Hosting an Auction in a Hidden Realm

Gu Qingfeng was taken aback when Li Xiaocui demanded the Spirit Guide from him. "Little girl, there's a limit to being unreasonable, don't you think? I found the Spirit Guide through my own efforts, and you just want to take it without a word? I didn’t expect you to have such audacity despite your small stature."

Li Xiaocui’s face instantly turned grim, as if she had been deeply insulted. She suppressed her anger and asked, "What do you want, then?"

"I’m planning to hold an auction. You can bid for it later. How’s that? Fair and square, right?"

Li Xiaocui’s face darkened, but she said nothing and silently walked away, lost in thought.

Meanwhile, the prodigies in the mountain forest had mostly gathered together, discussing the strange occurrences that had happened to them.

"What! Your Spirit Guides are gone too?"

"Gone. I even held mine in my hand, but in the blink of an eye, it disappeared."

"Hey, has anyone here actually gotten a Spirit Guide?"

Everyone looked at each other, and after some questioning, they realized that out of thousands of people, not a single one had obtained a Spirit Guide.

"What’s going on? Could it be that the rules of the Jade Dragon Secret Realm were disrupted when the god stomped his foot?"

"Wait a minute, have you noticed that two people are missing?"

"Who?"

"That guy who extorted money from us, and the white-haired girl who was with him are gone!"

The mention of Gu Qingfeng made everyone’s expressions turn ugly. Suddenly, it dawned on them—could this incident be related to him? After all, his mysterious methods back then were truly bizarre.

"This is bad!" The prodigy from the Spirit Medicine Mountain suddenly paled, as if realizing something.

"That guy must have used some sinister method to take all the Spirit Guides and entered the next level alone, leaving no one to compete with him!"

Prompted by the Spirit Medicine Mountain prodigy, everyone’s expressions changed.

Someone shouted, "Quick, head to the Light Gate! We must stop him!"

With that, the group erupted with astonishing speed, charging toward the Light Gate like arrows.

However, when they rushed out of the forest, they were stunned to find a man with a faint smile standing calmly in front of the Light Gate, as if he were a shopkeeper waiting for customers.

And in front of him were neatly placed one hundred Spirit Guides!

"It’s the Spirit Guides!"

"It really was him!"

"All one hundred Spirit Guides are with him!"

The group was first shocked, then furious as they approached Gu Qingfeng, demanding to know why he had taken so many Spirit Guides.

Of course, not everyone was a fool. Some clever individuals didn’t let their anger cloud their judgment. They looked at Gu Qingfeng’s smiling face, their eyes filled with wariness and suspicion.

How had this man managed to take all the Spirit Guides without anyone noticing? Such an unfathomable method was far beyond the capabilities of someone in the Internal Qi Realm!

And if he had taken all the Spirit Guides, he could have entered the Light Gate, leaving everyone else behind and eliminating any competition for the inheritance. Yet, instead of leaving, he stood there waiting. What was he planning?

Gu Qingfeng smiled as he looked at his "customers," completely unfazed by their accusations and curses. After all, the customer is king.

"Everyone, I am a kind-hearted person who couldn’t bear to see you lose your young lives over the struggle for Spirit Guides. That’s why I’ve prepared a peaceful solution to this matter, which is..."

Before Gu Qingfeng could finish, a discordant voice suddenly rang out from the crowd.

"So it really was you who stole our Spirit Guides! Don’t listen to his nonsense, everyone! Let’s attack! We outnumber him, we’re not afraid of..."

Boom!

A dull thud abruptly cut off the voice.

The man was sent flying as if struck by a cannonball, his body turning into a blur as he crashed into the forest.

Bang, bang, bang... The sound of countless trees breaking echoed, like a game of bowling, as he knocked down an entire row of trees.

The crowd’s pupils shrank to pinpoints, their faces filled with terror!

So fast!

When did he move?!

They stared at Gu Qingfeng’s smiling face, fear creeping into their hearts.

None of them had seen Gu Qingfeng make a move. It was as if he hadn’t moved at all, yet the man who had spoken was sent flying.

With such strength and speed, if Gu Qingfeng wanted to kill them, none of them would even know how they died before they were gone.

Why?!

How could someone so powerful enter the Jade Dragon Secret Realm? Wasn’t it restricted to those below the True Qi Realm? How did a suspected grandmaster sneak in? Where were the guardian spirits? Shouldn’t they be dealing with this?

"Which is to hold an auction," Gu Qingfeng continued seamlessly, as if the earlier incident hadn’t happened.

"As you can see, all one hundred Spirit Guides are here, and I will auction them off to you in a fair and just manner. Do you have any objections?"

Silence!

Deafening silence!

Everyone looked at Gu Qingfeng’s smiling face as if they were staring at a demon that had crawled out of hell.

"Good, it seems we all share a love for peace and wish to avoid bloodshed. Then, I declare the auction officially open. The starting bid for each Spirit Guide is... one thousand taels of gold!"

Silence!

Still, no one spoke or made a bid. The crowd seemed paralyzed, staring blankly.

Just as Gu Qingfeng frowned, Li Xiaocui, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "One thousand taels of gold!"

Well, well!

You’re the only one who gets it.

Gu Qingfeng gave Li Xiaocui an approving look, then deliberately slowed his speech, waiting for others to raise the bid.

"One thousand taels of gold... once! One thousand taels of gold... twice! One thousand taels of gold... Hey, doesn’t anyone want to raise the bid? Don’t you want to advance to the next level? Don’t you want to inherit the secret realm and become a peerless king?"

The crowd exchanged glances, then shook their heads. Not a single person made a bid.

They thought to themselves, "Are you kidding? We’re not fools. That white-haired girl is clearly in cahoots with you. Bidding against her would just drive up the price, and then her money would be returned while we’d be left with nothing."

"Ah, one thousand taels of gold... for the third time! Congratulations, Miss Li Xiaocui, you’ve won a ticket to the third level."

Gu Qingfeng spoke with feigned disappointment, then handed the Spirit Guide to Li Xiaocui.

Li Xiaocui didn’t try to renege and promptly handed over one thousand taels of gold.

Gu Qingfeng pocketed the gold, silently marveling, "Nine out of ten lolis are rich. The ancients truly didn’t lie!"

Li Xiaocui gave him a calm look, then turned and entered the Light Gate.

Once inside, her calm demeanor vanished, replaced by deep concern—concern over Gu Qingfeng’s strength.

She never expected Gu Qingfeng to possess such power. The brief display of his abilities just now was already on par with a grandmaster.

How was this possible?!

Wasn’t he possessed by a former grandmaster? She had never heard of anyone recovering their strength so quickly after possession.

Moreover, he was clearly at the Qi Gathering Eighth Level, or else he wouldn’t have been able to enter the secret realm. This meant that his physical strength alone rivaled that of a grandmaster!

Damn it, how could a human possess such a powerful body? Even ordinary demonic beasts at the grandmaster level couldn’t match this level of strength.

Just who had possessed him?!

Such strength would undoubtedly complicate the plan.