With Zheng Qian raising the bid from thirty thousand taels to forty thousand in one breath, the entire auction hall instantly erupted.
"Forty thousand taels? Who is that? He actually raised the price by so much in one go?"
"I scraped together everything I had and only managed to gather thirty-eight thousand taels. To bid for this final item, I even reluctantly passed up several previous lots. Who would have thought..."
"Forty thousand taels right off the bat! He's really rich..."
The reason these people were so shocked was that forty thousand taels of silver was truly an enormous sum.
Even those so-called wealthy merchants and powerful gentry worth millions would find it difficult to produce so much ready cash at once.
After all, most of their assets consisted of fixed properties such as houses, shops, land, and mines. Though valuable, these provided long-term returns rather than ready cash.
That was also why Zheng Qian had only managed to loot a little over forty thousand taels of silver from Fang Yujie. It was not that his family fortune amounted to so little, but that he could not take away the most valuable things, such as houses, shops, and farmland.
However, forty thousand taels of silver clearly could not intimidate the truly powerful clans.
"Forty-one thousand taels!"
After only a brief pause, Booth A7 on the third floor raised its placard and called out a bid.
Hearing someone else bid, Zheng Qian added to the price again without the slightest hesitation.
"Forty-three thousand taels!"
This was all the silver he had on him. The outcome would be decided by this one bid.
To him, silver was merely a number.
With his strength, wouldn't he be able to get as much as he wanted?
This time, it was only because time had been too tight. Otherwise, he could have gathered anywhere from eight hundred thousand to a million taels of silver.
Unfortunately, there were no what-ifs in this world. If he had no money, then he had no money, and the auction house would not let him owe them a debt.
This incomplete Morning Sun One Qi Art was clearly worth far more than this amount. The moment he called out his bid, Booth A7 on the third floor immediately raised it again.
"Forty-five thousand taels!"
After that, Booth A3 immediately followed with another bid.
"Forty-seven thousand taels!"
"Fifty thousand taels!"
"Fifty-one thousand taels!"
Listening to the successive bids rising and falling from the booths above, Zheng Qian shook his head and muttered emotionally.
"These clans are really damn rich..."
This was only natural. After all, news that a Grandmaster-level technique was going up for auction had been released long ago.
To these powerful clans, techniques were valuable resources that could strengthen their foundations.
Especially a Grandmaster-level technique. Even if it was incomplete, should someone from the family luckily use it to break through and become a true Grandmaster, the benefits to the clan would be limitless.
For example, in the Xingyang Dynasty, if a clan had a Grandmaster Realm expert guarding it, that clan could control the military and civil authority over an entire commandery.
How could the resulting profits be limited to merely a million taels of silver?
Therefore, as long as there was even the slightest chance, these clans would never give up. Even the Four Great Families, who were related by marriage, refused to yield to one another.
Just like now, bids were rising one after another from the many booths on the second and third floors.
In only a few short minutes, the price had soared past one hundred thousand taels of silver, making Zheng Qian's brow twitch repeatedly.
However, he was in no hurry to leave. With the price so high, someone would inevitably want to reap the benefits without lifting a finger.
And in Xishan Commandery, the only people stronger than him were those few Half-step Grandmasters capable of using astral qi.
But he had also learned a great deal over the past few days.
Although those people could use astral qi, their reserves were limited, and their recovery speed was extremely slow.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, they would not use it lightly.
The reasoning was simple—
If you exhausted all the astral qi in your body first while someone else remained unharmed, the consequences...
Although Zheng Qian himself could not use the astral qi in his body, the [Qi Breaking Form] of the Dugu Nine Swords could not restrain Grandmaster astral qi as effectively as it did Innate True Qi, but it still had a certain restraining effect.
In addition, his Sun Swallowing True Qi was supremely firm and supremely yang, making it more powerful than other people's Innate True Qi.
With the two combined, even if those few Half-step Grandmasters used astral qi, he was not without the strength to fight them.
And strength was the source of confidence. He planned to wait and see who would ultimately obtain this Morning Sun One Qi Art, and whether he would have a chance to seize it for himself.
"One hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred taels! The honored guest in Booth B28 has bid one hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred taels! Is anyone else willing to raise the bid?"
"One hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred taels, once!"
"One hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred taels, twice!"
"One hundred fifty-five thousand eight hundred taels, three times!"
"Bang!"
"Sold! Congratulations to the honored guest in Booth B20 for winning this Morning Sun One Qi Art!"
"Excellent! This auction has come to a successful conclusion. Once again, thank you all for attending.
"Next, honored guests who won items they desired, please proceed to the back hall to complete your transactions."
As Song Tao's voice fell, the crowd began to disperse.
Those who had won treasures rose and headed toward the back hall, while those who had gained nothing left the auction house in small groups.
Zheng Qian had not won anything, so he could only follow the crowd outside.
However, after leaving the auction house, he did not go far.
While bidding for the incomplete Morning Sun One Qi Art, he had already memorized the aura of the person in Booth B28.
Aura was a very complicated thing. It included one's heartbeat, breathing, voice, and so on. It was practically impossible for two people to have exactly the same aura.
Therefore, as long as that person appeared, he would be able to determine their identity.
Outside the auction house, Zheng Qian's gaze was sharp as he constantly observed the movements around him.
He was not the only one. He also sensed more than ten people nearby who were similar to him. He simply did not know whether they had the same target.
The person who had won the Morning Sun One Qi Art did not keep Zheng Qian waiting long.
About a quarter of an hour later, he finally appeared.
He was a middle-aged man with a stiff face. His gray clothes were ordinary and utterly unremarkable, making it impossible to tell that he was someone capable of throwing money around so lavishly.
"Is he disguised? Or is he wearing a human-skin mask?"
Looking at the middle-aged man's stiff face as he walked out of the auction house, Zheng Qian quietly voiced his guess.
However, it did not matter whether the man truly looked like that or not. As long as the incomplete Morning Sun One Qi Art was on him, that was enough.
At this thought, he immediately followed far behind the man.
Ahead of him, several other people were also following the man in various ways. It seemed they had already learned his identity as well.
The middle-aged man's strength was clearly extraordinary. He quickly noticed that someone was following him.
He immediately quickened his pace and headed straight for the nearest South City District.
As one of the civilian districts, the South City District was a place where all kinds of people mingled, with every sort of unorthodox school and teaching found everywhere.
If someone entered it with the sincere intention of hiding, finding them again would be extremely difficult, like searching for a needle in the ocean.
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