214 Suspicious Mural
Dong Bai glared at Zhao Bao's box seat after the monk had won the item. She was still frustrated that her desired item got snatched away because he had more money.
As a spoiled teenager she couldn't admit defeat. She wanted revenge.
"Elder Jian, who's the guy that stole my spear?"
"Ah, that has to be Zhao Bao. He's one of the top 10 strongest cultivators on this continent. He should be ranked second or third strongest expert at the moment if Sun Wentai and Xia Dun haven't improved during this last decade."
"Can we kill him and steal the spear after the auction?"
"I'm afraid that's impossible. That monk's domain is invincible because of his light element and his nascent soul avatar. Unless we have an immortal from the holy land on our side, we can't defeat him head-on."
"Then, what about our poison?"
Jian Meng grinned, "Of course, that's our expertise. Even Ma Ping and Jia Shan were no match against our best poison. If we can poison him, he should fare no better than the others."
Dong Bai cackled. She had several ideas about how she could ruin Zhao Bao's life.
"What about his family, friends, or his sect? Do you know anything about him?"
"Ah," Jian Meng remembered that Zhao Bao's brother, Zhao Jue, was the monastery master of the Huangjin Monastery, aka Huangjin Sect.
Jian Meng whispered to Dong Bai's ears, telling her about Zhao Bao's background.
Dong Bai snickered. She looked at the box seat of Zhao Bao, "I have an idea. Could you contact my master that I have a favor to ask?"
"Of course."
…
After the first item, Tang Deming brought out more heaven-grade artifacts and heaven-grade herbs, yet Cao Mao sat through the auction without further participating as he didn't care about them.
In fact, Cao Mao could always exchange his life essence for one of those herbs, but most of them cost more than 1,000,000 liters of essence, which was equal to the average final auction price of 20 essence cores. Thus, he didn't need to waste his cash on something that he could always buy from the system.
As for the weaponry, Cao Mao had Killer Queen, which had the potential to evolve into even higher tiers, ergo he didn't need to buy extra weapons.
Then, the last item of the morning session appeared. Several muscular cultivators pushed a cart with a giant object onto the stage. Again, this new item was hidden under a black cloth for the sake of suspense.
"This is the last item of this morning session, and this is what everyone is here for, the secret of time-and-space!"
All nascent soul cultivators jumped up from their seats, including Cao Mao. They couldn't believe that Tang Deming had suddenly changed the main event item and had brought out the mural in the morning session.
Although everybody sensed that something was fishy, they were glad that it had come out so early. This way, they wouldn't be tempted to purchase other items and run out of budget before they could bid for the mural.
Tang Deming widely grinned as he explained, "I'm terribly sorry, fellow Daoists. This morning, I received an urgent call. You see, something has happened to the seller of this mural, and his relative wanted us to push the auction earlier. Naturally, we can't refuse our customer."
Everybody in the theatre hall laughed.
It was well-known that Qiang Sui was the owner of this mural, and he had been disgracefully defeated at Siren City. As for the relative, it wasn't hard to guess who Tang Deming had referred to. It was obviously Qiang Han.
Given the circumstances, everybody had figured out that Qiang Han was openly stealing the auction money from his elder brother.
Since Qiang Sui had disappeared and he hadn't shown up in this auction, Qiang Han might have conspired with Tang Deming and changed the schedule so that the former could steal the auction money from his brother before the latter could come forward to claim it.
Political struggles were fun to watch. The crowd on the first floor had to refill their popcorn as the show had gotten too interesting.
Tang Deming pulled down the cover clothes, revealing a boulder with a paragraph of text on its surface. However, the merchant had been wise enough to only reveal the first line of content whereas the other parts remained covered by another layer of thick cloth.
Everyone was excited. They thought that this might be a priceless piece of treasure or a secret martial art from the primordial time.
Sun Wentai, Xu Lanying, Xia Dun, Zhao Bao, Zhang Junyi, and Head Eunuch Rang activated their domain sense right away to read the text. However, their sense couldn't touch the stage as Gong Qi had already placed an array to block these nascent soul cultivators from cheating.
Several cultivators also used their eyes or sense techniques to read the text, but none of them succeeded.
On the other hand, Cao Mao didn't bother trying to read the text. He had a deep frown on his face since this boulder looked different from the two pieces of the mural that he owned.
Cao Mao's mural pieces were stone walls with texts and drawings of an unknown art. However, Tang Deming's [Mural] was the boulder itself.
Something wasn't right.
'Is this a counterfeit?'
Cao Mao had an urge to question its authenticity, but it was inappropriate to voice his thoughts at the moment.
Behind the stage, Gong Qi was standing, glaring at the people on the fifth floor. Had Cao Mao dared to question the authenticity of the treasure, he would have drawn unwanted attention from Gong Qi, which would have resulted in him making yet another enemy
As such, he pretended to be none the wiser and allowed the others to get conned by the organizer.
Meanwhile, Tang Deming explained about the boulder.
"Unfortunately, I can't reveal the entire content, else anyone could just take a photo and study it at home. But as a host, I have seen the text, and I can guarantee you with my name and my guild that it is legit! However, the content and the secret is reserved for the auction winner only! If you want to know more, you'll have to win it! The starting bid is 500 essence cores, and the minimum bid increment is 10% of the previous bid! Let's begin, 500! Who can give more?"
