Chapter 45: Primary Castle Blueprint

The Whisperer asked, "Star River, are you really putting this first batch of Life Elixirs up for auction?"

Han Xing replied, "Yes, to the highest bidder."

"Alright, name your price. The reward for fifth place belongs to Whispers of God for sure!"

With that, the Whisperer added a message in the chat channel, "I kindly ask everyone to do me a favor and not compete with me for this first batch of Life Elixirs."

Under normal circumstances, since the Whisperer was the leader of one of the three major factions in District 107, people would have readily granted him this favor.

However, this was tied to leaderboard rewards and a crucial item like the Life Elixir; no one was willing to give it up easily.

At that moment, the usually low-profile leader of the Airman Squad, Papaya Star, also stepped forward and said, "Brother Whisperer, everyone desperately wants the reward for fifth place. Let's just stick to Brother Star River's rule—highest bidder wins."

His words were essentially undermining the Whisperer.

The Whisperer let out a cold snort.

Han Xing spoke up once again, "Then let us begin the auction."

"The first batch consists of 5 bottles of Life Elixirs. The starting bid is 1,000 spirit cores. You can also offer other items to increase your bid, and the final decision on the winner will depend on overall value."

Starting the bid at 5 bottles right off the bat, this quantity of Life Elixirs was practically equivalent to gaining several extra lives, more than enough for them to wear down and exhaust an elite monster.

As soon as he finished speaking, the survivors who felt they had the strength to compete for the rankings began bidding frantically.

"1,500 spirit cores, plus a green-grade necklace!"

"1,800 spirit cores, plus 64 pieces of mithril!"

"2,200 spirit cores..."

Meanwhile, both the Whisperer and Papaya Star were frantically gathering supplies within their respective discussion groups.

After a round of extravagant bidding, the highest offer eventually reached 4,000 spirit cores, alongside a massive quantity of mithril and various other materials.

Compared to the value of a blue-grade weapon, however, they felt this price was still acceptable. Moreover, apart from the weapon, there was also an advanced class scroll included, making it a fair trade overall.

Right at that moment, the Whisperer suddenly spoke up, "5,000 spirit cores, 107 pieces of mithril, 13,000 units of refined iron, and a blue-grade plate armor chestpiece."

As soon as the Whisperer finished, a collective gasp of astonishment echoed across the chat channel.

This bid was powerful enough to scare off many competitors who had intended to contend for the prize.

The Whisperer had brought out blue-grade equipment partly for the ranking rewards, and partly because he was currently severely wounded and desperately needed the Life Elixir to heal his injuries.

However, just as he spoke, Papaya Star also declared his price, "5,500 spirit cores, 132 pieces of mithril, 14,000 units of refined iron, and a blue-grade necklace."

"Hiss..."

Another wave of sharp gasps resounded through the chat channel.

The Whisperer remained silent. He seemed to be contemplating whether raising the bid further for a blue-grade item was still worth it, and whether he could break even.

Just then, Han Xing chuckled and said, "Oh right, I almost forgot to remind you. Defeating this elite monster will yield quite a few good drops, and there's even a very high probability of dropping the recipe for the Life Elixir."

As soon as those words fell, Papaya Star, who had thought victory was already within his grasp, felt his heart sink.

The mention of the elixir recipe was enough to reignite the desires of competitors who had already given up.

At that point, someone tentatively asked, "Star God, do you mean that your Life Elixir recipe was also dropped by an elite monster?"

Han Xing smiled without giving a direct answer.

Yet, the survivors silently defaulted to accepting this explanation in their minds.

Meanwhile, the Whisperer gritted his teeth and spoke once more, "6,000 spirit cores, 140 pieces of mithril, 15,000 units of refined iron, and 1 elementary territory blueprint!"

He was going all out, pulling out even the blueprint he had obtained by accidentally stumbling into a mysterious floating island!

Han Xing's eyes lit up. A territory blueprint sounded like a construction-type design.

At the current stage, no one had yet been rumored to have built any territory structures.

If no one offered a higher price, this first batch of 5 Life Elixirs would belong to the Whisperer.

Papaya Star felt extremely conflicted at the moment, but he also weighed whether it was truly worth increasing the bid further just for a blue-grade equipment piece.

After waiting a moment and seeing no higher bids, Han Xing announced, "Deal."

With those words, many people across the entire chat channel breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Han Xing demonstrated his trustworthiness as well; immediately after speaking, he sent a trade request to the Whisperer.

Trade window.

At that moment, the Whisperer looked as if his heart was bleeding as he placed a massive pile of spirit cores and precious mithril into the window.

This was practically the accumulated harvest of the hundreds of members of 'Whispers of God' over the past few days, yet it was now being traded away in one fell swoop.

A system prompt appeared.

[Trade successful. You have obtained Life Elixir * 5. You have lost spirit cores * 6,000, mithril * 140, refined iron * 15,000, and elementary territory blueprint * 1.]

Gazing at the five emerald-green elixirs in his territory, the Whisperer was so excited tears were almost welling up in his eyes.

The injuries on his body had already begun worsening, and his status on his personal panel had shifted to near-death.

Had he not been clinging to his last breath by continuously drinking spirit spring water, the Whisperer would never have lasted until now.

Without a moment's hesitation, he poured a bottle of Life Elixir down his throat.

The gruesome wound on his chest finally began to show signs of healing.

At that moment, the Whisperer wept tears of joy.

"Whew... I was so close to actually dying..."

Meanwhile, Han Xing continued with the auctions.

Although the slots for blue-grade equipment on the leaderboard were gone, the other rewards remained immensely attractive.

With 95 spots still remaining, the advanced class transfer manual alone was enough to make the other survivors launch a desperate sprint.

Thus, the subsequent auctions proceeded very smoothly. Everyone's enthusiasm ran high, continuously pushing the upper limit of the transaction amounts.

The auction lasted for nearly two hours until Han Xing finally sold off the remaining 95 slots.

In return, he acquired a massive ocean of materials.

Among them, spirit cores alone numbered 73,624, with over 1,000 pieces of mithril, while materials like refined iron and rare earths directly broke the 100,000 mark.

Added to various miscellaneous items such as beast hearts, warrior blood, and moon-grass, his storage box was once again packed to the brim.

And what he had paid in return was merely 480 bottles of Life Elixirs.

This return on investment was not just ten-fold; calling it a hundred-fold would be an understatement!

Moreover, after two hours, many survivors who had been stuck at the 900-point bottleneck successfully made their breakthroughs one after another.

People continuously crossed the 1000-point threshold to claim their ranking rewards.

Half an hour later, as the 100th survivor successfully broke through 1,000 points, Han Xing halted the auction format and directly listed the Life Elixirs for standard sale.

Unlike items like spirit spring water, which could be traded down to the single milliliter, Life Elixirs could only be traded in whole bottles.

Han Xing set various base prices: for instance, 200 spirit cores could buy 1 bottle of Life Elixir, 1 piece of mithril equaled 10 spirit cores, and 1 blue-grade blueprint equaled 1,000 spirit cores, and so on.

The moment the Life Elixirs were listed, they triggered another mad frenzy of buying.

From the moment he woke up in the morning until sunset, Han Xing spent his entire time frantically trading with other survivors.

He remained in a state of continuous exhilaration.

Watching massive piles of materials pouring in gave him an incomparable sense of fulfillment!

After all, who could possibly resist the joy of being a hoarder?