, well-known to everyone, so I will not elaborate."
"The Soul Crystal being auctioned this time is eight-star quality, with a quantity of ten thousand units, all contained within this Qiankun bag. I believe old friends are very familiar with this. We will auction it off once."
"Ten thousand units of eight-star Soul Crystal, starting bid one billion. Bidding begins now!" the auctioneer announced.
One billion Spirit Coins for a total of ten thousand units, meaning each unit's price was five hundred thousand Spirit Coins.
This was merely the starting bid, and the price was sure to increase with competition.
This was the average price for eight-star materials. For special materials like Soul Crystal, the unit price would definitely be more than five hundred thousand. The final price would depend on each person's needs.
Constructing a territory required an astronomical amount of funds, like a sea that could never be filled.
Because each territory needed such vast quantities of materials, and with countless types, even though Zhou Yan possessed the Myriad Realms Trading Market, materials above five-star quality were difficult to acquire, and sometimes couldn't even be found on the Myriad Realms.
Even if they appeared, he couldn't buy too many. If it weren't for his cooperation with people from those Myriad Realms, he probably wouldn't have been able to acquire so many rare materials.
The vast majority of people here had come to purchase these materials. After the auctioneer announced the price, others began to compete.
"Fifteen billion!"
"Eighteen billion!"
"Nineteen billion!"
...
"It's already more than doubled. I didn't expect these materials to fetch such high prices," Zhen Mi said, watching the people below compete fiercely. More than half of them were bidding, and the price quickly surpassed twenty billion.
"For a territory to develop, materials are always a headache for everyone. If our Lord didn't have ways to earn money, most of the territory's buildings would probably still be around level fifty."
Their territory had developed tens or even hundreds of times faster than others, yet Zhou Yan was never satisfied with high-level materials.
As long as the territory continued to develop, he would always be short of high-level materials, depending on what materials were needed for building upgrades.