In the next few days, Ikasa almost ripped his hair worrying over the final sale price of the scroll. To keep himself occupied, he started working on the next scroll. Unfortunately, he didn’t find another antique scroll holder for sale. But he had readied another ancient scroll.

Finally, the day of the auction had come. Ikasa dressed in his finest clothes worth 3000 coppers. He was going to join in the fun as himself.

When Ikasa reached the destination, he saw a queue of people. Every person in the line looked affluent. He noticed the queue was advancing at a snail’s pace. Annoyed, he couldn’t help but mumble his complaints.

“I consigned such an expensive item. Shouldn’t they have offered me a VIP pass?”

His mumbling intrigued the person who was before him in the queue. He turned around and gave Ikasa a once over, from head to toe.

“This Brother? What was the appraised worth of the item you consigned?”

Ikasa met the eyes of the curious man. He seemed to be in his thirties. His sleek hair-do and fair white skin gave off an aura of dandy silky pants. But most importantly, every piece of accessory on him screamed ‘Wealth’.

“Master Jin Ping appraised my item and said it was worth at least one thousand gold.” Ikasa answered proudly.

The man immediately lost interest. He gave Ikasa a look of disdain and then turned around.

Irked by the Man’s behaviour Ikasa immediately hissed with suppressed fury, “Why are you being rude, Mister?”

The man turned around with a look of ridicule. He completely ignored Ikasa’s red face and flippantly asked,

“Do you think a thousand gold is a lot of money?”

Ikasa was immediately dumbstruck. He wanted to reply immediately, ‘Yes, it is a lot of money.’ But thinking how casually the man talked, he hesitated. Because it might be a lot for himself, but for others present here, it might be worth pennies.

The youth didn’t wait for Ikasa to answer. He continued.

“You see this blue silk robe I am wearing? I imported it from tier 2 Mahogany City. It alone is worth 600 gold.”

The people, ahead and behind Ikasa, in the queue had all turned to see what the commotion was about. The young man’s declaration shocked the spectators. Afterall, 600 gold was worth 6000 silver or 600,000 coppers.

The Youth glanced at them with a smirk. Unable to stop showing off, he continued, “This ring has the most beautiful Lapis Lazuli from the Baobab City’s volcano. It cost me just over 1000 gold. Even my underwear is made from Gold Striped-Spider’s silk worth 200 gold…”

The gazes of onlookers rapidly changed from shock to admiration to plain greed. Ikasa backed away from the youth.

When people are gathered in a crowd, they become fearless. They often do crazy shit like mob lynching. And right now it looked like they wanted to beat this guy and steal the ring from him.

‘They might even steal the clothes on him till nothing but the underwear remains… No scratch that… They might not even leave underwear for him.’

Ikasa thought as he merged into the crowd. Every flaunt of that person was a critical hit to his weak spot; his finances. But when he mentioned his underwear, Ikasa put him in the crazy category and stopped paying heed to his words.

Right now, Ikasa was thinking the same thing as the crowd here; How to get his hands on that ring stealthily. But before any maverick from the crowd could make a move, the circle they had subconsciously formed around the youth was broken.

A few goons made way for a boy in his early teens.

“Eh? Eldest Brother, why are you here?”

The teen asked the man in the blue silk robe with surprise.

The man replied with arrogance oozing from his voice, “I just wanted to mingle with commoners.”

Ikasa glanced at the people around. Their clothes alone might be worth the monthly expenditures of a common family. So being called Commoners to their face was equal to insulting them.

‘Is this guy here to farm for rage points?’

Ikasa wondered as he saw people’s gazes turn cold. He could totally believe +99, +99, +99… appearing in the youth’s system if he really did have one.

But still people had to reign in their anger. They recognised the teen. He was the second son of Li Family Patriarch, Li Shen. And so the Blue robed youth must be the mysterious heir who has never shown up in public, Li Fan.

“Don’t talk nonsense brother. Come, Father is waiting for you in the VIP room.”

Li Shen eyed the angered crowd nervously as he brought his foolish elder brother to the VIP entrance. The only reason they were not attacked was the burly goons who formed a tight circle around them.

Even though Ikasa had a minor embarrassment, he didn’t take it to heart. Because every dog has his day, and his day has yet to come.

After this small incident, people queued up once again and this time the queue moved much faster.

