One step toward madness

When it seemed as if the map was already in the dragonewt's hands a voice resounded throughout the hall.

"1,000 gold pieces."

At this point, silence descended on the room; no one wanted to provoke either of the sides, both dragonewts and Yang Ming surely were existences whom they didn't want to offend as it could end with dire consequences. And so the best decision that they could make was to just not interfere in their clash.

Long Bai's eyebrows furrowed slightly, he didn't expect anyone would dare to go against him, since childhood everyone had always obeyed him implicitly, but now someone went against him, it made him slightly irritated. He could be described as a proud and arrogant being.

He turned his head towards Yang Ming and in addition to indignation there was a bit of jealousy in his eyes, Yang Ming's appearance was way too attractive. While checking the cultivation power he was left in shock, despite his youthful appearance he was in the late stage of Earth Ascension(2).

In Long Bai's opinion, this man could not be an ordinary man with such a cultivation, which meant that he has a good backing behind him, and yet, even if it was true, he could not give in, he did not care who was behind that man, all he wanted was to get the map, to have some fun once again.

"Human, do you want to provoke my Dragonewt clan?" - Long Bai knew that when threatened, humans tend to flee in fear with their tails between their legs, so he made the threat with an arrogant speech.

"Pfft… HAHAHA" - Yang Ming couldn't contain his laughter, it was exactly as it was written in the novels, for a split second he felt like a main character of a standard cultivation novel. All that was missing was a phrase: "You're courting death!".

But not everyone understood the reason for Yang Ming's laughter, in their eyes it was as if he despised Long Bai. He treated him as if he was nothing, the only response was contempt and a sneer so most of the gathered seemed to think alike.

"Motherfucker!" - Long Bai suddenly outburst with his emotions, for the first time in his life, he felt himself being underestimated and sneered at, his face completely reddened while the veins on his neck slightly bulged with rage.

"Brother Bai, calm down, after the auction he will answer for his long tongue." - The other dragonewts tried to reason with him, one of the main rules of the auction was not to start a fight, and if this rule was violated, the violator may lose his life.

It happened many times, and so far it didn't matter what clan the person was from, whether big or small, powerful or not, the end was always the same. Death!

His friends' words seemed to stabilize him a little, and he sighed slightly as he tried to calm down.

"1,200 gold pieces." - Even if he calmed down, it did not mean that he was going to give up on the item.

"1,500" - Yang Ming bet lazily as if he didn't care too much.

"1.600!"

"1.700"

The price for the map had already reached a exorbitant sum, but it did not seem like the both of them were going to stop increasing their bids at all, most of the auction participants gaped in shock and mistrust, as the dragonewt and the man were exorbitantly rich, if they bid such amounts of gold without even blinking an eye.

The bid had already reached the 2500 gold mark which was a huge amount of wealth for any clan. If Yang Ming was betting very calmly as if it was for absolutely nothing, Long Bai seemed to be having problems, because with each bet, his expression grew darker and darker.

He began to have problems because he could only spend so much of his allowance in a year and here he would just buy one thing just to have some fun. His mind was telling him that he should stop betting but when he saw how Yang Ming bet crazy amounts of money with such a composed air around him, he threw out all thoughts and continued to compete with him. His pride did not allow him to give it up without a fight and it was also in public, which left him absolutely no choice.

"3,000 gold pieces." - With that bet he looked contemptuously at Long Bai and said while looking him straight in the face:

"Snake, stop it, you're going to be poor soon if you keep this up." - He stopped looking at him when he threw such a bomb, concentrating on his thoughts of the map.

"Snake… " - Unconsciously they bit their tongues in shock, for the first time they have seen a weak human calling a majestic dragonewt, as snake. The crowd jaws seemed to drop at such arrogant words.

*Crack! Crack! Crack!*

The armrests of all the dragonewts in the room were shattered because of Yang Ming's words, if some did not pay attention to Long Bai's confrontation with him, now they were drawn into it.

They did not like the way Yang Ming called their great race at all, his words filled with contempt.

Of course Yang Ming did it on purpose, he knew from novels that humiliating someone who was so proud of his race like that would provoke him into attacking him. He provoked all the dragonewts to attack him because he had a plan, one that meaby only a completely crazy person could come up with.

He knew that as soon as he left the auction or the city, the dragonewts would retaliate against him, and that's what he wanted. They would be good materials to absorb. Yang Ming had long wondered about the system, as it had previously explained he could absorb the souls of not only heroes but also ordinary people, given that the points for absorption were much lower than those of a hero.

But even so, it would be too stupid to pass it up, Yang Ming wasn't going to wait to meet another hero, there was no telling how long it would take before their paths crossed, so he came up with a plan to absorb the practitioners of the Lower Realm.

His first step was to kill the dragonewts, and then do something completely insane with their bodies, like provoking the Southern region to attack the Eastern region, of course if he killed just a group of dragons there would most likely be no reaction, but if he did it to hundreds or thousands? He was sure that by killing powerful dragonewts, the Southern region would be enraged.

And if the Southern region had made its move, it would have done the same thing to the people of the Eastern region, provoking both sides which would result in a war between the regions. Of course, he came up with this plan for a reason.

If a war breaks out, it could only be beneficial for him, a battlefield full of blood and a pile of corpses, it would be the best environment to stealthily absorb souls, he was sure that no one would be able to notice it, so he decided to make this ruthless move.

Yang Ming didn't care how many beings would die, he was not a hero but a villain, a villain who had to do whatever it took to survive in this cruel world.