Queen of Wild Cards novel Chapter 609

[They have the Ametrine Herb you've been looking for. And not just dried—a living specimen. Still not interested?]

Stella had asked Norma to keep an ear to the ground for any news regarding the Ametrine Herb, and Norma made sure to notify her the second she got a lead.

[Is the intel solid?]

[One hundred percent. The catch is that this incredibly rare herb is being offered by those Rubinia Country people you despise so much. Are you still going?]

[Yes, absolutely!]

The more it belonged to Rubinia Country, the more she wanted to take it from them!

A long time ago, when Veridia Country was invaded by them, their usual tactics had been to burn, kill, and pillage.

They had stolen countless treasures from Veridia Country.

That was exactly why she loathed Rubinia Country so much.

She didn't care who they were or what they were planning; she would use whatever means necessary to get her hands on that Ametrine Herb.

The Ametrine Herb was the treasure she had been obsessing over for years. Not only did it possess powerful sedative and pain-relieving properties, but it also promoted cellular regeneration. It was the crucial missing ingredient for her anti-cancer serum.

The only reason her cancer research had hit a wall was due to the absence of this very herb.

She had first read about it in an ancient manuscript given to her by her first master, Alistair. It wasn't something you could just buy at a pharmacy, and probably only a handful of people in the world even knew of its true properties.

She had been hunting for it relentlessly, and Alistair had been helping her search as well, but for years, they had come up empty-handed.

Who would have thought that someone from Rubinia Country would be in possession of such a mythical plant?

Did they even realize the true medical value of what they held?

Perhaps the herb thrived in an island climate rather than high altitudes?

No wonder she had scoured countless mountains without finding a single trace of it.

Now that the Ametrine Herb had finally surfaced, she was going to get it even if it rained knives.

[Alright, send it over.]

When Stella opened the document Norma sent, she immediately realized this year's event was drastically different from previous years.

Normally, it was a straightforward auction for medicines and raw materials—you see what you like, you bid, and the highest bidder wins.

This year, however, a holistic and modern medical challenge had been added on top of the auction, judged directly by officials from the International Pharmaceutical Association.

Anyone could enter, but there was a catch: participants had to present a highly valuable drug or rare ingredient just to qualify. This meant that no matter how brilliant your medical skills were, if you didn't have a top-tier asset to leverage, you couldn't even enter. That rule alone would eliminate the vast majority of hopefuls.

The items offered by the competitors would then be put up for a secondary auction after the competition, again going to the highest bidder.

Essentially, the first auction was just the opening act; the truly spectacular items would only appear in the secondary auction following the challenge.

And Rubinia Country's entry for the competition was the Ametrine Herb.

The real question was: did Rubinia Country truly understand the medicinal value of the herb they were offering?