Chapter 984: The City Lord

"What's wrong?" Zhang Xuan frowned, seeing his flustered manner.

This man was the master of Moyunxuan Pavilion, a Saint Realm First Layer expert, and a notable figure in Jingyuan City. For him to be so anxious now, something must have happened.

"As soon as I arrived, I spread the news of the auction for the Earth Burial Flower... Half an hour ago, a group of people came, insisting on buying it before the auction."

His expression unpleasant, Hu Yunsheng explained, "From the look of them, they seemed intent on a forced sale."

"Forced sale? Could they be poison masters?" Zhang Xuan was startled.

Wasn't the Earth Burial Flower extremely attractive to poison masters? Could it be that others needed it too?

"No..." Hu Yunsheng shook his head.

"How can you be sure?" Zhang Xuan looked over, puzzled.

Couldn't poison masters not be recognized when they weren't using poison?

How could he be so certain?

"Because... the one who came, I know him!"

Hu Yunsheng's face reddened. "It's Hong Jin, the City Lord of Jingyuan City!"

"What does he want the Earth Burial Flower for?" Zhang Xuan wondered.

The Earth Burial Flower was needed by poison masters. What would a city lord want with it? And from his tone, he seemed intent on buying it by force, regardless of his status.

"He didn't say the specifics, and I'm not too clear either. But he insisted on buying it. I told him it belonged to a senior, and now he insists on seeing you..." Hu Yunsheng said.

"Let's go take a look!" Zhang Xuan nodded.

Whatever the other party wanted the Earth Burial Flower for, since he had specifically asked for him, he naturally had to go and see.

Following behind Hu Yunsheng, they walked forward. Before long, they arrived at a spacious room.

A dignified middle-aged man sat imposingly in the main seat, his eyes sharp, exuding an air of superiority.

Behind him stood several guards in armor, their auras like dragons, already possessing the strength of the Ninth Layer of Mortal Transformation, the Silkworm Seal Realm.

"City Lord, this is the owner of the Earth Burial Flower, Senior Sun Qiang!"

Approaching, Hu Yunsheng clasped his fists.

The middle-aged man in the main seat glanced at Zhang Xuan. Seeing that he was only a Saint Ascension Realm cultivator, he smiled and said, "Friend, I wish to purchase your Earth Burial Flower. Name your price!"

"What price can you offer?" Zhang Xuan was a bit surprised by the man's directness. Raising an eyebrow, he smiled faintly.

"A 100-year Earth Burial Flower normally costs 80 high-grade spirit stones. Yours is slightly older. I'll give you a hundred, plus a high-grade spirit artifact!"

The middle-aged man looked over.

"That price seems a bit low!" Zhang Xuan looked back, lifting his eyelids.

Not to mention that the Earth Burial Flower was extremely rare, even the one Hu Yunsheng had sold earlier fetched a higher price. The other party's offer was indeed somewhat of a forced sale.

"How dare you! Our city lord deigning to buy your things is already giving you face. Don't be ungrateful!"

A guard behind the middle-aged man shouted loudly.

"A hundred high-grade spirit stones plus a high-grade spirit artifact is already the highest price. You might not even get that at auction, and you'll attract more covetous eyes. I think you should sell!"

The second guard said.

The two played good cop and bad cop, mixing threats with persuasion. It seemed well-intentioned, but in reality, they wanted him to obediently sell the herb.

Seeing their attitude, Zhang Xuan shook his head with a smile, his expression calm. "Ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, and I'll sell it to you!"

"What did you say?" The middle-aged man frowned.

He offered a hundred, and the other countered with ten thousand. It was clearly a refusal to negotiate, showing no regard for his status as city lord.

"You have some nerve..." The first guard started to shout again, but before he could finish, Zhang Xuan's indifferent voice rang out.

"Twenty thousand!"

"What do you mean? Are you selling or not?" The second guard followed up.

"Thirty thousand!" Zhang Xuan said.

"You..." The middle-aged man's face turned pale, his brows furrowed like mountain ridges, as if suppressing anger that could erupt at any moment.

The other party's attitude clearly indicated he had no intention of selling, and moreover, he didn't seem to care about his identity.

"Friend, this is Jingyuan City. Whoever you are, I advise you to keep a low profile, lest you encounter unavoidable trouble."

With a cold snort, the middle-aged man narrowed his eyes.

"Fifty thousand!"

Too lazy to heed the threat, Zhang Xuan waved his hand and continued.

Playing the big bad wolf with him? He was playing that game before the other even knew where to play in the mud!

"Hmph, let's go!"

Seeing that the owner of the Earth Burial Flower was impervious to both persuasion and coercion, the middle-aged man snorted coldly and turned to leave.

As soon as he left the room, his face turned ashen.

"City Lord, should we send some people to seize the item?"

The first guard made a killing gesture, his gaze cold.

"No need. I am determined to have this item. Since he's auctioning it, we'll follow the normal auction procedure."

The city lord's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe that, once I make a move, anyone in all of Jingyuan City would dare to compete with me for something!"

