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Within the market area of Lyon city lay the majestic Market Island, which was home to the regional branch of the renowned, "Lyon and Turnbull Auction House!"

The light of the slow sunrise fell upon this island revealing the mystical fruits and flowers of the trees abound in the various groves. The branches of each tree were spread out as if in pride of the bounty they possessed. The sunlight reflected off of the surface of the ever-still lake forming a vibrant glow around the Island. 

However, despite the obvious beauty of the scenery, there was a silent aura of danger.

If a person glanced at the island at a certain moment, with exactly the perfect lighting, they would be able to see the slightest glimpse of an awe-inspiring dome covering the island. This was a fearsome Sovereign tier formation!

Even though it was inactive and lay dormant, it's presence served as a warning to all would-be criminals and enemies of the auction house.

But just as they see it, it would vanish again, like a crouching tiger or a hidden dragon...

Inside the market island, within the protection of this formation, there was a majestic pagoda of weaving balustrades and silver luster, second only to the main golden pagoda of the auction house.

Inside the highest floor of this pagoda, was a burly bull-like man. He was dressed in a majestic dark golden-red robe and emanated a powerful aura as he laughed joyfully in celebration.

The reason for his joy seemed to be a series of visuals being shown on a small but mystical silver platter of water placed on a table before him.

The surface of the water was still as it revealed the familiar figures of Zhen Shi and William O'Dale in battle; revealing Zhen Shi struggling to deal with the invisible presence of William.

The bull-like man chuckled while clapping his hands, "To think that the freak of the O'Dales would actually be attracted to those disciples due to their own music. I didn't think he'd walk right into the lion's den when I gave him that menial chore to complete. He even started an argument due to a small misunderstanding!

With the seeds of an argument already created, all I needed to do was use a tiny bit of this divine curse to stroke Will O'Dale's short temper, and it immediately led to a frantic battle!

Even if the two of them are holding back for the moment, I'm confident that one of them will break soon and strike to kill! This could truly be called destiny..."

He laughed again, "Ahh, what good luck! I was worried I'd have to waste the entire divine curse, but this makes things far easier and cleaner!

The natural nature of this conflict will make it impossible even for Lyon to connect this to me. It's truly a good thing that the freak William is as hot-blooded and wilful as they say!" while twirling a small crystal in his hand.

This crystal was mysterious and adorned with the barely visible carving of a blood-thirsty serpent.

The bull-like man grinned further and waved his hand, "Shu Yi, continue the report please."

The familiar Elder Shu Yi in his red robe nodded curtly as he continued the report, "Yes, Lord Turnbull. The salesman in the market hall has reported to us that the two senior disciples are extremely skilled in their respective fields of herbology and mineralogy, based simply on their familiarity with ingredients and curt dealings with our staff. In fact, we were able to conclude that they were planning on teaching alchemy and blacksmithing to the other disciple.

While we have no confirmations of their alchemy capability, we were able to find some rumors about a minor accident that took place. A freshly smithed knife was thrown through the pavilion walls but, was still sufficient to heavily injure a soul formation guard!"

A conflicted frown appeared on Lord Turnbull's face as he muttered, "Is that true? In that case, it must've been a soul tier weapon, at the very least. And to just throw away a weapon of such value..."

He raised his head with a heavy frown and asked, "Is that guard still alive?"

Shu Yi nodded, "Yes, we have confirmed this matter. Despite the heavy injuries the guard seems to be in a strangely happy mood and is on his way to a full recovery."

Lord Turnbull heaved a sigh of relief, "That is good. This means that the weapon is only in the early grades of the Soul Tier. And while they didn't seem to care much for a Soul Tier weapon, if my assumptions are correct, their true capability shouldn't exceed the Law Tier..."

Nevertheless, he continued in a serious tone, "Even so, the fact that they are confident enough to teach their own fellow disciple attests to their skill in the professions. Despite the fact that the most skilled appraiser of the Lyonesse kingdom is there to represent us, Dorothy Lyon still possesses a divine blessing for appraising artifacts! Even if her ability has its limits, our appraisers will already have their hands full dealing with her.

Thus, these three individuals will introduce an unsure variable into an already problematic situation. But, we Turnbull's only deal with certainties!"

