"The Treasure Appreciation Auction for the core disciples will commence tonight. Even though this Treasure Appreciation Auction of ours isn't as good as the inner courtyard's auction, I've heard that there are many good items there. For example, medicine pills, herbs and even custom-made soul rings! There are also soul tool-related items. In any case, all of the items there are all high quality goods. Are you going?"
Huo Yuhao let out a bitter laugh and said, "I'm not going. I barely have any money so what's the use in going? Since there are only going to be good items there, they're naturally going to be expensive. It would be okay if I didn't fancy anything, but just in case I do fancy something, wouldn't I just be bringing suffering upon myself?"
Wang Dong felt pleased as he replied, "I'm sure you don't know this, but didn't you mention a moment ago that not all of our seniors are rich? What meaning would this Treasure Appreciation Auction have then? The truth is that we can buy the items on credit. This is also the reason why the auction is not open to normal students."
His curiosity peaked, Huo Yuhao asked, "Buying on credit? Tell me more about this."
Wang Dong said, "Don't look down on our identity as core disciples. The probability of a core disciple from the outer courtyard graduating is above 95 percent. Moreover, each and every student capable of graduating from the outer courtyard is an outstanding talent in extreme demand, regardless of country or industry. That's because the main requirement in order to graduate from the outer courtyard is becoming a Soul Ancestor!"
"Therefore, what these businesses are doing is investing in us and our potential. They'll arrange a date for us to sign an agreement with them. We would then repay them in yearly installments. We can even defer repaying them till after we graduate, but in that case they'll collect a small amount of interest from us."
"I know you don't understand how they benefit from this, do you? First, since we are in their debt; if they have something to ask of you or if they encounter something problematic, how could you not help them? If they want to employ you, could you reject them? Taking a step back, there's no harm in forming a good relationship with a powerful Soul Ancestor is there? In any case, at the very least they can boost the chances of you shopping in their store. You may not have money now but that doesn't mean you'll always be poor in the future."
"These businesses are very shrewd and would never conduct transactions that would end in a loss for them. If we core disciples can enter the inner courtyard, the payment will increase further, and all the interest on the loan would be waived off. All we'd need to do is repay the capital within the deadline via one of the many repayment schemes."
After his thorough explanation, Huo Yuhao finally saw the light, "There are actually so many ways of doing things here. Then does that mean we can also buy things on credit?"
Wang Dong nodded and said, "But of course! We're core disciples, after all! Moreover, you're a core disciple of two departments. If they heard about this, I'm sure they'd give you an even greater discount."
Huo Yuhao shook his head and replied, "There's no need for that. I'd have to return the favor if I accepted their discounts. We'd better not do that unless we had no other choice."
Wang Dong was excited, "Of course! Despite being in the academy for so long have you been to Shrek City?"
Huo Yuhao naturally hadn't been to Shrek City. From his point of view, the biggest hurdle was his first year in the academy. During that time, he knew that he could be expelled at any time. Other than giving it his all in cultivating, how could he have the time and energy to go window shopping?
"You've never been out there, right? We're going to start lessons very soon. It's such a rare occurrence that we've got free time, so let's take a stroll. Even if we don't buy anything, we can increase our knowledge. We can't always ignore what's going on in the world outside even if we want to."
Huo Yuhao saw how excited he looked and couldn't bring himself to say no to him. He felt slightly helpless as he replied, "It's tonight, right? Then before we finish eating, you have to accompany me in cultivation. You're not allowed to slack off."
Wang Dong smiled as he replied, "Deal!"
They then spent the remaining hours cultivating. Huo Yuhao had originally been under the assumption that his soul power was increasing rapidly before but now it already slow as turtle and he have to do double efforts then other in cultivating, on the bonus he has double Ultimate martial soul so, he have to do more hard work then other Ultimate martial soul, and that he had already in top five students in class in terms of spirit power . However, he started to panic when he heard Teacher Wang Yan and Dean Yan mention that the speed at which a person with an Ultimate marital soul could cultivate would decrease after Rank 30. Moreover, he was different from the other students. As per the academy's instructions, he had to momentarily maintain his position as a core disciple of two departments. He had to multitask and study in both departments at the same time. This wasn't an easy feat. Hence, he didn't dare to relax for a single moment despite having already established himself in the academy. On the contrary, he had to work even harder.
