At nine o’clock the next morning, the grand domed hall of the Frost-Pine Treasure Auction House on Central Street was packed to the rafters.
Over three hundred of the wealthiest silk merchants, quarry owners, martial clan elders. Visiting traders in Frost-Pine County filled the velvet-cushioned rows on the ground floor, while warm charcoal braziers kept the winter chill at bay.
Up on the second-floor mezzanine, directly overlooking the center of the auction stage, the curtains of VIP Box #1 were drawn wide open.
Gu Changsheng sat comfortably in a carved rosewood armchair sipping hot jasmine tea, with a porcelain dish of spiced roasted melon seeds and candied hawthorns on the table beside him. To his left sat twenty-four-year-old Rank 2 Alchemist Qin Wan’er in a spotless sky-blue dress. To his right sat eight-year-old Gu Nian in his yellow home smock with two glowing [Little Red Flower Stickers] pinned to his pocket.
His yellow bunny slippers swinging happily two inches above the carpet.
Behind Gu Changsheng’s chair stood sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu—now a genuine Rank 2 Early Iron-Bone martial artist—holding his black-iron abacus and radiating a steady. Imposing aura that made the auction house attendants bow twice as low whenever they refilled the teapot.
Down in the very first row of the ground floor, directly below VIP Box #1, sat Second Elder Gu Ba and his nephew-in-law Lin Fan.
Neither of them looked like they had slept a wink all night.
Second Elder Gu Ba had both swollen cheeks wrapped in white gauze like a giant steamed bun. His hands trembled slightly as he clutched a red-stamped bank draft for ten thousand silver taels issued by the Black-Shark Loan House.
Sitting right next to Second Elder Gu Ba—cleaning his fingernails with a shark-tooth dagger and smiling like a hungry crocodile—was a burly. Bald Rank 2 Early martial artist wearing a black sealskin coat and three gold thumb-rings.
That was Loan-Shark Boss Shark (Sha Biao), the ruthless owner of the Black-Shark Underground Casino & Loan House!
“Remember our contract, Second Elder Gu,” Boss Shark rumbled in a voice like grinding stones, tapping the flat of his dagger against Gu Ba’s armrest. “Ten thousand silver principal, plus two thousand silver overnight emergency interest. You swore to me last night that Lot #88 contains a priceless treasure worth thirty thousand silver.
The moment the auction ends at noon, either you hand me twelve thousand silver from reselling that treasure—or my men march straight into the Gu Clan Second Branch Mansion. Confiscate every brick, tile, and silver coin you own!”
Second Elder Gu Ba swallowed hard and shot a terrified glare at Lin Fan. “Nephew Lin, you swore on your mother’s grave that your master’s secret method detected a peerless treasure in Lot #88! If anything goes wrong today, I’ll skin you alive!”
“Relax, Uncle!” Lin Fan hissed back in a low whisper, though his bloodshot eyes kept darting nervously up toward VIP Box #1 where Gu Changsheng was leisurely cracking melon seeds. “Last night at eleven-thirty, I personally went to the back alley behind the warehouse and let my master inspect Lot #88 through the window!
The Earth-Fire aura is real!
Once I open that green brick on stage and drink the Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk, I’ll break straight into Rank 2 right here in the hall! Who will dare ask a Rank 2 prodigy for interest until next month?!”
Just then, fifty-five-year-old Manager Qian Fugui strode briskly out onto the center of the red-carpeted auction stage without a cane!
Walking with the light, springy stride of a thirty-year-old man thanks to Gu Changsheng’s [Fused Tiger-Bone Rheumatism Wine], Manager Qian struck his silver gavel against the mahogany podium with a ringing crack.
“Welcome, honored guests, clan elders, and merchants, to the Frost-Pine Annual Winter Treasure Auction!” Manager Qian boomed cheerfully, glancing up at VIP Box #1 with a respectful bow before turning to the hall. “Today we have eighty-eight lots of rare herbs, martial weapons, and curios from the northern mountains!
Now, having completed our first eighty-seven lots of the morning, we arrive at our final clearance item of the day—Lot #88!”
