Chapter 336: The Immortality Elixir

When the giant hourglass hanging from the dome of the Auction Island palace finished its second run of sand, the moment most eagerly awaited by the over three thousand guests in the hall had finally arrived.

All the magic lights on the stone walls simultaneously shifted to a vibrant, fresh blood-red. The host retreated to the back, yielding the center of the stage to Grand Guildmaster Gideon and Grand Apothecary Malakor, who was tightly shrouded in a black cloak.

At the same time, sixteen maidens in white silk dresses stepped onto the stage carrying sixteen golden trays. On each tray sat two transparent glass vials only the size of a thumb, containing a liquid as bright red as ruby but glittering with eerie green streaks of light that moved on their own like living things!

The moment they saw those thirty-two glass vials appear, the over three thousand people in the audience, as well as the VIPs in the remaining eleven Diamond Rooms, all sprang up from their seats in unison, their heavy, panting breaths echoing throughout the hall!

"Honored guests!" Grand Guildmaster Gideon spread his arms wide, his mesmerizing voice echoing through the space: "What is placed before your eyes are thirty-two vials of the premium Immortality Elixir successfully refined just last night by Grand Apothecary Malakor from the pure heart’s blood of the Elves of the Eternal Forest! As you know, time is the cruelest enemy of all living beings. Even if you hold the throne of a kingdom or possess mountains of gold and seas of silver, when old age strikes, all turns to dust. But here in our Silver Port, even lifespan and life itself can be bought with gold!"

To prove his words, Gideon waved his hand, signaling the guards behind him.

Two soldiers immediately carried a wooden stretcher onto the stage. Lying on the stretcher was an old man over eighty years old, with sparse white hair, a wrinkled and sagging face covered in age spots, and shriveled legs that had been bedridden for years, his breathing so weak he seemed on the verge of death.

"This is the old Count who once governed the Western mining region, eighty-four years old this year, whom the physicians have concluded will not survive this winter!" Gideon picked up a vial of the Immortality Elixir from a golden tray, uncorked it, and dripped exactly three drops of the green-tinged red liquid into the mouth of the old man lying on the stretcher: "Now, please witness with your own eyes the miracle of immortality!"

The entire hall of over three thousand people held their breath, staring fixedly at the wooden stretcher on the stage.

Up in Diamond VIP Room Number One, Kaelen, Sane, and the little leopard cub Finnick also simultaneously focused their gazes downward. Under the penetrating vision of three True Gods, a scene so disgusting it would make an ordinary person vomit was unfolding inside that old man’s body!

The moment the three drops of green-tinged red liquid slid down his throat, they transformed into three dark gray larvae the length of a finger joint, with hundreds of tiny legs like a centipede’s! Those three larvae of decay plunged straight into the man’s heart, liver, and spinal cord, using their mouths full of sharp teeth to latch tightly onto the host’s blood vessels, frantically sucking away his original soul essence, while simultaneously secreting a pale pink stimulant fluid that was pumped backward into all the muscles and outer epidermis!

Under the effect of that highly toxic host-preservation fluid, on the outside, a "miraculous" scene immediately unfolded before the eyes of the blind mortals:

The old man’s withered body on the wooden stretcher suddenly swelled up! The deep wrinkles on his face vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye, his age-spotted skin became fair and taut, and his white hair fell out, replaced by a brand-new crop of jet-black hair!

In less than a minute, the dying, bedridden old man from moments ago leaped off the wooden stretcher on his own, stood tall on the stage, and threw a punch that shattered a half-meter-thick bluestone placed nearby into tiny fragments!

"Hahaha! I’m young again! I’m as healthy as I was at thirty!" The old man looked at his two hands brimming with power, threw his head back, and laughed madly like a lunatic!

The entire Auction Island palace instantly exploded like a chaotic market!

"A divine elixir! Truly a peerless divine elixir!"

"Just three drops made a dying man fifty years younger! I bid twenty thousand gold coins for the first vial!"

"Get out of the way! Thirty thousand gold coins! My royal father urgently needs it, who dares to compete with my Northern kingdom?!"

"Forty thousand gold coins! We in VIP Room Number Three will take five vials!"

Looking at the nobles, lords, and grand merchants below screaming with bloodshot eyes, even nearly drawing their swords to hack at each other just to fight for the right to swallow those disgusting parasitic worms into their bellies, Kaelen, sitting in VIP Room Number One, couldn’t help but shake his head slightly:

"Because of their own greed for life and fear of death, they are willing to trample on the flesh and blood of an entire other race, only to ultimately spend tens of thousands of gold pieces to buy poison to drink. People like this truly deserve death."

In less than half an hour, all thirty-two vials of the Immortality Elixir had been snatched up by the tycoons in the eleven Diamond VIP Rooms and the wealthy patrons in the front rows at astronomical prices.

True to the paranoid habits of Silver Port’s wealthy elite, fearing the elixir would be snatched or swapped on the way if taken off the island, all those who had just won the bids for the Immortality Elixir immediately uncorked the vials and tilted their heads back to drain them on the spot under everyone’s watchful eyes, then contentedly relished the sensation of their bodies growing younger by the second!

