area51novel Chapter 205 is just for watching the show.
Chapter 205 is just for watching the show.
Originally, Longyou's dessert shop and milk tea shop were located in Tiandou City. There's no need to go into too much detail about how they gradually developed into a continent-wide chain. All you need to know is that this chain, now named "Youyou Luming," is entirely managed by Longyou's father.
Every month, Long's father would summarize the profits from the stores across various locations, take his share, and deposit the remainder into an account specially opened for Long You. Because the stores might need to open branches or incur other expenses at any time, and Long You himself had sufficient income, the gold coins in this account had remained untouched. Now, it was time to find out just how much wealth he had accumulated over the past ten years.
Because every transaction record is kept by Byrne, calculating the balance is very convenient.
"Eight million six hundred and twenty thousand? That's a lot?"
To be honest, the final figure given by Byrne surprised Long You quite a bit. Long You had never doubted that the milk tea shop was profitable, but considering that the average price of those products was only one silver coin (some super luxurious versions raised the average price), Long You really didn't expect that the amount of liquid funds he could use would reach such a large amount.
[The 8.62 million from the milk tea shop, plus the 3.13 million in loose change I already had, gives me 11 million in auction funds. That should be about right. But just to be safe, I'll prepare a little more.]
"Auctioneer Qingya, when settling accounts at Starlight Auction House, can I use a Tulip Alliance debit card?"
The Tulip Alliance, formerly known as the Great Soul Arena (the Great Soul Arena doesn't seem like an organization that would perish, but it's not really shown in Douluo Continent II, so let's just make one up), is now a super behemoth involved in all aspects of the continent. Every medium-sized and large city has a bank belonging to the Tulip Alliance. In a sense, the Tulip Alliance assumes the responsibilities of a continental bank. The power behind it is not prominent on the continent, but Long You knows that power is the Body Sect.
Okay, that's not the point right now. Long You asked this simply to confirm whether the Starlight Auction House, which is clearly a property of the Star Luo Empire's royal family, has any business dealings with the Tulip Alliance's money exchange. If not, the gold soul coins that Long You has stored in the Tulip Alliance's money exchange account will be unusable.
"Rest assured, our auction house has business dealings with Tulip Union Bank. As long as you can provide Tulip Union Bank's savings certificate, the asset is valid."
"Thank you for your answer. I feel relieved now."
As Long You had expected, Starlight Auction House couldn't refuse its client's more convenient payment method. However, this question also revealed Long You's covetousness for the next item in the auction.
"Hey? Xiao You, do you want this Starlink Titanium on the stage? But with our current strength, we probably don't need this level of rare metal."
If we were to ask who among the people present knew the most about Starlink Titanium besides Long You, it would definitely be He Caitou. However, although He Caitou was envious, as a rational poor person (compared to Long You), He Caitou had absolutely no intention of buying this piece of Starlink Titanium.
"Ha, Senior Brother, I told you before, right? There's no need to spend too much money on rare metals that can be obtained within the academy. Save your money; you might just stumble upon some rare and exciting items that you don't see often!"
Okay, I need to make another call. I'm determined to get this Starlink titanium.
With outsiders present, Long You naturally couldn't reveal the information about the Star Core Tulip. So, after giving a brief and vague answer, Long You shook his wrist, indicating that he needed to raise more funds to ensure that the auction item would be successfully acquired by him.
"Uncle? Is now a convenient time to talk?"
"Oh, it's Xiao You. What's wrong? Just say it. It's very quiet around your uncle right now!"
"That's good. I'm currently at the top-tier auction at the Starlight Auction House. There's something that really appeals to me, but I might not have enough funds for the auction. How much money can you lend me in a short period of time, Uncle?"
"Oh? The Starlight Auction House's top-tier auction? You went as the Shrek Academy team? You really know how to seize opportunities!"
Considering the auction is unlikely to extend the payment period to tomorrow, your uncle can only provide you with a maximum of five million gold soul coins right now. How about that? Is that enough? If not, your uncle will swallow his pride and help you scrape together some of his own savings.”
"Five million? That's enough. This is quite a pleasant surprise. However, I'm afraid I'll need to trouble Uncle to make a trip after the auction ends."
"Ha, this is nothing, it's just two steps."
He shook his wrist and hung up the call. Long You suddenly noticed that the atmosphere in the room was a little heavy.
"what happened?"
"We were wondering before how you were able to find a secluded place in Star Luo City to practice piloting soul-guided mechs so easily, and why you said you could find someone to help film the competition."
"So you're actually a local, huh? And you have an uncle who can pull out millions of gold soul coins anytime? That's just too much!"
It's said that jealousy can distort one's true nature. Although none of the Shrek Academy students present were truly poor, only Dai Yueheng possessed enough wealth to participate in this top-tier auction. Even then, it was only with the help of his family's influence that this eldest son of the White Tiger Duke was able to achieve this.
Everyone had assumed that the remaining people were all poor, but now that they suddenly discovered there was a traitor, their mood was naturally not very pleasant.
"Uh···"
Faced with this kind of "questioning," even with his silver tongue, Long You could only manage an awkward grin. Fortunately, the announcement that the viewing time was over and Princess Xu Jiujiu's voice signaling the start of the bidding saved Long You from his embarrassment.
Relying on his relatively sufficient funds, and knowing that he was determined to acquire this item anyway, Long You invested a huge sum of five million gold soul coins at the very beginning of the bidding, quickly driving up the auction price of Starlink Titanium.
