CHAPTER 13

When he heard Qin Yan's question, Fu Changling recovered from his shock. He took a moment to calm down before answering, "Recuperate at home during the day, and go to the auction at night."

Qin Yan responded. The two of them had a meal together during the day, and in the evening, they asked the town headman for permission to go out, and strolled over to the Lotus Pavilion.

At night, the town was also bustling. Fu Changling walked while having a good time, saying offhandedly, "This Xuanji Secret Realm is little in size yet complete in every detail, and there are auctions in such a small place."

Then Fu Changling took off the mask he had just bought and glanced at Qin Yan, saying, "That being said, we're heading to the auction, and you haven't asked whether I have any money. Do you have a lot of money on you?"

"You are a Fu Clan member," Qin Yan reminded him, and Fu Changling let out a "tsk". Their Fu Clan's only asset was a large sum of money.

"Being overly rich is also a concern," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Even you know I'm rich."

"Oh, a poor sword cultivator like you hasn't been to any auctions before, have you?"

When Qin Yan didn't say anything, Fu Changling laughed out loud and said with some pleasure, "You dare not speak for fear of being found out. You must be quite poor!"

"Mm," Qin Yan finally said, "I'm counting on Fu Xiōng for this auction."

"Fine," Fu Changling said, one hand on his waist and the other shaking his fan, "I'll show you what it's like for a rich person to attend an auction."

With that, the two headed to the Lotus Pavilion's entrance, where an old man noticed Fu Changling and Qin Yan. He greeted them and said flatteringly, "These two Gōngzi..."

Before he could finish, Fu Changling covered part of his face with his fan with one hand and unfolded a medium-grade spirit stone in his palm with the other, saying lazily, "The best room."

When the old man saw the spirit stone, his smile broadened, and he hurried forward to welcome Fu Changling, saying, "Please come inside, Gōngzi. Could you please give me your surname?"

Fu Changling strode up the steps, stowed his fan, and proudly stated his surname: Fu.

If this wasn't a secret realm, the doorkeeper would have probably burst out laughing when he heard the word "Fu". However, the financial power indicated by the word "Fu" was beyond the grasp of these people in the Xuanji Secret Realm, so they only received the two as wealthy young masters and led them to the Sky Room on the second floor of the auction house.

When they entered the private Sky Room, Fu Changling motioned for Qin Yan to take a seat. Someone came up and poured tea for them, then withdrew.

Fu Changling was snacking on melon seeds, glancing at Qin Yan, who was sitting erect next to him, and jokingly saying, "We're currently in the Xuanji Secret Realm, so we need to save money for the pagoda. If we get out of the Xuanji Secret Realm, I'll buy you whatever you fancy at this auction as a gift."

"You must be joking, Fu Daoyou." Qin Yan had no expression on his face. "We don't know each other that well."

Then, Qin Yan raised his gaze to meet his, with a hint of warning in his eyes, and said, "No need for gifts."

Fu Changling was stunned for a moment after hearing this before coming to his senses. He had unknowingly acquired the temperament of a seventeen-year-old after he had been reborn as one. At seventeen, he was like this, splurging money recklessly and giving stuff out at the drop of a hat to anyone he spoke with more than once.

It was because of this that he attracted numerous love affairs and accumulated a lot of romantic debt. Although all those love encounters were unsolicited and he didn't respond to them, as the rumours got around, they became true. The reputation of his lifestyle in earlier years was indeed very bad, so it was only reasonable for Qin Yan to be wary.

He laughed dryly twice and began nibbling on melon seeds to cover his embarrassment. There was a lot of bustle downstairs in the main hall at this point. A woman came up to the stage, raised her hands, and clapped twice, and the entire crowd fell silent.

The auction officially began after the woman gave a few introductory remarks. Fu Changling sipped his tea and let out a "tsk", whispering, "What a lack of fastidiousness."

"It's a secret realm," Qin Yan said faintly. "How fastidious do you need them to be?"

"That's a good point." Fu Changling got over it, sipped his tea, and examined the objects being presented.

The first item up for bid was a piece of jade. Fu Changling peered ahead, slightly disappointed, and remarked, "How can you bring in a piece of this quality? It's repulsive."

Fu Changling began to criticise the jade for its sloppy workmanship and poor quality on all counts.

Given that this was a small town, the auction was not of a high standard, and the objects brought up did not appeal to Fu Changling. He drank tea and ate melon seeds while making remarks about the items that came up. The auction ended after nearly two hours, with the introducer saying in a cryptic voice, "This last item is a treasure that our Lotus Pavilion had to go through a lot of trouble before it could be retrieved. This treasure is a golden pagoda, known as the Linglong Pagoda. Those among you with an eye for quality should know how much this treasure is worth."

After that, the entire room began to heat up, which somewhat astonished both Fu Changling and Qin Yan. After all, neither of them knew exactly what the Linglong Pagoda was, but the people of the town were plainly very enthusiastic. The introducer was pleased with the scenario, so she smiled and raised her finger, saying, "Base price, one thousand spirit stones!"

One thousand spirit stones could be considered a large sum of money in a small town like Xuanji Secret Realm. The crowd was still full of enthusiasm just now, but once they heard the quoted price, there were sighs of disappointment. However, a few others continued to raise their signs. Each time a sign was raised, the price rose by another hundred spirit stones, until it reached nearly two thousand.

Qin Yan looked over at Fu Changling beside him, who had been sipping tea while watching the play, and asked, "Still not raising your sign?"

"Wait a bit," Fu Changling said as he clapped his hands, "it's not over yet."

The bidding became slower and slower. No one was willing to bid when it got to three thousand spirit stones, so the introducer smiled and said, "Three thousand spirit stones going once."

