Returning from the Immortal World

As the lights in the hall went out, soft lighting was turned on in the room and only the auction platform had better lighting. Ouyang Lulu then whispered, “The auction is about to begin.”

As expected, the guests who came to attend the auction at this time had reached more than 200 people, and most of the seats in the hall had been occupied. The entrance door to the venue was slowly closed and the host of the action, a young man wearing white gloves, came to the stage with a beaming face.

“Welcome to the Blue Starfish Mansion, Ladies & Gentlemen. I’m grateful to the owner of Blue Starfish Mansion, Mr. Hu Shaokun, who has provided us the auction site. My name is Cheng Huan and I’m the auctioneer of this auction.”

Up to this point, he paused for a moment and then pointed to the projector screen that had just been activated. He continued speaking with a smile, “This is the list of items that will be auctioned at today’s auction. I believe that all the respectable guests in the hall have heard about some of the items in advance. Maybe there are some treasures you like among them, so without further ado, I hereby announce. The auction starts now!

“The first article to be auctioned is a painting collected by a renowned master collector…”

As the auction’s proceedings carried on, the first article didn’t interest Tang Xiu since he was also a painter himself. He could have put his own masterpiece to be auctioned and fetch a sky-high price for it if he wanted to.

The second article was a set of Yixing clay teapots which used to be the Royal Purple Teapot of the Imperial Palace, so it also fetched quite an extraordinary price.

Items were auctioned out as the auction moved on. Tang Xiu found that many guests participated in the biddings, but there was no malice involved. Further, the price of each auctioned article could be said to be quite low, with the lowest worth only at 5 million.

“Ji Mu, did you ask the number of articles being auctioned this time?” Tang Xiu asked.

“A total of 32 items, I think,” answered Ji Mu. “I only heard some info about a few of them, though. I got no idea about the rest.”

Tang Xiu nodded in response and shifted his focus back to the auctioneer.

Ten past eight. The guiding girl in cheongsam stepped onto the stage and the auctioneer spoke again with a smile, “The next article is a very interesting object, Ladies & Gentlemen. It has been appraised by more than ten treasure expert appraisers, yet none of them has been able to identify what kind of object this one is. The only thing certain is that this object should have quite a number of years behind it. But without further ado, let us have a look at the projection screen!”

A clear picture shot by the projector was displayed on the screen, the guiding lady then lifted the yellow silk cover on top of the item, revealing an antique wooden box to the audience and making way to the appearance of a crystal-clear pearl inside it.

Isn’t that…

Surprise flashed in Tang Xiu’s eyes, and he instantly released his spiritual sense to quickly cover that crystal pearl. The longer he observed, the more evident his shock was.

A Dragon Pearl?

His eyes fixedly stared at the Dragon Pearl in the guiding lady’s hand while feeling shocked inside. He could clearly sense the enormous energy contained within that pearl. This Dragon Pearl surely didn’t originate from some ordinary dragon, but very likely from an ancient dragon!

But then… how could a Dragon Pearl from an ancient dragon appear on Earth?

Back when in the Immortal World, he also got his hands on such a similar pearl, but the price he had to pay to get it had been enormous. Further, the enormous essence energy contained within that Dragon Pearl was the very reason that made him able to break through the final shackle to become a Supreme.

Grandma Zui Ying, who had been paying attention to Tang Xiu, immediately found that Tang Xiu was shocked. Her expression slightly shifted and she immediately focused her eyes on the Dragon Pearl for several seconds. Then, she asked in a whisper, “Do you happen to know what that object is, Mr. Tang?”

Tang Xiu nodded silently, then glanced at her while replying, “It’s a great object.”

“What’s exactly great about it?” asked the old lady hurriedly.

Tang Xiu just let out a faint smile in response and waited for the auction to begin. He wasn’t afraid that this old lady would compete with him for this Dragon Pearl since she was well aware of how powerful he was. Further, she learned that the item was a great object from himself, so he could just break the decorum with her if she dared to fight him.

All in all, he was ready to stake everything to win this Dragon Pearl.

The auction host then spoke with a beaming smile, “Tens of treasures appraises may not be able to judge what this pearl is. However, ancient objects are always good stuff, don’t you agree? What’s more, this pearl is so clear like a crystal and is almost comparable to the legendary Luminous Pearl. Hence, we’ll start the bidding at 5 million. Anyone who wishes to obtain this pearl will have to increase the bid by at least 100,000 each time.”

“5 million?”

“A pearl?”

A half-minute after the host’s voice faded away, none among the over 200 guests attending the auction placed a bid. It was literally an unknown object as described, after all, while there were also more good objects waiting. Who knew if it was a treasure or not? If it turned out to be some trash and you spent 5 million for it, you can be sure to get depressed over it.

