Chapter 306

Wei Yang finds Fang Yuan in the private room and tells him the bitter strength Gu is the auction’s thirteenth item, that Shang Ya Zi has already taken the fifth private room after withdrawing his entire fortune, and that Shang Bi Xi and Ju Kai Bei are the two other buyers most likely to outbid him. Shang Ya Zi alone carries at least one million two hundred thousand primeval stones. Shang Bi Xi can call on his wealthy allies Shang Pu Lao and Shang Suan Ni if he needs more. Ju Kai Bei, a rank four Gu Master who has vowed not to leave the battle stage until he defeats his rival Yan Tu, is a genuine strength path Gu Master with years of battle winnings behind him, and wants the bitter strength Gu for himself; Yan Tu, a fire path Gu Master, has no interest in it. Wei Yang presses a primeval elder Gu holding nearly a million primeval stones into Fang Yuan’s hands, calling it a loan rather than a gift and naming himself his creditor from now on. Shang Chi Wen is startled: she knew of a light type Gu in this same auction that Wei Yang had meant for himself, and did not expect him to give up his own chance for Fang Zheng’s sake. Shang Xin Ci follows with a primeval elder Gu of her own, somewhere between a hundred and three hundred thousand primeval stones of pocket money scrimped and saved, and frames it too as a loan since she knows he will not take it as a gift. Fang Yuan accepts both and promises repayment. Shang Chi Wen hesitates over her own purse but in the end offers nothing, turning the talk instead to Ju Kai Bei’s arrival. ^{ch. 306}

Ju Kai Bei stands eight feet tall, every stride measured the same length, a rank four Gu Master and the undisputed peak of the third inner city battle stage; he refuses invitations sent by Shang Ya Zi, Shang Pu Lao, and Shang Chao Feng alike and sits down in the first row instead. Shang Bu Li arrives next, his face split red on one side and pale blue on the other, a rank four Gu Master who commands fire and ice Gu worms and, as Shang clan’s foremost subject in charge of its servant trade, outranks even Wei Yang, second only to the clan leader himself. A woman’s voice orders him to walk faster and stop dragging his feet; Shang Bu Li’s proud bearing vanishes at once, and he bows low the moment he sees it is Doctor Su Shou. Rank five herself, robed in white with her face veiled and eight servants behind her, she is one of the four great doctors of the southern border who once treated Fang Yuan’s own injuries; rumor holds her to be Shang Yan Fei’s lover, which is reason enough that even Shang Bu Li does not dare cross her. Yan Tu, Shang Yan Fei’s fifth general Yi Huo, and clan elders from Yi clan and Fei clan arrive after her, and Fang Yuan wonders privately how many of this gathering will end up standing in his way. ^{ch. 306}

The auction opens on a frost arrow Gu, a rank four ice type worm shaped like a drain fly, prized the way Gu Yue clan once prized its moon type Gu and valued above all for costing so little primeval essence that even a rank three Gu Master can use it; bidding opens at seventy thousand primeval stones. The price climbs in five-thousand jumps to ninety thousand, then slows to three-thousand jumps, then to one thousand once it passes a hundred thousand. Bai Ning Bing enters at a hundred and ten thousand, the first bid from any private room, and Shang Ya Zi answers from the fifth room at a hundred and twenty thousand; the two trade raises up to a hundred and fifty thousand, Bai Ning Bing glancing once at Fang Yuan, who only shrugs. Shang Ya Zi stops there, laughing that he only wanted to make them suffer. Bai Ning Bing wins the frost arrow Gu, having paid forty thousand primeval stones more than she otherwise would have. Wei Yang sighs that Shang Ya Zi has come for revenge, and Shang Xin Ci frowns, worried for Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 306}