44: Chapter 44 All I have left is gold coins.

One minute later, the NPC's legs went weak, and he practically crawled out of Heaven-grade Room No. 9 on his knees.

On the table, a full thousand gold coins were piled into a small mountain.

While counting them just now, he didn't even dare to take a deep breath.

Who on earth is this god-like figure?!

He had seen every wealthy tycoon and mogul with any standing in Chang'an City.

But this player with the ID: Chuan Liu Bu Xi... he could be one hundred percent certain he had never seen him before.

Returning to the auction hall, the NPC, pale-faced, whispered a few words into Gu Qingming's ear before bowing and retreating into the shadows.

Gu Qingming raised his head, his sharp gaze locking onto the direction of Room No. 9.

"'Chuan Liu Bu Xi'? Poison Master?"

For the past half-month, the words "Poison Master" had undoubtedly been the hottest topic in Chang'an City.

Players who had just teleported out of the Novice Village spoke of him as if he were a legendary figure.

It was said that with a wave of his hand, he could unleash overwhelming ranged spells, his casting so fluid it was as if he had no cooldowns, and even more terrifyingly, every hit inevitably carried a poison effect.

Did you think he was just a squishy Mage?

You were wrong; in melee combat, he was so fierce that even Warriors felt inferior.

Perhaps you might want to argue that he was just a Mage playing melee.

That would be a huge mistake, because what this master was clutching in his hand... was the lowest-level paper fan.

Bystanders gasped in shock at the time.

It was actually a Priest?

When Gu Qingming first heard these descriptions, his heart sank.

This style, this background... why did it sound more and more like the shadow of that person in his memories?

Especially since they both came from the same Novice Village.

But reason quickly prevailed.

The identity and ID nickname tied to Immortal Domain were ironclad rules that were permanent and unchangeable.

It absolutely couldn't be him.

...

The auction officially began.

The first few rounds consisted of individual basic items, mostly from the apocalypse set and abyss series, with grades ranging only from tier one to tier three.

Yet even so, a frenzy of bidding erupted from the audience below.

"Is it really worth it? For a few low-level pieces of equipment?" Jiang He curled his lip, looking completely puzzled.

Beside him, Li Qing was watching with eager eyes, and upon hearing this, he immediately perked up: "Brother Jiang..."

"Stop, stop, stop." Jiang He almost jumped up. "I told you, you can call me Big Brother or Brother Chuan, just don't call me Brother Jiang, okay?"

"Wh-why?"

Jiang He wore an expression of awkwardness, as if recalling unpleasant memories, and wiped his face: "Don't ask. If you know too much, I'm afraid you'll run into me tomorrow at the Novice Village resurrection point."

"Uh... alright then." Li Qing swallowed hard, wisely changing the subject, and began to explain why this crowd was so desperate.

It turned out that the vast majority of players hadn't even managed to put together a decent set of equipment.

Even if they were lucky enough to get a few decent high-quality items, or even individual pieces of Dragon Emperor grade, it was far inferior to the stat bonuses of a fully activated set.

Therefore, many people preferred to sell off scattered good items to exchange for money to obsessively pursue a set.

Currently, the most common choice for ordinary players was the apocalypse set, and the slightly more expensive one was the abyss series.

As for the more advanced Dragon Emperor set?

Although it was considered entry-level now, trying to assemble a full set was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Speaking of this, Li Qing couldn't help but let out a long sigh: "Of course... except for those wealthy tycoons with mines at home. They wear Chaos sets, Star sets, and I've even heard people are currently buying up the wind whisper set. That's level 40 equipment! Just taking out a single piece would be enough to buy an apartment in our neighborhood."

Jiang He subconsciously glanced at the annihilation set on his own body, his heart giving an inexplicable, sharp twitch.

An enticing image immediately appeared before his eyes: if there were a Holy Spirit Priest just like him, and a wealthy tycoon at that... wouldn't he instantly unlock financial freedom?

He slanted his gaze, sweeping over the sparse mix of apocalypse and abyss pieces on Li Qing, and couldn't help but twitch his mouth: "Not bad, Qingzi, looks like you're living quite modestly yourself, huh?"

...

The auction entered its middle stage, and the real main event arrived.

The individual parts concluded, and full sets of equipment began to appear.

A full ten apocalypse sets ultimately changed hands at a price of 300 silver coins per set.

Following that were ten abyss sets, with the transaction price climbing to 600 silver coins per set.

