Bab 18: Beast Auction
Having been led into the main hall, Xue Wei noticed that only those of certain status within Tiankong City were present.
Although Xue Wei was a young master of Tiankong City, he was in fact not high enough a profile to be allowed into the Auction House that day, but he had been given a seat in the main hall because of his encounter with the monk.
The Auction House had balconies with private rooms. There was a total of ten, and the ones who were allowed within the private rooms were either the most outstanding experts and families within the Tiankong City or their guests.
One of the rooms was reserved for the monks. Usually, one would be reserved for Xiao Lei, but since Xiao Lei was not present, the balcony was given to a less prominent family.
One was kept for the Li family and another for the Shen family. The other seven went to the seven most prominent families in Tiankong City that did not have a Heavenly Warrior cultivator.
The main floor had around five thousand seats, a whole lot, but they were quickly filled with noble families and their entourages.
Xue Wei was seated in his position when he spotted Luo Zhirou together with the Luo Patriarch and the rest of their family.
He then looked around and found that all of the young masters and mistresses had arrived together with their families; even Li Jian was there in the balcony along with his family, and Shen Mu was there together with Shen Bingwen.
Shen Mu noticed Xue Wei's glance and waved slightly to him with a relieved smile on his face, which also contained quite a bit of curiosity.
No one knew exactly why the monk had called out Xue Wei, but it was without a doubt something beneficial. If they had known that he had been interrogated instead, they would have been shocked.
Fortunately, neither Xue Wei nor the monk was willing to start any rumors about Xue Wei scaring the mammoth. The Black Horned Mammoth was equivalent to a Sky Warrior of the first layer, and it had gotten scared by locking eyes with a measly fifth layered Ordinary Warrior. If this were spread, then no one would be willing to buy the Black Horned Mammoth.
Xue Wei was not willing to talk about it because it would just enhance the rumor about how strange and different he was. He was likely to become even more of an outcast than he already was. Also, he did not understand why the beast had feared him, and thus he did not want to talk about it.
Soon, the entire auction hall was filled with people; a bustling and lively atmosphere was inside the hall, and everyone was chatting with their friends and family.
Xue Wei was alone, and as a result, he did not chat with anyone in particular. All he did was listen to the ones around him.
Next to him was a person with a big bamboo hat. The hat was so large and hanging from it was a cloth so that no one could see the face of the person. The figure was shrouded in a massive black cloak, but Xue Wei noticed said person’s hand and frowned.
The body was big and seemed to fill out the black cloak, but the hand was elegant and slender. The skin was porcelain white, and the nails appeared to be shaped very finely.
Sensing the glance that Xue Wei gave the hand, the person by his side withdrew it and hid it beneath the cloak again. The movement was like flowing water, so graceful and elegant that Xue Wei was almost in a trance.
Shaking his head, he awoke from a daze and looked around the rest of the room. He recognized quite a few of the people present in the Auction House, but some had come from outside of town to participate in the auction.
Suddenly, as the last seat was occupied, the light in the auction hall dimmed, and everyone quieted down. No one spoke, and there was an excited feeling within the room. Everyone held their breath and wondered which one of the beasts would be up for sale first.
There were only two beasts this time, and both of them were excellent companions, but it was clear that the main families were here for the Black Horned Mammoth.
“Before we start the auction, I would like to say a few words of thanks to the revered Diviners that have graced us with their arrival in Tiankong City.”
“Although Diviners are all over the continent, they are very rare to see within our city. In fact, we are lucky if there are a group of Diviners that appears every hundred years. As a result, getting your hands on a Fierce Beast is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Do not hesitate, for if you do, it might take another hundred years before you get another chance!”
"We will start today's auction with the Four-Tailed Scorpion," the auctioneer said as he glanced towards the monks that were sitting on the highest ranked balcony.
He was worried that they perhaps had hoped for him to start the biggest bidding war first, and then the rest would be desperate to get their hands on the scorpion afterward. The Auction House was taking a gamble and hoping to be able to sell the Four-Tailed Scorpion first and then make the price for the Mammoth go so high that it would shock the city.
The people in the audience were aware of his thoughts, but they could do nothing against his idea, and they knew that he would drive the prices up for the Black Horned Mammoth. But all of them wanted it, and they had no other option than to follow the rules of the auction.
One silver was enough to pay for a family's expenses for three weeks, but everyone here was able to spend a tremendous amount of money for these beasts. They had taken all their liquid assets with themselves so that they had a chance at getting a Fierce Beast.
"The Four-Tailed Scorpion is an offensive beast. It can assist you in the war against the Fierce Beasts and the Primordial Beasts. It will kill swiftly with its four stingers, and it will be deadly to even beasts at its own level."
