C5

Qiao Nan arrived at Bangal City.

　　There weren’t many ways to travel to the Magic Domain, and the fastest would be to teleport from Bangal City to the Magic Domain using a teleportation array.

Amos wasn’t in a very good state, and even though Qiao Nan knew that this might not be the Amos he knew, he was still worried to death and wanted to hurry to the Magic Domain to see him.

He put all the things he didn’t need in the trading house, and then saw the auction items in the auction house.

Except for the last few finale lots which didn’t have pictures, all the others had detailed descriptions.

Qiao Nan saw the Elven Mother Tree branch in the booklet.

The dried up version.

The mother tree branch was a good thing, not only was it a good material to make medicine, or an extremely rare excellent casting material, it could be eaten raw to cure diseases, it was extremely hard to find, making it priceless.

But the dried up elven mother tree branches had no efficacy, it was purely decorative.

But Qiao Nan was different, he had items that could bring the mother tree branches back to life.

Before entering the auction house, Qiao Nan changed into new clothes and wore a mask.

　　There were still bounties on those bandits, so Qiao Nan went to get the rewards, and surprisingly, he got more experience points, pushing his forty-three level forward to the edge of forty-four, and he could break through to forty-four as long as he completed two more major tasks.

Qiao Nan smiled with satisfaction and signed his name on the task return slip.

Qiao.

　　He used the in-game script, a beautiful language similar to English.

Qiao Nan wrote the last stroke, lifting the pen at the end with a customary upward lift.

The staff collected the return slip and put it aside to be handed over to the supervisor, who sent it to the acting city lord’s desk, and handed the bounty to the other, before letting him leave.

Satisfied, Qiao Nan took his equipment and went to a domed building behind the town square.

Bangal Auction House.

He wanted to auction off the two purple weapons, which could be used by both game players and NPCs, but Qiao Nan wanted to make profit from the NPCs rather than the stingy players.

After all, the NPCs were the ones with the most money.

The powers behind the auctions houses that allowed them remain in the main city couldn’t be small, and the background of this Bangal Auction that Qiao Nan came to was the city lord of Bangal City.

　　Even in the later stages, purple-grade weapons were quite valuable, not everyone could have orange equipment and gold equipment, purple equipment with good attributes were the weapons often used by advanced players, while ordinary people mostly still used green and blue weapons.

Qiao Nan wasn’t short of money, but he couldn’t resist the urge to make more, and he also wanted to see if there were materials he needed here.

He could never have too many precious materials.

Qiao Nan put on a mask, which changed his appearance, he looked like a rich nobleman. The waiter didn’t dare relax and took him to the front row seats.

In the past, the auction house didn’t get a lot of guests, but now because of the hunting season, the auction had become lively, Qiao Nan decided to go to the evening auction early, so it didn’t take long to enter, the other positions were all filled. Looking at their appearance, it was estimated that they didn’t have much and were there to pick the cheaper items.

　　The auction soon began, at first only relatively ordinary small pendants and so on were brought up, the prices weren’t high, but Qiao Nan wasn’t interested.

The auction house was like this, they used less precious items at the beginning then used the more precious auction items to heat up the atmosphere, so some small things that weren’t valuable would be sold.

Bored, Qiao Nan quietly watched, he would only bid when he saw something he wanted.

Time passed little by little, as time passed, a dozen auction items were taken away, and finally came to the item he was waiting for.

Qiao Nan waited for the elven mother tree branch to be introduced, the people present took a look at the wilted elven mother tree branch and immediately gave up bidding, so Qiao Nan’s low bid was smoothly accepted.

Then came Qiao Nan’s weapon.

　　A water attribute wand and a dagger.

The starting price was one hundred thousand, respectively, it quickly reached seven hundred and thirty thousand and six hundred and twenty thousand, Qiao Nan only used five thousand gold coins to buy the branch.

The things he got from the bandits weren’t losses.

Qiao Nan was satisfied and went backstage to get what he bought and the money he earned.

He didn’t delay and quickly stood up to leave.

　　The auction wasn’t yet over, so the backstage was empty, with only the staff walking back and forth.

The staff was very efficient and took Qiao Nan’s card and started explaining the procedures.

　　Qiao Nan got bored and took advantage of the staff’s money collection confirmation to look around.

Against the wall was a high cage, covered with red velvet, he heard the sound of heavy breathing inside, it looked like it should be some kind of cherished magical beast.

　　Just as Qiao Nan was guessing what was inside the cage, the staff had finished processing and handed the money and wooden box to Qiao Nan, Qiao Nan opened the two boxes and made sure that the contents were correct, he was about to leave when several strong men ran from the front to push the cage forward.

“Give him another shot, the effects of the last one should have worn off.” One of them said, “This is high-grade stuff, it won’t be good if he goes crazy.”

A high-grade magical beast?

