Ya Fei's Shock, the Auction One Month Later (Two Chapters - 4,300 Words)

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After testing the idea in his mind, Xiao Yan prepared to leave the Xiao Clan.

He raised his hand and strapped the Black Heavy Ruler to his back, then headed out toward the rear mountain.

A few days earlier, Ya Fei had delivered the ingredients for the Qi-Gathering Powder to the Xiao Clan, ten sets in total.

Yao Lao had spent an afternoon refining them. All ten batches of Qi-Gathering Powder had been completed and were now lying quietly inside Xiao Yan's Storage Ring.

He planned to make a trip to the Miter Auction House.

First, he would hand the refined Qi-Gathering Powder over to Ya Fei. Second, he needed to purchase some new medicinal ingredients.

Xiao Yan's physical strength had already reached the level of a Three-Star Dou Master. He was exceptionally outstanding among those his age, but he was far from satisfied.

Refining a Heavenly Flame required a powerful body. Only if his body was strong enough would the risks of devouring a Heavenly Flame be greatly reduced.

He had previously asked Yao Lao whether there were any pills that could temper the body. No matter how painful they were, he could accept it.

After hearing this, Yao Lao pondered for a moment before giving him a pill formula.

Myriad-Forge Body-Burning Pill, a third-grade pill.

The required ingredients included Ironbone Flower, Magmafire Lizard Essence Blood, a Third-Grade Fire-Attribute Magic Core, Seven-Leaf Lava Grass, and more.

Taking it could greatly increase the strength of the body, but its side effects were considerable as well. After consuming it, the pain would be comparable to ten thousand needles piercing one's bones and boiling oil being poured over one's body. An ordinary person would likely faint from the pain on the spot.

Yet Xiao Yan's eyes lit up after hearing that. A pill that could improve physical strength having some side effects was only natural, wasn't it?

There was no such thing as a free benefit in this world. If he wanted to grow stronger, he had to pay a price. He understood that better than anyone.

After leaving the Xiao Clan, Xiao Yan crossed Wutan City's main street and headed toward the Miter Auction House.

The moment Xiao Yan reached the entrance, the two guards standing watch recognized him and hurried inside to report his arrival.

When Xiao Yan entered the hall, two maids had already been waiting for some time. One quickly stepped forward and bowed, leading him through the hall and up to a VIP room on the second floor.

The VIP room was exquisitely yet understatedly furnished. The rosewood tables and chairs had been polished until they gleamed, several calligraphy and paintings hung on the walls, and soothing incense burned in a corner.

Not long after Xiao Yan sat down, a series of light footsteps sounded outside the door.

The door was pushed open, and Ya Fei walked in.

She wore a light purple gown that day, with a soft silver sash tied around her waist. Her black hair was gathered into a simple bun, while several loose strands fell beside her ears.

Looking at Xiao Yan seated across from her, she smiled, her eyes and brows carrying a hint of familiarity.

"Little Brother Xiao Yan, what brings you to your sister's place today?"

Since that transaction, Xiao Yan had not only refined Blood-Coagulating Powder for the Xiao Clan, but had also made quite a bit of Foundation-Building Elixir for Ya Fei to auction off.

Over time, Ya Fei and Xiao Yan had grown much closer. The way she addressed him had changed from "Young Master Xiao Yan" to "Little Brother Xiao Yan," and her tone had become less formal and more natural.

"Big Sister Ya Fei, I happened to have some free time recently, so I came by," Xiao Yan replied with a smile.

Ya Fei sat down across from him and poured each of them a cup of tea. She did not rush to discuss business, instead casually chatting about recent events.

After two rounds of tea, she finally set down her cup, folded her hands on the table, and looked at Xiao Yan with a smile.

"All right, let's get down to business. Did you come looking for your sister because you need something?"

Xiao Yan nodded and swept his hand over the table.

