Ether crystals, especially the pure ones, were the stable currency of liquid assets to stabilize the economy of Leonardo's territory. As for treasures and resources, these were for Leonardo to establish a force of high divinities from the Memento Mori maids, while hopefully pushing Victoria and Madeline to achieve their zero rebirth.
After both of them reach level 91, Leonardo's follow-up worry was finding a method for Merlin to start cultivating. Merlin had consumed the face-preserving pills already and she wouldn't age anytime soon, but her vitality was dwindling nonetheless.
"What's the starting bid?"
Leonardo's thoughts were interrupted by the impatient young master of the Violet Mountain Sect, flicking his purple sleeves dismissively as clear signs of anger had yet to dissipate from his face.
He was a little annoyed that this young man kept flaunting his stupidity around and hence, he chose to teach him a lesson. "Does it even matter? However, now that you've mentioned it; everyone can insert their price into a piece of information chip, I'll choose the highest bid and conclude the first round of the auction while setting that wager as the minimum bid for the follow-up two rounds."
The young man was stunned, the same went for the other young masters and their elders. They didn't even get the chance to think things over as Leonardo tossed over twelve finer-sized chips inscribed with small arrays.
"Are you serious?"
The old man couldn't help but ask after exchanging a few glances with the other elders around. As it seems, this old man was their spokesperson in public as the twelve sects would rather maintain their image as a solid front to outsiders.
"This is a fair method to determine a base price for the bid; let's just say I'm generous as the sect that does manage to win this round would have scored itself a cheap victory," Leonardo responded with a smile. "What? Don't tell me that no one wants a city anymore?"
Everyone had a helpless look on their faces while they cursed in their hearts. It must feel great when you're in a seat of power during negotiations, they thought. Although everyone wanted to bid a low bet, they also felt anxious someone might actually bid somewhat higher than their bets. Moreover, they needed to keep in mind that the price might come back to bite them if they placed too high of a bid and earned the ire of the other eleven sects in the auction for land.
Each city would be large enough to host from 500,000 to 800,000 people, and comfortably at that. To sects, human resources were very important, especially trade on land. Thus, having their personal channels from the sect to the mainland with Leonardo's territory as a buffer zone would greatly benefit the sects.
They shared subtle glances with one another and nodded silently. At this moment, even the four pavilions had somber expressions while pondering deep and hard on how much wealth they'd be willing to offer up. If the Constellation Terrace Pavilion saw this one coming, they'd have held back on the arrays and offered them as part of the bidding process, but it was too late now.
About twenty slow minutes later, the elders heaved a collective sigh of resignation after consulting with their young sect masters and came up with a decision. Then, everyone engraved the insignia of their respective sects on the chips and shot them back to Leonardo.
He didn't keep them waiting for long as he swept his mind through the chips in quick succession, his eyes betraying to emotions whatsoever despite the wealth each chip represented. Everyone held their breath and waited for the announcement of the results.
Being the straightforward businessman he was, Leonardo opened his eyes a moment later with a faint smile and said, "The first City Lord Estate goes to the Heaven's Remedy Pavilion, their terms go as follows; 200,000 pure ether fragments and 500,000 raw ether fragments, bringing the minimal bid to 300,000 pure ether fragments. In addition, they offered valuable tier 6 and tier 7 resources and dispatched a tier 7 physician to work as the Imperial Physician to the Evernight Crown."
Although Leonardo said this, he wasn't that comfortable leaving such a powerful expert in the heart of his territory even if he was an Imperial Physician. However, he couldn't turn his back on the Dew of Life offered up with the tier 6 resources as this would be very helpful not only to Merlin but also to Juvia and Pandora who were left behind in Arcadia.
Tier 5 equates to the Zero Rebirth realm, from level 91 to 100. Tier 6 equates to the Core Molding realm. Tier 7 equates to the Singularity realm. Tier 8 equates to the Inception realm. Tier 9 equates to the Star Lord realm.
Such an expert is both too good and too dangerous to leave behind, but Leonardo had long since planned to leave Rosaline here while he went alone to explore the Core Mainland to regroup with Ingrid and Nier. Thus, he only gave the matter some thought and decided to go with it.
"What would a bunch of doctors know about managing a city?" someone sneered.
Unsurprisingly, it was someone from the eight mountains, clearly unresigned even though the base price of 300,000 pure ether fragments wasn't too high of a number for their sects to pay annually. Everyone knew that the key wasn't in paying ether but to provide something Leonardo desired urgently, the ether fragments were only an extra.
From the looks of it, Leonardo was tempted either by the free physician or the natural treasures included with the bets.
"We can always find a capable Vice City Lord to handle matters," responded the young master from Heaven's Remedy Pavilion, which earned a nod of approval from his elder. "A capable lord can always relegate the tasks to a capable subject."
Noticing his elder nod with approval, the young man felt a bit proud and quickly added to his earlier sentence. However, this time, the elder's expression was quite strange as he seemed deep in thought, casting a stealthy glance at Leonardo who sat in the center while 'handing' out positions as City Lords.
