As the host's words fell, a rare and prolonged silence settled over the entire Cloud Sea Auction House.
Every gaze in every box—whether or not its owner had any interest in this lot—turned as one toward the central white jade platform.
Those four words, "visitor from another world," carried an inherent air of mystery in the Mystic Realm.
After all, people were always curious about the unknown. And these beings from other worlds often represented some civilization, some body of knowledge, or even some set of heaven-and-earth laws that the Mystic Realm had never encountered.
Legend held that many years ago, an otherworldly visitor had once appeared in the Mystic Realm.
When he first arrived, his cultivation was mediocre...
Yet he'd made quite a name for himself among the common folk on the strength of a single strange little plaything.
The thing was called the Four Directions Exquisite Table.
Four people sat around it, playing with jade tiles carved with different patterns...
Matching, melding, assembling combinations until a winner emerged.
The rules weren't complicated, but the variations were endless.
From nobles and royalty down to street commoners, and even certain immortal cultivators, all found it endlessly entertaining.
The cultivator who invented it became enormously famous as a result, and was later invited to serve as a guest retainer of the Great Xia Dynasty's Heavenly Works Workshop.
It wasn't until years later, after the man had died, that later generations learned from the notes he'd left behind that this remarkably imaginative cultivator had in fact been a visitor from another world.
And the so-called Four Directions Exquisite Table had another name in his homeland.
Mahjong.
From then on, objects left behind by otherworldly visitors became treasures of considerable value in the eyes of certain collectors and cultivators who studied otherworldly civilizations.
And today's lot wasn't some ordinary plaything—it was a genuine treasure!
Its owner, moreover, had cultivated all the way to the *Golden Core* realm in his lifetime!
That made it all the more worth anticipating.
Still, everyone had assumed the relic left by this otherworldly *Golden Core* cultivator would be some earth-shattering, throat-sealing weapon of slaughter...
Or an ancient inheritance recording some utterly different cultivation system.
However, as the formation slowly lit up and the lot's true form gradually surfaced within the light screen—
What appeared on the central display platform.
Was an exceedingly bizarre-looking...
Die.
The thing was roughly the size of an adult's fist, forged entirely from some unknown dark gold metal, its surface engraved with exceedingly fine, intricate formation patterns.
What astonished the cultivators present most was this—
This die had a full twenty faces!
Each facet bore a number, neatly engraved.
In a certain guest room on the second floor.
Mo Fan, who had been sitting bolt upright, who had even begun to feel a flicker of crisis...
The moment he got a clear look at the lot, his expression slowly, bit by bit... cracked.
"...A die?"
The corner of Mo Fan's mouth twitched violently twice, his eyes turning exceedingly strange.
On the white jade platform, the host had clearly anticipated this reaction.
Rather than being embarrassed by the dead air, he smiled slightly and explained with composure:
"There's no need for surprise, Fellow Daoists."
"Dice have existed in our Mystic Realm since ancient times. Whether in mortal gambling dens or in the occasional diversions between cultivators, they're hardly a rarity."
"But today's specimen is vastly different."
The host pointed at the dark gold die within the light screen, his voice steady.
"As you can all see, it has a full twenty faces."
"The arrangement of the spirit patterns inside it is likewise utterly unlike our Mystic Realm's conventional forging techniques—an entirely separate path, unbound and unrestrained."
"According to the powerhouse who consigned it, this otherworldly treasure is named—"
"The Dice of Fate!"
The host then slowly laid out the treasure's origins.
As it turned out, that otherworldly visitor had scraped and clawed his way through the Mystic Realm, surviving countless brushes with death...
And had in the end genuinely stepped into the *Golden Core* realm.
This Dice of Fate was a special treasure he'd forged with his own hands, pouring in untold effort...
Combining some "special concept" from his homeland with the Mystic Realm's forging materials and formation-pattern techniques.
"Moreover, according to the jade slip records he left behind, whenever this man faced a powerful enemy, on the eve of any life-or-death battle..."
The host's expression turned somewhat subtle.
"...he would almost always use this item first."
Hearing that, the hand holding Mo Fan's teacup gave a slight tremor, as though he'd thought of something rather unpleasant.
A cultivator who'd already reached the Golden Core realm.
Before a fight, he didn't form hand seals. Didn't send out a flying sword.
He pulled out a die and rolled it first?!
What kind of build is that?!
Under the crowd's puzzled gazes, the host began formally introducing the Dice of Fate's effects.
"Our house must inform you honestly: though it bears the name 'Fate,' this item cannot truly manipulate the heavens' workings, nor does it possess the legendary power to reverse causality."
"Its remarkable quality lies in the fact that its interior exceedingly ingeniously seals away a full twenty different spirit pattern combinations. Each time spiritual power is injected to activate it, one of them will trigger at random!"
"Most of the time, it grants the user a temporary enhancement of varying degree."
