Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Determined to Win

Translator: GravityTales  Editor: GravityTales

It was evening…

Tang Xiu, with a pale face, followed by Miao Wentang and three others came to the Violet Redbud Auction venue. The auction was held at Jiangmen Island’s International Business Conference Center.

On the 18th floor.

The venue for the auction was huge. Over a thousand tables and chairs, and one-third of them had been occupied, with more people rushing in from the outside.

Four people casually found a seat and sat down as the auction venue’s attendants presented them with the list of items that would be auctioned and had been prepared in advance.

Tang Xiu sat in his chair as he skimmed over the items list that was being auctioned. The detailed list was 3 pages long and presented each item with pictures and a text description. The first 2 pages made him quite disappointed. Although those items were good objects, but he simply had no uses for them.

But, when Tang Xiu opened the last page and skimmed over the list, his vision suddenly froze as disbelief filled his eyes.

Void Crack Stone? It turned out to be a Void Crack Stone?

If the taken photo was true, then this was definitely the main material to refining a Spatial Ring, the Void Crack Stone.

In that instant, Tang Xiu’s heart accelerated and beat faster as a determined expression could be seen on his face. At first, he had his worries since he would go to the Evil Dragon Sea Area. If they were to hunt a large number of fierce beasts with large fierce beasts bodies, how would they transport them? But if he could refine a Spatial Ring, shipping them back would not be a problem.

_“Such a low price of 5 million? With the increase being 500 thousand for each bid?”_

Tang Xiu thought for a moment. He thought that he had the funds right now, so it wouldn’t be a problem to compete and successfully bid for this fist-sized Void Crack Stone.

After the gamble with Ye Taifu at Paradise Club, the money he won after having subtracted 250 million for Jia Ruidao’s shares, he got 250 million. He used 20 million to buy the fierce beast body parts, so the remaining money he had now was 230 million.

“The Void Crack Stone’s floor price is 5 million. I have 230 million, so it wouldn’t be a problem to purchase this thing. If it’s not enough I can borrow money from Jia Ruidao! When I get more money, I can pay him back!” Tang Xiu secretly calculated in his mind.

“Huh?”

Tang Xiu’s heart was struck with surprise again as his eyes then fell on the list below as he found another useful thing, a 1000-year-old wild ginseng.

Had it been in the Immortal World, let alone a 1000-years-old wild ginseng, even 10-thousand years-old wild ginseng, he never lacked of these ginsengs. He used to feed 1000-year-old wild ginseng to spirit beasts. But for the present him, this thing was very precious. If he could buy this 1000-year-old wild ginseng, he would have the main ingredients to concoct the Golden Bell Liquid, and the efficacy would absolutely be excellent.

_“Buy! I must buy it!”_

Tang Xiu looked at the offered floor price as his eyes suddenly filled with disbelief.

_“50 million?”_

This 1000-years-old wild ginseng floor price turned out to be 50 million. Moreover, the amount of bid increase must not be under 2 million.

Tang Xiu’s lips wriggled, “If, if I moved all of the 1000-year-old ginseng in my herb field in the Immortal World, I should be able to buy more than 10 Planet Earths, right? This price… is really too appalling, a scam!”

His eyes looked downward and also found other few items that would be useful for cultivators, but he had no big uses for them.

He finally decided and locked his target. They were the Void Crack Stone and 1000-year-old wild ginseng. He silently calculated the final expense he must pay to obtain these two things.

“Mr. Tang, what objects have your eyes set onto?”

After Shao Mingzhen had read the auction’s list of items in his hand, he turned around and looked at Tang Xiu at his side as he whispered to ask.

Tang Xiu pointed at the Void Crack Stone and 1000-years-old wild ginseng as he said, “I need these two things. And I must get both at all costs!”

Shao Mingzhen looked at the Void Crack Stone with some astonishment. It was because he didn’t know what this stone was. The auctioneer only described that the ore was rare and extremely hard, and suspected that it was from a meteorite from space. However, for that 1000-years-old wild ginseng, he couldn’t help lament since he was also targeting it.

At the present time on Earth, a 1000-year-old wild ginseng is extremely rare, to the point that its price had no fixed market price. Even if some people wanted to spend a large amount of money, nobody heard of a 100-year-old wild ginseng being sold for so many years. Let alone a 1000-year-old wild ginseng. Even more, 500-years-old wild ginsengs were extremely rare and very few to be seen nowadays.

_“Ah, I should forget it and give it up then!”_

Shao Mingzhen secretly sighed inside as he turned and touched Miao Wentang, preparing to tell him about the 2 items Tang Xiu wanted to buy.

Miao Wentang was also targeting the 1000-year-old wild ginseng. But just like Shao Mingzhen, he finally intended to give it up after knowing that Tang Xiu wanted it.

As for Dao Master Ziyi, he just came to the venue, and was purely acting with ‘everything was none of my business’. Even if there was something he liked, he wouldn’t try to even bid. It was not because he had no desire to buy, but because he was poor to the point that he only had penny money and simply couldn’t afford anything.

