31. The Battle for Ice Lotus Water 

As Mu Chen was frowning tightly, Ye Shi said, "Are you trying to help Zhuang Yu? If you want to help him, it is not too late now."

Mu Chen hurriedly shook his head and said, "No." Even if he had a lot of money, he wouldn’t spend it on Zhuang Yu! Besides, he didn't that have much money.

Ye Shi felt much happier about Mu Chen's answer.

"Five thousand three hundred." Chen Moran blushed and said gruffly.

"Five thousand five hundred." Shui Linglong said, looking fiercely in the direction of Chen Moran.

"Five thousand six hundred." Chen Moran added.

"Five thousand seven hundred..."

Zhuang Yu bit his lip, grabbed Chen Moran's hand, and said softly, "Moran, forget it. You need some elementary stones to buy elixirs. The Ice Lotus Water is too expensive."

"But we’ve gone so far. It's a pity to give up now." Chen Moran shook his head firmly and said.

Zhuang Yu bit his lips and said movingly, "Moran, you are so kind to me."

Chen Moran was encouraged by Zhuang Yu's trusting eyes, and shouted, "Six thousand."

"Bitch." Shui Linglong cursed while looking in Zhuang Yu's direction.

"Sister, six thousand elementary stone is far beyond the value of Ice Lotus Water itself." Shui Qiancheng said with a frown.

"I know. But if I miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to find another one. That bitch is such hypocritical. Chen Moran is an idiot." Shui Linglong gritted his teeth and said with a long face.

"Moran, are you sure about 6,000 elementary stones?" Zhuang Yu asked.

"It's alright. Just six thousand elementary stones." Chen Moran smiled lightly and comforted.

Chen Moran's heart trembled for a while. Although others contributed some, Chen Moran paid majority of it, which was a huge sum of money.

Shui Qiancheng sighed lightly, looked at Shui Linglong, and said, "Sister, 7,000 elementary stones at most and give up."

Shui Linglong gritted her teeth, nodded, and said, "Okay."

"Seven thousand." Shui Linglong called out.

"Seven thousand one hundred." Chen Moran's voice trembled violently.

Mu Chen found Chen Moran's voice amusing. Chen Moran really tried hard for someone he liked.

"Ten thousand." A calm voice said.

Mu Chen looked at the person shouting below. His face changed drastically.

It was a man with blue hair and blue eyes. Lan Ruofeng, Zhuang Yu’s Mr. Right-to-be. How could he appear so quickly? Impossible.

Zhuang Yu searched for the man who was bidding. Lan Ruofeng looked back at him and smiled gently at Zhuang Yu.

The eyes of the two destined lovers traveled through thousands of miles, and finally met.

Mu Chen saw Lan Ruofeng and Zhuang Yu smiling at each other. It was funny. Because as soon as Lan Ruofeng appeared, Chen Moran and Zhuang Yu's other admirers would become nobody.

"Who is that guy? He is so rich." Ye Shi asked with wide open eyes, looking at Lan Ruofeng with shock and curiosity.

Mu Chen shook his head and said, "I don't know him. He should be an outsider."

"He is really rich!" Ye Shi looked at Lan Ruofeng with bright eyes.

Mu Chen couldn't help but said, "He is just a rich boy who doesn't know the sufferings of the world."

Ye Shi glanced at Mu Chen and said disdainfully, "You sound like you know the sufferings of the world."

Mu Chen, "..."

Chen Moran frowned and glanced at Lan Ruofeng with a hostile look.

"Moran, stop bidding. 10,000 elementary stone is too high." Zhuang Yu smiled lightly.

Chen Moran breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'm so sorry, Ayu. I promised you that I will buy the Ice Lotus Water."

"It doesn't matter. No one would have expected this." Zhuang Yu said sadly.

Shui Qiancheng looked at Shui Linglong with some worry, and said, "Sister, stay calm."

Shui Linglong took a few deep breaths, closed her eyes, and said, "I give up."

Shui Qiancheng patted Shui Linglong on the back and comforted, "Sister, don't be sad. I'll go to the surrounding towns and search for Ice Lotus Water."

Shui Linglong nodded and said in disappointment, "I hope so."

"Brother, did you see the eyes how that person looked at Zhuang Yu? He's another admirer of Zhuang Yu. Zhuang Yu is such a bitch, a whore." Shui Linglong cursed with disdain.

Shui Qiancheng comforted Shui Linglong and said, "Enough. Stop talking."

