“The Great Treasure?”

Hearing this, Zhou Ning couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. This was definitely Pirate King Zhou Ning's mischievous prank, absolutely!

The Lucky Clover and the treasure map were clearly mentioned in the simulation process. It seemed this person had found some items left by Pirate King Zhou Ning on an island in the Sea of Mist.

Although not explicitly stated, the process must have been extremely arduous.

Zhou Ning couldn't help but feel curious about the things left behind by his other self, but he decided to check the price first.

This Lucky Clover was undoubtedly very useful to him. For the past half-month, his luck had been terrible. He had been continuously drawing prizes every day, but it was like poking a gun nest; all he got were firearms, not a single useful item.

Perhaps this item was the key to turning his luck around. Whether he could draw other epic items depended on it.

As for the side effects... if he timed it right and stayed at home, he probably wouldn't die.

Strictly speaking, for a supernatural item of the Lucky Clover's caliber, 1600 Victa was reasonable, especially with the bonus treasure map. It was very appealing to most supernatural beings.

As for the negative effects of the Lucky Clover and the potential dangers of the treasure map, they were completely ignored by choice.

“1600 Victa!”

“1700 Victa!”

“1900!”

The people sitting around all quoted prices, and the price rapidly climbed. Before long, it reached 3200 Victa, then stagnated.

“Does anyone want to continue bidding?” the seller asked again, and the hall fell silent.

“3250 Victa.”

Zhou Ning didn't hesitate, offering a new bid decisively.

Hearing the latest bid, the seller waited a few seconds. Seeing that no one else was bidding, he nodded and said, “Deal!”

He walked with Zhou Ning to the center of the venue, placing the box in his hand and the stack of banknotes Zhou Ning produced on opposite ends of the scale.

The box side clearly outweighed the other, indicating that these items were worth far more than the price paid.

In a sense, Zhou Ning had snagged a bargain.

“No worries, Northerners have a saying: Honesty is a belief, just like sea breeze, fine wine, and gods,” the seller said with a smile.

He hadn't expected this person, who looked fierce, to be quite decent.

However, despite that, spending over 3000 Victa all at once felt like a huge chunk of flesh had been cut out of him... He let out a sigh, put away the 50-denomination banknote he received as change, and opened the box, revealing a green shamrock. Beneath it was a square-folded, yellowed piece of paper.

“Do not touch this treasure map for now. It carries an ominous curse and needs to be purified,” Jasmine's voice echoed in his mind.

Zhou Ning nodded almost imperceptibly, closed the box, and held it in his hands.

After completing his largest expenditure to date, the next few transactions were all magic-related.

Among them, the third transaction shattered Zhou Ning's perception of value.

The Fire Dragon Spell, which he had learned from Court Archmage Elan after dozens of quests, was sold for 4000 Victa to a fat man.

The seller of this spell was an elderly man wearing a mask and speaking with a weathered voice. Zhou Ning guessed he was a high-level archmage.

About ten minutes later, the transaction process finally came to Zhou Ning. He stood up and said in a deep voice, “I need to acquire expert-level Alchemy blueprints, as well as some antique weapons or supernatural items.”

After that, no one spoke. Zhou Ning's request was also ignored, because almost all expert-level Alchemy formulas were held by major powers, and very few circulated outside.

Getting the Volcano Potion just now was already an unexpected pleasant surprise.

After a long silence with no one responding, the Northerner finally spoke: “Perhaps I have something that meets your requirements. It's an ordinary-looking blade, another trophy I brought back from that small island. Its only special feature is that it's relatively easy to conduct battle qi.”

“I should still be at the next gathering. If you're interested, I'll bring that blade.”

“A blade? Since frostmourne couldn't be used, he just happened to be missing a handy melee weapon.” Thinking this, Zhou Ning nodded and said, “Alright.”

Seeing no further responses, Zhou Ning sat back down and listened to the subsequent transactions.

There was another big transaction later. The unlucky noble next to him spent 8700 Victa to buy an unknown Strange object called the Golden Pouch. Its function was to conjure three gold coins from the Old Faric era inside the pouch every day.

The only use for such coins now was to melt them down into gold bars. Zhou Ning calculated that even if he survived, it would take him over 230 years to break even.

What a genius!

Such a large sum naturally aroused the greed and covetousness of those around him, and many people frequently cast their gaze towards this noble.

To be honest, even Zhou Ning felt a strong urge to rob the other party.

After this large expenditure, the subsequent transactions were quite uneventful. Towards the end, Zhou Ning discovered another rather good item — a classic text introducing ancient languages and cultures.

Adhering to the Clan Precept of “Knowledge is Power,” Zhou Ning had no resistance to such knowledge-based books.

After he acquired this book for 50 Victa, all transactions were declared complete, and with the announcement from the owner of the Scale of Misfortune, the gathering concluded.

Following the same method as their entry, the people here would leave one by one, separately, through another secret passage.

Out of protection for the young noble, the owner of the Scale of Misfortune arranged for him to leave first. Zhou Ning was in the middle. After emerging from the secret passage's door, he immediately noticed the young noble's whereabouts. He had already taken off his hood, looking left and right while walking in the opposite direction.

Very cautious, but probably useless.

Zhou Ning shook his head, but then, his gaze slightly sharpened. He saw a familiar yet unfamiliar old man emerge from an entrance not far away.

It was the elderly man who had been not far from him earlier, selling the Fire Dragon Spell.

After removing his mask, he was a distinguished old man with graying temples, a very elegant appearance, and extremely deep green eyes.

Zhou Ning couldn't help but be stunned. He hadn't expected to encounter him here — Earl Robbins, “the Wise.” Zhou Ning felt a trembling power emanating from him; though concealed, it was definitely there.

Although he had made some disguise, Zhou Ning still detected a strange sense of familiarity about him using Observation Haki.

At the same time, with the power of Qi Observation Technique, Zhou Ning could clearly see the Qi within Robbins's body — dark and heavy, without a trace of life's light.

It was confirmed, Earl Robbins indeed had a problem!