Upgrade Specialist in Another World

“He wasn’t bidding before, but now he makes a bid for fifty-thousand primal stones! No wonder he’s the junior headmaster of the Beast Taming School, he really wants that wind squaller!”

“Isn’t that pretty obvious? He’s from the Beast Taming School, the school where soulbeasts are the most important. Wanting a baby wind squaller would be pretty obvious I’d say.”

“……”

While everyone was talking to one another, Bai Yunfei learned of Lin Dongxiao’s identity from Zhao Xiluo.

He was a junior headmaster and also one of the ten prodigies. He was even stronger than Zhong Liyan as an early-stage Soul Exalt.

“The Beast Taming School…” Bai Yunfei narrowed his eyes. He had no love for the school, especially after what happened in Curopia City.

It’d be far more accurate to say that Bai Yunfei abhorred the school.

The beast tamers from that incident were all killed by him, however. His master Zi Jin didn’t news of their death to be made public since that’d cause a public conflict with the Beast Taming School. Fortunately, Bai Yunfei had no desire to kill any beast tamer he came across. At most, he had a strong feeling of dislike for any members of the school.

“Fifty-thousand primal stones….that’s far more than the final bid for the dragonfruit!” He thought. As an aside to Zhao Xiluo, Bai Yunfei spoke, “Xiluo, if I’m thinking correctly, beast tamers use soulbeast puppets to battle for them. How’re they going to use a baby wind squaller then? Are they going to take care of it like any regular soul cultivator?”

His question was responded with a shake of the head from Zhao Xiluo, “Take care of it? Why in the world would the Beast Taming School do something ‘nice’ like that? As far as I know, the Beast Taming School has a secret technique that’ll forcefully age the soulbeast. Since newborns are very weak in willpower, they can easily erase their sentience and ‘refine’ them in a similar way you might work a soul armament. This way, the soulbeast will mature extremely fast and draw out its latent power during that time. I’d say it’d take half the time it’d normally would for this baby wind squaller to become a fifth-class soulbeast….

“Soulbeasts that are ‘raised’ this way are the easiest to control…yea, if I had to make a comparison, I’d say that it’d be similar to how your Crafting School has those ‘soulbound armaments’.”

“Stripped of their sentience and worked like a item….” Bai Yunfei stared pitifully at the curled up wind squaller in the box. Just minutely, the knot in his eyebrows tightened by a little bit.

Up on the podium, Lu Fan was currently going through the customs of asking if there was anyone else willing to make a bid. Though from how everyone was looking at him, it was obvious that no one else would be willing to make a bid.

First off, the price was already far too high.

Secondly, now that they knew the identity of the most recent bidder, who’d be willing to engage in a bidding war with him?

From where he was seated, Lin Dongxiao sat in his seat with a smug face as he waited for the bid to end.

But before Lu Fan could make the announcement, a deep voice from the rear of the right side called out to make a bid.

“Fifty-thousand and two hundred primal stones.”

It was only a measly two hundred more than the last, but the fact remained that someone was willing to fight Lin Dongxiao over the soulbeast!

The smile on his face froze. From where a content look was once on his face, only a chillingly sharp glint of killing intent remained. His pupils had dilated to such a tremendous degree that they were now more beast-like than human as he turned towards the direction to glare at the person who’d dare try and steal his prize away.

Likewise, Bai Yunfei and his group of friends turned towards the back. From in the corner of the room, a twenty-something year old man could be seen leaning somewhat lazily backwards to stare up at the ceiling. His hands cradled his head from behind, making him look extremely sloppy and lazy like some sort of hedonistic child.

“A late-stage Soul Warrior?!”

Everyone that took notice of the young man blanched in surprise. They couldn’t tell just what school or house this youth was from, but they could at least tell that he was relatively weak and had no companions around him.

A person like that was trying to fight in a battle of bids with the junior headmaster of the Beast Taming School?!

“Hmph!” An indifferent snort erupted from Lin Dongxiao’s nose. While he was angry about having a competitor now, he knew better than to act out on those emotions in this place. Retrieving his glare away from the male, he looked back to Lu Fan on top of the podium, “Fifty-one thousand!”

“Fifty-one thousand and two hundred!”

No sooner did Lin Dongxiao make a new bid did the late-stage Soul Warrior make yet another lazy bid.

“You!!” This time, the anger from Lin Dongxiao was out in full force. His head whipped around to glare at the male. Already a sliver of aura was leaking out from his body as a testament to his readiness to kill the male, but still, the other man remained as calm and lazy as ever. He didn’t even seem aware of the admonishing look Lin Dongxiao was giving him, confusing everyone around him into thinking that he was either far too conceited or he had more than enough support to not worry about the fallout.

“Fifty-two thousand!!”

Lin Dongxiao’s hand clenched in anger for just a brief moment before unclenching again. A plan was already formulating inside his mind to find a way to punish this reckless idiot after the auction ended.

Like the first two times, the young man trailed behind like a shadow with another bid of his own, “Fifty-two thousand and two hundred!”

“Fifty-three thousand!”