That was indeed quite dangerous.

If they took it back and it went crazy and hurt someone, it wouldn’t be a small matter.

　　Before leaving, Qiao Nan curiously looked back to see what kind of magical beast it was.

Suddenly the red cloth lifted, revealing the creature in the iron cage.

From where he was, Qiao Nan could only see something white, then as the moonlight poured in, he saw the long silver hair, as well as small sharp ears.

　　Qiao Nan subconsciously took a few steps back.

　　The demons, orcs …… or elves?

Humans wouldn’t dare catch demons, then the only options were orcs and elves, the human race had always been mindful of the orcs, so the biggest possibility was ……

Elves?

　　”What is this?”

　　Seeing that Qiao Nan was very curious, the staff patiently explained: “This is a male elf we caught before, he’s only at level fifty three, if necessary, we can abolish his cultivation, to prevent injury to the buyer.”

　　Sensing Qiao Nan’s curiosity, the staff tried persuading, “You can return to bid if you are interested, the starting price is only 100,000 gold coins.”

　　Qiao Nan’s expression was ugly, if not for the mask, the staff would have seen his extremely gloomy expression.

　　He didn’t expect the final auction item to be an elf!

　　The elves were secluded from the world and liked to stay in the giant wood forest in the south of the continent.

　　The giant wood forest covered a vast area, rich in resources, near the southern edge of the warm climate, the elven mother tree grew there, giving birth to the elves.

　　The elves were conceived by the elven mother tree asexually, each person’s talent was strong, they were also rare beauties, coupled with their rich resources, the elves became a target, and many people wanted to sell elves.

Those noble lords liked beautiful looking elves the most.

Qiao Nan had been an elf, so he naturally knew how dangerous their situation was.

　Although the elves were strong, they always stayed in the clan and were simple-minded, they easily listened to other people’s lies, so they were deceived and sold.

Qiao Nan had spent a lot of effort educating them so that they wouldn’t trust others easily, they were no longer afraid and explored easily.

　　Even if Qiao Nan understood that the world would reboot and his actions were useless, he still couldn’t control his anger.

　　Why couldn’t they protect themselves properly?

　　Qiao Nan didn’t really want to look deeper, if he didn’t find out, then what kind of torture would this elf suffer?

　　It must have been painful.

Since he had seen him, he couldn’t let him be sold.

Qiao Nan nodded, and took the number plate back to his seat.

The auction for the elf had already started.

The elf was released from the cage by the auctioneer, with a thin gold chain tied around his neck, connected to a carabiner on the ground, he was only wearing a white gown.

Probably because it had just been injected with a potion, the elf was in a bad state, he knelt on the ground, and his hunched body trembled slightly.

Qiao Nan couldn’t see the elf’s face.

Qiao Nan was angry but his heart ached for this elf, he knew the entire elf tribe, but he didn’t know who this unintelligent elf was.

　　The reserve price of 100,000 gold coins had now been called up to 560,000.

　And looking at the scene, the bid would probably continue rising.

　　Qiao Nan didn’t make a move at first, but waited for fewer and fewer people to bid before sitting up straight and waiting for the right moment.

“680,000 gold coins for the first time!” Seeing that there were no more people shouting, the auctioneer began to count down.

“680,000 gold coins for the second time!”

The rich merchant who had bid 680,000 gold coins had a pained and excited look on his face.

Six hundred and eighty thousand was really a bit expensive, but when he thought of being able to spend six hundred and eighty thousand to buy a rare elf, he felt that this six hundred and eighty thousand wasn’t so expensive.

The chance to get in touch with the city lord wasn’t something that 680,000 could be compared with!

“One million.” Qiao Nan finally made a bid.

The rich merchant’s smile froze on his face.

“One million for the first time! Does anyone else want to raise the bid?” The auctioneer shouted excitedly.

The flesh on the rich merchant’s face was trembling with anger as he stood up violently, “Who is it that dares to grab something from me!”

“I like it, so I want it, what does it have to do with you?” Qiao Nan wasn’t only not afraid, but even let out a contemptuous laugh, “In the auction house, whoever has the money can buy, what, you want to break the rules of the auction house?”

The rich merchant’s face was shaking with anger, his finger pointed at Qiao Nan, “You have money? Okay, I’ll see if you have the money to fight with me.”

“This gentleman.” The girl sitting next to Qiao Nan didn’t hold back and said, “He’s the patriarch of the Horace family, you can’t compete with him.”

Qiao Nan blinked and smiled at her, “Thanks for caring , but no need.”

　　The woman saw that Qiao Nan didn’t listen and rolled her eyes.

Since he didn’t want to listen, when he was out of the auction house, the real fight would begin.

“Our gentleman is the patriarch of the Horace family, I’ll advise you not to fight with us, otherwise, it won’t end well for you.”