Huo Yuhao also had his own opinions on the situation. His plan of singlehandedly seeking revenge on the Duke's Residence was a pipe dream. Even if he had the ability to do so in the future, how many years would he have to wait? Twenty, thirty, or maybe even fifty years? At that time, things would remain the same, yet people would've changed. What would be the point of seeking revenge anymore? The target he gave himself to complete his revenge in was twenty years. This required him to be even stronger and even more powerful than he was currently. Shrek Academy was undoubtedly the best place for him to take flight. Thus, he had to do his best and learn as much as he could so while he was here so he could become stronger.
Time always passed very quickly when cultivating. The sky was already darkening by the time the two finished cultivating. After they finished eating a top-notch, scrumptious meal, they took the invitation letter and quietly left the school.
Naturally, they weren't the only two to receive the invitation letter. The core disciples in the outer courtyard were spread across all year groups. For example, Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, Zhou Enchen and Chao Jinxuan from their year had also received invitations. However they would all go at different times as they had been taking their exams for the past two days.
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong set off considerably later than the others. As they walked out of the academy's gates, Huo Yuhao suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"What's wrong?" Wang Dong asked, puzzled.
Huo Yuhao answered, "Do you know how to get to the Treasure Assembly Pavilion? I've never been to Shrek City before. You've never been there either, right?"
Wang Dong raised his hand and knocked Huo Yuhao on his head. "Stupid, look at the back of your invitation letter."
As a core disciple, Huo Yuhao had naturally received his own invitation letter. He took it out and flipped it over. Sure enough, there was a detailed map stamped in gold which indicated the location of the Treasure Assembly Pavilion within Shrek City.
Although Shrek Academy was located within Shrek City, they weren't connected to one another. This also meant that there wasn't a back door connecting the academy to the city.
As a result of that, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had to walk out of the academy, head round to either the south or north gate of the city and then enter through that gate. The Treasure Appreciation Pavilion seemed to be closer to the north gate on the map, so they naturally headed to that gate.
Shrek City was very large so the duo started to run as soon as they left the academy. They only stepped through the north gate after running for close to an hour.
As one of the busiest cities and most integral cities on the Douluo Continent, Shrek City was the liveliest in the evening. Once they passed through the city gates, they were greeted by a noisy place that was bustling with activity. Huo Yuhao was shocked by what he saw since neither had he ever been to such a big city, nor had he seen so many people before in his life.
Everything as far as the eye could see was filled with a densely packed stream of people entering or leaving the city. On top of that, the sounds of vendors peddling their goods made everything even more chaotic.
"There are so many people here!" Huo Yuhao said, astonished.
Wang Dong said, "That's obvious. As one of the most flourishing economic centers on the continent, Shrek City is extremely bustling. The city boasts a population of nearly five million people, that's almost as much as some empires. Hey, don't tell me that you've never been in a city before?"
Huo Yuhao nodded, "Yeah! This is the largest city I've ever been in."
While looking around curiously, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong walked through the wide city gates. Shrek City's main roads were extremely wide and allowed eight carriages to ride through them at the same time. The vast atmosphere within the city made Huo Yuhao gasp in surprise as he felt his worldview widen.
"How about it? Our trip was not in vain was it?" Wang Dong smiled. He had a similar curious expression on his face; after all, this was also his first time entering Shrek City.
The descriptions of Shrek City on the map were extremely accurate and its roads were extremely orderly. As a result, it wasn't hard to navigate around the city. After walking for about fifteen minutes or so, they arrived at the Treasure Gathering Pavilion.
The Treasure Gathering Pavilion was a large store that dealt with items relating to soul masters and soul engineers. If looked upon from afar, one could see that it was an enormous four-floored building that was over twenty meters tall. The building itself took up a large amount of space. It was a dazzling sight to behold from the outside, as it resembled a cornucopia.
A building this luxurious had already exceeded Huo Yuhao's range of understanding. And so, he couldn't help but widen his eyes when he saw the four cheongsam-wearing girls standing beside the door to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion.
The girls who were in charge of receiving customers of the Treasure Gathering Hall were only seventeen or eighteen years old, they had sweet appearances and slender bodies. Their fair skins looked even more charming when contrasted with the dazzling Treasure Gathering Pavilion. Huo Yuhao was immediately flabbergasted.