His frown was quickly replaced with a satisfied grin, "And the only way to be certain of our victory is to put those disciples out of action. We can easily achieve this by using Will O'Dale as a borrowed blade and allow the entire blame to fall upon his poor shoulders."

His grin grew even wider as he continued, "Even the gods are on the side of our Turnbull family! This is an opportunity from the heavens! If this battle escalates just a bit more, we can ensure that those fellow disciples will be completely out of the game, without us lifting even a single finger!

I refuse to believe that two nascent soul disciples and a soul formation kid can hold down a truly enraged Will O'Dale! He isn't called the freak of the O'Dale's for nothing," while happily eyeing the serpent crystal in his hands.

Elder Shu Yi frowned as he spoke hesitatingly, "But, Lord Turnbull, the younger disciple is one of the divine blessed. Not to mention that they still have a possibly formidable master to support them..."

Lord Turnbull waved his hand reassuringly, "So what if he is a divine blessed? This year's ownership of our golden bridge was handed to the Immortal Temple, right? Even if their elders are watching over him, they won't pick a fight with our Market Hall for a mere divine blessed fellow, especially when there is nothing to catch their interest.

And, what formidable master? What was his name again, Myrden? Bah! I've never heard of such a fellow. Will he dare fight against our Grand Market Hall that even the Immortal Temple dreads? Forget him!"

Having put that matter aside, Lord Turnbull continued in a celebrating tone while spectating the battle, "But, of course, once the battle is over and the O'Dale freak loses control, make sure to send over some healers before he beats them to death.

After all, we can't be too harsh on these fellow disciples. Especially since they are the benefactors that gave us a fighting chance by putting that imbecile son of mine into the hold of the kingdom guard!" and finished with joyful laughter.

Elder Shu Yi nodded and spoke out, "As you wish, Lord Turnbull."

A while later, Lord Turnbull's eyes widened as he pointed at the scrying platter and spoke out in a disgruntled tone, "I can't believe that this new kid is almost fighting to toe-to-toe with the O'Dale freak!

Even without going all out, the O'Dale kid's swordsmanship and concealing skills are extremely strong. But this Zhen Shi is using some unusual Mortal Tier formation along with his top tier archery skills to successfully hold out. He is a rare genius! Too bad we couldn't get him to join our side..." with a hint of regret, causing Shu Yi to visibly grimace in displeasure.

He quickly hid this and laughed as he began to explain haughtily, "Don't worry my lord. No matter how talented this Zhen Shi is, the winner will undoubtedly be our William. After all, he is able to wield the 'scarlet' energy to fight against some of the strongest divine blessed geniuses. He is even considered to be one of the potential tabooed!"

Lord Turnbull turned his head towards Shu Yi and spoke with a disappointed look, "Shu Yi, you're being too short-sighted. I am well aware that the O'Dale freak is in your employ, but how long do you think the divine organizations will let a possible tabooed and aberrant to exist right under their noses? Especially since the O'Dales are in a downward spiral of losing power! In my opinion, the O'Dales and this William kid will be very short-lived!"

Shu Yi frowned in displeasure at the possible loss of a valuable subordinate but could find no words to rebuke Lord Turnbull.

Ignoring him, Lord Turnbull turned back to the battle and spoke with a malicious grin, "Forget that and enjoy this fight. While there are countless geniuses within the central plains, it's not always you get to see them in action. Even amidst an all-out brawl, they still have time to make use of strategy. And despite struggling, this Zhen Shi is still holding out. And both of them have yet to bring out their trump cards," while continuing to handle that serpent crystal in his hand.

But suddenly, the scene in the silver platter showed the battle turning around in a single instant.

Shu Yi frowned with genuine disappointment and displeasure.

Lord Turnbull took it even worse, as he stood up from his seat and roared, "Shit! I can't believe that this kid used the furnace spirits to figure out Will's location. He won the fight, but it is too under-handed!"

He frowned with visible disappointment, "Dammit! If this goes on, the fight will stop right here. Nothing more will happen.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to waste the divine curse totem, but I might as well use it right now. Shu Yi, you do it. I believe that your familiarity with William will strengthen the transfer."