Shui Linglong noticed that people were looking at her. She gritted her teeth and tried to stay calm.

Shui Linglong looked at Lan Ruofeng and wondered, "Why do young talents always get entangled with Zhuang Yu?"

Shui Qiancheng looked at Lan Ruofeng and said, "Sister, this man looks an extraordinary man. We’d better not to offend him.”

Shui Linglong nodded, and blamed the resentment of losing the Ice Lotus Water on Chen Moran. Just like that, Shui Linglong's hatred changed from Mu Chen to Chen Moran.
 

 

 

32. The Auction Ends

In the private box, Mu Yuanfeng took a sip of tea slowly and said calmly, "The one who competed with the daughter girl from the Shui family for Ice Lotus Water seems to be Chen Moran from the Chen family."

"It's him." Mu Yuanhang said with a smile.

"Chen Moran is such a generous gentleman!" Mu Yuanfeng said jokingly.

"He is." Mu Yuanhang agreed.

"Generous? What a joke to be generous with a versatile." Mu Ke said with a gloomy face.

Mu Yuanfeng let out a sigh of relief. His son used to be more ridiculous than Chen Moran. Just now, Mu Yuanfeng had been worried that Mu Chen would join in the bidding. Fortunately, Mu Chen did not do anything.

Mu Yuanhang looked at Mu Yuanfeng and frowned. Mu Chen used to be worse than Chen Moran, but now he had really changed.

"..."

In the private room where the master of Chen family was.

Chen Hansheng said coldly, "Chaohe, how did you discipline your son? What a joke that he competes with the precious daughter of the Shui family just for a versatile.”

Chen Chaohe’s eyes turned red when he saw the gloating eyes of his brothers, and said, "I didn't discipline him well. In the future, I will be stricter."

Chen Hansheng nodded and said coldly, "He's not young. Even Mu Chen of the Mu family knows to work hard and stop fooling around. But look at Chen Moran. He hasn’t changed a bit."

"Moran is being childish. If Mu Chen can make changes, he will too." Chen Chaohe said.

Chen Hansheng glanced at Chen Chaohe coldly and said, "I hope so."

 

 

…………

"Next, the auction is a second-grade furnace, Purple Cloud Furnace, the starting price is 500 elementary stones." A purple elixir making furnace was placed on the stage. The surface of the furnace had patterns of cloud. It looked very delicate.

As soon as the auctioneer finished speaking, someone raised the price to one thousand.

Mu Chen suddenly became tense. He directly shouted, "Two thousand."

2,000 elementary stones did not frighten bidders who raised the price to 3,000.

Mu Ke raised his eyebrows, "Chen seems to be bidding for the furnace. Why does he want an alchemy furnace?"

Mu Yuanfeng smiled and said, "He seems to be interested in alchemy recently. So he needs an alchemy furnace."

Mu Ke was surprised and asked, "Is he interested in alchemy?"

Mu Yuanfeng nodded and said, "Yes!"

"It's not easy to make elixirs! Many people have gone bankrupt for it but nothing has been achieved." Mu Yuanhang said coolly.

"Chen is Yuanfeng's son. With Yuanfeng's teaching, it is easier for him to become an alchemist than ordinary people. At that time, we will have two alchemists in the family. People will envy us.” Mu Ke stroked his beard and said with expectation.

Mu Yuanhang agreed, "You are right, father."

"It's too early to say this. Maybe he won’t keep this habit long." Mu Yuanfeng said.

Alchemy required absolute patience. Mu Yuanfeng was not very confident that Mu Chen could focus on it for a long time. However, it was a good thing that Mu Chen was more interested in alchemy than women.

"Three thousand four hundred."

As the price kept went higher, many people dropped out. "Three thousand five hundred." Mu Chen said loudly.

As Mu Chen's face turned red, Ye Shi took out the card in his hand and handed it to Mu Chen, saying, "There are still a thousand here."

Mu Chen struggled for a while, then pushed the card back to Ye Shi and said, "I can’t take it. It is already yours.”

"Three thousand six hundred."

"Three thousand eight hundred." Mu Chen's heart was about to jump out of his chest when he offered the price.

Fortunately, after Mu Chen called out the price of 3,800, no one competed with him.

Mu Chen breathed a long sigh of relief, "It's so risky." If the price was higher, he could only give up or ask Ye Shi to borrow money.

Ye Shi looked at Mu Chen, blinked, and said, "You sweat a lot."

