Rebellious Son! What an Unfilial Son!

No sooner had Ru Meng finished speaking on the auction stage than a continuous flurry of competing bids erupted from the hall. The reason was simple: Dragon Scale Divine Wood possessed numerous miraculous effects. It could be used as an alchemical ingredient to extend a cultivator's lifespan by a thousand years, or its essence could be refined to awaken and revert the ancient bloodline of demonic beasts. Either of those benefits alone was more than enough to drive cultivators mad with desire. The price surged rapidly, soon reaching thirteen million high-grade spirit stones! After all, for these old monsters who had lived for countless years, treasures capable of increasing the lifespan of someone at their realm were exceedingly rare. Not to mention that this Dragon Scale Divine Wood could also elevate the bloodline power of a demonic beast. For a piece of such size, it was worth every stone! Li Guanqi had not placed a single bid yet because he was waiting. He was waiting to see the true limits of the competing bidders. Once the price reached fourteen million, the bidding noticeably slowed. No matter how Ru Meng tried to stir up the crowd from the stage, those who could actually afford such a price had other priorities in mind. Just as everyone began to think the Dragon Scale Divine Wood would fall into the hands of someone on the lower floor, Ru Meng smiled and called out the price for the second time. Suddenly! Li Guanqi spoke up in a calm, clear voice: "Sixteen million." Ru Meng lifted her lovely eyes slightly, her gaze drifting toward Li Guanqi's private box as she smiled warmly and said, "The guest in the second-floor chamber bids sixteen million. Are there any higher bids?" Li Guanqi did not feel the slightest bit of tension. The two cultivators bidding from the floor clearly had other targets in mind, which was why they had been bidding so cautiously, raising the price by only a hundred or two hundred thousand at a time toward the end. Li Guanqi's sudden two-million leap had already pushed past their limits. A buzz of discussion broke out across the crowd below, with everyone guessing what kind of extraordinary figure was seated in that second-floor chamber. Seeing that no one else was bidding, Ru Meng felt the corners of her mouth curl up into a slight smile; the current price was already considerably higher than her initial expectation. "...Sixteen million, going twice." As the auction mallet in her hand rose slowly, Zhao Bin's face down below turned thoroughly unsightly. He wanted desperately to raise the bid just to spite Li Guanqi, but after glancing at the clan ancestor beside him, he lacked the nerve. If Li Guanqi suddenly stopped bidding, Zhao Bin feared he would be beaten to death on the spot... Li Guanqi also finally let out a sigh of relief. As long as he secured this piece of Dragon Scale Divine Wood, Pengluo and Jiuxiao's injuries would mostly be healed. Yet just as the mallet was about to fall, a cool, crisp woman's voice drifted out from another private box. "Twenty million." The figure of twenty million left everyone in the hall slack-jawed with shock. The fair market value of Dragon Scale Divine Wood was roughly twelve million. A bid of sixteen million was already a steep premium. And now someone was offering twenty million? "Hiss... twenty million! Who is inside that box?" "Not many from the imperial capital's great clans came to this auction, did they? But why does that woman's voice sound so familiar?" "Ye Bingxin! That voice belongs to Ye Bingxin!" "The Saintess of the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect? No wonder... As a beast-taming sect, they must want the Dragon Scale Divine Wood to help a flood dragon transform into a true dragon." Li Guanqi's expression darkened. He had not expected someone to cut in out of nowhere at such a crucial moment. While he was still hesitating, Gu Li beside him called out directly, "Twenty-five million!" By the time Li Guanqi reacted, Ru Meng was already beaming radiantly as she repeated the bid from the stage. "Brother Gu, you..." Gu Li put on an indifferent front and replied, "Bid away! Isn't it just money? Your brother here has plenty of it!" Yet for some reason, Li Guanqi could not help noticing the slight twitch at the corner of Gu Li's mouth and the furious, resentful speed at which his hands were drawing inscribed talismans. Such a massive leap in price sent shockwaves through the hall. This was in high-grade spirit stones—twenty-five million! An entire high-grade spirit vein would yield at most thirty million stones, wouldn't it? Inside a spacious private box sat a woman in a black gown, radiating an icy, detached aura. Her facial features were sharp and poised, and her eyes held a cold detachment that suggested nothing in this world concerned her in the least. Yet upon hearing Gu Li's voice, her brows knit slightly in displeasure. Turning her head toward the chamber where Li Guanqi and his companions sat, her lips parted lightly: "Thirty million." Gu Li shot straight to his feet and bellowed, "Which family let out such a wild woman?!" *Bang!* Gu Li slammed one foot onto the table, flipped his wrist, and whipped out more than eighty storage rings, tapping his fingers against them as he swiftly tallied up his wealth. Letting out a soft breath, he waved a broad hand and roared, "Forty million!" "Isn't it just money? Your brother here has plenty!" Meng Jiangchu's mouth twitched. He turned to Gu Changsheng beside him and asked, "Is your esteemed son always like this?" But the moment Meng Jiangchu turned his head, he saw Gu Changsheng's face had gone livid, his shoulders trembling faintly. Gu Changsheng clenched his fists tight, grinding his teeth in fury: "Normally, when I try to borrow a mere one million spirit stones from him, he won't give me a single one! Not even one million!" "Rebellious son! What an unfilial son!" Seeing this, Meng Jiangchu hastily picked up his teacup and took a sip of spirit tea, his gaze darting back and forth between Gu Changsheng and Gu Li. Li Guanqi felt rather awkward as well. Tugging on Gu Li's sleeve, he said, "Brother Gu, this... isn't strictly necessary. I saw there are other spirit items that replenish vital energy and blood." Before Li Guanqi could finish, Gu Li cut in with a stern expression. "No! We must have this Dragon Scale Divine Wood! What else could possibly compare to this when it comes to replenishing Jiuxiao's vital energy and blood?" Li Guanqi nearly rolled his eyes at the comment, muttering silently to himself, *Jiuxiao... don't blame me. Once you truly recover, this fellow is definitely going to run over grinning from ear to ear to bleed you...* *Forty million for a piece of Dragon Scale Divine Wood...* Forty million! The moment that number was spoken, the entire auction house fell dead silent. This was no longer a question of whether someone had any common sense; this was pure spite. Even Ru Meng on the stage felt her heart tighten, her brows furrowing slightly. She was beginning to wonder whether the guest in that chamber had come solely to stir up trouble, so she offered a polite reminder: "Honored guest, our auction house enforces very strict rules. I hope you are not deliberately causing a disturbance." It was only natural for Ru Meng to speak up. She knew exactly who occupied the premier VIP suites and never worried about those patrons lacking funds. Even if Ye Bingxin, the Saintess of the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect, could not produce the stones on the spot, the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect certainly could. The occupants of those smaller private chambers, however, were not fixed guests. And for a price like this... When Gu Li heard her warning, his temper flared completely. Raising his hand, he unleashed over a hundred inscribed talismans, blasting a massive hole right through the chamber's defensive formation barrier! *Rumble!* The crowd gasped at the sound of the explosion, only to see a young man craning his neck out and shouting indignantly down at the woman on stage: "Who says I can't produce forty million?! Who the hell are you looking down on?!"