“I see.” Yunxiao smiled.
Yin Zhaoyang felt extremely uncomfortable. No matter how he looked, this Li Yunxiao was only fifteen years old. And yet, when standing in front of this young man, he had a feeling that he was facing a grandmaster who seemed capable of seeing through all his deeds, words, and thoughts. He did not like that feeling.
“Are you interested in this cauldron as well, Young Master Yun?” he asked carefully.
Yunxiao smiled softly and said, “Yes, this cauldron is also one of the items I want to get.”
Upon hearing that, everyone in the room felt nervous, and they turned to look at the auction stand together.
“Ten thousand medial-grade Primordial Stones!”
After a brief moment of silence, someone finally called a bid, wrinkling the calmness in the air. All kinds of bids erupted out in the next instant, the voices so loud that they rumbled like a thunderstorm.
“Fu*k! Do you think you can buy this with only ten thousand medial-grade Primordial Stones? Get the hell out of here, you poor bast*rd! Fifty thousand medial-grade Primordial Stones!”
“Fifty thousand? You are as poor as that guy! How can you buy the Cauldron of Five Elements with just medial-grade Primordial Stones? Fu*k! One thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones!”
“Three thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones!”
Yunxiao was dumbfounded as he watched the price rise rapidly.
“Ten thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones!”
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the distinguished room next to his. Although soft, it drowned all other voices and was heard by everyone.
“What! Ten thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones!”
“Fu*k! Did I hear that right? Ten thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones are equivalent to one million medial-grade Primordial Stones! Who is this spendthrift?”
“Keep your voice low! Didn’t you hear it is coming from the distinguished room in the center? That’s where the imperial members of the Firecrow Empire stay.”
“Damnit! Now that the imperial members of Firecrow have joined the bidding, I think we can give up already! Who can be richer than them?”
For a moment, curses rang out everywhere. Among the crowd, many were not afraid of the imperial family, and because most of them were lone warriors, they had not much to worry about. While smiling, Mister Mei slammed his hammer on the table and shouted, “Quiet please! Ten thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones, going once, going twice…”
“Twelve thousand!”
No longer able to hold himself back, Yunxiao called out a bid. If truth be told, he did not have twelve thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones. But, if he did not fight now, the cauldron would fall into the hands of the Firecrow’s imperial family, and it would be extremely difficult for him to get it back.
“What! Twelve thousand!”
“Which room called the bid? Who is in that room?”
“Who knows? But I do know that all the rooms up there are occupied by super aristocratic families with at least a thousand years of history. Ah well, we can never compete with them.”
“That’s true. Let them fight among themselves, the fiercer the better!”
In the middle distinguished room, a comely young man sat lazily in a chair. He frowned slightly and asked a middle-aged man, “Uncle Yue, who is in the room next to us?”
The man was called Yue Jiulin, and he said, “It is likely to be the Cheng Family, Your Highness. My divine sense was stopped by a very strong divine sense, so there must be at least a fourth-tier alchemist in that room. I’ve looked through all the other rooms and have not seen anyone from the Cheng Family.”
The handsome young man was actually the crown prince of Firecrow, Xin Ruyu. “I thought some said the people of Cheng Family were murdered a few days ago?” he said suspiciously.
Yue Jiulin chuckled. “After all, our men did not see that with their own eyes. Besides, only a handful of powers dare to kill anyone from Cheng Family, but none of them would want to offend them so openly. I guess they were just seriously wounded, but not dead.”
Xin Ruyu nodded lightly and said, “Since there is a fourth-tier alchemist in the room, then it is very likely that they are from the Cheng Family. Call a few more bids. Although this Cauldron of Five Elements is amazing, it is already overpriced.”
“I understand!” Yue Jiulin answered softly. He considered a moment before shouting, “Fifteen thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones!”
“Fifteen thousand!” The crowd was stunned by the addition of three thousand in just one bid. These were all superior-grade Primordial Stones!
Yunxiao sucked in a cold breath and fell back to his chair, his face shocked. The price was completely beyond his imagination. He could not help but smile wryly in his heart. ‘If I had known this thing was so valuable, I would have refined more to sell in my previous life…’
Mister Mei was slightly excited as well. In a loud, clear voice, he shouted, “Fifteen thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones, going once, going twice…”
“Eighteen thousand!”
Another voice joined the bidding game, shocking everyone with another addition of three thousand. The crowd looked up and saw the voice come from the third room on the left.
Xin Ruyu’s face flickered. “Zhou Family?”
Yue Jiulin was surprised as well, “Why do they want this cauldron?”
After pondering for a moment, Xin Ruyu chuckled and said, “I know the reason. Zhou Yushan has recently gotten quite a good fortune, and it seems the fortune is greater than I’ve expected. Is he about to make a breakthrough and become a Martial King?”
