Chapter 527: Disputes!
Suddenly, a loud and clear voice was heard, "Sikong Family bids five-hundred-thousand!" Jun Mo Xie found this voice to be familiar. It turned out that the bidder was an old acquaintance of his’— Sikong An Ye; he was Head of the Sikong family. Sikong An Ye flashed a faint smile when he saw that Jun Mo Xie looking over.
This man had been arranged by Jun Mo Xie before the start of the event to act a phony customer... He was supposed to lure the real customers into spending more money. It was obvious that these phony customers weren’t of much use in the present situation. However, Sikong An Ye still hadn’t held back. Moreover, he had suddenly shot up the bid’s price to five-hundred-thousand in gold from three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand.
That guy named Wei irritably looked over, "Hey, Little Man Sikong! Do you even have so much gold with you? Don’t raise the price on purpose!"
Sikong An Ye snorted, and replied, "Mr. Jiang Dong’s Wei, shut your mouth if you don’t have the money!"
Jun Mo Xie realized that these two families also harbored hatred against each other as soon as he heard this...
Upstairs, Mei Xue Yan had already told Gian Qing Han to record this; she had also asked for the Sikong Family to be marked separately. After all, the Sikong Family was considered as a faithful ally to the Jun family. So, how can they not pay more attention to them?
Downstairs, a lot of people had begun to bid. Therefore, the competition had leveled-up, "The Eagle City’s Guan Family bids at five-hundred-and-twenty-thousand in gold!"
"Southwestern Liu Family bids at five-hundred-and-thirty-thousand in gold... "
"Northeastern Xianyu Family bids at six-hundred-thousand in gold..."
...
The people from the Sikong and Wei families sat down as the other families started to fall over each other in excitement in order to make their bids. However, the majority of the influential families were sitting contented. After all, this was only the fourth of the fifty batches. So, there was no need to hurry. But, it must be said that the faster one would get their hands on these pills — the more relieved they’d feel...
Jun Mo Xie was continuously hopping-about the stage while splattering his saliva in excitement. He was cunningly adding oil and vinegar to the fire from the stage; he obviously wanted to transform this spectacle into a massive and unstoppable wildfire.
"Is there any further increase in the price? Is there any? The price is at six-hundred-thousand in gold now! Six-hundred-thousand in gold... goes once... Oh! There are friends who are holding up the bidder’s sign... They appear financially stronger! Good! He bids at six-hundred-and-fifty-thousand in gold as expected! Six-hundred-and-fifty-thousand goes once... Right over there... That brother bids at six-hundred-and-eighty-thousand! Six-hundred-and-eighty-thousand! These Bone Tempering Pills are in a refined form... The herbs which were used to refine these pills are rarely ever found in this world... You might never be able to find these pills if you miss this chance right now! Over there... The friend bids at seven-hundred-thousand! Everyone should understand that gold is a trivial thing... What importance does it hold in comparison to the future of our families? It may be hard to pay such amounts of money today, but this hardship will ensure the fall of your enemy in future. And, that will ensure the success of your family... Over there... a friend... what? Wow! Eight-hundred-thousand...! Eight-hundred-thousand goes once... Eight-hundred-thousand... This amount is quite surprising... But, it’s worth it when one wants the family to prosper for a thousand years... What is Eight-hundred-thousand for something like that?"
Jun Mo Xie had splattered all of it out in one go. But, the price didn’t rise any further once it had climbed up to eight-hundred-thousand. After all, it was about eight-hundred-thousand in gold... Not just any eight-hundred-thousand clods of land! It was an extremely terrifying figure!
Jun Mo Xie called out the digits five or six times. Eventually, he was forced to drop the gavel with slight despair in his heart, "Eight-hundred-thousand goes twice... Eight-hundred-thousand goes thrice! It is a deal!"
"Only for eight-hundred-thousand...? These rare divine pills can entirely transform a Xuan practitioner’s body! But, these pills are being sold at such a small price? Bah! There’s no justice in this world! Such an amount is given out to old men so that they can buy walking sticks! I would’ve set these pills at a much higher price if I had known this earlier!"
