---

Chapter Sixty-One: Revisiting Old Acquaintances

Miss Vilyric repeatedly confirmed that the surge of fragmented energy sensed by Xi Fu Lin coincided perfectly with when Xiao Mo took that book without words out of the ring.

With that, the answer became clear.

That book was a sealed object used by the God of Sky Minerva to suppress one of the soul fragments of the Earth Mother Goddess Xi Fu.

No wonder it was described as indestructible.

It seemed the Winged People, even their higher-ups, were unaware of this past between the God of Sky and the Earth Mother Goddess. Otherwise, such an item would either be heavily protected or closely guarded, certainly not casually sold off to unrelated travelers.

Just as Miss Vilyric resolved to bid on this unexpected surprise, someone jumped the gun and made an offer first.

So, driven by a bit of curiosity, Miss Vilyric secretly sent out a wisp of Soul Power and subtly infiltrated the private room marked 76 without alerting anyone.

Whoa, what a familiar face.

Tiger-Human Kunier.

This time, he didn’t bring along those few companions from his clan; it seemed there were only three people in the whole room, including Kunier.

Another figure sitting on the sofa was the petite Priestess, who also looked familiar.

She appeared quite human, but prominently had snow-white pointed ears atop her head, soft fur extending from her forearms, long nails, and pink hair that fell freely without any apparent styling.

Her fluffy pinkish-white tail, which was nothing short of adorable, was snuggled in her arms as she held a wooden comb covered in fur.

She wore a plain white dress that wrapped snugly around her body, and her beast-like vertical pupils were slightly squinted, as if she was yawning.

Wasn’t she the little fox assassin who summoned the Pseudo-God “Death Star” in the Tapeya Basin only to be defeated by the Priestess? Miss Vilyric remembered her name was Mavis.

That obviously magic-infused white dress seemed to have been something Miss Vilyric casually ‘acquired’ at that time. After the defeat, she um… just happened to put it on her, and it turned out the little fox was still keeping it.

So, she showed up too, and it looked like she had recovered well.

The last person was an Orc type Miss Vilyric had never seen before.

Instead of fur covering its entire body, it had dense, dark diamond-like scales, and behind it were wings similar to those of a dragon, though not very large. Compared to real dragons, it seemed even less impressive than the Winged People in proportion, clearly lacking in flying ability.

Its face wasn’t flat like that of a human or most beastmen but was streamlined and protruded forward, almost identical to that of a dragon, just much smaller.

A strong but not overly long tail extended from its back, curled up flat against the sofa, with the same dark scales on its surface. Its hands and feet, however, resembled those of real humans with five fingers, but were protected by a scaly shell.

Though she had never seen one with her own eyes, Miss Vilyric was already familiar with such beings from books in the United Kingdom.

The rare and powerful race from the Beast Kingdom, boasting a bloodline nearly half-dragon, truly the royal family.

Half-Dragon.

To avoid being discovered, the Soul Power Miss Vilyric extended was merely a faint wisp that spread into room 76, observing the situation within before naturally dissipating.

She didn’t do anything else.

A Half-Dragon… actually made it to the Kingdom of Azure.

This was a presence that hadn’t appeared during the Beastman’s grand invasion with millions of troops in the West Frontier against the United Kingdom. It was said that an adult Half-Dragon was essentially a legend, combined with the legendary little fox Mavis and the brainy Kunier, it seemed the Beast Kingdom truly took this Abyss issue seriously.

This Half-Dragon must be the leader of the Beastman envoy.

Speaking of which, was it male or female?

Half-Dragon scales were their innate protective armor, providing excellent defense while also shielding their bodies and keeping them warm, so they didn’t need to wear clothing, making it impossible for Miss Vilyric to determine its gender directly.

Hmm… she was a bit curious about these creatures.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

“Miss Duo Duo, I want to bid.”

Seeing that the auctioneer Xiao Mo outside had already started the final countdown, Miss Vilyric quickly raised her hand to signal the white-feathered attendant standing not far away.

Now that she had confirmed that the book without words was the vessel sealing the fragment of Xi Fu, there was no way Miss Vilyric would let go of this opportunity, even though she wasn’t sure what the beastmen wanted with it; first, she had to secure it.

She had bid on something small before, so the Priestess was naturally already familiar with the process.

The highly professional attendant showed no hesitation or doubt. She promptly raised her hand to press a button and turned back with a smile.

“Alright, may I ask how much you would like to bid? The minimum increment for this item is one thousand gold coins.”

“Um…”

Although Miss Vilyric wasn’t very concerned with currency, there was no need to waste money either. Bidding too high could make other originally uninterested bidders suspicious and unnecessarily raise the base price.

Let’s just start with a small increase and see how the beastmen respond.

“I bid fifteen thousand.”

“Understood, I will proceed with the bid immediately.”

Duo Duo wrote the amount stated by the Priestess on a special auction sign using a magical pen. Two or three seconds later, the digital display above the central platform, originally showing 10,000, was updated to reflect the amount written by the attendant.

“Oh! The guest in room 73 bids fifteen thousand gold coins! Truly a discerning eye, thank you for your bid! Are there any other guests ready to participate? Perhaps this mysterious book containing lost magic should not be missed!”

Hearing this, Miss Vilyric almost laughed out loud.

What discerning eye? Sounds more like a fool, this guy must be ready to burst from excitement.

If it weren’t for Xi Fu Lin indicating the hidden secret, there was no way Miss Vilyric would bid on something based entirely on conjecture; this wasn’t a lottery.

However…

Miss Vilyric glanced in the direction of room 76.

No reaction, maybe they didn’t expect anyone else to bid against them; were they hesitating? Or had they decided to give up?

At that moment, the number on the central platform shifted again, jumping straight to 20,000.

“Twenty thousand gold coins! The esteemed guest in room 76 bids twenty thousand gold coins! Thank you for the increase!!”

Ha… It really wasn’t that simple.

What exactly did those beastmen see in this cheap book? Could they actually believe the auctioneer’s nonsense about “hidden ancient magic”?

Without a moment’s hesitation, Miss Vilyric gestured to the attendant again.

“Duo Duo, thirty thousand.”

“Alright.”

The number on the central platform changed dramatically once more, followed by the auctioneer Xiao Mo’s somewhat flamboyant praises and encouragement.

This time, it was as if room 76 was trying to one-up her directly, jumping up another two thousand to fifty thousand gold coins.

Seeing the number change again, before Miss Vilyric could say anything, the Giant Dragon lady beside her jumped up in fury.

“Which idiot is so unaware of the situation! Master, let me go and smash them all to bits!”

Philena furrowed her brow slightly. She knew that the highly esteemed and respected Miss Vilyric wouldn’t act recklessly. Her repeated price increases undoubtedly indicated she sensed something.

On the other side of the bidding, it was likely the same.

If this continued, the back-and-forth bid war would just lead to a lot of gold coins lining the auction house’s pockets. Although that was precisely the nature of auctions, several thousand coins wouldn’t mean much to the Majesty…

But if the trend continued, it was probably just the beginning of the competition now.

Miss Vilyric shook her head helplessly, dismissing the notion of her Little Dragon Daughter resorting to violence. It was merely a bit of gold; it wasn’t worth her going that far.