Douluo Continent: The Book of Witness and Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 203 Top-Tier Auction (Part 1)

As soon as she finished speaking, the elegant auctioneer slowly retreated to the doorway, closing it behind her as she left.

Wang Yan's gaze swept over the stack of exquisite gold-embossed invitations on the table, and his eyes involuntarily deepened. "What an impressive Starlight Auction House! Thirteen invitations, not one missing, and they even managed to send them over despite the Star Luo Empire's official blockade of the hotel. That's quite a feat!"

Wang Yan's sigh was only because Long You was still sleeping in the luxury sphere; otherwise, he would have definitely retorted that since both families had the same owner, the blockade was practically useless.

However, since Long You wasn't around, no one was going to bother explaining things to Wang Yan. Only Dai Yueheng reached out and took an invitation, looked at it, and said, "It is indeed an invitation to a top-tier auction. The auctioneer wasn't lying; auctions of this caliber only happen once a year, and there are many good items, and the prices are quite high."

Given my current status, I would never have received an invitation to an auction of this caliber before. Only my father, members of the royal family, super-rich businessmen, and top-tier Soul Masters and Soul Instructors could participate. Based on my estimation, this Starlight Auction House is probably just taking advantage of the situation to curry favor with the academy; it's unlikely they have any other intentions.

Teacher Wang, what do you think?

Faced with Dai Yueheng's question, Wang Yan did not rush to answer. Instead, he first looked around at the students sitting around the conference table. Including Zhang Lexuan, who was already a Contra Master, and He Caitou, who had been dozing off just now, all the students' eyes were bright and clear, revealing their eagerness.

An auction! And a top-tier auction that you normally can't even get a chance to attend—it's an absolute temptation. Even Zhang Lexuan, the oldest among them, is only in her early twenties, a perfectly normal young person, full of curiosity. How could she not want to participate? Even if she can't afford anything at the auction, watching the excitement is always worthwhile!

Perhaps because the students' eyes were too bright, Wang Yan ultimately did not say anything to refuse. He only repeatedly emphasized that they should come back to rest immediately after the auction and that they absolutely could not delay tomorrow's competition, among other things.

Of course, the tactical meeting, which was not yet finished, still needed to continue. He Caitou, who wanted to attend the auction, had no choice but to light a strong, invigorating cigar to stay awake. If He Caitou dared to use the excuse of needing rest to avoid this tactical meeting, then Wang Yan would dare to use the same excuse to prevent He Caitou from going to the auction to watch the excitement.

At this moment, He Caitou stared at the luxurious ball he had placed on the conference table, his eyes filled with complex emotions. He Caitou remembered that Long You had said he needed to sleep for an hour. In other words, this guy was incredibly lucky to have managed to avoid the tactical meeting and not miss dinner and the upcoming top-tier auction. At least He Caitou, who was currently forcing himself to stay awake using his soul skill, was extremely envious.

The tactical meeting concluded quickly. Since no one knew what trump cards the Royal Academy of Fighting Spirits was hiding, overly specific tactics couldn't be devised. The main focus of the meeting was actually determining the personnel to be deployed based on the new elimination tournament rules.

The format of this third round of elimination matches is much less flexible and varied compared to the second round of round-robin tournaments. Each college needs to participate in two matches in each round: the first is a seven-on-seven team battle, and the second is an individual one-on-one match.

The reason for this competition format is to reduce the chances of overlooking exceptional talents. Established powerhouses might have a strong overall roster, but some dark horse academies' strength might lie solely in one individual. In the third round of elimination, all participating academies are virtually unbeatable, and the mediocre team strength of a dark horse academy could potentially hinder the performance of its strongest player. Therefore, this elimination round format gives these players, whose strength lies solely in individual skill, a chance to redeem themselves.

Losing the team battle is fine, but as long as they can defeat the opposing team's seven players with three individuals in the upcoming individual battles, then the victory in this round will still belong to the dark horse academy, whose individual strength far surpasses their team strength.