Great Young Master Jun Mo Xie was feeling very apprehensive. And, he kept muttering these words endlessly. He had reached a deal a moment ago, but it was evident that he wasn’t satisfied with it. However, every other family had been rendered speechless.
The deal had concluded at eight-hundred-thousand!
It was sky-high price! It was sky-high through and through!
It was neither about eight-hundred-thousand in silver.... nor was it about copper coins; the price was eight-hundred-thousand in gold! Most of these families were long-standing influential families. So, they could come up with this kind of money if needed! Even the Huang Family had managed to do so. But, spending such amounts of money would still hurt them. However, it must be said that the other families would merely suffer some hardships, while the Huang Family had been ruined!
Who would’ve agreed to spend eight-hundred-thousand in gold for only twenty pills if it wasn’t about the future and safety of their family? After all, each pill was worth forty thousand in gold... Everyone’s scalp had exploded in the face of such a calculation!
The winner of this round of auction was an old man; he had seemingly sad-looking facial features.
This old man’s hair were as white as silver; his gaze was sharp, and his face looked somewhat gloomy. But, one could trace happiness at the corners of his face.
"But, he’s the Head of the Gongsun Family! That’s Gongsun Jue Dao!" someone softly called out the name of this old man who had put up eight-hundred-thousand in-exchange for twenty pills.
Everyone had become apprehensive... [It turned out to be this man!? This old man is famous for his far-sightedness. But, it seems that these rumors are wrong. After all, he has spent such a huge sum of money only for twenty pills! But, he still thinks that this is a blessing! What can be considered as ’stupid’ if not this act!]
[People often don’t meet up to their reputation when you meet them in person!]
"It’s certainly feels better to meet a reputed man in person than merely hearing his name! I had once heard some news a long time ago. People had said that the Head of the Gongsun Family is extremely far-sighted. He’s known for his courage and ability to thinking into the future. He has carried forward his family’s name with his own hands. In fact, it took him only thirty years to promote his family’s name from to the top level from that of a third-rate force... He’s genuinely worthy of his name. And, he’d very far-sighted! Note that Gongsun Family’s Gongsun Jue Dao is far-sighted and courageous. He possessed first-class thinking. And, he’s worthy of making friends with," Mei Xue Yan commented.
Dugu Xiao Yi wrote all this down at a flying speed.
Jun Mo Xie was still unfinished on the stage. So, he came forward with the fifth batch of pills, and began shouting on the top of his voice.
"Everybody! Everybody! The past is already over. Everyone has arrived here to create future glory for their family... And, the chance is right in front of you! What are you waiting for? You will be the hero of your family if you return home with these twenty pills! And, your contributions won’t go unnoticed when your family emerges stronger tomorrow! Your grandsons will admire you for a thousand years; they will cherish your memories. Let’s come back to the main topic here... These Bone Tempering Pills are rare... They’re an unprecedented medicine with an immense potential. So, there is a huge margin for the appreciation in their value. You might have to spend some money to buy these things today... But, you will have a ten-fold profit in the future! However, the price of this fifth batch is still at the same level right now. I now implore the ’Eight Immortals to cross the ocean’ and show their talents! Let’s see whose family blossoms, and whose family falls!"
Jun Mo Xie had been too careless to realize that the old legend of the ’Eight Immortals’ didn’t exist in this world... In fact, he had completely overlooked this... However, no one in the audience cared about this. After all, they were only concerned about the merits of the pill. Could they care about legends and potential appreciation of these pills’ value? After all, these pills could help their family in nurturing super-experts in the future! Losing even a single one of them could be considered a sin. So, how could they pay attention to things like mythological references...? Or even the re-sale value of these pills? Instead, they were busy in holding their placards as high as they could!
The atmosphere of the hall had heated to unprecedented levels within moments.
