Chapter 204: Deliberate Targeting

After auctioning several items, they finally reached the segment Jiang Cheng had been looking forward to for a long time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, regarding the Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill, I need not elaborate further; whether you are a Spiritual Thought Master or a Force Warrior, Spiritual Power is indispensable. The auction starts with one bottle, opening bid seven thousand yuan, each increment one thousand yuan."

The words just finished.

Jiang Cheng raised the Bid Token in his hand.

"Good!"

The man on stage saw Jiang Cheng at a glance and said, "Customer No. 72, bid seven thousand yuan! Ten-second countdown—if no one bids higher, this bottle of Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill will be his."

"Customer No. 26 bids eight thousand yuan!"

"Wow, Customer No. 72 bids nine thousand yuan again!"

"Customer No. 38 bids ten thousand yuan! Any higher?"

The man looked at Jiang Cheng with expectant eyes.

Jiang Cheng made no move.

He was merely testing the waters.

Seeing others shout bids with such enthusiasm, he also wanted to join in.

Even if he completely missed the Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill, it wouldn't matter.

Because there are a total of one hundred bottles of Intermediate Spirit Nourishing Pill for sale, he needs 150 bottles of Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill to upgrade the Visualization Method to the next stage; switching to Intermediate Spirit Nourishing Pill, only 75 bottles would suffice.

And there are also one hundred bottles of Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill for sale.

Therefore, he was not the slightest bit flustered.

"Good, let us congratulate Customer No. 38, who secured this bottle of Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill for ten thousand yuan!"

"Next is the second bottle, with the opening bid still at seven thousand yuan. Please seize the opportunity; we have only five bottles of Spirit Nourishing Pill for single‑bottle auction, after which the remaining will be sold in sets of three. Of course, if you truly miss out, that's fine—later there will be single‑bottle sales of Intermediate Spirit Nourishing Pill as well."

When the words fell, Jiang Cheng raised the Bid Token again.

"Again it's our Customer No. 72, bidding seven thousand yuan again!"

"Customer No. 69 bids eight thousand yuan!"

"Wow, Customer No. 72 bids nine thousand yuan again!"

"Customer No. 38 bids ten thousand yuan! My god, could the result this time be the same as last time?"

The man's voice grew excited, and he looked at Jiang Cheng again with anticipation.

The latter also stared at him quietly.

The ten‑second countdown ended.

The man, unwilling to concede, struck the small wooden gavel and said, "Good, let us congratulate Customer No. 38, who purchased this bottle of Spirit Nourishing Pill for ten thousand yuan."

"Next is the individually sold third bottle, and… what, Customer No. 72 has bid again!"

The man was at a loss for words.

This No. 72, why only bid and never buy? A few seconds later, the price rose again to ten thousand yuan, and once again Customer No. 38 secured it.

Two more single bottles were sold, bringing the total Spirit Nourishing Pill bottles up to three, with a base price of twenty‑one thousand yuan and each increment one thousand yuan.

Jiang Cheng raised the Bid Token again.

"Customer No. 72 bids twenty‑one thousand yuan, any higher?" The man looked at the others, suspecting that No. 72 was a planted bidder hired to boost the atmosphere.

This time, noticeably more people participated.

Seven or eight different people placed bids, and the price quickly rose to twenty‑nine thousand yuan.

"Customer No. 72 bids thirty thousand yuan!"

When the man saw Jiang Cheng raise his card, he was about to speak, but then saw someone else raise a card and hurriedly said, "Customer No. 38 bids thirty‑one thousand yuan! Any higher?"

Jiang Cheng finally couldn't contain his curiosity and looked toward No. 38.

He met the other's gaze.

"Is it her?"

Jiang Cheng was suddenly clear.

No wonder he felt that No. 38 was always targeting him.

It turned out the other was that woman, Mojing Nv, wearing a white mask and sunglasses!

Seeing Jiang Cheng look, the woman smiled smugly.

So this guy was here to buy Spirit Nourishing Pill.

Heh, as everyone knows, among this auction's items, only Spirit Nourishing Pill can accelerate Spiritual Power recovery, and it comes in Primary and Intermediate grades—perfectly targeted.

Jiang Cheng's mouth twitched slightly as he chose to give up outright.

"Any higher?"

The man looked at Jiang Cheng.

After ten seconds.

