The woman immediately put on a smile and began flattering him.
"Please don't say that, sir. Come right in."
Li Xingluo shot the woman a sidelong glance. His icy stare sent a shiver through her.
The woman vented her frustration on the guards, scolding them before leading Li Xingluo and Xiao Yi Xian into the hall. They walked along a corridor and entered a room.
"May I ask what you wish to auction, sir? Could you show it to us for appraisal so we can set a price?"
A maid served them tea and left the room. Li Xingluo stopped putting on airs.
He took a bottle from his black ring and set it on the table.
"This is it. Just a pill."
"A pill?" The woman seemed especially surprised, staring blankly at the bottle on the table.
"What? Is there a problem?"
"N-no problem. I'll go ask the auction house's Alchemist to come over. Please wait a moment."
The woman waved her hands repeatedly, trying to hide her lapse in composure. Even after leaving the room, she looked back at Li Xingluo.
Before long, hurried footsteps sounded outside. The woman treated the auction house's only Alchemist with great respect as she led him over.
The auction house's Alchemist was rather arrogant. Li Xingluo's producing a pill did nothing to change that. Pride and disdain were written all over his face as he strode into the room with an air of utter disregard for everyone.
"Who wants to auction a pill? Where is it?"
Li Xingluo guessed that the Alchemist was in his forties or fifties. Seeing his arrogant, overbearing manner, Li Xingluo couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge him.
He lifted his teacup and took a small sip, not bothering to respond to the auction house's Alchemist at all.
The Alchemist's expression grew even uglier. Seeing this, the woman, who was an auctioneer, immediately smiled and smoothed things over. She picked up the bottle containing the pill and handed it to him.
The auction house's Alchemist didn't take the bottle from her right away. Instead, he sat down in the seat of honor, leaving the woman no choice but to follow and present it to him with both hands.
From beginning to end, Li Xingluo remained cold and indifferent, not taking the auction house's Alchemist seriously at all.
The auction house's Alchemist took the bottle and examined it. It wasn't particularly refined, and a smug look immediately appeared on his face.
"What's this? What kind of good pill could it possibly contain?"
"Sir, aren't you going to open it and take a look?"
The woman saw the auction house's Alchemist casually set the bottle on a nearby table, with no intention of appraising it.
Li Xingluo knew perfectly well that the man was trying to put him in his place.
The woman's words earned her nothing but a disdainful look from the auction house's Alchemist—a warning as well.
Li Xingluo slowly rose to his feet and walked straight toward the auction house's Alchemist. The Alchemist was delighted, and the corners of his mouth twitched with barely restrained glee.
But the next moment, Li Xingluo didn't do what the man had expected. He simply picked up the pill from the table and turned to leave.
"How dare you! Do you think the Aus Auction House is somewhere you can come and go as you please?"
Li Xingluo glanced at the auction house's Alchemist from the corner of his eye. That chilling look made the Alchemist feel as if he'd fallen into an icy abyss.
Li Xingluo slowly pulled out the stopper. A rich pill fragrance instantly filled the entire room.
The auction house's Alchemist, who had been wearing a look of arrogance just moments ago, grew visibly unsettled at this seemingly insignificant gesture from Li Xingluo.
The woman wasn't an Alchemist, but her considerable experience told her that this pill was no ordinary one.
Li Xingluo put the pill back into his black ring and headed for the door.
The auction house's Alchemist hurried after him and blocked his way, his expression awkward.
He respectfully raised his hands in a bow and said, "This humble one was blind to your stature. Please forgive me, sir."
Li Xingluo had seen from the moment the man entered that he was merely a Second-Rank Alchemist. Perhaps he counted as somebody in a little place like Maple Forest City, but in Li Xingluo's eyes, he was nothing.
Seeing how completely the man had changed his tune made Li Xingluo feel disgusted.
The woman was a smooth operator. Seeing that even her own Alchemist had bowed and apologized, she stepped forward with a bright smile and bowed sincerely.
"Sir, it was just a misunderstanding. Please don't take it to heart."
"Uh, a misunderstanding?"
The pressure Li Xingluo exuded was more than enough. Those cold eyes of his were especially unsettling, giving the impression that he was unfathomably deep.
"Yes, it was all a misunderstanding. This humble one was rude just now. Please don't hold it against us."
The man's behavior was truly laughable. He had just tried to lord it over Li Xingluo, and now he was all fawning and obsequious.
Forget it. If he weren't short on money, Li Xingluo really would have left.
"Fine. Let's call it a misunderstanding. But I hope this old man won't see another one like it."
Seeing that Li Xingluo had relented, the auction house's Alchemist wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He understood that the moment Li Xingluo opened the bottle and the pill fragrance poured out, he, a Second-Rank Alchemist, had known he could never refine a pill like that. He remembered smelling such a rich pill fragrance at the Alchemist Guild once before. That had been a Fifth-grade Pill.
If the man before him could refine Fifth-grade Pills, then he was someone a mere Second-Rank Alchemist couldn't afford to offend.
Li Xingluo took out the pill. This time, the auction house's Alchemist carefully received it with both hands.
He opened the stopper, and the rich pill fragrance wafted out again. Then he took out the pill: it was translucent, bright in color, and utterly free of impurities.
As a Second-Rank Alchemist, he couldn't determine the pill's grade at all. He could only look to Li Xingluo for help.
"Sir, this humble one is only a Second-Rank Alchemist. I'm simply unable to determine the grade of your pill."
He had swallowed his pride to say it. Li Xingluo himself didn't know what grade this Breakthrough Pill was. For one thing, it hadn't appeared in the original story; for another, the pill recipe he'd been given didn't list its grade.
The only thing Li Xingluo knew for certain was that one Breakthrough Pill could raise a Dou Shi by five stars without any side effects. He had tried it himself. Otherwise, he couldn't have advanced to seven-star Dou Shi in just one month. That cultivation speed was like riding a rocket.
Li Xingluo couldn't help feeling pleased. The fact that they couldn't identify it was exactly what he wanted.
"This is a Fifth-grade Pill."
"Fifth-grade?" The woman and the auction house's Alchemist stared at him in disbelief.
"That's right."
"May I ask what this pill does?"
Li Xingluo began putting on airs. He knew there was no way he could actually reach the level of a Fifth-Rank Alchemist, but since they didn't recognize the pill, he might as well pretend.
Li Xingluo cleared his throat and returned to his seat. The two followed behind him respectfully, remaining on their feet.
"This pill can help a Dou Shi gain five stars in a single day, a Da Dou Shi gain four, a Dou Ling gain three, and even a Dou Wang can advance."
Li Xingluo was making it up as he went. He only knew that it could help a Dou Shi advance; he had no idea whether it worked on the others.
But it would do for fooling them. He wasn't going to stay in Maple Forest City for long, and he was in disguise, so he wasn't worried about anyone coming after him.
Yet as soon as he said this, the woman and the auction house's Alchemist were left stunned.
"Th-this..."
"What, you don't believe what this old man says?"
"N-no, that's not it. You've misunderstood, sir. This humble one is just astonished. I never imagined such a pill could exist in this world."
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