Chapter 1156, Sudden Wealth

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Although everyone was spurning Qian Tong in their hearts, in truth they were all quite envious. Why did such a great opportunity to collect money land in Qian Tong’s lap? The Treasure Trove Pavilion auction was held every two or three years and at cities controlled by various different great forces, but being able to turn this into an opportunity to reap a huge profit required both cunning and ingenuity.

No one spoke up to support Jiang Huai An. Forget about Qian Tong’s words really being how auctions worked, all of them were more than happy to see the atmosphere become livelier. On top of that, it was known that there were some grudges between Shadow Moon Hall and the Sea Temple, so Qian Tong targeting Jiang Huai An in this way was actually a veiled conflict between these two great forces. No one wanted to meddle in this matter.

“So that’s how it is,” Wu Yi whispered suddenly.

“What did you figure out?” Yang Kai looked at her and asked.

“I know why that Jiang Huai An is so determined to buy that Origin Condensing Pill,” Wu Yi smiled, “He is one of the three Temple Masters of Sea Temple. I heard that his favourite son, Jiang Zhi Ren, was born with only average aptitude. Jiang Huai An has used countless precious treasures to promote his son’s cultivation to the Third Order Saint King Realm, but unfortunately, Third Order Saint King is Jiang Zhi Ren’s natural limit. If there is no Origin Condensing Pill, he will forever be unable to break through to the Origin Returning Realm. I heard that Jiang Huai An has travelled widely to buy an Origin Condensing Pill and has also collected several batches of materials to refine an Origin Condensing Pill but has so far been unsuccessful in both respects.”

“So he is willing to go all out to buy this Origin Condensing Pill?” Yang Kai’s eyes lit up, finally understand why Qian Tong would raise the price so brazenly. He was taking advantage of Jiang Huai An’s weakness and knew that the latter would buy it no matter what.

“It should be so. This Sea Temple Temple Master being willing to pay such a high price is definitely because he wants to bring it back for Jiang Zhi Ren.”

“But there is a limit to everything, this Jiang Huai An may be hot-headed but he’s not a fool. I suspect that if Elder Qian raises the price again, that Origin Condensing Pill will land in his hands,” Yang Kai was slightly worried. Qian Tong was quite good to him so Yang Kai naturally didn’t want Qian Tong to suffer a loss at his own hands.

Wu Yi however just smiled, “What’s there to worry about? Didn’t you just hear what Elder Qian said? He said he just picked up tens of millions of Saint Crystals. Although that’s surely an exaggeration, Elder Qian is no doubt a wealthy man. En, that’s right, how many Saint Crystals did he give you just now?”

“I don’t know,” Yang Kai suddenly remembered that he still had a Space Ring in his hand. Just now, Qian Tong had handed him this ring and then hurriedly left. The auction for the Origin Condensing Pill had started immediately, drawing Yang Kai attention, and in the rush of the bidding, he had forgotten to check just how many Saint Crystals he had been gifted.

Sweeping the Space Ring with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai’s expression instantly froze up.

“How many?” Wu Yi saw Yang Kai’s face cramp and asked nervously, not knowing why her heart was suddenly pounding slightly. Even Yang Yan craned her neck slightly while eagerly waiting for Yang Kai’s reply.

Yang Kai took a deep breath before to calm himself before handing the Space Ring to them, “See for yourself.”

Wu Yi accepted it doubtfully, but after using her Divine Sense to check the amount of Saint Crystals inside the Space Ring, she couldn’t help yelping as she covered her mouth, her eyes filled with shock.

Seeing this, Yang Yan seized the Space Ring and also examined it, her reaction not differing much from Wu Yi’s a moment later.

Three million High-Rank Saint Crystals were in the Space Ring sent by Qian Tong. There were actually three million High-Rank Saint Crystals inside this Space Ring! Let alone Wu Yi and Yang Yan, even Yang Kai was dumbstruck by this shocking and unexpected amount.

Yang Kai had thought that Qian Tong was simply sending him a ‘small gift’ of perhaps two or three hundred thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals, how was he supposed to know it would actually be ten times that amount? No wonder Qian Tong said that as long as he didn’t try to buy anything too expensive, these Saint Crystals should be enough for him to spend.

With three million Saint Crystals, how many things could he buy?

“Looks like, Elder Qian wasn’t exaggerating at all. He really did pick up tens of millions of Saint Crystals.” Yang Kai wore a strange expression. He knew that these Saint Crystals were all road tolls collected by Qian Tong, but he hadn’t expected Qian Tong to be so black-hearted. Tens of millions worth of road tolls meant that these three million were less than a tenth of the total amount.

Wu Yi shot a wary glance over to the two female Shadow Moon Hall disciples before whispering to Yang Kai, “We need to act cautiously here…”

Yang Kai however just snorted, “Why should I act cautiously? Those road tolls were mostly my credit. Without me, Elder Qian wouldn’t have been able to charge those forces so many Saint Crystals. We can accept these three million Saint Crystals boldly.”

“Alright…” Wu Yi nodded, still a little worried.

While Yang Kai’s trio were talking amongst themselves, Qian Tong and Jiang Huai An had been trading insults back and forth. Inside his A Block private room, Yan Pei, who had been sipping his tea calmly, had gradually grown annoyed, coldly snorted, and said, “Cease your bickering, everyone here is waiting to continue the auction. If you two really find the other not pleasing to the eye, go outside and fight it out, what point is there in simply exchanging words? Don’t delay my Treasure Trove Pavilion’s business!”

