Chapter 229 – I’m Not Going To Let You Buy

When the three of them sat down, the lights in the vast hall dimmed, and the crowd fell silent.

A spotlight lit the tall stage, where a young woman in a black qipao ascended with unhurried steps. Her hair was tied up into a casual bun, revealing her striking facial features. Her voluptuous figure was better than anything the trio had seen before.

Ye Feng’s eyes widened. “They’re huge! Are they... real...”

She wore gloves of fine silver chiffon, and anyone catching her profile would find their gaze drawn to her curves. Every glance and smile seemed to be laced with magic, making people subconsciously pay attention to her.

She stepped into the center of the spotlight and bowed to the audience, unfazed by the leers and whistles. Clearly, she was used to such attention. She smiled and addressed the crowd in a gentle voice, saying, “Good day, everyone. I’m your auctioneer for today, Han Qiu. Since most of you are regulars, I won’t waste time with formalities. Let’s take a look at our first item.”

As she spoke, a glittering light shimmered on the stage, taking shape as a golden glowing sword. It was a rare spirit sword, one that could enhance the power of a cultivator from the metal lineage.

Han Qiu lifted the sword and walked around the stage. “This is the latest work of a renowned weaponsmith. It’s a mid-tier spirit sword, forged from red gold. It greatly boosts the strength of cultivators with metal roots. As usual, the starting price is thirty thousand low-grade spirit stones, with minimum increments of one thousand.”

Before she finished, murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Li Guanqi was surprised. He hadn’t expected the auction to be of such a high caliber—the very first lot was already a spirit sword. The price, though, was harder to swallow. His true goal was a high-quality spirit pill cauldron.

He noticed the flicker of desire in Ye Feng’s eyes. Not wanting him to feel overlooked, Li Guanqi sent a voice transmission, smiling faintly. “I’ll get the cauldron for Cao Yan first. With it, the brat can make some money. Then we’ll have him buy you a sword.”

Li Guanqi didn’t conceal his words, so Cao Yan heard him too and scratched his head in embarrassment. “Eldest Brother, maybe we can leave it for next time. That cauldron’s pretty expensive. If we really need one, we can use a pill shop’s.”

Li Guanqi shook his head. “Those are low-grade and for public use. To produce great results, you need great tools. With the cauldron from this auction, refining pills will be much easier. We’re getting it—end of discussion.”

With no choice, Cao Yan nodded, moved by his concern.

Both he and Ye Feng could feel how much Li Guanqi looked out for them.

Ye Feng shrugged and smirked. “Once Big Head gets his cauldron, I’ll have him make pills every day.”

The bids for the sword continued climbing, quickly hitting fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones.

In the end, it sold for seven hundred and thirty mid-grade spirit stones.

The energy in the room was higher than before. Han Qiu kept the momentum going, introducing the next items: ten bottles of high-quality Vitality-Boosting Pills, each retaining ninety percent of their medicinal power.

Every bottle was filled with ten pills, and each bottle started at three thousand low-grade spirit stones, making the ten bottles worth at least thirty thousand spirit stones.

Each bottle was being auctioned off individually, and the first two quickly fetched four thousand eight hundred spirit stones.

Li Guanqi thought for a moment, then decided to go for two bottles. When the bidding downstairs reached four thousand five hundred, he raised his card and said in a hoarse voice, “Five thousand.”

The bidders downstairs froze, not having realized there were guests seated upstairs. Five thousand was a very steep price, but Li Guanqi deemed the pills worth the cost due to their medicinal power.

Han Qiu’s eyes lifted to the upper floor, her smile brightening. “Guest number one eighty-eight bids five thousand. Do we have any more offers? There are only ten bottles this session—miss them now, and you’ll have to wait until next time.”

Her words stirred the crowd again. Such pills were useful anywhere and nearly as good as currency. However, it was only the third bottle. There would be more chances.

Furthermore, they were wary about Li Guanqi’s identity and hesitant to antagonize him.

Just as he was inwardly rejoicing, a cold, venomous voice rang out from above. “Six thousand!”

Han Qiu had been about to strike her hammer, but she stopped. She smiled brightly at the second floor and said, “Guest number two hundred and fifty bids six thousand spirit stones. Do we have any more offers?”

Li Guanqi’s face turned cold, and he casually glanced at the room above his. There, a stone-faced young man met his eyes with open hostility and a provocative smirk.

Li Guanqi smiled. “Six thousand five hundred.”

Han Qiu’s tone warmed further, and she looked at the second floor again. “Guest one hundred and eighty-eight bids six thousand five hundred. This batch of Vitality-Boosting Pills has retained ninety percent potency, with a subtle herbal fragrance. A real pity to miss out.”

By them, the rest of the crowd was content to watch the drama. The pills’ market value was around five thousand spirit stones; beyond that, the cost outweighed the benefit. Spirit stones themselves contained more vital energy, but pills had the advantage of instantly boosting cultivation, with their medicinal power circulating easily in the body.

Wang Heyang raised his card impatiently and shouted, “Seven thousand!”

Li Guanqi smiled and remained silent.

Han Qiu spoke at length about the pills, but when she saw that Li Guanqi wasn’t bidding further, she moved on.

He bid again on the next two bottles but always stopped at five thousand, letting Wang Heyang push the price to around six thousand each time.

When the fifth bottle came up, Wang Heyang immediately jumped from Li Guanqi’s offer to six thousand five hundred.