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"The winner is the Li family with a bid of 527 million high-grade spirit stones." The auctioneer spoke with genuine enthusiasm. He didn't care particularly for the item or even the winners, but he was happy about the amount of money gained by the auction house while he was on stage.
On the other side, Li Huang couldn't really say he was happy. It was a fierce bidding war between him and a few other families, but he won it in the end. He wasn't sad about the final price, as it was still less than 600 million, the amount he thought it would go for. He was angry at himself for not figuring out the Xu family's ploy sooner.
The Xu family didn't have any grand plans in place; it was really simple if you thought about it. Xu Xian was going to try and kidnap them after the auction, so what would be stopping him from retrieving this item alongside them?
Li Huang messaged his temples and exhaled. It wasn't like they were planning to get kidnapped, so this plan was destined to fail.
He didn't delay anymore and sent a mental message to his grandpa, ~"Grandpa, it's done. We now own the Golden Dragon Peal."~
~"Good, be even more careful from now on."~ Li Long answered in the sound transmission soon after.
'Well, of course, he figured out what they were planning even without being here.' Although he would never admit it to his grandpa, Li Huang has never felt this green.
"The first day of the auction has come to an end, and I, along with everyone else at the Golden Phoenix auction, am looking forward to seeing you on the second day." The auctioneer bowed and spoke.
Li Huang and others on the Li family's balcony had to wait a little to verify their payment and get the item, but the process went smoothly, and within the span of a few minutes, an employee was in front of them to confirm everything.
"Thank you for your patience, young master Li. Our young lady will be here soon to personally hand you the Golden Dragon Pearl." The employee bowed courteously and said.
Li Huang nodded to the auction house employee and smiled. He didn't know if there was any hidden agenda behind the visit from the young miss of the Feng family, but he didn't see any fault in it as this item was one of the main items of this year's auction, and establishing connections when possible is considered a merchant's forte.
He sent a sound transmission to Hu Anjing before and let them know there was no need for them to wait for him and asked her to keep an eye on
After waiting for one more minute, Feng Huiyan, the Feng family's young miss entered the room with a smile on her face.
"Please forgive me for my late arrival." She said with a small bow and a professional smile on her face. She wanted to see who would be the person that talked for the Li family.
Li Huang could understand her intentions and took a glance at Li Wanrou to see if she wanted to take the lead but as he expected, she had the look of someone who couldn't care less.
"There is nothing to forgive." Li Huang said dismissively and continued, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Feng." Li Huang cupped his fists.
Feng Huiyan waited a second to see if Li Wanrou could also try to initiate a conversation but seeing no sign of such a thing, she cupped her fists toward Li Huang and spoke again, "You flatter me young master Li, The pleasure is all mine."
Li Huang didn't want to enter a flattery contest with her and didn't have any reason to so he accepted the compliment with an easy smile and a small bow.
Feng Huiyan took a box out of her storage ring and opened it for Li Huang and others to inspect.
"We took the liberty to put the Golden Dragon Pearl in a high-grade protective box, I hope young master Li wouldn't mind." Feng Huiyan said.
"I have to thank Miss Feng for going through the trouble." Li Huang answered.
"It wasn't a problem at all." Feng Huiyan said with another business smile.
Li Huang had to stop himself from answering her as he was about to unknowingly enter a flattery contest with her.
He just nodded gratefully and stretched his hands toward the box. Seeing his movement, Feng Huiyan extended her arm forward and left the box in Li Huang's Hands.
Li Huang who had already done a quick examination of the box's content with his Peeping eye of Heaven, put the box in his storage ring and thanked her, "Thank you, Miss Feng."
Feng Huiyan nodded and after a second of deliberation she started talking, "I have heard a lot about your endeavors young master Li, I hope that we can have a good relationship in the future." She said with a neutral tone of voice.
Li Huang was a bit surprised inside because of her neutral tone but didn't let it show on his face. Until now, she had a business facade on and everything was purely about business with her, but now, Li Huang felt that this had something to do with her personal feelings. He didn't know what feelings or who she felt, but he knew that it definitely felt personal.
"Thank you, Miss Feng, let us both hope so." Li Huang said with a neutral smile.
Soon after they departed from the auction house's building and moved toward their temporary residence.
On the way, Li Wanrou got close to Li Haung and spoke to him after lightly tapping his shoulder, "I don't have a good feeling about her." She said with a rare ting of frown on her face.
"Same here but we are not going to be seeing her much so it's not like we should care." Li Haung nodded at first but shrugged noncommittally towards the end of his sentence.
Li Wanrou nodded as well without changing her expression.
…
The next day marked the second day of the [Golden Phoenix auction]. There crowd was even bigger as it was known by everyone that with each passing day, the auctioned items would get even more valuable.
Despite this fact, Li Huang didn't have nearly as good of a harvest as he had the day before. The reason for this was simple; with more valuable items, the chance of him finding a hidden treasure was getting smaller and smaller.
He has got his hands on a few items that were not only useful to him but were also well-known, but other than that it wasn't what you call an eventful day.
There was just one thing of note that Li Huang hadn't noticed the day before, the man who nearly got a favor from Grandmaster Huili, Hao Huizheng, was also in the crowd. That wasn't what surprised him, what surprised him was the fact that they had given them one of the reserved-for-guests parts of the building. These were only available to Feng family's guests and Li Huang couldn't figure out how he was related to the Feng family.
He became aware of him when they had amassed a big winning streak, and by asking an employee, he managed to get to know his name.
He didn't put much thought into it for now and focused on the auction for the time being. He had plenty of time to figure out what Hao Huizheng wants here in the heavenly central continent when they had taken care of the Xu family's situation.
Li Huang focused on the next item presented on the stage. The auction was coming to a close, so it was almost time for the final item.
"This item is a partially appraised item that our Feng family has been trying to refine for years but we were not able to reform it into any other shape. This item has a high degree of resistance to blunt attacks, and it is comparable to a rank 1 low-grade True Spirit Treasures." Auctioneer said and everyone looked at the item intently.
Li Huang who had used the Peeping eye of Heaven the moment he saw this item, had to hide his wide smile with his hand.
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