[Platinum-tier Peak Special Item: The Goddess of Misfortune Statue.]
[Effect: the Favor of the Goddess (consumes one’s luck in exchange for wealth; the amount of luck consumed is proportional to the amount of wealth exchanged, according to the ratio of one day’s luck to one million gold coins).]
[Additional effect: the Tease of Fate (after luck is consumed, the host will be possessed by bad luck until their death, after which the amount of wealth exchanged will be invalid).]
As the fusion activated, a pitch-black sculpture that was several meters tall immediately appeared in front of Watson. The statue was a half-naked woman. The woman had two heads—one was upside down. The front head had a gentle smile that made people love her, while the other one had fangs; it was abominable. There were twelve pitch-black wings on her back, and they were spread out at an angle that surrounded her entire body. Every feather was lifelike, making people wonder if the wings would flap in the next moment.
The moment he saw that sculpture, Watson understood its specific function. By using his own luck to bless the Goddess of Misfortune Statue, he would be able to exchange it for a million gold coins. If his luck was used up and he died on the first day, he would only receive a million gold coins. If he could live until the second day and still wanted to exchange his luck for wealth, he would receive two million gold coins.
That was a method of risking one’s life to exchange for money. Even though it was a peak platinum-tier item, its two abilities were a little weak. However, Watson could still understand its power. There was no limit to the number of people that could use that method. As long as he could find random homeless people who did not care about their lives, it would be easy to obtain hundreds of millions of gold coins a day if the population was large enough.
“After all, the items bought at that auction are the Undead Calamity and the cursed painting. It’s not strange if I were to fuse them.”
Watson sighed in his heart. If he did not have to save Alice, he would have wanted to leave the statue on Mount Creation. The statue had almost no side effects for him. After all, the angels on the Mount of Creation would not die. At most, they would be a little unlucky. For example, he would choke to death while drinking water or slip and hit his head on a sharp object while walking. Using his luck to exchange for immeasurable wealth was a good deal, no matter how one thought about it.
“Young Master Casey?”
The auctioneer on stage was not the only one at a loss as to the statue Watson had created.
It looked like a statue. According to Watson, that statue was worth more than 100 million gold coins. However, they could not tell what was special about that statue other than the ominous and mysterious aura it exuded.
“That statue is called the Goddess of Misfortune Statue. It is a platinum-tier item. Its function is to exchange one’s luck for wealth. One’s luck can be exchanged for one million gold coins a day! Of course, if the person is not strong enough, they are very likely to die during the period of bad luck.”
Watson’s words caused a massive uproar in the auction hall.
“Using luck to exchange for money, is that true?”
“Let’s not talk about whether it is true or not. Casey said that the sculpture is a platinum-tier item. Is he lying? If he isn’t lying, how did he do it? Using the 20 items he bought to turn into that sculpture? Did he already know that those 20 items are connected to each other and will turn into stronger items when fused?”
They had seen it just now. Watson had said a few words at the 20 auction items he had bought, and those items had fused and turned into that sculpture. They did not doubt that Watson had cast a spell because it was rumored that Casey was a good-for-nothing young master, so it was impossible for him to master such a magical spell.
Even the greatest mage in the kingdom, Antonio, would not be able to cast such a spell, let alone Casey. They had never even heard of a spell that could fuse items and improve their quality.
They could only speculate that those items were correlated, and Watson happened to have mastered the way to link them, causing them to turn back into their original forms.
The auctioneer on the stage thought the same too. At that moment, his eyes reddened as he looked at Watson; he was regretful.
That auction house was the property of the Severed Fingers Gang, and he was one of the higher-ups. Most of those items were obtained by gang members while excavating ruins around the world, and some were purchased from others. Most of those items had an ominous aura and a dark legend, so the prices they paid were meager. Therefore, it was not impossible that those items were fragments of a platinum-tier item.
‘If the higher-ups knew that those items could be pieced together to become a platinum-tier item, and I had sold it, they would punish me, right?’
The auctioneer stared at the sculpture; his eyes flickered. He could put the statue back into his bag, but before that, he had to test whether Watson had been truthful.
“The auction house does trust Young Master Casey’s reputation, but just to be on the safe side, let me send someone to test it out.”
The auctioneer was polite as he looked at the maids. One of the two maids, who had been in charge of carrying the auction items, immediately walked toward Watson and asked hesitantly, “Young Master Casey, how do I use that sculpture?”
“Just make a wish on the sculpture and say that you want to exchange it for a few days of luck! But are you sure? If you lose your luck, you might die.”
The maid looked back at the auctioneer and nodded firmly. “Yes, I’m willing. I want to use a day of luck to exchange for wealth.”
Swish!
The wings on the statue suddenly flapped. The two arms of the goddess rose and grabbed the maid. As the maid screamed in fear, the beautiful statue, which had looked pleasant, suddenly turned into a sinister face. Then, its mouth opened and spat a cloud of black fog, which went through the maid’s mouth and nose and into her body.
