End of the Magic Era
chapter-29

But the power within the Dark Fire Gem was limited, and even a brilliant Alchemist couldn't make it reach Spiritual level. It seemed inferior to the Abyssal Magic Diamond, but if these two were put on the market at the same time, the Dark Fire Gem would ultimately get a higher price.

This was a certainty...

There was no requirement for the user, making it way too overpowered at lower levels. Every major family would spare nothing to nurture their own heirs. Mason of the Monchi family was a good example of that. In order to let him become a true Mage, the Monchi family had spent several hundred thousand gold.

If they spent several hundred thousand gold just to make him into a Mage, how much would the Monchi family be willing to pay for an Excellent Magic Tool that completely lacked usage requirements?

After all, a Mage wielding an Excellent Magic Tool could face some weaker Great Mages...

'Good luck.' Lin Yun smiled happily. With just this one Dark Fire Gem, this trip could be considered a great success.

Although it couldn't be used to improve the Planar Path, putting it on the market wasn't bad either. He should earn at least five hundred thousand gold from its sale, and that was a conservative estimate. Even if he used the profits to buy an Abyssal Magic Diamond, it would leave him plenty of money.

Lin Yun put the Dark Fire Gem on the table and fished out three more magic gems from his pocket.

But there wasn't any pleasant surprise this time. Despite them being magic gems of fairly high quality, there was still a huge gap compared to the price of the Dark Fire Gem. The best of those was an Elemental Amber, which contained a very small amount of mana itself. But it still was one of the best mana vessels, and it could store a large amount of mana from external sources. It could even store a High Mage spell.

After thinking for a bit, Lin Yun put the other two magic gems with the Dark Fire Gem and kept the Elemental Amber.

Now, it was time for the last magic gem.

"Eh!" When Lin Yun put his hand back in his pocket, his expression suddenly changed. Lin Yun clearly felt that the last magic gem carried a bone-chilling feeling.

Because the Bone Devil's power had been too great and Lin Yun needed to escape, he hadn't paid attention to what magic gems he had found, but now that he had returned to Noscent and checked his loot, Lin Yun finally noticed that this last thing in his pocket didn't seem to be a magic gem at all.

But even if that wasn't a magic gem, it might be more precious than all the magic gems he had together.

'Sure enough…' Lin Yun had a cautious expression as he took the object out from his pocket. It was the size of a dove's egg, a sparkling pure-black, with a glimmer flashing from time to time. It carried a breathtaking power.

'Sure enough, it's the Frost Lich Heart…'

In the legends, it materialized after a Lich's soul fire was extinguished. A Lich was a frightening existence able to contend with a High Mage, and its strength wasn't inferior to that of the Bone Dragon ruling the Bone Plane. Even if its soul fire was extinguished, it would still possess world-shaking power.

Although Lin Yun had never seen a real Frost Lich Heart, the Frost Lich had been mentioned several times among the books of the decaying library. Even at the peak of the magic era, the Frost Lich Heart had its importance.

Thus, there was no need to mention its importance in the current era. This Frost Lich Heart was worth at least ten Abyssal Magic Diamonds, and if used to maintain the Planar Path, Lin Yun would be able to stay at least five hours in the Bone Plane next time!

He had won that gamble.

Even if the Elemental Incarnation had exhausted all of Lin Yun's mana, even if the Bone Devil's Dark Fire Bullet had almost hit Lin Yun, this didn't matter in front of the Frost Lich Heart.

With this Frost Lich Heart, Lin Yun would be able to gradually nibble away at that Nether Iron Vein.

But before that, he had to advance to Great Mage. A 9th Rank Mage would seem very weak in front of a large amount of Skeleton Warriors, let alone the existence behind them, a Bone Devil that could contend against High Mages.

But to advance to become a Great Mage, Lin Yun would have to carry out his plan.

After checking his loot, Lin Yun took another hour to transform that Master rank alchemy array with the recently obtained Frost Lich Heart. After completing this task, Lin Yun put the magic gems and Undead Essences into his pocket and left the secret passage.

Remy had already been walking around outside for a long time when Lin Yun walked out from the study.

Remy brought two pieces of news, a bad one and a good one.

The bad news was that Solon had rummaged through the Sage Tower and only found three of the materials needed for the Mana Baptism, meaning that Lin Yun still needed more than half of the seven items required.

The good news was that even if Solon didn't find the other four materials, he had given Lin Yun a place where he could find them, the Black Horn Auction House that had its events every three months.

