After entering the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, they immediately noticed the luxurious atmosphere. The golden hall was extremely extravagant and was illuminated by a crystal light that hung from the ceiling. The two sides of the hall were similarly lined with two rows of women.
When compared to the girls who were on the outside, the young ladies within the hall who wore short golden skirts were even more eye-catching. These young ladies were slightly younger and the material used in their skirts was extremely thin, revealing their fair slender legs. All of their appearances were stunning and their bodies were extremely beautiful. A man would feel as if he had walked into heaven on earth after entering this golden hall.
Even for Huo Yuhao's mentality, he couldn't help but be dazzled by the sight before him. The atmosphere in the hall was filled with a sense of opulence and extravagance that he had never experienced before. The women on either side of the hall exuded an aura of elegance and beauty, their demeanor refined and their movements graceful.
"We welcome our distinguished guests." The young ladies in the hall bowed and greeted them, immediately startling Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er. They couldn't help but feel bewildered as they looked at the girls who were all bowing towards them.
Huo Yuhao quickly composed himself. Though young and has little to no experience with dealing of being treated as a distinguishable guest, he understood that this was part of the protocol in such high-end events. He nodded politely in response to the greetings, and Wang Dong'er followed suit.
"What are you doing?" Huo Yuhao asked, glancing at the delicate hands towards his eyes.
Wang Dong'er pouted; having been caught in the act of trying to cover his eyes, and said. "You're not allowed to look! I wouldn't have brought you here if I'd known that it was gonna be like this. I won't let you be corrupted by bad things like this."
Huo Yuhao rolled his eyes. "Oh please, you're ovexaggerating. How could this be a bad thing? They're just doing their jobs."
"That still doesn't mean you should look."
"Dong'er, I have arguably the greatest eyes in the world. You think that by simply closing my eyes I wouldn't be able to see?"
"Not unless you actively look!"
"Well, I obviously wanna see where I walk!"
As the two spoke and passed the corridor filled with beautiful women, they didn't notice the women chatting animatedly with their eyes on them.
"Oh my god, did you see those two?"
"They looked so cute together! They're as good looking as those two handsome boys earlier, but unlike them, these two totally looks like a couple."
"Did you see that little one? Kyaa! He looked so adorable, trying to hide his friend's eyes from us, hehe, he certainly has a crush on him."
A white-clothed young lady guided them up a golden flight of stairs to the second floor of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion.
The second floor was much quieter than the first floor. It seemed extremely messy on the inside but everything was arranged in an extremely logical manner. Exhibition booths were all installed in the most eye-catching parts of the room and each booth was covered with an enormous piece of crystal-glass. Every booth had a wide variety of diverse and unique items.
The white-clothed lady stopped and turned to them. "Greetings to the two distinguished guests who are attending the Treasure Appreciation Auction held within the Treasure Gathering Pavilion."
She then raised her right palm to the right and said, "Please head towards the western area to register yourselves. You can get a credit evaluation if you wish to buy things on credit. The results of this evaluation will determine the discounts available to you as well as your credit limits."
The two nodded, and Huo Yuhao asked. "Are there different credit limits? If so, what are the different limits?"
The white-clothed girl smiled. "If I'm not mistaken, this should be the first time you've visited the Treasure Appreciation Auction. It's like this: Our Treasure Gathering Pavilion will set different credit limits based on the personal situations(standing) of the distinguished guests who participate in the Treasure Appreciating Auction. We mainly judge your current cultivation, age, soul rank, and a few other factors in order to form a comprehensive evaluation."
Both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er frowned, did they have to provide their personal information?
She lightly giggled at their expression, and explained. "Don't worry, our Treasure Gathering Pavilion will maintain a level of secrecy over this information; we absolutely won't reveal any of your secrets. At the same time, we won't ask what your background is. Your credit limit is based off of your ability alone. As such, we have a set of detailed confidential measures."
Huo Yuhao hummed in understanding, and straightforwardly asked. "What makes the Treasure Gathering Pavilion so trustworthy? It can't be because they just say they are. There must be some sort of guarantee or assurance of security for our personal information."
The white-clothed girl nodded, acknowledging his valid concern. "Of course, our Treasure Gathering Pavilion values the trust and confidentiality of our distinguished guests. We have strict protocols in place to ensure the security of your personal information. This includes encrypted data storage, restricted access to sensitive information, and regular audits to maintain compliance with privacy regulations."
She continued, "Additionally, we offer a confidentiality agreement that outlines our commitment to protecting your privacy. This agreement is legally binding and ensures that your personal information will not be shared with any third parties without your explicit consent."
She looked around for a moment and said lowly, "Moreover, Shrek Academy itself will act as an oversight authority to ensure the adherence to these protocols. They have a vested interest in maintaining the reputation and integrity of establishments like ours, which cater to their students and alumni."
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er exchanged a glance, impressed by the thoroughness of the security measures in place. They nodded in understanding and appreciation.
The white-clothed girl smiled warmly at their reaction. "If that's all the questions that you have right now, then please, follow me to receive an evaluation first. That way, we'll be able to confirm your credit limits, and you'll also have a good estimate as to what you'll be able to buy inside our Treasure Appreciation Auction."
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er nodded in agreement, the former then said. "That's fine. It seems I'll have to trouble you to evaluate us."
As the white-clothed girl lead the two of them to the east, they were occasionally drawn to the exhibition booths near them.