"Sometimes it doubles the circulation speed of one's spiritual power."
"Sometimes it elevates the power of one's next technique out of thin air."
"Sometimes it forms an exceedingly formidable protective barrier across the body..."
Then his tone shifted.
The host's expression turned exceedingly grave as he pointed at the smallest number on the die.
"One."
"According to its owner's records, the state corresponding to this number is called—"
"Critical Failure!"
The hall erupted.
"Should this number be rolled..."
The host drew a deep breath, his tone severe.
"Not only will the user receive no enhancement whatsoever—they will suffer severe backlash from the treasure itself!"
"At minimum, spiritual power reversal. At worst, grievous injury on the spot!"
He then pointed at the largest number on the die.
"And twenty..."
The host's voice suddenly rose, laced with potent temptation.
"Its owner called this—"
"Critical Success!"
"Once this number appears, it triggers the single strongest composite enhancement within the artifact!"
"It's said that in his lifetime, that otherworldly *Golden Core* cultivator rolled this number several times in hopeless situations, and on the strength of that staggering amplification, forcibly reversed the battle and killed his stronger foes!"
Hearing this.
Mo Fan, inside his guest room, could no longer hold it in.
Twenty faces.
One, critical failure.
Twenty, critical success.
Roll for your status before combat.
"What the f—"
Mo Fan clapped a hand over his face, his shoulders heaving uncontrollably as an unsuppressible fit of wild laughter escaped him.
"That's—that's a goddamn D20! That's a tabletop RPG die!"
The expression on his face was a masterpiece.
He even started frantically imagining what exactly this otherworldly transmigrator had been in his past life.
In a cultivation world of flashing blades where people died and their Dao vanished at the drop of a hat...
This guy had actually taken the core prop of TRPGs—tabletop roleplaying games—and manifested it into a treasure?!
And he rolled for it before every fight?!
Still, funny as it was.
Mo Fan sobered quickly, a trace of genuine admiration entering his eyes.
Because in the Mystic Realm, this Dice of Fate wasn't some plastic toy.
It was a bona fide *Golden Core*-tier treasure, and it could genuinely swing the outcome of a battle.
The design concept carried an absurdity that felt incomparably familiar to Mo Fan—but that guy had absolutely been a rare forging prodigy.
To prove his claims weren't empty, the host—having obtained the consignor's consent—even decided to demonstrate on the spot.
Of course, for safety's sake, he wouldn't actually apply the enhancements or the backlash to any cultivator.
He'd only display the Dice of Fate's most basic spirit pattern shifts.
Hummm——
As the host injected a strand of spiritual power, the dark gold twenty-sided die instantly floated into midair.
It spun madly on the white jade platform, giving off waves of faint spiritual light.
Throughout the auction hall, every gaze was locked on that die.
A moment later.
Clack!
The die stopped spinning and settled firmly onto the white jade platform.
The formation's light screen immediately magnified it, projecting it clearly in midair.
The number facing up—
One.
The host: "..."
Every cultivator in the hall: "..."
Inside his box, Mo Fan sprayed out a mouthful of spirit tea and nearly laughed himself into a cramp.
"Cough... cough cough!"
The purple-robed host was clearly a bit embarrassed. He cleared his throat twice and forcibly salvaged his dignity:
"Fellow Daoists, it seems that today... this one's luck is a touch poor."
"However, this precisely proves the item's randomness is genuinely beyond human manipulation."
"Let us... try once more."
He injected spiritual power again.
The die spun madly once more.
This time, when it came to rest.
Twenty!
BOOM——!
Almost the instant the number settled, an exceedingly condensed, dazzlingly brilliant golden light erupted from within the die!
That radiance even pierced through the formation's isolation, forcing several guards in the front rows to narrow their eyes.
The host immediately seized the opportunity, displaying the surging enhancement light to the entire hall.
"Behold, everyone!"
"The purity of this spiritual energy, the sheer strength of this amplification—it is enough to let a *Foundation Establishment cultivator briefly unleash power approaching early Golden Core*!"
At that, the atmosphere in the hall instantly turned fervent.
Mo Fan watched from his guest room, thoroughly delighted.
This thing wasn't just an outrageous design concept—it actually had real teeth.
With the demonstration finished, formal bidding began.
To be fair, as a combat treasure, the Dice of Fate was simply far too random.
For orthodox cultivators who valued steady, reliable footing, it was absolutely unsuited to being one's sole reliance at the moment of life and death.
But its value went far beyond practical combat!
Twenty utterly distinct spirit pattern combinations, fused with exceeding ingenuity into a single small die, with their spiritual energies kept from conflicting.
For the Mystic Realm's high-tier artifact forgers, this unheard-of forging approach was nothing less than an untapped treasure vault!
What they truly wanted to buy was the entirely different conception and craftsmanship behind that die!
The bidding heated up instantly.