Chapter 861: Shocking Wealth
Forget twenty million, the bid could start at two hundred million and he wouldn’t even crease his brow. For Jiang Chen, this was no longer a large sum of money. He had already come into quite a bit of money back when he took out three thousand people back at Infant Shriek. If the valuables he obtained back then were to be converted into saint spirit stones, they would be worth at least several hundred million themselves. After he arrived at Veluriyam Capital, Jiang Chen had opened Taiyuan Tower and then seized Taiyuan Lodge for himself. He had obtained innumerable rewards from the various events that happened after that. Currently, Jiang Chen’s wealth was shocking to say the least.
In fact, House Wei, the Coiling Dragon Clan and even Sacred Peafowl Mountain itself would send an endless stream of spirit stones into his pockets if he were to make such a request. Money was the one thing Jiang Chen lacked the least. Whereas the Five Great Cauldrons were the symbolic treasures of the Regal Pill Palace. They were important to the Regal Pill Palace just like the Dark North Bell was to the Dark North Sect. They might not be the only sect treasures the Regal Pill Palace possessed, but they were still part of the collection.
In fact, the Five Great Cauldrons practically symbolized the Regal Pill Palace itself and its face. Without the Five Great Cauldrons, the sect’s resurrection would be incomplete even if it turned out to be a success. These cauldrons were the only things that could represent the Regal Pill Palace’s history and former glory.
That was why Jiang Chen was dead set on obtaining these cauldrons. It was true that he currently possessed a better set of cauldrons compared to the Five Great Cauldrons, such as the Skys.n.a.t.c.her Cauldron he’d won from the Joined Ridges Pavilion auction. But these cauldrons were of special meaning to him.
Wei Xing’er was the one who was stunned by this turn of events. Her bewitching eyes couldn’t move away from Jiang Chen as she temporarily forgot how to speak for a moment. Had he really just flung a hundred million saint spirit stones without batting an eyelid? Technically speaking, Wei Xing’er was the young madam of the Veranda now. She had seen enough of the world to know that there were many kinds of wealthy people. However, their wealth only stretched as far as their own local regions. Moreover, not every one of them could throw out a hundred million saint spirit stones without batting an eyelid.
The Resplendent Emerald Veranda might possess this ability, but that was the total sum of all its properties and businesses added together. Even they would have to make some preparations even if they needed to fling out a hundred million spirit stones in one go. But not only had Jiang Chen produced one hundred million saint spirit stones in one go, he even looked like he could repeat the action a couple of times more. In fact, he looked like he carried a few hundred million saint spirit stones with him as pocket change everyday. If her guess was true, then his wealth was shocking to say the least.
If Wei Xing’er were to learn that Jiang Chen was the owner of Taiyuan Tower and the pill king that even Sacred Peafowl Mountain needed to cater to, she would probably forget to collect her jaw even after the auction was over. She let out a soft sigh and smiled wryly. “I guess a good life is not the only thing you’re leading, hmm? I doubt even your Regal Pill palace head had so much money in his life.”
A hundred million sacred spirit stones equaled one billion origin spirit stones. It was shocking enough that the head of the Great Cathedral, Xiang Wentian had produced ten million origin spirit stones to bid for the Longevity Pill back then. Jiang Chen had just casually exceeded that amount one hundred times over. It was no wonder that Xing"er was shocked by his current wealth. She might be representing the Veranda in this auction, but she was also representing herself too. The amount of capital she was allowed her to use for one auction was just around fifty million. Anything more than that would require real consideration before the bid was allowed to go through.
Admittedly, the Five Great Cauldrons was a more attractive item than the Dark North Bell. The bids rang out faster than the Dark North Bell too. It didn’t take long before the bid reached twenty five million.
“It’s time for you to make a move,” Jiang Chen reminded her.
Wei Xing"er blinked, “How should I bid on this?”
“Just bid however you like,” Jiang Chen smiled. His tone was generous and unrestrained.
Wei Xing"er’s eyes sparkled as the hint of a devilish smile appeared on her face. Then, she opened her lips and declared, “Thirty million!”
She added five million onto the bid immediately. It was fundamentally different from the petty five hundred thousand bid increase made by those other parties. As expected, her bid quashed many compet.i.tors in an instant. There were plenty of people present who recognized Wei Xing"er’s voice, and they knew that Wei Xing"er represented the Resplendent Emerald Veranda, and was a local tyc.o.o.n of Great Scarlet Capital. Normally, Wei Xing"er spent her money bidding on slaves and not objects.
Therefore, her sudden, generous bid of thirty million saint spirit stones on an object was quite intimidating. Despite Wei Xing"er’s declaration, there were a few people who refused to give up and continued to bid for the cauldrons. However, their quotes were exactly as minor as before; adding just five hundred thousand stones onto the existing bid. Wei Xing"er immediately made another bid of thirty five million.
This time her aggressiveness completely stamped out their opportunistic hopes, and she ultimately won the four cauldrons with a final bid of thirty million saint spirit stones. No one was surprised that she was this wealthy. After all, the Veranda often displayed all kinds of strange objects in their stores. These pill cauldrons were definitely a suitable addition to their collection. All those who wished to bid for the cauldrons understood that it was a stupid endeavor to try and match the Veranda’s wealth. Therefore, Wei Xing"er easily won the items after putting in just two bids.
Although the price was a little high, winning four pill cauldrons with just thirty five million saint spirit stones was still quite a good trade for Jiang Chen. The Skys.n.a.t.c.her Cauldron he bid for back at Joined Ridge Pavilion’s auction was more expensive than all four of these cauldrons together. Jiang Chen counted out fifty million saint spirit stones and pa.s.sed them onto Wei Xing"er. Wei Xing"er looked surprised. What was the meaning behind these additional fifteen million saint spirit stones?
