Chapter 499: An Astronomical Price

Chapter 499: An Astronomical Price

Leaving traces behind when star realm jumping or void shuttling, it would be very easy for someone of the Void Skyragon King's strength to track them down.

Therefore, it was safer to rely on flying instead.

A shadow clone appeared in place.

After Ji Xinghuo flew north and left, the shadow clone flew south. Hundreds of kilometers away, it entered a star realm jump, flying again after each jump, then changing direction and jumping again to deplete its star power before dissipating on the spot.

At the same time, Ji Xinghuo had already flown more than two thousand kilometers away, deep into the heart of Pangling Island.

This was the Starry Border, one of the most important ruling areas of the Canglong Family, with hundreds of cities built on two billion square kilometers of land, and a population of nearly one hundred billion. Several of the cities were equipped with jump arrays, making it one of the transportation hubs of the East Emperor Island.

A moment later.

A Void Skyragon, vast as a mountain, leaped out of the void and appeared where the battle had just taken place.

Within a ten-kilometer radius, all the trees had toppled over, crushed by a thousand times the force of gravity.

The place was a mess.

What was most startling was the thousand-meter-long gully on the ground, its edges of soil and rock melted by high temperatures, resembling a rift valley.

Void Skyragon Ji Cai hung in the air, looking at the bisected body of the Void Skyragon, his handsome face twitching in pain. The anger in his eyes was about to erupt, and the Void Skyragon beneath him let out mournful roars of sorrow.

At this moment, a fiery light flew in from the distant west and appeared before them, revealing Xia Wei.

"Your Majesty!"

Xia Wei's face was also grim.

"What are you eating?" Void Skyragon Ji Cai finally couldn't suppress his emotions and shouted, "I ordered you to follow Tianlin to East Emperor Island to help him retrieve the Jade Sky Ring. Not only have you failed to retrieve it, but Tianlin is also dead, and our family has lost another Void Skyragon!"

Xia Wei opened her mouth but couldn't explain.

While she had indeed been rather negligent about retrieving the Jade Sky Ring, Void Skyragon Tianlin's death was his own doing. She had advised him several times against acting on his own, but he simply wouldn't listen. What else could she have done?

Void Skyragon Tianlin wasn't a child, after all. Should she, a Star Saint, have acted as his babysitter and followed him around all day?

Of course, she couldn't say such things aloud.

Xia Wei was very clear why the Void Skyragon King was so angry. This time, the Void Skyragon Family had suffered tremendous losses.

Void Skyragon Tianlin was the most promising of the younger generation to become a Star Saint, a genius of the Hidden Dragon Sequence that the family hadn't seen in many years. Thus, he was highly regarded, and the family saw him as the key to their resurgence.

To outsiders, the Void Skyragon Family had shown signs of reversing their decline in recent years.

Now, all of that had turned to ashes.

What was even more unacceptable was that a Quake-level Void Skyragon had died this time. Originally, the entire family had only nine Void Skyragons, and their growth was extremely slow. There were only three Quake-level and one Doom-level among them.

The only Doom-level Void Skyragon was the one beside the Dragon King, the oldest and largest, but it would still be a very long time before it could evolve to the Star Destroyer level, perhaps thousands of starry years. The difficulty of this evolution was even greater than that of advancing to become a Star Saint.

Therefore, the Quake-level Void Skyragons were the family's backbone and their last hope for regaining their former glory.

Now, one had been slain!

This loss was even heavier than the death of Void Skyragon Tianlin.

Void Skyragon Ji Cai glanced at Xia Wei, who wanted to speak but stopped, and ultimately decided not to pursue her responsibility any further.

Including himself, there were only three Star Saints left in the Void Skyragon Family, and she was the only one in recent years who had been willing to pledge allegiance to the family. If she left in a fit of anger, the family's strength and prestige would suffer another blow.

There were several True Dragon Families under the jurisdiction of the Sky Wasteland, and each of them had their eyes on the Dragon King's position.

With only two Star Saints, it would be difficult to suppress the ambitions of the other families.