Startled, Yue Jiulin said, “Your Highness is referring to… Yes, it is possible. If he can get this Cauldron of Five Elements and study the Dao Fruit of Five Elements in it, the chances for him to become a Martial King are very high! And if he can fully understand it, he will be almost invincible in the realm of Martial Kings. After all, this is the Dao Fruit of Five Elements left behind by Gu Feiyang!”
“Yes. If Zhou Yushan can become a Martial King, he will add some strength to the empire,” said Xin Ruyu with a smile. “Let him get the cauldron. But, with its price soaring to such a high level, it seems Myriad Treasures Store is laughing now with the profit.”
A man who looked like a steward was breaking out in a cold sweat inside the third distinguished room on the left. His eyes were fixed on the purple cauldron, and he was breathing rapidly, as if he could hardly withstand the mental pressure.
Behind him stood two old men, whose faces were livid. Judging from their aura, both of them were Martial Kings. One of them was named Pang Chengwen, and he said, “I can’t believe it reached such a high price! But, His Lordship has ordered us to bring the cauldron back no matter what. We have no other choice but to fight to the end!”
The steward, Zhou Chuan, wiped the cold sweat on his face with a hand and said in a trembling voice, “Luckily, it is the imperial family we are bidding against. Otherwise, I will be flayed by His Lordship for buying the cauldron at this insane price!”
Another Martial King, Shi Ruida, said seriously, “We wouldn’t have to lose so much money if not because Young Master Yushan urgently needed to study this Dao Fruit of Five Elements after he obtained that great fortune recently.”
The three men watched and waited nervously, but no one dared to call another bid. After asking three times in an excited voice, Mister Mei slammed his hammer on the table.
“The Cauldron of Five Elements is sold for eighteen thousand superior-grade Primordial Stones!”
Everyone breathed a long sigh of relief while Zhou Chuan simply sat down on the floor, gasping for breath. Such a high price had already gone beyond his bottom line, and certainly His Lordship’s. He did not know whether it was good or bad to bring it back now.
“Ah, it is bought by the Zhou Family.” Yunxiao, too, breathed a sigh of relief, and he had a bright smile on his face. “Excellent, this is excellent!”
Xiao Qingwang and others exchanged a look. Yunxiao’s relaxed smile suddenly gave them a bad feeling. What was the meaning behind that smile, when the Zhou Family was his sworn enemy now?
Yin Zhaoyang was stunned by the price as well. With a wry smile on his face, he asked, “Is Young Master Yun a friend of the Zhou Family?”
Yunxiao smiled softly and said, “No, I’ve only met them once. It’s good that they have purchased the cauldron. Now, I can borrow it from them.”
Sure enough!
Xiao Qingwang and the others were shocked. So, this lad really did plan to rob the cauldron from the Zhou Family, one of the four major families in the Firecrow Empire!
Heavens! He had just killed the people of the Cheng Family, and now he was planning to rob the Zhou Family! Was he going to offend all four families and then wait for them to attack him with great armies?
Although there was bad blood between him and Zhou Yushan, and they had agreed to have a match. But that was, after all, the grudge between two individuals. If he really robbed the Zhou Family this time, the grudge would immediately elevate to the level of the family, and the consequence would be identical to his murder of the people of Cheng Family.
Xiao Qingwang and Chen Dasheng felt they were about to faint. Neither the Zhou Family nor the Cheng Family could be resisted by Tianshui, let alone a mere city of Yanwu.
“Borrow?” Yin Zhaoyang laughed. “Young Master Yun, you may have a great influence, but I don’t think they will lend you such a precious treasure.” He did not know the feud between Yunxiao and Zhou Yushan, and he thought Yunxiao was really going to borrow the cauldron, so he smiled relaxedly. “It’s your item to be auctioned next, Young Master Yun.”
Yunxiao smiled and narrowed his eyes as he said lightly, “It seems I need to sell more things. Otherwise, I may not be able to buy that treasure later on.” He took out three jade slips and pressed them against his forehead, recording something in them. After that, he beckoned Meng Wu over and whispered a few words into her ears, sending her out of the room.
Yin Zhaoyang’s eyelids twitched slightly. ‘Is it jade slips he wants to auction?’
Jade slips were a kind of media used to record some information, especially those containing the Laws of the World, which could not be recorded with ordinary papers or jade medallions. However, the information containing the Laws of the World were all high-level things, which could not be remembered in the heads by ordinary warriors or alchemists.
When he saw Yunxiao himself record something into the jade slips, Yin Zhaoyang felt his head reel, and he knew things were about to turn really bad for him. ‘The things inside them are definitely not beyond the fourth-tier! After all, with his strength of a third-tier alchemist, it is impossible that he can master anything of higher-tier!’
Meng Wu quickly entered the backstage of the auction hall through an aisle. Soon, a beautiful maid came on the stage with three jade slips in a tray and presented them to the crowd.
Mister Mei gave the three jade slips a glance, then smiled and said, “Now, these are items added in the last minute, so I don’t know what they are yet. But, from what I can see, they should be martial techniques or something similar. And since they are recorded on jade slips, they should be of a high level.”