Gifts and Favors - 13.1

An outburst of surprise and excitement ran through the awestrucked crowd before all of them almost immediately fell silent the moment Old Ma cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Please esteemed guests, this is just a prelude of the best that is yet to come! But of course despite saying that, this old man understands where all of you are coming from so let us get back to this exquisite weapon that I have in my hands. The Thousand Treasures Pavillion has decided not to give this weapon a name and even our esteemed weaponsmaster has agreed that this weapon shall only be named by it's new owner. Now, let's get to the auction and the bidding for this one-of-a-kind long sword with a blade made entirely out of Emeranite starts at thirty thousand purple crystals!"

As soon as they heard the starting price, the crowd collectively let out a hiss in reaction to it. Just as everyone expected, a weapon that can amplify the wielder's power up to five more levels and can even help them advance their cultivation at five times the normal speed, of course thos sort of treasure will also have a correspondingly high price!

Seemingly unaffected, Fan Zhu Xia smiled delightedly as she wondered out loud and admiringly said, "Truly the Thousand Treasures Pavillion is quite generous and even setting the starting bid at such a low price. What a steal!"

Ignoring the dumbfounded looks that Chun Hua and Min Sheng shot her, Fan Zhu Xia patiently waited with twinkling eyes and before long, several voices simultaneously called out jaw-dropping prices effectively stunning the rest of the crowd.

"Thirty thousand purple crystals!"

"Fourty thousand crystals!"

"This master bids fifty five thousand purple crystals!"

And so a bidding war began.

From the original sky-high price of three thousand purple crystals, the price climbed up at an increasingly scary pace, from the original three thousand purple crystals to a whopping price of sixty thousand purple crystals with no sign that the bids will stop anytime soon.

This shook the general population in the crowd, after all, the only ones that were still calling out bids were the people from the private rooms and the amount of purple crystals they were constantly raising was even more than half of the fortune for some of them!

Just as things were slowly calming down and the bidders dwindled down to two then one, Old Ma finally stepped in and calmly asked in a loud voice, "Anyone who would like to top the current bid of one hundred fifteen thousand purple crystals?"

A short silence swept through the auction hall and just as everyone thought that the bidding was done and Old Ma was about to announce the item as sold, a soft and alluring voice called out amidst the pin-drop silence.

"One hundred thirty thousand purple crystals."

Annoyed, the young man who was expecting to have the let out an annoyed huff before calling out another bid.

"Hundred and fifty thousand crystals!"

Raising an elegant brow, Fan Zhu Xia eyed the private room directly across from hers where the man's voice came from before lowly chuckling and saying in a voice filled with amusement, "Three hundred thousand."

"What?! You can't just double the bid like that! It's unfair to other bidders!" The man suddenly exclaimed in an irritated voice which only drew a string of melodious laughter from Fan Zhu Xia

This made the man even more exasperated before he protested in an indignant manner, "Stop laughing, it's not funny!"

The man's one-sided bickering and the other party's amused laughter made the original tense atmosphere disappear and even appear slightly ambiguous because the two parties seemingly knew each other and this made people all the more curious as to the identities of this two people.

Still giggling slightly and totally ignorant of people's thoughts, Fan Zhu Xia good-naturedly said, "If senior would kindly let me have this sword, this miss will definitely make it up to you."

"Oh really? And how will you make it up to me then, hmm?"

After thinking for a second, Fan Zhu Xia then seriously replied and asked, "Well what do you want then?"

"I want that sword!" The young man stubbornly retorted back.

Sighing, Fan Zhu Xia shook her head and said, "Then senior will have to outbid me then."

"Fine! I bid three hundred fifty thousand purple crystals!"

"Five hundred thousand purple crystals!" Fan Zhu Xia calmly called out as she eyed the private room with an enterained look on her face.

"Ugh, no fair! Why do you always add so much to your bid?!" The young man complained in such an aggrieved manner making Fan Zhu Xia struggle to not laugh at his expense again.

"Pffft... Ehem. Well of course it's because I want to win."

"Dammit, fine you can have it! This young master may not have anything left if I continue trying to outbid you." the man disgruntledly replied.

Hearing his words, Fan Zhu Xia smiled brightly, looking dazzling despite the veil covering half of her face.

"Many thanks!"

"Yeah yeah, I know, I know... This young master is such a generous and big-hearted person, just letting you have this sword."

Feeling her eye twitch slightly, Fan Zhu Xia decided not to reply and let Old Ma who cleared his throat commence with the auction.

"Will there still be any bidders?" Old Ma asked loudly with a smile and after a moment of hearing no one, he then declared Fan Zhu Xia as the winner of the sword before sheating the sword in an intricately made scabbard and gesturing for the attendant to bring it away.

Before long, a knock sounded and just like before, an attendant opened the door and presented the sword before her.

"Will our esteemed guest please take a look."

Standing up with slow and graceful movements, Fan Zhu Xia arrived in front of the attendant before taking the sword and unsheathing it with one move before inspecting it. Her movement while doing that looked smooth and flawless, as if it was a beautiful dance and not someone unsheathing an extremely sharp and deadly blade.

"Is it to your satisfaction Young Miss?" the attendant queried.

Nodding, Fan Zhu replied, "Yes, very much."

With a flick of her wrist, Fan Zhu Xia brought out her Essence Spirit Card and handed it over to the attendant.

"You should be able to get the payment from the card right? I'm pretty sure that I have more than enough there."

Taking the card, the attendant respectfully answered, "This servant would have to bring it to iur branch head first since he's the only one who can access the cards provided by our pavillion. This one would like to ask for your permission to leave first?"

"En, go ahead. Just come back after you are finished."

"Oh before you go, could you also help this miss send a message to the person in the private room across from mine?" Fan Zhu Xia asked while pointing at the room across from hers in the auction hall.

"The young miss would like to send a message to the guest who was bidding against you for the long sword?" the attendant questioned Fan Zhu Xia to make sure.

"En. Kindly tell him that the daughter of Lei Wangye is grateful for letting her have the sword and would like to invite him to visit the Lei Palace should he ever need assistance with something that this miss can help with."

Hearing her words, the attendant's eyes widened in surprise and was momentarily in a daze before he nodded in confirmation and excused himself to carry out his tasks.

Who knew that the mysterious young lady was actually the daughter of the extremely prestigious Lei Wangye of the Thunder Vale country?

The attendant then hurriedly called one of his colleagues over and had her go to and inform the guest of Fan Zhu Xia's words before quickly going off to talk with the branch leader, completely oblivious as to the reaction of the guest who heard the message.

"Wait, how come I didn't know Lei Wangye has a daughter?!"