"After all, she's an outsider."

"If Tianlin hadn't died and successfully advanced to become a Dragon Sovereign, our family would have had three Seventh-Stage powerhouses again. We wouldn't be so passive."

"Sigh..."

Void Skyragon Ji Cai was in pain, but he quickly suppressed his grief and anger, regaining the calmness befitting a Dragon King.

"Was this done by Meteor Inferno?"

"Most likely, Your Majesty," Xia Wei replied. "Meteor Inferno left during the Cangming auction. At that time, Tianlin followed him with two others: Jing Qin and Lei Mingke. I believe that with the strength of the three of them, it shouldn't have been difficult to deal with Meteor Inferno, so I didn't stop them."

She still tried to defend herself.

"Lei Mingke?" Void Skyragon Ji Cai's eyebrows twitched, revealing his surprise. "Her strength is stronger than Tianlin's, yet she also died!" He looked at the rift valley on the ground. "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Magnetic Pole Potential Slash."

"It is indeed a Magnetic Pole Potential Slash!"

Xia Wei had also figured it out, but she was very puzzled. "Meteor Inferno is walking the evolutionary path of the 'Iron-Blooded War God'. How could he use Magnetic Pole Potential Slash?"

"And the power of this slash..."

"Could this really be the damage caused by a Sixth-Stage powerhouse?"

Her gaze traveled from one end of the rift valley to the other, a thousand meters away, and her pupils constricted involuntarily, feeling a sense of dread.

If she had been hit by that slash, she wasn't sure if she would have survived.

Void Skyragon Ji Cai's face was pensive, and he finally said, "The last time we checked Meteor Inferno's identity, it must have been fake. Send someone to investigate secretly in Titanium Ring City. Before we find out his true origins, we must not act rashly."

"Your Majesty, aren't we going to track him down now?" Xia Wei asked, confused.

Void Skyragon Ji Cai's gaze turned to the south, as if he could see through the void to thousands of kilometers away, and then he looked north again.

Finally, he shook his head. "We can't catch up."

In fact, there had been a small chance of catching up if they had started tracking from the beginning, but he had chosen to let it go.

Xia Wei's face changed slightly as she realized the king's concern.

The outsider from Titanium Ring City had a fake identity, yet he possessed electromagnetic abilities and the Magnetic Pole Potential Slash. There was a high probability that he was a member of the Titanium-Cobalt Family.

As fellow Divine Dragon clans, the Yuanci Titanium-Cobalt Family's strength far surpassed that of the Xu Kun Family, and they weren't even in the same league. That Yuanci Titanium-Cobalt Dragon King was a Peak Seventh-Stage powerhouse, second only to a few Dragon Emperors in strength, making him one of the most formidable beings in the True Dragon Empire.

If Meteor Inferno was indeed from the Titanium-Cobalt Family, even if the Xu Kun Family found out and could prove it, they would probably have to endure it for the time being.

Revenge would be inevitable.

But they would have to plan carefully and act in secret.

"Meteor Inferno is extremely powerful and vigilant. He will definitely become a formidable foe in the future." Xu Kunjiji pointed at the Xu Kun Dragon's corpse and said, "He didn't even finish collecting the exotic species and fled when he sensed that we were coming."

"Good thing he ran fast."

Xia Wei coldly snorted, her mind flashing with Meteor Inferno's appearance. She hadn't taken him seriously before, but now she would remember him well.

However, what she didn't know was that Ji Xinghuo was watching her.

In a city over three thousand kilometers away.

Ji Xinghuo arrived at the jump array but didn't enter right away. Instead, he used his Macrocosmic Divine Eyes to look back, his microscopic perception covering the location of Xu Kunjiji and Xia Wei. He heard their entire conversation from start to finish.

"As expected, it's impossible to hide the Magnetic Pole Potential Slash from the Star Saint."

He had anticipated this before taking action.

However, what surprised him was that after Xu Kunjiji guessed his connection to the Titanium-Cobalt Family, he actually backed down and didn't dare to pursue him.

