Chapter 559: Procedures

Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

“Calm down, don’t be so reckless!” As the auction house fell into silence, Ling Xiao’s calm voice rang out.

You XiaoMo buried his face into his arms. He hadn’t done it on purpose. His hand had been hovering over the crystal tablet as he considered what price he should enter. Then he got a little over excited and this happened. He had intended to wait for the end to stick his foot in, making others think that he was raising the price for fun again.

Yet now, it seemed like the effect it had was out of his expectations.

“Don’t let your hand slip next time.” Ling Xiao didn’t seem to feel the burning gazes on them, picking up the hand You XiaoMo had used to bid and pinching it.

You XiaoMo scratched his head. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Hand… hand slipped?

The people sitting around them all wore stunned expressions. They couldn’t believe that they had bid the sky high price of five hundred million because his hand had slipped. However, amongst those angry at this occurrence, there was the auctioneer. If this map failed to sell, then it’d be blamed on him.

“Number Fifteen has put in a bid for five hundred million. Are there any bids higher than his?” The auctioneer repeated himself. In reality, he already knew it wasn’t very possible. For a power like the ShuangYu Hotel, five hundred million was almost the entirety of their assets. Greater powers like the Vermillion Blood Clan probably had a total of just over a billion in assets. It would be impossible to ask them to throw away five hundred million just for a quarter of a map.

The auctioneer repeated himself twice again, and when he prepared to lower the hammer on the third time, the crystal tablet updated.

The auctioneer froze for a moment before exclaiming in excitement, “Number 210 bids five hundred and ten million.” After he yelled this, he looked towards the one who had bid, and realized it was the black-cloaked figure.

Everyone was shocked.

Before they could formulate any sort of response, another shocking occurrence had their jaws dropping.

“Number one has bid five hundred and twenty million.”

Though there was only a twenty million increase, the point was that You ZhenTian actually bid. Could it be that he wanted this map or that he wanted to help You XiaoMo get out of this snit?

The latter idea was absolutely absurd.

Soon enough, the Demon Phoenix Clan’s actions had them in deep contemplation.

“Number 3 has bid five hundred and thirty million,” the auctioneer announced.

It wasn’t Ji Rui who had acted, but Ji YunLang’s grandfather, Ji He. From the beginning, he had been very calm and composed, allowing Ji Rui to make all the decisions. Yet, when the auction was coming to a close, he had acted.

The crowd couldn’t help but wonder if there was some sort of priceless secret to this map that caused both You ZhenTian and Ji He to bid for it one after the other.

If that was true…

The way the crowd looked at the map changed, from looking at rags to looking at a feast with an alluring smell.

You XiaoMo was imagining killing those three interlopers in his head. He had thought the last map scrap would easily fall into his hands, yet, perhaps if he hadn’t acted he might’ve gotten it easily, yet now that he had, three others were bidding for it, too. This was bad.

If he continued to compete with them, the others would realize that he wanted the map. Thinking back to when he had raised the prices on purpose to mess around with people, even if the things he bid for were what he actually wanted, others might not think the same way. You XiaoMo regretted it.

Ling Xiao suddenly grabbed his hand, saying in a low tone, “Don’t panic.”

You XiaoMo nodded, calming himself.

Since You ZhenTian and the others had joined in, the price of the map went past six hundred million. Each increase was only ten to twenty million.

As the price grew, the cloaked man finally gave up. With him backing out, there was only You ZhenTian and Ji He left. Neither of the two were willing to give in to the other and the price broke seven hundred million. Finally, the price began to stabilize, stopping at You ZhenTian’s seven hundred and twenty million. Ji He fell silent.

You XiaoMo, seeing how the auctioneer was prepared to end the bidding, he reached for his crystal tablet. Just as he did, he was suddenly grabbed by Ling Xiao and saw the other shaking his head. He wanted to ask why, but then he saw the other type several numbers into the crystal tablet.

“…”

Did he want to show off?

You XiaoMo shook his head. That wasn’t the point. The point was how much Ling Xiao had bid, in such a situation, it could only be that number.

When the auctioneer saw the number on the crystal tablet, his smile froze for a moment. Though it wasn’t number fifteen, fourteen and fifteen were together. Were these two here to make a mess or did they actually want to buy these things?

