A shimmer of red and gold light escaped her palm as she pulled out an egg the size of a watermelon, covered in cloudy white and crimson patches that seemed to swirl faintly.

The guests looked interested, their gazes fixing on the item as soon as the item was taken out.

The hostess smiled knowingly, letting the murmurs spread for a few seconds before she began her explanation in a clear tone. "This is a rare phoenix egg, a monster with the potential of reaching Overlord Tier.

Her voice carried with a confident rhythm as she continued. "As explained in the file, unlike other aerial monsters, phoenixes feed exclusively on mana crystals, meaning their maintenance is quite high."

Her words drew a few nervous chuckles from some tables.

"Now, do not assume a phoenix is an obedient companion simply because you bonded with it. They are prideful and intelligent. Their loyalty must be earned, not bought."

As she spoke, the cube around the egg dimmed, revealing the faint outline of glowing wings inside, as if the chick within was listening to her words and stirring.

"Now, to the good part, the Phoenix is well known to be a Parthenogenetic bird that doesn't need a male counterpart to lay eggs, although it will only lay eggs once in its whole life. It will mature into an adult in fifteen months and will lay its eggs at the 20th month. Based on your luck, it goes anywhere from 1 egg to even 6. Assuming that you provide its daily needs and it doesn't die midway, by the time it becomes an adult, you will have an Overlord Tier monster companion in your hands. And phoenixes also possess multiple lives — anywhere from three to nine, depending on the purity of their bloodline. The mother of this one had seven lives, so you can expect at least five. But whenever it dies, its Tier drops by atleast one whole realm."

Even the calmest of guests leaned forward at that revelation.

"Being a creature of the primordial fire element, its master will automatically awaken the element of fire and receive a significant boost to all fire-based techniques of his own. At the same time, Phoenixes are not built for strength like dragons. Despite its grand wingspan of 45 to 50 feet at its adult stage, it can carry only a weight up to 70 kilograms."

Her eyes swept across the audience as she finished, her voice now sharp, commanding attention.

"Gauge its advantages and disadvantages carefully, ladies and gentlemen. The minimum bid is ten million credits, with raises in increments of five hundred thousand. Let the bidding… begin."

A moment of silence followed. Then—

"10.5 million!"

"11 million!"

.

.

.

"14.5 million!"

"15 million!"

"15.5 million!"

.

.

.

"23 million credits!"

The numbers began to climb rapidly, the heat in the room almost matching the energy of the item itself.

While the hall buzzed with excitement and paddles kept rising one after another, Lin Fang's attention wasn't on the numbers — it was on the egg itself.

He opened the digital interface before him, inspecting its details. Lines of text scrolled down… and then something caught his eye that neither the file nor the hostess mentioned.

Species: Phoenix

Status: Egg

Potential: Overlord Potential

Condition: Corrupted

Element: Primordial Fire/Demonic

[Warning: Inherited the demonic curse from its mother and cannot be removed. Upon bonding, the mind corruption of its contractor is inevitable.]

Lin Fang's pupils constricted sharply. He leaned closer, a chill creeping down his spine as he whispered under his breath, "A… corrupted phoenix?"

The cloudy red and gold shell, which everyone found mesmerizing, suddenly looked sinister to him. Right beside him, Vivian lifted her paddle, her lips curving into a confident smile.

"26.5 million"

The number was raised after a few seconds

"27 million"

And she raised the paddle without waiting.

"27.5 million"

"28 million"

Right then, Vivian was about to raise the paddle again, but Lin Fang's hand shot forward at that moment, grabbing her wrist firmly but discreetly under the table.

"What are you doing—" Vivian started, eyes flashing.

Lin Fang shook his head slightly and spoke low, "Put it down. It's best to stay out of this one."

Vivian froze. While she couldn't see through the mask to see what kind of expression he was making, she felt the tone in his voice wasn't casual or some friendly advice— it was clearly a warning. She studied his masked face for a moment, saw the seriousness in his eyes, and reluctantly lowered her paddle.

"Alright… but you'll tell me why later," she muttered, still curious but trusting him enough not to argue.

Lin Fang gave a subtle nod, eyes flicking back to the egg.

Across the room, at Table 13, Alex had been casually sipping his wine while watching the crowd. His gaze flicked toward Vivian just as she raised the paddle — and then toward Lin Fang when she lowered it abruptly.

"Does this one have special eyes?" he murmured under his breath, leaning forward a bit. "Can he also see that the egg is corrupted? Or did he stop her because he no longer thinks it is worth it? Hmm… judging by how he couldn't bypass the dungeon laws, it could be the latter. But, if it is the former, then he purposely didn't resist the dungeon laws. Regardless, he is already someone I intend to keep an eye on. So, the truth will come out sooner or later, I guess."

Meanwhile, the bidding war continued.

"38 million!"

"38.5 million!"

"39 million!"

.

.

.

"Anyone up for 46.5? Anyone…"

"Ok, last 10 seconds. This is your final chance to bid. Or else you will miss it."

"Ok, 46 million once, twice, and sold!"

The hostess nodded at the winner, then clapped lightly.

"Congratulations to Table 5. The Phoenix Egg now belongs to you."

At table nine, Vivian's eyes gleamed faintly as she watched the bidding end. She crossed her legs elegantly, tapping a finger against her glass, as she murmured. "This fool, Xu Xian, is paying so much for an egg. I guess it is because it has multiple lives. But Lin Fang did right to stop me. It's actually better to just pay 500k and buy like 8 Direwolf eggs from Lin Fang than buy this one egg I have no use for. It would atleast have a King Tier potential."

Lin Fang's ears perked up at those words, and he couldn't help but smirk a little.

As the servant carefully brought to the winner's table and finished the transaction, the hostess turned back to the crowd with a smile that promised the night was far from over.

"Now then," she said, slipping another hand into her ring, "let us proceed to the second item."

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