Once Master Duan Li composed herself, a pained expression appeared on her face.

It was soon replaced by an expression that indicated that she had a plan cooking up in her mind.

Master Duan Li had stopped her anxious bidding. She patiently sat in her seat and waited for the final moment when she could swoop in for the kill.

Li Xiaotiao did not notice that his Master had a plan in place. He a.s.sumed that she had been defeated by w.a.n.g f.u.xiang and felt helpless in the light of w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's overwhelming financial prowess.

Li Xiaotiao knew that his uncle, Duan He, had also come to partic.i.p.ate in the auction. However, up till that moment, Duan He still had not called out a single bid.

Li Xiaotiao turned his head and peeked at Duan He. But when he thought about the menacing glare that his uncle had shot him, Li Xiaotiao quickly fixed his posture and focused his gaze on w.a.n.g f.u.xiang.

Compared to his uncle's ferocious glare, w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's flirtatious demeanor was still easier to swallow, even if she really was a 100-year-old elderly lady.

At that moment, w.a.n.g f.u.xiang called out another bid as she continued to crush others under the might of her wealth.

After she announced her bid of the paper-elemental source-type item, w.a.n.g f.u.xiang did not display any other rarer items.

However, whenever someone called out a higher bid, she would add on a source-type item that could outbid them.

Amongst all the bidders, w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's bids were the most straightforward.

The way that she threw out source-type items reminded Li Xiaotiao of a rich older woman.

When he thought about w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's age and her dead husbands, boyfriends, lovers, and suitors, Li Xiaotiao thought it was best to comfort his Master, who was sure to lose the bidding war.

Behind Lin Yuan's mask was a serene expression, which starkly contrasted with the rapidly turning gears in his head.

He was racking his brain to come up with a way he could auction off more elemental pearls without breaking his own rules while obtaining all the items he wanted.

Lin Yuan already had a general idea, but there was a difficult condition to fulfill in order for him to succeed.

Lin Yuan could only wait to see if the enthusiastically bidding group members could create the conditions he needed.

Duan He's brow furrowed even tighter. His mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of Lin Yuan throughout the auction.

However, he had now turned his attention to w.a.n.g f.u.xiang.

Duan He never expected to see someone like her in this fan club.

In Duan He's opinion, this woman was a complex enigma.

Even at his most wealthy state, Duan He could not compare to w.a.n.g f.u.xiang.

w.a.n.g f.u.xiang had cursed a total of 158 partners to death, and none of them were ordinary men.

Half of the men she cursed to death were Creation Masters, most of which were Cla.s.s 3, but three of them were Cla.s.s 4.

One of the Cla.s.s 4 Creation Masters had been a pinnacle Cla.s.s 4 Creation Master.

The last husband w.a.n.g f.u.xiang had was a pinnacle emperor-cla.s.s expert who owned a Suzerain/Myth III fey.

30 years ago, when Duan He had just reached king-cla.s.s, he joined the Spirit Guards.

The first a.s.signment he had was to investigate w.a.n.g f.u.xiang under the leaders.h.i.+p of a Guard Envoy.

Once the investigation was concluded, it was found that all of the men a.s.sociated with w.a.n.g f.u.xiang had died in accidents.

The pinnacle emperor-cla.s.s expert was a member of that team who had gone with him to investigate.

Since all the evidence pointed toward accidents, the Guard Envoy could only write 'w.a.n.g f.u.xiang has an extremely resilient life' on the investigation report.

Duan He had always been sure that there was more to w.a.n.g f.u.xiang that met the eye.

He had left the Spirit Guards in less than a year.

During this year, w.a.n.g f.u.xiang had used all the finances willed to her to form a team dedicated to appraising luxury goods—the Langya Pavilion.

In the beginning, the Langya Pavilion only appraised luxury goods made of rare spiritual ingredients and gave them credit ratings.

As time went on, some extremely valuable luxury goods would be afforded high credit ratings by the Langya Pavilion, and the price would continue to inflate afterward.

The Langya Pavilion had been running for 30 years.

Now, the Langya Pavilion's appraisal and credit rating could define a luxury's good exact worth.

w.a.n.g f.u.xiang was the woman who had built this inst.i.tution from the ground.

Duan He could not even begin to comprehend the earth-shattering amount of wealth that w.a.n.g f.u.xiang possessed.

No one here knew w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's true ident.i.ty other than him.

Duan He knew that if he had not coincidentally been a.s.signed to investigate w.a.n.g f.u.xiang, he would also be none the wiser about her background.

Despite what he knew, Duan He was not going to let his guard down during this auction.

Duan He stood up and said in a booming voice, “I'm bidding 27 source-type items, as well as a drop of essence blood from a Suzerain/Myth I Ancient Lake Toad.”

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes at Duan He's sudden additional bid. All the partic.i.p.ants in the auction took a sharp intake of breath.

Although w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's paper-elemental pearl was rare, it was still just a source-type item.

Only an emperor-cla.s.s expert had access to the essence blood of a Suzerain/Myth I fey.

The Ancient Lake Toad's essence blood was difficult to be put to use as compared to the essence blood of other Suzerain/Myth Breed feys because it was poison-type. The essence blood of other Suzerain/Myth Breed feys could be used to nurture other feys once it was turned into a concoction.

However, the blood of a poison-type fey was an exception.

If the essence blood of a poison-type fey was used to nurture other feys, the fey could likely be poisoned to death.

That said, the essence blood of a Suzerain/Myth I Ancient Lake Toad was enough to overcome w.a.n.g f.u.xiang's bid of the paper-elemental item.

Lin Yuan was elated that Duan He had joined the auction. As much as he wanted to recruit Duan He, it was unknown if Duan He's character could meet his standard, and he also did not know if Duan He would be interested in what Lin Yuan was offering.

Thus, Lin Yuan could only take the money Duan He was offering.