Gu Zuo didn't know how his patron could obtain such accurate data, but after he thought about it, he decided not to ask.
First, the flavors of the pastry were great. He felt that he could a.n.a.lyze and learn some culinary skills and such. Second, he roughly understood his patron's methods when he worked. Since Tianheng didn't take the initiative to explain it to him, he should just wait until the matter at hand unfolded before he said anything.
In that case, he'd wait patiently and properly.
Not long after, the auction formally started.
Dragon One pulled open the fabric cord in front of them, revealing a large sheet of transparent, colored gla.s.s. This kind of colored gla.s.s couldn't be seen into from outside, but one could see clearly from within.
At the very front, there was a raised stone platform. There was a middle-aged Meridian Condensing third stage martial artist stationed on it.
He was the emcee of the auction.
Afterwards, he clapped his hands and more than a dozen beautiful young ladies filed out from behind him. Each woman carried a tray in her hands, and covering each tray was an embroidered cloth. Whatever was beneath was completely hidden.
Gu Zuo watched with keen interest.
In this kind of spectacle, except for the partic.i.p.ants who dressed in ancient costumes, the others weren't so different from what one would see on TV.
One really needed to mention that it was probably a little inconvenient. Waiting to bid without a loudspeaker, wasn't it a contest between who's voice was louder?
He imagined what it was like, and laughed silently in his heart.
The emcee on the auction stage didn't mince words. After quickly welcoming the guests, he uncovered the embroidered cloth from the first young lady's tray — It seemed the Azure Dragon Trading Company was a huge trading company to hold an auction where parties from all sides worked hard to get seats. Because of its high cla.s.s, although it made beautiful women receive guests and exhibit the auction items, it still wasn't like those small-time trading companies that used gimmicks to attract customers.
As a matter of fact, once each auction item was revealed, that emcee gave a concise and comprehensive introduction.
At this time, Gongyi Tianheng's voice echoed in the room: “Ah Zuo, the things being auctioned are, for the most part, rare but not necessarily precious items. This will go on for about three or four batches.”
Gu Zuo promptly nodded.
This was his patron personally explaining the auctioning process. He would certainly appreciate his kindness. Moreover, his patron's voice was magnetic and euphonious. Listening to him was a type of pleasure!
Sure enough, after those embroidered cloths were removed one by one, what was revealed were basically all ore used to forge weapons, rare medicinal herbs, precious or exquisite jewelry, and so on.
Gu Zuo watched for a long time to figure things out for himself, but didn't understand the point of the ore and jewelry. He was only comparatively knowledgeable in medicinal herbs. However, his patron could get a hold of all these herbs himself, so Gu Zuo didn't have much interest in them.
Of course, the bidding was still very fierce.
For the members of these large Families, a lot of the items didn't amount to anything, but for some low level martial artists and small Families, some of the auctioned goods were enough. Naturally, they would want to fight over them.
After four batches of these small items were auctioned off one after another, the mood surged like an ever-increasing tide. The customers were finally considered warmed up.
That emcee was very experienced. After grasping the situation, he waved his hand and had the beautiful women leave. Afterwards, as the women left, four Blood Refining third stage martial artists came onto the stage.
The four martial artists were burly and strong. They were shirtless and their muscles were bulging and striated. One could see that their strength was out of the ordinary. As far as what some low level martial artists would say, these men were very difficult to deal with.
Gu Zuo compared the muscles of these men to modern bodybuilders, and gasped a little in surprise.
However, he was also amazed by their body [1] type. Getting along with his patron for so long, he knew that this kind of body tempering was actually a misconception. It could be said that they didn't have a future as martial artists. For those martial artists who practiced good cultivation methods and had medicinal ingredients for nourishment, their bodies were unlikely to become this state of ‘looks strong but actually was just bloated' — No need to mention his sickly patron, just discuss those other four great young masters. When they appeared, who wasn't a jade tree facing the wind [2]? Even though their bodies were relatively st.u.r.dy, their muscles were very well-proportioned. They were all identically tall, rich, and handsome.