"I've underestimated the reputation of the Titanium-Cobalt Family."

"This is probably for the best."

"However, I can't use the identity of Meteor Inferno anymore. I'll seal it away when I return to Titanium Ring City and ask Lan Jie to create another fake identity for me."

"The only flaw is with Cang Ya, but she has the protection of the Azure Wave Dragon Emperor, so there shouldn't be a problem."

"Xu Kunjiji doesn't even dare to offend the Titanium-Cobalt Dragon King, let alone a Dragon Emperor."

Ji Xinghuo was very certain.

He retracted his Macrocosmic Divine Eyes and stepped into the jump array, choosing his destination. He jumped to an island not far from East Emperor Island and then flew towards East Emperor Island from the southwest, returning to Cangming City.

The auction had not ended yet, but there were only a few items left to be auctioned.

Ji Xinghuo approached the Starforged Lake Manor and created a shadow clone, handing the Azure Sky Ring to the clone before entering the manor himself.

Then, he left East Emperor Island once again.

In the Cangming Auction House.

Ji Xinghuo's shadow clone remained seated on the No. 35012 terrace. Finally, as everyone watched with bated breath, Cang Hao solemnly announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, the following item is the last treasure of this Cangming Auction."

As Cang Hao spoke, a stream of water rose from the lake below, carrying a delicate box and delivering it into his hands.

Cang Hao opened the box and carefully took out an exotic species.

Everyone's gaze was drawn to it.

It was a grayish-white fleshy substance the size of an almond, with irregular wrinkles on its surface. At first glance, it seemed unremarkable and lacked the vitality typical of exotic species. If tossed by the roadside, it wouldn't attract any attention.

However, as one stared at it for a few moments, they would feel their spirit turn hazy, their soul slowly detaching from their body.

It was as if their soul was being sucked out.

Clap! Cang Hao closed the lid, interrupting this spiritual anomaly. Everyone in the audience of over 100,000 aliens was still in shock, but soon became frenzied.

"Eclipse Exotic Species, Multiple Personalities!" Cang Hao looked at the VIP area where the Star Saints were seated and shouted, "Starting bid: 8 million dragon crystals! Each bid must increase the price by at least 500,000 dragon crystals. Let the bidding begin!"

Several Star Saints immediately raised their placards.

The bidding process was extremely intense.

After numerous bids and counter-bids, multiple Star Saints competed while exchanging threatening and enticing words. Finally, in the presence of over 100,000 witnesses, a 'Dominator' at the Seventh-Stage Third-Realm won the exotic species.

Dominator was an ultimate profession.

It was an advanced profession that combined the abilities of a Mind Hacker, Punisher, and Kinetic Stringer, allowing one to control minds and reality, ultimately dominating the world.

This Dominator was the Wan Jue Dragon King from the Candle Star Dragon Domain, ruler of the Wan Jue Territory.

The final transaction price was a staggering 17.5 million dragon crystals! Even in the True Dragon Empire, such a high price hadn't been reached in hundreds of years.

This immediately caused a huge sensation.

After the auction ended, the aliens who witnessed it were all excited. The entire East Emperor Island buzzed with discussions, and the news quickly spread throughout the various dragon domains and territories of the empire. In a corner unnoticed, no one learned of the deaths of Xu Kun Tianlin and his companions.

When Yu Huo Xiao returned to the Starforged Lake Manor, Ji Xinghuo's shadow clone handed him the Azure Sky Ring.

"Very good!"

"I enjoy dealing with people who keep their promises."

Yu Huo Xiao smiled as he took the Azure Sky Ring, noticing that the Void Prison had been used. He immediately guessed what had happened but didn't ask further.

"Thank you, Master." After bidding farewell, the shadow clone dissipated on the spot.

At the same time.

In Titanium Ring City, when Titanium-Cobalt Lan and her two companions exited the jump array, they immediately received news. Titanium-Cobalt Qingwei exclaimed in delight, "Jing is back!"

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end