The tearful dragon fell asleep sadly in Shen Zhaomu’s arms.
The auction was still ongoing, and Shen Zhaomu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Storytelling was really not his expertise.
He turned his attention back to the stage. He had come to the auction, pretending to be Li Yang, and had been waiting for the auction of the exotic beasts. The Bill Hoya auction had a little bit of everything, from exotic and unusual animals to harmless critters and ferocious beasts. It would definitely satisfy all the attendees’ curiosities.
They could fill several syringes as long as they had a few high-tier and powerful beasts and the purification technology that the Blood Worshiping Church had refined over countless years.
Five days ago, Lu Shanhuai had dispatched a full-time investigative hunter here to keep an ear out for rumors and confirm that there would be at least one high-tier exotic beast in that day’s auction.
As usual, command fell to Shen Zhaomu.
Now, hiding in the darkness were not only the bodyguards of the auction but also groups of hunters. Everyone had to be searched when entering the auction, and weapons were not allowed into the venue, so all the hunters participating in this mission had strong psychic powers.
Other hunters didn’t need the privacy of a room. The technical team had forged more than a dozen invitations to allow lightly-armed hunters to sneak into the scene. They had almost no equipment and were scattered in twos and threes, but they could launch a full attack at any time.
The gorgeous woman covered her mouth and chuckled, her red skirt fluttering. A cold blade was tucked under her tongue. The bald nouveau riche leaning against the fence on the second floor, wearing a suit and leather shoes, could blow the stairs into pieces with just a wave of his hand.
Outside the auction, heavily armored hunters silently surrounded the area, wearing heavy exoskeletons. The heavy machine guns of the assault hunters were constantly accumulating energy, while the hunters who specialized in combat hacking had drones attached on both sides of their exoskeletons, ready to hack into on-site equipment at any time.
They were all waiting for Shen Zhaomu’s order.
The atmosphere of the auction became heated, and sky-high prices were shouted out one by one.
Gemstones, antiques, and century-ripened berries. Celestial fragments, famous paintings, and exotic animals. As the auction drew to a climax, the lights suddenly came together, and an iron cage covered with black cloth was pushed up.
Countless pairs of eyes were fixed on it. Everyone was eagerly anticipating the finale of the night’s auction.
While Long Shiyu was sleeping, he vaguely heard the host’s voice: “…the mermaid princess from the Sagittarius Galaxy…”
Princess!
Long Shiyu jolted awake, sat up straight, and looked toward the stage—
Inside the black cage was a young mermaid, who looked like a seven or eight-year-old human child. She had blond hair, dark blue scales, and her translucent ears were slightly flaring.
She was curled up in the corner, shivering, because she had no water and couldn’t form her feet.
There was indeed a mermaid tribe with full residential rights in the alliance, but they were vastly different from this kind of exotic creature. The mermaids had their own low-level civilization and simple language, but to the people there, they were still beasts—just a little smarter and more attractive than the average one.
A commotion spread through the audience.
Mermaids had never appeared in the auction before. After all, their habitat was three entire galaxies away from Kassand. Transporting them over not only required smugglers to evade the border inspection over at Star Castle, but also required them to satisfy strict living conditions to ensure the mermaids wouldn’t die.
As expected, there were enough exotic creatures here to refine the exotic blood injections.
The hunters were all nervous and excited, but Shen Zhaomu had not given any orders, so they did not dare to act rashly. The hunters from the off-site technical team controlled the drone to approach the scene. The transparent barrier unfolded silently as data streamed in while the hunters’ fingers danced on the screen.
Shen Zhaomu was waiting to see who would obtain this mermaid.
On the other hand, Long Shiyu was so excited that he couldn’t draw his gaze away from the stage.
Shen Zhaomu: “…”
He bundled Long Shiyu back into his arms and held him down to prevent him from moving. The young man looked like he would rush forward in the next second.
Long Shiyu: “Sob.”
“Eight million.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“We’re working on it,” the hunters stationed outside replied. “The main exit can be locked within sixty seconds and will be set to one-way traffic.”
Their time was very limited. If they started hacking the system too early, they might alert their enemies. Now, they had to control the situation here before the transaction was carried out to increase their chances of getting the buyers’ information.
To be fair, the investigation team were so well-hidden that they were basically invisible. The command headquarters were brimming with courage, and even the most low-key scientific research team would produce results that shocked the alliance from time to time. Compared to them, the technical team was rather weak…
After all, hunters existed to hunt exotic beasts, and most of the time, they didn’t need hard-core technology support.
Shen Zhaomu did not expect them to unearth the buyer’s information.