Impressively, all the booths within contained rare medicine pills herbs, top-quality soul tools that was at least rank 4, soul tool blueprints, and soul bones! Both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er were amazed by the array of valuable items on display. Each booth seemed to hold treasures that could greatly benefit soul masters and soul engineers alike.
Huo Yuhao noticed Wang Dong'er staring intensely at one booth, turning towards it, he saw it was a reddish-gold soul bone, and it was surprisingly floating within the booth. It looked to be an arm bone, its five delicate digits pointed upwards.
He turned back to Wang Dong'er, and she also stared at him, whispering to him, "I can sense that it suits me."
He quirked an eyebrow, he saw the exorbitant price on it and he wasn't sure she could afford it. "Are you sure? The price is..."
A resolute light flashed through Wang Dong'er's eyes. "....We'll talk about it later."
Naturally, there wouldn't just be one good thing within the auction. Just like Wang Dong had seen the soul bone, Huo Yuhao had seen quite a few treasures that had filled his heart with thirst.
Wang Dong mainly paid attention to things that were related to a soul master's cultivation, but Huo Yuhao also cared about certain precious metals and things that were related to soul engineering. For example, he'd seen a set of schematics that had been created by a Class 7 soul engineer. Though he didn't know what kind of soul tool it was for, the words 'Class 7' were already sufficient.
He hoped it was a defense or armor type blueprint, although he had a defense-type soul skill but that would only last him for a short while. A defense/armor type soul tool would greatly enhance his survivability in battles.
After walking for nearly a hundred meters, they finally came to the end of the western area.
There was a light groove under the long desks which flickered with a crystal-yellow light; the gentle rays of light coming from it weren't gaudy in the least, but filled with a sense of realism.
The white-clothed girl brought the two of them to the left side of the front desk, and a girl behind it rose to her feet immediately and said respectfully, "Greetings to the two soul masters. I'll have to trouble the two of you to fill in this evaluation form. We'll be able to calculate your credit limit within a few minutes."
Two evaluation forms, along with delicate ink brushes, were given to them. The contents of the form weren't complicated in the least.
Name and surname, gender, age, soul rank, martial soul, and past achievements.
There were only these six simple items that were required; the age of their soul rings wasn't required at all.
Because of this, they felt much more at ease whilst filling in these forms. Huo Yuhao only gave his Sharingan for the 'martial soul' field, and not his Ice Jade Empress Scorpion. Even in Shrek Academy, the number of people who knew that he possessed the Ice Empress(or simply the Ice Jade Scorpion) were few in number.
After filling in their respective forms, they handed them in. Quickly, their evaluations were released.
The expression of the girl, who was in charge of registration and calculating credit limits, changed. She turned to the two in surprise, especially at Huo Yuhao. Her gaze grew intense and brighter.
Huo Yuhao had seen this kind of gaze in the past; he would frequently see the female students in the academy look towards both himself and Wang Dong'er with a look like this in their eyes.
The white-clothed girl, who'd brought the two to the desk, nudged at her and said, "Little Red, what are you doing?"
Little Red quickly recovered from her surprise and quickly composes herself. With an extremely respectful and gentle voice, she then said, "Respected Sir Huo, I would like to welcome you to our Treasure Gathering Pavilion. I just did a quick investigation, and you do not have a credit limit within our auction."
"Ah?" Huo Yuhao was stunned, "Why?" Although he got all of what remained of Tang Sect's secret stash, he stored 90% of it in his villa for his sect's future and barely had any money himself.
And if he couldn't use credit to purchase items here, he'd have to leave empty-handed.
Little Red could naturally see how he'd misunderstood her, and hurriedly said, "Mr Huo, please don't be worried. You've been upgraded to a top-ranked VIP in our Treasure Gathering Pavilion, so you don't need a limit. According to your current limit, you'll have the qualifications to take away a single item from the Treasure Appreciation Auction every year without paying anything."
"Say what now?" Both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er were stunned by this unexpected turn of events.
Little Red had already placed two cards on the table. One of them was red, and the other was purple.
Little Red handed the purple card to Wang Dong'er. "Mr Wang, your credit is a hundred thousand gold soul coins. You can only use it once this year, and you'll have to go through another evaluation next year. At your current age, a purple evaluation is already the highest you can receive. You will receive a 10% discount on any items you purchase, and our prices here are cheaper than what you can find in the outside world, so they're already extremely low."
Wang Dong took the card and blankly nodded, she was far more curious on the other card that was being handed to Huo Yuhao.
"And this here, is for Mr. Huo, this VIP card allows you a 40% discount within our Pavilion, which is the highest discount we can give anyone. Furthermore, you can also redeem any item you wish from our Treasure Appreciation Auction once a year with it."
The red card had a golden streak on it, and Huo Yuhao unexpectedly felt a faint warmth come from it after receiving it. It was extremely comfortable to hold it.
'Red Spirit-warming Jade?'
He looked down at the card in astonishment. The Red Spirit-warming Jade is a relatively rare material that was used for formation arrays. Though the card wasn't large, it was worth a hundred gold soul coins at the very least!
'Holy Sea God's ass! I hit the jackpot!' Huo Yuhao couldn't help but stare dumbly at the card in his hand. His eyes turning into gold figures(an illusion he unconsciously used).
....
AN: Sorry for the wait! I had to farm for some primos to get Neuvillette and Kazuha in Genshin. And yes, I got Neuvillette! Now for the weapons...
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