Chapter 2489 — Yu Xiaoke's Worry

The reason the pawnshop clerk had said so much was simply that he feared Wei Zhao's alchemy costs would be too high and the final sale price would end in a loss.

"Then what are the usual starting price and the final sale price?" Wei Zhao asked.

"There are records here. Let me find them and show you." The pawnshop clerk deftly flipped through a stack of documents and handed a list to Wei Zhao.

Yang Qiqi, however, was quite astonished. Seeing Wei Zhao actually bring out so many pills to auction, she thought he truly was a man of goods. If she had not desperately needed that blue crystal to trade for something to cure Xiao Jiu's illness, she would have wanted to demand all these things and take them back.

Wei Zhao had no mind to guess at Yang Qiqi's thoughts. Taking the list the pawnshop clerk handed him, he examined it carefully—and the moment he looked, he drew in a sharp breath of cold air!

Seeing Wei Zhao's instinctive look of shock, the pawnshop clerk smiled and said, "The hidden You family mass-produces pills. Their prices naturally have an advantage. If you feel it is not worthwhile, then do not sell."

He clearly assumed that the prices on the list looked too low in Wei Zhao's eyes.

But he had misunderstood in exactly the opposite way. Seeing the prices on the list, Wei Zhao secretly sighed at what a vast profit there was in the pill business. No wonder the hidden You family did not even deign to look at the medicine trade of the secular world—there was no comparing the two!

Here, the final sale price of a single pill was over ten million. That was simply an astronomical price! The twenty-odd pills Wei Zhao had brought would fetch over two hundred million. Where else could one find such a profitable business?

The materials needed for these pills were rare, true, but added together they were worth a few million at most. If Wei Zhao had the time, he could certainly have asked Old Man Wei to grow some at home. It was only that time did not permit, which was why he had demanded them from the You family.

After all, the materials for these pills were not especially rare. For first-grade and second-grade pills, the cost was actually not high at all. What was high was the frequent failure of the refining process!

Still, even this price did not match the sale value of that life-extending, toxin-expelling pill. Could that life-extending, toxin-expelling pill really be worth so much? Thinking of how the Kang family spared no effort to obtain the formula, Wei Zhao was somewhat surprised.

They already had the hidden You family as their backer, yet they still set their hearts on that formula. That alone was enough to show how precious the formula was—though Wei Zhao himself had never discovered anything precious or strange about it.

"This price is acceptable. No problem," Wei Zhao said directly after reading the list.

"Oh?" The pawnshop clerk was somewhat shocked, but he did not ask more. He nodded and said, "Very well. In that case, let us register it."

"All right," Wei Zhao nodded.

The formalities were completed quickly. Wei Zhao did not use his real name, only an auction number plate; that plate's serial number would also be used for auctioning items when the auction house opened, except that Wei Zhao had collected his in advance while others had not.

Yang Qiqi was not Yu Xiaoke. Under the eyes of the crowd, she had no chance at all to snatch the blue crystal from Wei Zhao's backpack. Even after Wei Zhao put the backpack on, she still had not found a suitable opportunity, and could only give up for the time being.

The group left the side courtyard. Wei Zhao noticed that Yu Xiaoke was nearby. Although she seemed to be looking at a stall not far away, Wei Zhao could tell her gaze drifted over from time to time, and he could not help but smile bitterly to himself.

Wei Zhao naturally understood Yu Xiaoke's feelings perfectly well. Seeing him put his hands on Yang Qiqi, it was only normal that she would be jealous. But Wei Zhao did not intend to let Yang Qiqi off easily. This little girl was too infuriating, treating ingratitude as a daily meal. Wei Zhao's punishment was meant to teach her a lesson for the future.

Seeing that she could not stop Wei Zhao's hand from groping her, Yang Qiqi simply used her own hands to grope Wei Zhao. Of course, her greatest purpose in groping him was to steal the blue crystal from his backpack. Only by getting the blue crystal in hand could she trade it back for the blood of that earth-attribute heaven-rank spirit beast.

Who was Yu Xiaoke? She saw through Yang Qiqi's aim at a glance. A thief by trade herself, how could she fail to see that Yang Qiqi wanted to be a thief? Yu Xiaoke was secretly annoyed. Why was this male thief so lecherous? Was he bewitched by this little wench with the seemingly fiery figure before him? He had not even noticed her purpose?

In Yu Xiaoke's impression, the male thief was an incomparably shrewd man. His wisdom and vigilance in the ancient tomb had surpassed ordinary people. And even if the male thief wanted to be lecherous, he could be lecherous with her—it wasn't as if she wouldn't let him touch her. Why go and touch a woman with improper designs on him?

Soon it was time for dinner. Wei Zhao, Han Xiaohu, and Yang Qiqi came to the hotel in the market. Here one had to pay for food oneself, but lodging was free—the **者 Trade Association provided rooms at no charge.

In fact, this place was not open to the public at all. Apart from when the **者 market was being held, it was closed at all other times. All the facilities here had been built for the sake of the market.

In the dining hall, there were not many **者 eating, because the place was open all day and there was no need for everyone to eat at this hour. Moreover, many **者 simply bought things and ate in their rooms rather than sitting here.

Wei Zhao casually ordered a few dishes, then sat down and asked Yang Qiqi, "Have you found everything you came to trade for?"

"I... me? I don't have anything to trade. I just came to look around," Yang Qiqi said hastily.

"Heh heh." Wei Zhao said nothing more. Yang Qiqi's acting was too poor—perhaps only she herself did not know that she had already given away her inner thoughts.

Yu Xiaoke was in the dining hall at that moment too, secretly anxious. She wondered whether the male thief before her might be an impostor. Otherwise, the male thief in her memory would not be like this. Could the mask be a fake?

Seeing Yang Qiqi rummaging around in Wei Zhao's backpack, Yu Xiaoke grew anxious. What if this man really was the male thief? With no other choice, Yu Xiaoke bought a boxed meal and sat down at the table beside Wei Zhao and the others.

The most ordinary food here was the boxed meal. In fact, most of these boxed meals were distributed free to the **者 market's staff and the ** of the Law Enforcement Hall. Few **者 would ever buy them! **者 were not poor people—who would buy a boxed meal? Yu Xiaoke, frugal as she was, was naturally different.