“Fifty-three thousand and two hundred!”

“Fifty-four thousand!”

“Fifty-four thousand and two hundred…”

“……”

The following half minute went by with both sides listing off a bid in rapid-fire action. Under the dumbfounded eyes and ears of the entire audience, the price of the baby wind squaller soon reached sixty-five thousand primal stones.

There was finally a difference however. The young man was no longer bidding lazily like before. A serious look finally graced his face, and whenever he made a new bid, it was made with a slight amount of uncertainty.

At last, the price of the wind squaller reached seventy-thousand primal stones after Lin Dongxiao’s turn to bid. The young man grew silent then. Half a minute went by before he let out a sigh and shook his head.

No more, it would seem.

The bid was now at a price where even the young man could no longer afford to go above.

“Hmph! Bidding against me only means in your death, brat!!” Lin Dongxiao laughed mirthfully. A glint of killing intent was passed along the other man’s direction.

The entire audience in attendance stared at the young man who was now muttering to himself. They all knew just what type of man the junior headmaster was and how vicious he could be in all his grudges.

It didn’t take much for them to predict that this ‘reckless’ young man would soon be making his departure from life soon enough…..

The silence lasted for several moments longer as everyone turned back to wait for Lu Fan. It’d be any moment now for Lu Fan to declare Lin Dongxiao as the winning bidder, but then…

“I bid an earth tier soul armament!!”

A voice called out. It was no shout, but the statement may as well been a clap of thunder in the hearts of the entire audience.

Everyone in the auction house, Lu Fan from the podium, Tang Jing from below, Xuanyuan Jie, Lin Dongxiao, and the other man that tried his best to bid against him, they all turned towards the source of the voice—

–The one that came from the corner in the front right side of the auction house.

The one who spoke was none other than….Bai Yunfei!!

Lu Fan looked inquisitively at Bai Yunfei, “My lord, might I ask you repeat yourself….?” He asked.

“I said that I would like to offer up an earth tier soul armament as a bid, does the auction not allow such an act?” Bai Yunfei smiled. “According to the rules of your auction, please have someone brought to inspect the price of my soul armament and see if it can outbid the highest price so far.”

A silvery short-sword was brought out as he spoke.

As soon as it appeared, the eyes of everyone around him light up in surprise; they could already tell at first glance that this short-sword was by no means normal.

The shock on Lu Fan’s face was only momentarily–as expected from a seasoned host. He called a person over to where Bai Yunfei was and took the offered soul armament into his hand so that it could be sent to where Tang Jing and three other old men stood expectantly.

“Yunfei, what are you….”

Zhao Xiluo didn’t know what exactly to think. He was completely dumbfounded by what Bai Yunfei had just done.

Just several seconds before, Bai Yunfei asked him for his thoughts on just how much his earth tier soul armament was worth. Not being an expert on evaluating soul armaments, Zhao Xiluo gave a random guess of eighty-thousand primal stones at the very least.

But no sooner did he give his estimate did Bai Yunfei make a bid just two seconds later, astounding everyone around him into shock.

Bai Yunfei gave him a smile, “Haha, I thought the baby wind squaller was kind of cute, so I’d like to buy it.”

“……”

Both Zhong Liyan and Yang Lin had a strange look on their faces as their minds tried the process the shock that Bai Yunfei just delivered. Because of Bai Yunfei’s rather low strength, they had dismissed him in their minds, and yet….

The very same person they dismissed as being weak had taken out an earth tier soul armament as easily as nothing!

That wasn’t something any crafter of the school could do on a whim.

The one that could understand what Bai Yunfei was thinking the best was perhaps only Tang Xinyun. In her eyes, Bai Yunfei was most likely harboring a grudge against the Beast Taming School, hence why he decided to try and ‘steal’ away the baby wind squaller.

In truth, Bai Yunfei just couldn’t stand the arrogant smile on Lin Dongxiao’s face. He also couldn’t stomach the fact that such a young baby would be subject to such cruel treatments, so he was determined to stop the baby wind squaller from reaching Lin Dongxiao’s hands.

The soul armament he took out was only a low-earth tier soul armament, but it was one of the few equipment he managed to upgrade to +10. With the additional effect being able to increase its attack power by a little more, the combined attack should be just enough for it to be evaluated as a mid-earth tier soul armament.

A buzz of discussion descended upon the auction house again as many of the soul cultivators started to point at Bai Yunfei. Some were astonished, some were confused, and some started to try and guess what faction Bai Yunfei belonged to.

A minute later, the three elders who took the short-sword for ‘inspection’ finally came to a conclusive price.

This soul armament, they announced, was worth eighty-three thousand primal stones!!

In truth, the price of this soul armament was given after going through the Tang’s ‘reasonably fair’ conversation rates.

Should any other auction house make their own evaluation, the short-sword would surely be even higher….

Upon confirmation that he wanted to participate in the auction with the soul armament, Bai Yunfei watched as the entire audience start to gasp and turn their heads towards Lin Dongxiao.

They all knew that this was a direct ‘challenge’ to him, so they were all waiting to see how he’d respond.