Villain Cultivator

Liu Bian glared at Cao Mao, who was nonchalantly polishing his fingernails. His face flushed and his blood veins became visible under his skin.

Annoyed and frustrated by Cao Mao's trolling, Liu Bian changed his mind. He no longer wanted to befriend Cao Mao. Instead, he wanted to humiliate him and kill him after the event.

"Host, I think there is something wrong with the auction rules," Liu Bian sneered. "I don't believe the fellow Daoist on the first floor has enough funds to pay the bid. I think he's intentionally raised the bidding price."

Everybody on the first floor murmured. They agreed to what Liu Bian had stated, but they didn't openly support the prince. Instead of saying anything, most of them had a big bag of popcorn on their laps, enjoying the show.

Tang Deming also disliked Cao Mao's attitude, but he disagreed with Liu Bian. After all, Cao Mao only raised the bid by the minimum increment. It was Liu Bian who kept vastly increasing the bidding price.

"I understand your frustration, Your Highness. However, it was you who increased the bid. And fellow Daoist on the first floor has only ever increased the bid by only 1,000."

Liu Bian bellowed, "Can you not understand the human language!? I said that he DOESN'T have enough money to make that bid!"

Everyone looked back and forth between Cao Mao and Liu Bian. Now that the prince had pointed out that the hooded guy didn't have enough money, it was Cao Mao's turn to clarify himself.

Cao Mao slowly fetched a token badge then showed it to everyone.

"This is my seller token. My items are on the list of today's auction. Do you have a problem with my credit?"

"What credit?" As Liu Bian had never seen the badge, he was confused.

On the other hand, Tang Deming recognized the badge. It was the one that he had given to Ju Shoufen.

The merchant's eyes sharpened. He cupped his hands and bowed toward the prince, "I can personally vouch that this Daoist gentleman is indeed qualified to make the bid. His items are scheduled to be auctioned later in the afternoon. He has enough credit to bid for the item."

"OHHHHH!!"

The crowd was surprised. As today's auction items were all at least heaven-grade in quality, Cao Mao naturally had enough money to make the bid. Even if he didn't have enough cash on hand, he could always use his items as collateral to borrow money from the host as long as his items could be sold at a higher price.

What excited the crowd more was the schedule of Cao Mao's items in this auction. Usually, auction hosts sorted their auction items depending on their rarity and the potential auction price. The cheapest items always came out first while the most expensive items appeared last!

As such, by revealing that Cao Mao's items would appear in the afternoon, it was a clear indication of his wealth.

"Could you tell me what items he's selling?" Liu Bian hadn't given up. He believed that Cao Mao might just be a lucky person, who had obtained a fortune by chance and put his items for sale here.

Tang Deming looked at Cao Mao, asking for permission to reveal his client's information with his eyes.

Cao Mao waved his hand, "Go ahead, tell him what my master gave to you."

"Okay," Tang Deming laughed. He started to enjoy this little drama. "This esteemed Daoist's master has deposited several heaven-grade pills for sale! I won't disclose their identity, but his items are worth way more than these trivial 50 essence cores for sure!"

Tang Deming was also a nice guy. He did not tell Liu Bian everything about Cao Mao since he still wanted the latter to revisit his guild in the future. After all, he was a merchant through and through.

"WHAT!?"

Liu Bian regretted his decision. Item suppliers in today's event could potentially be an influential figure. Offending such a person, especially an alchemist, was a bad idea.

Trying to salvage the situation, Liu Bian swallowed his pride and cupped his fist, bowing to Cao Mao.

"I'm terribly sorry for my rudeness. I had no idea that a great alchemist master had been hiding among the crowd."

Cao Mao didn't even look back at Liu Bian. He leaned back to this seat, "No harm done. Anyway, my master needs the spear. Would you please give us some face and concede?"

The crowd murmured again. Asking an auction competitor to concede the bid was illegal and ill-mannered, especially if the other party happened to be the crown prince.

As for Liu Bian, he was delighted. As long as Cao Mao was willing to amend for his blunder, he didn't mind giving up this item.

"As a token of my apology, I shall concede this item."

The prince went back to his seat. As for the eunuchs, they didn't dare violate the prince's decision. They also returned to their former positions.

The crowd was speechless.

Just like that?

Is this some kind of a joke?

This is an official auction, not a child's play!

That was what everyone in the theatre was thinking. They couldn't believe that these two rich men simply negotiated and took advantage of the auction in public.

Xu Lanying and Tang Deming's faces were distorted in anger. The latter regretted allowing Cao Mao to abuse the auction rules while the former was dissatisfied with the number of essence cores she would get.

This time, Tang Deming didn't take Cao Mao's side. He reprimanded them, "As the auction organizer and the host of this event, I have to give Sir Alchemist and Your Highness a warning. Negotiating others to concede in the middle of the auction is illegal. If you do this again, I'll have to ask you to leave this building."

Cao Mao and Liu Bian snickered, "Fair enough."

"Very well, 50,001,000 refined stones, going once!"

Tang Deming sighed and continued the auction. He turned to look at his assistants behind to stage, signaling them to bring the next item in advance since this session was over.

"Going twice-"

"100 million!"

A female voice from the third floor stunned Tang Deming and the audience.

Cao Mao turned around to look up, and he saw a middle-aged man and a young girl in green robes on one of the balconies of the third floor.

"Hmm?"

