209 Ladies and gentlemen..

"The Auction will begin briefly. Please, take your seats."

After hearing the girl's voice, Daniel turned towards Jerigh, next to whom Cynna was standing quietly. "Hi." He said with a faint smile. He had heard a lot about her from Alesia, which due the fact that Jerigh was one of their closest, made this specific topic of conversation pop up in the conversations that the two of them had together, reasonably often.

Cynna of course did not know Daniel despite the two were part of the same academy, and yet, she felt an innate amount of respect for him. That was due to the fact that he had managed to obtain the immense respect of a warrior as talented and Jerigh was.

"Hello." She said with a slightly nervous tone. She had just witnessed Daniel dismiss an extremely powerful individual that even her mother, the head of her family, would have feared.

Seeing that Cynna was nervous, and not really eager to chat, Daniel turned to look back at Jerigh, and said "Send the guards to watch the area where the most aggressive groups are placed, and send a couple to escort Gai'ha in taking the objects out of the warehouse.

Jerigh simply nodded in confirmation before turning to leave the area, but before he could manage to, Cynna said "Hold on! We have unfinished business!" Her tone was angered by the fact that Jerigh was ignoring her.

"What is it?" Asked Daniel while showing a curious smile, and turning to look at her.

Cynna straightened her clothes, and said with a proud tone "A duel. I have been humiliated by him before. The least he can do is to offer me the chance to redeem my honor." It was clear by her tone how much 'honor' was important to the people of her family. "Can you order him to do that?" She then added after noticing the relationship between the two of them.

"I can't order him to do anything. He isn't a slave, he is my closest friend." Responded Daniel casually before turning to look at Jerigh, and saying "With that being said.. You should accept.."

Jerigh's eyes narrowed before moving from Daniel to Cynna, then back to Daniel. "A duel for a duel." Said Jerigh with a negotiating tone. It was clear what he meant.. He would accept Cynna's request, if Daniel agreed on a duel with him.

Daniel's smile widened, as he nodded in agreement.

It was ever since their last duel that Jerigh wanted to fight once again with Daniel. The last duel had ended in a draw, but that was despite Jerigh possessed a slightly higher cultivation. That day had remained in Jerigh's mind as one of the most noteworthy fights of his life.

Not only was he not able to defeat him solely through weapon mastery, but that was even though Daniel was weaker, and younger. The idea of asking for a rematch had stayed in Jerigh's mind for years now, but due to the fact that he had decided to be under Daniel's service, he couldn't simply challenge him carelessly. Luckily for him, a chance had presented right now, and it was all thanks to Cynna.

"Okay.. but now we have something else to take care of." Said Daniel before turning to look back at Cynna, and saying "You should find your seat, the show is about to start."

-----

In a matter of minutes, everyone took their seat, and after less that a minute, Ligart confidently walked with a decisive pace from one of the entrances in between the grandstands to the middle of the stage.

Ligart was a talented cultivator, but due to his increased responsibilities, he had ended up being unable to focus in his cultivation lately, but despite that, he was still relatively powerful for his age. He had come to be known as the person who took care, along with Imblen, of the marketplace and the auction house of the Golden Company.

"Good evening to everyone, and thank you for joining in this special evening. My name is Ligart, and I will be your auctioneer for tonight. I thank you all for being here. This event is made to present our company's newest product, and I hope that I will be able to keep your interest high enough until then! And trust me, it's worth the wait."

Daniel observed from a separated small spatial room along with Alesia, and the rest of his friends. "He is doing well.." muttered Daniel to Heimart through a faint smile, while moving his palm towards him.

An odd expression appeared on Heimart's face, before he made a few copper coins appear in his hand, and put them on Daniel's palm. He had never lost the bad habit of betting at any given chance, but Daniel was not Ligart.

"Shhhh.." Said Alis while hitting both of their sides with her elbows "I want to hear.."

-----

"The first object that will be put for auction, is the weapon left to the Nijiji family by their late ancestor, The Nijiji Shadow." Said Ligart as a young girl walked out of the corridors in between the grandstands while carrying a long sheathed katana placed inside a transparent casing. He then took the katana off of the girl's hand, and unsheathed it, showing its dark purplish color and the total lack of shine. He then added "As you all might be aware of, this is a weapon enchanted with dark essence, and of spectacularly high level at that. The starting bid is six hundred perfect crystals, and the increase must be of at least ten perfect crystals."

"... six hundred and twenty crystals!"

"Six hundred and fifty perfect crystals.."

"Seven hundred."

One after the other, the interested people started to bid for the sword, while slightly surprised that Daniel's company would be entrusted with such an item to auction for their event.

The Nijiji family was a known family of stealthy killers. They did not operated illegally, nor were they assassins of sorts. They were a normal family whose methods of fighting were simply focused on stealth and lethal attacks at the earliest moment of engagement.

Through the entire capital, the rumor that the ancestor of the Nijiji family had perished had spread long ago, and due to the lack of a suitable inheritor, their family had lost the majority of the power they possessed. This was already years ago, and now, the truth had come out under the shape of a sword being sold in the Golden Karma company auction.

