Chapter 167: Auction Affairs
Next, after asking around, Jian Chen arrived at a store that specialized in monster cores but was rather large. The building made of a blue stone material and had 3 stories,
Although there were many mercenaries that sold monster cores, they were mainly low leveled ones. The higher leveled monster cores were less common to see, so if one really wanted to buy one, they would need to go to a store. The bigger the store, the higher quality the monster cores were.
Plus, stores that sold monster cores had a huge supply in comparison to the mercenaries that only had 3 or 5 Class 1 or 2 Monster Cores for sale. If some influential clans wanted to buy large quantities of monster cores, they would go to these stores to buy them.
Entering the monster core shop, Jian Chen felt that despite being such a large store, there weren’t many people inside. There weren’t even any monster cores arranged out, with only a few female clerks that were working, but other than that, this place didn’t seem like a monster core shop at all.
With some confusion, Jian Chen walked toward them and asked, “Might I ask if this is where they sell monster cores?”
Hearing this, the female clerk looked at Jian Chen’s handsome and delicate face with an astonished face. Seeing such a handsome face like Jian Chen’s had made her stop for a second before speaking up joyously, “Did you see the sign outside our store? If our Monster Core Heaven Store didn’t sell monster cores, then what place would this be?”
Jian Chen let out an embarrassed smile as he looked at the empty halls, “Then why is there not even a single monster core out on display?”
Perhaps it was because of Jian Chen’s appearance that made him irresistible to women, but the clerk then stared blankly at him before explaining pleasantly, “Our Monster Core Heaven Store only displays our higher level monster cores out on the second and third floor.The first floor only has Class 1 Monster Cores, but since those are extremely common, there is no need to put them out on display.”
Hearing this, Jian Chen suddenly saw the light. This was only the first story of the store, but he hadn’t realized that this was how the store functioned.
The female clerk continued to say, “Which monster core did you want to buy? If you want to buy Class 1 Monster Cores, then just tell me how many you want to buy. But if you want to buy Class 2 Monster Cores, you’ll have to head to the second floor.”
Jian Chen hesitated for a moment before asking, “I’m not here to buy monster cores, but might I ask if you are buying monster cores instead?”
The female clerk looked at Jian Chen with an astonished face, “What? You’re selling monster cores?”
“Correct!” Jian Chen nodded.
An incredulous look filled the clerk’s eye as she stared at Jian Chen. She didn’t know why such a handsome youth was trying to sell instead of buy monster cores. She had worked at this store for many years, but this was the very first time such a person came. Usually, it was always a group of burly men.
She didn’t look at Jian Chen with disdain despite this, instead, she continued to speak with a sweet smile, “We also buy monster cores here, so if you please bring out the monster cores you want to sell!”
Jian Chen immediately took out two Space Belts and handed it over the female clerk. In these two Space Belts were Class 1 and 2 Monster Cores.
The clerk took the two Space Belts and began to inspect the amount of monster cores inside. Quickly, a look of shock appeared on her face because the amount of Class 1 and 2 Monster Cores in the Space Belts numbered to around 2000. This was the first time she had ever seen so many monster cores!
Taking in a deep breath, the female clerk looked at Jian Chen’s handsome face with a complex expression, “Please wait one moment, I will be right back with the shopkeeper.”
Handing the Space Belts back to Jian Chen, she turned around and headed toward the second floor. Not too long after she had left, a man wearing an embroidered blue robe came down with the same female worker.
“Shopkeeper Bai, this is the one that wants to sell monster cores.” The female clerk said as she brought the shopkeeper to Jian Chen.
The one named Shopkeeper Bai nodded his middle aged head as he smiled at Jian Chen, “Junior, would it be possible for you to bring out the monster cores for me to see?”
Jian Chen didn’t hesitate in bringing out the Space Belts for Shopkeeper Bai to see. Extending his hand to inspect the contents of the Space Belt, Shopkeeper Bai’s eyes suddenly widened in shock as well when he discovered the amount of monster cores within the Space Belts.
“To sell so many monster cores at once, this is something Phoenix City doesn’t see often.” The middle aged man spoke as he studied Jian Chen, “Junior, do you mind if I call you that? I hope you don’t mind.”