"Ouch. Wang Dong, what're you pinching me before?" An acute sensation of pain brought Huo Yuhao back to his senses. He turned around and saw that Wang Dong was glaring at him fiercely.
"What're you looking at? Be careful of growing a sty if you look at something you're not supposed to." Wang Dong said angrily.
Huo Yuhao put an innocent expression on his face as he looked into Wang Dong's large beautiful eyes. "Being attracted to someone beautiful is only human. I'm just taking a look. These older sisters are really pretty."
"Hmph! Very pretty?" Wang Dong had a look of disdain on his face. He was somewhat hesitant to respond, but he managed to not say anything.
Huo Yuhao rubbed his aching waist and said helplessly, "Whatever, I won't look. You don't even like looking at pretty women, you're still such a child."
Wang Dong ignored him and strode towards the Treasure Gathering Pavilion as Huo Yuhao hurriedly chased after him.
Before they could reach the door leading to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, one of the eight girls who were standing by the door walked over to them with a faint smile on her face. "Are you two soul masters coming to participate in the Treasure Appreciation Auction?" she inquired respectfully,
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had both worn their Shrek Academy uniforms, which made them stand out in the crowd. As a result, they had received a large number of glances on their journey here.
The two of them took out their invitation letters and handed them over to her. The smile on the girl's face immediately became much more gentle when she saw their invitation letters, "Soul masters, please follow me." she said as she led the way
Even among the core disciples of Shrek Academy, there were very few students around Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's age who could attend the Treasure Appreciation Auction. Hence, they received curious looks as they walked past the group of girls beside the door.
Wang Dong was still fine, but Huo Yuhao's face was completely flushed.
After entering the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, a luxurious atmosphere immediately assaulted all of their senses. 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 eight cheongsam-wearing 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 person would feel as if he had walked into heaven on earth after entering this golden hall.
"We welcome our distinguished guests." The young ladies in the hall bowed and greeted them, immediately startling Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong. They couldn't help but feel bewildered as they looked at the girls who were all bowing towards them.
Huo Yuhao was still young and didn't know much of the differences in terms of status and wealth that different people had. However, he began to slowly understand that concept. Would an ordinary person be granted entry to such a luxurious place?
At that moment, Huo Yuhao suddenly felt his vision go dark; his eyes had been covered. Wang Dong's voice rang out, "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 was filled with helplessness. "Why would I be corrupted by the sights here? Aren't you seeing them as well? Doesn't that mean that you'll be corrupted too?"
Wang Dong subconsciously justified his actions, "I'm different, I…" He suddenly stopped and continued in a fierce voice, "In any case, you should just close your eyes and not look at anything here." With that, he moved his hands off Huo Yuhao's eyes.
As the two spoke, they passed the corridor filled with beautiful women. The 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. "Greetings to the two distinguished guests who are attending the Treasure Appreciation Auction held within the Treasure Gathering Pavilion. 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."
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong glanced at each other when the white-haired girl had finished. Huo Yuhao then turned back towards her and 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 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. 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. Since it's your first time coming to the auction, I recommend that you go and 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. If the two of you wish it, I can take you there right now."
Huo Yuhao glanced inquisitively towards Wang Dong, who nodded. "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.
Wang Dong suddenly tugged on Huo Yuhao's sleeve and pointed towards a booth; impressively, there was a soul bone within the booth. The soul bone was reddish-gold, and it was surprisingly floating within the booth. It looked to be an arm bone, its five delicate digits pointed upwards. Each of its fingertips released a faint, reddish-gold light. It wasn't just them; almost everyone who walked past it would find their gazes drawn to it. Furthermore, the booth that the soul bone was located within was at least twice the size that of the other booths. Furthermore, the enormous crystal cover on it caused its reddish-golden light to glisten and cover the entire room.
There was a sign underneath the soul bone with a few words on it, but the two of them couldn't clearly see what the words on it since they were were still walking.
Huo Yuhao turned to look towards Wang Dong, only to see an intense brilliance in the latter's eyes. Wang Dong was also looking at him, and he whispered, "I can sense that it suits me."
Huo Yuhao nodded. "However, its price…"
A resolute light flashed through Wang Dong'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.
