Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In a flash, the past few irrelevant auctioned items had been auctioned off. Su Lei laughed and said, “Everyone, our auction house received a treasure a few days ago that I believe everyone will be interested. This treasure is an awesome weapon!”
After completing the sentence, he clapped his hands, and immediately, an attendant carried a red sandalwood tray, on which lay a long wooden chest.
After opening the wooden chest, Su Lei retrieved a longsword from within. A crisp, clear shing sound materialized with the pulling out of the sword. The sword had a dragon’s roar to it and brightly glittered, truly befitting of an item worth auctioning. It was indeed an extraordinary piece of equipment.
“This longsword is named the Iron Executioner. It was manufactured by our Heavenly State’s most famous blacksmith, Ruan Chengzhi. Its blade is extremely sharp and is definitely an elite level weapon, a treasure worth collecting! Everybody knows that this is the age of technology. This kind of ancient, purely handcrafted weapon normally is highly valued but has no market to buy from. We all know many people love to decorate the walls of their homes with an elegant, beautiful longsword. We call it ‘hanging sword,’ but this Iron Executioner longsword is definitely fitting of its title as the house guarding treasure sword! Everyone, please have a look!”
As he was done talking, an attendant holding a metal pole walked up to the stage. Su Lei wielded the Iron Executioner Sword and swung it with a crispswoosh sound. A soft cha sound was heard, and the metal pole was split into two segments, with the slicing point as smooth as a mirror. This feat got the cheers and screams from all the guests present in the area.
Hong Dali touched his chin and said, “This thing is really not bad.”
The surrounding crowd likewise nodded their heads.
“Now,” Realizing that everyone was hooked by it, Su Lei nodded in satisfaction and loudly announced: “The Iron Executioner is now up for auction. First bid, 100,000. Please start bidding.”
“This is good, I’ll buy and play with it!” Hong Dali immediately raised his sign and shouted, “300,000!”
Tripling the value in just one bid? Who the heck does that!
This bid instantly outbid at least 80% of those who were planning to submit their bids. However, after all, there were still people who loved to collect these kinds of God-level treasure swords. Very quickly, someone submitted a higher bid. “350,000.”
“Someone has bid 350,000. Anyone going for higher? 350,000 going once!”
“500,000.” Hong Dali didn’t even think twice and submitted another bid.
At that moment, Hong Anbao sneered and said, “This prodigal has started; seems like he really wants this. I should take this opportunity to lay a trap for him.” As he thought of that, Hong Anbao slowly raised his sign and said, “600,000.”
Hearing that, the entire auction venue immediately turned silent.
Surprisingly, it was Hong Anbao from the Hong Family! Speaking of the Hong Family, they were known by every single person in the venue. That was the high and mighty Hong Family that had their influence spread over more than half of the country. Although most people would first think of Hong Weiguo, the leading identity, Hong Anbao was also a powerful subsidiary of the Hong Family—he had a decent status in the Hong Family. Didn’t you see that? Even the great actress Tai Yajing wanted something to do with his family, there was much less to say about other people.
Since Hong Anbao had shouted a high bid of 500,000, he had both face and money. The entire auction venue instantly turned silent.
No one was willing to offend the Hong Family.
While the Iron Executioner was great, it wasn’t something particularly precious. Even if it was rare, it was, after all, not a necessity.
Besides, the most important thing was, Hong Anbao and Hong Dali were completely different in nature.
Hong Dali was a well-known prodigal—he gave no qualms about spending money. Even if someone raised his bid, he would not mind. However, that Hong Anbao was different. If he had wanted anything, fighting with him over it would not end well.
Hence, at that instant, the entire venue turned silent, and everyone’s eyes turned towards Hong Dali and Hong Anbao.
Sitting aside and watching the tigers fight, this exciting scene wasn’t something they saw every day.
“Iron Executioner Sword, 500,000, going once!”
Su Lei saw Hong Anbao bid and gave him some face, immediately facilitating the bidding.
Hong Anbao was smug and did not forget to turn back and laugh at Hong Dali.
“800,000.” Hong Dali twitched his nose, and his expression was quite unperturbed. In reality, to him, there was no need to hesitate for any price within 5,000,000.
“1,000,000!” Hong Anbao clearly understood Hong Dali’s limit and immediately raised his sign and continued the bid.
“1,500,000.” Hong Dali did not hesitate for one bit and even grinned.
“1,800,000!”
Pricing a regular high-grade iron manufactured sword at 500,000 was already considered a sky-high price to the others. That could still be justified as giving support to the charity. Instantly inflating the price to 1,800,000, however, was really astonishing.
“2,150,000.” Hong Dali continued.
At that moment, Hong Anbao was completely into the tempo. As if by reflex, he raised his sign and shouted, “2,500,000!”
Alas, the moment he shouted the bid, he knew he had done something bad. Indeed, many people were secretly laughing. Hong Anbao’s face turned blue and hurriedly changed the bid, “2,600,000!”
However, this time, Hong Dali did not raise the bid. Hong Anbao only heard Tang Muxin, who was sitting beside Hong Dali, say, “Dali, stop bidding. I just realized, are you even strong enough to play with that thing?”
“Eh!?” Hong Dali seemed to have woken up from a dream. He thought about it carefully and suddenly exclaimed in shock. “Ah! Good thing you reminded me. Good, good. He just raised the bid again, right? Then I shall withdraw!”
I shall withdraw… withdraw… draw…
The auction venue turned silent. After a brief moment of silence, people suddenly burst out in discussions!
“He, he actually gave up! He actually gave up at this moment?”
“You don’t say! It’s just a sword. That would’ve been worth at most 500,000 to 600,000. Now, it’s at 2,600,000, what a sky-high value!”
“Yeah, yeah. What a back-out just as it was at the climax. Had it been me, I would have fought till the end for my face.”
“How else would we say you suck? Lacking the resolute determination, how could you advance and retreat at will? There’s a difference in level.”
“Look at what you all are saying, how is it all that glamorous? Didn’t you hear Young Master Dali say? He has always had a weak body. That thing is probably quite a few kilograms heavy. He was originally planning to buy it to play with it. Now that he realized that he probably can’t handle it properly, he didn’t feel like playing with it anymore. It’s perfectly normal to give up. Just that…” He didn’t complete his sentence, but everyone naturally knew what he meant.
Hong Anbao gritted his teeth and sank into his chair. He wanted to cry but couldn’t.
He had calculated Hong Dali’s baseline, but he forgot Hong Dali’s body! Now that he thought of it, what kind of body did that Hong Dali have? Someone who got tired from walking for about a kilometer or so could definitely not handle that thing properly. Had it been something else that caught his eye, he would have no qualms bidding up to 4,000,000. But alas, it was just such a thing that didn’t suit him.
This time it was definitely a huge loss. 2,600,000! This wasn’t a small sum.
But what caused the most damage to Hong Anbao was that he could not even display any hint of regret—that would invite even more contempt. He could only pretend that he really wanted that article very badly, as he kept smiling to everyone around him, seemingly showing that he was very satisfied.
Hong Anbao didn’t regret it, just that his intestines went green.
