111: Auction

While Cultivating daily and handling Initial City affairs, Arthur also arranged another transaction with the Dawn Merchant Guild.

Arthur originally thought this would be another ordinary transaction, ending with him earning a profit of 20 million gold coins!

But unexpectedly, the Dawn Merchant Guild gave Arthur a surprise this time: the Legendary Expert Cultivation Potion, which he had been desperately searching for months, was finally found by the Dawn Merchant Guild!

Although Arthur didn't need this item for now, there would always be a day when he would; it was better to be prepared.

Just one bottle of the Legendary Expert Cultivation Potion cost Arthur five million gold coins, directly reducing his profit from selling gold knight armor this month from 20 million to 15 million gold coins.

However, Arthur felt the five million was well spent, as he was able to acquire such a valuable item.

In addition, the Dawn Merchant Guild gave Arthur another surprise: an invitation to an auction!

The auction is scheduled for June next year, and it is said to be a grand auction held by the Dawn Merchant Guild only once every ten years.

It will be held in a Human Empire on the Continent of Gods, and not only will there be various rare treasures, but even weapons and armor used by Legendary Experts often appear.

Sometimes, even items used by Demigod Experts, who are at the pinnacle of the Continent of Gods, are featured as the grand finale items of the auction.

So many rare treasures were quite attractive to Arthur.

Because as long as he touched a treasure, he could convert it into a Portable Shop item and purchase it at will.

Moreover, Arthur could also appropriately take out some treasures to sell at the auction, which would allow him to obtain even more gold coins!

All in all, this auction was quite appealing to Arthur, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would likely attend.

After completing the transaction with the Dawn Merchant Guild, Arthur initially thought the following days would be peaceful, and he would just go to replicate Dragons next month.

But unexpectedly, the arrival of a familiar person disrupted Arthur's plans.

On this day, a week had passed since Arthur returned to the castle, and he was currently in his study reviewing the recent development of Initial City.

He had just seen that nearly 600,000 acres of cultivated land had been reclaimed around Initial City. Even though the land in the Barren Plains was relatively barren,

due to the abundant energy on the Continent of Gods, grain yields were generally high. Even if the Barren Plains' grain yield was half that of normal areas, one acre could still produce 300 kilograms of wheat.

If all 600,000 acres were planted with grain, Initial City would barely be able to achieve self-sufficiency!

This was, of course, a happy development, meaning Arthur no longer needed to purchase grain from the Portable Shop for subsidies.

However, even if Arthur provided subsidies, he wouldn't actually lose money, because the taxes paid by Initial City's population of over one million now amounted to at least one million gold coins annually!

And 50 catties of high-quality wheat flour in Arthur's Portable Shop cost only five silver coins. Even supplying the annual rations for Initial City's 1.2 million people wouldn't cost 500,000 gold coins.

But now that the people of Initial City could be self-sufficient, Arthur could earn even more!

Moreover, self-sufficiency is the only secure state.

Just as Arthur was pleased that Initial City was getting better and better, Poussin, the castle butler, came to the study to report something to him:

"My Lord, your friend Mr. David has arrived at the castle. I have arranged for him in the reception room. Would you like to see him now?"

"David!"

After several months, hearing this familiar name, Arthur was still a little dazed.

Since Olivia's birthday banquet, the two had not met again.

Arthur had only heard that David, the sole legitimate heir of the Koruk Family, had been striving to inherit the ducal title during these past few months.

In reality, the ducal position was certainly David's. The royal Family's delay in making a decision was merely to seize some of the Koruk Family's wealth and land.

Arthur knew all of this, but he also understood that with David's current strength, he couldn't defend the Koruk Family's original wealth and land.

Only by giving up some interests could David securely inherit the title, so Arthur did not intervene.

He wondered why David was here now!

After reviewing his thoughts in his mind, Arthur stood up, preparing to meet David in the reception room.

Walking into the castle's reception room, Arthur's gaze immediately fell upon David.

At a glance, Arthur noticed that David looked a bit more haggard and mature than he had a few months ago.

It was as if he had undergone a transformation; it seemed the downfall of the Koruk Family had a significant impact on him.

Seeing this, Arthur suddenly felt a small twinge of guilt towards his friend David.

However, he had no regrets. The Koruk Family's offense against him sealed its fate.

And from another perspective, David could be considered to have inherited the ducal title as a blessing in disguise; Arthur had helped him.

How could one obtain such great benefits without enduring some hardships!

Thinking of this, Arthur immediately felt no qualms!

On the other side, David had thoroughly experienced the harsh realities of human nature in recent months.

After the downfall of David's Family, the other nobles in Ailan Province immediately changed their demeanor towards him from fawning to greedy.

They wanted to continuously extract wealth from the fallen giant that was the Koruk Family.

Even with the obstruction of kingdom laws, they were willing to take risks for several times the profit.

As for the royal Family, they certainly did not want the Koruk Family to Rebirth, because the Duke's power was too vast and posed a threat to the royal Family.

For the royal Family, the fewer such powerful forces, the better!

To even more quickly annex the Koruk Family, the royal Family personally intervened.

They secretly promised that if those nobles shared half of the profits gained from encroaching upon the Koruk Family with the royal Family, they would not be held accountable.

With the royal Family, the guardian of the rules, stepping in, the nobles of Ailan Province completely went mad, openly encroaching on the remaining interests of the Koruk Family.

Finally, whether it was out of mutual concern or to preserve the dignity of the dukes,

the two major dukes in the Kingdom, including Duke Gryphon, also intervened, demanding that those nobles immediately cease their encroachment on the Koruk Family.

Past transgressions would be forgiven, but from that moment on, if anyone was found to be encroaching upon the Koruk Family's wealth, that person would become an enemy of the two major dukes.

Under the deterrence of the two major dukes, the greedy crowd finally ceased their actions!

By this time, two months had passed since the downfall of the Koruk Family.

Under everyone's greed, many of the Koruk Family's businesses and properties suffered devastating blows, and even the Family's territorial scope was reduced by two-thirds.

It was only equivalent to a slightly stronger Marquisate now!

Even now, although the Koruk Family had greatly shrunk, it had temporarily stabilized.