60: Chapter 60 "Fair" Auction

At the auction venue, the atmosphere was so tense it felt like water could be wrung out of the air.

As Liu Hongyuan and Lin Muyang took turns bidding, the price soared rapidly, long ago exceeding the psychological expectations of the vast majority of people.

Initially, Liu Hongyuan could maintain her composure, appearing calm and unhurried with each price increase, as if that massive amount of magic crystals were just numbers to her. Her face was as calm as an ancient well, carrying the characteristic indifference of someone born into a top-tier noble family.

However, as the price broke the thirty-billion mark, her indifferent expression gradually began to crack.

That "woman" in the VIP room next door would immediately top her with a higher price almost without hesitation every time she announced a new one! This decisive attitude, as if she didn't treat money as money at all, put immense pressure on her.

"Thirty-two billion!" Liu Hongyuan bid again. Though her voice remained cold, an observant person might have detected a faint, imperceptible strain.

"Forty billion."

The female voice coming from the neighboring VIP room remained just as steady, without a hint of emotional fluctuation, as relaxed as if she were merely buying a head of cabbage at a market.

This price was like a heavy hammer, slamming hard against Liu Hongyuan's heart!

Forty billion magic crystals! Just to buy a Swordsman's origin skill book?

Liu Hongyuan's chest heaved violently. She suddenly slammed her hand on the coffee table in front of her and stood up with a "swish"! Her heroic and beautiful face was now covered in frost and uncontrollable rage.

She reached out and grabbed the longsword resting beside her—beautifully decorated but certainly not just for show—and turned to walk out of the VIP room!

In Kyoto, a place where hidden dragons and crouching tigers resided, Liu Hongyuan had another nickname known to many of her peers besides her "Granddaughter of the Sword Saint" Aura—the "Powder Keg Girl."

This nickname accurately described her temper, which formed a sharp contrast to her pretty face and explosive figure. She was a true portrayal of someone who ignited at a touch, was forceful and fierce, and could not tolerate the slightest grievance or provocation.

At this moment, she deeply suspected that the "woman" next door, whom she had never heard of, didn't sincerely want this skill book at all and was purely acting against her on purpose, maliciously raising the price! Otherwise, how could anyone throw down forty billion magic crystals for a single skill book? This price had already far exceeded its inherent value!

This feeling of being targeted and toyed with instantly ignited the powder keg in her chest!

She wanted to go see for herself exactly which ignorant fool dared to cross her, Liu Hongyuan!

...

Meanwhile, inside the VIP room next door.

Lin Muyang had already quietly activated his Divine Sight Aura, silently observing every move next door from a God's-eye view. He truly didn't recognize Liu Hongyuan; after all, the circle he had lived in since childhood was far too distant from the top-tier noble families of Kyoto.

Now only the last two competitors remained. Out of caution, he used this method to observe his opponent, which didn't seem excessive to him—it wouldn't be discovered anyway.

As a result, he saw the beautiful swordswoman in red, her face ashen, furiously snatching up her longsword with the obvious intent of going out to cause trouble.

"What is she trying to do?" Lin Muyang was somewhat stunned.

Looking at her eyes which seemed ready to spit fire and the low-pressure Aura radiating from her whole body, he felt as if this woman had eaten ten pounds of gunpowder.

"It's a perfectly fair auction where the highest bidder wins. She couldn't possibly want to resort to violence just because she can't outbid me, could she?"

Lin Muyang frowned. He didn't want any complications; he just wanted to successfully get the skill book and leave.

To prevent this seemingly extremely hot-tempered beauty from rushing over and causing unnecessary trouble, Lin Muyang didn't hesitate much. With a thought, he directly raised his hand and activated another God-Tier Aura—

Deep Slumber!

This was an Aura geared toward life assistance. Its effect was to make target units within a designated range enter a deep, natural state of sleep. The reason it wasn't classified as a hard-control combat Aura was that targets in this sleep state would immediately wake up once they sensed external killing intent or danger.

Usually, Lin Muyang used this Aura to deal with the Elf Princess Lilia when she refused to go to sleep obediently and would secretly scroll on her phone until midnight. It was incredibly effective and had a strong calming and sleep-inducing effect.

But at this moment, using it to handle the situation at hand seemed perfectly appropriate.

"Since your temper is so flared up, then have a good sleep first and calm down," Lin Muyang muttered in his heart, directly designating Liu Hongyuan next door as the target of the Aura.

And so, just as Liu Hongyuan snatched up her longsword and aggressively walked to the VIP room door, the moment her hand touched the doorknob—

An irresistible, extremely gentle yet incomparably powerful drowsiness swept through her entire body like a warm tide, drowning her consciousness.

She only felt her eyelids become as heavy as mountains and her head spin with dizziness. All her anger seemed to be washed away completely by this drowsiness.

"What's happening... so sleepy..."

Before the thought could even finish, her body went limp. With a "thud," she slumped directly onto the soft carpet of the VIP room. The longsword in her hand also fell to the side with a "clatter." She fell into an incomparably deep and stable sleep, even emitting very faint, even sounds of breathing.

"Judging by her posture earlier, she probably didn't intend to bid anymore anyway." Lin Muyang confirmed the effect through his God's-eye view and nodded with satisfaction. "Better to have one less thing to worry about. Taking the skill book and leaving peacefully is what matters most."

