They were in fact ready for these newly discovered competitors to cause them some trouble, but they did not realize that just as they were ready to take them on, their opponents had some capabilities of themselves. Unlike each individual at their table being able to take them on individually, the other groups seemed to have combined their wealth to take them on during each new treasure bidding.
At first, this was seen as rather pitiful and annoying to everyone sitting at their table, but the more it went on, the more annoyed everyone in George's group became. Luckily, everyone had quite a bit of experience and would cause some pretty good damage to the other group's wallets when it counted, causing their opponents to become rather bitter.
One of the individuals in George's group was a merchant himself and whenever he heard a treasure that he could give at a much lower price to the members of the group, he would tell them to continue bidding. By making the price higher and higher, they would cause the other group to continue as well until the purchase price was much more than what the treasure was worth.
After doing this three times and to three different groups of experts, they finally understood that they were unable to truly compete with the group and slowly backed off unless they actually needed the treasures that they were bidding on. As the auction continued, the wealthier looking young master of all these groups called over a male attendant and passed a note over to be delivered to George, since he was the most outstanding member at their table.
"What a joke, can you believe that they wish to send up their followers to the martial arts stage after the auction to compete and see who has the best support system?" George after reading the note could not help but mock as his face turned slightly sour. "What do you guys think? Should we hurt them on their foundations on top of the losses they took from their wallets after this?" he asked all of those who were sitting at the table.
"I do not see why not, the worst comes to worse, I can always assist you all to compensate for your losses and give you similar leveled cultivators from my mercenary group. If anything, there should be very little total losses." the individual who had one of the top three mercenary groups told the group.
"Now that we have the opportunity to pull them down further and further, why would we not take advantage of it? I say that we agree to it and even if we end up losing quite a bit from the exchange, it is not like they will be able to strike once again for a while. In that time, we could recover any losses and do it once more until they finally choose to give up!" Jack spoke up with a fiery look in his eyes.
Feeling the aura radiating from Jack, caused Timothy to reevaluate him once more. He was still unaware of what having the Aura of the Sword meant, but it seemed like he could dominate him just from using his aura alone with a hand rather than a weapon! Such a thing did not make sense to him, since Jack seemed to be only close to breaking through into the Intermediate stage as a cultivator and even Advanced stage cultivators did not radiate such strong pressure.
"Then it is settled, anyone they send up under the Intermediate stage will be personally handled by Jack, while anyone of the Intermediate stage and above will just be handled by one of our followers. Since Jack is the top cultivator in the city under the Intermediate stage, there is no reason not to use him." George declared before writing that they accepted the challenge and sent the attendant over to deliver the message.
"Actually George, I could probably take on anyone who is in Elementary level five and below myself. Over the course of the year, I have realized that the best way to grow is to battle those slightly above you in cultivation and I do not want such a nice opportunity to pass me by." Timothy after pondering over the situation told George and the rest of the table.
Laughter could be heard from the table where George's note was sent as the other tables filled with his rivals. They acted as if they had their prey in a trap and could not wait to beat them all down using their combined strength. From what he could gather, Timothy realized that their combined strength would have in fact been able to keep George and Jack suppressed, but as for the others who had made an appearance, those individuals were not from Mist City.
Knowing this, it seemed that George's outside contacts were lending him some strength to deal with so many others. However, it was still strange to Timothy why these individuals who could have been treated potentially even better than George, not only joined him, but were in fact more than happy to assist him with trying to deal a large blow to his competitors.
"I just want to remind you once more, when I become the Patriarch of the Ice Mold clan, I will be sure to contribute to repay all of your kindness." George told the group as he felt a slight pressure. As Timothy watched George, he realized that there was in fact quite a big bill that would be collected and if he was unable to become the Patriarch of his clan, that George would simply be crushed by these so called friends of his!
If such a time would come, would Timothy sit idly by and allow George to suffer their wrath, or would he be willing to stand against them alongside George? Questions continued to enter into his mind as he reevaluated why they were treating him so nicely. "Master, you do not have to respond, but I think that these young masters may have George in a big debt. I will most likely try to help George in the future, but I will of course need your guidance on these things." he mentally told Master Sei.
