Xiao Yan slowly walked out of the auction house and stood at the entrance. He lifted his head to watch the slightly darkening sky before letting out a long sigh. After which, he turned around and walked toward the hall of the auction house.

“I should first obtain the money and the things I have bid for.” Xiao Yan muttered to himself as he walked.

When he entered the hall, Xiao Yan took out his second grade VIP card and handed it to a female servant. After he clearly stated his purpose, he was respectfully invited in by the latter.

“Sir, please wait for a moment. The auction fair will be over soon. When that time comes, the one in charge will help this sir put together the goods you have bought.” The female servant placed a cup of warm tea on the table beside Xiao Yan before withdrawing with a smile from the room.

Xiao Yan nodded slightly and held the teacup in his hand. He absorbed some of the warmth, but did not drink it. There was no harm in being a little more cautious in this ‘Black-Corner Region’. This was especially so at this auction place, where it appeared to be fair, but was actually a dark place in a complete mess.

Xiao Yan closed his eyes. His finger slowly tapped on the table. This continued for a long while before the sound of approaching footsteps were suddenly transmitted into the room. Xiao Yan’s finger gradually paused and he opened his eyes to watch the curtain, which had been pulled aside. There was a small, skinny, shrivelled-looking old man, who was leading two female servants, as they walked in full of smiles.

“Ke ke, Mister should be the person who auctioned off the three ‘Green-Spirit Pills’, right? I am the person in charge of the affairs here and you can call me Supervisor Hu.” When the old man saw Xiao Yan, whose entire body was wrapped in a black robe, he walked forward and spoke with a smile still on his face.

“Yao Yan.” Xiao Yan nodded faintly and softly replied, “Supervisor Hu, has the auction fair concluded?”

“Ke ke, it has successfully concluded.” Supervisor Hu nodded with a grin as his gaze swept over Xiao Yan’s body without leaving a trace. However, he did not discover anything amiss which could help him recognize the latter’s identity. He then waved his hand, and a female servant from behind hurriedly lifted the silver plate on her hand. On the silver plate was a purple-gold card with five different colored lines drawn on it.

Five-lined purple gold card was something that only a Dou Ling had the qualification to manage and carry on this Dou Qi continent. Of course, nothing was ever absolute. According to common sense, a tier three alchemist also had this qualification.

“Mister Yao Yan, the price that your three ‘Green Spirit Pills’ was auctioned off for was two million seven hundred thousand. After deducting ten percent as the administration fee for the auction fair, you are left with two million four hundred and thirty thousand.” The eyes of Supervisor Hu were narrowed until they were only a line as he smiled and continued, “You have spent one million two hundred thousand on that ‘Flame Core ‎Ganoderma’ and four hundred thousand on the ‘Bright Square Fire’ Cauldron. You are finally left with eight hundred and thirty thousand, which is all in this purple and gold card. Those things which you had purchased are in this storage ring.”

The supervisor waved his hand and the female servant handed the silver plate to Xiao Yan. There was a five-lined, purple-gold card and an ordinary storage ring sitting on the silver plate.

“What an unscrupulous administrative fee.” Xiao Yan shook his head helplessly within his heart. He did not expect that after working for over half a day, he was actually left with less than one million gold coins.

Xiao Yan extended his hand to receive that card and storage ring. He carefully checked the ‘Flame Core ‎Ganoderma’ and the ‘Bright Square Fire’ cauldron before finally taking the two out and placing them into his own storage ring.

“That’s right, Supervisor Hu, which faction managed to successfully bid for the ‘Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill’ in the end?” Xiao Yan suddenly carelessly asked out of curiosity after arranging everything properly.

“Ke ke, that thing was finally auctioned off to the ‘Sky Serpent Mansion’.” Supervisor Hu did not hesitate when he heard Xiao Yan’s question and directly replied. After all, countless number of people had personally witnessed the auction. Even if he did not say it, it was likely the news would spread throughout half of the ‘Black-Corner Region’ in an afternoon.

“The ‘Sky Serpent Mansion’, huh.” The eyebrows under the black robe twitched as Xiao Yan muttered in his heart

“Since I have obtained the things I have paid for, I shall not disturb you any further. Goodbye.” Once he obtained the answer, Xiao Yan ceased hesitating as he cupped his hands toward Supervisor Hu and left.’

“Ke ke, Mister Yan Xiao, please wait a moment. Our leader is interested in mister. If mister does not mind, can you meet up and chat with our leader?” The Supervisor Hu suddenly asked with a smile when he saw that Xiao Yan was about to leave.

Xiao Yan frowned slightly under the black robe and said faintly, “Forget about it. I am only here to get rid of some unneeded things. What is there to cause your leader to have any interest? I’m sorry, I really have some things to do and cannot stay any longer. If I still need to sell anything in the future, I will definitely come look for Supervisor Hu. Goodbye.”

With that, Xiao Yan did not wait for Supervisor Hu to try to convince him to stay. Instead, he swiftly walked out of the hall.

Supervisor Hu narrowed his eyes slightly as he stood in the hall as Xiao Yan disappeared from his sight. He could not resist knitting his brows together.

“How was it? Did you find out his identity?”