He thought easily, completely unaware of what kind of figure he had just made fall asleep right at an auction venue...

In this situation where one side was determined to win and the other had already "fallen into a sound sleep," the auctioneer dropped the wooden gavel after asking three times for further bids.

As a matter of course, Lin Muyang "fairly" won the auction for this origin skill book—Peerless Sword Formation—at the price of forty billion magic crystals!

This result came as a surprise to many people who were following the final struggle.

Inside one of the VIP rooms, Li Zhengshan and Zhao Kai looked at each other with strange and unbelievable expressions on their faces.

"Uncle Li, Miss... Miss Liu, she gave up?" Zhao Kai swallowed hard and asked in a low voice.

"It looks like... yes." Li Zhengshan's brow was tightly furrowed, equally baffled. "This doesn't fit her personality... Also, what is the background of the person bidding next door? To actually be able to bring out forty billion magic crystals and make Liu Hongyuan choose to back down?"

No matter what the truth was, they both knew that the water in this matter was too deep. It was definitely not something their Lin family could get involved in; one wrong move could bring about a disaster.

And Hong Wuliang, on the auction stage, was also completely dumbfounded.

He was the only person in the entire venue who clearly knew that the one who finally bought the skill book was Lin Muyang! He couldn't understand at all why Lin Muyang would compete with Liu Hongyuan and even raise the price to such an absurd level.

What he expected even less was that Liu Hongyuan, who was famous for her explosive temper and for never suffering a loss, would actually choose to give up at the final moment?

Due to absolute respect for VIP privacy, every VIP room was equipped with a powerful magic barrier that could block all external detection and peeking. Therefore, no one knew that at this moment, Liu Hongyuan hadn't given up, but was instead sleeping very sweetly in her own VIP room...

A few minutes later, the auction was officially declared over, and the crowd began to disperse.

Lin Muyang took Lilia and Elabess through the VIP passage and quietly came backstage, meeting Hong Wuliang who was waiting there alone.

Forty billion magic crystals in exchange for a jade slip emitting an ancient Aura—the origin skill book, Peerless Sword Formation.

Money in one hand, goods in the other.

Of course, the physical stack of forty billion magic crystals was staggering in volume. Hong Wuliang's storage equipment couldn't possibly hold it all at once, so it could only be temporarily piled in a reinforced warehouse in the mall for him to slowly count and process later.

"By the way, Lin Muyang..." After the handover was complete, Hong Wuliang looked at the calm youth and couldn't help but remind him in a low voice, "To be honest, the price for this skill book was indeed a bit on the high side."

"It's fine, Uncle Hong, just small change." Lin Muyang waved his hand casually, his face showing no sign of heartache.

In any case, these forty billion were just a fraction of his current savings. With his speed of making money, this expenditure really didn't amount to much.

Hearing this nonchalant answer, Hong Wuliang's eyes couldn't help but twitch, and he was even more shocked internally. Forty billion magic crystals were just small change? Just how deep were the financial resources of the power behind Lin Muyang?

"Alright... however," Hong Wuliang hesitated for a moment but decided to give one more reminder, "You really pushed the bidding hard against the other side this time. The person on the other side is famous for having a fiery temper. If you encounter her in the future, you must be careful."

"Fiery temper?" Lin Muyang smiled; he had seen it with his own eyes just now. If he hadn't acted decisively, trouble would have probably come knocking by now. He nodded noncommittally. "Thanks for the reminder, Uncle Hong. I'll keep it in mind. If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

With that, he took the two girls and turned to leave.

After walking out the back door of the mall, Lin Muyang headed toward his residence while again silently activating his Divine Sight Aura, listening to the surrounding movements and information flow from a God's-eye view.

Soon, he captured key information from the low-voiced conversation between the not-yet-departed Li Zhengshan and Zhao Kai.

"Liu Hongyuan? The granddaughter of the Sword Saint of the Xia Kingdom?"

Even Lin Muyang was slightly stunned when he learned of this identity, feeling somewhat surprised. He completely hadn't expected that the woman in red would have such a significant background!

"Whatever, never mind." He quickly felt relieved again. "In an auction, the highest bidder wins; it's only natural. She fell asleep halfway through the competition herself, so she can't blame it on me, can she?"

"As the granddaughter of the dignified Sword Saint, she should at least be reasonable, right?"

Holding such a thought, Lin Muyang decisively chose to slip away.

"Let's go back first, have Ao Qingyan learn this skill, and then prepare to head into that level 30 team dungeon to level up..."

...

About half an hour after Lin Muyang left.

All the follow-up procedures of the auction were finally processed, and the staff began to clear and clean the venue.

When that pretty auctioneer girl took the staff to clean the VIP rooms on the second floor, they finally discovered Liu Hongyuan, who was lying by the door on the carpet, sleeping soundly!

She tried calling out a few times, but the other party had no reaction, still immersed in her dreams.

The girl was startled and hurriedly ran downstairs to report this shocking news to Hong Wuliang, who was just about to leave.

When Hong Wuliang heard the sentence, "Miss Liu fell asleep in the VIP room and can't be woken up no matter how we call her"...

This burly man, who was used to seeing winds and waves, was instantly dumbfounded as if struck by lightning, his mouth wide open and unable to close for a long time!

"Holy... Holy crap?!"