This matter had actually come up coincidentally. Solon had received an invitation to the Black Horn Auction House two days ago, and it had come with a list of articles that would be sold there. On it were the four materials Lin Yun needed.

The good news was really good, but the problem was that Lin Yun had no money he could immediately use.

He truly had nothing at the moment. The Spectrum Potion had brought in thirty thousand gold, but it had already been invested in the Gilded Rose, Lin Yun had no more than 50 gold to his name. He hadn't been out for the past two months, so he hadn't thought about it, but now that he suddenly had four materials to buy, Lin Yun felt a bit put out to discover that he simply couldn't pay.

'What should I do…'

The old butler couldn't help. Although the business of the Gilded Rose was pretty good these past few months, since he wanted to thoroughly revive the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce, all the money earned was invested back to help the store grow more.

The cheapest amongst the four was estimated at five thousand gold, while the most expensive could even reach thirty thousand gold, and that was just the starting price. If he was unlucky and met a foolish competitor that was overflowing with gold, Lin Yun might not even get it with a hundred thousand.

'What if I sold the Undead Essences?'

'But those few pieces of Undead Essences are worth ten thousand gold, what should I do if I don't have enough? Do I really have to sell the Dark Fire Gem? That should be used to raise the status of the Gilded Rose…'

'Seems like I can only sell the two potions I refined…' Lin Yun reached inside one of his pockets. Inside were two potions he had crafted a while ago. He had thought that he might use them in the Bone Plane if he met something dangerous, but he had ended up not needing them. He supposed that he could just sell them now.

Lin Yun changed into his clean black gown and greeted the old butler before leaving for the Black Horn Auction House.

The Black Horn Auction House was on the Victorious Return main street. It was a thousand meters away from the Gilded Rose, which was on the other side of the main street, and it occupied a large swathe of the street. An astronomical amount of gold flowed in and out of this place every day.

Since it had been set up in Thousand Sails City fifty years ago, the Black Horn Auction House had always been rather low-key. It never participated in the struggles of Thousand Sails City and always kept a favorable attitude toward every force.

At the same time, there was no force that would provoke the Black Horn Auction House. Everyone knew that although the Black Horn Auction House wasn't revealing its real strength, behind it stood the Black Horn chamber of commerce, which could be considered a first-rate force in all of Noscent.

As time passed, the Black Horn Auction House became truly unconventional, keeping a good relationship with all the forces while also keeping them at a suitable distance, as if it lived outside of the social network of Thousand Sails City.

But it was because of this unconventional attitude that the Black Horn Auction House's business would get better day by day. Fifty years ago, Thousand Sails City had many auction houses, but only the Black Horn Auction House still was going strong after fifty years. Because it kept all forces equally distant, people didn't have to worry about being schemed against, even if they couldn't get any consideration.

The various forces entangled in Thousand Sails City needed an absolutely neutral place like this.

And that was the current Black Horn Auction House.

Now, Lin Yun was standing outside the Black Horn Auction House. After explaining why he had come, someone quickly led him inside. The Black Horn Auction House took up a whole section of a street, and sure enough, its interior was simply like a labyrinth. Lin Yun followed that person for about ten minutes before arriving in a small reception room.

The one receiving Lin Yun was a young man that looked a bit over twenty. He was wearing a black gown, with a little stain on the cuff. Lin Yun took a glance and thought, 'That must be Rainbow Sand Solution, he should be a fairly decent Alchemist.' Rainbow Sand was very expensive, so if an Alchemist hadn't reached a certain level, he wouldn't dare to handle such an expensive material so rashly.

But it seemed that this Alchemist wasn't in a good mood. After seeing Lin Yun coming through the door, he slightly nodded, "Take a seat."

Lin Yun scratched his nose and sat in front of the young Alchemist.

Just as he was about to explain why he had come, the young Alchemist waved his hand and impatiently said, "Okay, you can leave me the potion you want to sell and leave, I'll appraise it and then sell it at its proper price. You can come and get your money in a few days."

Lin Yun felt a bit uncomfortable with this. 'I'm counting on these two potions to change my fate, how could I let you appraise them? Moreover, even if I was willing to let you appraise them, seeing how you handle Rainbow Sand Solution, do you even have the ability?'

"I'm in no hurry."

It could be seen from these words that Lin Yun was improving.

If it was Lin Yun from a few months ago, he would have already Tornado Whipped this guy in the face.