Chen Chang'an was a man who believed in fairness—how others treated him, he would treat them the same in return. Since Elder Ma couldn’t speak politely, Chen Chang'an saw no reason to hold back. That simply wasn’t his style.
Chen Chang'an’s words instantly darkened Elder Ma’s expression. So, the rumors were true—this brat really was arrogant, thinking his potential gave him the right to act without restraint?
"Good, good, good."
"The rumors don’t lie. Chen Chang'an, you truly are as insolent as they say!"
"But do you even know where you are? You dare cause trouble here?" Elder Ma sneered.
"All I know is that this is an auction house—a place of business."
"Is this how you treat your guests?"
"Is this your so-called hospitality?" Chen Chang'an retorted with a cold laugh.
His words made Elder Ma frown. He couldn’t deny that he had been the one to provoke Chen Chang'an first.
He had simply taken a dislike to the young man’s attitude, but he hadn’t expected the other party to show no fear at all.
For a moment, Elder Ma was at a loss. After a brief pause, he spoke indifferently, "The item you want is here."
"However... the auction for it has likely already begun. Recently, this is the only one of its kind available."
"Whether you can secure it depends entirely on your own means."
"If there’s nothing else, you may leave."
The auction had already started?
Without hesitation, Chen Chang'an turned and strode straight toward the auction hall.
"Hmph, act all high and mighty now. The day will come when you’ll weep."
"If it weren’t for the uproar over the event three days from now, I’d have taught you a proper lesson today."
The matter of Chen Chang'an attempting to challenge for the Violet Gold Medal in three days had caused too much of a stir. At this moment, no one would dare lay a hand on him.
After all, everyone wanted to see whether Chen Chang'an would succeed—or how miserably he would fail. Acting now would only spoil the spectacle.
In the auction hall, the item Chen Chang'an sought—the Soul Restoration Herb—was currently being auctioned.
"Fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones! The current bid stands at fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones! Are there any higher offers?"
"Esteemed guests, while the Soul Restoration Herb may not be a supreme treasure, its effects on healing the soul are remarkably potent."
"As cultivators, we all know that a damaged soul can halt our progress for life."
"This item is far from useless. Our auction house currently has only this single herb in stock. A rare opportunity—once missed, who knows how long you’ll have to wait for another?"
"Sixty thousand! I bid sixty thousand mid-grade spirit stones!"
"Seventy thousand! Seventy thousand here!"
"Hmph, I offer one hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones!"
The auctioneer certainly knew how to stir the crowd. Though the Soul Restoration Herb was valuable, its price shouldn’t exceed one hundred fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones.
Yet, thanks to his persuasive words, the bids kept climbing, now reaching two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones.
"Two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones! Are there no further offers?"
"Truly, no one else wishes to bid?"
The auctioneer’s gaze swept across the room, gauging the reactions of the attendees.
Seeing no further interest, he decided not to drag it out.
"Two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones—going once!"
"Two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones—going twice!"
"Two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones—"
"Ten thousand!"
Huh?
Ten thousand?
The bid left everyone stunned. Was this some kind of joke?
Causing trouble at this auction house? This was an establishment under the City Lord of No Return City. Did this person have a death wish?
All eyes turned toward the source of the voice—and then widened in shock.
A Platinum Medal holder… this young?
"Who is this guy? Such audacity!"
"Holy—Chen Chang'an?"
"Eh? That’s Chen Chang'an?"
"This kid’s getting more reckless by the day. He dares to disrupt things here?"
"Just a fool with no sense of self-preservation. Let’s see how he plans to get out of this mess."
Even the auctioneer turned to look, finally getting a glimpse of this infamous figure.
"Esteemed guest, the current bid for the Soul Restoration Herb stands at two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones."
"Your offer of ten thousand… is insufficient."
"If you truly wish to purchase it, you may place a new bid," the auctioneer said with a polite smile.
"Ten thousand it is."
"However, I meant ten thousand high-grade spirit stones."
Hiss—
The second part of his statement sent a collective gasp through the crowd.
Ten thousand high-grade spirit stones? Had this kid lost his mind?
This was sheer extravagance! Ten thousand high-grade spirit stones equated to one million mid-grade spirit stones.
And he was spending that much on this overpriced herb?
"You… you’re certain about ten thousand high-grade spirit stones?" Even the auctioneer was taken aback by Chen Chang'an’s wealth.
"I’m certain," Chen Chang'an replied coolly.
"Very well!"
"Ten thousand high-grade spirit stones—going once!"
"Ten thousand premium spirit stones, going twice."
"Ten thousand premium spirit stones, going thrice."
"Sold!"
"This Spirit-Nourishing Herb now belongs to the esteemed guest."
"Please proceed with the payment."
"Very well."
"Ah, since you hold a Platinum Medal, you are entitled to a twenty percent discount. Thus, you only need to pay eight thousand premium spirit stones."
At this moment, even the auctioneer felt a pang of regret—two thousand premium spirit stones, equivalent to two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones! The discount alone surpassed the highest bid before Chen Chang'an's appearance.
After paying the eight thousand premium spirit stones, Chen Chang'an took the Spirit-Nourishing Herb and left the auction house without delay.
It wasn’t until he had departed that the crowd finally snapped out of their daze.
"Damn, how does he have that much wealth?"
"Does this kid even know the meaning of discretion? 'A common man’s wealth is his own ruin'—isn’t he afraid of being targeted?"
"Hmph, riding high on recent fame, he’s grown reckless. Once he fails the Violet-Gold Medal challenge, plenty will come for him."
"Let him bask in his arrogance for now. Soon enough, he’ll learn the price of his recklessness."
No one expected that after leaving the auction, Chen Chang'an would immediately head straight for the city gates.
"Eh? Isn’t that Chen Chang'an? Where’s he going?"
"That looks like the direction to the city exit!"
"What? Chen Chang'an is leaving the city? Is he running scared?"
"Hard to say. Maybe he has urgent business."
His sudden departure puzzled many, yet no one could guess his intentions.
As a Platinum Medal holder, Chen Chang'an possessed the privilege of freely entering and exiting the City of No Return.
However, when he reached the gates, he encountered the same guards who had been on duty when he first arrived.
"Y-you… you’ve already attained the Platinum Medal?"
The lead guard stared at Chen Chang'an in shock. After all, this man had been in the City of No Return for less than three full days.
Could it be…?
"You wouldn’t happen to be the Chen Chang'an from the recent rumors, would you?" the guard stammered.
"Indeed, it’s me."
"I—by the heavens! Aren’t you about to compete for the Violet-Gold Medal? Why leave the city now?" the guard asked, bewildered.
"I have matters to attend to."
"Matters? May I ask… where exactly are you headed?"
"The Forest of Life and Death."
"What?! You’re going to the Forest of Life and Death?"
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.
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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!
