Su Ming had already become more mature and was no longer the boy from Dark Mountain who had been ignorant of everything around him. The change in his tribe, waking up in the Land of South Morning, rising in status in Han Mountain City, the trip to the land of the Shamans, and everything he went through in Freezing Sky had let to Su Ming’s intelligence continuously becoming more well-rounded at a speed as if he was going through one transformation after another.
Even if he was still not as cunning as monsters, he was no longer a greenhorn.
Take this situation for an example. If it was his past self when he was still in Dark Mountain, he would definitely have chosen to ask what these people wanted right in their faces.
If it was his past self when he had just arrived in Han Mountain City after the change in his tribe, he would have made a different choice. There was a high possibility that he would have gone for a second, less preferable choice, and backed out of the room once he saw it and the woman before him. He would then have searched for a corner and joined the auction from there, crus.h.i.+ng all their plans by remaining in solitude.
Yet now, as Su Ming gained more experience, his choice changed once again. He did not choose to ask for the answer, neither did he choose to leave alone and remain in solitude. Instead, he chose to use another method. By acting as if he was extorting something from them, he could discover what the problem was by their expressions, their eyes, and other minor details, and from there, he could make his decision.
"Brother Su, what do you mean?" The woman with the alluring body, whose voice sounded like orchids, Zi Shan, smiled beautifully with a calm expression even after she heard Su Ming’s words.
Su Ming did not answer her. He simply cast a calm glance at the woman before he turned around and walked past the stunned Chang Yi, who was standing behind him after he led Su Ming into the room. Judging by his actions, Su Ming wanted to leave the ninth room.
Zi Che followed silently by his side. At that moment, a glint appeared in Zi Shan’s eyes. She did not immediately speak, but when Su Ming was halfway out of the room and looked as if he really intended to leave, her voice traveled faintly into his ears.
"Am I like a ferocious beast that you chose to leave right after you saw me?"
Her voice was very pleasant to the ears and made her sound pitiful. There was also a certain melodic quality to her voice, making others want to continue listening to it, but Su Ming was not one of them. With one step, he moved out of the room completely and walked forward without even turning back.
When he was three to five steps away from the room, Zi Shan’s voice came once again from within.
"Brother Su, please wait. Of course this isn’t everything. As an apology, my Master said you may choose one of the items that will be auctioned off this time and my Master will buy it for you."
As Zi Shan spoke, she walked out of the room and smiled at Su Ming. That smile on her face was so beautiful that it could make hearts race against chests.
At the very least, it made Chang Yi look rather uncomfortable.
Su Ming stopped. With a smile on his face, he turned around and met Zi Shan’s gaze. Then he walked towards the room. Zi Shan intentionally moved half a step back, and once Su Ming entered the room, he sat down on the chair by the side.
Zi Che stood behind him silently, like a block of wood. Even if he had his eyes closed, his awareness of his surroundings did not go down. Almost all his attention was poured into every single minute sign of movement around them.
Zi Shan closed the door to the room and strutted inside. She sat down across from Su Ming and once her beautiful eyes sized up Zi Che, who was standing behind him, she looked at Su Ming and smiled before she even said anything.
"Brother Su, you live up to your name as a disciple of the ninth summit, you even brought a follower while traveling around. I cannot hope to compare to you in this matter."
From Su Ming’s position, he could clearly see the center of the auction hall underneath through the window nearby. At that moment, the area underneath was bustling with excitement, and streams of people continuously entered the hall.
"He’s not my follower but my disciple nephew," Su Ming retorted gently.
"I see, and here I was wondering why this brother looked familiar. Now that you mentioned it, I remembered. Isn’t this the famous Zi Che, who is ranked in the top ten in Freezing Sky Clan’s ranking board of the Great Frozen Plains?" Zi Shan covered her pet.i.te mouth and put on a stupefied look as if she had just recognized him.
Zi Che remained silent and did not bother giving her a reaction. He was already used to this type of ridicule. From his initial bouts of embarra.s.sment, he had grown to not be too bothered by all these, because he knew that the people of the ninth summit had touched his heart in a manner that other places would never be able to do so.
When Zi Shan said those words, her eyes fell on Su Ming as if she was doing so unwittingly and she started searching for cracks in Su Ming’s behavior, but alas, she found nothing.
Su Ming still remained calm and composed, and there was not a hint of change on him. After all, he practiced the Clearing Mind Art and his actions were all executed once his mind was cleared. Perhaps his actions would seem slightly green to some old folks, but this woman before him would not be able to find any cracks in his behavior so easily, even if there was displeasure boiling in his heart right then.
Su Ming closed his eyes, ignored the woman’s words, breathed calmly, and waited for the auction to start. Bai Su was the one girl who saw this att.i.tude of his the most and had been angered many times in the past due to him ignoring her. She had thought of everything she could possibly do to get him to react to her, but none of them bore great results.
From this alone, it could be seen that this particular att.i.tude of Su Ming’s dealt quite a huge blow to women.
