Monster Paradise

“I believe many men here will be interested in the second collectible we have today…”

The auctioneer removed the red cloth covering the display case. Within the transparent case was an exquisite bottle the size of a human palm.

Lin Huang stared at the bottle for a little bit. It was nothing special—just a regular jade bottle. The patterns carved onto it added to its aesthetics, but they were actually divine patterns for sealing off its aura.

However, Lin Huang could obviously sense that many of the men present began to breathe more heavily once they saw this collectible.

They must be coveting whatever the bottle contained.

Right as Lin Huang was puzzling over this, the auctioneer finally announced the name of this collectible—the Desire Elixir!

Lin Huang still looked confused after he heard the name of the item. He had never heard of such a thing before.

Fortunately, the auctioneer seemed to have taken into consideration that there might be people who knew nothing about the item’s provenance or its use, so he launched into an explanation.

“The Desire Elixir is a rare and very special potion. This bottle that you see before you came into the auction house’s hands by chance. There are no reliable channels for obtaining it.

“There are two main reasons for this elixir’s rarity. One is that there are very few apothecaries who know the formula. At present, in the entire God Territory, there are perhaps only two or three individuals who can formulate this potion. The other reason is that its main ingredient is the blood of Abyssal Desires, which is extremely difficult to obtain!”

Lin Huang was stunned when he heard Abyssal Desires being mentioned.

A Desire was a type of Disaster derived from extreme desire and Abyssal energy.

‘Can we really use an elixir made from the blood of something like that?’ Lin Huang had already guessed the so-called Desire Elixir’s general function without the need for further explanation from the auctioneer.

No matter how thoroughly the apothecary had purified the elixir from Abyssal energy and negative emotions, its ingredients alone meant that it could not be auctioned or sold legally.

It could only be put up for bid at underground auctions.

A short while later, the auctioneer began describing the elixir’s powers after he had finished boasting about its rarity and how difficult it was to produce.

He added many exaggerated embellishments, but they were not too far from Lin Huang’s speculations.

This potion was an extremely powerful aphrodisiac with strong hallucinogenic properties.

The auctioneer even admitted that it could be slightly addictive.

However, the word ‘slightly’ made Lin Huang scoff. If this could cause even half-step Lords to become addicted, one could imagine how tremendously habit-forming such a thing could be for less powerful Heavenly Gods and True Gods.

Even if one did not take into account the main ingredients and focused only on the elixir’s function, it was inconceivable that the various major organizations would allow this to be sold legally through the proper channels.

What made Lin Huang speechless was that Shen Jue and Shen Yu also joined in the bidding wars, even bidding against each other a few times.

In the end, the two seemed to come to some sort of agreement and stopped bidding against each other.

Shen Jue managed to obtain the Desire Elixir at a high price, equivalent to that of a Pseudo-Dao Weapon.

This made Lin Huang greatly covet the storage rings the twins were wearing.

He knew that they were definitely wealthy, based on their extravagant bids.

After the second item sold, the auction continued.

The subsequent items that were put up for sale made Lin Huang realize why this was an underground auction.

Among the auction items were limbs of unpurified Abyssal creatures, exclusive items obtained from major organizations, including grade-7 ones, as well as strange, peculiar cursed items. There were even the remains of half-step Lords from sources unknown…

The entire auction went on in a heated frenzy, with endless bids being shouted out.

To avoid suspicion, Lin Huang bid numerous times as well.

He bid on exclusive items from the Combat God Temple and Death Sickle, two cursed items, and the remains of three half-step Lords.

In truth, he was genuinely interested in the remains of the three half-step Lords. This was because, according to what the auctioneer had said, the God Territories within their bodies were intact and had not been stripped away.

However, in the end, all his bids were unsuccessful. He was completely unable to go up against the others.

As for the remnants of the three half-step Lords, Shen Jue bought the female remains, while Shen Yu bought those of the two males.

Both of them bid so high it was ridiculous.

The female half-step Lord’s remains were eventually sold for the price equivalent of seven Pseudo-Dao Weapons.

Shen Yu’s bid was the price equivalent of six Pseudo-Dao Weapons for the two male remains.

Everyone else could not compete with them at all.

Watching the pair and their starting bids, Lin Huang could not help exclaiming secretly in his mind, ‘Are Pseudo-Dao Weapons worth so little this year?!”

After the remains of the three half-step Lords had been sold off, the auction finally entered the next session—the auction of living creatures.

As soon as it began, a huge case was brought on stage.

The auctioneer removed the red cloth, revealing an inky-black monster sealed in a transparent crystal cylinder.

Lin Huang’s pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this.

He had come across such a monster in the Abyss not long ago. It was an abyssal monster called the Ink Killer.

Its combat strength was usually that of a high-level Heavenly God, and its main cultivation path was Shadow Elemental Truth. It was extremely proficient in the art of killing by stealth.

Although the one on stage had been sealed within the crystal, its aura was still able to seep through faintly. It was obviously still alive.

Lin Huang could sense that this Ink Killer’s combat strength was only seventh-rank.

Although its combat strength was low, in the Abyss, this creature could severely harm even a ninth-rank heavenly god-level powerhouse if it managed to successfully ambush them.

A living creature like this was most certainly a dangerous item!

Lin Huang felt that anyone who wished to purchase this would be just asking for death.

Even an Imperial Censor could not tame this creature.

That was because a monster like this harbored only murderous intent within its mind, and it possessed only partial consciousness. All living things were its prey.

However, Lin Huang had not expected that there would be successive waves of bids, even after the auctioneer had introduced the item.

Subsequently, he watched, somewhat speechless, at the abyssal monsters being auctioned off one by one. He had no idea what those people were going to do with the creatures they had purchased.

‘Do they have nothing better to do except purchase Abyssal creatures, then feed themselves and their families to them?’ Lin Huang could not help secretly ridiculing the bidders.

After the auction of Abyssal creatures ended, the auction of living creatures went on.

It was already the early hours of the morning now, but the auction did not seem like it would be ending any time soon.

Lin Huang continued waiting patiently. In truth, there were a few times when he had wanted to make his move, but he had restrained himself in the end.

This was because even when the remains of the half-step Lords came up for auction, there was no upsurge in the twins’ emotions.

If he attacked under such circumstances, it might alert the siblings.

He wanted to wait for an opportunity when the pair’s attention was fully focused on the item up for bids.

Since Lin Huang had withheld making his move, the auction proceeded smoothly to the last session at around one in the morning—the auction of slaves!

Lin Huang noticed that even before the session began, Shen Yu and Shen Jue’s behavior was clearly different from before. Even their sitting posture was no longer indolent.

‘Here’s my chance…’ Lin Huang’s lips curled up in the slightest of smirks.