Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)
Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN) - Chapter 56: Starfusing Grass

As soon as he heard that voice, Long Chen recognized that it was from Xia Baichi.

After she had lost the pill battle to him and angrily revealed the scandal between her and Wei Cang, it was as if she had completely disappeared.

Now, it seemed that this idiot woman would not let him obtain the infant Golden Striped Tiger so easily.

“3,500,000.”

“3,510,000.”

As soon as Long Chen countered, Xia Baichi immediately followed without hesitation. The rest of the crowd was completely silent.

In reality, an average Golden Striped Tiger’s price was somewhere between two million to two million five hundred thousand. But due to the lack of supply, it wasn’t something that could be bought so easily.

As soon as the infant was taken from its mother, it had to be immediately sold off. Otherwise, if even just a couple weeks passed, the infant would have grown too much, and the difficulty in taming it would shoot up, making it not worth the price.

That was why Long Chen’s bid of three million was actually quite reasonable. Since such an opportunity was rather rare, it was worth it to spend a bit of extra money.

Now that the price had surpassed three million five hundred, Long Chen had already given up on it. However, since it was Xia Baichi, he couldn’t just let it go so easily.

He needed to get the Starfusing Grass. It should be coming up extremely quickly, and if that idiot woman deliberately messed with him, the price of the Starfusing Grass might skyrocket past his reach.

“4,000,000.” Long Chen ground his teeth, and a trace of anger had entered his voice.

“4,010,000.” Xia Baichi seemed to have heard Long Chen’s anger. Her mood improved greatly, and her voice even had some joy in it.

Long Chen was even more sure that this idiot woman was trying to mess with him. She probably wasn’t even interested in this Golden Spotted Tiger; her target was him.

“5,000,000,” retorted Long Chen angrily.

“5,010,000.”

As expected, as soon as Long Chen put his bid, Xia Baichi’s voice would immediately follow. The crowd was watching both of the private rooms; everyone understood that the two of them were at odds with each other.

“That woman is a Grand Xia princess. But as for the other private room, it sounds like he’s very young. I don’t think I recognize the voice.”

“Wow, do you even get any news? You don’t recognize the voice of Phoenix Cry’s number one warrior of the junior generation?”

With this reminder, that person immediately understood. No wonder the Grand Xia’s princess would go against him; so it was Long Chen!

On the day of the Phoenix Cry Lantern Festival, everyone had seen Xia Baichi lose to Long Chen, and she had fallen into disrepute. The reason everyone despised her now was because of Long Chen, so it was obvious that she was now aiming for him.

Yao Niqian looked from Long Chen’s private room to Xia Baichi’s private room. No one knew what she was thinking, but a bright smile appeared on her charming lips.

“Baichi, don’t waste too much. The auction has just started, and we still have to see whether there will be other good things in the auction later. We can’t spend too much just for revenge against him,” Xia Changfeng advised Xia Baichi.

This was just the start. The best items had yet to appear, and if they were to run out of money too early, then they would only be able to watch as the precious items were taken away by others.

“No, I definitely can’t let him off after he humiliated me. I also lost the beast flame to that scoundrel. Don’t worry, I’ll use my personal money. I definitely won’t dip into yours.” Xia Baichi was viciously glaring at Long Chen’s private room.

“Then fine. But there will be plenty of opportunities in the future, so calm down a bit. Just let it go if he raises the price again.”

Seeing how obstinate Xia Baichi was acting now, Xia Changfeng also had no way to calm her down. He really didn’t have any way to handle this younger sister of his. After all, she was a Pill Apprentice who could even be counted as having reach Pill Adept, and that status was even slightly greater than his status of a prince.

Long Chen smiled slightly. If she wanted to play, then he’d play. In any case, just waiting around was boring.

“Congratulations to princess Baichi on obtaining the infant Golden Spotted Tiger,” smiled Yao Niqian. A couple of aides brought the infant down.

Since the price for it had already reached a sky-high five million gold coins, there was no need for her to call out any ‘going once, going twice’. She directly skipped that, as it would only result in an awkward silence.

Xia Baichi was surprised. When she realized that Long Chen had schemed to make her waste her money, she couldn’t help but angrily curse, “Long Chen, you definitely won’t have a good death!”

When encountering a random crazy person’s shouting and cursing, you absolutely could not try to argue with them. One, you’d never be able to win an argument against an idiot, and two, even if you won, it would still be a kind of disgrace.

So, Long Chen just laughed and hid inside his private room. He could imagine what Xia Baichi’s current expression was.

The auction continued, and all kinds of precious items and oddities were brought out, dazzling the crowd. But Long Chen was no longer low-key like he had been for the previous items. He practically shouted out at least one bid for every single item.

The result was that as long as Long Chen bid, Xia Baichi would immediately follow. She would always bid an extra ten thousand against him, and for a while, the auction became just a battlefield between the two of them.

“1,800,000!”

“1,810,000!”

“2,500,000!”

“2,510,000!”

…

Yao Niqian laughed to the side. She didn’t say anything as both parties shouted with all their force.

“Baichi, stop making trouble. He’s clearly just playing you. No matter how much money you have, it won’t be enough,” said Xia Changfeng angrily.