The maid’s skin turned black. She trembled and took two steps backward. She coughed violently. One gold coin after another exploded out of her mouth. It was stained with blood as if her body had become an enormous money jar.
After a few minutes, the maid stopped coughing, and there was a mountain of coins in front of her.
“It does work!” someone whispered from the audience floor.
Everyone’s eyes became fervent, including the auctioneer on the stage. Although it was dangerous to use luck to exchange for gold coins, it was also terrifying to cough out gold coins from one’s body. They could let their subordinates do that for them.
It was a total of one million gold coins. Many noblemen could only accumulate so much wealth in their lifetime, but with the Goddess of Misfortune Statue, they only needed one day to get that much or even more wealth.
While everyone was breathing heavily and staring at the gold coins on the ground, the maid, who had just exchanged her luck for wealth, suddenly screamed. She took two steps backward and was about to return to the stage. However, when she walked up the stairs, she slipped and fell onto the ground. Her right ankle was broken, and the sole of her high-heeled shoe was also damaged. Half of the broken sole had pierced into her calf.
However, that was not the end. When the maid hugged her calf and cried out in pain, the ceiling above her head cracked. A huge stone slab had shattered due to years of neglect, and it smashed down onto her head.
That was the consequence of trading with the statue. They had just exchanged for wealth, and then bad luck had arrived.
The maid’s face contorted with horror as she watched the stone slab fall on top of her head. Watson jumped to his feet at that exact instant. The bandage covering his chest came undone, showing scabby arms that needed more time to heal.
He grabbed the falling stone slab with his right hand, and it shattered under a powerful force. Watson used his other hand to pick up the maid who had fallen onto the ground.
“Are you okay?”
“Young Master Casey, I’m… I’m fine.”
The maid’s eyes darted around as she stared at the man in front of her in surprise. She did not expect Casey, who was rumored to love torturing women, to save her. Casey had protected her. The maid’s pulse raced as she noticed the concern in his eyes.
Perhaps the rumors were wrong. Maybe Young Master Cassie was not a useless person. He might be powerful, wealthy, mysterious, and considerate as he was that day. Perhaps someone was jealous enough to slander him.
“The price of exchanging bad luck is not something that an ordinary person can bear. You should find a place with many people to rest and avoid getting injured.”
Watson’s right hand caressed the maid’s calf and pulled the sole from the high-heeled shoes. He cast two types of God’s Blessings—one from the God of Healing, and the other, the God of Luck.
The former would help the maid recover quickly, while the latter could resist the back luck effect to a certain extent. Although the maid would still be unlucky, she would not die.
Then, Watson used his teeth to wrap the torn bandage around his arm again and sat back down. The maid looked at her clean calves and thought of the way Watson had touched her just now. She lowered her head and bowed to him with a blush. She walked back quietly.
“The value of the sculpture has been proven. I wonder if this item can be exchanged for the mermaid princess?”
Watson stared at the auctioneer on the stage.
“There is no doubt that that sculpture can be exchanged for the mermaid princess, but don’t worry, Young Master Casey. I want to ask the young lady who offered 100 million gold coins—are you willing to offer a higher price?”
The auctioneer smiled and looked into the distance. He was sure that sculpture would fetch the highest price; one could get gold from the statue indefinitely. It was a priceless treasure, so nothing could surpass it. However, he still looked forward to the two mysteriously cloaked persons to give him a surprise.
“It’s true that that statue can exchange luck for wealth, but it will bring bad luck. Who knows what other side effects it will have? What makes that statue more valuable than our pearls? Think about it carefully. Furthermore, that statue might have a time limit. Perhaps, after using it for a few times, we won’t be able to be used—”
The cloaked man’s voice became anxious as he tried his best to explain.
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the auctioneer. “None of that is important. Can you offer a higher price?”
First of all, Casey was the Ptolemyfamily’s second young master, so the probability of him lying was pretty low.
Secondly, the Casey family was in a floating city. If anything happened to the statue, they could just go and question them. They would not need to panic at all. On the contrary, those two mysterious people were hiding their faces for some unknown reason.
“We’ve lost the auction. Let’s go.”
The woman hiding under the cloak looked at Watson and sighed. She waved her hand and put pearls back into her bag. Then, she turned around and walked out of the hall. Her male companion was reluctant to leave. He stared at Watson for a long time before he snorted coldly, then he left.
The auctioneer opened the water curtain behind him without even looking at the two of them and let the little mermaid out. He took her to Watson and bowed to the young man.
“Congratulations, Young Master Casey. You’ve made a name for yourself today. You have bought all the items here today, even the hidden ones. I think your status in the Ptolemy family will be greatly improved after this! From now on, this mermaid princess will belong to you. I will take that Goddess of Misfortune Statue with me. There will be another auction here three days in three days. I hope that you will be able to join us then.”
