Chapter 66

In the tug-of-war between Booth 50 and Booth 13, the latter finally gave up when the price hit one billion.

Ye Xinyu watched the screen, her eyes narrowing as she tapped a few more times.

“Sister, didn’t you say we weren’t bidding?” Hu Mengmeng gasped as she saw Ye Xinyu place a bid for 1.1 billion.

“Booth 50 is desperate for this Spiritual Jade,” Ye Xinyu said simply.

Hu Mengmeng was confused, but she watched as Booth 50 quickly countered with 1.2 billion. Immediately, Ye Xinyu bumped it to 1.3 billion. Booth 50 hesitated. Ye Xinyu clenched her hands, staring at the screen, her palms sweating slightly.

As the host began the final countdown, Booth 50 placed a final bid of 1.5 billion. Ye Xinyu let out a long breath and leaned back.

It was clear now: Booth 50 was determined to win that Middle-Grade Spiritual Jade at any cost. 1.5 billion was a heavy burden even for them; otherwise, they wouldn’t have hesitated so long.

Ye Xinyu stopped bidding. Booth 50 secured the jade for 1.5 billion—over seven times its usual peak market value.

Inside Booth 50, a man stared at the screen with bloodshot eyes, gritting his teeth in a mix of fury and relief.

“Hmph, keep raising the price, go ahead! If I find out who was bidding against me, I’ll kill them!” the man snarled. This was none other than Ou Shixing.

“We spent a fortune on this jade. We have to be careful for the rest of the auction,” Shuo Rat said, shaking his head.

“We won’t bid on anything unnecessary now. But this jade… we had to have it,” Ou Shixing muttered.

Meanwhile, in Booth 13, a woman was doubled over with laughter.

“The person in Booth 18 is a genius!” she giggled. Had Ye Xinyu and Hu Mengmeng seen her, they would have recognized Gu Linghuang.

Back in Ye Xinyu’s booth:

“Sister, I get it now. You did that on purpose.” Hu Mengmeng looked at Ye Xinyu with realization. She hadn’t expected Ye Xinyu to be so “black-bellied”—she actually dared to gamble like that.

“We didn’t have enough money to compete for it anyway. But by driving the price up, they’ll have to be more restrained if they want to compete for the Spiritual Essence Pill or anything else later,” Ye Xinyu explained.

“But Sister, what do we do now? Someone else got the jade,” Hu Mengmeng fretted, hating her own lack of funds. If she were rich, Ye Xinyu wouldn’t have to scheme like this.

“We’ll try our luck. There might be another Middle-Grade Spiritual Jade in the coming days, and there’s always the free trade fair,” Ye Xinyu sighed. Spiritual Jade was a resource; they might find more. But the Pill—only the Qi family had that. It was refined, not found, and it involved Ye Shoutian’s life.

Ye Xinyu made her choice. She pressed her hand to her belly to soothe the restless little one. Once the box containing the jade was taken away from the stage, the baby settled down, though it seemed to radiate a tiny bit of disappointment. Ye Xinyu could only attribute this unusual sensitivity to its demon bloodline.

She looked through the catalog for the remaining items. None were what she originally wanted, but she decided to watch for anything that triggered the baby’s interest. If it wasn’t too expensive, she’d buy it to appease the “little boss.”

When the third item after the jade was brought up, the baby suddenly became excited again—its intensity rivaling the reaction to the jade.

The item was a Jade-fied Giant Clam bracelet. Giant clams are sea mollusks; when their shells undergo “jade-fication,” they become organic gemstones. While valuable in human society, they were generally useless to cultivators.

The starting bid was ten million. No one bid. It was about to go unsold. Ye Xinyu entered the bid. With ​stolen content​zero competition, the bracelet went to her.

“Sister, do you like that bracelet?” Hu Mengmeng asked, confused as to why Ye Xinyu would drop ten million on a decorative item.

“The baby likes it,” Ye Xinyu replied.

“It’s so far away and it can’t even see! How do you know?” Hu Mengmeng was speechless. First the jade, now jewelry?

“It got excited the moment the bracelet appeared. Let’s buy it and see.”

Ye Xinyu transferred the funds, and soon a staff member delivered the box. She held the bracelet; the beads were as white as jade and felt warm yet cool to the touch. It was indeed a top-tier gemstone, but Ye Xinyu couldn’t sense a single trace of spiritual energy from it. However, the moment the beads touched her palm, the baby calmed down completely.

“Mengmeng, check this. Is there anything special about it?” Ye Xinyu handed it over.

The moment the bracelet left Ye Xinyu’s hand, the baby began to fuss again. Ye Xinyu was shocked. Did this little thing really fall in love with a piece of jewelry?

“It’s smooth and a bit cool, but no spiritual energy. Is it just vain? Does it even have eyes yet? Brat!” Hu Mengmeng shook her head.