"This Four-Tailed Scorpion is equivalent to a ninth layered Earth Warrior in strength and can grow to become as strong as a Heavenly Warrior. Its potential is great!"
"Everyone, we will start the bidding at a thousand gold coins. Every bid has to be raised with at least a hundred gold coins at a time."
"One thousand and four hundred!" someone yelled, and soon it was followed by another person yelling "two thousand!", "Five thousand!"
Soon, the price rose to ten thousand gold, an amount that far exceeded anything that the owner of the Auction House had expected. He gulped and swallowed his saliva; if the bidding war for the Four-Tailed Scorpion was as ferocious as it was now, then it was hard to determine just how overwhelming the bidding war for the Black Horned Mammoth would be.
Finally, the bids stilled slightly. The ones who kept bidding were the Shen family and an unknown person who had come from outside Tiankong City.
The members of Tiankong City dared not bid for longer against the Shen family as they could feel Shen Bingwen’s annoyance at being bid up all the time.
Although they wished to purchase this Four-Tailed Scorpion, they knew that they had to stay within Tiankong City in the future and to annoy the City Lords of their city was simply suicidal. Only the Li family could afford to do so.
Finally, the outsider gave up on the endeavor of winning the beast from the Shen family, but the Shen family's coffers had suffered quite a hit, losing a full fifteen thousand and seven hundred gold.
This was the value of most of the smaller noble families, and they all felt their mouths go dry when they noticed how much money that had been spent on just one beast.
The Four-Tailed Scorpion ended up with the Shen family, but although they had gained one beast, the Li family could not help but snicker. They had already dug this deep in their pockets for one beast, but they would have to dig even deeper if they wanted the second beast; and even if they were rich, they would be incapable of winning the bid.
For some reason, Shen Bingwen looked completely calm as he saw the next beast being led up on stage.
"This is a Black Horned Mammoth," the auctioneer began, his voice was filled with excitement, and his eyes shone as he knew that a desperate fight was about to ensue. "This Black Horned Mammoth is specialized in defense. As long as you use it as your mount during the war against the Fierce and Primordial Beasts, then you are safe. Although it is not very fast, it is as strong as a first layered Sky Warrior!"
"We will start the bidding at two thousand gold, and each bid has to be raised with at least two hundred gold coins each!"
Just as he said this, everyone got ready to bid. Everyone wanted to show their interest, yet before anyone managed to say something, a clear voice sounded through the entire room, "I bid thirty thousand gold coins for this Black Horned Mammoth."
The bidder was the cloaked person next to Xue Wei, and the latter raised an eyebrow in surprise. The voice that had sounded out belonged to that of a woman, and although she had masked herself, everyone could hear from her voice that she was not someone who was easily bullied. It was firm and decisive.
The Li Patriarch frowned when he heard the bid. He had expected that the Black Horned Mammoth would be more expensive than the Four-Tailed Scorpion, but he was not expecting that the first bid would double the price.
He was quite unhappy that the price had been raised so much. He needed a beast if he wanted to stand a chance against the Shen family, but he also knew that if he ended up paying such a large sum of money, he would end up impoverishing his family.
"Patriarch, we should get it no matter what!" one of the elders said with a serious expression on his face. "Our reputation will rise if we have a beast of this caliber in our family. Our shops and restaurants will be picked over the Shen family's places, resulting in us earning more money."
"Although it is a large investment, we have no option; we cannot back down!" another elder agreed, and the patriarch clenched his teeth and thought for a moment. What the two elders said was right and he called out, "Thirty thousand two hundred."
It was raised with the lowest amount possible to increase a bid with, and some people looked down on them for this, while others were just shocked that they decided to bid such an outrageous amount of money.
Unfortunately for the Li family, the rest did not last long. The woman next to Xue Wei snorted and called out again, "Fifty thousand gold coins."
Hearing this, everyone sucked in a breath of air. This lady was going against the Li family directly, and there was no respect shown.
"We do not have fifty thousand gold coins," the Li family patriarch said with a pale face. He finally understood why the Shen family had paid such a high price for the Four-Tailed Scorpion. They were aware of this woman's identity and did not wish to bid against her. This alone showed quite a lot about the woman.
"If it was a normal thing, we could rob her," one of the elders said with a little annoyance, but Li Fang's eyes turned serious. He shook his head. "We might be stronger than others, but we do not rob what does not belong to us," he said righteously.
Although he was vying for the position of City Lord, he was aware of what was right and wrong, and he did not wish to stray down the wrong path in fear of it corrupting his heart for martial arts.
Hadiah
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