Under Long Chen’s enthusiastic help, Xia Baichi had already bought over a dozen items, most of them being absolutely useless to her. She had already spent over two hundred million gold coins.

Xia Changfeng couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful. Originally, Xia Baichi hadn’t even wanted to come. Due to the details of her affair with Wei Cang spreading out to the whole city, she had kept hiding in her room without daring to show herself.

But Xia Changfeng had wanted her to come out to this auction in order to get her out of the mood she was in, as well as for financial assistance to bid for the things he wanted. After all, as a Pill Apprentice, she had plenty of money.

However, Xia Baichi had thrown out two hundred million gold coins in just a short time. He couldn’t help but feel distressed at how much money she was wasting.

At this time, Xia Baichi had also become clear-headed. No matter how much money she had, there was no way she could buy everything here. If she continued on like this, then she would just be playing into Long Chen’s scheme.

“You don’t need to be so worried, princess. If you want revenge, wait until Long Chen truly goes for something. Taking revenge then won’t be too late,” smiled crown prince Chu Yang.

“Yes, brother Chu Yang is correct. Since he has a private room, the Huayun Pavilion must expect that he is planning on buying some important things,” advised Xia Changfeng.

Hearing the two of them, Xia Baichi’s anger calmed a bit. But her hatred of Long Chen only continued to grow.

Ever since she had first met Long Chen, she had suffered defeat after defeat. Long Chen was her nemesis, completely suppressing her.

Xia Baichi now stopped competing with Long Chen over the bids. Once the two of them calmed down, the auction once more returned to its normal state.

At this time, the sky had already darkened. The auction paused temporarily in order to serve dinner. They opened the curtains, and hundreds of women walked out with dining cars covered in delicious foods and alcohol.

This dinner was offered for free by the Huayun Pavilion. They were worried people might leave if they got hungry.

“Brother Long, we should go down too. To be honest, we were so nervous with what was happening with you and Xia Baichi that we’re now incredibly hungry,” said fatty Yu.

“No need to go down.”

Long Chen shook his head. Two beautiful maids came in with a long table and set it down.

There were dozens of rich dishes on the table. The smell coming off of them caused people to drool in anticipation.

But that fatty Yu only foolishly looked at the two maids, completely forgetting his hunger.

“Everyone, please eat. We’ll pour the alcohol.” Those two maids paid no attention to fatty Yu’s gaze. Their gazes swept over Long Chen with some delight.

“Oh, so it’s you guys.”

Long Chen was a bit surprised that these two were two of the four who had welcomed him when he had come to the Huayun Pavilion earlier.

“Ah, young master Long Chen, so you actually remember us.”

Those two women were excited to be in his presence. One of them cast a furtive look around and then actually took out a small book.

Her face was completely red as she asked, “Young master Long Chen, could you autograph this for me?”

Long Chen stared blankly. Taking the small book, his eyes widened. A tall, handsome man with sword-like eyebrows, starry eyes, and dancing black hair had been drawn on the cover.

Looking closely at that man, it was actually eighty percent similar to him; however, it was more handsome and dashing than he was.

“Is this supposed to be me?” asked Long Chen doubtingly.

“You didn’t know about it?” Not just the two maids, but even Shi Feng and the others were surprised.

“This is the hardcover limited edition of Phoenix Cry Divine Battle. It costs thirty-five gold coins! We used half our yearly salary in order to buy it. We’re begging you! Please, can you sign it?”

Flipping open this Phoenix Cry Divine Battle book and seeing what was inside, even he exclaimed in admiration. Reading this book would involuntarily cause a person’s heart to be excited. Even he had an urge to buy it.

Seeing the writing brush the maids handed to him, Long Chen bitterly laughed, “Did you guys plan this in advance?”

The two maids blushed. His guess was right on. The two of them had run over to send Long Chen dinner just to see him.

Brandishing the brush, Long Chen wrote his name boldly atop the cover. Back when he was unable to cultivate, his mother would always spend time teaching him reading and writing, so his calligraphy was extremely polished.

And now that he could cultivate, all strokes of his brush would contain a vigorous grandeur and were filled with a sword-like will.

The two maids were endlessly excited when Long Chen handed their book back to them. After thanking him vigorously, they hastily ran away. They didn’t even bother with pouring the alcohol. Instead, they most likely rushed off to show it to their fellow maids.

“Brother Long, my family has collected several hundreds of that book. How about you help me sign each one?” Shou Hou rolled his eyes and laughed at him.

“Give it up. With your carelessness, it’s better to just keep them in storage. Aren’t you planning on selling the ones brother Long signs for profit?” One of the other noble heirs in their group disdainfully said.

“Nonsense, am I that kind of person?” Shou Hou angrily retorted. But looking at everyone’s disdainful expression, his confidence faltered and he spread his arms. “I’m just trying to figure out how much brother Long’s signature is worth.”

“Shut your mouth. Let’s eat.”

Long Chen cursed and everyone laughed, starting to devour the food that had been brought over. After they finished eating, those two maids ran back and took away the dining table as well as offering the tea and fruits.

In less than the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the auction once more began. Yao Niqian’s charming voice rang out:

“The next item in the auction is thousand-year-old Starfusing Grass.”