With Treasure Trove Pavilion’s chief steward’s intervention, Qian Tong and Jiang Huai An finally settled down. Even if they didn’t give each other any face, they had to give face to Treasure Trove Pavilion; otherwise, if they were banned from participate in the auction in the future, the ones who would lose would be them. Many of the most precious and valuable treasures on Shadowed Star were auctioned through Treasure Trove Pavilion.

Qian Tong grinned meaningfully and said, “This old master just can’t get used to the stinginess of some people. Forget it, there’s no point in arguing over something so trivial. Whoever wins this wins it. En, girl, what was the last bid for this Origin Condensing Pill?”

The beautiful female auctioneer smiled and replied, “Elder Qian, Temple Master Jiang just bid nine hundred thousand.”

“Nine hundred thousand, such a high price, heh. That’s enough to buy three Origin Condensing Pills.”

As soon as Qian Tong’s words came out, the sound of a chair being crushed could clearly be heard from the private room of Jiang Huai An. This Sea Temple Temple Master obviously wished he could skin Qian Tong alive right now. The price had been raised by Qian Tong himself, yet he now had the audacity to make sarcastic remarks about it. It was like he had vowed not to rest until he annoyed Jiang Huai An to death.

Qian Tong soon shouted again, “One million!”

The audience gasped once more. The auction had been going on for three hours now, and finally a million crystal item had appeared. Although everyone knew that this price was drastically higher than the market price, this was an auction after all, pricing being higher than normal was only natural.

The sound of something being crushed rang out again from the private room occupied by Sea Temple.

Qian Tong however just laughed, “Jiang Huai An, don’t say this old master doesn’t know how to be considerate. You and I have known each other for many years after all. En, it’s a bit inappropriate for us to make a scene here and have others laugh at us for a mere Origin Condensing Pill. If you can outbid this old master once more, this old master will let you have this Origin Condensing Pill, what do you say?”

“One million ten thousand!” Even if he knew perfectly well that Qian Tong was ridiculing him still, Jiang Huai An had to increase the price.

After coming this far, this competition was no longer about this Origin Condensing Pill, but rather about reputation. In addition, these past few years, Jiang Huai An had expended great pains to acquire an Origin Condensing Pill, the herbs he had collected alone costing him over a million Saint Crystals, yet every time he sought an Alchemist, these herbs had ended up being destroyed. Now that there was a ready-made pill in front of him, there was no way he wouldn’t grab hold of it.

What made Jiang Huai An truly want to cough up blood though was that clearly he was the one who bought this Origin Condensing Pill, but for those who were uninformed, it looked like Qian Tong had sold him a favour by allowing him to win it. If it wasn’t for this being Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction house inside Heavenly Fate City, Jiang Huai An would definitely attack Qian Tong here and now.

He had simply gone too far!

After the one million ten thousand Saint Crystal price was called, no one else spoke, not even Qian Tong. The beautiful female auctioneer quickly stepped forward and called the count, delivering the Origin Condensing Pill to Jiang Huai An. Yet, a moment later.

With the three million Saint Crystals Qian Tong had delivered him, and this additional one million crystals, Yang Kai was very happy, but after receiving the first three million Saint Crystals, acquiring one million more didn’t affect the trio as strongly. After obtaining a certain amount of money, everything just became mere numbers.

However, this didn’t prevent the trio from looking forward to their other items being auctioned. Even Yang Kai wanted to know what kind of price his other Origin Condensing Pill would sell for, as well as how valuable Yang Yan’s Origin Grade Mid-Rank artefact would be.

The auction now entered its second half.

With the appearance of the Origin Condensing Pill serving as a transition point, the following items Treasure Trove Pavilion brought out were truly of a different grade. Whether it was in terms of rarity or quality, all of the items in the second half of the auction were much higher than before, and so too were their prices.

By this point, the cultivators sitting on the main floor had basically lost the qualifications to participate in the auction. Now, the bidders were all people in the private rooms with the rest of the audience just watching the fun.

The winning bid for almost every auctioned item now was not less than two hundred thousand Saint Crystals, with a few items breaking through the one million Saint Crystal mark. This display made Yang Kai once again realize that there were many rich people on Shadowed Star, it was just that ordinary people were not as aware of them. The auction of Treasure Trove Pavilion was what brought these rich people together.

With three million Saint Crystals in hand, and one million waiting to be collected, Yang Yan and Wu Yi also wanted to participate in the auction. Yang Yan was an Origin Grade Artefact Refiner, so naturally they wouldn’t bid on any artefacts, and when the pair wanted to buy some pills, they were stopped by Yang Kai.

Yang Kai was an Alchemist, so how could he let them waste money unnecessarily?

In the end, Yang Yan only bought some precious raw materials for arranging Spirit Arrays and Artifact Refining.

A piece of Star Iron the size of a melon for two hundred and fifty thousand Saint Crystals, ten pieces of high-quality Azure Spirit Wood worth three hundred and seventy thousand Saint Crystals, and some Ninth-Order Monster Beast parts plus its Monster Core for around one million crystals. The three million Saint Crystals in their hands rapidly shrank.

Yang Kai never called a bid because he didn’t see anything he wanted.

It wasn’t until a strange, unidentified stone about the size of a washbasin appeared that Yang Kai bought it for its starting price of one hundred and fifty thousand.

According to the beautiful female auctioneer, this strange stone could not be identified even by Treasure Trove Pavilion’s appraisal Grandmasters and even their Artifact Refiners had failed to melt it down.

Numerous masters in the auction hall also investigated this stone with their Divine Senses, but none were able to discover anything about it and it became the first item to be sold at the base price.

Because no one knew what it was, and Artifact Refiners were unable to melt it, it was clearly not ordinary, so the base price set by Treasure Trove Pavilion wasn’t too low.

It was only at the last moment that Yang Kai lazily quoted the reserved price and easily purchased it.