Mu Chen raised his eyebrows and said jokingly, "Really? Can you wipe it for me?"

Ye Shi hesitated for a moment, and wiped the sweat from Mu Chen's head with his sleeve. Mu Chen was just teasing Ye Shi, but Ye Shi did something unexpected.

Ye Shi looked at Mu Chen and couldn't help but smiled slightly, and said to himself, Mu Chen, isn't as bad as what the rumor said...

…………

Shui Linglong looked at the box upstairs, drummed her fingers on the table, and said, "Is it Mu Chen?"

Shui Qiancheng nodded and said, "I guess so."

Shui Linglong squinted her eyes and said, "In the past, that guy always circled around Zhuang Yu, but recently I haven’t seen him."

Shui Qiancheng shrugged and said, "I heard that this guy has changed a lot recently. And he becomes a better person and stopped courting Zhuang Yu."

Shui Linglong sneered and said, "He changed? Become a better person? One can never change his nature. I don’t believe that he can change.”

"You don’t know it. Some time ago, I ran into him on the street and found that he is already a warrior." Shui Qiancheng said.

Shui Linglong said in surprise, "Warrior?"

Shui Qiancheng nodded and said, "Yes!"

"Is it because Mu Yuanfeng used elixirs to boost Mu Chen's strength?" Shui Linglong said in disapproval.

Shui Qiancheng shook his head and said, "No. Mu Yuanfeng is an alchemist who knows the side effect of abusing elixirs.”

Shui Linglong said, "So, Mu Chen really becomes a better person?"

Shui Qiancheng nodded and said, "It seems so."

"It's surprising." Shui Linglong was amazed.

…………

"The person who bought the furnace just now sounds like Mu Chen!" Zhuang Yu said.

Chen Moran nodded and said, "It should be him."

"Is he interested in alchemy?" Zhuang Yu muttered.

Chen Moran smiled reluctantly and said, "Don't you know him yet? His interest in one thing can’t last three days."

Zhuang Yu smiled and said, "It was true in the past. But it seems to be different recently.”

Because of what Zhuang Yu said, Chen Moran’s resentment towards Mu Chen grew.

…………

Mu Chen had a closer look at the alchemy furnace which costed every single stone he had.

No wonder people said that alchemy was a money-burning job! He had ran out of money before he started to get on it.

"Do you want to learn alchemy?" Ye Shi asked while holding his chin.

Mu Chen nodded and said, "Yes!"

"You do have a lot of money. But you can’t be sure that you have that much money in the future.” Ye Shi couldn't help but said.

Mu Chen looked at him and asked, "Why do you say that?"

Ye Shi shrugged and said, "Everyone says that alchemy is a job done by rich people, and only one out of ten alchemists is rich, and the rest are poor."

Mu Chen smiled and said confidently, "I will be the rich..."

Ye Shi said disapprovingly, "Those poor people have the same thought before alchemy."

Mu Chen, "..."

The auction was coming to an end. Soon the first of the three treasures was displayed. It was a third-level elixir, the Rejuvenation Panacea, which could instantly replenish the vitality below the Martial Art Spirit to 70% of the original. It was a very precious elixir which was sold at price of 100,000 elementary stones.

After the Rejuvenation Panacea was auctioned off, it was a demon core of a third-level Qingming snake was auctioned off for 150,000 elementary stones.

The last item was a low-grade Xuan-level fighting skill which was auctioned for 300,000 elementary stones.

Ye Shi’s eyes were wide open because he was astonished by the astronomical auction prices.

"Let's go." As the auction was over, Mu Chen said, holding Ye Shi's hand.

Ye Shi finally recovered from the shock. He did not get rid of Mu Chen’s grab, but walked out with Mu Chen.

Mu Ke walked out of the private room and saw Mu Chen and Ye Shi holding hands and walking out of the auction house.

"Who is that person with Chen? Chen bought the dagger for him, right?” Mu Ke frowned and said gloomily.

Mu Yuanfeng smiled and said, "Father, do you still remember that you once arranged an engagement for Chen. And that is his fiancée from the Ye family."

Mu Ke was stunned for a moment, and said, "Is that the versatile of the Ye family? He really looks a bit like Ye He. Why didn't he come to visit us?"

Mu Yuanfeng smiled and said, "He must have his own considerations."

"Looks like that Mu Chen likes him!" Mu Ke said.

Mu Yuanfeng nodded and said, "Yes! Chen likes him."

"Good." Mu Ke said with a sigh of relief.