"A misunderstanding?" Huang Xiaolong sneered: "Are you sure that the cultivation technique manual that your auction lost is not the Black Moon Art?" Huang Xiaolong of course knew the auction house's so-called lost manual was made up by this Elder Lin Yuan.
There was no such thing!
Lin Yuan desperately squeezed out a stiff smile that was uglier than a cry. "Sure, I'm sure I made a mistake!"
At this time, a loud voice thundered from outside the auction house, "Who ate leopard guts and dared to make a ruckus in my auction house?!" Brisk, heavy footsteps echoed through the hall, causing tremors on the floor surrounded the perimeter of the inner hall. From the sounds of footsteps, it seemed that there were a lot of people outside.
Joy surfaced on Lin Yuan's face.
Moments later, a bearded middle-aged man with thick bushy eyebrows marched into the inner hall leading a dozen people with him, making a big entrance.
The inner hall was big, even with so many people it didn't feel crowded at all.
As the middle-aged man stepped into the inner hall, he saw more than ten gray-clothed guards of the Solitary Peak Auction House lying on the floor moaning in pain; his became even more sullen.
"President!" Seeing the middle-aged man, Lin Yuan stumbled towards him in a panic: "President, save me!"
This bushy brow middle-aged man is Solitary Peak Auction House's President, Du Baize!
"What happened?" Du Baize's expression turned cold.
Lin Yuan hesitated for a moment, then quickly pointed his finger in Huang Xiaolong's direction and said, "President, in the few days you weren't around, the auction house lost a high-grade Mysterious rank cultivation technique manual! It was these people who stole it!"
Mysterious high-grade cultivation technique? When Du Baize heard this, his palm struck Elder Lin Yuan so hard that he flew back.
Lin Yuan screamed as he flew off and crashed into a wall of the inner hall.
The four corners of the inner hall were deadly silent and Huang Xiaolong, Fei Hou, and the two guards were stunned.
Ashen faced, Lin Yuan quivered as he struggled to stand up, blood spurting from his mouth as one of his hand clutched his mouth. He looked unbelievably at President, "Pre-, President."
"You mean to say they stole our cultivation technique and then brought it back to sell to us?" demanded Du Baize as he stared coldly at Lin Yuan who was trying to stand up.
Only an idiot would believe Lin Yuan's lie, which was so full of holes.
Lin Yuan face turned a beet red, "President, I, I,"
"You think that by covering up, I won't find out about how you've been doing forced sales? And on several occasions at that?" Du Baize's eyes turned sharp as he glowered at Lin Yuan who trembled on hearing this and his face turned pale white. "President, this, this is…"
"Enough, you don't need to say anymore. If it weren't for your sister, I would've crippled you long ago. I will deal with you afterward! Scram!" Du Baize waved his hand, and two guards came and took Lin Yuan away.
Du Baize then turned towards Huang Xiaolong and Fei Hou, "Customers, my name is Du Baize; for this to happen, it is because I was lacking in management, I apologize to everyone."
"It doesn't matter." Huang Xiaolong replied, "Since the issue has been resolved, there is no problem."
"I don't know what kind of cultivation technique Little Brother wanted to auction?" Du Baize asked as he waved his hand sending away other guards that had rushed in with him earlier.
Since the conflict was resolved, Huang Xiaolong did not intend to pursue such a small matter: he sat down on the same chair and took out the little black manual.
"High-grade Mysterious rank cultivation technique, Black Moon Art." Just like Lin Yuan, Du Baize was a little shocked as he looked at Huang Xiaolong and the little black book.
"That's right." Huang Xiaolong added, "I'm in need of money at the moment, so I don't plan to auction it. I'd like to sell it directly to the auction house, but I don't know what price President is willing to offer?"
Du Baize hesitated slightly before answering, "Three hundred fifty thousand, but I don't know if Little Brother is satisfied with this offer?"
Three hundred and fifty thousand!
Huang Xiaolong was slightly surprised.
If this manual was auctioned, it could fetch that price, but he was dealing direct with the auction house and yet Du Baize still quoted such a high price.
However, Huang Xiaolong quickly understood that Du Baize gave him such an offer because he wanted to show goodwill.
Thus, Huang Xiaolong didn't feign politeness and sold the Black Moon Art manual for three hundred fifty thousand gold coins.
A short while later, Du Baize personally sent Huang Xiaolong out.
"President, that Black Moon Art manual although it is a high-grade Mysterious rank cultivation technique, to buy it for three hundred fifty thousand, isn't that too high?" Asked an Elder behind Du Baize cautiously, "Besides, they also injured our guards."
Du Baize looked at the four peoples as they walked away, a light flickered in his eyes and shook his head, "You don't understand." He had a feeling that these four weren't as simple as they seemed on the surface. If he could form a good relationship with Huang Xiaolong, it may very well bring enormous benefits for to the auction house.
Huang Xiaolong's group of four headed to the property market after they had left the auction house. After going through some choices, Huang Xiaolong finally settled on a Tianxuan Courtyard at two hundred and fifty thousand gold coins.
This Tianxuan Courtyard was quite close to the Marshal's Mansion which was three streets away, estimated at about half an hour's distance.
And this Tianxuan Courtyard was spacious and spanned about a thousand square meters, which was one of the reasons why Huang Xiaolong chose it. Huang Xiaolong wanted to develop his own force and the large space would make training convenient
Even though he was said to be the Asura's Gate Sovereign, the Asura's Gate cannot be considered as his own power.
After settling the Tianxuan Courtyard matters, Huang Xiaolong went to the slave market with the three of them; after all, a mansion would need servants to maintain it.
When Huang Xiaolong came out of the slave market, behind Fei Hou and the two guards, were sixteen slaves. Four of them were Beastmen, two were from the Elf race, two were mountain dwarves, and the remaining eight were human. Fei Hou felt it strange that Huang Xiaolong even chose to buy two dwarves since normally people wouldn't choose them as servants, but Huang Xiaolong was the Sovereign, so it was not his place to question his actions.
With the newly bought slaves, Huang Xiaolong went straight back to his new mansion, Tianxuan Mansion, instead of returning to the Marshal's Mansion.
Arriving at the Tianxuan Mansion, Huang Xiaolong took a tour around the mansion; in total, it had more than a dozen rooms, several small yards, and in the back, there was huge open space; Huang Xiaolong found the place very satisfactory. However, the mansion had been left empty for some time and some walls had paint peeling and weeds were growing all over the place.
From among the sixteen slaves, Huang Xiaolong picked out a Beastmen called Boli, tasking him with cleaning the mansion along with others.
After he had made the proper arrangements, Huang Xiaolong's group of four left the Tianxuan Mansion and returned to the Marshal's Mansion.
Unexpectedly, half-way to the Marshal Mansion, Huang Xiaolong suddenly heard from behind the surprised cry of a familiar voice: "Xiaolong!"
Huang Xiaolong was startled and turned around, but a shadow had already leaped towards his direction: it was Li Lu!
Shouldn't Li Lu be in Canglan County? How did she appear in the Royal City?
"Xiaolong, it is really you!" Li Lu ran towards Huang Xiaolong, a big smile on her face and hugged him.
A girl's body fragrance entered his nose.
Huang Xiaolong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He didn't expect to run into Li Lu in the Royal City.
"Xiaolong, why did you also come to the Royal City?" Huang Xiaolong had yet to ask before Li Lu's happy voice sounded.
Also come to the Royal City? Huang Xiaolong didn't know how to answer.
"Did you also come to register at the Cosmic Star Academy?" asked Li Lu while Huang Xiaolong was still struggling to answer her first question.