The calculator in Jiang He's mind instantly started running.

Based on the exchange rate, one apocalypse set was 30,000 Huaxia currency? Abyss was 60,000?

Is this damn auction house a slaughterhouse?

Just then, Gu Qingming walked onto the auction stage with a perfectly appropriate smile on his face: "To thank new and old customers for their patronage, our firm specially presents two sets—the Dragon Emperor set."

As his voice fell, the entire hall instantly fell into an eerie silence.

In a scene that should have been exciting, people's faces showed undisguised disappointment and helplessness.

"Qingzi, what's up with them?" Jiang He nudged Li Qing with his elbow.

"Sigh, Dragon Emperor is good stuff, but the price... the people below, even if they are small company bosses, compared to those money-devouring crocodiles in the VIP boxes upstairs..."

Sure enough, whether in reality or in this Immortal Domain, the door to top-tier resources and services was always open to that one percent.

Gu Qingming began to display the equipment information.

"Perhaps everyone knows a thing or two about the stats of individual Dragon Emperor pieces. But the more critical set-activated bonus stats, I presume many have only heard of by name." He paused deliberately, scanning the entire venue, and seeing those eyes suddenly light up, he raised his voice with satisfaction:

"First: After activating the set stats, the wearer's HP increases by 30%."

"Second: Overall attack power increases by an additional 20%."

The entire hall gasped.

Some small bosses had even started arranging for people to log off and sell stocks.

A wave instantly surged in the chat channel.

"Buying gold coins at a high price, private message if interested."

"1:10500, buying gold coins."

The smile on the corner of Gu Qingming's mouth deepened: "Dragon Emperor set, starting bid for a single set is 5 gold coins."

"F*ck! 5 gold? Is this robbery?" A grumpy guy below blurted out.

The next second, he was carried away and thrown out of the auction house.

5 gold coins, equivalent to 50,000 Huaxia currency, was not an astronomical figure.

There were plenty of people sitting below with a net worth of over 100 million.

But the difficulty lay in... gold coins, at the moment, were simply a scarce strategic resource.

Want to buy in bulk?

It was harder than ascending to heaven.

"10 gold." A steady voice came from VIP Room No. 3.

"15 gold." VIP Room No. 2 immediately increased the bid.

"40 gold." The number announced from VIP Room No. 1 fell like a heavy hammer.

In just a few short moments, the price had already soared to this level.

"Hmph, trying to compete with me?" Inside VIP Room No. 1, Blood Blade curled his lip, his face full of arrogant confidence as if victory was already in his grasp.

"Old Lin, it's just a crappy transitional set, do you have to play this big?"

Zhao Yun slumped lazily in his chair.

He hated coming to these kinds of auctions the most.

He'd rather spend this time grinding monsters and leveling up.

But Blood Blade insisted on dragging all of them along.

"Alright Old Zhao, let's just watch him show off in silence." Old Demon glanced helplessly at the two of them.

"What do you two know? There aren't many days left until our next fight, I need to hurry up and improve our overall strength."

The two brothers gave him a thumbs up upon hearing this.

You have to say, this Blood Blade was truly rich.

He bought quite a few sets for the people below, just to be more awesome when fighting group battles.

Just when Blood Blade was full of self-satisfaction, thinking that 40 gold was an astronomical price that no one dared to shake.

In the neighboring Room No. 9, a plain and calm voice pierced through the boxes:

"100 gold."

The entire hall sounded in unison with a collective gasp of cold air.

"What? O-one hundred gold?"

"Damn, where did this tycoon come from?"

Inside the box, Jiang He leaned lazily against the back of his chair, his crossed legs carrying an air of leisure: "Qingzi, bid whatever you want, Brother will pay the bill."

When Jiang He told him to bid, Li Qing really felt like his ears were broken: "Brother, I know you're rich, but... 100 gold is just too..."

"I said it's fine," Jiang He waved his hand, "I'm so poor I only have gold coins left."

"110 gold." Blood Blade's furious voice almost cracked, accompanied by a loud bang of a table being slammed.

"Damn it, challenging me? Want to see who has more money, huh?"

Blood Blade wasn't truly stupid with money, but he had just bid 40 gold, and the other party directly threw out 100 gold. This was no longer a simple bidding war; this was slapping him in the face in public.

"T-two hundred gold." When Li Qing shouted this, his voice was shaking so much it almost cracked.

Blood Blade's legs went soft, and he actually fell onto the floor with a thud.