Huli Ruo could see all this, yet she handled it with grace and a smile as she announced, “The starting bid is at 70,000 spirit sto-”

“One million spirit stones.”

A voice, lazy in bearing and apathetic in nature, rang out. Everyone turned to look at a particular private box with incredulity in their eyes.

****

Silence. Silence was all I heard when I called out my bid. I gotta say, it’s the first time in a long time since I heard silence and I wasn’t paid a visit by the omnipresent rolling bundle of profundity, also known as… tumbleweed.

Then again, because it only ever appears when there’s a recounted silence, its absence could be attributed to the near-silent shuffling sounds that everybody’s making as they stare at my box.

“Stop lying!” Xiao Yanshi refused to believe that anybody could afford to be rich.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“You expect me to believe you’re that wealthy!? Dream on!” he asked, unable to accept the reality of me walking away with the beast skin.

“That’s your statement?” I didn’t look in his direction as I asked this. My attention was focused solely on that beast skin.

However, since this Xiao Yanshi is bereft of logic and void of the substance measured in IQ points… I decided… I’m going to wreck this man’s whole career.

“You refuse to believe I’m that rich? Why?”

“You don’t know!? Because you cann-”

“I took out 50,000 gold coins as a joke for when I told you to bite me.”

“Hmph! I know that, howeve-”

“I bought most of the stuff here without batting an eye.”

“Well… yes, I saw this, bu-”

“Do you know of me?”

“U-Uhm, no I d-”

“Why do I need you to believe whether I have that money or not? Who are you to tell me that I cannot have that money?”

“I just thoug-”

“Who is Xiao Yanshi?”

“I woul-”

“A rhetorical question, you uncultured cur. Do you not tire of being a scathing disappointment to your parents?”

“…”

“Cannot is a word that denotes an impossibility. When you say I ‘cannot’ have that money, what it does is seal your fate as a petty man with all the intellectual maturity of a braindead block of turd. I don’t want to look down on you, but I was taught to look people in the eyes when I talk to them, so I can’t help it. Your existence is a travesty and your stupidity offends me.”

I don’t know when I stood up during that little tirade, but I sat back down and kept my eyes on the stage.

No one spoke, though. The silence that ensued after that episode was painfully apparent.

It was only broken by the occasional sobs that came from Xiao Yanshi’s box. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you; he started crying.

Within my private box, everyone looked at me with a look of astonishment.

“What?”

The same look painted the face of everyone present. Even Huli Ruo wasn’t exempt from this.

Uh-huh, that’s enough of that, “Lady, call the bid,” I advised her.

“Oh! Y-Yes! Certainly, sir! Right away sir! Is there a-anyone who wishes to bid higher!?”

She seemed scared as she frantically carried out her duties. However, no one said anything.

Though that was to be expected. After all, that was one million spirit stones I just spent. If you want a better comparison, I could buy myself your run-of-the-mill sect with that kind of money.

So after a very short calling out for other challengers to my bid, she closed the bid, granting victory to me. The weird thing was that there were some in the audience who clearly wanted to make a bid, but then they turned to look at the box I was in and quickly lowered their hands.

The heck did I do? Was I that scary? I won’t stop anyone from making a bid. I mean, I’ve never been unreasonable.

“Congrats, Mr. Sir, for winning the bid!” Huli Ruo bowed repeatedly in my direction, making me feel a tad uncomfortable… oh well.

“Let’s go, guys, time to collect our winnings,” I got up and turned to the exit. Everyone was still looking at me with that same weird expression, making the atmosphere pretty awkward. But, little do they know, I thrive in awkward situations, so joke’s on them.

As we walked out of the private box, we were greeted by an attendant. She bowed in my direction and gestured for me to follow her.

We only walked for a short while when we passed a private box with its door open. It was completely empty save for a person who had no business with the word handsome.

If I was a betting man, I would say that this person is Xiao Yanshi. At the moment, however, he was staring off into space as if he was contemplating life and his role in it. His eyes looked hopeless though. I would know that look anywhere.

We passed him without a word and continued down the hall.

Eventually, we came to a door, and the attendant stopped in front of the door before turning to us, “Sir Long Di, you will find our manager inside.”

“Your manager?” I was confused by this. Weren’t we supposed to be picking up our winnings?