The auctioneer hesitated for two seconds and could only announce, “Number fourteen bids eight hundred million.”

Ling Xiao and You XiaoMo might’ve been together, but they were still different. He had only bid once throughout the entire auction, so no one knew what he was thinking.

Some people were observing You XiaoMo’s expression. He looked shocked and they guessed that even he didn’t know that his companion would bid.

They didn’t know that You XiaoMo had objections to Ling Xiao’s bid, but didn’t voice them.

With the price at eight hundred million, even You ZhenTian was hesitating. It wasn’t that the Vermillion Blood Clan couldn’t afford it, but it was if this was truly worth it or not.

Under such a situation, no one dared to artificially raise the price, not even You ZhenTian. Unless they were like You XiaoMo, who didn’t have the burden of representing a clan and didn’t care about the consequences, others thought he was messing around.

Lin HaoWu and Ji Rui viewed Ling Xiao as an enemy and wanted to mess with Ling Xiao and inflate the price, but what if they failed and their opponent didn’t fall for it? They couldn’t deal with such consequences.

You ZhenTian considered it again and, in the end, decided against bidding.

The map was taken by Ling Xiao at the absurd price of eight hundred million.

The entire auction finally came to an end, yet when the auctioneer announced so, very few people left. Many people were sitting in their seats, seemingly waiting for something, and even the great powers didn’t leave.

You XiaoMo realized that people kept glancing at him, like they were expecting a show. Some looked over with burning gazes. He didn’t know how to react for moment, confused.

Ling Xiao was calm.

After a few minutes, the auctioneer personally brought them their spirit wine and recipe, the transcendent level magic herbs and seeds, the life crystal of the Wolf of Gluttony and the map. Wow, they really had bought a lot.

Were they prepared to go through the procedures right here right now?

You XiaoMo was confused. Wasn’t it usually done backstage?

“Little shidi, do you not know the procedures here?” Wei Bai’s low voice sounded, tone a little shocked and a little worried.

You XiaoMo asked in confusion, “What procedures?”

Wei Bai frowned. This wasn’t good. He explained, “You didn’t check the flow of the auction before attending? Usually, if someone is suspected of artificially raising the price, they won’t be allowed to go through the procedures backstage, only right after the auction. If you can’t provide the spirit gems, then you’ll receive strict punishment from the Black Spider and the items you successfully bid for will be re-auctioned at half price. The final price cannot exceed the final price of the first bidding.”

Now You XiaoMo knew why so many people had looked at him weirdly like that. They probably all thought he couldn’t provide the necessary spirit gems and were waiting for him to be humiliated and his items to be re auctioned.

However, the total price of the items he had bid for weren’t cheap, so this wasn’t unexpected.

“If it’s so troublesome, why doesn’t the auction just ban people from artificially inflating the price?” You XiaoMo felt that this could totally be just banned and prevented.

Wei Bai smiled, shaking his head with a hint of amusement. “It isn’t as if there’s only a bad side to this. In reality, the Black Spider can benefit from this quite a bit. It’s not like everyone is like you and doesn’t care about the costs.”

You XiaoMo grinned.

The auctioneer had people bring them their items, and set the items in front of them. Apart from the magic herbs, which were put into magic bags, the others were placed in clear view.

The auctioneer handed the magic bags to You XiaoMo. “Please take a look and see if everything is in order.”

You XiaoMo quickly took a count, making sure everything was there before nodding.

The auctioneer said with a smile, “That’ll be one billion, seven hundred million, eight thousand, five hundred and fifty spirit gems.”

Here it comes!

Everyone thought to themselves. That was almost one billion eight hundred million, something the Vermillion Blood Clan and Cang Alliance would only be able to afford if they used all their assets.

You XiaoMo took out the dimensional ring his cheap dad had given him. An entire leyline’s spirit gems would total at around two billion. When he had bought his magic herbs, he had spent around one hundred million, and his cheap dad had also used some. There was still one billion eight hundred million left.

No more, no less, so if You ZhenTian had decided to throw nine hundred million into that map, he could only pass on it and then steal it back when he and Ling Xiao were stronger than You ZhenTian.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep