This Martial Nephew Enjoys the Blessing of Having Two Beauties

On the auction platform, the warm yellow glow of spirit lamps spilled down like a veil, bathing the entire white jade stage in a soft radiance.

Liu Yaoyao raised her eyes toward Box Fifteen on the second floor, a flicker of surprise passing through her shimmering peach blossom eyes.

She remembered the voice from Box Fifteen all too clearly.

That person had crushed the competition with an enormous bid on the very first item.

Twenty-five thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones for five bottles of Supreme-Grade Yellow Dragon Pills.

Even after years of hosting auctions and watching scions of Aristocratic Clans spend fortunes without a second thought, she had to admit that the price was rather extravagant.

But she had not expected that, when the final highlight of the auction came up, this person would give her an even greater surprise.

Everyone knew how precious Azurite Jade Liquid was, but this was only a thousand years old, and there was just a single drop. The price should not have been too outrageous.

She had reckoned it would sell for between eighty-five and eighty-eight thousand.

Yet the moment bidding began, the person in the box had called out a hundred thousand.

This was no longer normal bidding. This was a bid to crush everyone else outright!

Liu Yaoyao lowered her long lashes slightly, then turned her gaze and let a smile of bone-deep allure bloom on her red lips.

She leaned forward a little, the neckline of her red dress shifting in a subtle curve with the movement, and her seductive voice drifted out beneath the warm spirit lamps:

"The honored guest in Box Fifteen on the second floor has bid a hundred thousand. Does anyone wish to bid higher? This is Azurite Jade Liquid, you know~ Especially for those of you with younger family members in the Qi Refining Realm, this one drop can awaken their Divine Sense ahead of time and give them a solid foundation for it. In the future, they'll travel farther and more steadily than others. If you miss it today, who knows when you'll come across it again~"

She paused, her gaze sweeping slowly across the room, as though she were speaking to each person individually.

"Counting down... three!"

A thick silence descended over the entire auction hall.

No one spoke. They even deliberately muffled their breathing.

The light of the spirit lamps fell on their faces, revealing all manner of complicated expressions.

Some were envious, some unwilling to give up, while others had finished enjoying the spectacle and no longer cared.

In Box Nine on the third floor, Li Yao clenched the spirit fruit in his hand so tightly that its flesh was crushed out of shape. Sticky juice seeped between his fingers, but he did not notice.

He stared at Box Fifteen on the second floor, his eyes full of resentment as his teeth ground together.

Beside him, Li Feng glanced at his younger cousin's dark, shifting expression and said gravely, "A cultivator who can produce a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones all at once probably has a considerable power behind him. Li Yao, don't go getting any ideas you shouldn't!"

Li Yao's chest heaved several times before he suddenly shut his eyes and drew a deep breath. His voice sounded as though it had been squeezed through his teeth. "I know! First, I'll make contact with him through that direct descendant of the Qin Household. Besides... I'll have someone look into his background."

Seeing that Li Yao was angry but still able to keep his reason, Li Feng nodded slightly and looked away.

In the other boxes, the cultivators listened to Liu Yaoyao's stirring words, their mouths twitching as speechless looks spread across their faces.

Who didn't know Azurite Jade Liquid was a good thing?

But the problem was, they had to have the money to buy it!

A hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones was enough to bankrupt a small Lineage out in the world.

Spending it all on a single drop of thousand-year-old Azurite Jade Liquid was a poor bargain no matter how they looked at it.

With that many Spirit Stones, they could easily buy two or three supreme-grade Law Artifacts. It was even possible they could obtain a mid-grade Spirit Artifact.

In a box on the fourth floor, Mu Yunxue's frost-cold eyes watched through the gauze curtain as Liu Yaoyao prepared to close the sale on the platform.

The countdown had already reached "two."

Behind her, the gray-haired elder turned slightly and asked in a low voice, "Martial Niece Mu, shall we bid again?"

Mu Yunxue was silent for a few breaths.

The spirit lamps illuminated her porcelain-white profile, tracing its exquisitely beautiful lines.

Her expression remained indifferent, like an emotionless doll.

A moment later, she shook her head gently.

"Forget it. For me, Azurite Jade Liquid can only strengthen my Divine Sense. With a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, I could improve it more through other means."

Naturally, it was not that she could not produce a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Her master, the sect leader, gave her enough Cultivation Resources to make others green with envy, but she had never been willing to squander them.

All she cared about was whether something was worth the price.

At her words, the elder glanced toward Box Fifteen on the second floor. He said nothing more and closed his eyes slightly.

The countdown soon ended.

"Congratulations to the honored guest in Box Fifteen on the second floor!"

Liu Yaoyao's smile bloomed like a flower, and she made no effort to hide the delight in her voice.

The total sales at this auction were considerably higher than she had expected, which meant her commission would be substantial.

She gently pressed her hands together, her red sleeves slipping back to reveal a length of dazzlingly fair wrist.

Then she blinked, a perfectly measured trace of reluctance and regret appearing on her charming face. Her voice softened, like a spring breeze brushing past the ear.

"Everyone, time passes so quickly. The auction has now come to an end. Yaoyao really would have liked to spend a little longer with all of you fellow cultivators~ I only hope that at this same time next year, Yaoyao can be here to see every one of you again..."

She briefly summed up the auction in a few sentences, then formally announced its conclusion.

As her voice faded, the cultivators in the first-floor hall began rising and leaving their seats.

Footsteps, whispers, and the rustle of fabric mingled into a low, noisy din.