As long as he delayed the auction process and gave himself enough time, he could completely subdue everyone in the hall.
The price soared to 68 million and finally stopped.
“Sixty-eight million, going once.”
“Sixty-eight million, going twice.”
“Sixty-eight million, going thrice.”
Suddenly, the host frowned. Someone seemed to be speaking in his headset. Hesitantly, he said, “Please… please wait a moment. We are experiencing a slight technical issue.”
There was a commotion amongst the attendees.
This was something that had never happened at a Bill Hoya auction.
The host was also confused, but he kept his cool. “Please wait patiently. This price has been locked. We are experiencing slight issues with the transaction. It should be fixed in a minute. There will be other auction items later…”
As he spoke, he lost confidence in his words. Cold sweat crept up his back.
The auction had been operating for decades, and the system had never failed before. Why did it suddenly go wrong?
Inadvertently, his eyes wandered to the door again.
The auction venue was huge, with a total of five main exits. The transparent barriers at the exits were normally closed, but right now, the sign above the barriers had turned bright red.
It was a sign of total lockdown.
A chill ran down his spine. At the same time, he noticed what seemed to be snowflakes falling from the sky.
The snow was golden, transparent, and resplendent, quickly gathering into a golden ocean suspended in the air. It seemed to be a signal, as different psychic powers suddenly surged through the air.
The people present were all cunning individuals and they immediately realized what was happening. After a brief period of confusion, the attendees unleashed their own psychic energy, and began to attack the barriers blocking the exits.
They didn’t have time to say anything, but they saw several figures flash past in their peripheral vision. A shout rang out. “It’s the fucking hunters!”
As soon as the man finished shouting these words, he was hit on the back of the head.
He limply collapsed, and the woman in the red dress behind him withdrew her pale hand with a smile, swiftly striking the most dangerous of the attendees down one after another.
A calm and mechanical female voice, in accordance with the association’s usual style, played through the speakers. “Please remain calm and obey the hunters’ commands. Please cooperate with the Interstellar Hunter Association’s lawful procedures. Please remain calm and obey the hunters’ commands. Please cooperate with the Interstellar Hunter Association’s lawful procedures…”
As usual, no one paid attention to this broadcast.
The scene appeared chaotic, yet the hunter team’s seamless coordination made it hard to believe that they were complete strangers.
“Team 4, suppress them from the left. Keep up with Team 3.”
“Old Zhao, bring some men with you to the first exit. Use tranquilizers. Once you’ve restrained them, continue to assist Team 3 and advance towards the fourth exit.”
Everything was done in an orderly manner under Shen Zhaomu’s command. His psychic power covered the entire scene without missing a single detail.
The heavily armed hunters outside the venue gradually pressed forward, stabilizing the situation little by little. The exoskeleton gave them a strong load-bearing capacity. As soon as they entered, they set down equipment boxes weighing over a hundred kilograms each. After authorization, the equipment boxes opened automatically, layer upon layer, revealing lightsabers, arc swords, daggers and guns—common equipment for the light-armored hunters.
The light-armored hunters moved quickly and suppressed the attendees in the hall one after another. One team would lead and another would retreat into an encirclement of heavily-armored hunters, allowing them to quickly equip powerful weapons. This cycle continued fluidly.
Compared to the interstellar police, their actions were wilder and rougher, but also more effective.
The interstellar police would ponder over how light or heavy-handed they should be. Hunters, on the other hand, would solve the problem in the most direct way once they noticed that their opponents intended to resist. Everything from tranquilizers to arc swords were fair game—they cared only about how easy using the weapons were.
They carried out their mission to suppress the attendees according to the standard protocol of hunting exotic beasts.
The host witnessed the whole process on stage and was completely at a loss.
Kassand had its own balanced system. The Alliance ignored it, the interstellar police protected it, and the Hunter Association rarely visited.
With the strength of the Hunter Association, it would certainly not be a problem to break into an auction. But the auctioneers came from all over the world, and there was no shortage of big names. This was one of the reasons why Bill Hoya had always been safe.
The previous troublemakers disappeared without a trace after being symbolically detained by the interstellar police.
But these hunters who came today were merciless. They were the cream of the crop, and they had no intention of leaving any room for maneuver.
The audience was in chaos. He stood in place and suddenly heard a noise from the black cage next to him.
The blond mermaid inside was huddled in the corner with dilated pupils.
A mermaid could easily die if frightened.
This was the only auction item on the stage, and it was also the most valuable item that night. If it was lost, there was no telling what those big shots would do.
In an instant, the host’s rationality returned. He immediately covered the cage with the black cloth at his feet. After clicking on the screen a few times, the cage slowly sank into the ground. Then he turned around and ran to the backstage, where there was a small back door. It was likely the safest place in the entire hall at the moment.