Shu Yi was speechless as he had not expected an outcome where he would be doing this. He was aware of the side-effects of using an entire divine curse crystal, especially one of this level. But ultimately, he grimaced as he could only obey under the sharp gaze of Lord Turnbull.

He slowly walked closer and was even slower when taking the serpent crystal from Lord Turnbull's outstretched hand.

Noticing that he was stalling, Lord Turnbull growled out, "Shu Yi! I am well aware that the totem lets the holder know what to do. Are you planning on disobeying my orders?"

Shu Yi flinched under the sudden command but could only accede. As such, he lifted the crystal right onto the top of the silver platter showing the image of Will O'Dale being thrown away by the furnace spirits.

He gulped in fear expecting a last moment change, but seeing the Lord Turnbull's rising anger he gritted his teeth and shouted out a single word, "Apep!"

Immediately, a terrifying amount of qi and life energy was dragged out of his body on to the crystal causing his body to almost shrivel visibly. He seemed to age an entire decade as he dropped down on to the floor with damaged meridians and qi paths, while the gathered energy surrounded the crystal slowly formed into a bloody red serpent, identical to the engraving on the crystal itself.

The serpent stayed in place above the silver platter, flicking its tongue and radiating an undeniable aura. This aura manifested as an evil pitch-black energy...

Lord Turnbull ignored the collapsed and injured Shu Yi as he lightly stroked the serpent and whispered, "May the great serpent lead the way to a deadly battle."

He watched on in trepidation as the serpent turned to look at him for a moment. Under the serpent's condescending gaze, Lord Turnbull couldn't help but shiver as he pulled back his hand reflexively. But the evil bloody serpent ignored him and proceeded to dive straight into the water on the silver scrying platter.

Strangely enough, there were no ripples as the serpent disappeared. But Lord Turnbull felt that he saw several black energy streams reaching out to Zhen Shi and William O'Dale, but at the same time, he felt as if he might've imagined them...

As he continued to watch the battle in the silver platter, he suddenly started laughing uproariously saying, "Both the Heavens and the gods are in my favor! I can't believe that Zhen Shi would use those furnace spirits to mercilessly attack the O'Dale brat or... is that a result of the divine curse?" and was confused for a moment.

But he couldn't help but put that aside for a moment, as he continued to watch his plan leading to success; Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale threw aside all semblances of sparring and threw themselves at each other like angered beasts filled with blood lust.

Lord Turnbull's eyes glowed as he noticed the powerful energy around Zhen Shi as he muttered, "Is that his divine blessing? But didn't he obtain the blessing from God Caishen? How could his power increase even rival that of the O'Dale freak? And that strange weapon intent..."

Fortunately, he was unable to sense any bestial nature since Zhen Shi had hidden it well enough.

Nevertheless, Lord Turnbull continued to watch excitedly until suddenly, he began to shout out in great rage and exasperation, "No! How? I wasted the divine curse totem for nothing!"

He was just about to dash out of the room when he paused as if he had remembered something.

He flicked his hand causing a small dark purple crystal, strangely similar to scrying crystals, to appear in his hand. He quickly hung the purple crystal around his neck, adjusted it a bit, and rushed out of the room.

He shouted out to a guard on duty by his door, "Order every free and idle guard to surround the main guest pavilion!"

The guard was frozen in place by the sudden order, but spoke slowly and respectfully, "But Lord Turnbull, Lord Lyon will not be happy with any orders performed in his absence. Especially, since he specified to protec--"

Kaboom!

The poor guard spoke no more as Lord Turnbull immediately punched him in the chest. A light wave of qi blasted out as the guard was thrown on to the wall with blood seeping from his mouth.

Lord Turnbull turned to the other soldier and spoke out in rage while emphasizing his blood-soaked fist, "What about you?"

The soldiers immediately understood his situation as he bowed in acceptance and ran away to carry out the order.

Lord Turnbull turned towards some servants that had been nearby while flicking away the blood that had been on his fist, "You, close down the entire market island. I want no one getting in or out unless I say so. Make it happen! And you, bring healers and take care of the 'unfortunately' injured!"

The servants nodded as they too ran away to carry out his bidding.

With all the necessary matters taken care of, Lord Turnbull dashed out of the pavilion with enraged eyes...

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