“Stop staring at me like that and take it already. You’ll be suspected for bidding for a Regal Pill Palace object no matter what, so these fifteen million saint spirit stones is the money you got for selling the cauldrons to another buyer right after you bid for them. Do you understand? This is how you justify your bid. This is how you shut the mouths of those who try to question you after you return.”
Huang’er was very approving of Jiang Chen’s decision. While Wei Xing"er appeared well off on the outside, the amount of freedom she really enjoyed was the completely opposite of expectations. They had no doubt that she would be questioned if she spent thirty five million to bid for these cauldrons, but couldn’t produce them because she’d pa.s.sed them to Jiang Chen when she returned. But if she had fifteen million spirit stones, she could excuse herself saying that she had sold the cauldrons right after receiving them.
“Just take it.” Huang’er smiled kindly.
Wei Xing"er’s strong pride told her that she mustn"t take the money. However, Jiang Chen and Huang’er’s determined gaze made her feel like turning down their offer would be a crime against them. She looked well off on the surface, but the amount of money that actually landed in her lap weren’t much at all. The amount of money she privately owned even less so. A moment later, Wei Xing"er ultimately accepted the money with a soft sigh.She could tell that Jiang Chen didn’t care about this miniscule amount of money at all. The fact that he could give away fifteen million just like that meant that his actual wealth was at least tens or hundreds of times bigger than this sum.
The next items that came through the auction failed to garner the same price tag as the cauldrons. Jiang Chen quickly lost interest in the auction as it progressed further. He was waiting only to see if he could spot any familiar faces during the slave part of the auction. If there was no one, then he was going to leave right after.
The last item to be auctioned triggered a commotion, however. It was a saint spirit creature’s bloodline from the Great Cathedral with a beneficial effect on going berserk! The object immediately caused an uproar the moment it appeared. Going berserk was no ordinary art. Any cultivator who successfully did so would instantly experience a great increase in strength. Jiang Chen himself had fought against Xiang Tai of the Great Cathedral in a berserk state back at Myriad Grand Ceremony. A clamor of bids overtook the scene the moment it appeared. In the end, the bloodline sold for a total bid price of thirty million.
The auction of goods might have ended, but the auction itself had only progressed halfway. The next part of the auction was of course, the slave auction. Naturally, the bid price of slaves fluctuated wildly. Normally speaking, an origin realm slave wasn’t worth much at all. A sage realm slave was worth a lot more.
Between two slaves of the same rank, female slaves were worth more than male slaves. Between two slaves of the same gender, the slave who knew pill dao was worth more than the slave who knew nothing about it. There were plenty of standards in the slave market. Naturally, the price of a single slave couldn’t compare to that of a single item in a goods auction. However, slave auctions usually involved large numbers, so the sum of money that flowed from the transactions was not a small sum. Moreover, n.o.ble powers often had huge demands for slaves.
Slaves were bought either to be used as servants, cultivation cauldrons, attendants, or for strange purposes. In conclusion, the slave market was ever a hot market in the human domain. In fact, other races would often frequent the human domain to capture human cultivators and sell them in their own domain as slaves. That was because human slaves were obedient and the most convenient race to order around.
“The first group of slaves are origin realm slaves. We will begin this auction by making available five hundred slaves for all to select from. Every one of these slaves has a price tag on them. If you found one that you wish to take, you may pay for them and make the trade immediately. If two people have their eyes on the same target at the same time, then whoever offers the higher price will be the buyer.”
Wei Xing"er remarked to Jiang Chen, “Origin realm slaves have no status here. They do not even have the right to be auctioned in a slave market. Therefore, they’re normally sold by odd-lot trading. Also, there is a rule in the market that states that one family is allowed to buy at most twenty slaves in one go. No one is allowed to go above that number.”
Jiang Chen wasn’t unfamiliar with these rules since he had experienced it firsthand at Veluriyam Capital’s slave market. However, the limit on this quota differed from place to place. It was a way to prevent people from secretly recruiting manpower and strength from the slave markets and breaking the balance of power this way. To put it bluntly, the rule existed because of fear towards the swelling ambition of man.
“Let’s go take a look.” Myriad Domain had plenty of origin realm cultivators. In fact, a lot of Jiang Chen’s acquaintances were at origin realm. He wanted to take a look and see if he could pick up some figurative fish that’d slipped through the net. Origin realm slaves weren’t expensive anyway, so he didn’t mind spending a bit of money to redeem their freedom. He viewed the action as good karma.
In Veluriyam Capital, the price of origin realm slaves hovered between two hundred thousand to one million saint spirit stones. The exceptional ones might cost up to more than a million. Meanwhile, the price of sage realm slaves hovered between two million to twenty million. The exceptional ones might be priced higher. The price of slaves in Great Scarlet Mid Region were a lot lower. Great Scarlet Mid Region’s level of wealth was quite some distance away from Veluriyam Capital’s after all.
It was no wonder that Great Scarlet Mid Region’s imperial family would sell Elder Yun Nie and Mu Gaoqi to Veluriyam Capital. It was obvious that they could profit more if they sold them in that region. Slave trading wasn’t that popular a trade in Great Scarlet Mid Region originally. It was because Myriad Domain was destroyed that the supply of slaves had suddenly become plentiful.
860 was bonus chapter 2/5 to celebrate the launch of Return of the Swallow, my favorite web novel of 2017!