“It has senses; don’t talk about it like that. If it’s not harmful, we’ll keep it.” Ye Xinyu took it back, and the baby went silent again. She simply put the bracelet on her wrist.

The rest of the items were spiritual artifacts that triggered no reaction from the baby, so they left. After a long day, Ye Xinyu was exhausted and went to sleep shortly after washing up.

Hu Mengmeng, however, was full of energy and worry. She flipped through the hotel’s guide, memorizing the layout of the island, and decided to head out. The hotel had spiritual protection arrays, so it was safe for Ye Xinyu to stay.

While the major venues were high-end and quality-guaranteed, the island also hosted an informal night market for small vendors. This was where cultivators—and even ordinary read the original at bailiantales.compeople who knew of their existence—sold things the auction wouldn’t take, or things they couldn’t get a good price for in stores. It was also a place rife with fakes.

Hu Mengmeng wanted to see if there was a way to make money. Ye Xinyu’s friends were all wealthy, Ye Xinyu herself dropped ten million without blinking, and the baby was already making luxury demands from the womb. If she didn’t find a way to earn more, she’d feel like she was just living off Ye Xinyu.

She disguised herself with a hoodie and mask, masked her aura, and headed for the night market. It was a massive wholesale-style mall, crowded and bustling. She saw people selling spiritual herbs and meat brought from the deep mountains. It reminded her that her mother, Hu Yaoyao, used to do this business.

Suddenly, she spotted a vendor buying Fox Demon Fur. The prices were tiered by rank: fur from a five-tailed fox went for 500 per gram. There was no price listed for six-tailed fur, but it was presumably higher.

I don’t have much, she thought, but I have plenty of fur! Just the fur on her tails alone could weigh quite a bit.

“Big brother, why are you buying fox fur? What is it used for?” she asked.

“You don’t know? Fox fur is top-tier. The higher the rank, the better the quality. It’s used for luxury clothing—soft, warm, and if tanned well, it retains spiritual energy for beauty and ‘aura’ enhancement. Talisman masters also use it for high-end brushes, and some make weapons from it. Hey kid, you want a one-tail fox scarf? Cheap, only…” the man smiled.

“No thanks. Do you buy six-tail fur? How much?”

“Six-tails? A demon of that rank wouldn’t need this kind of pocket change. If a six-tail is caught, they sell the whole hide. I rarely even see five-tail fur.”

“I happen to have some,” Hu Mengmeng whispered. “How much for six-tail fur? If the price is right, I’ll bring some.”

“You really have some? Not just shed fur from molting? Shed fur is only 200 per gram. Freshly shorn fur with full spiritual energy is 1,000 per gram.”

Hu Mengmeng bargained. “For a six-tail? 1,000 is too low. I guarantee it’s fresh. Can you go higher?”

“Depends on the quality. I have testing equipment here. Don’t try to fool me.”

“I’ll go get it,” she said.

She returned to the hotel, checked that Ye Xinyu was asleep, and unsealed her bloodline. She looked at her tails—soft, lush, and glowing with spiritual energy. She grabbed a pair of scissors to trim some, but her fur was so tough the scissors wouldn’t cut.

Embarrassed, she looked around and saw Ye Xinyu’s Evil-Slaying Sword box. If it could slay demons, it could cut fur. She took the sword and, in a remarkably bold move, began “shaving” one of her tails.

She stuffed the fur into a spirit-isolating box. She decided to test the waters with the fur from just one tail first. After she retracted her ears and tails, she felt fine and snuck back to the market.

The vendor was shocked when she actually returned. He tested a few strands of the crystalline red fur and stood there gawking. He had never seen someone sell fresh, shorn six-tail fur like this.

“Well?” she asked.

“Miss, you’re incredible! I’ll give you 2,000 per gram. I’ll take as much as you have!”

They weighed the fur from the single tail. It was over 300 grams. Because it was so light, it was a massive pile.

“A total of 624,000. How do you want the payment?”

Hu Mengmeng’s heart raced. Over 600,000 for one tail? If she shaved all six, that was 3.6 million! And it would grow back eventually! She felt like a millionaire. She gave him the anonymous bank card Ye Xinyu had provided her, and the transfer went through.

As she left the stall, the vendor excitedly dialed a phone number.

Hu Mengmeng continued browsing. She saw vendors buying fox claws for weapon making, also for ​unauthorized copy​a high price. She decided to keep her claws for protection for now. Then, she saw a vendor selling “Ecstasy Pills,” claiming they were better than any drug in the human world. A tiny pill cost ten thousand.

As she walked by, she caught a familiar scent. The “energy” sealed in those pills was the exact same seductive, aphrodisiac energy she had worked so hard to purify from her own spiritual aura.

Wait… I can make a fortune selling aphrodisiacs?!