The man who received Lu Li, Hunchback Tian and Patriarch Lu was a middle-aged one. He was at the Soul Pond Realm, not bad. He was smiling and very kind.
The middle-aged man met Lu Li and the other two in a small hall. The man said with a smile, "I am Zhan Hang, one of the Chief Stewards of the auction house. Can I have your surname, brother?"
Lu Li didn’t withhold any information. He frankly said, "I am Lu Li. I have come here to sell something."
Zhan Hang nodded and said, "We have two ways to sell things here. One is to sell directly to our auction house. We will set a price for your stuff. The other way is to enter the salesroom and you can set a base price. Whatever the price you knock down in the end, we will only ask for half of that."
"Um!"
Before he came here, Lu Li asked a servant at the tavern about the auction house. Lu Li had some understanding. He thought of something and asked, "When is the auction being held? Is our information going to be kept in strict confidentiality?"
"It is here at the auction house."
Zhan Hang firmly said, "The Heaven Punishing Auction House is not only opening here at the Thousand-island Lake. We have auction houses in all the royal cities, region cities around the entire Northern Desert. We will keep confidential all the information we get inside the auction house. Young Master Lu, you can be sure of it. Um… we have an auction tonight, the grandest one this month. Young Master Lu, if you want to do it, we can arrange it for you."
"Oh?"
Lu Li thought he was lucky that he didn’t have to wait for long. He said without hesitation, "I will go to the salesroom. I don’t want to sell the two Mystical Fruits separately. Anyone who wants to buy one must buy another one as well. The base price is 600,000 Xuan Crystals."
Patriarch Seven got one million Xuan Crystals from the same Mystical Grasses of the same quantity last time. Lu Li would not sell at a much lower price. If he was fortunate enough to run into some wealthy guests in the salesroom, he could get a price over one million Xuan Crystals.
"Six hundred thousand?"
Zhan Hang’s eyes lit up. He smiled more gladly and nodded. "Sure, but… your stuff must be appraised. If they are not worth it, we cannot just randomly agree to your base price. This matters to the reputation of the auction house. Please forgive me, Young Master Lu."
Lu Li understood it. He looked at Patriarch Lu who was behind him and Patriarch Lu handed over the 40 Fire Fairy Lucid Ganoderma and Netherworld Roots. Lu Li explained, "These are the Fire Fairy Lucid Ganoderma and Netherworld Roots, but the efficacy is stronger than regular ones. You can do the appraisal but you cannot destroy our elixirs."
"Of course."
Zhan Hang asked a man to bring the elixirs to appraisal. Then Zhan Hang engaged in some chitchat with Lu Li. Zhan Hang knew just the proper words to say. He didn’t ask for any information about Lu Li. They just talked about some fun stuff about the Thousand-island Lake.
After the time for two incense sticks to burn, the man sent by Zhan Hang came back and whispered something to Zhan Hang. Zhan Hang smiled and said, "Everything is okay. They are worth the base price. Young Master Lu, you can come to our auction house tonight and see the result in person. If something caters to your taste, you can buy it as well."
Zhan Hang gave Lu Li a token. Lu Li could go directly into the salesroom with the token. Lu Li got up and left. He left the Fire Fairy Lucid Ganoderma and Netherworld Roots worth more than million Xuan Crystals at the auction house. He was not worried for even a bit.
Such a big auction house valued credit very much. They wouldn’t care about mere one million Xuan Crystals.
Hunchback Tian didn’t care about these things, and Patriarch Lu trusted Lu Li. Based on Lu Li’s conversation with Chief Steward Bai and Zhan Hang, Patriarch Lu could tell that Lu Li had grown. Lu Li’s abilities was incomparable among his peers. He had the manner of a true Island Owner.
The three took some rest in the tavern. They didn’t go out until nighttime when the three went directly to the salesroom. Lu Li showed his token and they were taken to a small private room.
The salesroom was spacious. There were more than 1000 seats on the ground floor and nearly 100 small private rooms upstairs. These small private rooms were separated by curtains in a clever way. People downstairs cannot see into the private rooms, but people in the private rooms could see the situation on the ground floor.
The auction had not begun yet. Many seats on the ground floor were already taken. Lu Li could see many warriors wearing robes with the sigils of various families. They seemed to be the patriarchs of the families at the Thousand-island Lake. They were out to purchase Mystical Materials and other treasures.
"Take a seat here. Don’t say anything. Don’t do anything. Go back by yourselves after the auction is over."
Lu Li sat for a while in the private room. Some ideas suddenly came out. Lu Li ordered Hunchback Tian and Patriarch Lu before he left the private room in silence.