The fact really was that these strong men were just of a performative nature.
Their strength looked great, and those powerful guys were all gasping for breath as they each hefted a weapon. So just by looking, how heavily did those weapons weigh?
Down below, some of the low level martial artists already let out sighs.
Gu Zuo wanted to facepalm.
The emcee's voice was just the right shade of impa.s.sioned: “This demonic ape cleaver [3] was forged by a thousand skilled craftsmen. The total weight is over five hundred kilograms [4], and this weapon can be wielded by a powerful martial artist. The starting price is five thousand gold, and each increase in price may not be less than one hundred gold. Ladies and gentlemen, please place your bids!”
In a split second, the voices of people bidding erupted.
Gu Zuo was speechless: “Ah, very expensive…”
Five thousand gold was fifty thousand taels [5] silver. One tael was fifty grams [6]. One gram of silver was just about two coins [7]… Once calculated, five thousand gold was five million coins! Just one blade was sold for five million. It was truly expensive, and it wasn't even an antique. Before, when he was still working as a pharmacy apprentice [8], not including food or rent, one month was five hundred dollars.
It was hard for him to avoid lamenting over the plight of the poor.
However, when Gu Zuo said these words, even the facial expressions of the two deadpan loyal hounds, Dragon One and Dragon Two, became a little weird.
Gongyi Tianheng shook his head: “Ah Zuo, do you know how much the qi generating pills are worth?”
This Gu Zuo certainly knew through Qi Tianyou's memories. Because the qi generating pill was a must-have medicinal pill for martial artists, every pharmacist mastered it. And the qi generating pills were a relatively cheap kind of pill. Each pill cost one tael of gold or about one thousand coins.
Wait a minute! One qi generating pill was worth one thousand coins?
Then, the money that pa.s.sed through his hands every day, that amount…
Gu Zuo couldn't help staring blankly ahead.
But he immediately recalled that the use of the pill refining cauldron cost money, the medicinal ingredients cost money, and the power source cost money. After these deductions, there shouldn't be too much left.
Tianheng watched Gu Zuo's expressions repeatedly change, and he grinned. He lowered his head a little and whispered into Gu Zuo's ear: “Ah Zuo, you know the qi generating pills you refined? How much were the medicinal effects?”
Gu Zuo thought about it. He actually didn't pay attention to this. He only knew that it was a little better than what was on the market. However, he didn't know the exact numbers.
Gongyi Tianheng lowered his voice: “The highest grade qi generating pills' medicinal effects are a hundred-fold. The high grade are ten-fold. And the mid grade are three-fold.”
Gu Zuo's eyes widened.
Tianheng m.u.f.fled his laughter: “The highest grade are priced at twenty times the market value. The high grade are ten times. And the mid grade are three times.”
If it wasn't because of the similarities between the medicinal effects of the highest grade qi generating pills and qi linking pills, and that the price of qi linking pills were fixed at twenty taels of gold, then the price level of Gu Zuo's pills could've climbed higher.
Gu Zuo's eyes got even bigger.
He felt a little dizzy.
In fact, with things like this, then the cauldrons of qi generating pills he refined was… Twenty thousand times forty eight… Nine hundred sixty thousand? Excluding the less than a thousand in production costs, this was simply an enormous profit!
Reconsidering the price of that blade, it looked like it wasn't so expensive.
In this split second, Gu Zuo felt that he earned a lot of money for his patron. However, on second thought, he suppressed a bit of his rising pride.
His patron managed everything from the materials, to the tools, to the price settings. Sure, Gu Zuo's contributions were outstanding, but in the end, it was still through his patron's economic channels and awesome strategies. If one wanted to let him go, one wouldn't get this value.
Gongyi Tianheng watched Gu Zuo's reaction with a gentle gaze. He softly pat this little pharmacist's shoulder, and said while smiling: “Following this, there will be some valuable objects appearing. Ah Zuo, if there's something you want, please feel free to tell me. I can help you bid, and give it to you.”