Zi Shan stared at Su Ming for a long period of time. This was the first time she had ever seen him with this att.i.tude of his. He was blatantly treating her like an ornament, or perhaps pretending that she did not even exist. It made Zi Shan, whose words were already at the tip of her tongue, bite her tongue and swallow her words.
"Brother Su, you have great bearing…" After a long while, Zi Shan commented once again in a rather disgruntled fas.h.i.+on. Yet her reply was merely Su Ming closing his eyes as if he did not hear her.
Zi Shan stared at him for a while before she also closed her eyes and no longer paid any heed to him.
By doing so, a veil of silence instantly fell over the room, and compared to the noise outside, the room and what went on beyond were like two different worlds.
However, compared to Su Ming, Zi Shan was still somewhat lacking. She could not truly clear her mind and would occasionally open her eyes and look at him. A frown gradually appeared between her brows.
‘I refuse to believe that this person can truly remain so calm. He’s definitely pretending. I’ve seen way too many people who like pretending that they’re sophisticated characters.’ Zi Shan let out a cold harrumph in her heart.
In the midst of the silence in the room, time pa.s.sed by slowly. Approximately the burning of an incense stick later, m.u.f.fled drum beats came from the platform at the center of the auction hall.
The drum beats were like rumbling thunder that seemed to be able to shake the sky and earth. The sounds spread in all directions, and each drum beat felt as if it landed on people’s bodies, causing most of those who heard it to feel their hearts shaking.
As the drum beats reverberated through the air, whining sounds spread out swiftly and blended into the drum beats. However, they were much sharper and seemed to have s.n.a.t.c.hed away all the audience’s breaths before they rose into the sky.
The drum beats and whining sounds made the auction hall that could accommodate thousands of people to instantly fall silent. All their gazes gathered on the platform at the center.
At that moment, Su Ming opened his eyes. He saw nine burly men standing on the platform at the center of the auction hall beyond the balcony. They were striking the beast skin drums placed before each of them with both hands.
The drum beats rumbled in the air and fused together. There were also nine beautiful women wearing white long robes that were somewhat revealing standing beside those nine burly men.
Each of the nine women held gigantic conches in their hands. Naturally, those sharp whining sounds came from the conches.
The moment the drum beats and the whining sounds from the conches reached their climax, the earth trembled. An even crack appeared on the platform at the center. As the crack spread into its surroundings, the men and women went to stand at the edge of the platform. The instant they did so, a gigantic stone pillar rose up from the crack.
Once the stone pillar rose to about one hundred feet, it gradually came to a stop. A mumbling sound that no one could hear clearly spread through the area, and it was followed right after by uproars breaking out everywhere.
As that voice spread out, an astonis.h.i.+ng change happened to the sky above the gigantic open air auction hall. Ripples appeared in the bright sky, and they spread out to cover a distance of several tens of thousands of lis.
"Western Sea Clan…" an aged voice spoke from the sky. The moment it did so, as the ripples grew in number, the ripples that covered those tens of thousands of lis turned into a magnificent sea!
It was as if those tens of thousands of lis in the world no longer belonged to Freezing Sky at that instant but had turned into Western Sea Clan’s sea. The seawater was as tall as the sky and the ripples that could be seen were all caused by the seawater’s movement. The ground where the auction hall was located was then turned into the seabed for this sea!
A brilliant light shone in Su Ming’s eyes. He stood up and took a few steps forward to stand at the edge of the balcony before he looked outwards. He was not the only one who did so. At that moment, many people in the auction hall had also stood up to look at this scene, where the world was transformed, and all their expressions changed.
This was not a change brought by a simple illusion but was an astonis.h.i.+ng transformation that looked incredibly real. In the s.p.a.ce around Su Ming which had now turned into a sea, he saw countless colorful branches appearing. He also saw all sorts of fishes swimming in the water. Some swam in groups, while others swam alone. When Su Ming opened his mouth, he could even see a large amount of air bubbles floating out of his mouth.
"This is a Rune Western Sea Clan invented many years ago. Brother Su, what do you think of it?" Zi Shan smiled and went up to stand beside him. As she spoke, air bubbles floated out of her mouth as well, and it made it seem as if they were really in the sea.
Zi Shan noticed what Su Ming was looking at and explained with a light chuckle, "That colorful thing is called a coral."
As Zi Shan spoke, each of the nine beautiful ladies who wore rather revealing white dresses standing at the edge of the platform at the center of the auction hall brought out a white scale. They stuck it to their foreheads and their bodies immediately floated up. Their naked feet instantly turned into fish tails, and they turned into nine mermaids who swam around the auction hall. Their beautiful singing voices still managed to transmit in the seawater, and those who heard them were enchanted.
Almost the instant the mermaids started swimming in the water, the nine burly men brought out blue beast skins and stuck them on their bodies. Once they did so, their bodies started twisting, and after a moment, m.u.f.fled roars rang, and the nine men turned into nine ferocious sea dragons. Their roars spread through the entire area and fused with the mermaids’ song, creating a sight that shook the people’s hearts!
At that moment, the aged voice spoke abruptly from the stone pillar, "After the long hundred years, Western Sea Clan’s auction will once again be held in the land of Freezing Sky!"