His Storage Ring flashed, and nine jade boxes and eight jade bottles appeared on the tabletop, neatly arranged in two rows.

The jade boxes were made of high-quality cold jade, snow-white throughout, with faint chill circulating across their surfaces. The jade bottles were bluish-green porcelain bottles, their mouths sealed tightly.

Xiao Yan pushed three of the jade boxes toward Ya Fei and said, "These are the pills I promised Big Sister Ya Fei. The rest are refined pills for Big Sister Ya Fei to auction. And these are the medicinal ingredients I currently need. I hope Sister can help me gather them."

Ya Fei's eyes lit up at his words, and she gently opened one of the jade boxes.

Inside lay a pale green pill the size of a longan.

Its surface was smooth and lustrous, as though coated with glaze, warm and gentle like fine jade.

A rich, unusual fragrance drifted from the box and spread throughout the VIP room, leaving anyone who smelled it refreshed and at ease.

Gu Ni, who had remained silent behind Ya Fei, stepped forward and leaned down slightly to inspect the pill inside the jade box.

After a long while, he nodded and said quietly to Ya Fei, "Miss Ya Fei, this pill is of superior grade and exceptional quality. It may even compare to the Qi-Gathering Powder refined by some Fifth-Grade Alchemists."

He paused, then glanced at the other jade boxes and bottles on the table, his tone growing more amazed. "And judging from this, ten sets of ingredients for Qi-Gathering Powder yielded nine finished batches. Even Pill King Gu He does not possess such pill-forming efficiency."

Ya Fei could barely conceal the shock on her face after hearing that.

Turning ten sets of ingredients into nine batches of pills meant a ninety percent pill-forming rate. For an Alchemist, that was an utterly terrifying number.

An ordinary Fourth-Grade Alchemist would be considered quite good if he could achieve a twenty to thirty percent pill-forming rate when refining Qi-Gathering Powder. Even Pill King Gu He, a Sixth-Rank Alchemist, only had a success rate of around seventy percent when refining it.

Let alone Wutan City, even in the Imperial Capital of the Jia Ma Empire, there were probably only a few people capable of achieving ninety percent.

A thought flashed through her mind—could the person behind Xiao Yan be an Alchemist even stronger than Pill King Gu He, that Sixth-Rank Alchemist?

Ya Fei did not continue thinking about it. After suppressing her shock, she gently closed the jade box and smiled at Xiao Yan. "Then thank you, Little Brother Xiao Yan. But what are these?"

She looked at the remaining six jade bottles on the table.

Xiao Yan pointed at one of the jade bottles and said, "This is a Dou Practitioner Pill, a second-grade pill. Its effect is to help Dou Practitioners break through from one star to three stars. This pill can only be used by Dou Practitioners, and each person can only take it once in their lifetime. The second time, its effects will be zero."

Shock appeared on Ya Fei's face again when she heard Xiao Yan's words.

Pills capable of helping Dou Practitioners break through were uncommon even in Wutan City and the Jia Ma Empire.

Breakthroughs at the Dou Practitioner stage were not as difficult as those of Great Dou Masters or Dou Spirits, but every small rank still required accumulation and an opportunity. Sometimes, even with enough accumulation, one might fail to encounter the right opportunity and remain stuck for half a year or even a full year.

With this Dou Practitioner Pill, one would gain another chance to break through. To a Dou Practitioner trapped at a bottleneck, its value was no less than a Mystic Tier Dou Technique.

Ya Fei picked up a jade bottle, peeled away the wax seal around its mouth, and pulled out the stopper.

A rich medicinal fragrance rushed toward her, even more intense than that of the Qi-Gathering Powder. She tilted the bottle slightly, and a pill rolled out from its mouth into her palm.

The pill was pale gold, with two clear pill patterns on its surface. They resembled two wandering dragons coiled around the pill, their lines crisp and fluid.

Looking at the pill patterns, the smile on Ya Fei's face grew even brighter.

