"Poison?!"
"BLERGH. Did I eat some?"
Panic arose amongst the guests who ate their meals without a second thought. Those who were just in the midst of consuming this 'poisoned' meal quickly vomited their food. There were those who wanted to quickly leave the venue and find a miraculous doctor before the poison took effect.
Bettor's whole body dripped with sweat as he looked back at his guests. He gestured for his other attendants to assuage their guests' worries.
"Do not worry, my esteemed guests. There is no such poison in your meals."
The guests still seemed quite anxious with Bettor's words. After all, if he poisoned them, he would not voluntarily confess it to the public. Bettor saw their untrusting eyes and quickly thought of the next best solution; to discredit the one who said there was poison in the food.
"Are we really to believe the words of a peasant who wandered here from the Garbage District?" Bettor stepped aside and let his guests see Zoran.
With his plain white shirt and cargo shorts, he was clearly not a part of nobility. Their impression of him quickly dwindled down. Why would they believe the words of a country bumpkin like him?
"So there was no poison after all?"
"Maybe not."
Bettor smiled as he saw their doubts about the poison. Now, he was more poised to convince the crowd that Zoran stole the Silver Bleeding Diamond from him; why else would he, a poor kid from the slums, be here in this prestigious auction.
But before he could speak, Zoran said, "then you wouldn't mind if you ate some of my food?"
Bettor's face froze as he heard Zoran's words. He and Eddie did conspire to put poison in his food, but it seemed someone forgot to put it in since Zoran seemed to be unfazed from eating the meal. There was a good chance that Zoran was merely bluffing. Although he believed that, he did not want to take the chance.
The guests, on the other hand, wanted solid proof of Zoran's accusations. It would be easy to check. Consuming it should only result to a filling the body with a healthy meal instead of destroying it from the inside as a poison would.
Bettor, faced with this dilemma, pointed to one of his workers. "You, come here and show everyone that there is no such poison in this food."
Coincidentally, the one he pointed to was the waiter that sprinkled the poison in Zoran's food. Of course, the waiter himself knew that Zoran's food was poisoned. There was no way he could willingly consume the food and kill himself.
Bettor nodded to himself. After disproving the accusation of 'poison', no one would believe Zoran that he owned the Silver Bleeding Diamond. Then, he could take it for himself. Eddie was out of the picture. Bettor planned on firing him since he failed on all his tasks to bring the Diamond. If he resisted, then death would only come to him.
However, the waiter seemed adamant on refusing to eat the meal. There was nervousness in his eyes. His hands were shaking as he forced himself to grab a fork and take a slice of the poisoned steak.
Bettor didn't know why the waiter was worried. Zoran already ate the meal and he was fine; there was no way that there was poison in that meal. Only Zoran and the waiter knew the truth.
The waiter eventually mustered the courage to eat the steak. If he didn't, then his family would be subject to Bettor's wrath. He heard Bettor was dabbling in human trafficking; he didn't want that for his family.
The moment the steak touched his tongue, his fate was sealed. His whole body started to convulse, his eyes rolled back to show only the whites, his mouth frothed with red bubbles. Eventually, he fell down rigid with the position he had when he ate the deathly steak.
Gasps and screams of shock reverberated around the dining hall as they witnessed this death. There was poison! Everyone immediately feared for their own safety, especially the sheltered folks who had never seen death in their lives.
Even Bettor was speechless as he saw the waiter convulse and stop breathing just a few seconds after he consumed the meal that he didn't think was poisoned.
It was tampered with after all! Then how did Zoran survive eating it?
He couldn't figure out how Zoran resisted the deathly fate of the poison, especially since he was only a peasant in the 1st stage of cultivation. He shouldn't have drinked any herbs because he couldn't afford such a luxury, he shouldn't have any skills to cure the poison in his body, his body shouldn't be impervious to poison either.
Last he heard, he was just a lowly Physique cultivator!
These were the questions he had no luxury to find out. He had to douse a bigger fire. His guests were in disarray once they found out that there was poison in Zoran's meal. Even though it was only in his meal, those anxious and fearful rich whales could only think that there was also poison in their food too.
"Please calm down everyone. There is no such poison in your meals!" Bettor screamed. But it was all drowned out by the nervous chattering and screams from the guests.
Almost everyone wanted to get out of this cursed dining hall, not only because of the threat of poison, but also because of the dead body in their midst. Just knowing that a cold dead carcass was only a few feet away from them sent cold chills down their necks.
"Calm down."
Suddenly, a booming and warm voice overpowered all the anxiousness that the guests felt. They all turned to look at the speaker.
"Young Master!"
"It's the Young Master. He can save us!"
The Young Master looked at the chaos of the guests and simply said one word. "Sit," and so sit they did. Everyone listened to the words of the most powerful man in this room.
"On behalf of the Primordial Sun Dynasty, I can assure everyone that there is no poison in your dinners."
With just the words of this young man, everyone felt assured. After all, he was the future successor of this town's Primordial Sun Dynasty. Although it was only a subclan, the Young Master's talents could warrant an invitation to join the main branch of the Dynasty in the future! Needless to say, he was the most influential person in this room.
They no longer panicked. They sat in their seats while looking at the Young Master with reverence.
"Bettor. As the owner of this auction, it is your responsibility to handle this. You have failed."
Bettor wanted to argue, but the Young Master's words overpowered him.
"You are fired. From now on, this auction will be handled by the host this evening," he said as he pointed to the host.
Bettor's heart stopped. He couldn't believe that all his hard work was taken away from him because of one simple mistake. And that mistake was sitting right behind him with a nonchalant face.
It was all Zoran's fault.