Chapter 638: Collateral

With the premise of an extended future in mind, everyone’s heart ached for the chance. Western politicians resisted the calls from their own people, but only briefly. Before long the Western Alliance had released a number of official protests. In flowery and diplomatic language, the West decried Eastern attempts to keep them from the auction. They made the case that although it was the East who recovered the crystals, they were a precious resource for all of humanity. The West had as much of a right to buy them as anyone else.

Zhou Xueguan’s administration gave an even more clever response. Because the West had refused to accept these crystals as real, their invitation was rescinded to avoid conflict.  Harsh words were flung back and forth, but as the time for the auction neared Western politicians had begun to walk back on some...