Sovereign of the Three Realms

The Temple personnel brought out a youth in pill dao garb after Madame Man waved her hands.

Jiang Chen was elated when he saw the familiar face. It really is Mu Gaoqi! Even though it’d been years since they last met and the person in question was now a slave, his elegance and poise hadn’t diminished one bit. Although, one could now see misery and oppression on his face. He seemed distraught with worries. Unfortunately, his innate wood constitution of high order drew all attention away from his suffering.

“As you can see, this is Master Mu that was entrusted to us by the Star Harvesters, a rough diamond with an innate wood constitution of high order! Esteemed guests, the bidding shall now begin!” Madame Man announced passionately. 

“Brother Mo, his constitution is extremely crucial to the creation of the Pinecrane Pill. Even without my master, we will be able to refine a Pinecrane Pill as long as we have a pill king of his caliber. In fact, there’s even a possibility that he might be able to cure your dao partner’s injuries.” Struck by inspiration, Jiang Chen immediately transmitted this message to Emperor Peerless.

Visibly moved, the emperor glanced towards Jiang Chen to seek confirmation. The latter immediately met his gaze and nodded gently without hesitation.

“Rest assured, I’ll definitely win the bid. Nobody can stop me." The emperor nodded. 

Jiang Chen had been a little worried at first that he wouldn’t be able to dominate the field. By luring the emperor towards the same goal, he’d gain a much better stronger foothold. By relying on the emperor’s authority, he was capable of doing things that he’d be otherwise incapable of with wealth alone.

“Brother Mo, I’ll compensate you for every single stone you spend on my behalf. I only ask that you win the bid. He’s of great importance to me.” 

“I understand.” The emperor answered firmly.

An innate wood constitution of high order wasn’t just talented in pill dao. They were also incredible masters of healing. Jiang Chen hadn’t spoken randomly. It was all based on some degree of truth. Even though Mu Gaoqi had good mastery over pill dao, he was merely a mid level pill king at most. He wasn’t yet capable of curing Emperor Peerless’ dao partner due to his cultivation level. However, it didn’t matter as Jiang Chen possessed the wood spirit spring. The spring water had incredible healing properties. Even a formidable curse like the Generation Binding Curse which Huang’er was afflicted with back then was suppressed by the spring’s power. The wood spirit spring was almost like the holy spring of heaven and contained the life giving properties of the wood element. Its healing prowess was not to be scoffed at.

300 million was a relatively low opening price, which led to a huge bidding war at the start. The price broke through the 500 million mark within just a few moments. Judging by the look of things, it was unlikely to slow down until the bid had reached one billion.

The demand for pill dao talents in Pillfire City was insane. Mu Gaoqi probably would never have dreamed that he’d one day be worth so much money. 500 million saint spirit stones was an amount of money never seen before in the Regal Pill Palace, including Palace Head Dan Chi or any of the great elders such as Elder Yun Nie. It might still be within their reach if it’d been 500 million origin spirit stones, but 500 million saint spirit stones was simply too far fetched for a fourth rank sect like them.

Judging by the momentum, the auction was absolutely not going end at 500 million. The price kept on increasing until it quickly went past the 600 million mark.

700 million soon followed. The bidding war only showed signs of slowing down when the price reached the 800 million mark. However, there were still a few powerful clans trying to outbid each other.

At this point, there was no longer any huge fluctuations in price. Instead, it was slowly creeping up, 10 million at a time. Soon, it reached 900 million. This was when Jiang Chen decided that it was time to place his bid. “I bid one billion!”

He broke the stalemate with just a single sentence. The atmosphere in the auction house was brought to a new boil.

“Him again? He must really hate having too much money.”

“Is he planning to spend every single spirit stone he made from the Bounty Arena?”

“Tsk Tsk. By the heavens is he wealthy. One billion! I can’t even spend that much money in a single lifetime!”

“Tsk tsk tsk. It’s the first item to reach the one billion mark today. The winning bid might actually reach the one billion and two hundred million mark!”

“This is insane! The Star Harvesters must be laughing their teeth off right now. Didn’t they pay less than twenty million for Master Mu originally?”

“They’ve made a huge fortune!”

“They’re well known for their competency in business, but this fortune is truly beyond anything they’ve made!” 

Jiang Chen preferred to impart despair unto others by massively outbidding them. As expected, two factions with a weaker resolve decided to back out. Other than him, only three other factions remained. These three factions seemed adamant on getting their hands on Mu Gaoqi.

