Xiao Hongchen: Fight Me, and I'll Foot the Bill. Xiao Qiang: Xie Xie, Twelve Million Three Hundred Thousand

With the status of Jing Hongchen's disciple, Xiao Qiang stayed at the Sun Moon Royal Auction House for the night. After spending the next day eating, drinking, and relaxing, he waited for the auction the following evening.

Sitting in the VIP room, Xiao Qiang watched item after item go up for auction. After consulting Jingyun about the various spiritual treasures and high-quality pills, he had already bought some whose auction prices would exceed the prices after an advance markup. As a result, he had little interest in ordinary pills.

After casually picking up several more reasonably priced pills and heavenly treasures, Xiao Qiang prepared to wait for the upcoming Marrow Cleansing Pill.

That had been Xiao Qiang's original plan, but he had ultimately underestimated the Sun Moon Empire's alchemy—or rather, he had underestimated the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Auction House.

"Next, please welcome our seventh auction item: the Spirit Skill Pill. This pill can awaken a soul beast's innate spirit skill. If you feed it to a soul beast and kill that soul beast within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the strongest spirit skill of that soul beast's species will have a high chance of becoming your spirit skill. The starting price is one million Gold Soul Coins."

Hearing the auctioneer's words through the screen, Xiao Qiang was utterly stunned.

Could a place like Douluo Continent really produce a pill like this? It would make more sense if it had come from the Battle Through the Heavens world!

"How exactly was this thing refined? Or rather, can something like this really be refined?"

"Honored guest, it is said that this pill was initially created to ensure that a certain spirit skill of the imperial family could be passed down continuously, keeping His Majesty the Emperor powerful. After all, there have never been many powerful soul beasts on our side, so an alchemy master created this pill," Ruoshui answered at Xiao Qiang's side.

"I see. Bid two million. I'll take it."

After confirming that the pill was reliable, Xiao Qiang decided to buy it and use it to help the Ice Empress awaken Ice Burst Technique.

Xiao Qiang had never particularly wanted the Ice Burst Technique left arm bone from the Star Luo Empire.

After all, it was merely a 70,000-year soul bone. For an ordinary Soul Master, it was indeed already top-tier.

But if he might ascend to the God Realm in the future, that 70,000-year left arm bone would be rather inadequate.

Xiao Qiang had no intention of following Huo Yuhao's path, much less copying his soul bone configuration. Even though Huo Yuhao was the Son of Destiny, his soul bone configuration was far inferior to Tang San's.

Other than their Head Spirit Bones, Tang San's Torso Bone was a million years old, while Huo Yuhao's was 400,000 years old.

For arm bones, Huo Yuhao had one that was 70,000 years old and one that was 100,000 years old. One of his leg bones was even only at the 10,000-year level. Compared with Tang San, Huo Yuhao was utterly lacking across the board aside from his skull bone.

Starting with soul bones inferior to enemies he might encounter in the future was not an outcome Xiao Qiang wanted. Therefore, he had no intention of taking Huo Yuhao's path.

However, not wanting to follow Huo Yuhao's path did not mean Xiao Qiang did not want Ice Burst Technique. He truly had no way of obtaining it before, but fortunately, he could now pay to win with pills. Once he confirmed it, he immediately decided to buy the Spirit Skill Pill.

"Yes." Ruoshui responded and pressed the bidding device, directly raising the price to two million.

Because Xiao Qiang had directly raised the bid to two million, he acquired the Spirit Skill Pill outright. After several more items went up for auction, the Marrow Cleansing Pill finally appeared.

Just as Xiao Qiang had learned from Jingyun, he spent only three million Gold Soul Coins to purchase the Marrow Cleansing Pill.

While celebrating the fact that he had asked beforehand, Xiao Qiang was also glad that his teacher was not one of the teachers written by Tang Jia San Shao.

If it had been one of Tang Jia San Shao's teachers, they probably would have said nothing and deliberately set Xiao Qiang up, forcing him to bear a lesson he could not quite afford.

Wu Changkong in Douluo Three had done exactly that. Even when there was no difficulty involved, he had forcibly created difficulty for Tang Wulin—and had done so when Tang Wulin could not bear the consequences of failure. Yet that lesson had not been useful in the slightest. Tang Wulin was not short on money long afterward. It had simply been screwing Tang Wulin over for the sake of screwing him over.

The teacher who had initially taught Tang Wulin forging was an even worse scammer. A single one of Tang Wulin's works was worth ten thousand Federation Coins, yet after working for him for three years, Tang Wulin had earned only thirty thousand Federation Coins. The tuition fees were outrageously exploitative, but that was not even the worst part about that forging teacher.

As someone who had risen from the bottom, Tang Wulin's forging teacher could not possibly have been unaware of the consequences of having a white first soul ring. With his status, he might not have had access to the Spirit Ascension Platform, but if he knew of its existence, then he would have known its price. Yet even under those circumstances, he had not chosen to lend Tang Wulin the money to buy a hundred-year Soul Spirit. Instead, he had chosen not to involve himself at all.

No wonder that by the later stages, Tang Wulin had become a Divine Craftsman while that man had not even become a Saint Craftsman. Helping was a matter of goodwill; refusing was within one's rights. Since Tang Wulin's teacher had merely done his duty in teaching Tang Wulin and had not built any goodwill with him, Tang Wulin was likewise merely doing his duty by calling him teacher. There was nothing wrong with giving him no resources afterward.

He had intended to suppress Tang Wulin and make him obedient for the rest of his life, but he had never expected that Tang Wulin would eventually become impossible to suppress. Tang Wulin's talent caught the attention of many high-level forging masters, and in the end, the disciple of a Divine Craftsman became the teacher of a Grand Craftsman. That was the retribution he deserved for making the wrong choice.

After buying the Marrow Cleansing Pill, Xiao Qiang purchased several other items as well. However, just as he was preparing to settle the bill and leave, a small accident occurred.

"Is there something you need, Xiao Hongchen?" Seeing that Xiao Hongchen's body had completely recovered from its swelling, Xiao Qiang could not help but marvel at how effective the Sun Moon Empire's healing medicines were.

"Fight me."

"Huh?"

"I said, fight me."

"Why?"

"Yesterday, you beating me was an accident. I definitely won't lose to you again today."

"So you want to beat me?"

Xiao Hongchen nodded firmly. "That's right."

"Oh, then I surrender. You win." Xiao Qiang raised both hands in a surrendering gesture and prepared to leave.

"Stop right there! If you don't fight me today, don't even think about leaving!"

"Big brother, I was wrong. Why would a Three-ring Soul Master like me compete with a Four-ring Soul Ancestor like you? Wouldn't I just be asking for a beating?"

"I won't make you take a beating for nothing. As long as you fight me, win or lose, I'll charge everything you bought this time to my card."

The moment Xiao Hongchen finished speaking, he saw Xiao Qiang, who had been fleeing in defeat, freeze in place. Then, without changing expression, Xiao Qiang backed up to Xiao Hongchen's side.

"You mean that?"

"Of course. Would I, Xiao Hongchen, ever go back on my word? Besides, you only just became my grandfather's disciple. How much could you possibly have spent?"

"Honored Guest Xiao Qiang, your total expenditure this time comes to twelve million three hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins. Whose card should we charge?"

Xiao Hongchen: "..."