Three bottles of Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill were purchased by Customer No. 38.

Including the subsequent items, as long as Jiang Cheng participates, Mojing Nv will try to outbid him; some were won by her, others by other bidders.

"Little brother, this is getting a bit tricky,"

From a short distance away, Niutou Mianju looked at Jiang Cheng and said, "That woman is clearly targeting you."

"It's fine," Jiang Cheng said calmly.

"Like being targeted?"

"You have 1.6 million on you, afraid of being targeted?"

Hope she comes this time, preferably just to buy Spirit Nourishing Pill; otherwise I'm also willing to make things a bit harder for her.

Soon, the Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill for sale reached five bottles, with an opening bid of thirty‑five thousand yuan and each increment one thousand yuan.

"Bidder No. 72 bids again!"

The man silently admired; Bidder No. 72 was too professional.

Next, we'll watch the performance of Bidder No. 38.

"Bidder No. 38 bids 36,000 yuan!"

"Bidder No. 51 bids 37,000 yuan!"

There were far fewer people raising bids; counting Jiang Cheng only four or five, but all were powerful.

The price quickly rose to 50,000 yuan.

"Bidder No. 38 bids 50,000 yuan! Any higher?"

The other two competitors both shook their heads.

"All right, let us congratulate Bidder No. 38, who secured five bottles of Spirit Nourishing Pill for 50,000 yuan!"

Bidder No. 38 was stunned.

She looked toward the direction where Jiang Cheng was.

She began to suspect that this guy was part of the Black Market's atmosphere crew.

Otherwise, why would he only bid?

She calculated that in just a few minutes she had already purchased tens of thousands of yuan worth of Spirit Nourishing Pill.

She had over 700,000 yuan in her account; besides buying Spirit Nourishing Pill to accelerate cultivation, she also wanted to purchase an Earth Martial technique and some Secret Medicine, because the Cracked Tablet Leg Method ultimately has a low ceiling, allowing only about 30 Acupoints to be opened.

Among the items up for auction were three Secret Martial Arts, and one each of Human Weapon, Earth Martial, and Heaven Martial.

The Earth Martial was called Flower Shadow Step, capable of opening 45 Acupoints and focusing on agility; she liked it. Its base price was 300,000 yuan. Because there was also a Heaven Martial that could open all Acupoints this time, she estimated little competition, so she could win it for just over 400,000 yuan, leaving the remaining 700,000 yuan more than enough.

But to be safe, she planned to stop buying for now, only block out bids; if she bought too much, she would have to cut back on Secret Medicine and suffer a loss.

Next came several auctions for five‑bottle lots of Spirit Nourishing Pill.

Jiang Cheng was still the first to raise the bid; Mojing Nv also deliberately caused trouble. In the end, these lots were all won by others for roughly 50,000 yuan each.

"Esteemed guests, next we start the auction for ten bottles of Primary Spirit Nourishing Pill, opening at 70,000 yuan, with each increment of 1,000 yuan."

"All right, again our Bidder No. 72 bids 70,000 yuan!"

"Bidder No. 43 bids 71,000 yuan."

"Bidder No. 72 bids 72,000 yuan!"

"Bidder No. 69 bids 73,000 yuan!"

After a round of raising, the price reached 95,000 yuan.

The few who were competing with Jiang Cheng chose to give up.

"95,000 yuan—any higher bids?"

Mojing Nv, seeing this, raised the Bid Token again.

She had been waiting for this chance! "Bidder No. 38 bids 96,000 yuan! Any higher?"

The man shouted loudly.

No one raised a bid.

"Countdown: ten seconds—10, 9, 8…"

Mojing Nv became a bit flustered.

No way? A price of 96,000 yuan still has some room below market value, right?

Why isn't that guy raising the price?

Seeing Jiang Cheng make no move, she looked around at the others.

Alas, still no one raised a bid.

"All right, let us congratulate Bidder No. 38, who won ten bottles of Spirit Nourishing Pill for 96,000 yuan!"

The man wore a smiling face.

Mojing Nv was stunned.

But she immediately reassured herself—it's okay.

Spirit Nourishing Pill is, after all, hard currency.

Moreover, she still had over 600,000 yuan: more than 400,000 yuan spent on Flower Shadow Step, and another 200,000 yuan for Secret Medicine.

It's just that…

She was a bit hesitant to bid again.

(End of chapter)