She didn’t say anything in response to this and simply stood by the door, motioning for us to enter of our own accord.

With that being the case, I opened and stepped through the door. As soon as I entered, I was greeted by the smell of tea.

I saw a young man seated with his legs crossed talking with a young woman who stood by his side. It seems that he gave a joke earlier as she covered her mouth to hide a giggle that struggled to escape.

When I entered, the young man’s eyes brightened into stars, “Brother Long Di!”

“Brother?” My steps paused at his greeting. When did we become that close? “Wait a second, you’re the manager?”

“Greetings to brother Long Di, this humble one introduces himself once more as the manager of this auction house, Yang Fuyou.”

This was the same person who called the cultivators over to let them know the auction was starting. The one who gave the medallion to Long Di.

“I never would’ve thought that such a cute young man had such a toxic tongue.”

When I heard the voice, the attention of both myself and the group behind me finally shifted to the young woman who was standing beside Yang Fuyou.

Unsurprisingly, it was Huli Ruo. She stared at me with a slightly fearful look in her eyes. Did ending people’s careers have such an effect?

None of her seductive features was on display at the moment. As if she restrained this part of herself.

“Brother Long Di, thank you for taking the time to see me.” Yang Fuyou said.

I cocked my head to the side as he said this, “First of all, you tricked me. Second of all, I thought I was coming to pick up my stuff. Where’s my stuff?”

“Brother Long Di, can we not sit and talk for a minute? I will try to not take too much of your precious time.”

I could feel his customer serviceness working me over like a pile of soft cookie dough, and oddly enough, I liked it. The goddess could learn a thing or two from him.

Plus, there were things I wanted to know as well, so I didn’t mind taking his offer.

The couch here was much smaller than what was in the private box, so it couldn’t hold all of us.

As soon as I sat down, the seat to the left of me was occupied by Yaomu Shou, whose presence caused a fleeting look of apprehension to appear on Yang Fuyou’s face.

There was space enough for only one more person. Zi Yu made a move to take the seat when Shen Ling suddenly firsted her to take the seat. Zi Yu’s face twitched in face of this, but she knew it was not her place to say anything so she relented.

When Yang Fuyou saw Shen Ling, he was blown away by her beauty. She was wearing the veil at this moment so her appearance was concealed, and she isolated its effect to only hide her face, but even then it was like her very presence overflowed with elegance and a divine allure.

Yang Fuyou quickly hissed when he felt a painful pinch. He turned to see Huli Ruo, who was looking at him with a hint of jealousy. Secretly, however, even she was blown away by Shen Ling’s presence.

‘This girl is a living kingdom toppling calamity,’ Huli Ruo thought to herself.

“Long Di is a very lucky man,” Yang Fuyou advised.

As he said this, Shen Ling looked down as her face profusely blushed. Luckily, no one was able to see this, lest Yang Fuyou start drooling, drawing even more ire from Huli Ruo.

“Thank you,” I took his compliment at face value, as we all should.

“Brother Long Di, I’m very interested in you.”

“I don’t swing that way… or any way, for that matter, but thank you for your interest,” I had no issues with his lifestyle.

“Oh no, Brother Long Di, you misunderstand me!” Yang Fuyou hurriedly tried to correct himself with a reddened face. Apparently, he didn’t want rumours going around about him.

“I meant to say that your circumstances are quite colourful,” he said after a while, now calm once more.

His words caused me to put my guard up, “What do you know of my circumstances?”

He flashed a smile at this question and went on, “Our Qian Dao Sect boasts an impressive network for collecting information and you’ve been under our radar for some time now.”

“Why?” I asked.

He took a sip of tea and relished its taste before answering, “As a disciple of the Qian Dao Sect, I live to find the next big investment, and something tells me you will be the biggest investment in my life.”

“What in the world could I have possibly done to have you think such a thing?” I don’t think I did much that would warrant this kind of behaviour from him.

“It’s not only what you’ve done, it’s the very circumstances surrounding you,” he replied.

“Clarify,” I wanted him to get to the point, but not even I was fully prepared for the words that came out of his mouth next.

He put the teacup down whilst adopting a mysterious smile, “Your parent’s fates are a very fickle thing.”