Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 797 - 797 0494 Acquiring Two Desolate Houses_2

Chapter 797: Chapter 0494: Acquiring Two Desolate Houses_2 Chapter 797: Chapter 0494: Acquiring Two Desolate Houses_2 After the bidding for the first haunted house concluded, they immediately moved onto a second. This one was just as popular. At the end of a fierce bidding war, Yu Yanqing, who was seated in the same box as Qi Tian, was successful in securing the house. Both Wan Xiaolan and Liang Yuqi in the same room congratulated him.

Yu Yanqing chuckled, standing up, “I was bidding on behalf of the firm. The rest of the houses don’t concern me. I’m going to check out the house now. Who amongst you will accompany me to explore it?”

The haunted house auction had just begun, and nobody wanted to leave so early. However, when Yu Yanqing spoke, those who were unfamiliar with him could ignore it. But cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Stage who knew Yu Yanqing, how could they not respond? What’s more, he had prearranged this with them, so they had no choice but to go.

Very quickly, five cultivators stood up. They were all disciples from the Wanjie Commerce, none of them were hired outsiders like Qi Tian.

A chill passed over Qi Tian’s face. He had planned to buy several haunted houses for investment at today’s haunted house auction. But it seemed he might have been overly optimistic. Wanjie Commerce not only kept these hired cultivators under their close supervision, but they also controlled their actions without giving them any freedom. He knew taking advantage of Wanjie Commerce wouldn’t be that easy.

At this moment, the haunted house auction hosted by Huang Lulu was still ongoing. They had brought out several houses that everyone favored. Each house provoked a heated scramble. In the end, every single one of them ended up in the hands of powerful forces within the top ranks of Wanjie Commerce. Until now, not a single house had been snatched by a smaller force.

At this point, Huang Lulu said, “I’m a bit tired, I need to take a break. Let’s welcome another excellent auctioneer from Wanjie Commerce, Sir Zheng Jianwei.”

Soon, a male cultivator with an imposing air stepped onto the auction stage, this was Zheng Jianwei. He conveyed a sense of loyalty and reliability, though many who knew the truth understood that Zheng Jianwei paled in comparison to Huang Lulu. She was in the Gold Core Realm, a master of the Gold Core Stage Fifth Level, whereas Zheng Jianwei was only a Half-step Golden Core. The two were simply not on the same level.

After Zheng Jianwei ascended the stage, he bowed slightly to the audience before proceeding with the auction. The haunted houses being auctioned from him were conspicuously of lower quality than those across which Huang Lulu oversaw.

The haunted houses auctioned by Huang Lulu were always sold based on the benchmark of millions of middle-grade spirit stones. The transactions of the houses overseen by Zheng Jianwei, when converted into middle-grade spirit stones, didn’t even reach one hundred thousand. The starting bid was often just tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones.

Although the starting bids were low, there were just so many people in Wanjie City. Many cultivators wanted to make a fortune by investing in the haunted houses, so the competition for each house was still fierce.

A thought came to Qi Tian’s mind. He decided to purchase one or two of these houses, not for any other reason but to throw a smoke bomb. Otherwise, when a haunted house he truly wanted to bid for came up, all eyes would be on him after he purchased it at a high price. That could be troublesome.

Due to time constraints, Qi Tian hadn’t managed to inspect all the haunted houses. The several houses put up for auction by Zheng Jianwei were all ones he hadn’t inspected. Regardless of whether they were worth investing in, right after Zheng Jianwei announced a new house, Qi Tian started to join the competition.

Immediately, bids started to flood in. Qi Tian was patient, increasing his bids little by little. Finally, he secured the house for one million low-grade spirit stones. Soon, someone from the auction house came over to process the paperwork for him. With the deed in hand, Qi Tian was congratulated by quite a few people in the box. He was the second person in their box to successfully purchase a haunted house.

Wan Xiaolan patted Qi Tian’s shoulder, laughing, “Well done, you’re impressive. There are several million cultivators in Wanjie City, but every time there’s an auction for these rundown houses, only a few thousand are up for grabs. You can imagine the intense competition for each one. You snatched one from the jaws of the tiger, that’s truly remarkable.”

Qi Tian humbly replied, “This is only because seniors like you and Senior Liang aren’t interested in these run-down houses. Otherwise, how could a small fry like me stand a chance?”

Wan Xiaolan chuckled, agreeing implicitly with Qi Tian’s words.

Meanwhile, Zheng Jianwei had auctioned off dozens more houses. Two of these houses had been already inspected by Qi Tian, and deemed of little worth. Nonetheless, Qi Tian still made bids on them, reluctantly withdrawing his bids at the last moment. This show was for the benefit of Wan Xiaolan and Liang Yuqi, to allay their suspicions of him in the future.

As Zheng Jianwei was about to end his round and bring Huang Lulu back on stage, he announced another rundown house. At this, Qi Tian’s eyes lit up. This was a house he had identified as extremely valuable during his investigations. It was one of three houses he was determined to win, no matter the cost.

However, this plan to secure the three houses was formed after his inspections. Now, sitting in the VIP booth of Wanjie Commerce, whether he could successfully buy these three houses was a big question mark.

Qi Tian started bidding. The auction remained intense, and after a furious battle of bids, Qi Tian once again set a new record at Zheng Jianwei’s auction by purchasing this rundown house for over three million low-grade spirit stones. However, compared to Huang Lulu’s record, this really wasn’t worth mentioning.

The staff of Wanjie Commerce came back to the booth a second time to record the transaction with Qi Tian.

People inside the booth watched Qi Tian with mixed feelings. While they hadn’t been able to obtain any houses, Qi Tian had already scored two. His success was a source of envy.

Inside the booth, probably only powerhouses at the Gold Core Stage, like Liang Yuqi and Wan Xiaolan, did not envy him. The rundown houses Qi Tian fought for were considered, in their eyesat, as nothing more than small 60-square-meter apartments without elevators. They were aiming for grand villas. How could they possibly be interested in such small accommodations?

Once again, it was Huang Lulu’s turn to take the stage at the auction. Her appearance immediately set off a round of cheers. Qi Tian noticed that both Liang Yuqi and Wan Xiaolan looked tense, more so than they did previously. Did this new round of auction that Huang Lulu was running include the houses they were interested in?

Before Qi Tian could delve further into this thought, Huang Lulu announced the number of a new rundown house. The moment she exclaimed, “Bidding starts!”, a fierce bidding war immediately broke out. Inside Qi Tian’s booth, Wan Xiaolan’s bid was especially impressive, raising the price by 100,000 middle-grade spirit stones each time. In a blink of an eye, the price of the house skyrocketed to more than five million middle-grade spirit stones. Still, the bidding price kept increasing rapidly.

Sweat rolled down Wan Xiaolan’s face, but he didn’t stop. Seeing no end to the competition, Wan Xiaolan gritted his teeth and directly cried out a sky-high price of six million middle-grade spirit stones. His intention was to scare off other bidders, but to his dismay, his cry failed to even slow down the bidding for a second before someone placed a bid that was a hundred thousand middle-grade spirit stones higher than his.

Wan Xiaolan instantly slumped back into his chair exhausted. This time, he wasn’t bidding for a house for himself, but on behalf of Wanjie Commerce. The auction house had already set a maximum acceptable bid for the house he was to bid on. His authority was limited to executing within the pre-set range—he was not given the leeway to unilaterally increase spending.