Even the starting price was too high. It was not something that Cao Mao wanted to participate in.
However, many people were eager to have it.
"1,000 essence cores!" Xu Lanying made the first move and astonished the crowd.
But that was just an appetizer. The other nascent soul cultivators started to reveal their assets.
Sun Wentai roared, "2,500 essence cores!"
Zhang Junyi snickered, "3,000 essence cores."
Xu Lanying clicked her tongue, "3,500!"
Liu Bian also jumped into the fray, "5,000!"
The price shot up so fast that everybody was astonished by their wealth.
Cao Mao was also speechless. These top experts were all crazy rich... and stupid. None of them seemed to have realized that Tang Deming and the Qiang Clan might be tricking them.
'Why hasn't anyone questioned whether the mural is legit or not? If I were the host, I would have sent someone to reveal the time-and-space technique. Oh, well, it's incomplete, so that fatty might not want to reveal it. Still, that Tang Deming bastard is sus as fuck! Why are they so eager to bid? Why can't they see it?'
Then, Cao Mao remembered that Tang Deming had once used a hypnosis array to influence his mind. It might be possible that that merchant was currently using the same trick against the nascent soul experts.
If so, it was a ballsy move. If any of these experts found out that they were being tricked, they would have retaliated and destroyed the Tang Clan, Unless Tang Deming was confident that he wouldn't face any consequence in the aftermath.
Upon thinking this far, Cao Mao shook his head. It was none of his business, so he shouldn't think too much about it.
Meanwhile, Mao Xueyan poked her head out to peak the auction event again.
Meow! (Hey, can you get that boulder for me?)
Cao Mao rolled his eyes, "Not a chance. I don't have enough money."
Meow! (I didn't ask you to bid for it. I want you to steal it.)
"Not in a hundred years, senior. Have you forgotten just how many nascent soul experts are in the building? As soon as I step one foot onto the stage I'll be killed, no questions asked!"
Meow! (But you have to get it! I need that time-and-space law!)
Something wasn't right. Even Mao Xueyan was affected by the unknown temptation.
While Cao Mao was baffled by the phenomenon, an auction staff came to him. The worker bowed, "Sir, a VIP from the fifth floor has invited you to join them."
Cao Mao glanced at the worker as he was in a bad mood at the moment, "Who invited me?"
"The representative from the Myriad Cauldron Sect, sir."
"…"
Cao Mao's face twitched. He gazed at the box seat of Zhang Junyi, who was busy bidding for the boulder. The price had just gone up to 8,000 essence cores.
"Can I refuse?"
"I-It's an invitation from a 7th-stage expert, sir. P-Please, come with me. I-I don't want to die. I still have a family at home!"
The lives of workers here were miserable as they could die at any second if they accidentally offended anyone on the fifth floor.
"Haiya, since when did your life and your family become my business? Meh, I'll go with you."
Cao Mao didn't accept the invitation because Zhang Junyi had invited him. On the contrary, he used this opportunity to visit a potential friend on the fifth floor.
As Cao Mao was heading from the first floor to the stairs near the entrance, someone from the fourth floor made the decisive bid.
"15,000 essence cores!"
Cao Mao stopped his feet to look at the bidder.
On the balcony next to the stage, a young man was sitting on a couch, being surrounded by half-naked girls who were massaging the young man's erected penis. A silver-masked old man in white robes was also sitting on another couch, gazing at the stage.
They were Niu Fu and his dual cultivator mentor, who had tried to abduct Ma Xingjuan. The former was the one who had issued the bid.
The other nascent soul cultivators also stopped bidding. They glared at the vulgar young man with resentment.
As for Cao Mao, he shook his head, pitying the nascent soul experts. He ignored the auction scene and ascended the stairs. Soon, this circus event would end in a bloodbath because of Tang Deming's greed, so he wanted to be next to someone he could depend on protecting him from getting dragged into it.
When Cao Mao got to the fifth floor, he asked the worker, who was leading him to Zhang Junyi.
"Do you know which room Zhao Bao is in?"
"S-Senior Zhao Bao? The Huangjin Sect's elder?"
"Yeah. That monk. Do you know where his room is?"
"Y-Yes. This way."
…
Meanwhile
Zhao Bao's Box Seat
The monk was stroking his beard as he was watching the auction. Unlike the other nascent soul cultivators, he hadn't bid for the suspicious boulder.
Instead, Zhao Bao was releasing his light element Qi to cleanse the sinister aura around his disciples. He also burnt all white furniture to ashes, turning the VIP box into a blank room.
As such, Xiao Yun, Xiao Xin, and Xiao Fei, aka the disciples of Zhao Bao, were unaffected by the hypnosis array.
The monk sighed as he prayed for Tang Deming and his family members, "Such recklessness, such greed, how can a merchant be this foolish? Haiz."
Xiao Yun, the rabbit boy, turned to his mentor, "What's wrong, master? Say, why did you burn all the furniture? Why are you covering us with your barrier again?"
Zhao Bao patted the boy's head, "It's for your safety, child."
Then, the monk turned to the door as he had sensed two men approaching.
Knock Knock
"Excuse me, Senior Zhao. You have a visitor."
Zhao Bao's smile widened. He waved his hand and opened the door without touching it.
The worker quickly retreated from the door, opening the way for Cao Mao.
Seeing his guest, Zhao Bao's mood improved. He resumed his hand prayer position again, "Welcome, please come inside."
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