Qiao Nan sneered and leaned back instead, “I have not thought of withdrawing and I’m willing to cooperate at any time, of course, I hope you also don’t regret your decision today.”

————————————-

In the Bangal City Lord’s lounge, an elegant man with long white hair sat at the table, and there were many piles of parchments on his right side, these were the affairs of Bangal City today.

　　The carved wooden door of the city lord’s room was wide open, and the open window and door swept away the dry heat in the room through the cool breeze.

“Mr. Noel.” The middle-aged man in a black suit knocked on the door holding a pile of papers and reminded the young man, “The bandit group outside the city has been taken care of, and the bounty has just been collected, here are today’s papers, please look through them.”

“Oh?” The man looked up, revealing his elegant and handsome face. He also had a pair of round-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, he had narrow eyes, and his hair was combed neatly behind his head, without a trace of a loose strand.

He wore a white standing collar robe with gold trim, neat and spotless from head to toe, and his clothes were ironed, except for the necessary creases when sitting down, there were no others, the collar rested against his neck, only a small section of his neck and face was exposed, even when correcting documents, his hands were covered with a pair of snow-white gloves.

“Who is it?”

“It’s a swordsman named ‘Qiao’.”

　　When he heard the name Qiao, the hand of the man named Norman paused, leaving a little ugly black spot in the parchment, his glove also accidentally got a black stain.

　　Norman frowned, put down the quill and threw his gloves into the trash, then he brought out a new glove from his storage ring, and only then did he ask, “Identity background check?”

　　”It’s someone from the town of Morden, and those adventurers came together.”

　　”There are a lot more adventurers lately.” Noel mused, “Is there a portrait of him?”

　　”No.” The middle-aged man shook his head, “But to be able to handle the strength of Jatu and the others, he should be good.”

　　Jatu and the others had been roaming and rampaging outside the city for a long time, and the city lord’s side hadn’t been able to spare time to catch them, so they could only be thrown on the wanted list.

　　If there were adventurers who were willing to take action, that would be good, if not, they would catch these bandits at the end of the hunting season.

　　The previous city lord didn’t care about this, he only cared about eating and drinking and enjoying himself, now that he was the new acting city lord, he wanted to catch them in the next few days, but he didn’t expect that an adventurer would do it for him.

　　The supervisor came over just to inform this matter, after the report, he put the document on the table, then bowed and left, and reached out to close the door when he left, giving Norman a clear space.

　　The former Lord of Bangal died during the hunting season not long ago, and the main city couldn’t be left without someone to take care of things, so the imperial capital sent Mr Norman here to temporarily manage Bangal.

Mr Norman, who came from the imperial capital, had a very strong personality and good business ability, and quickly put Bangal in order within a few days of his arrival.

But, the requirements for hygiene and symmetry had reached a terrible level, which made it unbearable for some people.

　　Annoyed, Norman looked at the extra black dot on the document for a while, then he quickly signed it and put aside.

After doing all this, he quietly sighed in relief.

　　Coming here, was his choice.

The imperial capital was too depressing, and staying in that residence full of traces of his teacher would only make it impossible for him to detach himself from the past.

Instead of dwelling on the past, it was better to change the environment.

So Norman changed his face and changed his name and came to the remote city of Bangal.

Norman rubbed his brow, then closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair so his sore brain could rest.

　The work shouldn’t have made him so tired, he just found it boring to deceive himself like this.

　　Knowing that such a hopeless wait was fruitless, he still held on to a sliver of hope, thinking that perhaps his teacher had been reincarnated and would appear in front of him once again.

　He had already learned the lessons given to him by his teacher and had become the greatest outstanding magician of the human race apart from his teacher, and he could confidently say that he was the most knowledgeable person on this continent apart from his teacher.

　　But what could be done about it? Even as the most knowledgeable person, there was no way to resurrect his teacher, he searched day after day, looking for the slightest opportunity.

　　Norman slightly rested, then began to work again, after dealing with all the work on the table, he looked at the document brought by the middle-aged man.

　　Called Qiao ……?

　　Norman opened it, the top was the mission report, and the last was information about the person who completed the mission.

　　And the one at the bottom, the mission completer’s signature.

Norman’s originally calm expression turned to shock after seeing that signature.

　　There were many people called Qiao in this world, he had lived for more than 100 years and met countless people called Qiao, both men and women, old and young, but none of them was his teacher, but Norman became sure when he saw this man’s handwriting.

His teacher always liked to use a font known to him as the flower font.

　　When the teacher wrote this font, it led the trend of the whole continent, as long as they were educated, they would use the flower font to write letters and documents.

　　But his teacher’s handwriting was unique even among countless flower fonts.

　This was the handwriting of his teacher who died many years ago!

For countless times, Norman had fantasized that his teacher would come back to life, but now that he really came back to life, he felt it was unbelievable.

　　When people died, could they really come back to life?

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