Chapter 2507 — Speechless
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Two hundred and one million for the third time—sold!" Lu Xiansheng raised the small hammer and brought it down, settling the matter with a single stroke. "Congratulations to the winning bidder. When the auction ends, please come to me to complete the formalities."
"Wait... I bid..." Not long after Lu Xiansheng finished speaking, You Pangao spoke again. "I bid two hundred and ten million! You cannot sell it to him!"
"My apologies, but I have already won it." Wei Zhao looked at You Pangao mockingly. "Where were you earlier?"
"I... I suddenly couldn't speak earlier!" You Pangao himself found the matter rather bizarre—how was it that he, perfectly fine, had suddenly been unable to speak? In truth, Wei Zhao had timed it well and controlled the force of the acupoint strike so that You Pangao lost his voice for just that brief span; once the time passed, he returned to normal, and it would not rouse too much suspicion in others.
"A gentleman blames himself for his own failings—if you couldn't speak, who is there to blame?" Wei Zhao glanced at You Pangao, then turned away and paid him no more mind.
Strange as the matter was, Lu Xiansheng had no time to investigate You Pangao's affair if the auction was to proceed normally, so he went straight on to auction the next treasure.
You Pangao, for his part, cast Wei Zhao a resentful look and thought: Whatever the reason just now, whether or not it was your doing, I mean to have this pure yellow jade. Let it rest in your hands a while—in the end it will still come to mine, and I'll have saved a good deal of money besides!
You Pangao had already set his mind on seizing it, and planned to have his grandfather act the moment the auction ended.
He was not entirely clear what this pure yellow jade was for or what use it served; he knew only that the Hidden You family was determined to have it, and that if anything went wrong, both he and his grandfather would find it hard to answer to the family! Especially since his grandfather had just botched a mission shortly before—all the more reason they were eager to earn merit and wash away the earlier disgrace!
Of course, the failure of that earlier mission was not really his grandfather's fault. The enemy had been too strong, and his grandfather had had no choice. When the Hidden You family learned the reason, they had in fact said nothing—but his grandfather still felt he had lost face.
This auction mission was simple and easy, and they had thought it could be completed very smoothly. Who could have imagined that someone would thrust in a foot here as well?
At the auctions that followed, since there was nothing Wei Zhao wanted, he paid little attention. Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye the auction was over. Wei Zhao rose to his feet and walked toward the inner room behind the auction hall to settle accounts for the pills sold earlier and the pure yellow jade he had purchased.
Most people at the trading fair did not wish to reveal their names or identities—especially with so many cultivators around—so apart from the few who paid by card, most carried large leather cases stuffed with Swiss francs to conduct their transactions.
It seemed this was a rule of long standing. The Swiss franc had a relatively high exchange rate and its notes carried large denominations, and so it had come to be used as the currency of the Cultivators' Trading Association.