As soon as he rushed over, the light suspended in the air suddenly sank, forming a high wall in front of him. At the same time, swirling snow formed a thin line, and with a flash of light, the metallic base of the mermaid’s cage was cut off, preventing it from sinking.
The host took half a step back, but bumped into someone.
It was a tall man in a black suit. The golden light around him flickered, and his lips curved gently within the curtain of snow. He was as handsome as a work of art, but his eyes contained no smile.
The oil lamp suspended next to him was still burning quietly, eternally.
“Sorry,” he said, “this is a dead end.”
His attire and the oil lamp were so representative that the host immediately realized the man before him was the famous Shen Zhaomu.
A bolt of clarity shot through him in the midst of his fright. So that’s why the hunters are acting so ferociously. Shen Zhaomu is the one commanding them.
It was no secret that Shen Zhaomu always did things quickly and accurately, leaving no room for retreat. He was ruthless to exotic creatures and humans alike.
Perhaps it was due to the blood of the Shen family, which had fought dragons for centuries, running through his veins. It endowed them with natural prowess, making the warriors as fierce as evil dragons.
The next second, he was dragged by Shen Zhaomu to the front of the screen. After scanning the host’s iris and fingerprint, Shen Zhaomu gained access to the code running in the background. Information about the auction items was revealed one by one.
The kill switch was operating furiously, attempting to lock and destroy all information. Unfortunately, there was still a crack in this hard shell composed of thousands upon thousands of lines of code thanks to the continuous efforts of the technical team—
Among the gibberish, a string of clear letters appeared next to the mermaid’s information.
NN02721.
Shen Zhaomu glanced at it and threw the host aside. A hunter immediately came up and subdued the man.
His eyes moved to the black cage.
The black cloth was haphazardly thrown over the cage, revealing the young mermaid’s teary blue eyes.
Outside, there were angry shouts, gunshots, and the sound of electricity crackling in the air. The cacophony resonated painfully in her head. It sounded like the entire world was buzzing.
Suddenly, the black cloth was opened up a little further. The cage door was cut with a laser cutter and the man walked in.
The mermaid was naturally sensitive, and she could smell the terrifyingly powerful aura on the other person’s body. There was a hint of wildness deep within his eyes, proof that he had experienced countless battles.
This man… was stronger than anyone she had ever seen. He had definitely killed countless exotic beasts.
The mermaid shook all over and kept trying to shrink herself into a corner. However, Shen Zhaomu continued to approach slowly and unhurriedly. He stretched out his hand, and out came a golden stream of light.
The mermaid squeezed her eyes shut.
A few seconds later, what greeted her was not pain, but rather the soft touch of gentle, fine fabric.
The swirling golden snow, which was gathered into a thin, dazzling layer, was covering her head.
The mermaid eyes widened slightly.
According to merfolk traditions, parents and elders would cover their children with translucent gauze woven from oceanic grass to comfort them with the gentle tactile sensation. This would bring an incomparable sense of security to the mermaids.
But how would a human know?
And even if he knew about their customs, why would he care?
But this soft and gentle touch was so real. The mermaid subconsciously reached out to touch the fabric, but inadvertently touched the man’s sleeve.
She retracted her hand as if she was electrocuted. Shen Zhaomu smiled, squatted down, and picked her up through the fabric. Rubbing her head soothingly, he walked out of the cage and said, “The target is safe. Third medical team, please come in.”
Tens of seconds later, a group of hunters wearing blue and white tactical uniforms came over and took the mermaid from his hands.
They were a team specially responsible for taking care of exotic creatures, and they had enough experience to take good care of this young mermaid.
The situation in the auction hall was mostly stabilized. Some hunters were still confirming that everyone was where they should be.
Shen Zhaomu was just about to go to the crowd when he suddenly raised his head.
The private room was empty, and Long Shiyu was missing.
Shen Zhaomu: “…”
He subconsciously took out his terminal to confirm things.
Strange. He wasn’t dreaming—Lu Shanhuai was still blocked.
Was this a case of the legendary Schrödinger’s Dragon?
Author’s Note:
Shen Zhaomu: I have no idea where my wife goes everyday
I don’t have a good reason for it, but it’s definitely Lu Shanhuai’s fault hahaha
Where did you go Shiyu ｡:ﾟ(;´∩`;)ﾟ:｡
I’m so unworried about Shiyu, he’s definitely just off investigating something or other lmao
Thanks for the chapter!
I think Long Shiyu would either stay close to the princess or go look for the kitchen.