She placed the pill back in the bottle, replaced the stopper, and looked up at Xiao Yan, her tone probing. "Little Brother Xiao Yan, don't worry. Leave the auction to your sister, and I will certainly give you a satisfactory result. But judging from this pill's quality... could it be that you refined it yourself?"

After saying that, Ya Fei stared directly at Xiao Yan.

The Xiao Clan had recently introduced a new medicine called Blood-Coagulating Powder. Its effects were far superior to the Galie Clan's Spring-Rejuvenation Powder.

The moment this Blood-Coagulating Powder appeared, it directly reversed the situation between the Xiao Clan and the Galie Clan, suppressing the Galie Clan until they could hardly breathe.

Ya Fei had noticed this long ago and had people investigate the source of the Blood-Coagulating Powder.

Gu Ni had confirmed that he had not refined it, and there were no other Alchemists within the Xiao Clan.

That meant there was an Alchemist inside the Xiao Clan.

Ya Fei's guess pointed in two directions: either Xiao Yan had refined it, or the person behind Xiao Yan had.

But she had noticed that the quality of the Blood-Coagulating Powder was not particularly high. Its effects were good, but it was not difficult to refine. Ordinary Alchemists disdained refining such low-grade medicine, much less producing it in batches.

If it had been the Alchemist behind Xiao Yan, someone at least fourth-grade or above, he would never personally refine such low-grade medicine.

Therefore, she concluded that Xiao Yan had refined the Blood-Coagulating Powder.

"I refined it," Xiao Yan said without hiding it, nodding.

After receiving Xiao Yan's confirmation, Ya Fei's small mouth formed an O. Although she had already suspected it, she was still deeply shocked upon learning the truth.

Xiao Yan was only fifteen and a half years old. A fifteen-year-old Second-Rank Alchemist—there was not another one like him in the entire Jia Ma Empire.

What had Pill King Gu He been doing at fifteen? He had probably still been assisting his master and had not even become familiar with a pill furnace yet.

Gu Ni, standing nearby, revealed a bitter smile.

He had spent more than a decade climbing step by step from an Alchemist Apprentice to a Second-Rank Alchemist. Along the way, he had ruined countless pill furnaces and blown up who knew how many batches of ingredients before barely reaching the threshold of the second rank.

He was already over forty this year, and he did not know whether he would ever have the chance to enter the third rank in this lifetime.

Yet the fifteen-year-old youth before him had already achieved the greatest accomplishment of his entire life.

Such a disparity filled him with a deep sense of helplessness.

"Little Brother Xiao Yan truly is a heaven-sent genius." Ya Fei quickly recovered and congratulated him. "Not only is your cultivation talent monstrous, but no one can compare to you in alchemy either. Ya Fei admires you."

Xiao Yan's expression remained calm. He had heard too many flattering words, from his previous life to this one, and had become completely immune to them. He pushed a scroll toward Ya Fei. It was filled with the names and quantities of medicinal ingredients.

"Big Sister Ya Fei, once you gather the ingredients listed here, just send them to the Xiao Clan."

After speaking, Xiao Yan prepared to stand and leave. But just as he rose, Ya Fei called out to stop him.

"Little Brother Xiao Yan, the Beast Flames you wanted have arrived. Why not wait a moment?"

Xiao Yan stopped when he heard that. After a brief thought, he sat back down.

"Fine."

Ya Fei immediately turned and instructed the maid outside the door to retrieve the Beast Flames from the storeroom.

She told the maid to bring several servants along. The Beast Flame storage containers were quite heavy, and one person could not carry them.

Once the arrangements were made, she sat down again and continued chatting with Xiao Yan about recent changes in Wutan City's situation and the Galie Clan's movements.

Before long, heavy footsteps sounded outside the VIP room.

The door was pushed open, and several maids and servants carried six specially made storage containers inside.