8 PM sharp…

Along with the auction’s stage opening, a young beautiful woman at the prime of her life walked onto the stage. The originally noisy auction venue suddenly quieted down as everyone’s eyes were fixated on the young beautiful woman.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to the annual Violet Redbud Auction. This year’s auction is held on Jingmen Island, and all the items that will be auctioned have been listed on the auction’s detailed list. My name is Xiao Ai, and I’m also this year’s Violet Redbud Auction’s auctioneer.”

“The auction’s session will soon begin, and I believed that all the Ladies and Gentlemen have already seen the auction’s list of items. It is my sincere wish that everyone will be able to obtain the items you want and return back with a rewarding journey.” said Xiao Ai.

“I hereby announce that the 21st annual Violet Redbud Auction has officially begun. The following first auctioned item is a precious antique, a blue-white porcelain vase produced by the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty’s Royal Kiln. Everyone mustn’t look down on this blue white porcelain vase, the seal above it shows that it is the Imperial Household’s seal, and was used only for the Emperor. It’s highly likely that the vase was used in the Emperor Palace of the Great Qing Dynasty…”

Tang Xiu sat quietly under the stage as he listened to the grandiloquent introduction from the auctioneer. As the auction was announced to officially begin, he looked at the following hundreds of guests of the Violet Redbud Auction as they competed in bidding for the items, giving off a peculiar strange feeling to him.

It was as the saying goes that, when the world was in chaos, opportunity arises, but when the world was in a golden age, amassing wealth is flourishing.

And now, he was deeply appreciating the true meaning of this sentence. Each item was being auctioned at a high price and each item would be bought at sky high prices. He couldn’t help but sigh. At present, there were a lot of rich people, and they loved to amass wealth and become richer. Certainly, he also had another kind of thought, that rich people were foolish. Buying pieces of dead objects and bringing them home with such meaningless significance.

The auction had lasted for 2 hours and Tang Xiu had yet to bid even once. In contrast, Shao Mingzhen and Miao Wentang had bid once and bought the items they needed.

“For the next items we will auction, it is a rare ore. This rare ore is very hard and we suspect that the ore came from the space and crushed down to Earth as a meteorite. I believe that this will be a very precious collection of valuable minerals. Perhaps, this space item’s value will be more valuable in the future and would be very difficult to estimate. The floor price is 5 million, and every bid increase must not be under 500 thousand. Let us begin the auction now.” The auctioneer held the Void Crack Stone in her hand and explained in an excellent voice and expression as she announced the start of the auction.

“It has come!”

Tang Xiu’s spirit shook as his eyes tightly locked on that piece of Void Crack Stone. He didn’t rush to bid because during the last 2 hours of observation, he could tell that from the initial bidder, only very few of them would really want to buy. They were as though throwing the brick to attract the jade, and only initiated the bidding, and if some people called for the biddings, they would immediately renounce it. If nobody called for the bid, they might be able to obtain the item with little money, but still buy it as one of the things they took a fancy at.

“6 million.”

A voice sounded, as the person also raised his flag sign.

“6.5 million!”

“7 million!”

“7.5 million!”

“…”

Shortly after, the Void Crack Stone’s price had risen to 9.5 million. However, after the last person called the bid, nobody raised the bid after 10 seconds.

A sweet smile hung on the auctioneer’s face as she said, “That gentleman has bid for 9.5 million, any other guests calling for a higher bid? Everyone, don’t take lightly of this rare ore with its mysteriousness. Perhaps its value would be 10 times higher in the future compared to the present.”

“10 million!”

As the auctioneer’s voice fell, another voice sounded.

Tang Xiu took a deep breath as he raised his sign and said, “10.5 million.”

“15 million!”

The voice sounded again.

Tang Xiu lifted his sign and exclaimed, “20 million.”

“Whoosh…”

Everyone at the auction venue turned around and looked at Tang Xiu as streams of comments sounded.

“Who is throwing away money, more silly people, ah? An unknown ore with unknown uses? Even if it is rare, it’s not worth 20 million, right? Believing the auctioneer’s cons to get rich quickly in the future?”

“What a world-level joke is this? Buying a piece of ore for 20 million? Even 10 million is way too much! Rich people this year really don’t value money!”

“What a spendthrift young man. I don’t know the prodigal juniors from which family he comes from. If I had such a junior, I would have broken his leg absolutely and grounded him at home to reflect on his mistakes in seclusion.”

“That young man, could he have taken a liking to the auctioneer girl? Wanting to showcase his worth in front of her?”

“Wow, this is really interesting!”

“…”

With his sharp hearing, Tang Xiu clearly heard a lot of people’s commentaries in the conference hall. But he still wore his indifferent expression. For those who had no knowledge about the truly precious things, he didn’t want to even pay notice to them. And for that absolute reason, there wasn’t even a chance that he would tell them about the Void Crack Stone’s uses. Besides, in his hands, Void Crack Stone was a treasure, but for people who wouldn’t refine the stone into a Spatial Ring, it was only a lump of rough stone.

The auctioneer looked at Tang Xiu deeply as she smiled and asked, “The handsome young man has bid 20 million. Are there any higher bids than 20 million? If not, this precious rare ore will be sold to that handsome young man.”

The auction venue was silent for a while.

When the auctioneer was about to speak the final word and announce that the Void Crack Stone was sold to Tang Xiu, a voice suddenly sounded,

“50 million!”

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don’t ask me about the tree sap