Two burly stage attendants wheeled out a heavy wooden cart covered in red velvet cloth and stopped in the center of the stage.
With a dramatic flourish, Manager Qian pulled the velvet cloth away!
Sitting under the bright brass chandeliers of the auction stage were the two items Gu Changsheng had carefully placed on the warehouse shelf the night before:.
A two-foot-wide, dented black iron bucket coated in realistic flaky red rust, and a cracked green clay paving brick sealed with gray mortar!
Around the ground floor, Silk Merchant Liu and the three hundred wealthy bidders burst into amused chuckles.
“Haha! What kind of final lot is that, Manager Qian? Did your attendants accidentally wheel out the janitor’s scrap cart?”
“An old rusted iron pot and a cracked green brick from a collapsed wall! Even a blacksmith wouldn’t pay two hundred copper coins for that!”
In the front row, however, the black iron ring on Lin Fan’s thumb suddenly vibrated!
Because Master Yao Chen was thirty feet away from the stage and keeping ninety percent of his soul-power dormant after burning his energy to save Lin Fan from the Heart-Rot Poison yesterday. The old Pill Sovereign only swept a brief, sleepy wisp of spiritual sense across the surface of the pot.
Instantly, Yao Chen’s spiritual sense brushed against the [Real Earth-Fire Rust Scrapings] and [Surface Aura Mask] that Gu Changsheng had fused onto the exterior of the latrine bucket with [Dad’s Care-Package Upgrade Box]!
“That’s it, boy!” Master Yao Chen whispered urgently inside Lin Fan’s mind. *“The surface rust carries the exact Earth-Fire resonance I smelled through the warehouse window last night! These blind mortal merchants think it’s scrap iron!
Buy it quickly before anyone else notices!”*
Hearing Master Yao Chen’s confirmation in his head, Lin Fan’s heart leaped into his throat with ecstatic greed!
“Starting bid for Lot #88, bundled together as unappraised mountain ruin curios: fifty silver taels!” Manager Qian announced from the podium, raising his gavel. “Each bid increment must be at least ten silver!
Do I hear fifty silver?”
Lin Fan immediately thrust his wooden bidding paddle #14 high into the air, trying to keep his voice casual while his eyes gleamed:.
“Fifty silver! Our Second Branch happens to need an old iron pot to melt snow in the courtyard, so I’ll take this junk off Manager Qian’s hands for fifty taels!”
Manager Qian raised his gavel: “Fifty silver from Paddle #14! Going once, going twice—”
“One hundred silver.”
A calm, lazy voice drifted down from VIP Box #1 on the second-floor balcony.
Gu Changsheng didn’t even put down his teacup. With his left hand, he casually held up gold-plated VIP Paddle #1 while tossing a roasted melon seed to Gu Nian.
Down in the front row, Lin Fan’s neck snapped backward so hard his collar tore!
“Gu Changsheng?!” Lin Fan glared up at the balcony, his knuckles turning white around his wooden paddle. “What do you want with a rusty iron pot and a cracked brick?!”
“Oh, nothing special, Nephew Lin,” Gu Changsheng said pleasantly, leaning his elbow on the velvet railing of the balcony with a warm smile. “Yesterday you and your uncle were kind enough to gift our Peace Pharmacy a three-story Pill Hall on Central Street. Sister Wan’er mentioned we need an extra iron pot in the back yard to boil dandelion roots.
Since Nephew Lin likes this pot, it must be sturdy iron. Two hundred silver!”
He doesn’t know what it really is—he’s just trying to spite me! Lin Fan gritted his teeth, though a cold spike of paranoia pricked his spine. “Five hundred silver!”
Up on the balcony, Gu Changsheng didn’t blink for half a second:.
“One thousand silver!”
GASP!
The three hundred merchants in the hall stared back and forth between the front row and the balcony as if watching two madmen fight over a cobble from the street!
“One thousand silver for a rusty pot and a broken brick?!” Silk Merchant Liu wiped his spectacles in shock. “Have the two branches of the Gu Clan lost their minds?!”