Even though his teacher was a powerful Class 8 soul engineer who was as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns among soul engineers, the latter had told him that every single soul engineer had a different inclination within their research—every single soul engineer who'd reached Class 6 would definitely have their own specialties. It would be extremely beneficial for a low-ranked soul engineer to see the blueprints of a higher-ranked one. There were many commonalities between different blueprints, but no high-ranking soul engineer would easily let another person see his or her schematics. If they were to do so, it would become highly likely that certain features within their blueprints would be leaked. If that happened, the experience they'd gained after researching for many years would be free to study by other soul engineers.
For this reason, most high-ranking soul engineers would only rarely give their blueprints to someone that wasn't their inheriting disciple.
Unfortunately, Huo Yuhao didn't even need to ask to know that that set of schematics would very likely be comparable to a soul bone in price. That set of schematics wasn't just some basic one written by a Class 7 soul engineer—it was a carefully written one; it was a schematic for a self-created Class 7 soul tool.
A Class 7 soul engineer might not necessarily be able to create a Class 7 soul tool. Upon reaching Class 7, the restrictions that limited a soul engineer would increase dramatically. Oftentimes, a Class 7 soul engineer would only be able to create a set of blueprints for a Class 7 soul tool once in their entire lives.
A highly ranked soul tool would contain special characteristics of the soul engineer who'd created it, but to create a soul tool such as this was enormously difficult. For example, a soul tool created by a Class 9 soul engineer would typically be an existence ranked as a strategic weapon to any country. There was a chance that even its creator wouldn't be able to activate it. As such, the main reason soul engineers were still inferior to soul masters was because there were simply too few high-ranking soul engineers. Class 7, on the other hand, was the basic threshold required for a soul engineer to call himself a high-ranking one.
Though the two of them had already predicted that there would be relatively precious treasures here even before arriving, they realised that they'd still underestimated the power of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion once they saw the exhibitions present.
In reality, it wasn't easy for the Treasure Gathering Pavilion to gather so many items. However, they didn't know that. Though a Treasure Appreciation Auction on this level was still inferior to those that disciples of the inner courtyard could participate in, it wasn't too far off. The two items that they'd seen had previously appeared within a Treasure Appreciation Auction held within the inner courtyard, but the price of a treasure of this level was naturally high… Because of this, no one had been able to afford it, and it had thus appeared within this auction for them to admire.
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 Spirit Eyes 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 were few in number.
After filling in their respective forms, they handed them in. Quickly, their evaluations were released.
The girl who was in charge of registration and calculating credit limits was somewhat stunned. The white-clothed girl who'd brought the two to the desk whispered to her, "Little Red, quickly."
The lady behind the desk had a round, charming face along with a pair of small eyes, but her facial features were cute, making her look seventeen or eighteen. The instant she was urged on by the white-clothed girl, she looked towards Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong with a completely different look in her eyes; a somewhat intense light had appeared in them.
Huo Yuhao had seen this kind of gaze in the past; he would frequently see the female students in the academy look towards Wang Dong with a look like this in their eyes. Just who made him more delicate and prettier than a girl? However, the girl called Little Red wasn't looking towards Wang Dong this time around; her intense gaze was unexpectedly directed towards the twelve-year-old Huo Yuhao.
She used an extremely respectful and gentle voice to speak to him, "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?" He 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 said hurriedly, "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."
"This…" Huo Yuhao was immediately stunned. He glanced towards Wang Dong, clueless as to what had just occurred.
The white-clothed girl also had a look of astonishment on her face. Little Red ignored her, and instead whispered a few words to the girl beside her. That girl, in turn, hurriedly rose to her feet and walked towards the back.
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. "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 nodded, but he was still extremely stunned with regards to Huo Yuhao's situation. According to common sense, even if the latter had performed extraordinarily after returning, he shouldn't have a status that exceeded his own! After all, he was a control-type soul master. However, he could tell that that was precisely the case from the girl's expression.
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.
This is…
Red Spirit-warming Jade? This is too extravagant!
Huo Yuhao had a look of astonishment on his face as he looked at the card in his hand. Only a small piece of Red Spirit-warming Jade was needed for a person to withstand the harsh winter. Naturally, this referred to ordinary winter, and not the one that existed within the Extreme North. More importantly, it was an extremely stable gem. Using it to carve a formation array was enough to the withstand soul power of anyone below a Class 6 soul engineer. It was a relatively uncommon 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. Furthermore, there was only an extremely small quantity of Red Spirit-warming Jade in existence!