"That's right..." The two guards' eyes lit up.

At the auction house, once the city lord revealed his identity, who would dare to bid against him?

Then he might not even need to spend a hundred high-grade spirit stones to buy it.

"Let's go!"

The city lord strode out in large steps.

...

"Senior, is it too rash to offend the city lord so openly..." Hu Yunsheng looked over with a conflicted expression.

"No matter. If he behaves obediently, fine; if not, I don't mind having someone else replace him as city lord!"

Zhang Xuan's expression was calm.

Having reached his level of strength, he could completely disregard the thoughts of the weak. If they behaved and didn't cause trouble, fine; if they truly sought trouble, he wouldn't mind teaching them a lesson.

With a word to Yu Shenqing, replacing one or two city lords would meet no opposition. Even if that didn't work, he could send a few master teachers to investigate. Anyone who dared to force a sale was surely a local tyrant who had been acting lawlessly for a long time—one investigation would catch them red-handed.

"Alright!"

Though still conflicted, Hu Yunsheng felt relieved thinking of the senior's strength. He looked over again: "I'm afraid that offending the city lord might lead him to maliciously bid up the price, which could cause trouble."

"Malicious bidding?"

"Yes. He might use his status and power to force others to withdraw from the competition. If so, the Earth-Tibetan Flower might... be hard to use to lure out the poison master."

After hesitating, Hu Yunsheng spoke.

As an auction house owner, he was well aware of such situations.

Often, powerful people would use their status to force other buyers to give up, engaging in malicious bidding.

The auction house had encountered this many times but had no good solution.

"That's simple. When the auction starts, have someone bid. If he dares to raise the price, just double it each time. After all, it's my own item; even if it goes up to a million high-grade spirit stones, it doesn't matter."

Zhang Xuan said.

"This..."

Hu Yunsheng blinked.

Bidding on one's own item—wasn't that a bit too shameless...

But on second thought, it was indeed a good way to deal with malicious bidding.

If the other party didn't know, fine; if they did, they'd likely be furious—it was a complete disregard for rules.

"Alright, go prepare. Once we find the location of the Poison Hall, I'll cure your poison."

Zhang Xuan said no more.

"Yes!"

Hu Yunsheng nodded and withdrew.

As soon as he left, Zhang Xuan's body flickered and vanished from the spot; the next moment, he had entered the Thousand Ants Hive.

By now, the hive had expanded to its limit, over 500 meters in diameter, spacious and vast, with various buildings stacked layer upon layer, like a huge village.

"Master!" Seeing him arrive, many spirit beasts came to his side at once.

Inside the beehive, there were not only the Violet Sun Beast but also many kings from the Cloud Mist. At this moment, even if he encountered a strong enemy, he could easily destroy a small place like Jingyuan City just by throwing these sacred beasts out without lifting a finger himself.

"Cultivate well. When I have free time, I'll come and explain cultivation issues to you."

Glancing at the beasts, Zhang Xuan said.

These sacred beasts were his right-hand men. After putting them into the beehive, he would give them lessons whenever he had a moment. Over the past two or three months, their strength had clearly improved.

If not for the lack of cultivation techniques for sacred beasts, these big fellows might have reached who knows what level by now.

Letting the sacred beasts continue their cultivation, Zhang Xuan went to a room.

On a clean and tidy bed, Wei Ruyan lay quietly with her eyes closed.

This trip to the Poison Hall was specifically to solve her problem, and she had been kept in the beehive all along.

He reached out and felt the girl's pulse for a while, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems that holding on for a while longer won't be a big problem..."

Although her poison body had erupted and no good method had been found to suppress it, with his many means, he had at least temporarily pulled her out of danger.

Even if she couldn't wake up in the short term, at least her life was not in danger.

"This girl is really pitiful..."

He shook his head.

Suffering from illness since birth, she barely managed to grow up, only to lose her most beloved father.

No wonder she is called a disaster-born body—not only can she bring calamity to others, but she herself is plagued with misfortunes, never having a single good day.

Seeing that her problem was not serious, Zhang Xuan went to the specially arranged cultivation site and sat down.

It had been over ten days since he broke through to the peak of the Revered Sage realm. Although he lacked the treasures needed for the next level, he still cultivated diligently every day without interruption.

Under constant tempering, his true energy became increasingly pure and abundant.

Since reaching the Half-Saint realm, he had clearly felt that breakthroughs were more difficult than before. Previously, breaking through a major level only took an hour, but now it might take several minutes longer, or even more!

"Cultivation is indeed not as simple as I imagined..."

Sighing, Zhang Xuan shook his head.

Cultivation was indeed not easy; it was destined to be full of hardship.

Three hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Calculating that it was roughly evening and the auction was about to begin, Zhang Xuan shook his body and walked out of the beehive.

Just as he returned to his room, he saw Hu Yunsheng approaching.

"Senior, the auction is about to start..."

"Mm."

Nodding, Zhang Xuan followed him toward the auction venue. Before reaching the reserved box, he suddenly frowned and stopped.