You're Quite Honest, Aren't You?

High Priestess: "@Tower, Your Majesty the Witch Queen, what are you up to this time?"

The Emperor: "@Tower, exactly! Your Majesty the Witch Queen, I didn't get even a whisper of news about this auction."

The Star: "Typhon City only officially gained recognition a little over a month ago, and the Witch Queen is already making such a big move. There must be some massive benefit involved."

The Sun: "It would be stranger if there weren't. The Witch Queen never does anything that doesn't benefit her."

Magician: "I didn't expect someone in our Villa to finally claim a crown one day."

Empress: "Heh, I actually think it's quite nice. Having a title makes it easier to get things done."

Without even looking, Lan Qingyou knew that Vivian, with her inherent love for chaos, would be the one leading the charge, followed closely by her group of plastic friends.

Lan Qingyou sighed and then typed out a string of text.

Tower: "You guys are really annoying. Call me that once for fun and let it be. Also, Your Eminence Vivian, a very good evening to you."

High Priestess: "..."

When it came to whose title in this group was the most exaggerated, the 'Witch Queen' certainly lacked the sheer prestige of 'Your Eminence.'

And so it was.

With just a slight counterattack from Lan Qingyou, the one looking for a laugh instantly became the laughingstock.

The others immediately turned their focus, launching a verbal siege on Vivian.

Leading the fray was, of course, Gu Xiaobei, the most plastic of 'sisters.'

In an instant, the embarrassment shifted from Lan Qingyou to Vivian.

Vivian, who hadn't been particularly fond of that address to begin with, saw herself being ganged up on and immediately steered the conversation elsewhere.

High Priestess: "Hmph, @Tower, you'd better honestly explain what's going on with that auction of yours."

That was right!

The crowd, who had just been dogpiling the High Priestess, suddenly remembered the very important question at hand.

What exactly was Tower trying to do?

An auction with over ten thousand magic items was a massive undertaking by any standard.

But no matter how they looked at it, something felt off, didn't it?

No one in this group was a fool. A little bit of thought made it clear that with the main cities of various races gaining recognition from the world consciousness one after another, Lan Qingyou stirring up such a commotion in the witches' main city, Typhon City, meant she was definitely hiding something from everyone.

Thus, the members of the Villa, hoping to use their proximity to get the inside scoop, all wanted to coax the truth out of her.

Even if they couldn't beat Lan Qingyou to the punch for first place, they at least wanted to secure second or third.

Though they were planning ahead, and Lan Qingyou didn't actually intend to keep it a secret forever, she couldn't just blurt it out honestly at this stage.

At the very least, she had to wait until the auction was over.

By then, the situation would be settled, and the prestige would have already been established.

In truth, a little over a month ago, when she heard Diana and the others wanted to use an auction to make Typhon City famous and dispel the old stereotypes about the Witch race, Lan Qingyou knew this couldn't be hidden for long.

So...

Tower: "Regarding that, let me keep you in suspense. Everyone will know once the auction is over."

Justice: "See? I told you Tower wouldn't say anything."

The Moon: "Useless talk. A bet's a bet; pay up, pay up."

Chariot: "Sigh... I actually wanted to bet on a witch's conscience. It seems I've lost completely."

Righteousness: "To think someone would actually believe in something like a conscience. Maybe it existed three or four hundred years ago, but now... everything is about the money, brother."

Hierophant: "..."

Tower: "Wait, you guys are actually using this nonsense as a betting pool?"

The Fool: "..."

Tower: "No way, even you, The Fool? A man of your standing joined in?"

Lovers: "Then just tell us. We'll give you a cut of the pot later."

Tower: "You lot are beyond saving. Wild horses couldn't drag it out of me. However, if you're willing to lead your respective tribes to join our Witch race, I might consider telling you."

Knowing exactly what she wanted, Lan Qingyou wasn't entirely tight-lipped.

However, to avoid revealing her hand, she didn't use an obviously intentional phrase like 'moving into Typhon City,' but instead phrased it slightly more vaguely as 'joining the Witch race.'

And yet...

Chariot: "I never thought the day would come when Tower would start telling jokes."

High Priestess: "It's quite good, actually. At least it breaks the stereotype that witches are all stiff-faced and humorless."

The Star: "@Tower, may I ask what kind of mindset led you to say such a thing?"

The Emperor: "What does Boss Lan mean by this?"

Lovers: "I think Tower has a reason, but she probably won't say it now."

Tower: "Correct. I won't explain the reason until after the auction."

Empress: "You're quite honest, aren't you..."

...

Lan Qingyou's firm refusal to reveal anything and the deadline she set only made the sense of unease in everyone's hearts grow stronger.

Because aside from Lan Qingyou's resolute attitude, they had each gathered quite a bit of intelligence in the short time they had been bickering.

According to the reports, witches had been seen everywhere across the Abandoned Land over the past month.

Most of these witches were moving in squads to run dungeons.

This seemed normal enough on the surface; after all, besides eating, drinking, and sleeping, everyone was basically taking missions and running dungeons to generate value.

But the way the witches were clearing dungeons was somewhat unusual.

The biggest difference was the intensity. A squad would emerge from one dungeon and immediately head into the next.

Intelligence from spies mentioned seeing one squad running dungeons outside the city for an entire week, one after another without pause.

They only finally returned to the nearly completed Abandoned City because they wanted to take a bath and rest.

And as far as they knew, there were at least a hundred such squads.

From this, it was clear that those magic items were definitely obtained through this tribe-wide, high-intensity grinding.

The question then was:

Doing this at the cost of such a sacrifice of freedom and time meant it definitely wasn't as simple as just promoting tourism.

After all, everyone knew.

For witches, forcing them to give up their personal freedom and research time to grind dungeons was essentially equivalent to suicide.

Either you did it yourself, or the witches would help you do it—that kind of suicide.

Chariot: "Fine, we'll talk about that later. But when will the golems I ordered be delivered?"

Since the Northern Industrial Zone had been completed, the Witch race's golem project had officially launched.

The first wave of major orders came from these bosses at the Tarot Villa.

After all, these fully automatic machines that could work twenty-four hours a day without interruption were popular everywhere.

It was precisely by relying on these massive orders from the group members that Lan Qingyou had enough money to import so many materials from Shang Chuan and Chu Yuan to complete the large magic shield and the giant magic circle.

Of course, this money was all advance payment.

The final balance would only be paid upon delivery.