Chapter 4852 — Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

"Tch, why'd that fellow surnamed Sun stop bidding? I thought he'd lock horns with Wei Zhao—what a bloody letdown!" Bao Zuoliang watched the scene with secret resentment. The man surnamed Sun was the young man who had bid two hundred thousand a moment ago, another second-generation cultivator from Morningstar Academy, one who simply did not get along with him.

"Young Master Bao, you're overthinking it. To spend over three hundred thousand spirit jades on a mere pair of Ghost-Eyed Condor King wings—aren't you yourself unwilling to part with that much? That fellow surnamed Sun isn't a fool either. Spend that many spirit jades on a decoration to take home, and his old man would break his legs for sure," Su Kesheng said with a shake of his head and a wry laugh.

"True enough. Wei Zhao's already foolish enough to spend three hundred thousand spirit jades on the thing—finding someone even stupider than him really isn't easy." Bao Zuoliang thought it over and chuckled. He hadn't managed to make Wei Zhao any enemies, but watching him waste so many spirit jades still felt rather good.

"Don't be in such a hurry—the real show's still to come! Once they run into something genuinely good, there's no way they won't start snapping at each other. Your little brother here has already made all the preparations. Just you watch, Young Master Bao!" Su Kesheng smiled with the confidence of one who held all the cards.

"Good, I'll be waiting!" Bao Zuoliang clapped him on the shoulder, placing full trust in this little brother he'd grown up playing with. Among the circle of second-generation cultivators he knew, at least, Su Kesheng's head was absolutely the sharpest of the lot.

"The second lot: the Infant Venom Dagger. In itself it is an indestructible divine weapon, and what makes it rarer still is the unparalleled poison smeared upon its blade. Even a Nascent Soul expert dies at a touch. Starting bid: five hundred thousand spirit jades!" As he spoke, the white-bearded elder picked up the dagger himself and displayed it to the crowd.

Unlike the earlier chill, the crowd was instantly roused to interest. Bidders sprang up on every side, and the price shot upward in an instant.

"This dagger seems a bit sinister," Wei Zhao observed after a careful look. At first glance it was an ordinary dagger, but a closer probe with spiritual sense revealed the exceedingly evil aura clinging to it. It did not feel like an ordinary poison—more like some heretical curse.

"Sinister indeed. My instinct tells me this thing was very likely nurtured on fresh blood—and the blood of Nascent Soul experts at that. The malevolence upon it is beyond imagining, probably already congealed into a venom of resentment. No wonder even Nascent Soul experts can't withstand it," Wang Xinyan said with a frown.

All her cultivation methods and martial techniques came from the Divine Nun of the Eastern Sea, and so she was exceedingly sensitive to such evil auras. By contrast, Huang Xiaotao, having trained for a shorter time, could not yet sense it.

"Two million!" shouted a middle-aged man with a savage cast of countenance, eyes blazing as he stared at the Infant Venom Dagger. With such a weapon in hand, any Nascent Soul expert would give him a wide berth, and its lethality went without saying. A mere two million was nothing—no price in spirit jades would be too much for it.

"Two million three hundred thousand!" A woman with a venomous look between her brows, not far off, would not yield an inch. Her gaze burned far hotter than the middle-aged man's—in her eyes this dagger was practically a natal weapon, an existence tailor-made for her.

Nor was it just these two; several others were desperately raising their bids as well. Judging by their auras, none of them were easy marks. Now they were locked in bitter contention over a single Infant Venom Dagger, and the atmosphere across the hall froze, so tense it was hard to breathe.

Bao Zuoliang's eyes had been fixed on Wei Zhao the whole time. Seeing him utterly unmoved, wearing an air of complete disinterest, he was bitterly disappointed. Frankly, even he—a Nascent Soul grand completion expert—was interested in this Infant Venom Dagger. How could this fellow, merely at the late Nascent Soul stage, remain indifferent? It wasn't as though he lacked the spirit jades!

With Wei Zhao's wealth, if he truly entered the bidding, practically no one present could outbid him. And then those ruthless characters equally determined to have the Infant Venom Dagger would inevitably fix their eyes on him—exactly the scheme of borrowing a knife to kill that Bao Zuoliang had in mind. But now Wei Zhao simply would not bid, and his hopes collapsed on the spot.

Had he ever heard of Wei Zhao's exploits at Xiangyun Academy, he would have known such hopes were nonsense from the very start. How could an existence who could fight Leng Rufeng, a man of that caliber, to a standstill possibly set his eyes on a mere Infant Venom Dagger?

No matter how venomous or sinister the thing was, it could only work against Nascent Soul experts—and if Wei Zhao wanted to deal with Nascent Soul experts, did a man of his strength have any need for poison?

After a bout of incomparably deadlocked contention, the Infant Venom Dagger finally fell into the hands of that venom-browed woman, at a final price of three million eight hundred thousand spirit jades!

Compared with the first lot, the Ghost-Eyed Condor King's wings, this price was absurdly high. Yet over the several lots that followed, the final prices all held at the level of three or four million spirit jades. After all, in the eyes of everyone present, these were all rare treasures, and the price was no loss at all.

But what left Bao Zuoliang speechless was that in the face of so many heart-stirring treasures, this fellow Wei Zhao did not even glance at them squarely—let alone make enemies over them, he had not opened his mouth a single time.

Not only Bao Zuoliang; even Su Kesheng, who had been fairly assured, was losing his composure and could not help saying, "Isn't this fellow's standard a little too high? Every one of those last few items could massively boost a Nascent Soul expert's combat power—and he still doesn't deem them worthy?"

"What do we do? This fellow just won't take the bait—how are we supposed to borrow a knife to kill with?" Bao Zuoliang said in frustration.

"Don't fret, Young Master Bao. It's true this fellow's imperviousness is beyond expectation, but we still have a fallback. Surely you haven't forgotten about that thing, Young Master Bao?" Su Kesheng chuckled.

"How could I forget! I paid through the nose for it!" Bao Zuoliang's face twisted with the pain of it. He had only brought that thing out after great resolve, following Su Kesheng's scheme; if not for the goal of doing Wei Zhao in, he would never bear to part with it under ordinary circumstances—after all, the thing was exceedingly hard to come by.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. You've seen it yourself, Young Master Bao—this fellow surnamed Lin doesn't even deign to glance at what ordinary folk consider fine treasures. Without staking something this costly, luring him in won't be easy; and if he doesn't bite, we truly have no other recourse," Su Kesheng said with a helpless smile.

"Hmph. Once I bring out my treasure, no matter how lofty his standards, he cannot possibly turn a blind eye. He's only at the late Nascent Soul stage now, not yet grand completion—I refuse to believe he won't want to walk the way of the giants three months from now!" Bao Zuoliang sneered, brimming with confidence.