At Shrek Academy's tactical meeting, the most heated debate revolved around who should be sent into the individual battles. Dai Yueheng was the obvious choice, but what about the other two?

First of all, these two people definitely can't be Gongyang Mo. He's a support-type Soul Master; in team battles, his hastily acquired Soul Master strength might be somewhat useful. But in individual battles, without the cover of his teammates, Gongyang Mo's unfamiliar combat system will definitely cause problems.

Therefore, the candidates were narrowed down to three Soul Kings: Ling Luochen, Bei Bei, and Long You. Logically speaking, Ling Luochen's position should have been very stable, but Bei Bei was the first to be confirmed.

The sacrifice of the "Flawless Light" for ten thousand years has greatly enhanced Bei Bei's abilities. In the original story, even if Bei Bei could use the Light Sacred Dragon form at his current stage, he could only unleash one attack, and he would need to rest for three days before he could use it again. However, now that Bei Bei's martial soul is the Light Sacred Dragon, although his sustained combat ability is very worrying due to the issue of soul power consumption, he is no longer limited to just one attack. Moreover, his burst of power is extremely strong, not inferior to that of an ordinary Soul Emperor.

Therefore, given Shrek Academy's current shortage of Soul Emperor-level combatants, BeiBei became the second choice for the individual battle.

However, choosing the third candidate is more difficult. Is Ling Luochen strong? Of course he is! The title of an inner court student of Shrek Academy is a guarantee of strength. But there is also Long You. Although Long You is not an inner court student, his combat power is obvious to everyone present and is really no less than Ling Luochen's.

The only concern is how much Long You's combat power will decrease when he doesn't use the large-scale soul-guided powered mecha in battle. This isn't about restricting soul-guided devices, but rather a precaution. No one knows whether the large-scale soul-guided powered mecha, making its debut, meets the competition standards. Moreover, this thing is actually a trump card prepared for the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy; is it really okay to reveal it too early?

"Alright, let's tentatively choose Luo Chen as the third candidate. In the individual competition, Xiao You should stay off if possible."

Ultimately, it was Wang Yan, the team leader, who made the final decision. Even if Long You didn't play, he could still provide various forms of support off the field; there was no need to obsess over Long You's on-field combat ability. Most importantly, Shrek Academy's team battle wasn't necessarily going to lose, so there was no need to fixate on fielding an individual lineup now.

Around six o'clock in the evening, Long You emerged from the luxury sphere, but to his embarrassment, he landed directly on the dining table where everyone was eating.

Envious of Long You's luck, He Caitou resorted to a cunning revenge tactic: he didn't remove the luxury ball containing Long You from the table. This revenge was essentially a prank; upon waking, Long You, based on his pre-sleep memories, would naturally believe he was still in the Long family's safe haven and wouldn't bother to investigate the situation outside the luxury ball. He Caitou would then have a high probability of enjoying Long You's embarrassing predicament, standing right in the middle of the table.

However, He Caitou hadn't expected that Long You would wake up so early. The dishes on the table had just been served when Long You appeared, and the dishes were immediately destroyed.

Realizing something was wrong with his surroundings as he appeared, Long You subconsciously used his Soul Skill, Lightning Flash, and activated his Battle Armor. As he was enveloped in the Battle Armor, he flashed to the edge of the conference room.

Upon arriving here, Long You finally saw his surroundings clearly. Looking at the mostly overturned dishes on the table, Long You speechlessly removed his battle armor, then threw off his shoes, trousers, and coat, which were now covered in various kinds of soup.

Long You glanced at He Caitou with a complicated expression and a strange look on his face, rolled his eyes and said, "Why bother!" Then he picked up the clothes that He Caitou had thrown on the ground, turned around and left the meeting room that had been used as a temporary restaurant.

After leaving the meeting room, Long You vaguely heard comments coming from inside, such as "Cai Tou! You did that on purpose, didn't you!" and "With your thick eyebrows and big eyes, I couldn't tell!"