Jian Chen smiled, “Shopkeeper, why don’t we talk about how much money you’d like to buy this for.”
“That we can do, please allow me to think it over for a moment.” The man laughed. Without any more talk, he led Jian Chen into a secret room so they could go over the monster cores.
Once the monster cores were all counted for, the middle aged man had given Jian Chen a total of 5000 purple coins. Taking the purple coins, Jian Chen thanked the shopkeeper and walked out of the building.
Riding his horse to a crowded marketplace, he began to buy several sets of clothing and other essential items for surviving in the outside world.
Just then, the loud clamoring of the crowd caught Jian Chen’s attention.
“I’ve heard that the annual auction will be taking place in 10 days time. This time there’ll be many precious treasures…”
“Yea, this auction is a must this year, who knows what treasures will be seen there…”
“Phoenix City’s Heavenly Phoenix Auction is very famous. The annual auction usually always has many people from other cities participating, so it’ll definitely be crowded…”
……..
“An auction!” Jian Chen cried out to himself as he listened to the others talk. Now thinking about this, he no longer was in any desire to stroll around the area and immediately went back onto the road to return to the center of Phoenix City to find the place everyone was talking about.
The building was exceptionally tall, despite being only two stories tall, it had already reached several dozen meters higher into the air than a four story inn nearby. Even the area it had covered was large as compared to the Mercenary Union which was roughly the same size. On top of the great big gates to the auction house was a three meter tall board that had the four words “Heavenly Phoenix Auction House” written in fancy calligraphy.
There were many people coming in and out of the auction house as well. With a little hesitation, Jian Chen disembarked from his horse to enter the inn nearby the auction house to rent a room. After that he let the horse go.
After a few days, Jian Chen strolled around before finding an isolated area. Where he took out some herbs from his Space Belt.
After the time it took to boil a cup of tea, Jian Chen stood back up with a completely different look. This time he looked more like a dark skinned middle aged man with relatively ordinary looks. If he were to blend into a crowd, no one would be able to remember his face other than the fact that there was a little scar on the left side of his face.
After disguising himself, Jian Chen swapped out his clothes and then headed toward the Heavenly Phoenix Auction House and then inside of it. After entering, he saw a steady stream of people walking in and out around him. By this time, the annual auction was about to start, so many people were already trying to register their own precious items for the auction.
“Sir, might I ask what item did you want to register?”
Just as Jian Chen had entered the auction house, a female worker had called out to him sweetly.
“Could you please bring out the official for this place, I have a few things to discuss with him.” A deep voice came from Jian Chen’s throat, he had even changed what he sounded like.
“Yes, please wait for a moment!” The female worker studied Jian Chen before excusing herself from the area to walk further into the auction house.
In a flash, a white haired man wearing rich looking clothes walk toward Jian Chen with the female worker right behind with a respectful face. “Elder Huang, this is the person looking for you!” The female spoke up before turning to Jian Chen, “Sir, this is our Heavenly Phoenix Auction House’ high leveled appraiser, Elder Huang.”
Jian Chen cupped his hands together as a greeting.
His greeting was completely ignored by the elder who instead looked at him and asked, “What business might you have?”
Jian Chen’s eyes swept around himself to look at the nearby people in the auction house before replying, “Elder Huang, I have a few precious things that I would like to sell, would elder like to talk about them?”
Hearing the words of Jian Chen, the elder’s eyes flashed before gesturing Jian Chen toward a secured room to talk.
Jian Chen and the elder sat down on the opposite sides of a table. Although the room wasn’t all that big, the soundproofing was very good in here, so their negotiation could be done freely without the worry of anyone from the outside listening in.
“Sir, you should have brought the item you wanted to auction off to Elder Xiu.” When the two sat down, the elder couldn’t help but say that.
“Haha, Elder Huang, I wanted to auction something, but it must remain confidential.” Jian Chen laughed before taking his Space Belt out.
“Then you can rest easily, our Heavenly Phoenix Auction House is well respected among all cities and will not divulge even the smallest bit of information to anyone.” The elder smiled before inspecting the Space Belt given to him.
The moment the elder looked inside the Space Belt, his eyes suddenly froze along with his face as he looked at the contents with shock and disbelief. “This…this is…this is the body of a Class 5 Magical Beast!”