Chapter 549: It's Time for the Giant Whale Kun to Transform (First Update, Asking for All)

After staying at the Li Family Manor for a week, Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen returned to the Pengcheng Academy District.

Just like the previous two times, Li Zhangsheng restrained his aura to the utmost and changed his appearance.

Li Zhangsheng did not return to Yuanling Academy immediately; after parting ways with Ning Bizhen, he went straight to the Starry Sky Auction House.

With the Golden Roc Spirit Essence nearly filling a large jar, he had long been impatient to let the Giant Whale Kun complete its evolution.

"I am here to see your Steward!"

Due to his disguise, none of the staff at the Starry Sky Auction House recognized Li Zhangsheng, but Li Zhangsheng deliberately leaked a wisp of Mental Power Pressure, causing the staff to not dare to be the least bit negligent and hurriedly invite Steward Li Tong over.

As soon as Steward Li Tong entered the VIP room, he subconsciously sized Li Zhangsheng up; it was a strange face, but Steward Li Tong felt the temperament he exuded was somewhat familiar.

For someone like Li Zhangsheng, even if he changed his appearance, he was like a firefly in the dark night, radiating a scorching brilliance.

Without waiting for Steward Li Tong to probe, Li Zhangsheng used secret voice transmission; his mouth moved, and only Steward Li Tong present could hear his voice.

"You go down first; without my permission, do not come in!"

Steward Li Tong waved his hand, and the staff retreated in a hurry, closing the door of the VIP room as they left.

At the first moment, Steward Li Tong bowed and called out: "Master!"

"How has the auction house been operating during this period?"

Li Zhangsheng feigned dignity on the surface and took a shallow sip from his teacup.

"Master, this is the account book!"

Steward Li Tong hurriedly took out an account book and carefully handed it to Li Zhangsheng.

Li Zhangsheng did not look at the account book and casually placed it on the side table.

"No need for such trouble, just give me a brief summary!"

"Yes, Master!"

Steward Li Tong organized his words and then spoke: "Since the successful conclusion of the spring auction, the reputation of our Starry Sky Auction House can be said to have been completely established, and we have officially become one of the top ten auction houses in Yuan Province!"

After a pause, Steward Li Tong continued: "During this time, more and more buyers have come to consign items by reputation, and it is no longer limited to the Peng City area; many buyers and sellers come from other cities in Yuan Province, and even Luzhou, Huizhou, and Yecheng."

In these three months, the area of our auction house has expanded by another third, and the total number of seats has officially exceeded five thousand.

During this period, we also held two small auctions, both of which were successful, and the auction turnover ranked in the top five in Yuan Province.

Not long ago, we held the summer auction, with a turnover as high as over 200,000 Soul Crystals, ranking third in Yuan Province.

Over these three months, the Starry Sky Auction House has made a total profit of 47,000 Soul Crystals."

This is the wealth-gathering ability of the top ten auction houses in Yuan Province; the main means of gathering wealth are naturally the auction commissions and ticket fees.

Of course, the auction house's expenses are also high, but they do not amount to a fraction of the profit.

Among the top ten auction houses in Yuan Province, including the Starry Sky Auction House, there are four in the Peng City area alone.

This directly led to the other auction houses being in a precarious situation, struggling to make a profit, and only a few are able to drink the soup.

Auction houses in Langya Kingdom often hold large auctions in the spring and autumn, and rarely hold large auctions in the summer and winter, because in these two seasons, the pockets of many students studying in the academies have already been emptied.

As for the rest of the time, these auction houses hold regular small auctions or specialized mini-auctions to maintain their customer base and reputation.

However, the Starry Sky Auction House did not follow this convention and holds a large auction in all four seasons.

Summer is in June, and winter is in December; both are auctions held before the winter and summer vacations.

The reason is none other than the fact that most students are short of money, and the possibility of them consigning treasures in the summer and winter is actually higher than in the spring and autumn.

With a large amount of high-quality goods, how could the Starry Sky Auction House not find customers with its strength!

Simply put, with the fame of auctioning a Quasi-God cub, the Starry Sky Auction House has completely entered the public eye, directly causing the Starry Sky Auction House to climb extremely fast; it is already in the forefront of the top ten auction houses in Yuan Province, and there is even a trend of entering the top ten auction houses in Langya Kingdom in one fell swoop.

Of course, fame brings trouble, and the auction house is no exception.

If it weren't for the fear of Yuanling Academy and Li Zhangsheng, the Starry Sky Auction House would definitely have been suppressed by its opponents and could not have been as smooth as it is now.

However, where there are interests, there are disputes.

Even so, when the Starry Sky Auction House occupied more and more market share, being targeted naturally became an unavoidable matter.

After all, the cake is only so big, and who wants to be squeezed in by more people to share it.

As the Starry Sky Auction House grew, it naturally squeezed out other auction houses, especially those located in the Peng City area, which mainly depends on the forces behind them.

Among them, those small auction houses basically cannot pose a threat to the Starry Sky Auction House; the forces behind them are basically local Local Powers and County Gentry.

But the other three large auction houses in Peng City are different; they are operated by Famous Clan-level forces, namely the Tiantai Sect, the Zhou Clan of Yuan Province, and the Zheng Clan of Yuan Province.

The Tiantai Sect goes without saying, its power ranks in the top three in Yuan Province, while the Zhou Clan and the Zheng Clan are both prominent Famous Clans in Yuan Province, both possessing two or three Sixth-Rank Experts.