Long You didn't need to do the laundry himself; he had already researched and created a washing machine, a soul tool that freed up his hands, long ago. Now, Long You was debating whether or not to eat. Just now, as he came out of the conference room, he had spotted an invitation on the other side of the conference table. Suddenly, a hidden memory was activated in his mind, and he realized that he should be able to attend the auction at the Starlight Auction House tonight.

According to Long You's memory, there were plenty of delicious things at the auction, enough for him to eat his fill. However, even the most delicious food couldn't be eaten until after the auction, and he was truly starving!

However, Long You didn't dwell on it for too long, and soon Bei Bei came to knock on the door. After entering, Bei Bei didn't sit down, but directly told Long You to hurry up and change his clothes, and told him that he was going out.

Beibei's straightforward yet mysterious demeanor made Long You's lips curl into a slight smirk. "I say, Senior Brother, even if I spilled everyone's food, you don't have to treat me like this. You didn't even tell me where you were going. Are you trying to make me curious?"

"Aha, that's how it is! Although it was Cai Tou who wanted to prank you, you're the one who's made sure none of us get to eat! So, I'm not telling you where we're going!"

"Ah, if that's the case, then I'm really sorry! My eyesight is quite good; I saw the invitation to Starlight Auction House's top auction in the conference room earlier."

So, I'm not curious about where we're going; I'm just curious, since we're here so early, has the Starlight Auction House really prepared the food and drinks for the auction rooms?

"Hey, hey, if you do that, there's no fun in it!"

Long You's sharp retort instantly froze the malicious smile on Bei Bei's face.

"Ah? Is that so? But I think it's quite fun! Let me continue to guess why you called me out so quickly. I suppose after I left, you and Senior Brother Caitou played around for a while, making the remaining dishes completely inedible, and then, on Senior Brother Dai Yueheng's suggestion, you decided to leave for the Starlight Auction House ahead of schedule, right?"

Judging from the expression on Long You's face when he said those words, he was deliberately trying to tease Bei Bei, but Bei Bei is Bei Bei, with a remarkably thick skin. Long You's words were essentially wasted.

"Ah! Now that you know, let's hurry up. I'm sure you're hungry too. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get something to eat."

After leaving behind this simple explanation, Beibei immediately turned and left.

The road to the Starlight Auction House was already familiar to them, but the crowds on the road still slowed down the Shrek group's pace. By the time the Shrek Academy group of more than ten people arrived at the entrance of the Starlight Auction House again, it was already past 6:30 in the evening.

To everyone's surprise, the elegant auctioneer who had delivered the auction invitations to the Star Emperor Hotel was now waiting at the auction house entrance. Judging from their conversation, her task tonight was to serve the Shrek Academy group, and regardless of whether they accepted the invitations, she would wait at the auction house entrance until the auction officially began.

The environment inside the auction house was exactly the same as when the Shrek Academy group had last visited. However, led by Auctioneer Qingya, the group quickly passed through the venue where they had previously attended the low-level auction and arrived directly at the end of the corridor. Two girls dressed in gold dresses bowed and exchanged a few words with Qingya before using their palm prints to open the wall at the end, which was clearly a soul tool wall.

If outside the open walls lies a glittering, nouveau riche style, then inside the walls transforms into a low-key, understated, scholarly atmosphere.

The passageway, paved with translucent white jade, enveloped the entire passage in a gentle and pure white hue.

As everyone stepped into the passageway, Qingya's soft voice explained, "This is Auction Hall No. 1, where we hold our top-level auction. Only the most distinguished guests are invited to participate in the auction here. I'm only here today because of you distinguished guests; otherwise, someone of my rank wouldn't be qualified to enter."

Not far into the passage, small doors began to appear on both sides. Finally, Qingya led the Shrek Academy group into Gate Number Seven.

According to Long You's estimate, the space inside Gate 7 was about 200 square meters, decorated in a low-key and understated luxury style. Logically, the most eye-catching thing in the room should have been an entire wall that was completely crystal clear and undecorated, but Long You, who was starving, was still attracted by the various dishes, fruits and snacks on the table.