Many of these people could’ve never imagined that the price of these pills was extremely less right now. They would have to purchase these pills had a much different price later on. After all, only a few of these pills would survive many years down the lane. And, those surviving pills would be sold at a freakishly high price at that time. In fact, each of these pills would come to cost around three-million in gold in the future. And, they would have to resign themselves to pay such prices at that time!
Young Master Jun had ensured everyone that these pills would see a massive appreciation in value. And, he hadn’t joked about this either. After all, this was a fact! However, this was a fact that would follow-up in the future...
The fourth batch was sold out at eight-hundred-thousand. However, no one had expected that this sale-price would turn out to be the lowest one. In fact, the prices had continued to increase dramatically afterwards. Even the second-lowest had notched eight-hundred-and-fifty-thousand in gold!
The atmosphere of the hall had grown increasingly intense after the fifth batch of the pills was sold. Upstairs, Guan Qing Han and Dugu Xiao Yi had been noting down the comments, analyses, and judgments made by Mei Xue Yan. They had already jotted-down a thick pile of specific information. The objective of their research was gradually getting clearer. And, the differences and disputes among all families were slowly rising to the surface...
Snake King also looked like a secretary who was working under her boss Mei Xue Yan. She was handling the tasks of classification, summarizing, distinguishing, arranging, etc. She had even made labels to identity and differentiate the categories. She was obviously doing this so that the specific information could be dug out as-and-when needed.
These Bone Tempering Pills had already gained much recognition. After all, every family was concerned about their future. So, all of them wanted to attain the magical powers of these pills. In fact, a family would purposefully raise the price of these pills in case their rivalling family was competing for it. They wanted to hurt their enemies by increasing the prices in case they couldn’t get it themselves. After all, they wanted to beat the enemy by any means possible...
The heated atmosphere of the auction hall had slowly led everyone to indulge in a furious competition; neither the old, nor the young had been spared! Nearly everyone was red-eyed. They were hurling abuses at each other from the corners of their mouths. Some people had even come to the verge of breaking into a fight then-and-there...
The auction hall would’ve easily turned into a slaughterhouse in no time if the Three Holy Lands’ people hadn’t been present to keep a watch.
No one was willing to leave the hall. Everyone wanted to know which families would get to own these pills. After all, these families would become the center of everyone’s attention in the future. So, the spectators wanted to note down the names of these families as well as their most talented youngsters. And, that’s because they would have to keep a close eye on these people later on.
After all, these people could become their allies in the future... or maybe even their murderers!
And, who could dare to relax and ignore the precautions under such circumstances?
Consequently, the number of people present in the hall hadn’t gone down. Instead, the atmosphere inside the hall had started to soar to even higher degrees.
The auction proceeded in this manner until it was lunch time. It must be mentioned that the rules of this auction were rather simple. However, they had still managed to auction out only twelve batches until lunch time! Such a speed could be compared to that of a snail! Nevertheless, people were enjoying their time as they stood in a circle to watch the bustling scene... Everyone was using harsh words towards their opposition. They were threatening, and even unmasking each other... The auction hall had come to resemble a microcosm for the entire continent, and all the grievances of the continent had concentrated in this microcosm...
However, the two women — Dugu Xiao Yi and Guan Qing Han — were completely exhausted...
It was a huge task to arrange these valuable pieces of information! In fact, both the women were somewhat envious of Tang Yuan at this time. [That guy only has to move the gold! It’s such an easy job; unlike the task of writing down everything these five-or-six-hundred people are saying! Arranging and summarizing all this information is a work that requires brains...!]
It could be said that these two girls would’ve collapsed if Mei Xue Yan hadn’t taken the responsibility of summarizing the information... Moreover, this was task which came with massive mental-pressure. After all, this data would determine the direction the Jun Family would take in the future. So, even a small mistake made at this time could push the family into assuming an enemy as a friend in the future. And, who could afford the consequences of something like that...?
It was winter at this time. However, the clothes of these two women had soaked in their sweat to a point where they had seemingly become transparent.
However, Mei Xue Yan’s unparalleled beautiful face had been becoming increasingly anxious with the passage of time...