"This painting is quite interesting, you see, it appears to be just a normal painting, which can give a glimpse into the Dao, a work of an unknown Painting Dao master", Kwon Qianhong started his introduction.

Meanwhile the two brothers who were just discussing a missing treasure from the ones they sent over, turned to the stage with shocked eyes, seeing it appear on stage at this point, among the most precious treasures of the entire auction.

"In fact, that appearance is so convincing, we also were fooled. It was supposed to go up on this stage a lot earlier into this evening, but just before it came up, as we were preparing to roll it out, our guest expert for Symbol Arts noticed something which caused us to re-evaluate it and present it now instead - right near the climax of our auction", Kwon Qianhong explained in a slow and deliberate manner, building up suspense as more attention was gathering on the painting.

People loved mystery and being the one to recognize something valuable, so they desperately searched for clues, all eyes glued to the painting while the two brothers of the City Lord Manor turned to look at each other.

After the atmosphere became ripe, Kwon Qianhong announced, "Cleverly hidden within this painting, is a mysterious and profound formula of an array formation"

His words instantly attracted a lot of attention, and caused the two brothers to drop their jaws, as Ko Wenlu exhaled in an exasperated manner, "N-No way..."

"As before, our guest expert, the masked Talisman Master will explain more", Kwon Qianhong added.

He stood aside, giving place to the masked Talisman Master.

’Hidden gem’ kind of treasures with value far outclassing their perceived one were always popular items at any auction, which caused an air of anticipation to fill the room.

"This painting’s hidden formation formula is of at least 3rd-tier Profound Grade, if not higher. Obviously, as someone who does not own it and did not purchase it, I wasn’t allowed to inspect it too closely, but it appears to be adapting one of the 216 volumes of the...", he proceeded to explain the approximate origin of the Formation, bringing up names of various famous Symbol Arts Masters who stood at the foundation of the Symbol Arts of the Current Era, and their works that became the inspiration for the formation formula inside the painting.

He then displayed the non-essential outline pattern of the formation that nevertheless revealed part of its unique design - something that made it recognizable to a trained eye without giving away anything of value.

Not long after, as he finished the explanation, Kwon Qianhong opened the starting bid at 10 million Wei Dynasty gold, which shocked the audience. There were a lot of treasures which bids went into millions, even tens of millions especially toward the end, but this was the first for which the opening bid was placed so high.

Wei Yuanjie immediately shouted, "12 million gold!!!"

"Woah! So much enthusiasm~! It seems His Imperial Highness has an interest in formations, or paintings, or both, hahaha!", Kwon Qianhong laughed.

"13 million!", the 5th prince perked up at this unexpected enthusiasm from his brother, raising his sign while casting a scrutinizing look at Wei Yuanjie, trying to see if this was a ruse to make him spend money on something useless right before the main prize, but to his surprise saw carefully hidden but visible to him signs of somberness and desire to win this item.

Only for Wei Yuanjie to place a 15 million gold bid the next moment, shocking everyone with how aggressively he was bidding on this one.

The audience did not have any time to properly react or process it, however, as the next developments came at a rapid pace.

"16 million!", the Bao Family member sitting among the Silverleaf Trade Hall members suddenly joined in, causing murmurs to go through the auction hall, since this was the first time someone intended to compete with the two princes.

"20 million!", Wei Yuanjie raised the stakes again, causing Wei Liheng to internally panic, not sure if this truly was a bait - a very elaborate trap to outmaneuver him, which was a very convincing theory, and yet it also seemed like Wei Yuanjie’s desire to purchase this item was genuine at the same time.

Meanwhile...

"Tsk... I can’t use a communication talisman here...", Ko Furen clicked his tongue as he put away the talisman he took out a few moments before, "Wait here, I will go outside and ask instructions from Father" 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Ko Wenlu nodded without hearing him, nervously watching the situation unfold while his younger brother stood up and exited the private balcony.

If this painting was indeed so valuable for these bigshots to fight so desperately for it, the City Lord fumbled a great treasure without realizing it’s value, and was about to potentially take a huge loss.

"t-twe-...22 million!", Wei Liheng clenched his teeth and decided to gamble, and then his eyes lit up as he caught a glimpse of hidden panic in Wei Yuanjie’s reaction.

But the next moment, "25 million!", the Bao Family member made his bid, wiping away his smile.

"30 million!", Wei Yuanjie raised the stakes once again.

At this moment, a sound transmission came his way from Wei Yuanjie, [If you give this one to me I’m going to concede on the Heaven Turning Pill]

[Screw you! You think I’ll let you get one over me?], Wei Liheng replied while continuing to shout out bids.

"35 million!", the 5th prince raised.

He couldn’t tell if it was a trap or not. He couldn’t tell if his little brother’s request was sincere or not.

Technically, since the Silverleaf Trade Hall seemed to be raising the price he didn’t need to do it himself, and yet now he wasn’t sure if he could sit this one out - there clearly was something about this painting.

"40 million!", Bao Family member did not give up either, all of them bidding aggressively as if trying to discourage competing with them.

Then, an anonymous bid of 50 million came through - it was the Right Guardian who also suspected that there was something more to the painting if these people were competing for it.

The people in the hall began grabbing their heads, not sure of what was going on. Most people who came with substantial money already bought items and thus none really had the ability to compete with these giants when it came to this point, so sudden anonymous bids, against the Bao Family and the Imperial Family no less, were a big deal.