Standing in the corner of the stage, beneath the hood of his black cloak, Grand Apothecary Malakor’s venomous snake-like eyes watched the sight of dozens of nobles and major merchants having just swallowed more parasitic worms into their bellies, and a silent, vicious smile crept across his face.

Just as the thirty-second vial was sold, Grand Guildmaster Gideon stepped forward, raising his hands to signal for the entire hall to fall silent:

"Ladies and gentlemen! The thirty-two vials of Immortality Elixir just now were merely tonight’s appetizers! Now, please join me in welcoming the greatest finale item in the past century of Silver Port’s history!"

Gideon swung his arm, pointing toward the back of the stage:

"Bring up the prey!"

Rumble! Rumble!

The black stone floor in the center of the stage slowly split in two. A massive iron cage five meters tall, heavily engraved with dark red blood sacrifice runes, was hoisted straight up to the stage by a chain system from the third basement!

Inside that iron cage, Grand Elder Sylphie of the Elves was bound tightly to a stone pillar in the center, and around the base of the pillar were ten of the youngest Elven children. The oldest among them was only eight, the youngest just turned four. They were tightly chained together!

The moment they saw the silver-haired Grand Elder and the ten pureblood Elven children appear under the eerie red light, the excited roars from the audience erupted once again like tidal waves.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Gideon’s voice rang out with extreme excitement: "This is the last pureblood Grand Elder of the ancient Elven race! The heart within this old woman’s chest contains the life essence of the World Tree of ages past. Today, our Council of Twelve Merchants has decided not to sell this heart exclusively to any single individual, but to conduct the Grand Sacred Heart Sacrifice Ceremony right here in this hall!"

Gideon pointed to the four corners of the grand hall, where blood-channeling grooves had begun to glow a brilliant red:

"As long as every guest present tonight contributes one thousand gold coins to the auction pool, Grand Apothecary Malakor will personally carve out the hearts of the Elven Grand Elder and those ten pureblood children right on this stone pedestal, using the array to transform them into a mist of life enveloping the entire palace! Everyone who inhales that blood mist, especially you esteemed guests who have drank the Immortality Elixir before, will instantly have your elixir’s potency consolidated and gain a full twenty years of lifespan!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the entire hall of three thousand people instantly went mad! One thousand gold coins was nothing to the nobles and grand merchants here, yet just by spending that amount, they could inhale Elven blood mist and gain an extra twenty years of life!

"I’ll contribute! I’ll pay one thousand gold coins right now!"

"I’ll pay five thousand gold coins to stand in the very front row closest to the stage!"

"Kill them! Hurry and carve out their hearts!"

The nobles and merchants in the audience frantically threw bags of gold coins and bank drafts onto the stage, their eyes bloodshot like a pack of bloodthirsty beasts awaiting a feast of human flesh.

On the stage, Grand Apothecary Malakor slowly walked up to the iron cage with its door already open. From his black sleeve, he drew a dagger carved from a pitch-black rib bone radiating a thick, evil aura, while his left hand silently crushed the dark gray jade talisman hidden in his palm!

As soon as the bone dagger pierced through Grand Elder Sylphie’s chest, her blood would immediately act as a catalyst, detonating all the parasitic worms in the bellies of the over three thousand wealthy elites and the Twelve Merchants present in the hall!

"Die, you foolish ants..."

Malakor curled his withered lips beneath the hood, raising the bone dagger high and thrusting it straight toward the heart of the blind old woman before him!

However, when the tip of the blade was exactly three inches away from Grand Elder Sylphie’s chest, time in the entire grand hall seemed to abruptly freeze!

BOOM!

An earth-shattering explosion rocked the palace dome!

On the highest floor, the one-way magic glass of Diamond VIP Room Number One was shattered into tens of thousands of glittering fragments like a meteor shower by a terrifying burst of power!

From a height of twenty meters, a small, black-spotted golden silhouette darted out into mid-air. The little leopard cub Finnick stood hovering right beneath the dome’s red light, his dark green eyes burning with the furious flames of the Lord of Life. The red vine of the Huy?t M?c spirit Chloe on his ankle instantly expanded a hundred times, transforming into a flaming red wooden spear over twenty meters long. Carrying a soul-rending howl as it tore through the air, it thrust straight down from the high floor to the center of the stage!

Thwack! Crash!

The Huy?t M?c spear was so fast that Malakor couldn’t react. It pierced right through his right arm holding the bone dagger, shattering the arm into a mist of blood, and then nailed the Grand Apothecary’s entire body onto the black stone floor, causing the entire stone pedestal to crack into four pieces!

"Aaaaaah—!"

Malakor’s agonizing scream ripped through the frenzied atmosphere in the hall. The over three thousand guests in the audience, as well as Grand Guildmaster Gideon on the balcony, were all stunned, frozen in place.

In the very next moment, two tall figures in pitch-black formal attire strolled leisurely through the void from VIP Room Number One as if walking on solid ground, slowly touching down on the roof of the iron cage in the center of the stage.

Kaelen and Sane simultaneously removed their silver masks, tossing them casually at their feet. Kaelen looked down at the merchants and the over three thousand nobles below, his voice as freezing as winter frost echoing across the island:

"The auction of you beasts ends here. Now... it is time for the Gods to open the tribunal and judge you!"