Outworld Liberators-Chapter 166: Upselling So Even the Customer Wins

[299 Middle Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

[359 Middle Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

[599 Middle Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

Numbers flashed, vanished, returned higher, as if the room itself had become a living abacus.

Masks read intent faster than mouths could shape words, and every greedy calculation became a bid the moment it was imagined.

People scrambled without moving. Shoulders stayed still. Eyes went hard. Hearts raced behind each enlarged visage.

Physique Accelerant Bath Solutions turned the hall into a pit.

Even regular cultivators wanted in, not just the ones with failing bloodlines, not just the ones buying for sons and daughters.

They wanted it for themselves.

Because who in their right mind would refuse a second foundation.

Qi path gave you power. Body path gave you survival.

Together they made a man stubborn enough to outlive his enemies and violent enough to make them regret trying.

The bids kept rising, not shouted, not signaled, simply thought into existence, and the room learned how dangerous desire could be when it did not need permission to speak.

[799 Middle Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

[1 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

In the mortal sections, whispers began to stack on top of each other.

They did not shout bids the way a drunk might shout courage. They calculated. They remembered.

Some of them came from lines that had once produced cultivators, generation after generation, until Heaven’s favor thinned and broke.

Those families had learned early how to survive the change. They had hidden wealth the way squirrels hid nuts, not for winter, but for the day a door like this opened.

Pouches that looked modest held spirit stones wrapped in cloth. Seams that seemed decorative carried sealed compartments.

Now that moment was breathing right in front of them.

[9 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

Eldric then added something most auction houses did not. Something that blew everyone’s mind.

"Our Radeon Terraces likewise provide for the discreet use of this product, its terms set out in letters before your eyes."

"Avail yourself of our attendants, and we will see the item used properly, without needless notice."

[Radeon Terraces Product Insurances.]

[Use the products you purchase with ease in your heart.]

{Prime Estate on the Fifth Level Terraces.}

[Max Capacity: 150 Person]

[Includes Privacy Array]

[Blocks up to Elementary Divinizing and Scrying.]

[Price starts at 499 Spirit Stones.]

{Cultivators Seclusion Abode}

[Max Capacity: 80 Person]

[Includes Privacy Array.]

[Blocks up to Intermediate Divinizing and Scrying.]

[Price starts at 99 Middle Grade Spirit Stones.]

{Maximum Obscurity Hall}

[Max Capacity: 80 Person]

[Includes Privacy Array.]

[Blocks up All Divinizing and Scrying.]

[Price starts at 1 High Grade Spirit Stones.]

In the seat where mortals gathered, eyes went red.

A gamble was one thing. Mortals understood gambling. They had built dynasties on it and lost them the same way.

But this was no longer a high chance bet with a pretty story. With veil delivery and escrow, it had teeth and certainty.

You could spend and not be hunted for it. You could buy a future without painting a target on your back.

Radeon and Calyx watched the room turn.

Secret hand signs flickered through sleeves. Signals meant for accountants. Signals meant for them to go all in.

This would not only strengthen a faction. It would break the old balance.

Funding cultivation had always been easy. Money was money. Treasures could be stolen, hoarded, minted, traded.

The true cruelty was talent. Finding someone who could cultivate and both be trustworthy was like praying to a god who hated you and asking for gold every day.

Heaven never answered. Most of the time it even spat at you. Now a new path sat on the table, bottled and priced.

That meant the ones who moved first would not merely gain power, they would choose who deserved power.

Magnates understood what that meant. They understood it with the cold clarity of men who knew they could die from a common fever, a simple rash, or even water gulped too fast.

They could die with peaceful grins, knowing their names would keep walking, and be called the wisest, even though it was not even a given name.

[49 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

[99 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

[299 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

The bidding paused for ten breaths after the sudden rise.

The wall of darkness rose up, making each auction participant unable to see another, except those in a group.

Then they heard the voice everyone had been waiting for.

"Going once."

Another bid entered, then followed right away by another.

[300 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

[311 High Grade Spirit Stones bid has been placed.]

"Going once."

"Going twice."

"Sold."

The winning bid landed without a cheer. Somewhere behind a mask, the buyer’s fist clenched beneath their chair until knuckles ached. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

No face to read, no crest to blame, only the quiet certainty that the parcel was theirs now.

Even the first use would be assisted with mere spirit stones. It felt wrong, illegal even. Like it was a dream.

Three hundred eleven high grade spirit stones. The number flashed in many eyes like a bruise.

In gold, it was obscene, three billion by market exchange, the sort of wealth that could buy cities and still leave change for statues.

Yet nobody here would trade spirit stones down into gold unless they were desperate or stupid.

Gold was bulky. Heavy. You needed carts and guards and time.

Eldric let the last number hang in the air for a breath, then he lowered his hand and the one hundred bottles slid out of sight.

Dark curtains drew across the stage, swallowing starlit blood as if it had never been there.

Ghost attendants moved with the same quiet precision as before, retreating the lot into the belly of the auction house.

No name was announced. No victor stood. No crest was displayed.

Everyone only knew the price. Everyone only knew it was staggering, the first item topping what most auction houses would save as a final special item.

The curtains parted again. The next item was a blade.

Steel caught the light and threw it back cleanly, a line of promise and threat.

Eldric knew tastes split a room faster than politics. Some people worshiped pills and bloodlines. Others only respected what could cut.

He also knew who had come with real money and who had come just to watch. Radeon’s eyes did not only read bids. He recorded people.

So Eldric did not waste breath on the whole hall. He sent a line through the masks.

Text flashed, for everyone.

[Interested to Bid] [Pass]

As expected, many passed. The Five Summit Emperors wanted to see what would happen, so they joined the bidding.