Chapter 4124 — The Central Island Grand Auction

Zheng Tianshuo was startled on the spot. He had been fixated solely on getting Tian Chan for himself and had never once considered this angle. Anyone else might have hesitated to lay a hand on him out of deference to Zheng Dongjue—but where Di Xingdao was concerned, there was no telling whether the man would give his own grandfather any face at all!

Set against his own miserable hide, the temptation of a sister-in-law like Tian Chan, however great, left Zheng Tianshuo no choice but to swallow his urges for the time being. He nodded helplessly and said, "Very well then. Whatever Grandfather says, your grandson will do."

"Rest assured—even if Tian Chan moves out of the Pill Hall, she remains a daughter-in-law of the Zheng family. What is meant to be yours will never slip away. All you have to do is wait patiently." Zheng Dongjue and Zheng Tianshuo exchanged a glance, and the two of them smiled—each in his own sinister way.

The Central Island Market—the Hall of Renowned Pills.

Diao Huanshan sat facing a beardless, pale-faced middle-aged man with the utmost reverence. This man was the shopkeeper of their Hall of Renowned Pills, one Tong Yangxi.

"Shopkeeper Tong, this time you must stand up for me! Just to bring that piddling Heavenly Pill Pavilion into the fold, I have been stripped of every last shred of face. And all of it was done in the service of our Hall of Renowned Pills—it bears on the image of the entire Hall! You absolutely cannot sit by and do nothing about it." Diao Huanshan poured out his complaints with a face full of gloom.

Relying on their commanding position within the Pill Alliance, marching into some newly opened little pill shop and turning it into a complete puppet of their own—such had always been the Hall of Renowned Pills' customary method of expansion.

The trick had never once failed. Ordinary small shops simply did not dare stand against the Hall of Renowned Pills, and lacking any substantial backing of their own, no other powerful figures or factions would ever step forward on their behalf and risk offending the Hall. It had always been a case of every man for himself, keeping well clear of trouble.

Who could have guessed that this time they would stub their toe on that plain-looking Heavenly Pill Pavilion? The Deputy Island Lord of the Central Island, Di Xingdao—a top-tier expert of such overbearing, domineering force—was someone not to be trifled with lightly, to say nothing of the Hall of Renowned Pills; even their own backers behind the scenes would not dare provoke him.

Yet no matter what, Diao Huanshan could not swallow this humiliation. To be flung out bodily before so many eyes—if he did not find some way to recover his footing, how was he to make his way in the Central Island Market hereafter? He would not even dare lift his head once he stepped outside.

"Brother Diao, you have indeed been wronged this time. Both I and the Hall of Renowned Pills will keep this matter of yours firmly in mind—of that you may rest assured." Tong Yangxi offered the formulaic comfort with a smile.

Hearing this, Diao Huanshan frowned. Something in the tone struck him as off. What did keeping it in mind amount to? What blasted use was that?

"Shopkeeper Tong, I have thought it over carefully these past few days. A figure like Di Xingdao is indeed beyond our reach, but if we merely set about making things difficult for the Heavenly Pill Pavilion—so long as we do not do it openly, just a few petty tricks to squeeze them—Di Xingdao is no insider at the end of the day, surely he would not step forward again over such trifles?" Diao Huanshan proposed, still unwilling to let it go.

"Brother Diao, have you not paid any attention to the talk going around these past days? Cai Zhongxuan of the Five Elements Merchant Guild has already sent word to the Pill Alliance. The Heavenly Pill Pavilion, the Pill Hall, and the Five Elements Merchant Guild are all one of a kind—one family. If anyone uses underhanded means against them, they do so at their own peril." Tong Yangxi gave Diao Huanshan a look of astonishment.

"What? Even the Five Elements Merchant Guild has stepped in?" Diao Huanshan was struck dumb on the spot, his face written all over with unwillingness. Tian Chan's property the Heavenly Pill Pavilion might be, but that even the Five Elements Merchant Guild would come forward to shelter it—that was truly beyond all expectation.

Di Xingdao, a Deputy Island Lord of the Central Island, was not enough—now here came the Five Elements Merchant Guild as well, dragging in the Pill Hall behind it. How could this tiny Heavenly Pill Pavilion have such formidable connections?

"And so you see—small as it is, the Heavenly Pill Pavilion is genuinely not an easy thing to provoke. Our masters behind the scenes want us to lie low for now, to give it a wide berth for the time being and watch how matters develop before doing anything." Tong Yangxi relayed the instructions.

"Very well, I shall do as ordered." Diao Huanshan nodded helplessly, and could not resist adding a complaint: "But our masters are really something else—Tian Chan did after all come out of the Pill Hall, and yet they cannot even interfere with her—"

"Shh! Brother Diao, mind your words!" Tong Yangxi started in fright and hurriedly gestured for him to be silent, then went on: "There is no use in complaining further. We had best turn our energies to the Grand Auction—it opens in a couple of days, and from what I hear, the Heavenly Pill Pavilion has already registered to take part."

"Is that true? What could they possibly put up for auction with their meager stock? Do they think having Di Xingdao at their back makes them untouchable?" Diao Huanshan was taken aback at the news.

For merchants, the Central Island Grand Auction had always been open only to the very top-tier great merchant guilds. Ordinary small traders, unable to produce anything presentable, could forget about seizing the chance to rake in spirit jade—they did not even qualify to register.

"I imagine they mean to use the occasion to make a name for themselves. Did you not say they had put out a good number of top-grade fourth-grade pills? Low-grade as that may be by Central Island standards, it is still just barely enough to qualify for registration." Tong Yangxi gave a faint, cold smile. "But that suits us perfectly—it hands us a chance to suppress them fair and square. Let us make haste and prepare. This time we must not let them have their way; we simply must outshine them."

"Quite so, quite so—that way even Di Xingdao and the Five Elements Merchant Guild will have nothing to say." Diao Huanshan nodded again and again in agreement.

Several days later, the Central Island Grand Auction formally raised its curtain. As the most prestigious auction gathering of the Central Island—indeed of all five islands of the Heavenly Tier—its scale was naturally beyond compare.

This much was plain from its venue alone: the very heart of the Central Island, Mount Zhongding.

Those who could come and go on Mount Zhongding either possessed the deep backing of a top-tier sect or were themselves of extraordinary strength. The saying went that none who entered was weak—such was the natural threshold of the Central Island Grand Auction.

The auction itself was held atop a highly renowned peak on Mount Zhongding, one known as the Ten Thousand Heavens Peak.

Across the mountain's plateau, several li in breadth, were scattered countless boulders. Because these boulders were of strange and grotesque shapes, no two alike, one standing among them and lifting one's eyes would behold skies of a myriad forms—and from this the Ten Thousand Heavens Peak took its name.