With Alex joining the bidding war, the speed at which the price rose increased once again. However, with how big the bid was, the speed at which it rose was still slow compared to all the other ones.
Alex saw the bid increase ever so slightly and could tell that however it was that bidding didn't have much money. He didn't wait and increased the bid again by the slightest amount.
"Your Majesty?" Yao Ning turned around when she saw how fast he was bidding. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait to see if there are others that can bid before we do?"
"No," Alex said. "Increase the bid by the slightest bit the moment the other person bids."
"Why such a hurry?" Pearl asked with a curious look on his face.
"Whoever it is that is bidding currently is running out of money, so they spend every moment they can to reconsider whether or not the price is worth it for the item they are paying."
"However, that time is also important for them to contact others and gain that tiniest bit of money to improve their bid. We cannot give them time to contact other people and ask for money."
"That's the reason why we must bid at every moment," Alex said as he bid again.
He increased the bid each time someone else bid and started the timer to the auction's end where he would get the item. That forced the others to start either bidding faster or giving up.
Alex watched the number rise and reach 238,000. He shook his head and increased it, sending it immediately to 240,000.
The sudden rise caused a stir amongst the bidders as they couldn't immediately match the bid. They had to take their time considering how much they wanted to spend.
The problem they faced was that the item they were bidding for was already a flawed product known to devour Saint Spirit stones. If they spent hundreds of thousands of Saint Spirit stones, only to have barely enough left to use it, it wouldn't be a very good trade.
They needed to consider both the cost of buying the artifact and the cost of using the artifact after all.
Not to mention, the sects were slightly worried about the fact that the Mountain Crushing sect had most likely fallen due to this very artifact. That caused them to hesitate to bid.
'Don't bid anymore,' Alex hoped. 240,000 was a lot, and he only had about 10 thousand more Saint Spirit stones at best. If someone increased it to reach 250,000, that would be problematic for him.
However, hopes rarely came true. The bids increased again, by a mere 20 Saint Spirit stones, but that gave the others time to search for more money.
Alex increased the bid by 50 and waited again.
Liang Shufen returned a few moments later and gave Alex the spirit stones. Alex looked at the spirit stones inside the storage bag.
He couldn't help but smile a bit when he saw that. "We might have enough now," he said. "Our 76,000, the Emerald King's 50,000, Lady Zhan's 90,000, and now sister Hao Ya's 35,000."
"We have 251 thousand Saint Spirit stones now?" Yao Ning asked.
Alex nodded. "A little more than that, but less than 252 thousand for sure," he said and increased the bid again. They were reaching close to 241 thousand, which meant he only had 10 thousand more Saint Spirit stones for the bid.
"I hope this is enough," he thought.
He increased the bid at his time to reach 241,000 and waited for someone to continue increasing. It took some time, but someone did increase.
Alex couldn't help but frown. 'They aren't giving up,' he thought and increased the bid again.
The Silver Queen contacted him again to ask if he was still bidding. She was getting desperate as well it seemed. She didn't seem to have much.
'Is she the only one that is bidding right now?' he wondered and watched the increment. It was hard to tell, but it looked like there were 2 more people other than him, not just one.
Some sect master was most certainly taking part. There were so many large sects in that Eastern Continent that Alex didn't even know which one it could be.
Nearly an hour passed in which the bids increased very slowly it took an hour for the bid to rise from 241,000 to 243,000.
"They aren't giving up, huh?" Liang Shufen asked.
"No, but I do think one of them gave up. It's only one other person and they are trying to save as much money as possible," Alex said.
"Should we increase by a large chunk and see how they respond?" Yao Ning asked.
"That might work, but they might also think that we're bluffing and continue increasing in small increments again," Alex said with a thoughtful look. "Oh, what the heck! Let's just do it."
He increased the next bid to jump directly to 245,000 Saint spirit stones.
The people around the auction house were no longer participating in the bidding, but they couldn't help but be extremely excited about the current bid. They had never expected the prices of items they bought here to cross 100,000 Saint Spirit stones, and yet they were looking at a number that was getting close to 250,000.
One could only imagine how happy the Mountain Crushing Sect was right now. The spirit stones they would obtain from this auction would be a fortune for them, which would be enough to raise themselves from the ground once again.
The auctioneer on the stage was equally excited as well. Given how much commission she would get from the auction her incredibly happy about the current price of the artifact.
She could only hold her breath and hope that it increased even more.
And it did. It jumped up by another tiny amount, but increase it did.
Alex frowned and increased it slightly again, only for the other person to increase it slightly again.
"That was fast," Yao Ning commented at the speed of the last bid.
"They're speeding up," Alex said with a frown. 'Did the Silver Queen find some help?'
That would be a bad turn of events if that were true.
Alex increased it immediately again and the other person increased it as well. When Alex increased it again, the other person increased the bid directly to 247,000, which surprised everyone present.
"What's… going on?" Yao Ning couldn't help but ask.
"Hmm, I think it's a bluff," Alex said. "They're running out of money like us, so they're increasing it by random numbers to scare us. There is no need to be scared at all."
He called their bluff and increased the bid to 248,000.
He waited for the other person to give up, but instead, they increased it to 249,000. He couldn't help but frown at that increase.
Alex increased it a little, jumping to 249,500. There was a long pause where it looked like Alex had won. However, at the very end, the other person increased it directly to 250,000.
At this point, he couldn't help but frown. He felt like he had no choice at all.
"Well," he said. "Here goes nothing."
He increased the bid to 251,000.