In the front row, Second Elder Gu Ba grabbed Lin Fan’s sleeve with trembling, sweaty fingers. “N-Nephew Lin! Why is Gu Changsheng bidding one thousand silver for scrap iron?!
Did he find out what’s inside Lot #88?!”
“Even if he suspects there’s something special about Lot #88, Uncle, that only proves this treasure is priceless!” Lin Fan snarled under his breath, his eyes turning blood-red with gambler’s madness. “If we let Gu Changsheng get this Rank 3 furnace and the Earth-Heart Milk, he’ll break into Rank 2 today and wipe out our Second Branch tonight!”
Lin Fan stood up from his chair and thrust Paddle #14 toward the ceiling:.
“Two thousand silver!”
Before Lin Fan’s voice even stopped echoing off the dome, Gu Changsheng lazily raised three fingers from the balcony while pouring Auntie Qin a fresh cup of tea:.
“Three thousand silver.”
“Four thousand!” Lin Fan roared, veins bulging on his neck.
“Five thousand,” Gu Changsheng replied cheerfully, cracking another melon seed.
“Seven thousand!” Lin Fan shrieked, his forehead bandage slipping crooked over his eyebrow.
“Nine thousand nine hundred silver taels,” Gu Changsheng said smoothly, leaning over the balcony railing and smiling down at Lin Fan’s purple face. “Come on, Nephew Lin. Didn’t you and Second Elder Gu Ba just borrow ten thousand silver from Boss Shark last night?
You still have one hundred taels left in your pocket—don’t tell me a Chosen Hero of the Second Branch is scared to go all-in?”
Up inside VIP Box #1, Auntie Qin had to press her silk handkerchief tightly over her lips to keep from. Laughing out loud at the sight of Second Elder Gu Ba’s bandaged cheeks turning the color of an old eggplant.
“Brother Gu, you’re terrible,” Auntie Qin whispered, her eyes crinkling into bright crescents as she poured another cup of jasmine tea. “That pot on stage is literally Public Latrine Bucket #4 from the back alley, and you just pushed them from fifty silver all the way to nine thousand nine hundred silver!”
“I gave him every chance to stop at fifty silver, Sister Wan’er,” Gu Changsheng replied innocently, cracking a spiced melon seed and placing the kernel into Gu Nian’s small saucer. “You saw how angrily he glared at me every time I raised my paddle. As a caring uncle, how can I deny a young man’s dream of owning a ten-thousand-silver chamber pot?”
Sitting on his rosewood chair swinging his yellow bunny slippers, eight-year-old Gu Nian counted on his fingers with a very serious face.
“Dad, Grandpa Fu taught me math with his abacus this morning,” Gu Nian whispered. “We paid Manager Qian twenty silver for the real pot and the real milk-brick last night. If Uncle Lin bids ten thousand silver for the smelly bucket right now, that means he’s paying five hundred times more than we did—for poop!”
“Spot-on multiplication, Nian’er,” Grandpa Fu praised in a low voice, clicking two iron beads on his abacus with a proud nod. “At the Gu Family Elementary School we’re going to build next month, Little Master Nian will definitely be first in arithmetic!”
Down on the ground floor of the auction hall, meanwhile, the three hundred wealthy merchants were whispering furiously among themselves:.
“Nine thousand nine hundred silver! And Patriarch Gu just called out the exact amount of Second Elder Gu Ba’s ten-thousand-silver loan from Boss Shark!”
“Look at Lin Fan’s face—his eyeballs are completely red! Do you think he’ll actually dare bid the full ten thousand silver?!”
[ DING! BIDDING WAR TRAP AT MAXIMUM TENSION! ]
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
Across the courtyard, Grandpa Fu clicked his abacus beads once and noted the smooth progress in his household ledger.
* Current Bid : 9,900 Silver Taels for a Painted Latrine Bucket!
* Target Status : Lin Fan & Gu Ba pushed to 100% Gambler’s Frenzy!
* Daily Income : +3,100 DP/day -> +3,400 DP/day!