“I bid one billion and ten million!”

“One billion and twenty million!”

“One billion and fifty million!” It was obvious that these three factions were very annoyed by their new rival. However, they remained very level-headed with their bids. They didn't act brashly like Jiang Chen, who raised the bid by 100 million in one go.

Jiang Chen laughed. “One billion and two hundred million.”

He raised it by 150 million in one go this time.

The Star Harvesters wanted to smother Jiang Chen with kisses when they saw this. Their boss, Gai Zonglin, sighed. “He really is rich after all. He’s the benefactor that our gang needed. If we’d sold Master Mu to one of the clans directly, we’d never receive more than 200 million. By putting him on auction, the price has skyrocketed all the way to a billion and two hundred million! This is what a little bit of ingenuity gets you! Do you guys see this?!”

Gai Zonglin was elated that he’d played his cards right. His plan was perfect, but it’d only work if someone with too much money to spend was present. Hen wasn’t the only one thinking that Arena Lord Shao had too much money to spend. The entire audience in the arena house seemed to be synchronized in thought.

“Keke, you’ve earned a great merit.” Manager Xiao gave Miss Keke an approving glance. “I don’t know what you’ve said to him, but since he’s willing to spend so much money, I will make sure to request a big bonus for you when we return.” 

Miss Keke forced a smile though she was feeling extremely complicated over it all. She knew more than anyone what their conversations had been like. Even calling it a conversation would be an overstatement. He hadn’t given her any face at all. At that time, she’d even felt that he was going to give up on Master Mu.

However, things never truly went as expected. That man had actually gone on to take part in the Bounty Arena and made more than 3 billion! He now had enough money to take part in the auction! Even though Manager Xiao was going to put in a good word for her, she found it difficult to get excited about it. Instead, all she felt was an odd sense of emptiness. She couldn’t quite put the feeling into words. The more Jiang Chen showed off his wealth, the more sullen she became.

He probably thinks that I’m just a Star Harvester lackey trying to swindle his money. A girl’s thoughts was truly peculiar sometimes. Even though they didn’t even know each other well, she couldn’t help but be self conscious about what a man as excellent as him thought about her.

She began to detest her job greatly when she recalled the various unsavory things she’d been ordered to do. She used to be a kind and pure of heart, but because of her job, she had to say and do many things that went against her conscience.

The atmosphere in the auction house was getting so heated that nobody would have the time to care what a young nobody like her was thinking. A competitor backed out after Jiang Chen’s insane raise. The other two factions were incredibly unyielding. They refused to come to an agreement or concession. Jiang Chen threw a glance at Emperor Peerless. The latter immediately realized it was his turn to make a move.

“I raise the bid to 1 billion and five hundred million! Master Mu is of great importance to me. I hope everyone can give this old man some face. The price is already beyond what’s considered normal, but I shall persist until the very end if anyone still wishes to continue the stalemate. I’m not afraid of a showdown!”

The crowd was flabbergasted by the emperor’s dominating words. Who would’ve thought that a great emperor would join the fray out of nowhere? Like a deflated ball, the other two competitors had no choice but to give up begrudgingly. Everyone instantly knew that this was the end of the bid when they saw the emperor’s unrelenting face. They were still able to counter bid, but not after a speech like that. They were certain to lose if they continued the bidding war and they’d even run the risk of offending him.

A wandering great emperor was oftentimes more frightening than an established one, because there was nothing to hold him back. Without a faction of own, he had no burdens or obstacles. He was free to do as he pleased. One might receive a huge surprise after offending someone of his stature. No one would ever want such a surprise.

Since they were certain to lose, counter bidding would only raise the price even further. What was the point of that? The emperor’s money wasn’t going to line their pockets. The only party that would gain from this was the Star Harvesters. They weren’t going to do something that would benefit others at their own expense.

“So be it then. With such a large increase, we have no choice but to admit defeat.”

“It’s truly a pity. We,too, admit defeat.”

Madame Man threw a flirtatious glance at the emperor that also contained a hint of resentment. “Emperor Peerless, by saying that, you’ve prematurely hammered down the price and ended the bidding game!” she complained coquettishly. 

It was only natural that the Temple of Cleansing Fire would want the price to go as high as possible. One billion and five hundred million was already an incredible amount of money. However, greed eats at the heart of all men. She wanted to make use of her womanly charms to vent her frustrations a little.