Cao Mao squinted his eyes. He had seen one of them, and he recognized the face.

…

The balcony was reserved by the Poison Pavilion, the assassin organization that had killed and crippled many powerful experts in the past hundred years.

Jian Meng was standing behind a young maiden, who had competed for the spear.

"That spear suits you, Young Lady Dong."

"Of course. The snake spirit synergizes with our poison arts. It will be useful to me."

The bidder was Dong Bai, the granddaughter of Dong Zhongying. She was also the sole legacy disciple of the Poison Pavilion's sect master.

Despite being only 14, her cultivation base had already reached level 10 of the meridian establishment realm. Given another year, she would ascend to the essence gathering realm, the same cultivation base as Cao Mao.

Because of her talent and her status as a legacy disciple of the sect master, the Dong Clan had a close tie with the Poison Pavilion. It could be said that Dong Zhongying and the Poison Pavilion would always be on the same side regardless of how the power struggle in the imperial court would turn out.

As such, Dong Bai could enjoy the rich resource from Poison Pavilion and her clan. She had more than enough cash on her to bid for the heaven-grade spear.

"I have only 150 essence cores, though. Do you think that guy can out-bid me?"

"The value of that spear is roughly 80-100 essence cores. I don't think he is willing to pay more than the market price for something he isn't familiar with."

"Oh? How did you know?"

Jian Meng smiled. He had scanned Cao Mao's Qi around his body and discovered traces of elemental Qi. However, he hadn't found any trace of poison element.

"He doesn't have the affinity with poison. That spear will only harm him if he uses it. Even if he wants to cultivate the poison element, the poison Qi from that spear won't be enough for the element condensation. In short, he has no reason to use the spear. He probably wants to use it to flaunt his status."

"Oh? How did you know?" Dong Bai was impressed by Jian Meng's deduction power.

"It's experience."

"But didn't he just say that his master wanted the spear, though?" Dong Bai found it amusing that Jian Meng might have a serious case of short-term memory or he might just want to look good in front of her.

Jian Meng's smiling face changed. He changed the subject as he stared at Cao Mao on the first floor, "If that's the case, it will complicate things. Young Lady, be prepared to bid more if he counterbids."

…

'Jian Meng? I thought he was with the Mountain Goose Sect. He's not with Xu Xiuying?'

Cao Mao turned to the box seat on the fifth floor, where Xu Lanying, Xia Dun, and Fu De were inside. He couldn't figure how Jian Meng had separated from the sect after that day.

But since the girl beside Jian Meng wanted to compete, Cao Mao was determined to get serious.

Yet, as Cao Mao opened his mouth and was about to outbid Dong Bai, someone else joined in the bidding war.

A certain monk on the fifth floor had made his move.

"300 million."

"…"

Cao Mao and Dong Bai widened their eyes and gazed at the nascent soul monk.

The monk, Zhao Bao, still had a gentle smile on his face. He also kept his hands in prayer position as if they were glued into each other. He repeated, "300 million. This monk needs that spear for his disciple."

Dong Bai stomped her feet and got back to her seat. She only had 150 essence cores on her, so she couldn't continue bidding. Even if Dong Bai could borrow more essence cores from Jian Meng, she believed that it wasn't worth it.

After all, the spear was only the first item today. There were many more goodies with better quality in the afternoon.

As for Cao Mao, he clicked his tongue as he patted Xueyan's head, apologizing to her.

"Sorry, kitty cat. I want to help your friend, but I don't think I can afford it."

The cat wept. She sank back into Cao Mao's robe, sobbing.

The snake spirit in the glass container also howled in anger after it had seen how sad its boss was. It struggled to break the glass.

BANG

Yet, the talismans behind the glass container shone and electrocuted the spear. The snake spirit screeched in pain before the spirit got sucked back into the blade.

Cao Mao sighed. He began to regret stealing the heavenly fate power from Ma Moxi. Hadn't he interfered with this protagonist's fate, the latter could have somehow rescued the snake spirit and prevented this tragedy.

Little did he know he was overthinking things.

Zhao Bao sent Cao Mao a voice transmission in secret.

'Young man, this monk would like to make a deal.'

"Hmm?" Cao Mao frowned as he didn't like it when someone talked directly to his mind.

'This monk shall give you the spear. However, this monk would like to have permanent access to Siren City. Of course, this access includes all of this monk's followers.'

"Ugh."

This offer was suspicious, and there was a loophole. The monk didn't specify how many followers he would bring into the city.

Zhao Bao would be able to bring as many people into the city if Cao Mao were to accept!

Cao Mao shook his head. Whether the monk had goodwill or not, he couldn't risk it.

Zhao Bao seemed to read Cao Mao's mind. He changed his words.

'This monk only wants the access for my three disciples. He promises that he won't bring others to Siren City.'

"…"

Cao Mao was relieved. He gazed at the monk and nodded without hesitation.

During the time when Cao Mao was in Siren City, he had sensed the monk and the three children. Ju Shoufen had also told him about the changes around the city and the monk's group.

As the monk and his disciples had proven to be able to behave themselves, Cao Mao respected them. Even though it was not the same level of trust, he believed that the monk was worthy to be his trade partner.

'Amitabha. Thank you, young man.'

"You're welcome."

As Cao Mao and others stopped bidding, the first item went to Zhao Bao, which would eventually fall to the hands of Cao Mao, who grinned at the thought of not having to pay a single spirit stone for it.