"Li Mo bids six... Young Master Qiao bids seven..."
"..."
The auction hall of Dongzhu Tower was eerily quiet. Everyone stared blankly at the two figures nearby, their minds buzzing in disbelief.
Qiao Ziyu occasionally shot a resentful glare at Li Mo before raising his bidding paddle again, clearly too deep into the competition to back down.
Li Mo remained silent, merely lifting his paddle as if oblivious to the staggering price—now reaching five hundred mystic crystals.
Sea silk, no matter how aged, was ultimately just material for garments—at best, capable of changing colors.
Three hundred mystic crystals?
Had they lost their minds, or had the world itself gone mad?
Even Qian Bufan's face twitched. "Li Mo, calm down. Maybe let it go? At this rate, I’ll start digging for sea silk myself."
"I’m young and full of vigor—how could I not raise?" Li Mo lifted his jade paddle once more.
"What on earth do you even need this for?"
"To make clothes."
"Other materials could also—"
"Others can’t change colors. And they’re not as easy to tear."
"???"
Qian Bufan’s brain overheated trying to make sense of such a bizarre reason.
But then it struck him—the money spent hardly mattered.
After all, Dongzhu Tower now belonged to Li Mo. No matter how high he bid, the funds would ultimately return to his own pockets...
If Li Mo was burning money for fun, why was Qiao Ziyu gambling with his life?
"Li Mo raises again—three hundred fifty mystic crystals!"
As the announcement echoed—
"I... ugh—!"
Qiao Ziyu instinctively moved to raise his paddle, but before he could speak, a pig’s trotter was shoved into his mouth.
An elder attendant hastily intervened, "Young Master, enough. We’ve already made him pay dearly. If he backs out now, what then?"
"Remember, we still have the crucial item to secure."
Qiao Ziyu glanced at the displayed price, his expression easing slightly.
True, he’d already forced Li Mo to overspend by three hundred forty-seven mystic crystals.
This loss stung worse than the two hundred crystals he’d wasted on roasted pig trotters.
A flicker of dread crept in—what if Li Mo had refused to bid further?
"Fine. I won’t raise!"
Qiao Ziyu openly admitted defeat.
With that, Lan Tian’s gavel fell, declaring the three-thousand-year sea silk sold to Li Mo for three hundred fifty mystic crystals.
The auction resumed.
From then on, Qiao Ziyu treated the sea silk as merely the opening move. He shadowed Li Mo’s every bid—whether for the Nine-Petal Ocean Lotus Chariot or the Cloud Bed of Heavy Water—relentlessly driving prices skyward.
Li Mo’s losses surpassed a thousand mystic crystals.
Yet he wore an air of undisturbed calm, leaving onlookers feeling like they’d punched cotton.
"This rivals the entire treasury of a provincial sect!"
"Even Hengyun Sword City might struggle to match such wealth."
"Rumors say Li Mo splurged thousands in the imperial capital, but even that paled next to this. Can he truly cover such sums?"
Whispers rippled through the crowd.
"If he fails to pay, let’s see how he wriggles free!" Qiao Ziyu sneered.
The elder attendant cautioned, "Focus on our true objective."
As the auction neared its end, anticipation swelled.
The final lot was always the crown jewel.
"Our finale is a fragment of the Ruins’ Atlas."
"Legends speak of it as the realm where celestial traces emerged and vanished—a place holding secrets of immortality itself..."
"Authenticated by Sect Leader Tantai of Penglai, its value is beyond doubt!"
The crimson drape slid away, revealing a bronze slab etched with divine runes, its surface shimmering with starlight, exuding an aura of ancient mystery.
To gaze upon it was to witness eternity.
The hall held its breath.
For most, the Ruins had existed only in myth.
Immortality—
A word so elusive, yet so intoxicating.
Of course, Penglai’s Star Sect had likely studied this artifact for centuries, if not millennia, before relinquishing it to Dongzhu Tower.
But... immortality demanded fate’s favor.
What if destiny’s chosen was among them?
Many harbored such thoughts, though few dared more than a glance.
"Opening bid—five hundred mystic crystals!"
A sum to deter all but the mightiest sects.
"Six hundred!"
The first bid rang out, edged with urgency.
Before it settled, another voice eclipsed it.
"Six fifty! Plus a segment of Leviathan bone. I am the Xingsha Sect Leader—kindly grant me this courtesy."
"Xingsha Sect Leader? A mere fishmonger! Seven hundred! And two harbors from East Luo Bay."
"Personal attacks? Where’s the decorum? Is there no moderation here?"
Chaos briefly reigned.
No one blamed the bidders for their fervor—most were staking their entire fortunes.
"Young Master, we’ve only brought eight hundred mystic crystals. Beyond that, we’d need to pledge treasures at a loss," the elder attendant fretted.
Qiao Ziyu clenched his jaw. Originally, they’d allocated a thousand.
But two hundred had vanished into that cursed pig trotter—now worthless in trade.
He’d never expected the competition to escalate so fiercely.
Losing the Ruins’ Atlas over a mere two hundred crystals? The consequences back at his sect didn’t bear imagining.
"Eight hundred mystic crystals."
With no alternative, he threw another venomous look at Li Mo.
The hall hushed momentarily.
This sum exceeded ninety percent of contenders’ means. The remaining sects, though still in play, eyed each other warily, probing for weaknesses.
Then, a familiar voice shattered the silence:
"One thousand mystic crystals. Plus five golden mountains."
"?"
Qiao Ziyu checked his divination insect—its hue had shifted to violet.
So Li Mo desired this artifact too?
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
