Snake and Rabbit (5)

Entering the auction house, Yin Mei and She Ming were guided to the best private room in the auction house. She was relieved that the female lead wasn't currently with the ninth prince, or else that would mean that they would be taking that private room from the protagonists! But, since she wasn't with the ninth prince, even though she was selling some precious high quality medicines, she still didn't qualify for the highest quality private room. That being said, Yin Mei knew that the female lead should either be in the room next door, or the room next to that.

She was currently devising ways to look good in front of the female lead. Was buying the items that the female lead put for auction too crass? Yin Mei thought that those female leads might be too aloof to put to heart such methods of flaunting wealth. Then how about using this as an opportunity to gift her something good afterwards? Or was that too sudden? The only things that Yin Mei could come up with was using the demon king's wealth to seduce the female lead, which Yin Mei thought wouldn't really work. Sigh, such a mission really wasn't suitable for her. Actually... Yin Mei felt that maybe killing the male lead really was truly the best way to complete the mission. After all, as long as the male lead was there, no methods seemed to be good?

No, no, no, she couldn't let herself be corrupted like that. But justifying herself like that made her heart feel a little bit better, though guilt still weighed heavily whenever she thought about what she had to do. No, it's better not to think about it.

She chased out those useless thoughts from her head, focusing on the matter at hand. It was fine if nothing really happened today, first was to at least make an impression! Then we'll talk. Yin Mei silently conversed with the system in her head, bringing up the list of auction items and checking which items were the ones that the female lead would bet for.

Of the list, most of the things sounded cool, but looking at the description, were too low quality. There were only a few notable items. The first couple were the pills that the female lead had put up for auction. Actually, the quality could be considered pretty good. Although the pill itself was an ordinary pill that could be found anywhere, the quality was significantly higher than the average market quality. This was the talent of the female lead. Not only was she a skilled assassin, but she could actually refine pills too. Truly a beloved daughter of heaven.

That being said, any pill that Yin Mei could casually take out from her storage ring was much better, so these were useless. But Yin Mei decided she would still bet for a bottle to try and raise their favorability rating with the female lead. As for the other items of note, these were the items that the female lead would bet for. Most of them couldn't enter Yin Mei's eyes, it was only the very last item that could be considered good. This item had a mysterious origin and not even the Seven Treasures Pavilion was able to completely appraise it, resulting in not too many bids, though there were still people interested. Not even the female lead was quite sure of its true origin, only feeling that it would be beneficial to her cultivation, due to the strong ice aura that it had.

After a while, the female lead would gradually unravel the mysteries of the item. It was a portion of million year old mountain rock that had been carved up by an expert with ice affinity and dropped down from the upper realm. Because of this, although it had once been an ordinary rock, it was now suffused with the strong ice aura. And, if one was talented, they might even be able to get some enlightenment over the sword techniques used on the rock.

Yin Mei wasn't really interested in the rock, but she was a little interested in what was inside of it. The system's information was really quite detailed, even mentioning this sort of thing. Apparently, the ice energy of the upper realm expert had slowly condensed to form a magic crystal on the inside of the rock. This wasn't really useful to Yin Mei, since she wasn't compatible with the ice element, but the same couldn't be said for the demon king. This was energy from the upper realm, not only that, but the sword techniques were also profound techniques originating in the upper realm. Yin Mei weighed the pros and cons of obtaining the rock.

Although she didn't really want to compete for items with the female lead, this item really would be useful for the demon king's cultivation. And, the stronger the demon king was, the easier it would be for him to get rid of the male lead. Yin Mei pondered a bit. The female lead probably wouldn't be able to tell their identities, right? That being the case, should she just risk it? No, perhaps she should just buy it now, in advance, before the auction even officially started. Yin Mei saw that there was still some time left before the start of the auction, so she felt that this was possible. After all, VIP members were granted some special benefits, and with such a high level of membership, it shouldn't be a problem to buy a rock before the auction started.

Yin Mei nodded, making her decision. It was perfect timing, as the attendant that had led them here entered the private room again with refreshments and snacks. Yin Mei stopped her, saying, "There's no need. My Master has very picky tastes; we've already prepared our own refreshments in advance." She then continued on, "Can you hand us a list of the items prepared for the auction?"

The attendant nodded politely, bowing as she exited with the refreshments. Yin Mei took out the snacks that the chef uncle had already prepared beforehand, along with a pot of a tea and cups. Feeding them such low quality stuff, who knew if they would get sick? Of course, with the constitution of a cultivator, there was no way they would get sick just from eating a bit of normal food, but that didn't occur to Yin Mei, whose tongue had long been conquered by the chef uncle.

The demon king sipped at the tea that Yin Mei had poured for him, seemingly possessing endless patience as he awaited the "fun events" that Yin Mei claimed they could see. "Your Majesty, can you see a young girl in one of the rooms next to us?" Yin Mei asked, leaning in to whisper at the demon king. It was unnecessary, as even if she whispered fifty feet away from him, he'd still be able to hear what she said.