The spirit lamps in the box area went out one after another, shifting patterns of light and shadow moving slowly along the corridors.

Lu Yang leaned back in his chair, listening to the footsteps in the corridor outside the box as they receded and grew less frequent.

His expression was as calm as a deep pool, without the slightest ripple.

Neither he, Qin Nanyue, nor Lin Ying showed any intention of getting up.

After all, the things he had bought had yet to be delivered.

At that moment, however, Qin Nanyue and Lin Ying wore very different expressions.

Both women were still somewhat dazed, their eyes slightly unfocused, as though they had yet to recover completely from the impact of hearing "a hundred thousand."

The air in the box seemed especially still beneath the spirit lamps, so quiet that they could hear one another's slightly uneven breathing.

Lin Ying gently pressed her red lips together, her pearly teeth leaving a faint white mark on them.

She raised her eyes, gentle as water, and stole a glance at Lu Yang before quickly lowering her gaze again.

That feeling of inferiority welled up in her heart once more, beyond her control.

Junior Brother Lu really is so rich...

He called out a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones just like that, yet his expression didn't change at all.

He wasn't pretending to be calm. He really didn't care.

Just how much money does he have?

Just how powerful is his background?

Lin Ying suddenly felt as though she and Lu Yang belonged to two different worlds.

A gulf lay between them, one she could never cross no matter how hard she tried.

Not just Lin Ying—even Qin Nanyue, who was usually carefree, felt a considerable upheaval in her heart.

Cultivators who could produce a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones were not particularly rare.

But those who could produce that sum at the Mid-stage Qi Refining were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

Rogue Cultivators naturally could not even dream of it.

Even Qin Nanyue, with a great cultivation Lineage like the Qin Household behind her, would need some time to make preparations before she could raise that many Spirit Stones at once.

But when Lu Yang had called out "a hundred thousand," his tone had been as level as if he were saying "ten."

Just how deep do this fellow's resources run?

Qin Nanyue looked at Lu Yang's handsome profile, and for some reason her heart skipped several beats.

After a few breaths of silence, she could no longer hold back. "Lu Yang, don't tell me you have a top Nascent Soul-level power behind you?"

At those words, Lin Ying's delicate body trembled slightly. She jerked her head up, her clear eyes wide as she stared at Lu Yang in astonishment.

Lu Yang had not expected Qin Nanyue to think along those lines either.

Several black lines appeared on his forehead. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he waved a hand. "How could that be? Senior Sister Qin, your imagination is running too wild. I really am just a member of an ordinary Lineage. I don't have any powerful background."

Qin Nanyue rolled her eyes and pursed her red lips. The words "Do you think I believe you?" were written all over her face.

Seeing this, Lu Yang could only sigh helplessly.

This Senior Sister Qin was fine in every way, except that her imagination was simply too powerful.

She had even brought up a Nascent Soul-level power. If she kept speculating, would she start suspecting that some reclusive Spirit Transformation mighty expert was his ancestor?

If the elders of the Lu Household knew their Lineage had become a Nascent Soul-level power in Senior Sister Qin's telling, they would probably be scared half to death on the spot.

Just then, someone knocked gently on the box door.

Qin Nanyue composed her expression and called out, "Come in."

The door opened, and the maid from before was still at the front.

Sun Shouzheng, an inner-sect deacon of the auction house, followed behind her. But what made all three people in the box pause was that, besides Sun Shouzheng, a figure in a swaying red dress also came in.

Liu Yaoyao.

All three of them, Lu Yang included, were a little surprised to see her come in person.

Qin Nanyue was the first to recover. She hurriedly rose from her chair, a courteous smile on her face. "Martial Aunt Liu, what brings you here in person?"

She knew perfectly well how important this Martial Aunt Liu was.

As the daughter of an External Affairs Hall elder, and with the auctions she handled repeatedly setting new sales records, Liu Yaoyao held an extraordinary position in the External Affairs Hall.

If it were only a matter of delivering a bottle of Azurite Jade Liquid, there was no need to trouble her to come herself.

The moment Liu Yaoyao stepped into the box, her gaze involuntarily fell on Lu Yang.

The soft light of the spirit lamps fell on the young man, outlining his upright figure with clarity.

He had a high, straight nose and thin lips pressed slightly together. His eyes seemed to hold the scattered stars of a deep winter night sky, and his whole person was enveloped in an ethereal, otherworldly bearing.

He was merely standing there quietly, yet like a magnet, he drew everyone's gaze to himself.

Liu Yaoyao's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

In all her years greeting and seeing off guests at auctions, she had seen countless handsome young talents and considered herself long since immune to appearances.

But this martial nephew before her was unfairly good-looking.

Still, as a woman adept at navigating social situations, Liu Yaoyao lost herself for only an instant before her expression returned to normal.

She suppressed that flicker of emotion without a trace, leaving no way for anyone else to notice.

Her gaze naturally swept over Qin Nanyue and Lin Ying, and she could not help clicking her tongue inwardly.

These two were also rare beauties in the making, each with her own charm.

One was dashing and spirited, the other gentle as water. With one on either side of the handsome young man, the sight was pleasing to the eye.

This martial nephew is enjoying the blessing of having two beauties...

Liu Yaoyao grumbled inwardly, but the smile on her face did not diminish.

She gave Qin Nanyue a friendly nod, her soft voice carrying a touch of natural familiarity.

"Why, I'm here to escort the Azurite Jade Liquid over, of course. And while I'm at it, to personally deliver the VIP Token Token to the martial nephew who placed the bid just now~"