Hai Bodong practically squeezed those words through clenched teeth, his voice so low that only Xiao Qing beside him could hear it. His tone suggested that he was about to go settle accounts with someone the very next second.
Meanwhile, deep within the auction house headquarters, inside a room decorated in an antique style yet lavish in every detail.
An elderly man in brocade robes, with a kind face and a slightly plump build, carefully placed a precious antique vase, polished until it gleamed like new, back onto a display rack made of red sandalwood.
The plump old man seemed to sense something. He tilted his ear toward the faint commotion outside, and a satisfied smile of a scheme succeeding appeared on his round face.
"Hehe, quite the commotion... I wonder whether that old fellow Hai Bodong likes the 'surprise' I prepared for him?"
Mite'er Tengshan, the current head of the Mittel Family, stroked his plump chin and muttered to himself.
His joy at the safe return of this old companion, who had shared life and death with him, came straight from the heart.
He recalled Hai Bodong's high-spirited nature in their youth, how he occasionally enjoyed showing off before others, and nodded to himself.
Then he smiled with certainty. "Mm... I suppose he should like it, right? That old fellow is proud to the bone. A scene like this suits him perfectly!"
Mite'er Tengshan had completely ignored the part of Hai Bodong's personality that disliked restraint and cumbersome formalities.
In the main hall, under everyone's focused gazes and whispered discussions—especially Xiao Qing's increasingly teasing stare—Hai Bodong felt every second stretch endlessly.
Hai Bodong could no longer endure it. The formidable aura of a Four-Star Dou Emperor within him erupted like a slumbering giant dragon awakening!
An icy pressure, tangible