There was only one reason why a family would sell a family heirloom, and that was because they were close to bankruptcy, and they needed money fast.

"Eight hundred crystals!"

"Eight hundred and eighty.."

"..."

"..."

"The current bid for the Nijiji family heirloom sword is at eight hundred and eighty crystals. Do we have a higher bid?" Asked Ligart while turned around, and scouting the entire grandstage in search of a new bidder. Not being able to see any other guest willing to place a new bid, he said "Very well, the Nijiji Sword of Darkness goes to the head of the Crimson Blossom company for eight hundred and eighty perfect crystals!"

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

"How much did the Nijiji family hope to get out of their ancestor's sword?" Asked Daniel to Maya, which was now standing behind him with a thick book filled with the descriptions and information about the many objects up for auction.

"They owe a thousand perfect crystals to the very Crimson Blossom company.. They'll have to give the money right back, and something." Responded Maya after scrolling through the large book.

"Give them a thousand, and tell them that they can pay the rest back to us in as much time as they need, or that we can settle it with a trade. If they refuse, give them what's theirs." Said Daniel casually.

A long time had passed since Daniel had managed to comprehend dark essence by solely relying on his sheer luck, and now, he had decided to be proactive and try to strike a deal with whomever could possess the slightest bit of comprehension that he lacked. That was how he had found the Nijiji family, which was a small group that used to deal in the creation of low and mid level weapons enchanted with dark essence.

Daniel had offered a relatively high amount of money for a demonstration, or even a dark sphere, but the Nijiji had refused categorically. To them, the comprehension of darkness was dozens of times more valuable than any heirloom.

Their hope was that by selling their ancestor's weapon, they would be able to get themselves out of debt, but that hadn't happened, as the sword hadn't sold for as much as they hoped it would. So, Daniel decided to try his luck one more time.

Back on the stage, Ligart was presenting the second object.

"The second object of tonight's event, is the first book of the collection that includes the secret arts of a school which you all know, the 'The Shocking Truth School'. This books depicts in details the basis of training your body into a state of resistance to the lightning essence." Said Ligart with confidence, before adding "Found in the ruins of their territory by a person that wishes to stay anonymous, we present you this item. The starting bid is two hundred perfect crystals."

The young girl from before walked on the stage once again. This time, she was holding a refined cushion on which a transparent cube was resting. Inside this cube, floated a solitary ruined book on which the silhouette of a human which discharged electricity was painted neatly, and periodically shined in a white color which resembled actual lightning.

The moment the people present to the event noticed this book, the majority of those that worked with lightning essence stood up in surprise, and for a moment, they felt like jumping and try to grab it, but they soon stopped their thoughts from running rampant, and sat back on their seats.

"Two hundred and fifty perfect crystals." Said one of these individuals, trying to eliminate a good part of the competition by increasing the price by twenty-five percent by himself.

"Three hundred!"

"Three hundred and twenty.."

The prices came one after the other, and without looking like it would stop anytime soon, turning the bidding for this book into an actual bidding war which stopped after ten long minutes, at five hundred and twenty-five perfect crystals.

-----

The items presented had been handpicked by Emelnie, which had kept herself informed with what was valuable, and would be interesting to see in such an event. Thanks to her wise picks, the public wasn't bored in the very least, and almost everybody had had a chance to at least place a bid before the very end of the event.

"... This was the last item the night!" Said Ligart with a bright smile while bowing politely at the hundreds and hundreds of people that had their eyes pointed at him. "It is finally time for the main event. Please, welcome the head of the Golden Karma company, Dan Hiel."

"Wish me luck.." Said Daniel to Alesia before turning towards a small empty spot in the small spatial room they were all standing in, and opened a small spatial portal which had been embed with the power of dark essence.

This dark portal lead directly to the middle of the stage, and next to Ligart, where he appeared casually. He then said with a voice filled with confidence "Welcome to you all friends. Some of you know me, some of you don't, so let me introduce myself. I am Dan Hiel, and I own the Golden Karma company."

"As many of you know, my company does not operate in a special field, and we operate in more or less every field of the market. Many of you might have spectated to the games of the collective, which my company was lucky enough to win.. But that's not all there is to our company." He was slowly pacing on the stage in an attempt to engage the entire public in what he was saying.

"In fact, if I may say so myself, my company excels in the production, and invention of alchemical product. So, as many of you might have already guessed.. Tonight we are presenting our newest product, which we think has the possibility to take us a step closer towards a goal which cultivators have always dreamt of.."

"Tonight, I.. We present you with a pill. A pill which we have produced as a cure for an infamous poison called 'Poison of the Night Blue Thorn', but that turned out a little different than expected.." He let the phrase die in his mouth.. Sink deep in the ears and minds of the people from the poisonous rose, as well as of all of the masters of alchemy and poisons present..

"Ladies and gentlemen.." He said while making a small box appear in his hand. He then opened it with, and continued by saying "The Partial Poison Immunity Pill."