Chapter 4021 — A Grudge Is Born

"Hmph. Once this is over, I simply must dig up every last detail about this country bumpkin's background. Right in front of me, no less, he thought he could win Junior Sister Tianchan's attention by flinging spirit jade around. A toad dreaming of swan meat—as if the likes of you deserve it!" Zheng Tianjie, all the while basking in the stunned gazes of the crowd, hurled his curses at Wei Zhao from afar.

What had suddenly changed his mind was none other than Tianchan herself. He had been flinging all that spirit jade for the sole purpose of pleasing her, and now she had gone and fixed her eyes on another man—how could he possibly tolerate that?

Even if it cost him every last piece of spirit jade he had, today he was determined to grind Wei Zhao beneath his heel, to teach this nameless bumpkin who had crawled out of nowhere just what it meant to cross a somebody from Middle Island!

This ghostly twist of events left Wei Zhao dumbstruck for a good long while. But that was not the end of it. Wei Zhao quickly steadied himself and continued, "Since you are in such high spirits, my lord, I shall keep you company to the end. Three hundred thousand spirit jade."

"Hmph! You think you can contend with me? You have no idea how high the heavens are or how deep the earth is. Today I shall bury you under spirit jade—five hundred thousand spirit jade!" Zheng Tianjie declared with insolent bluster. To shine in front of Tianchan, he had worked himself into a frenzy and cared nothing for the cost.

"Five hundred thousand spirit jade?" Wei Zhao lifted his eyelids. Just when everyone expected this madman to keep trading blows with that fool Zheng Tianjie, he suddenly changed tack: "I merely wanted to see how deep your pockets really are. I never intended to buy this ten-piece set in the first place. Since you want it so sincerely, I would hate to rob a man of what he loves. Five hundred thousand spirit jade—very well, I yield it to you."

With that, Wei Zhao sat back down at his ease, as though the whole affair had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Huh? All that spectacle, just to see how deep the other man's pockets were? This peerless logic left the entire hall utterly dumbfounded, and as for Zheng Tianjie, the man at the center of it all, he stood frozen for the longest time, unable to react.

Only after a good while, under the peculiar stares of everyone around him, did Zheng Tianjie slowly come back to his senses. Even with as little brain as he had, he now understood that he had been played from start to finish!

"You cunning little bumpkin! Today I shall hack you into ten thousand pieces!" Zheng Tianjie was on the verge of exploding on the spot. Even back on Middle Island he had always run roughshod over everyone, and now that he had come to a backwater like the Far North Island, he was naturally even less restrained. To be toyed with and provoked like this by a nobody like Wei Zhao, in full view of the crowd—this was beyond all bearing!

Yet before Zheng Tianjie could erupt, Steward Song's gaze upon the platform had already turned cold, and countless fully armed Northern Guardians around him were poised to strike.

However special Zheng Tianjie's status might be, this was, after all, the Far North Island, and it had only one master: Steward Song, who wielded the authority of the Island Lord in his stead. To let Zheng Tianjie run wild here would be no different from slapping him across the face in public.

In both standing and strength, the Far North Island was a uniquely special power among the Cloud Terrace Islands, an existence that stood apart from the five great islands. Though they treated visitors from Middle Island with courtesy, they never shielded them or yielded to them. For Zheng Tianjie to try to make trouble here was nothing short of courting death.

In an instant, the atmosphere turned knife-edge tense. The crowd held its breath as one, and a clash seemed about to unfold before their eyes.

Fortunately, the other visitors from Middle Island beside Zheng Tianjie rose in time to restrain him. Unlike Zheng Tianjie, they were neither so arrogant nor so reckless; they knew full well that letting things run their course would bring them nothing but harm.

"What are you doing? Let go of me! Are you trying to mutiny?" Zheng Tianjie refused to give up, but the men beside him were no weaker than he was. With them joining forces to hold him down, Zheng Tianjie could not move a muscle, however formidable his strength.

This fool may not have much upstairs, but his raw strength is astonishing! Wei Zhao watched from afar. Even without directly feeling the qi radiating from Zheng Tianjie, he could sense the man's power indirectly. He and I are simply not on the same level.

"Young Hero Lin, there is really no need for you to back down. Five hundred thousand spirit jade is a bit much, but the Hong Clan Merchant Guild can still afford it," Hong Zhong spoke up from the side. Given the immense help Wei Zhao had rendered the Hong Clan Merchant Guild this time, no sum of spirit jade would be too great—they would pay it for him without a moment's hesitation.

After all, in recent days, though the Hong Clan Merchant Guild had been secretly undercut by Wang Tong and his cronies and was desperately short of high-end goods, it correspondingly had spirit jade in extraordinarily abundant circulation. Five hundred thousand was nothing at all.

"There is no need. The value of this ten-piece forging set, in my view, is at most thirty thousand. To get into a spat with a fool and let it climb to five hundred thousand—is that not sheer madness?" Wei Zhao shook his head.

He had no idea what price the top-grade elixirs he had refined for Hong Zhong would ultimately fetch, but the man's support had already gone far beyond what was reasonable. There was simply no justification for wasting spirit jade.

Still, watching Zheng Tianjie from afar, his face twisted into a murderous expression as though he meant to devour Wei Zhao alive, Wei Zhao silently nursed his own grudge. First you set your sights on my woman, and now you want to snatch my forging materials. You bastard—just you wait!

In his former days in the mortal realm, Wei Zhao had been a ruthless man, and even now on the North Island, he was the sort who would ruin anyone who rubbed him the wrong way. This time, he was genuinely angered.

Seeing Wei Zhao say as much, Hong Zhong said no more and nodded at once. "Very well, then. In any case, the forging materials you need, Young Hero Lin, are surely not to be found at this one seller alone. I shall think of something in due course; there should be a way to gather them for you."

Wei Zhao merely gave a noncommittal "Mm." Only the one who tied the knot can undo it. His mind was now fixed entirely on Zheng Tianjie. Whether for Tianchan's sake or for the forging materials, he and the man were bound to settle accounts once and for all.

With the primary target of this trip slipping through his fingers, the rest of the auction no longer had much to do with Wei Zhao.

Though with the spirit jade in hand and Hong Zhong's backing, his resources were in no way inferior to Zheng Tianjie's, and he was competitive enough for any rare lot—yet unfortunately, Wei Zhao's heart was no longer in it.

In fact, it was not only Wei Zhao. After the upheaval just now, even Zheng Tianjie had lost interest in the auction. There was only one thing on his mind now: once back, have his people investigate Wei Zhao's background as quickly as possible, then find an opportunity to finish off this blind bumpkin!

With those two most conspicuous figures out of the running, the auction finally settled into a normal rhythm. Though the final price of each lot still ran much higher than usual, it was no longer as absurd as before. R1152