This almost disruptive bidding method quickly caught the attention of observant individuals. Considering that no one could arbitrarily bid and disrupt the auction order in the Starlight Auction House, after another bid of five million gold soul coins was placed in the same box number, the guests in the other boxes realized the determination of the guest in this box to win the item.
Although this was his first time participating in an auction in real life, Long You hadn't forgotten some auction psychology knowledge he'd learned from reading novels in his previous life. He didn't expect the rudimentary strategy of shouting out a price higher than everyone's expectations to intimidate the entire room and thus achieve a de facto low price would succeed. However, he did demonstrate another strategy in this auction: directly signaling the auction through bidding.
Raising the price by five million at a time demonstrates Longyou's determination to acquire the item and its ample financial resources, showing that it is not concerned about competition.
All the participants in the top-tier auction were in private boxes, and they were all prominent figures. They wouldn't waste time and effort bidding on something insignificant unless absolutely necessary. Under these circumstances, after two rounds of bidding, Long You successfully brought the bidding numbers on the soul guide display screen to a standstill.
In the end, for twelve million gold soul coins, Long You secured the Starlink Titanium—no, it should now be called Star Core Tulip—that he had been longing for. The item was quickly delivered, and Long You handed over his two Tulip Alliance savings cards. Since there were only twelve million in total, Long You didn't need his uncle to make another trip; he only needed to empty his own savings.
Setting the spinning wheel on the coffee table, admiring the raw ore with faint star patterns visible, Long You had lost much interest in the remaining items. The level-eight soul tool looked powerful, but it actually traded its lifespan for explosive power, offering little research value. Furthermore, its power was unnecessary for Shrek Academy, naturally failing to attract the attention of the Shrek students in the private room.
However, after this auction item, Long You put away the raw ore that was displayed on the coffee table, and also sent a message to his uncle to tell him that his savings were enough.
Soon, the image of the soul bone appeared on the soul guide display screen. It was a rather beautiful soul bone, and Long You was willing to call it a floating flower jadeite, the kind with its own ice mist effect, a high-end jadeite placed in a display case.
After a long introduction, Long You, whose attention had shifted to Huo Yuhao, noticed that his half-brother's expression suddenly turned strange.
He subtly withdrew his gaze; as long as the soul bone remained intact, the situation would remain unchanged. Sure enough, just as Xu Jiujiu finished explaining the situation, and while Wang Yan was still reaching an agreement with Ling Luochen and Huo Yuhao, Huo Yuhao had already begun speaking firmly to Qingya.
Seeing the number 30,000,000 displayed on the soul guide screen, a smile flashed across Long You's eyes. Although the previous auction had been somewhat altered due to Long You's intervention, the final result was clearly unaffected by the butterfly effect. While the Star Luo Royal Family hadn't verified the accuracy of Huo Yuhao's information, they still trusted Shrek Academy's reputation and directly bid for the soul bone, thus doing Shrek Academy a favor.
Finally, the final item auctioned at the Starlight Auction House was once again the Conferred God Platform that sealed the Snow Empress's transformed state, breaking the auction record set by the Ice Jade Scorpion Soul Bone. However, this event had little impact on Shrek Academy. While Shrek Academy could afford the amount, this level of payment clearly exceeded the team's authority to verify. Of course, the sheer scale of the transaction also exceeded many people's expectations, given the final price of a whopping 150 million gold soul coins.
In the fiercely competitive final auction, the Shrek Academy group became spectators, with most people enjoying the rapidly changing numbers on the soul-guided display screen. However, Long You looked at the Bourne tablet in his hand and revealed a rather strange smile.
Leaving the Starlight Auction House area through different passages from each private room, Shrek and his group quickly returned to the hotel. However, just as everyone had passed through the suite doors and were preparing to return to their rooms to rest, Long You suddenly spoke up:
"Want to know the inside story of the final auction? Don't miss this opportunity, or you'll never get another chance."
Although watching the live stream was already incredibly tense and exciting, everyone present, including Fan Yu, who hadn't shown much emotion until now, stopped in their tracks at this moment.
Gossiping is human nature, and people naturally wouldn't want to miss the chance to get some free gossip.
"Xiao You, what did you do when the auction staff came in to deliver the items so that you knew what was happening outside the private room?"
Originally, Long You had planned to use his gossip sources to whet people's appetites, but some of Long You's little tricks were not particularly discreet in the eyes of Fan Yu, who was a Soul Douluo, and now they were directly exposed.
After a slight pause, Long You secretly patted the tightness in his chest and said, "The Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy also participated in this top-level auction, and in the end, the Conferred God Platform was bought by someone from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy. If nothing unexpected happens, they probably intend to give it to Xiao Hongchen."
Incidentally, Xiao Hongchen is the grandson of the head of Mingde Hall.
Then, the Body Sect also participated in this auction. Teacher Wang will tell you about the Body Sect later. What I want to tell you is that one of the two people from the Body Sect was also a Spirit-type Soul Master. I don't know if this Spirit-type Soul Master came simply to participate in the auction or if he had some other goal. After all, Yuhao's Spirit Eye Martial Soul is indeed a very rare Body Martial Soul.
This matter requires everyone's attention, but considering I'm only here for the spectacle, please pay attention to the following: The spirit-type soul master from the Body Sect has subdued an auction house staff member and learned that the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy was the one who ultimately purchased the Conferred God Platform. And the two individuals from the Body Sect were the ones who ultimately won the auction against the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.
Having his words interrupted, Long You simply changed his approach, speaking at an extremely fast pace and rattling off a large amount of information, so much so that the meeting room fell into a brief silence after Long You finished speaking.