The demon king raised an eyebrow, but took a look with a magic technique anyways. Yin Mei's senses were good enough to sense the people around her in about a fifty feet radius or so, but the technique the demon king used was fundamentally different and was similar to clairvoyance.

"Is this the person you're talking about?" The demon king said, waving his hand and summoning a water mirror that reflected the image of the female lead. She was currently dressed in a black cloak and was sitting in a private room while eating snacks, looking down on the auction floor. The room was similar to theirs, but smaller and of lower quality. "She's two rooms away."

Yin Mei saw that the female lead had employed some simple disguise techniques, her face much more plain than before. "This should be the furnace I told you about! How is it? What do you think about her?" Although she looked very plain right now, Yin Mei felt that this shouldn't have an affect on her Mary Sue aura. Yin Mei was wondering if the demon king would have already fallen in love at first sight?

The demon king looked indifferently at the image in the water mirror, not really feeling anything. He could sense that this girl was really someone with a Pure Yin physique. Though she had employed some cheap tricks to keep her physique and appearance hidden from others, it wasn't enough to deceive his eyes. Even though he felt a bit of disdain toward her in terms of cultivation level and appearance, it was true that if he took her on as a cultivation partner, he would probably be able to ascend in a few years.

"Hmm..." Seeing that the demon king had on a thoughtful expression, Yin Mei was a little excited. Could it be that this really was the legendary love at first sight? It didn't make a very beautiful image considering that the female lead's appearance right now wasn't too great, but she was still the female lead ah.

If the demon king was paying attention to Yin Mei, he would have been a little disappointed. Was his charm so low these days that all the girls wanted him to get together with someone else?

But, sadly, Yin Mei wasn't able to hear the demon king's answer yet when they were interrupted by the returning attendant. Yin Mei received the list of items from her, taking a casual look over it and spotting the item at the end, mysterious ice aura rock. What a crude name they used... but that had nothing to do with her.

She pointed at the item. "We'll buy this. For ten purple gold." She said bluntly.

Purple gold was the highest level of currency excluding spirit stones. But, according to the information, spirit stones were rare and almost never used as currency in the Li Kingdom. Also in the information it recorded how much the female lead had spent to acquire this rock, and it was not even one purple gold, so Yin Mei thought that ten purple gold should be more than enough. She might have even given more, but actually most of the currency she had was in spirit stones...

"Th-this, I'll have to inquire with the manager first," the attendant said, stammering for some reason. Yin Mei wondered whether she had proposed too much or too little - she couldn't tell. In the end she just nodded, allowing the attendant to run off. Looking down on the auction stage, she could see that the hall was filled up and the auction was about to start. Although the ninth prince was usually like a leech, always stuck to the female lead, he wouldn't appear at this auction to woo the female lead today due to personal matters. Yin Mei wasn't sure what he was doing exactly, though she could probably find out through the system, but she did know it had something to do with planning the conquering of the main continent.

"Ah, that's right! Your Majesty, you never answered what you thought about that girl!" Yin Mei said, recalling what she was talking about with the demon king moments before. She once more leaned in, looking at him with sparkling eyes filled with anticipation. "So? Do you like her? Is she to your tastes?" She just barely restrained herself from asking if he wanted to take her home right now to XX and OO her, shutting her mouth just in time.

"She's just average." The demon king said. He thought that, like most girls, the little rabbit would be happy hearing he didn't have much interest in another girl, but to his surprise, she looked like she was filled with disappointment, as if it was the end of the world.

Yin Mei thought that she wouldn't have to worry about the demon king's side, since the female lead had the Mary Sue aura, but could it be that she would actually have to work hard to make him fall in love with the female lead as well? Making one side love the other was hard enough, but now she had to work on both sides??

No, no, no, it was just that the demon king hadn't associated with the female lead long enough. Yin Mei was sure that the Mary Sue aura would gradually make the demon king fall in love with the female lead. He just needed to witness a little more of how OP she was.

These thoughts were once more interrupted by the attendant, who had directly come with the mysterious rock to sell to the two, along with the branch manager. Yin Mei didn't dally, trading ten purple gold for the ordinary looking rock and waving them off, having no interest in seeing them grovel and flatter her.

She held the rock in her hand, tossing it a few times. It had a pretty good weight, and felt rather cold even for her, a cultivator. The demon king's eyes were immediately drawn to the rock, probably already able to see through its secrets. This was something good, even in the eyes of the demon king, who had already seen all sorts of treasures and lived many years.

Seeing the demon king's gaze, Yin Mei couldn't help but brag, "I told you there would be good stuff, right?" Well, actually she didn't say that. She had said that there would be fun events, but to her, it was all the same.

The demon king also didn't notice, only nodding. After all, this rock alone was worth the trip to the human world. There was also the furnace, which would be very useful for him. The demon king gave Yin Mei a meaningful look, but it was too bad that Yin Mei was too dense and only thought that the demon king had a pair of really beautiful eyes as she handed him the rock.

As the demon king felt the rock in his hands, glancing toward Yin Mei, they could hear the announcer calling for the start of the auction. Yin Mei eagerly turned her head to look past the curtains and the open balcony toward the auction stage. It was finally time for the auction to start!