“5.1 million.”

Finally, an old man with a florid Chinese-style robe and reading glasses raised the plate number placed next to him. When he found everyone else gazing at him, he immediately smiled and said, “It’s just 5 million. Who knows if I got a lucky stroke, no? It could also be a good thing.”

The host finally felt relieved when he heard the bid. He had hosted many auctions with many high-class articles. Yet, he never had run into such a situation in the past. If such an unwanted situation did happen, it would definitely affect his auction by quite a bit.

He smiled at the old man and praised him. “This elderly gentleman truly has keen eyes, doesn’t he? This pearl could indeed be a big treasure. Besides, all those treasure expert appraisers did say that its value should be over 5 million yuan, which proves that this object is not ordinary. What about everyone else? Is there anyone that wants to bid higher? If not, this prospective enormous treasure can be bagged by the elderly gentleman!”

“5.5 million.”

As his voice faded away, someone finally quoted. However, only very few people were interested to bid for such an object. After several rounds of bidding, the final price finally halted at 6.2 million.

“Does anyone else wants to bid higher?” the host asked again.

Tang Xiu slowly lifted the number plate placed next to him and smilingly shouted, “6.5 million!”

The price was incremented by 300,000 at once. The figure was not much, yet it still garnered a lot of attention. Especially to Gu Changmin and Ji Xiangkui who knew his real identity. Both men instantly shifted their eyes to the Dragon Pearl with eyes slightly lit up.

“That thing should be good stuff! Everything that can attract his eyes is surely not ordinary,” commented Jin Xingkui in a low voice.

“My hunch exactly.” Gu Changmin slightly nodded and said, “But let’s restrain ourselves from bidding since he already has his eye on it. We can never offend him over a valuable.”

“I know that,” replied Jin Xingkui in a whisper. “But if he does win the bid for it, let’s ask him about it when we drink later.”

“Got it!” replied Gu Changmin without many words.

The middle-aged man who quoted 6.2 million turned to look at Tang Xiu with astonishment and found that the man was unfamiliar. Although he was surprised that Tang Xiu was so young, he still lifted his number again and shouted, “7 million!”

“7.5!” Tang Xiu raised his number and called out.

“8!” followed the middle-aged man

“8.5!” Tang Xiu lifted his number again.

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment. He turned to look at Tang Xiu again and immediately gave up the bid.

Finally, this Dragon Pearl was won by Tang Xiu at the price of 8.5 million yuan. He then chose to head to the backstage as fast as possible to receive it and returned to his seat five-plus minutes later with the pearl.

At this moment, no one knew how enormously excited and surprised Tang Xiu was. This ancient dragon’s pearl contained a colossus amount of energy that, let alone 8.5 million yuan, even if all the money in the banks in the entire Earth were added together, it was still far from enough to buy it.

Half an hour passed by and the auction was finally about to reach an end. Another item appeared before Tang Xiu’s eyes again. But after seeing the picture of the object displayed on the projection screen and hearing the description from the auction host, thick killing intent overflowed from his eyes.

It turns out to be the Aeroglider!

It was the high-tech Avion researched and developed by the Magnificent Tang Corporation. Not even a piece of it had been sold to anyone except those that were part of the deal with the military! Yet, one of them suddenly appeared in this auction. It made Tang Xiu instantly realize that there must be some problems either in the military or in his own company!

“I’ve explained all the energy-efficient features of this object clearly, so now I’ll announce that the base price is at 10 million, and each increment shall not be less than 1 million!” announced the host with a smile.

“Halt!”

Tang Xiu straightly got up from his seat. Under the watchful gazes of the host and more than 200 guests, he strode to the auction stage and swept over the audience with cold, chilling eyes. Then, he immediately spoke in a heavy voice, “What an interesting object! But I’ll do everything I can to get it. I’ll keep incrementing the price by 1 million regardless of everyone else’s bid. However…”

The host’s expression drastically changed and looked shocked. But after finding how cold Tang Xiu’s expression was, he hurriedly called out, “Sir, please think carefully. If the price quoted by the bidder is too high, I’m afraid it will cause you…”

Tang Xiu raised his hand to interrupt him and indifferently said, “Rest your worries. No one will dare to bid today since they will have to face me! I know everyone will be offended by my strange attitude here, but this object is too important, and those who dare to go against me will end up very miserable!”

An old man sitting on the second-row seat frowned and unhappily said, “Don’t speak so crazy, young man. Don’t treat all of us here like we’re poor even if you do have the money. This level of an auction is not the kind of place you can show off!”

“You think I’m showing off? You wanna try me?” Tang Xiu sneered.