Chapter 182 Auction (Part III)
In the auction hall on the first storey, the fake auction continued to progress steadily.
Although the final price was decided slightly later than the one on the second storey, it was fixed at thirty thousand gold.
Looking at the auctioneer on the stage, Ferdinand’s eyes narrowed a little, feeling a little disappointed.
It was not as if they had not thought of taking Bruno’s thirty thousand gold on the second storey and paying the black-robed leader twenty-eight thousand gold on the first storey, thus earning a profit.
But if they were to do so, it would increase the chances of their cover being blown up. Neither the high officer from the Ministry of Finance supporting Bruno nor the Conferred Knight who had brought the parietal bones were people they could trifle with.
Therefore, in order to minimize the chances of their cover being blown up, they gave up on this chance to earn money.
However, when the it came down to it, he could still not control the hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.
He nodded toward the black-robed leader, smiled and said, “Sir, congratulations. Please follow me to the dealing room to complete the deal.”
Therefore, he led the group toward the dealing room on the first storey. On the second storey, Bruno, wearing his golden mask, was also led to the respective dealing room.
Both parties opened the doors to the respective dealing rooms almost at the same time, and looked inside.
On the second storey, Bruno looked into the dealing room and saw that a (fake) black-robed man was already standing there. He walked in with a few attendants following behind him and smiled at the (fake) black-robed man.
“Where are the parietal bones?”
That (fake) black-robed man spoke in a stifled voice, “Where’s the money?”
Bruno clapped and one of his subordinates lugged in a total of ten chests, “There is a total of fifteen thousand gold here. After the deal is completed, which is six hours later, we’ll pay the remaining fifteen thousand gold.”
The (fake) black-robed man nodded, and signalled the two subordinates behind him to move the chests.
But before they could, Bruno suddenly stopped them.
“Wait a minute. Before you take the money, I want to make sure that there’s no problems with the parietal bones.” He looked toward the middle-aged man behind him and said, “Let this master blacksmith appraise it. Master Harman has forged a Superior Remains Divine Weapons before and is well experienced in dealing with Conferred Knights’ bone remains. You guys can bring out the parietal bones first and let Master Harman appraise it.”
Suddenly, the place was filled with tension, turning completely silent.
…
On the first storey, Ferdinand led the black-robed men into the dealing room. The black-robed leader took a look and noticed a (fake) man with a gold mask was already standing in there.
The black-robed men walked in and the (fake) man with the gold mask said, “Hello, where’s the parietal bones?”
The black-robed man said, “Hand over the money and we’ll hand over the goods. Where’s the money?”
The (fake) man with the gold mask kept silent for a while, as if he was thinking of something. Just as the atmosphere in the room was tensing up, he nodded and said, “That’s how it should be. Bring in the money!”
His second sentence was targeted to the people outside.
A few burly men brought in ten large sacks and as they walked, clanking sounds rang out. It was the sound of colliding gold.
The (fake) man with the gold mask said, “There’s a total of fifteen thousand gold here. Six hours later, I’ll pay the remaining fifteen thousand gold. How about it?”
The black-robed man nodded and replied, “Alright.” With that, he took out a square box the size of a palm. The parietal bones had been kept close to him all this time.
Ferdinand let out a sigh of relief and thought to himself, ‘Thank goodness we have the money from selling the bone remains previously. There shouldn’t be any problems now.’
Just as he was feeling relieved, the black-robed man’s words caused him to be on tenterhooks yet again. The guy spoke calmly, “You can stay here to comprehend it. Within these six hours, you cannot leave my sight.”
Ferdinand immediately frowned, but smiled and said, “Sir, trying to attain Heaven’s Perception is no trivial matter. Shouldn’t it require one to be in a quiet and concealed environment? This is different from what we’ve previously agreed on.”
The black-robed man shook his head and said, “Within six hours, the parietal bones cannot leave my sight. If you are not willing to accept it, we’ll cancel the deal. Anyway, there’s still many other people who are interested in it.”
He stood there tyrannically, as if he was a huge mountain which could not be easily crossed. He released the aura of a second transition Conferred Knight without any restraint, pushing down on everyone in the room.
…
On the second storey, when Bruno mentioned that he wanted to appraise the parietal bones, the place turned dead silent.
Bruno’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the (fake) black-robed man who was not saying a word. He suddenly spoke out in a cold voice, “Why? You don’t dare to go through with the appraisal? You couldn’t possibly have brought me a fake parietal bone, right?”
As the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, the (fake) black-robed man suddenly walked up toward Bruno and the others.
The eyes of the four Knights behind Bruno narrowed and they quickly stepped up to stand in his way, but before they could get near, Fang Xingjian casually sent out the Ether Sword Ripples with an extremely domineering, quick and terrifying aura.
He did not need the limits of eight times the supersonic speed, but just sent out formless slashes at four times the supersonic speed. To someone at the first transition, this was already unimaginably terrifying.
Soft pfft pfft pfft pfft sounds rang out. In the situation where the four Knights had neither seen nor sensed anything, and did not know what they had been attacked by, all four of them had already become bald the moment they heard the soft sounds.
Their heads looked as if they had been handled by a hairdresser, their hair floating in the air and slowly falling to the ground.
Fang Xingjian slowly walked up to Bruno and spoke out with a cold voice.
“If you want to appraise it, go ahead. But the parietal bones can only be touched by a single person. If he has touched it, you can forget about touching it.”
Bruno only felt that from the darkness of that black robe, it was as if a pair of extremely sharp eyes was staring straight at him. He turned to look at the four Knights who had defended him and said with a grin, “Good skills. To be able to cut off their hair without making any sounds, it means that you can also silently chop off their heads.”
“As expected of a Conferred Knight.” Bruno naturally did not know of any other Knight-level experts who could achieve this. Sensing the other party’s aura, and having seen his wonderful skills, he immediately confirmed that the one protecting the parietal bones was a powerful Conferred Knight, although he was not sure of what level.
He straightened up and said, “But even if you’re a Conferred Knight, you can’t possibly be so tyrannical, can you? Can’t we even appraise it?”
Fang Xingjian said coldly, “If there’s no effect, you don’t have to pay. We’ll leave these fifteen thousand gold here first.
“But only one person can touch the parietal bones. Otherwise, wouldn’t it have been used by two persons? If you want to do so, that’s fine as well, just add on to the money.”
Master Harman frowned and said, “I will only appraise and will definitely not secretly use the parietal bones during the appraisal process. Aren’t you being too stingy here?”
“Oh?” Fang Xingjian turned toward him, unleashing a sharp and overbearing aura, “You’re right, I’m that stingy. Since it’s agreed that only one person can use it, then only one person can touch it.”
Just as the others still wanted to retort, Bruno stopped them and said in a clear voice, “Alright. Could it be that you guys don’t trust a Conferred Knight?”
He had seen Fang Xingjian’s actions, thought about his means, heard his tone. A person’s name appeared in his mind.