Gu Zuo stared, and smiled happily: “Many thanks, young master Tianheng!”
As expected, his dear patron was a good boss.
Tianheng broke into laughter.
Unexpectedly, he still hadn't brought up the issue of splitting the profits… He truly hadn't made any progress.
However, he wasn't going to treat Gu Zuo unfairly.
As these two people responded to one another, that demonic ape cleaver had already been auctioned off. The final sale price was eight thousand three hundred gold. The winner was a lone martial artist.
Following that were several weapons, most of which had special features. For example, one could strengthen the power of a fire attribute martial skill. Another could have both offensive and defensive capabilities. And still another that required the cultivation of two different martial skills simultaneously to be aware of the advantages at hand… In total, all were auctioned off with prices of several thousand to over ten thousand gold.
The atmosphere grew even more fervent, and in the end, when the next auctioned good was taken out, it reached its peak.
As it was carried onstage by a strong man, he didn't expect it was a very delicate, small pill cauldron!
Not only was its exterior impressive, but it was said that the arrays [9] inside were also ingenious. With high grade qualities, it was something amazing for some certified pharmacists or those who were recently certified.
Gu Zuo glanced at it, and didn't felt anything for it.
His patron provided him three cauldron models each of large, medium, and small size, and all of them were custom-made, top-notch goods. Compared to this small pill cauldron, the conditions of his cauldrons were too great. Once the Azure Dragon auction revealed this small cauldron, it didn't give him the same kind of preparatory care for a pharmacist.
However, his interests were still slightly piqued. After all, he still wanted to know the worth of this pill cauldron!
Just then, Gu Zuo was slightly surprised.
The base price of this small pill cauldron was actually eight thousand gold?
Then, those things in his pharmacy —
Gu Zuo's eyes twitched.
Originally, he'd already thought his patron was sufficiently well-off, but now it seemed that his patron was wealthier than he could've imagined.
…It truly was enough to place his trust in Tianheng.
Fortunately, he didn't fail to live up to his patron's expectations.
While he was thinking this, a familiar voice came from below. In an instant, it made Gu Zuo's back straighten.
Unruly and arrogant, each word carried a “the whole world was his to screw over” kind of att.i.tude. In fact, wasn't this Qi Feng?
This condescending voice permeated Qi Tianyou's brief fifteen years of life until it was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with malice towards the boy… Even if he was deaf, he wouldn't have misheard it.
In other words, Qi Feng also came to this auction? He wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h this pill cauldron?
At this moment, Gu Zuo couldn't help but sneer in his heart.
He turned his head to face the person beside him and said: “Young master Tianheng, I want this guy to pay beyond what this pill cauldron is really worth. Can you help me?”
Gongyi Tianheng saw Gu Zuo's unsightly expression, and raised an eyebrow: “Ah Zuo really doesn't like him?”
Gu Zuo didn't hide the truth: “He is Qi Feng.”
Tianheng understood instantly.
Afterwards, he laughed, and meaningfully said: “Then, I will just have to help Ah Zuo vent his anger.”
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[1] The Chinese characters here are unreadable for my computer. It's just a guess.
[2] 玉树临风 - Yu shu lin feng, an idiom describing a man as distinguished, elegant, handsome, and confident.
[3] 猿魔厚背刀 - Yuan mo (demonic ape) hou bei dao (cleaver).
[4] One 斤 is about 500 grams. 1035 斤 is 517.5 kilograms.
[5] 两 - Liang. It's an ancient unit of weight called a “tael,” which is about 50 grams.
[6] 克 - Ke, a unit of weight that's treated as a gram.
[7] In modern times, I'll be treating 钱 in dollars as the “lowest denominator of currency,” while in ancient times, it will be in coins. Consider ancient coins and modern dollars as equivalent values.
[8] Gu Zuo is referring to when he was still in the modern world.
[9] 设置 - She Zhi, set up or installation. In terms of ‘magic,' I'd like to think of arrays.
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T/N: Gu Zuo's eyes widened so much during this chapter, I'm surprised they didn't pop right out!
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