Chapter 25: The Auction — Su Huan Followed Xiao Jianming to His Seat…
Su Huan followed Xiao Jianming to his seat. Xiao Jianming had already ordered the dishes: “One serving of Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs, Glutinous Rice Lotus Root with Osmanthus, and Squirrel Fish. Hmm, add a serving of Clear Heart Lotus Seed Chicken.”
The waiter responded and went downstairs. Su Huan noticed that the dishes the Black Lotus ordered were almost all sweet.
He suddenly thought of Xiao Jianming’s background described in the novel, remembering someone saying that people with bitter lives mostly crave sweets.
When Xiao Jianming was eight years old, his human cultivator father colluded with demons, leading to the annihilation of the entire Lingxi Clan. He was the only child left, sent out of the Wuwang Purgatory by his mother risking her death. He climbed over the boundless snowy mountains alone holding his mother’s relics. Amidst cold and hunger, he was picked up by a demonic cultivator. The demonic cultivator discovered that his flesh and blood could be made into healing medicine with miraculous effects, so he imprisoned him in a dark secret room, taking blood and gouging flesh daily to sell pills. This lasted until he was thirteen, when he was discovered and rescued by an elder of the Changqing Sect, only to fall into another purgatory.
The Changqing Sect elder had mediocre cultivation talent. On the surface, he was a kind and benevolent elder of a famous sect, but privately, he was a hypocritical pedophile. He took a fancy to Xiao Jianming’s appearance at a glance, pretending to pity Xiao Jianming’s miserable experience and accepting him as an outer disciple. In reality, he locked him in a dungeon specifically for training forbidden playthings. Xiao Jianming resisted to the death. If the old Daoist hadn’t discovered Xiao Jianming’s natural sword bones and excellent aptitude and conceived the idea of possession, he would have nearly been beaten to death in the black prison.
As the saying goes, hateful people must have pitiable aspects. The reason the Black Lotus was the Black Lotus was inextricably linked to these childhood experiences.
When Su Huan read the novel, he often lamented that if the Black Lotus could meet someone who treated him sincerely and planted a seed of kindness in his heart, he wouldn’t have stood by coldly watching the entire cultivation world be burned down by demons after becoming a god.
Now that he, a cannon fodder villain who should have gone offline early, hadn’t died, he hoped this variable could butterfly effect a good ending.
However, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to try and influence the Black Lotus. Once he generated a Perfect Golden Core, he would stay far away from this madman, preferably never seeing him again in this life.
When the waiter brought the dishes, he handed them a small booklet. “By the way, two guests, the Jinrui Auction House, the largest in our Jile City, will hold an auction recently. If guests are interested, you can go and have a look.”
Su Huan was eating happily with chopsticks in one hand and holding a bowl in the other. Hearing this, he put down his chopsticks, took it, and flipped through it casually. After being amazed by the advertised auction items, he put it on the table.
This Jinrui Auction House was indeed a place with a high appearance rate in the novel, and worthy of being the protagonist’s exclusive place for picking up hidden treasures. He glanced over it and couldn’t see anything that could be picked up as a hidden treasure at all. It was better to honestly go to the Yuejin Secret Realm to find the Spirit Nourishing Grass.
Xiao Jianming picked up the booklet and opened a page at random, his gaze suddenly freezing.
Su Huan’s chopsticks for eating were just picking up a piece of fragrant ribs when he heard him say, “I’m going to participate in the auction.”
Su Huan’s eyes lit up instantly. “Okay, okay!”
Family, who understands? I can witness the famous scene of the protagonist picking up hidden treasures and stunning the audience!
Xiao Jianming lowered his eyes to stare at the auction item on the booklet, his fingertips tightening involuntarily.
On the snow-white title page, a pair of azure, crystal-clear deer antlers were drawn vividly. The complicated and beautiful patterns emerging on the spirit antlers seemed to flow with light and color, incredibly beautiful.
Within the Lingxi Clan, only clan members who inherited the position of patriarch would generate the unique inheritance seal patterns—
These were his mother’s antlers.
Xiao Jianming lowered his eyes. No matter what, he had to get them back.
On the day of the auction, Xiao Jianming put on a mask and a cloak and entered the auction house.
Su Huan followed suit, wrapping himself up tightly and following him in.
Well, he understood. Picking up hidden treasures easily attracted envy, jealousy, and hatred. It was better to keep a low profile.
As soon as they entered the venue, the attendants of the auction house immediately greeted them. After leading the two to an empty table and seating them, they smartly served tea and asked no more questions.
Su Huan thanked them reservedly, but looked around curiously out of the corner of his eye.
The entire venue was like a giant funnel, with ten floors in total, descending layer by layer. Each floor had several sets of tables and chairs arranged in a ring around the circular stage at the bottom. Orchid screens were placed in the middle as partitions, and flower and grass curtains separated small compartments, which was witty and elegant.
The top floor contained real private boxes, divided into Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow boxes, each separated by curtains of plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum. Perhaps due to a spell, outsiders could only see the figures inside the box clearly, but not the faces or clothing details of the people inside.
At this moment, the lights in the Earth, Black, and Yellow boxes were already lit, leaving only the Sky box empty.
Su Huan also noticed that a flower and grass compartment was clearly occupied, yet an attendant led another group of cultivators there. As soon as they stepped into the flower curtain, the people disappeared.
Noticing his gaze, Xiao Jianming explained, “It’s a spatial folding array.”
Su Huan was surprised hearing this. No wonder there were only ten seats on one floor. He couldn’t help thinking that Jinrui Auction House actually used high-level arrays for environmental maintenance; it was such a waste of heavenly treasures.
Suddenly, a bell rang. The host presiding over the auction appeared out of thin air on the circular stage at the bottom. Beside him floated a box containing today’s auction item. The dark and heavy box shook violently, as if containing a living thing that was about to jump out the next second.
The handsome youth touched the box lightly with his fingertips, and the box stopped moving.
A pair of fox eyes embellished with a tear mole smiled charmingly, and his voice was equally soul-hooking: “Welcome, my lords, to appreciate Green Wu presiding over the auction.” The youth chuckled lightly. “It seems there are many guests this time. Looks like Green Wu is even more popular… In that case, Green Wu wishes all lords here to get what you want tonight and make this trip worthwhile.”
“Presumably, the lords are also looking forward to tonight’s various auction items. Then I won’t talk nonsense. Please look at today’s first auction item—”
Green Wu opened the box. “A Merperson from the Wuliang Sea.”
As the box lid fell, a burst of white light flashed at the opening of the box, and a figure suddenly appeared on the circular stage.
A figure with a human body and a fishtail flew out of the box and landed on the ground. Possessing an androgynous appearance, the semi-transparent fish fins, dreamy as gauze and mist, fluttered incessantly due to fear. Thin gauze clothes half-covered the body. The face, exquisite to the point of gender-neutral beauty, was covered with tears of horror, but was trapped on the ground by a chain and unable to escape, only able to let out ethereal and mournful cries in vain.
When Su Huan saw the Merperson, he opened his mouth wide in surprise. As expected of the cultivation world, such blatant human trafficking!
“Starting price, one hundred thousand spirit stones.” Green Wu smiled, but his opening words were ruthless.
Su Huan originally couldn’t bear it and gave birth to the heart of a hero saving a beauty. As soon as this price came out, his blood-boiling heart instantly turned cold.
All the spirit stones on his body added up to only about fifty thousand.
Can’t afford to save, really can’t afford to save.
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