Chapter 2504 — Bringing Surprise

So Wei Zhao decided to wait until no one was around before returning the items to Yang Qiqi.

After the four of them finished breakfast, they headed for the auction hall. Not many people entered the venue—only about a hundred or so in all. It seemed that many of those who had attended the market earlier had not come to the auction; these people were still keen on the barter trade of setting up stalls.

The items to be auctioned were all listed on the notice board outside the hall. Naturally, some people also gave the auction a miss because nothing on offer suited their tastes.

At that moment, Wei Zhao, Han Xiaohu, and the others were standing beneath the notice board, carefully studying the auction items posted upon it.

This auction, without question, had a vast quantity of pills for sale. Some of them were the ones Wei Zhao had provided; the rest, presumably, were all supplied by the Hidden Right Family. The number was about the same as Wei Zhao's, except that there were a few additional first-grade and second-grade pills with other uses.

Wei Zhao skimmed past the names of these pills, and his gaze finally came to rest on "pure yellow jade." So there really was pure yellow jade up for auction this time—Han Xiaohu's information had not been false! In fact, whenever the Cultivators' Merchant Guild held an auction at a market, they would always let a few rumors slip out beforehand; Han Xiaohu's knowing in advance was no great matter.

Wei Zhao and the others entered the auction hall and found an empty spot to sit down. Han Xiaohu had just been about to sit beside Wei Zhao when she discovered that Yu Xiaoke had already taken the seat on one side of him, while Yang Qiqi was about to sit on the other!

Han Xiaohu gave a wry smile and then sat down beside Yang Qiqi.

At about eight fifty, nearly everyone had arrived. The Heaven Rank vice president whom Wei Zhao had met earlier at the market entrance, together with the pawnshop gentleman, walked onto the stage one after the other.

The Heaven Rank vice president sat down to one side, while the pawnshop gentleman stood upright beside him, picked up the microphone, and addressed the cultivators gathered below: "Welcome, everyone, to the auction held by our Cultivators' Merchant Guild. I am Lu Xiansheng—known in the rivers and lakes as Mr. Lu—and I shall be the auctioneer for today's event."

Clearly, the people below showed no surprise at Lu Xiansheng taking the stage as auctioneer. It was evident that he had presided over all previous auctions. And although this was Wei Zhao's first time attending, he had met the man earlier when consigning his pills, so he found nothing strange about it either.

"Very well, since no one has any objections, let our auction begin!" Lu Xiansheng said. "According to the rules of past years, the first items to be auctioned are the pills from the Hidden Right Family—always a major portion of every auction! Only, today's pills do not come entirely from the Hidden Right Family; another seller has also consigned some pills!"

"Whoa—" The moment Lu Xiansheng's words left his mouth, the whole hall erupted in an uproar. Everyone was shocked. Which sect or family had the strength to supply pills to the Cultivators' Merchant Guild? Could it be the Mystic Pill Sect? But though the Mystic Pill Sect did supply pills to the Guild, what they provided were all high-grade pills, and in scant numbers besides—such goods would never be put up for auction at a low-level market like this; they were all reserved for the larger cultivator auctions.

The low-end pill trade had always been monopolized by the Hidden Right Family. Even when the Mystic Pill Sect refined such low-grade pills, they handed them to the Hidden Right Family to auction on their behalf. As for the other sects and families, no one had ever heard of any that could produce pills in bulk.

Below the stage, a young man raised an eyebrow, his expression somewhat displeased as he looked up at Lu Xiansheng. This man was from the Hidden Right Family—the very youth who had earlier swaggered about at the market entrance, clearing the way for that short Heaven Rank robber.

"But there is no need for astonishment. According to my appraisal, the pills provided by this other seller are in no way inferior to those of the Hidden Right Family in quality and color—indeed, they are even more consistent, with no disparity in quality between one pill and the next." Lu Xiansheng tossed out another bombshell!

"What!" The cultivators below cried out in shock. As everyone knew, although the Hidden Right Family was a clan of pill refiners, and many Earth Rank pills were refined by the Mystic Pill Sect and supplied to them, setting aside the fact that these pills were made by different refiners—even the same refiner could never guarantee identical quality every time he refined a batch!

If his condition was good, a given pill might turn out excellent; if his condition was poor, the quality would be somewhat worse. Successfully forming the pill was the most basic requirement, but even after formation, the color and quality still varied. Yet every auction sold them mixed together, with no chance for bidders to pick and choose—whatever good or bad pills one got depended entirely on one's character and luck.

But now Lu Xiansheng was saying that the pills from the new seller showed no disparity in quality between one and another. What sort of concept was that? What manner of extraordinary refiner could achieve such a thing? Probably even the Mystic Pill Sect's patriarch could not!

Unless it was the Mystic Heaven Patriarch, who had shone so brilliantly in the rivers and lakes in years past—perhaps only the Medical Sage Zhang Lifeng of old could have done it. And now someone could once again refine pills of uniform quality and color?

"Do not be too quick to marvel—I have one more thing to add. Every single one of these pills is of top-grade color! No need to try your luck, no need to gamble on your fortune—simply buy, and you may take top-grade pills home!" One had to admit, Lu Xiansheng's words carried great power to stir a crowd; many present felt their hearts begin to stir restlessly.

But the face of the young man from the Hidden Right Family grew even uglier! In the past, the Hidden Right Family had always been the backbone of every auction; watching their own pills being bought up at high prices by cultivator after cultivator had filled their hearts with joy!

This time, however, something had gone wrong—and it had gone wrong during the turn of this young man and his grandfather. Naturally, he was thoroughly displeased.

"All top-grade, eh? Then a higher price is fine too!" a cultivator sitting below suddenly said.

"Nonsense—of course the price will be high. Everyone knows they are top-grade, so naturally people will pay more," another cultivator immediately chimed in.

Yet Wei Zhao could not shake the feeling that these two were shills for the Cultivators' Merchant Guild. But shills or not, the situation before him could only work in his favor, and Wei Zhao was hardly foolish enough to question it!