There is no way around it; even if high-level officials of Yuanling Academy like Xu Wenhua value Li Zhangsheng highly, Li Zhangsheng cannot represent Yuanling Academy yet, so they cannot be too fearful.

However, Li Zhangsheng's progress is too fast, and he has a trend of becoming a king in the future; this is what the three major forces fear the most.

If there is no absolute certainty of killing him, then it is best not to offend him if possible, or at least not to offend him on the surface.

When it comes to interests, these three major forces have many small movements in the dark, but unfortunately, the Starry Sky Auction House is located in the Academy District, which is the private territory of Yuanling Academy, so they dare not go too far.

After listening to Steward Li Tong's account, Li Zhangsheng expressed great satisfaction; before the spring auction, the Starry Sky Auction House could only make a profit of a few thousand Soul Crystals per month, and now it has officially broken ten thousand.

This does not even count the auction items provided by Li Zhangsheng, which is not as simple as just breaking ten thousand.

Steward Li Tong seemed to remember something and said: "By the way, the steward of the Tiantai Auction House came to me two days ago, wanting to establish a partnership with our Starry Sky Auction House to exchange what one has for what one lacks. This matter was not something I could decide, so I temporarily turned him down!"

"The Tiantai Sect's auction house?"

Steward Li Tong asked carefully: "Exactly, Master, are they up to something?"

"Just cooperate with them!"

Li Zhangsheng shook his head, having no intention of explaining.

At the banquet a few days ago, Li Zhangsheng had met an Elder of the Tiantai Sect, and the other party had seen through his true cultivation on the spot; this time, the Tiantai Auction House taking the initiative to seek cooperation was likely related to this.

A 17-year-old Fifth-tier Beastmaster has a gold content far exceeding that of a 17-year-old Fourth-rank Demon Tamer; even the 'Butterfly King' Luo Qingning only became a Fifth-tier Beastmaster when she was nearly 19 years old.

This was extraordinary; after learning of this, Supreme Elder Zuo Qiulin of the Tiantai Sect was immediately amazed and gave Li Zhangsheng an evaluation of 'a rare commodity to be hoarded', placing Li Zhangsheng on the same level as himself.

After learning of the Tiantai Auction House's small movements in the dark, Zuo Qiulin not only personally called a halt to them but also took the initiative to let the Tiantai Auction House seek cooperation.

On the surface, this is a matter between two auction houses, but in reality, this is the Tiantai Sect proactively extending an olive branch to Li Zhangsheng, wanting to establish a good relationship with him.

Having lived for over a hundred years, Zuo Qiulin is naturally no ordinary shrewd man; he feels that given Li Zhangsheng's growth rate, as long as he does not die prematurely, he will surely become a King in the future.

Taking advantage of the time before Li Zhangsheng has fully matured to establish a good relationship with him is, for the Tiantai Sect, actually a good thing.

As for the profits of the Tiantai Auction House, letting them go is fine; compared to the friendship of Li Zhangsheng, what do they count for?

The Tiantai Auction House proactively showing goodwill can be considered an advance investment by Zuo Qiulin or the Tiantai Sect!

"Yes, this subordinate will go to the Tiantai Auction House afterwards!"

Even though Steward Li Tong's mind was full of question marks, he still hurriedly responded; since Li Zhangsheng did not say, he did not ask.

"Right, what about the matter I had you handle during this time?"

Li Zhangsheng then changed the subject; the matter he spoke of was naturally having Steward Li Tong collect wild Spirit Beasts.

"It was fine at the beginning, and quite a few were collected, but the further it went, the slower the collection speed became!"

After Steward Li Tong finished speaking, he led Li Zhangsheng to the basement of the Starry Sky Auction House.

The basement of the Starry Sky Auction House had clearly been expanded several times over and was divided into several rooms of different sizes.

Among them, the room where the wild Spirit Beasts were kept was the largest in area.

Steward Li Tong respectfully invited Li Zhangsheng inside; this was a room of at least ten thousand square meters, over twenty meters high, supported by dozens of stone pillars that required several people to embrace.

In this room stood a large number of metal cages, totaling nearly a hundred; each cage was covered with black cloth, making it impossible to see what kind of wild Spirit Beasts were being kept.

Steward Li Tong pointed to the dozens of cages on the right and said: "The Spirit Beasts this subordinate acquired are kept over here!"

The number of cages exceeded thirty, and inside were all wild Spirit Beasts possessing Pure Bloodline.

"Mm, you go out first!"

"Yes!"

Steward Li Tong did not concern himself with anything else, left the room directly, and closed the door on his way out.

Li Zhangsheng opened the red, yellow, and blue three-colored Restriction, shrouding the entire room; with a movement of his Mental Power, the black cloths on these cages floated up, revealing the wild Spirit Beasts kept inside.

Roar— Caw— Chirp— Howl— Woo—

At this moment, the originally quiet room was filled with the sounds of various beasts and birds.

Among these Spirit Beasts, Li Zhangsheng did not look at the few Spirit Beasts possessing Rich Bloodline, but instead focused his gaze on those two Silver-Eyed Rocs.

In this room, these could be said to be the only two wild Spirit Beasts possessing the Golden-Winged Roc Bloodline, and they are also the key to whether the Giant Whale Kun can advance further.

PS: Recommending a friend's book, "I Have a Mythical Tree"; book friends who like farming novels can go take a look.

Today's goal: Three, pigs, verified!

(End of this chapter)