“The attendants here are all like that, it’s not directed at you.”
A gentle voice came from the side. As Tang San and Xiao Wu turned their heads to look, they saw a white dressed scholarly looking middle aged man nodding at them with a smile.
Strangely, he didn’t wear a mask, and no staff came to ask him about it.
Xiao Wu couldn’t help asking:
“They’re all like this? Why?”
The middle aged man said with a smile:
“The attendants here all belong to the auction house themselves. Even their lives. They were all bought by the auction house as commoner girls, and fostered from childhood. They aren’t only the serving staff here, at the same time they’re goods for auction. If someone wishes to pay, they can be traded.”
“Then isn’t that slavery? But, don’t the two great Empires prohibit slave trading?”
Tang San said somewhat astonished.
The middle aged man smiled calmly, saying:
“There are a lot of helpless people in this world. This is the Heaven Dou Auction, let alone slaves, there is nothing that can’t be sold here. The reason those young women are expressionless is that they long ago lost lost their own hearts, and even more the decision of their own fate. All they can do is obey. Even though they’re beautiful, they don’t own their own souls. I can only describe them as ‘lamentable’.”
Listening to the middle aged man speak, the expression on Xiao Wu’s face gradually changed. If she loathed those scantily clad beautiful attendants before, then now her heart was brimming with pity.
“How much do they cost?”
Xiao Wu asked.
The middle aged man seemed to see through her intentions,
“You want to buy them and give them freedom? That’s just another tragedy.”
Xiao Wu puzzled asked:
“Why?”
“Besides serving men, those attendants don’t have any survival skills. Even if you bought them, with their looks they would still finally fall into the hands of men. Their fate would be even more miserable. They don’t have souls, they don’t belong to the world. Besides, the price for each is a hundred thousand gold spirit coins. More than ten times that of the highest class prostitutes, it’s not something just anyone can spend.”
The middle aged man’s tone was somewhat helpless. He seemed to carry himself with a particular atmosphere that very easily made others feel familiar with him.
Right now there weren’t a lot of bidders at the auction, and only a sparse fifth or so of the seats were in use.
On the stage a spirit tool similar to a belt was being auctioned, and the price had already reached forty thousand gold spirit coins.
Next to each seat were special buttons to call out bids, above them was separately written one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand and one hundred thousand, representing how much each bid would raise.
The middle aged man seemed interested in Tang San and Xiao Wu, and changing the topic asked:
“Coming to the auction so young, is there something you want to buy?”
Xiao Wu said:
“We aren’t buying, we’re selling.”
“Eh?”
The middle aged man smiled:
“Selling things, huh. I wouldn’t have thought that someone as young as you would be selling.”
Xiao Wu said:
“Who said you can’t sell if you’re young. Maybe, later once we have money we can still buy spirit bones to play with. Yi, how did you know we’re young, don’t tell me you have x-ray vision?”
Everyone here wore masks, and even though Xiao Wu and Tang San were a bit smaller than adults, it still wasn’t by much.
The middle aged man said:
“Good, ambitious. It’s no wonder youths can possess such strength. Even though you wear masks, the childishness of your bodies and eyes can’t conceal your age, clear sighted people will naturally notice.”
Hearing this, Tang San couldn’t help trembling inwardly, could it be this person was capable of seeing his and Xiao Wu’s strength? However, why wouldn’t he feel any threat from him?
By now that spirit tool on the stage was sold for forty three thousand gold spirit coins.
The auctioneer on the stage touched the amplifier and spoke to the bidders with a smile:
“The next auction we will conduct is a rare item. Interested bidders please pay attention. Especially male guests.”
While speaking, he pointed to the stage and three large men pushed out a cart. The cart was covered by red cloth and the inside couldn’t be seen, but from the shape it was some large square box.
Tang San, Xiao Wu and even that middle aged man’s gazes were all attracted by this new auction and stopped their discussion.
The announcer somewhat mysteriously said:
“Can you guess what it is? Then, I will first reveal to all distinguished guests the starting price. This item’s opening price is one hundred thousand gold spirit coins. The minimum bid increase is ten thousand gold spirit coins. This is top quality among top quality.”
As the auction’s presenter, the ability to raise the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the competing bidders was clearly required, and he very successfully attracted the bidders’ attention.
“Next, all distinguished guests please pay attention.”
While speaking, he grabbed the red cloth, sharply pulling it away.
After the flash of red light, what was revealed wasn’t any box, but rather a large iron cage. Within the iron cage was curled up a young woman.
The young woman was more than half naked, with only key places covered by shells. Because she was curled up her appearance couldn’t be seen clearly, but her figure was close to perfect.
Fair skin like sparkling jade, and a head of short green unstyled hair.
Part 3 (TL by Bagelson)
“Perhaps the honored guests might find it strange that such a girl would actually have such a high opening price, the same as the price for the beautiful women trained by our auction house for many years. But if everyone looks carefully, you will find how extraordinary she is.”
While speaking, the announcer pulled out a rod from somewhere, poking it into the iron cage and lightly prodding the short green hair on the side of the young woman’s head, revealing her ears.
Those weren’t human ears, but small pointed ears similar to that of a feline. Under the light prodding of the rod, the ears turned slightly red.
“That’s right, you haven’t made a mistake. This is a rare cat woman. When her spirit awakened her body underwent a variation, possessing a cat like shape, her eyes are one blue and one green, a unique mien, and there’s even a long tail.”
He used the rod to hit the young woman’s butt, and she yelped and turned, revealing a white cat tail that had been hidden in front of her.
“One might say that she is a unique and unmatched existence on the Continent. Able to possess such a beautiful female cat as a pet, such a blessing. Imagine, if when working you can grab her tail with one hand, what kind of scene is that?”
While speaking, the announcer revealed a dubious expression, swinging the rod in his hand in a circle in the air,
“All guests, you can bid.”
“These bastards. To actually sell a person as a pet.”
Xiao Wu couldn’t stop herself and was about to leap up.
Tang San pulled back Xiao Wu, indicating she should stay calm. But his own heart was a roaring sea. It wasn’t like he had never seen the dark side of this world, but it was still the first time he came into contact with it. It seemed that within this auction house, commodities like ‘humanity’ didn’t exist, only ‘profit’ and similar animalistic cravings.
Faint light flickered, and Tang San’s eyes revealed an ice cold aura, leaning back in his seat and quietly observing. He was an astute person, and naturally understood that he and Xiao Wu couldn’t change everything that happened. Even if they were truly able to save this cat woman, afterwards
there might still be a panther woman and a tiger woman, how could they promptly rush over without delay each time? ‘Teacher said that the auction house was a place brimming with opportunity and filth, it seems he really was right.’
Xiao Wu’s hand held on to Tang San’s the whole time, without relaxing. She discovered that Tang San’s grip on her hand was tight, clearly his heart was also uneasy. Looking at the light fluctuating in Tang San’s eyes, she also gradually calmed down. But she lowered her head, no longer looking at the stage.
Speaking of all this as a true coincidence, just after Tang San and Xiao Wu entered there was an auction of a living person, this no doubt left Tang San and Xiao Wu with an extremely profound, and also extremely bad impression.
At this moment, Tang San accidentally discovered that the middle aged man next to him pressed the button marked ten thousand. Even though it was his first time here, he still knew that this would display a ten thousand bid increase. In other words, he had at least a hundred ten thousand gold spirit coins to buy that cat woman.
His originally good impression immediately changed. He hadn’t expected this seemingly dignified and scholarly middle aged man next to him would actually be so base and despicable.
The middle aged man’s gaze stayed on the stage the whole time, but just when Tang San was changing his mind he spoke up:
“Rescuing the soulless is pointless. This one still has soul, and is also the result of spirit variation, how can I not save her like this?”
Hearing his words, Tang San was slightly distracted, and even more wary towards this middle aged man. How could he know what he was thinking, could it be he was a legendary mind reader?
“No need to be suspicious. Young man, the eyes are the window to the soul, your expression is already enough to tell me a lot of things. After all, I’ve already gone through a lot more years than you. This is the experience of society.”
The middle aged man smiled at Tang San, his hand once again pressing the bidding button.
By now the bidding price had already increased to sixty thousand gold spirit coins. Moreover it seemed like the rising trend would continue without pause.
The announcer said:
“One hundred seventy thousand, there is a red guest bidding one hundred seventy thousand gold spirit couns, are there no further bids?”
“One hundred eighty thousand. Excellent. there is a white-, ah. A white guest bidding one hundred eighty thousand.”
He had already cried out in surprise on more than one occasion. White represented the most inferior bidders, but from the start of this auction there had been a white bidder participating. Even stranger, his bank still didn’t show any signs of overdraft. This explained how the competitor had such bidding power.
“Let me see who dares fight with me.”
An elderly man in the frontmost red area stood up sharply, his eyes sweeping across the white area in the back. Even though he wore a mask, as soon as this man stood up, Tang San immediately recognized him.
The middle aged man had said that a person’s eyes were the windows to the soul. Everyone’s eyes were different, and the gap between expressions even greater. This red VIP person in front glowering at the back was precisely the Heaven Dou Imperial prince Xue Xing who had driven them away from Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.
Against Tang San and Xiao Wu’s expectations, the middle aged man to their side didn’t try to hide from the opponent’s gaze, but rather stood up, nodding to prince Xue Xing with a smile.
The number of people looking along with prince Xue Xing wasn’t small. Seeing the middle aged man standing up, not only Xue Xing was stunned, at the same time a cry of alarm rose at his side. Even that announcer on the stage went somewhat rigid.
“The auction house has the rules of the auction house, can we continue?”
The middle aged man’s voice wasn’t loud, but mild and refined, but it still clearly reached everyone’s ears.
Since Tang San sat at his side, he could distinctly feel the spirit fluctuations around him. He didn’t know why, but it didn’t have a trace of menace, feeling like an extremely gentle spirit power. He had a kind of unusually familiar feeling, as if he had sensed it somewhere before,
“We can, of course we can.”
The announcer agreed repeatedly with a toadying face.
“One hundred eighty thousand gold spirit coins going twice, one hundred eighty thousand gold spirit coins going thrice. Sold. This cat woman belongs to the mysterious guest in the white guest area.”
After the middle aged man stood up nobody placed any more bids, and the auction was concluded smoothly.
When the middle aged man stood up and fearlessly confronted prince Xue Bing, Tang San knew he hadn’t lied. Otherwise, would he still have needed to stand up and brag about buying back a slave? Even more, for this reason he had offended an imperial prince. This scholarly middle aged man didn’t appear to be any kind of fool, so naturally he wouldn’t act foolishly. Since he did this, it proved he certainly had an honest heart.
“Uncle, thank you.”
Xiao Wu was more direct than Tang San, and with a greatly improved mood she immediately blurted out without thinking.
The middle aged man smiled and shook his head, pointing to the stage, indicating they should look.
The immense iron cage had been pushed out, and very quickly an elderly man hurriedly ran up, saying something to the announcer, who nodded repeatedly.
The middle aged man smiled calmly, thinking out loud:
“These fellows want to fool me with low price goods again. Every time I come it’s the same. Why always this? It’s not like I won’t pay.”
Tang San earnestly said:
“Perhaps they’re afraid you will destroy something good. After you’ve bid, nobody will dare increase the price. With you here, their good things won’t sell for a good price, to the auction house it’s naturally a loss.”
The middle aged man smiled slightly, comfortably leaning back in his seat,
“Then I should also leave. This trip has still been worthwhile. If you’re interested, you can come with me to have a look at that cat woman later.”
“Good.”
Xiao Wu agreed without the slightest hesitation. She wasn’t as simple as she might seem, she really wanted to see how the middle aged man would treat that cat girl, in order to feel relieved.
The middle aged man said:
“Then we’ll take a look at the last item, and leave directly. How could I let their arrangement go to waste?”
Very quickly another item was pushed out. This time it was only a small cart, the thing on which also wasn’t covered by any red cloth. Seeing this item, Tang San didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Xiao Wu couldn’t help saying:
“Ge, isn’t this our Powder Shooting Shadow?”
Sure enough, what was pushed out was precisely the Powder Shooting Shadow Tang San had just had appraised at the lowest starting price level of the auction. Of course, this so-called lowest starting price was already a considerable amount to ordinary people.
“Powder Shooting Shadow? Good name.”
The middle aged man smiled at Tang San. Tang San thought he saw something in his eyes, but couldn’t make it out.
On the stage, the announcer made the introductions,
“The next item up for auction is a weapon the appraisers acclaimed as the most elaborate. Honored guests do not look only at its small size, its power is extremely astonishing.”
While speaking, the announcer picked up the Powder Shooting Shadow from the tray,
“Our appraiser also didn’t know how this weapon was manufactured, however, once used it can instantly launch thirty six steel needles. These steel needles are able to pierce a one centimeter thick steel plate within a range of fifteen meters, and are moreover dipped in paralysing poison. When the steel needles are launched, there is also the concealment of a dense mist. It’s a rare protective weapon. Altogether it can launch three times. If used ap
propriately in battle, it can very easily steal away the opponents fighting capability.”
“Yi.”
The face of the middle aged man at Tang San’s side changed,
“These fellows really picked something I like. Little friends, does this weapon belong to you?”
Chapter 074: Extreme Pure Power Spirit Master
Part 1 (TL by DtAndroid)
Xiao Wu had already said it, so Tang San naturally wouldn’t try to cover up, nodding his head.
The middle aged man thought a while, then immediately pressed a bidding button. What he pressed was the one for ten thousand gold spirit coins.
“Uncle, didn’t you make a mistake? Wealth shouldn’t be spent in such a manner.”
Xiao Wu had been paying attention to the middle aged man, and seeing him press down ten thousand gold spirit coins, she could not help but remind him.
The middle aged man smiling slightly, said: “I cannot let you make a loss. After my price increase, I am afraid nobody will come and compete anymore.”
Sure enough, as the middle aged man had said, once the host on the stage mentioned a white guest bidding ten thousand gold spirit coins, nobody came to compete at all, smoothly sealing the deal.
“My two young friends, let us leave. I have quite some expectations for today’s obtained items.”
The middle aged man stood up, following the passageway he walked out. The host on the stage seeing him about to leave, clearly relaxed.
Tang San’s group of two followed the middle aged man together walking out of the auction center. Once past the door an attendant immediately approached. Different from the attendants Tang San and Xiao Wu had seen, this attendant’s dress sense wasn’t revealing, moreover the dress was silver in colour, and her appearance even more beautiful. Although one couldn’t claim her as a stunning beauty, but her standards are relatively not bad.
“Distinguished guests, please follow me.”
The silver dressed lady respectfully bowed towards the middle aged man before making an inviting hand gesture.
The middle aged man lifted his hand, signaling her to lead the way.
Tang San and Xiao Wu followed behind the middle aged man, under the guidance of the silver dressed lady the three of them walked into a room beside the auction center.
Douluo Dalu - Volume 01-48 Page 132