"Three thousand spirit stones going twice."

"Three thousand spirit stones..."

"Three thousand one hundred spirit stones!" When Fu Changling finally held up his sign, the introducer's tone changed instantly. Fu Changling leaned in closer to Qin Yan and whispered, "This is the time to raise your sign to leave a long lasting impression."

As Fu Changling was feeling proud of himself, the introducer's voice suddenly rang out, "Three thousand two hundred spirit stones!"

Surprised, Fu Changling looked up to see that someone else had also raised their sign in the Sky Room across the hall from him.

Fu Changling was stunned but quickly grasped that someone had raised the price, so he held up his sign. "Three thousand and three hundred."

The other side was tenacious in their pursuit, and a price of three thousand four hundred was promptly quoted.

The price had gone up, and the other side was evidently desperate to get their hands on this Linglong Pagoda. Fu Changling and his rival were trying to outdo each other, and when the other side made an offer of "ten thousand spirit stones", Fu Changling's expression changed completely.

Qin Yan sipped his tea indifferently, and when he noticed Fu Changling was silent, he was a bit surprised and inquired, "What's wrong?"

Fu Changling turned his head to look at him, an exceedingly ugly look on his face, and murmured, "Umm..."

"Hmm?"

"Can I borrow some money?"

Qin Yan: "..."

The rich Fu Gōngzi felt his face particularly sore the instant he noticed Qin Yan's silence.

Luckily, Qin Yan didn't say much. He merely grabbed his spirit pouch from his sleeve and simply said, "Five hundred spirit stones."

He's a bit poor indeed.

These five hundred spirit stones backed Fu Changling for the last five rounds of bidding, but the opposing side barely hesitated about the five hundred spirit stones, raising the price all the way to ten thousand and six hundred spirit stones.

The two ran out of ammunition and finally had to concede defeat.

Fu Changling's eyes were ablaze with rage as he lost his first battle of the richest. As he helplessly watched the person across from him get up, Qin Yan drank his tea calmly next to him and simply said, "The Linglong Pagoda has been auctioned off. What should we do?"

Fu Changling drew a deep breath, one he couldn't bear.

"Since we've reached this point and our lives are on the line, I can't be blamed for being cruel and unrighteous."

Fu Changling dipped his finger in tea and scribbled on the table a simple spell: "Heaven and Earth want to know where I can locate someone. Go."

After saying so, the spell floated out, and Fu Changling turned around and stormed out of the door, saying, "Go."

Qin Yan got up and followed Fu Changling. Fu Changling descended the steps and led Qin Yan down a narrow path. As he walked, he lowered his voice and said, "I've just probed this person with my divine sense and found that he is only a Jindan. I've cast a tracking spell on him, and now he's heading this way. You should hurry to the end of this path and stop him. I'll set up a formation here and wait for him. Then we'll strike from both sides and just grab the pagoda and flee!"

Saying this, Fu Changling took out the masks he had just bought for fun on the way from his sleeve and shoved one of them into Qin Yan's arms, while the other he put on himself.

Qin Yan stood still, somewhat hesitant. Fu Changling looked up at him and asked, "What are you still standing here for?"

"I'm afraid this... is a bad idea?"

"A bad idea?" Fu Changling arched his brows and said, "If you think it's a bad idea, then you think of something else. If you really think it's a bad idea, I'll go and find the formation's eye of the Xuanji Secret Realm and forcefully break through the realm right away. Do you think that's a good idea?"

Qin Yan thought that was a very bad idea.

So he ceased talking, put on his mask, and started heading to the end of the path to stop that person.

Fu Changling remained where he was and drew a talisman to set up a formation, just waiting for the person to fall into the trap.

There was a tinkling and clanging and a flurry of footsteps ahead of him a little later. Fu Changling unfolded his Qinggu fan, and the formation beneath his feet lit up. He gripped the fan in one hand while placing the other behind his back. After a while, a white-clad sword cultivator appeared in a hurry, carrying a carved ebony box and a sword.

He was handsome, having the same phoenix eyes as Qin Yan, except that he lacked some of Qin Yan's superb looks, making him appear much more average. Fu Changling was taken aback when he saw him—for no other reason than that this person exactly resembled the Yan Ming he had envisaged!

Luckily, he was very quick to collect his thoughts. After a few moments of this stupefaction, the other person's long sword came straight at him, and Fu Changling activated the formation, grabbing the other person's wrist and yanking him straight into it.

Tree vines quickly sprang out from beneath his feet and bound the person directly to the wall. Fu Changling smiled as he walked over and was ready to talk when he noticed a jade pendant on this person's sash.

The word "Yan" was engraved on the jade pendant, and Fu Changling froze. He reached for the jade pendant subconsciously, turned it over, and there was the word "Ming" on it.

Fu Changling looked up in shock as memories flashed back in the blink of an eye. However, in that instant, the cultivator's long sword swung right at him, slicing off a strand of Fu Changling's front hair in the process. "Yan Ming?" he uttered subconsciously, looking into the other person's calm, bright, clear eyes.

The other person's blade came to a halt just as Qin Yan was approaching. Without staying, the other person turned around and fled. Fu Changling stood dumbfounded in place as Qin Yan landed in front of him and said with a frown, "Where is he?"

When Fu Changling heard Qin Yan's voice, he awoke somewhat, took off his mask, and said, "I know who has the pagoda."

"And then?" The suspicion in Qin Yan's eyes deepened as Fu Changling turned around and added, "Don't worry, he's not a bad guy. I'll go get it tomorrow."

...❦❧❦❧❦❧❦❧❦❧❦❦❧❦...

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***