The containers were forged from century-old cold iron, their outer layers wrapped in heat-insulating materials. They also had a layer of mysterious ice lining inside, specially designed to store Beast Flames.

The containers were not small. Even two people carrying one found it somewhat strenuous. They carefully placed them on the floor of the VIP room, then bowed and withdrew.

Xiao Yan focused his gaze, and his Soul Power spread from between his brows into each storage container.

Under the inspection of his Soul Power, the Beast Flames inside the containers became clear at a glance.

There were six clusters of Beast Flame in total. Five were Third-Order Beast Flames, each with different colors and temperatures—crimson, golden yellow, and even deep blue.

The final Beast Flame was clearly of a higher quality. It was purple-white, and the heat waves it emitted as it flickered could be felt even through the storage container—it was a Fourth-Order Beast Flame.

"Little Brother Xiao Yan, Fourth-Order Beast Flames are relatively rare, and I do not have the authority to mobilize them." Ya Fei looked at Xiao Yan and said, "Your sister had to call in favors to obtain this one from elsewhere."

"It is fine. Thank you, Big Sister Ya Fei."

Xiao Yan waved his hand, stood up, and walked over to the storage containers. With a sweep of his hand, his Storage Ring flashed, and all six containers vanished into thin air, entering the ring.

He turned to Ya Fei and added, "Just deduct the cost of the Beast Flames from the pills being auctioned."

"Alright." Ya Fei nodded.

"Since everything is settled, I shall take my leave."

After saying that, Xiao Yan prepared to leave, but Ya Fei called out to stop him once more.

"Big Sister Ya Fei, is there something else?"

Xiao Yan halted and turned to look at Ya Fei, his tone puzzled.

Ya Fei did not answer immediately. Instead, she lowered her eyes slightly, pressed her lips together, and revealed a somewhat saddened expression.

She raised her head to look at Xiao Yan, her voice softening with a trace of grievance. "Little Brother Xiao Yan, do you dislike your sister so much? Can't you even stay and talk for a while?"

Xiao Yan looked at Ya Fei's face and knew she was pretending.

Who was Ya Fei?

She was the person in charge of the Miter Auction House. Having struggled in Wutan City for so many years, she had seen all manner of merchants and mercenaries. When it came to acting and manipulating people's hearts, there were few in all of Wutan City more skilled than her.

As she spoke, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her shifting eyes carried a fragile charm that made one want to pity her. If Xiao Yan did not know her true nature, anyone else who saw Ya Fei like this would likely panic on the spot, quickly sit back down, and apologize to her.

Xiao Yan silently called her a little enchantress, but his expression gave nothing away. He merely said, "Big Sister Ya Fei, what exactly is it? If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving."

Seeing that Xiao Yan truly lifted his foot to leave, Ya Fei's sorrowful expression instantly vanished, replaced by her usual capable and decisive demeanor.

"Little Brother Xiao Yan, it's like this." She stepped forward two paces, her tone becoming serious. "A month from now, I plan to hold an auction.

At that time, I will invite the major clans from several nearby cities. That way, the pills you gave your sister can be sold for the greatest possible profit. I want you to come and show your support."

Xiao Yan understood. Ya Fei intended to hold a large-scale auction, expanding the buyers from Wutan City to several surrounding cities. The clan heads and elders of those great clans were lavish spenders, and they would not hesitate to raise their bids.

The same pill would sell for one price under normal circumstances, but at such an event, several great clans would bid against each other. It would not be surprising if the final price doubled.

"I see." Xiao Yan nodded. "No problem, Big Sister Ya Fei. I happen to have more things to give you later, so you can auction those together."

"Then it's settled." A satisfied smile appeared on Ya Fei's face as she raised two fingers in a gesture. "Your sister will reserve the best seat for you then."

Xiao Yan responded, turned, and walked out of the VIP room.

Ya Fei also rose and accompanied him out, seeing him all the way to the entrance of the auction house.