Soon Ikasa was seated in the fifth row from the stage.

People were seated according to the amount of gold deposited with the auction house. Nearer the seat to the stage, greater the amount deposited.

So Ikasa’s seat was below average. There were a total of seven rows with the first two rows for VIPs.

‘Ingenious. But If I open an auction house I will just create galleries instead of this amphitheater type of seating.’

While Ikasa was dreaming about his future Auction house, the Host for the night stood before the podium.

“Good Evening! I, Shan Wu, welcome all of you to the first auction of the 354th year of the Holy Wood Empire. Today, we have a variety of rare goods, herbs and cultivation resources for your appraisal. Please offer them a fair price.”

With a charming smile, Shan Wu began to introduce the first item of the night.

Ikasa didn’t bid for anything as he was here only to broaden his horizons and not purchase anything. Even if he wanted to purchase something, his meagre funds of 10 gold would prevent him from getting anything of value.

Where did these 10 gold come from? They were collected from the administrative office for the draft he had made for Yao Han and Auction House.

On the stage, Shan Wu had finished the introduction of Premium Speciality Tea from the Tier 2 Ebony City.

“100 Silvers!”

“120 Silvers!”

“130 Silvers!”

.

.

The Bids continued to rise higher and higher. Finally, someone managed to win the bid with 210 Silver coins.

‘Tsk Tsk! Wastrels paid 21 gold for just 250 grams of Tea. That’s 21,000 coppers!’

Even though this tea had a wondrous taste and effect of guiding energy more efficiently during Path Forging realm, Ikasa would still not pay 21 gold for it!

Next few items were similarly luxurious items such as sandalwood essence oil, Rose Incense and a sculpture made of ivory.

After an hour of waiting, the item Ikasa was waiting for was finally introduced on stage.

“Our next item was consigned to us by an anonymous cultivator. Even though its origins are mysterious, our in-house appraiser, Master Jin Ping has verified its authenticity. This is a High Grade Path Forging Manual, Ape’s Might Body Forging Technique!”

Shan Wu paused to let her words sink in. She smirked at the expressions of greed and anticipation as she introduced the benefits of the manual.

“The intended Energy Path covers all the four limbs as well as the Torso. If compared to other common High Grade Path Forging Manuals, the energy path of this manual is 30% longer. If you can pair it with a manual whose energy path covers neck and head, you can get a Top-Grade Path Forging Manual!”

‘What? My printer is so amazing?’

Even for Ikasa this information was new. He didn’t have any other High Grade Manuals to compare to, so he was ignorant of its special features.

What astonished him and the audience the most was the pairing Shan Wu mentioned. He was unaware that one could use multiple cultivation manuals to recreate the same effects as that of higher grade manuals.

‘But it’s easier said than done. Finding multiple compatible manuals is much harder than finding a higher tiered manual. However, if you need just one compatible manual, it is still possible.’

And that’s what caused a huge stir in the audience. After all, High Grade Manuals could still be obtained from Tier 1 cities, But Top-Grade manuals were impossible to get unless you belonged to an Empire-Class Force.

Shan Wu cleverly let the hubbub settle.

“The minimum worth of this manual is 4000 Silvers. Increments of no less than 100 silvers will be entertained. Please show your appreciation!”

And the Bidding war began!

“5000 Silvers!”

“5500 Silvers!”

“You cheapskates want to buy a Top Grade manual for 5500 Silvers? Dream on!”

Someone from the second row turned to those in the back rows and yelled. Then he raised his bid directly by 2000 Silvers taking it to 7500.

“Ha ha ha, You are no better Old Lu! 9000 Silvers!”

Someone from the first row gave ‘Old Lu’ the taste of his own medicine.

–

In the right corner of the first row where Li family was seated;

“Li Shen, do you want that manual?”

Li Fan looked at the 14 year old who couldn’t mask his excitement. If not for his father and elder brother, he would have bid for this manual at any cost.

“Of course Big brother!” Li Shen replied with hope and expectation. But he sombered soon enough.

“But Father will not agree. After all he is here for ‘that thing.'”

“Nothing is more important than your future, fool!” Li Fan said dotingly as he ruffled Li Shen’s hair. He then raised the bid hovering at 8000 silvers directly to 10000 silvers.

The Li Family Patriarch glanced at him with annoyance but didn’t say anything.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep