Chapter 55: The Inevitable Auction House for any Protagonist

Chapter 55: The Inevitable Auction House for the Protagonist

"We've arrived? What kind of place is this?" Zhong Yan raised his head, looking at the building ahead and asking.

The building looked quite peculiar, resembling the lower half of a pyramid. Hanging above was an icon shaped like a hammer and a cutting board, with no other identification whatsoever.

Xue Qinghe smiled and introduced it to Zhong Yan: "This is the largest auction house within Heaven Dou City."

"An auction house? What are we doing here?"

"To have fun, of course." Xue Qinghe turned his head to look at Zhong Yan, smiling with feigned mystery. He flicked his folding fan open and gently waved it. With a refined temperament and the grace of a jade-like tree, he truly cut the figure of an elegant and handsome young gentleman.

With that, he stepped forward and walked inside.

"Have fun? What is there to have fun with here? It's not like we can unearth some rare treasures."

Xue Qinghe strode ahead, tossing back a casual remark from afar: "Who knows?" Only Zhong Yan, walking behind him, could not see the smile hanging on his face—a smile that looked just like a child who had successfully pulled off a mischievous prank. Yet, it vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, and a flash of disgust crossed his eyes as he looked toward the auction house.

Zhong Yan quickened his pace, catching up to Xue Qinghe in two or three steps, and said to him, "Let's get this straight first. I don't have the habit of carrying money around. We can have fun, but you're footing the bill."

"Surely the esteemed Holy Son of the Spirit Hall wouldn't mind charging the bill back to Spirit Hall?"

"If Teacher finds out I've been wasting money recklessly, I'll surely get another beating from Ghost Douluo."

"Pfft, hahaha." Xue Qinghe folded his fan, covering his mouth as he chuckled softly.

The two walked through the main gates of the auction house. Like the rest of the building, the entrance was uniformly milky white, and four tall young women stood inside.

At a glance, these young women had clearly been rigorously selected. Not only were they all around one meter seventy-five in height, but their figures were also exceptionally well-proportioned. While they couldn't be called peerless beauties, they certainly deserved to be called pretty. They appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, and their pleasing figures and faces possessed a strong allure.

They were all dressed in identical white dresses. These long dresses were rather tight-fitting and closely tailored, fully outlining their graceful curves. Seeing the two walk in, all four young women made the exact same gesture, placing their hands in front of them and speaking softly together with a smile, "Welcome, gentlemen."

One of the four young women stepped forward, bowed slightly, and smiled, "Gentlemen, please present your identification."

Xue Qinghe produced a black-and-gold card and showed it to the young woman. Upon seeing the card, the young woman's expression instantly turned respectful, "Respected sir, please follow me."

***

Xue Qinghe nodded slightly and followed her into the auction house along with Zhong Yan. The moment Zhong Yan stepped inside, inside a private box somewhere within the auction house, an elderly man in white with hair like snow and the complexion of a child sensed Zhong Yan's aura.

"Interesting. It seems today's auction won't be taking place after all."

Seated beside the white-robed elder was a middle-aged man with a refined temperament, who was in the midst of pouring tea. Hearing the elder's remark, he raised his head to look at him, evidently piqued by the statement, and couldn't help asking, "Oh? Uncle Jian, who has arrived?"

A trace of a smile surfaced on Sword Douluo's face as he said, "Who else could it be? Naturally, it's that Holy Son of Spirit Hall."

Hearing this, Ning Fengzhi pondered for a moment, then chuckled softly as well. "It seems today's auction really won't go on. Hahaha."

Ning Fengzhi slowly poured a cup of tea for Sword Douluo as well. "Then today, let's just sit back and enjoy a good show."

***

The young woman escorted the two all the way to the inner entrance of the auction house before turning to leave, as there were other attendants inside the venue.

Compared to the guiding young woman from earlier, the attendants inside dressed quite differently.

The attendants in the interior were all female, standing at about the same height as the previous guide, but their figures were much spicier—to put it simply, extremely alluring.

They wore tight black dresses with necklines plunging down to just above their navels. The dresses were sleeveless, and the short hemlines barely covered their private areas, exposing soft and firm thighs fitted with lace garter belts, paired with black high heels that made them all the more seductive. The deep cleavage on their chests and the rounded, lifted curves beneath their short skirts were enough to stir anyone's imagination.

Dressed in such a fashion, even Zhong Yan couldn't help taking a few extra glances. After all, who wasn't a normal man?

However, the more he looked, the more he wanted to look, and eventually, his gaze remained fixed on those slender, curvaceous hips.

"Is it that good to look at?"

Suddenly, Xue Qinghe's lingering voice sounded by Zhong Yan's ear.

"Ahem, I was merely appreciating another's beauty in a proper manner," Zhong Yan said with a completely serious expression.

"What a pity, then," Xue Qinghe said indifferently, putting away his folding fan and walking swiftly ahead of Zhong Yan.

Seeing Xue Qinghe act this way, Zhong Yan felt somewhat baffled.

***

Xue Qinghe stood in front of Zhong Yan with a rather cold expression. Looking at the young woman leading them to their private box, a flicker of pity could not help but flash through his eyes.

The auction center gave the impression of a large auditorium, its layout similar to the main soul arena of a Grand Soul Arena. In the center was a circular stage, surrounded by rings of seats radiating outward.

It was divided into a total of five sections. The three rows of seats closest to the stage were red, radiating outward in sequence to black, purple, yellow, and white, clearly set up according to different tiers of bidders.

Xue Qinghe told Zhong Yan that the innermost red seats were accessed via a special passage, protected by dedicated security personnel. That was the so-called million-gold VIP zone, and one had to possess sufficient status and standing to obtain red VIP qualifications.

The outward ring of black seats was the general million-gold VIP zone. As long as one had money, they could enter, belonging to the secondary-tier black VIPs.

Moving further out, the purple seats were for five-hundred-thousand-gold purple VIPs, the yellow for one-hundred-thousand-gold ordinary VIPs, and the outermost white seats were the largest in area.

As the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, Xue Qinghe's status went without saying. The young woman led Xue Qinghe and Zhong Yan toward the red-carpeted VIP passage, entering the highest-grade auction seating.

The seating in this red VIP zone consisted of a luxurious sofa measuring a full five meters in length, with a rosewood coffee table placed in front of it, laden with fruit platters, various pastries, and alcoholic beverages.

After Xue Qinghe and Zhong Yan sat down, a middle-aged man in a black suit, who appeared to be staff of the auction house, approached their location with two tall and gorgeously featured women.

Seeing this man approach, the look in Xue Qinghe's eyes turned cold, and he said indifferently, "Take them away, they are not needed here."

The middle-aged man bowed slightly, "Understood, Your Highness," and then withdrew.

Once these people had all left, only Xue Qinghe and Zhong Yan remained in the private box.

Zhong Yan leaned back against the sofa, looked at the crowd down below in the auction house, and said indifferently, "The lives of these nobles are truly luxurious."

Xue Qinghe shook his head helplessly, and as if speaking quite casually, slowly uttered a sentence: "What do you think of those young women?"

"Hmm?"