A faint voice suddenly sounded in the hall. Supervisor Hu turned around and saw that it was a middle-aged man with a sturdy frame, who was seated in the chair which Xiao Yan had been sitting in earlier. Following the appearance of this man, the atmosphere of the hall suddenly became a little more tense, causing the waist of Supervisor Hu to bend by quite a lot.

“Leader.” Supervisor Hu hurriedly said respectfully after seeing this middle-aged man whose hair was a little white, “For now, I still cannot see through him. This person hides very deeply. Logically speaking, by being able to take out three ‘Green Spirit Pill’ at once, there is a good chance that he is an alchemist, Moreover, it is likely that his tier is quite high. After all, a medicinal pill of the ‘Green Spirit Pill’ grade is something that even an ordinary tier four alchemist would have difficulty refining. I have thought of all those high tier alchemists whom I know, but I cannot match his figure with any high-tiered alchemists that I know of.

The middle-aged man frowned slightly as he let out a soft ‘hmm’. His faint voice contained a dark, cold, killing intent that was difficult to hide, “Send someone to follow him in the shadows. Ascertain his background. A high tier alchemist who can refine a ‘Green Spirit Pill’ is not someone that one can easily come across. Try your best to let him work for our ‘Eight Gates’. If that is really not possible, get rid of him in an infallible situation. Since he cannot be used by me, I naturally cannot let others get the benefit. Otherwise, he will sooner or later become trouble.”

“Yes.” Supervisor Hu hurriedly replied.

“Ah, you go and settle it. Find some people who are more well versed in hiding their Qi. I still need to personally help the ‘Sky Serpent Mansion’ perform the administrative work for the exchange of the ‘Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill’. That thing is far too expensive. If it were not because of the status of the seller being so strong, is it logical for something which has come here to be auctioned to get taken away from us?” The middle-aged man stood up and smacked his lips before walking toward the back of the hall. He laughed coldly with some unwillingness.

TL: Basically, auction house was the one “selling” the items

Supervisor Hu repeatedly nodded. He waited until the middle-aged person disappeared before gently releasing his pent up breath and quietly left the hall.

Xiao Yan exited the auction house and went to the ‘Thousand Medicine Place’ first. Once he purchased the medicinal ingredients needed to refine the ‘Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill’, the eight hundred over thousand within his purple-gold card was reduced until over two hundred thousand was left.

Xiao Yan played with the purple-gold card in his hand and could not resist laughing bitterly. It was really unexpected that after spending over half a day, his financial situation had returned back to its starting point.

“Ah, it really is unexpected that I am still a poor person.” As he thought of how those fellows spent huge sums of money in the auction house, Xiao Yan could not help but feel speechless at the gap between himself and them.

“Be careful, there are people following you. I think that it should be people from that ‘Eight Gates’.” Yao Lao’s faint voice suddenly sounded in Xiao Yan’s heart as the latter passed through a street.

Xiao Yan’s footsteps paused for a moment. He then walked forward at a steady pace once again. In his heart, he smiled coldly and said, “It is worthy of being the ‘Black-Corner Region’. With the cheap honesty of these fellows, there are actually people who are rest assured in handing their things to them to auction off? If this were to happen in the Jia Ma Empire, it would sooner or later have to close down.”

“There is no choice. In this ‘Black-Corner Region’, there are not many people who have the strength to organize this kind of auction fair. After all, this place is really too chaotic.” Yao Lao said with a smile, “But we need not bother about them temporarily. There is currently no need for us to get into too much conflict with them.”

“Yes.” Xiao Yan nodded slightly.

“Let’s shake off those fellows behind us first. After that, we should go and inquire about the place where the Junior Sect Leader of the Blood Sect is staying. We can forget about the other things, but we must get our hands on that map piece.” Yao Lao voiced his thoughts.

Xiao Yan nodded once again. That map piece gives the location of the ‘Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’. It was natural that Xiao Yan placed great effort on it. The corner of Xiao Yan’s eyes the street behind him where the human flow was very turbulent. His body suddenly flashed and squeezed into the street like a ghost.

Not long after Xiao Yan flashed into the small street, a few human figures also hurriedly squeezed out from the entrance of the small street. Their gazes swept over the street, but did not find any human figures. With a wave of a hand, the human figures hurriedly scattered, looking all over the place for the target which had disappeared.

“These dare to follow people?”

Xiao Yan easily shook off those following behind him and laughed with disdain in his heart. He changed his clothes and strolled on the street, spending some gold coins to obtain the information which he wanted. Due to Fan Ling’s identity, he did not hide his movement and openly lived at the most luxurious hotel within the ‘Black Mark City’. Therefore, it was not difficult to obtain information regarding where he stayed.

In order to observe all of Fan Ling’s action at all times, Xiao Yan gave up the inn which he had stayed at before, and found a hidden place to stay that was just outside of the place where Fan Ling was staying.

After the auction fair that day had ended, Fan Ling and the others did not immediately leave the ‘Black Mark City’. Instead, they rested for one night and swaggered out of the hotel in the afternoon the next day before whizzing out of the ‘Black Mark City’.

As Fan Ling and his group left ‘Black Mark City’, a shadow quietly followed behind. He was like a gangrene in the bone that one could not shake off no matter how hard one tried.

“Hei, I’m sorry, but no one can snatch away my things. I don’t care if you are a Junior Sect Leader...” The black shadow cut past the forest as his faint cold laughter slowly lingered.