Chapter 4832 — Just Wait for the Humiliation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Sure enough, after a run of lots from the Vantong Consortium, its running total had been driven all the way up to a staggering seven million six hundred thousand spirit jade, leaving the Haomen Metropolis far behind in the dust.
Steward Hao's face went green with regret. Whether it was goading the others into convening this Morning Star Grand Auction or the afterwards assembling of all those lots, the Haomen Metropolis had without question been the most diligent of all—and now look how it had turned out. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind; in the end, the silent, unassuming Vantong Consortium had snatched the prize from under their noses.
The auction rolled on. Next to take the stage was East Continent's own Eastern Chamber of Commerce, but they plainly had not schemed with the same single-mindedness as the two houses before them. The treasures they brought out were rare enough to behold, but their number was small and their novelty thin; in the end their total came to only five million spirit jade. It seemed they had no intention of competing for the partnership with Morning Star Academy.
From the start until now, for all the gasps that had rippled through the hall, Wei Zhao had shown no inclination whatsoever to bid. Spirit jade was hardly a concern with his resources—it was simply that these lots were all too orthodox and conventional; few could pass his eye, and fewer still stirred his interest. A seventh-grade Great Return Pill, after all, was something he could refine himself; there was no need to bid for one.
This was the chronic failing of every merchant-guild auction floor: if one wished to see all manner of strange and wondrous treasures, one had to wait for the individual auction that came afterward.
"Very well. The next lots come from the Central Chamber of Commerce. I believe you have all heard something of them—they are high-tech products from the secular world. Before the bidding begins, we shall first give you a demonstration of their functions," announced the white-bearded elder.
The words had scarcely fallen when staff of the Central Chamber of Commerce carried a whole array of technological products onto the stage and demonstrated them one by one in careful detail before the assembled crowd. After all, if their functions were not clearly explained, no one would have the faintest idea what they were for—and then, of course, there could be no auction at all.
"Tablet computers, digital cameras, walkie-talkies..." Wei Zhao looked at the row of technological products on stage and shook his head in speechless resignation. He even spotted a miniature listening device among them. If he had not known this was Cloud Terrace Isle, he might have taken it for some electronics megastore back in the secular world.
When the demonstration was done, the bidding resumed. Though there were none of the pills and heavenly materials and earthly treasures of before, these lots made up for it with sheer novelty, and the response from the floor was just as fervent.
Yet novel as these technological products were, there was no hope of their fetching a sky-high price of several million like the seventh-grade Great Return Pill. The crowd was not made up of fools, after all—spending a few tens of thousands of spirit jade on a bit of amusement was acceptable, but to ask them to shell out hundreds of thousands or even a million? Only if their brains had sprung a leak.
In the end, the total for the Central Chamber of Commerce's series of technological products came to just under two million—and that was thanks solely to their sheer quantity; otherwise, even a million would have been unrealistic. The Central Chamber of Commerce itself, of course, had no chance of competing for Morning Star Academy's partnership; what the Academy needed most was pills of every kind, and that was precisely the Central Chamber of Commerce's weak spot—not something that could be remedied overnight.