7 Snake and Rabbit 6

"This first item up for auction is..." The announcer said, his voice echoing through the auction hall.

Yin Mei had no interest in the items, only waiting in anticipation for the female lead to make her move. Yin Mei had already read all the information on the auction event in advance, and with her new and improved memory due to being a cultivator, she could recall every word. There weren't any notable appearances from any of the female lead's male suitors, but the crown prince and the female lead's half sister were here, which Yin Mei was sure would be an amusing sight. Actually, Yin Mei and the demon king had snatched this room from the crown prince and the half sister, but who had the room to care about those useless cannon fodder? She didn't even feel pity for them as a fellow cannon fodder, only feeling that if she had the time of day to pity them, it was better used to plan for her mission.

Yin Mei knew that the crown prince and the female lead's half sister were in the room between them and the female lead. The crown prince actually bringing the sister of his fiancee to the auction, it was really a slap in the face to the female lead.

She even decided to excitedly tell the demon king this, seemingly very excited to see what would happen next. The demon king, on the other hand, felt a bit confused. The rabbit should be a noble and high up cultivator, why is it that she liked to spend her time on such meaningless gossip? Was it that he was no longer in touch with the younger generation, and could not understand their interests? He felt that if the rabbit wanted to improve her cultivation later, she would need to abandon such habits...

Yin Mei didn't realize that by talking about this, she had inadvertently dug herself a hole. She was as ignorant as ever, still happily gossiping about the Li Kingdom's dirty secrets.

At this moment, Yin Mei stopped talking, hearing the voice of the crown prince as he bet on a pretty hairpin. This hairpin wasn't just nice in appearance, it was also had a defensive formation carved onto it. Yin Mei had something similar, though much better in quality. Immediately, she could also hear the voice of the female lead raising the price from 10,000 gold to 15,000 gold. The voice of the female lead was mysteriously very beautiful, giving off the image of an aloof white lotus on a snowy mountain top... Yin Mei even felt that she had gone crazy as she recalled all sorts of imagery used by novelists. If it was on voice alone, the female lead may even be compared to the heavenly voices possessed by the siren clan.

The crown prince's voice, which possessed a certain amount of arrogance and dignity, had a hint of annoyance in it as he raised the price by another 5,000 gold. In the Li Kingdom, there weren't that many people who would dare go against him. Even those who had the power would still at least put on the appearance of being respectful - after all, he was still a member of the royal family, and the crown prince at that.

But, of course, who was the female lead to care about the face of the royal family? She directly doubled the price. Her illegitimate half sister wanted that hairpin? If she was going to get it, she would definitely make sure that disloyal fiancé of hers paid the price for it. She wanted him to feel like he was bleeding.

Of course, with just a hairpin, there was a limit to the amount the crown prince would be willing to spend, even if he felt his pride was wounded. After all, the crown prince still had to have the money left to buy a bottle of the rumored pills that would be on auction today.

After a back and forth between the two, the crown prince ended up on top, but he had to pay far more than the true worth of the hairpin. After all, the female lead wouldn't spend so much money on just a useless accessory when she had much better things.

"Isn't this just petty squabbling between humans?" The demon king couldn't help but think. But, because the mysterious rock had satisfied him so much, he continued to sit there. Whatever, he could still at least cultivate. As for that furnace, well, he could wait for now and see what the rabbit wanted to do with her. He didn't mind letting her play around a bit, as long as he got what he wanted in the end.

On the other hand, Yin Mei was still watching the auction with faint interest. The auction event was a classic among xianxia novels, and she enjoyed reading about it. Now watching it, it had a different feel, with the sound of voices calling out numbers echoing through the ancient building. Yin Mei took out a plate of peaches, calmly skinning and cutting one into slices. She rudely ate one before skewering another piece with a silver toothpick and pushing the plate in front of the demon king. If she hadn't been so distracted, she wouldn't have done such a thing, but blame her wandering attention as she continued watching the show.

"Oh? Oh, oh, it's the bottle of pills." Yin Mei suddenly said, perking up to look down on the row of bottles that the announcer's assistant was holding on a tray. "Look," she said, pointing at them.

"?" The demon king did take a look, not quite sure why it was so interesting.

When the assistant opened one of the bottles, a strong and refreshing medicinal fragrance wafted out that refreshed the body and mind. "Oh? It's just a normal Body Cleansing Pill, but it's actually been refined to this level... not bad." The demon king's not bad could be considered very good praise. Actually, the acclaimed geniuses of the demon world would all be extremely happy if they only got these two words of praise "not bad".

