Chapter 4827 — Bargain Hunting

"This..." Old Chai scratched at his scalp, looking pained. Securing the renewed cooperation with Morning Star Academy through Yellow Little Peach's connections was already a great achievement, but if they embarrassed themselves at this grand auction and their rivals used it as a pretext, the position of partner might not be so secure after all.

"What can we do? Before we arrived, the Morning Star Branch here was already a total wreck. All the suppliers we dealt with in the past had gone over to other houses. We've recovered some ground over the past six months, but we're nowhere near the old scale, not by a long shot. How easy is it to get your hands on top-grade goods?" Cui Mingshan sighed helplessly.

Seeing the two of them so downcast and at their wits' end, Wei Zhao, who had been sipping tea off to the side, blinked in surprise and spoke up at once. "Let me see that list."

"Oh." Old Chai, though embarrassed to show it, hurriedly handed over the list.

Wei Zhao glanced over it. What was written there could hardly be called low-grade—at least by the standards of South Continent and the other Cloud-Tier Isles, these were rare treasures. But by Wei Zhao's measure, more than half of it was not really so uncommon.

If Wei Zhao thought so, how much more so the great families of East Continent? These things alone would scarcely turn enough heads, let alone steal the show at an auction of the Morning Star Grand Auction's caliber. For the illustrious Hong Clan Merchant Guild to produce nothing presentable—they would only be held up to ridicule.

"Is what we're auctioning this time really so important?" Wei Zhao asked. From what the two had just said, this grand auction seemed to weigh heavily on the Hong Clan Merchant Guild; otherwise they would not be so glum.

"Extremely important. You don't know, Vice President Lin—this Morning Star Grand Auction is really aimed squarely at our Hong Clan Merchant Guild. Success or failure bears directly on whether we can keep our footing!" Old Chai said with a bitter laugh.

"Oh? Isn't this Morning Star City's highest-grade auction? How is it aimed at our Hong Clan Merchant Guild?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"The reason's simple, really. Ever since we fell out with Morning Star Academy, our Morning Star Branch has gone downhill fast. The partnership qualification passed to several rivals, but a while back, because the East Sea Vice Dean spoke up personally, we won it back again. That's what started the feud," Old Chai explained.

"Even without this, they'd be rivals anyway, wouldn't they? Does it matter so much whether there's a feud or not?" Wei Zhao said noncommittally.

"That's different. These merchant guilds were all rivals before, sure, but they'd never tasted that sweet deal. At most they were a bit jealous. This time, though, we snatched the partnership qualification right out of their hands. How could they let it go so easily?" Old Chai said with a bitter smile.

"All right, but what does that have to do with the Morning Star Grand Auction?" Wei Zhao asked, still confused.

"Any merchant guild that has a footing here has more or less some connection to the upper echelons of Morning Star Academy. This time they all went to those academy higher-ups together and pressured them into holding this grand auction. It's really a showdown! Whichever guild shines brightest at the auction wins the partnership qualification and becomes the academy's sole supplier!" Old Chai said, his face grim.

"Oh? And the East Sea Divine Nun consented to this too?" Wei Zhao could not help frowning.

Never mind how it turned out in the end. This move inherently stripped the Hong Clan Merchant Guild of the qualification it had already secured—and by extension slapped the East Sea Divine Nun in the face, since she was the one who had spoken up to restore it.

"What choice did she have but to consent? The East Sea Vice Dean may hold an exalted position, but Morning Star Academy is not hers to decide alone. With so many academy higher-ups coming forward together, never mind the East Sea Vice Dean—even the Dean, Ling Yuanqing, could not simply overrule them with a word," Old Chai said, shaking his head.

"Not only that—from what I hear, Morning Star Academy's chief alchemist has already privately allied with the great families' guilds. He played a major role in this; it was his intervention that led the academy to finally decide on holding this grand auction," Cui Mingshan added.

The chief alchemist holds an extraordinarily lofty status in any East Continent Yellow-Tier academy. Take Xiangyun Academy before—Ren Tiansuo's position was second only to the dean's. At Morning Star Academy, even if it was not quite so extreme, it was still no small matter, especially since he naturally had considerable say in matters of partnership.

No academy would ever slight its own chief alchemist for the sake of some outside merchant guild. After all, there were plenty of powerful merchant guilds, but if the chief alchemist up and left, finding a qualified replacement would be very difficult—it could even affect the strength of a great many academy disciples. Not a thing to be taken the least bit lightly.

Wei Zhao nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly recalled the sixth- and seventh-grade pills he had seen in the display cases downstairs and asked, "Since the academy alchemists are already allies of other guilds, where did those sixth- and seventh-grade pills downstairs come from? Were they supplied by other branches?"

"You jest, Vice President Lin. The two of us are new here—we haven't even met the managers of the other Hong Clan branches. Who would be kind enough to supply us? Pills of that grade bear directly on performance records; everyone's too busy hoarding their own. Only if the relationship were especially good might someone tide you over in an emergency—and you'd have to pay it back right away, or no amount of begging would help!" Old Chai said with a bitter laugh.

In a sense, competition among the various Hong Clan Merchant Guild branches was even fiercer than with outside guilds. After all, competition with other guilds only concerned the guild's interests, whereas competition among branch managers bore directly on one another's prospects.

"Then where did they come from?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled. As far as he knew, sixth- and seventh-grade pills were not something ordinary supply channels could provide. Either the Hong Clan Merchant Guild supplied them internally, or one worked with academy alchemists—there was hardly a third path.

"To be frank with you, Old Cui and I bought every one of these pills bargain-hunting, one by one, from other cities. It's basically all loss-making business, but we had to keep up appearances—no way around it," Old Chai said miserably.

Wei Zhao was rather taken aback at this and looked at Old Chai and Cui Mingshan with a touch of pity. For the manager and deputy manager of a Hong Clan Merchant Guild branch to have fallen to such a state—truly, they had it rough. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to cast

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