After he was sure that nobody was around when he got out, he took a mask to put on from the Interspatial Ring. That was the Ghost Mask that Ye Cha had given him. Since it was a piece of Heaven Grade Xuan Artifact, no warrior other than the ones that had reached the Noble Lord Realm could see through the mask. Lu Li put the mask on, went downstairs from the corridor and take a seat in a corner.
The behavior of wearing a mask was kind of strange. It attracted some attention, but there were others wearing capes or having their faces covered up, so nobody actually noticed Lu Li too much.
Gradually, there were many and more people came to the auction. The more than 1000 seats were almost taken, and many private rooms were occupied as well.
After the time for an incense stick to burn, the auction block at the forefront suddenly lit up. The auction block must have some special Inhibition Formation because even though it was glowing, it wasn’t glaring.
A woman in a revealing red dress came up. Her eyes was sparkling and her smile blossoming. She walked to the podium, made a hush gesture and the entire room quiet down. She gently said, "Thank you so much for being here today, our distinguished guests. I am Yun Ji and I am privileged to be the auctioneer tonight. I hope that all of you can go back with satisfaction. Now, the auction begins."
Yun Ji’s voice was gentle, very pleasant to listen to. Lu Li secretly nodded his head as he thought the Heaven Punishing Auction House was good at this. The auctioneer was a master. Such a beauty would make the price rise violently.
The auction tonight was the grandest one of the month. Well, in other words, there was such an auction every month, so it was not so splendid after all.
Without further ado, Yun Ji presented the first item to be auctioned. The first one already shocked Lu Li. It was a long sword, a Heaven Grade Xuan Artifact.
The base price for the long sword was a million Xuan Crystals. Lu Li didn’t even think about buying it. For one thing, he didn’t have the Xuan Crystals, and for another, he wasn’t fond of using swords.
His Heaven Mighty Halberd was destroyed by Dummy. He didn’t have any weapons now. If there were some sabers or halberd of the Earth Grade and of a lower price, Lu Li might consider about buying one.
The first auction item drove up the price. It was sold at a high price of 1.3 million Xuan Crystals. A Young Master at an upstairs private room bought it. He must have come from a big family.
Lu Li nodded to himself. So it seemed there were many wealthy guests here tonight. His fruits could be sold at a high price.
The next few items were all Mystical Materials. Lu Li didn’t know about them nor was he interested. He just sat there quietly, waiting for his product to be auctioned.
More than a dozen treasures and Mystical Materials were sold. Some prices were high, and some were low. The most valuable one was sold at a price of more than one million Xuan Crystals, and the least valuable one at more than 100,000 Xuan Crystals. No rubbish could enter such an auction.
More than an hour had passed, and finally, it was the turn for Lu Li’s Fire Fairy Lucid Ganoderma and Nether World Roots.
Lu Li was excited. He wanted to see how many Xuan Crystals he could get from the auction tonight. If the price was high enough, he could leave his products to the auction house directly in the future.
"The next item to be auctioned is two kinds of elixirs. You are all familiar with them, but the ones auctioned tonight are different from regular ones."
Yun Ji kept the people guessing on purpose. Two maids came up with two big trays, and Yun Ji continued with a smile, "There are 20 Fire Fairy Lucid Ganoderma and 20 Netherworld Roots. The Fire Fairy Lucid Ganoderma is the main elixir in refining Immortal Downfall Pellets and the Netherworld Root is indispensable in refining Netherworld Pellets. What I want to say it that after our appraisal of the two elixirs today, we determined that the efficacy of them are twice as strong as regular ones. Okay, the auction begins now. We sell all of them at once. You cannot only buy one. The base price is 600,000 Xuan Crystals."
"Wow…"
Many people were in a commotion. The twice-stronger efficacy surprised many people. If the elixirs were used to refine pellets, the pellets must be much better.
"I think I can get a high price."
Lu Li became excited looking at people’s reactions. There were many items sold, but only the first item, the Heaven Grade Xuan Artifact caused such a big sensation.
"Six hundred thousand!"
As Lu Li expected, someone made a bid, a Young Lady in a private room upstairs.
However…
Lu Li sensed something was wrong when he heard the voice. He seemed to have heard it somewhere?
When she finished bidding, total silence enveloped the venue. Not a single one dared to say anything. All looked to the first private room on the left. Many young men were looking at that place with zest.
"Damn it!"
Lu Li finally recalled who the voice belonged to. Three words came out of his mouth with hatred, "Bai… Xia… Shuang!"