That being said, for the demon king, in his eyes, not bad was precisely not bad. If he got it, it was fine, but if he didn't, it didn't matter that much either. The level of talent was only just so.

"The furnace refined them," Yin Mei said as the betting began for the first bottle of pills.

The demon king raised an eyebrow. Yin Mei then added on, "She also possesses the Nine Dragons Stove."

She actually wasn't sure what the status of the Nine Dragons Stove was here in this world, as this was a treasure the female lead had brought over from the modern world. The information didn't really mention anything either. The female lead never revealed its existence, and she never fully explored all the mysteries of it either. Yin Mei could only guess that she had only done so after she entered the upper realm, but too bad the story cut off at that point.

"Nine Dragons Stove?" The demon king seemed to grow thoughtful.

Yin Mei thought that maybe he might be able to recall something, so she supplied some more useful information. "It's a stove with nine revolving dragons, bound by blood to the girl. The material is unknown, but black in color and very strong... it has the dragon gate engraved on it."

"Nine revolving dragons and the dragon gate?" A possibility emerged in the head of the demon king, but he didn't speak aloud. Not caring how Yin Mei was able to obtain this information, if what she said was true, then this refining stove was much more precious than anything else. There wasn't any need for the furnace anymore, as long as he could get his hands on that stove...

Yin Mei didn't know that the demon king had already changed his decision and decided to kill the female lead, and also was too dense to feel the dark aura that was gradually gathering around him. She only felt that he was deep in thought and shouldn't disturb him, instead calling out a price for one of the pill bottles. They were already on the seventh pill bottle, betting at about 100,000 gold coins, or 100 gold ingots, so she directly raised the price to a thousand gold ingots.

There was silence, and the pill bottle naturally went to her. She would have used a purple gold, but she actually really didn't have a lot of purple gold left... She resolved that she would go ask for (extort) some from some unimportant rich cannon fodder later.

"Right, I should give a gift to the female lead while I'm at it!" Yin Mei said, thinking that her idea was great. She thought, and thought, wondering what would be good to give to the female lead. It needed to be beneficial enough that the female lead would appreciate it, but also not so beneficial that she would have a hard time later.

"For now, how about this?" Yin Mei took out a pair of exquisite pearl earrings that shimmered with an iridescent light. These pearl earrings used pearls made by the sea king. They had the power to regenerate and heal wounds. Yin Mei called for the attendant, telling her to give these to the female lead.

But, before she could hand them over, the demon king stopped her. With question marks written all over her face, she handed them over to him. He seemed to observe them for a moment, and she wasn't sure what he was thinking. Maybe the gift wasn't good enough?

After a few short moments, the demon king handed them back without saying anything. Although Yin Mei wasn't sure what that was about, she still had the attendant gift them to the female lead. Whatever! Since the demon king didn't say anything in the end, that meant there were no issues right?

The demon king hadn't had any issues, partly because it didn't make a difference to him if she possessed those earrings, and partly because he had used a few techniques to add some special add ons... Such as GPS tracking, hidden camera surveillance, and a special curse. If Yin Mei knew this, her image of the demon king would be totally destroyed.

When the female lead received the present, she was surprised as she heard the attendant describe the use of the pearl earrings. Looking at the pearls in her hand, she was immediately suspicious. Such was her personality. She could tell they were out of the ordinary with one glance, she just didn't know if there were some tricks involved... For now, she decided to keep them in her storage space until she could find a way to appraise them.

Yin Mei had actually expected this, but the demon king was a little upset. This girl had actually not worn the gift and instead put it straight into her storage ring? Then wouldn't the techniques he had gone out of the way to cast on them be pretty much useless? If it was the little rabbit, she'd be overjoyed and immediately start using them. His impression of the female lead immediately went down by ten points.

Going back home, Yin Mei decided to start planning the next move, while the demon king was using his subordinates to check if the stove the female lead had really was the one he was thinking about. As for the matter of Yin Mei knowing about the stove, the demon king just pinned it on the special ability of the Jade Rabbit bloodline (how convenient).

Checking the plot information again, Yin Mei decided that they should make the next move during the assassination event. The one being assassinated would be the ninth prince. He would almost die before being rescued by the female lead. Yin Mei decided to steal this event from the female lead and save him herself. The male lead would be in a perilous situation, just perfect for stealing the ring and killing him off all at once. Yin Mei had more confidence then before because they had just obtained the mysterious rock. The demon king had already made use of it, currently in the midst of refining the ice energy stone.

She felt that this was the perfect plan, just hoping that the demon king would finish his closed cultivation before then.

For now, she decided to go visit the academy.

That's right, it wouldn't be a proper story if there wasn't an academy arc!