Chapter 157: Meeting Hai Chao Again

"Ah, young brother, not bad at all! To be able to refine a Tier 2 medicinal potion at such a tender age—you have a boundless future ahead of you!" The old man had been in the appraisal business for several decades, giving him broad exposure to many things and a vast reservoir of knowledge. The moment he caught the scent of the liquid, he immediately identified it as a Tier 2 potion.

However, since he was not a professional alchemist, he could not determine its success rate. Yet, for any potion of Tier 2 or below, their firm purchased them at a uniform price without distinguishing success rates; price differentiations only applied to Tier 3 potions and above.

"The potion you refined is of Tier 2. Since it is Tier 2, I won't bother asking a professional alchemist to appraise it, and I will acquire it from you directly. According to the rules of my auction house, only potions of Tier 3 and above are eligible for auction, but my auction house will purchase this potion at three low-grade spiritual stones per bottle. I wonder if you are willing, young brother?"

Ye Cheng was well aware of this rule. Potions below Tier 2, including Tier 2 itself, could be readily purchased in certain specialized markets. Only when they reached Tier 3 could they be considered rare.

This also confirmed that the transition from Tier 2 to Tier 3 was a major watershed for alchemists. If Ye Cheng had refined a Tier 3 potion, this old man likely wouldn't have remained so composed. He probably would have treated Ye Cheng with much more courtesy and hoped for a long-term partnership.

A Tier 3 alchemist was considered to have achieved a certain level of mastery in the Dao of alchemy, holding master-level status. Whenever such a person casually refined a bottle of potion, countless people would scramble to buy it.

Yet, precisely this watershed mercilessly crushed the dreams of ninety percent of alchemists. Only about ten percent of Tier 2 alchemists managed to break through to Tier 3.

"Alright, I'll sell them all. I have more here!" Ye Cheng took out all the coagulating blood powders and yuan-solidifying powders with a seventy percent success rate from his storage ring and placed them on the table, leaving behind only two bottles with an eighty percent success rate.

The old man tallied them up and paid Ye Cheng sixty-six low-grade spiritual stones.

After putting the spiritual stones into his storage ring, Ye Cheng finally walked out of the room and headed toward the main auction hall.

The moment Ye Cheng stepped inside, the lighting dimmed abruptly. The entire hall was filled with a roaring din that washed over his ears like a overwhelming tide. Ye Cheng glanced around; a dense sea of heads filled the floor beneath the steps, while above, rows of private balconies lined the perimeter.

In the center was the staging area for the auction items. A middle-aged man dressed in a purple-red robe stood there, his voice laced with elemental energy, echoing clearly and distinctly into everyone's ears so that every single person could hear his presentation.

Amidst the middle-aged man's passionate introductions, the prices of those items climbed step by step.

This middle-aged man was the chief auctioneer of the Wright Auction House.

Ye Cheng found a secluded spot, sat down quietly, and let his gaze sweep across some of the people in the venue, moving slowly throughout the entire auction hall.

"Huh... Hai Chao?" His moving gaze suddenly halted as Ye Cheng spotted a youth sitting in one of the front-row seats, causing him to momentarily freeze in surprise. "I didn't expect to run into this fellow here."

Upon arriving at Poison Dragon Town, he had immediately heard the reputation of this guy as one of the Three Young Masters. Just a single day had passed, and yet here he was, seeing the person in the flesh, leaving Ye Cheng somewhat speechless.

He really did seem to have quite some affinity with this fellow!

As he shifted his gaze away, Ye Cheng's expression suddenly turned rather colorful. Seated directly opposite Hai Chao, a clear-eyed and charming young woman was staring right at him with her beautiful eyes wide open. She deliberately blinked at him and gestured with her hands, signaling Ye Cheng to come over.

This woman was naturally Liu Yan, the eldest young miss of the Iron Blood Mercenary Corps. Sitting beside her were Wang Yong, who had tested him in the afternoon, and a robust-looking middle-aged man clad in a cyan gown.

"That person must be Liu Yanshan, the leader of the Iron Blood Mercenary Corps, I suppose!" Ye Cheng guessed inwardly. Unable to ignore Liu Yan's signals, he smiled bitterly and, steeling himself, walked toward their location.

"Little Brother Ye Cheng, over here, over here! Hurry, sit beside your big sister," Liu Yan called out excitedly, gesturing for Ye Cheng to sit down before flashing a bewitching smile as she asked, "How did you know to come here and find your big sister, huh?" With that, she wrapped both her arms around Ye Cheng's arm and pulled it tightly against her chest.

"Oh, it's Ye Cheng!" Wang Yong greeted him with a smile upon seeing Ye Cheng sit down.

"So this is the talented young man you all told me about who just joined our current mission?" Liu Yanshan turned his head at this moment, looked Ye Cheng up and down a few times, and then chuckled. "Indeed, a hero emerges from youth!"

He could sense the vast, hidden reservoir of blood Qi and physical strength inside the youth—a force of blood Qi that even gave him an inexplicable jolt of alarm.

"Hehe, Commander Liu flatters me!"

Ye Cheng smiled and nodded at the former before turning his head to look at Liu Yan.

"I just happened to hear that there's an auction here tonight, so I came to take a look!" Feeling the soft sensation pressing against his arm, Ye Cheng's expression instantly turned peculiar, and he awkwardly turned his head away to respond.

Yet the moment he turned his head, Ye Cheng realized what kind of mistake he was making. With his perceptiveness, he could naturally see that the gazes of countless men directed at him were filled with hostility. It was quite obvious that Liu Yan possessed no small reputation in Poison Dragon Town and had many suitors.

For her to so intimately wrap her arms around the arm of some greenhorn and even pull it against her chest was undoubtedly enough to drive those who fancied her stark raving mad.

"Good grief, this woman really is thick-skinned!" Ye Cheng glanced down at his arm, wanting to pull it away, but it was only pulled tighter instead. He had no choice but to helplessly shift his gaze back to the auction arena.

Meanwhile, Hai Chao, sitting opposite them, recognized Ye Cheng the moment he appeared. Seeing how intimately Liu Yan was treating Ye Cheng while laughing and chatting with him, Hai Chao froze for a second before a bizarre look crept into his eyes as he glanced at a white-robed, scholarly-looking young man sitting beside him.

The scholarly young man abruptly snapped shut the folding fan he had been waving in his hand, and the gaze he directed at Ye Cheng instantly took on a hint of sinister malice before he turned to look at Hai Chao.

"Who is that brat?"

"Big Brother, this fellow isn't from Poison Dragon Town; I have no idea where he hails from. But back when I went to help the Blood Fiend Gang of Yongle City with their duel against the Nangong family, this guy happened to be the helper invited by the Nangong family. Even Tie Muqing was defeated by his hands."

Hai Chao said through gritted teeth. Precisely because Ye Cheng had won that duel, preventing him from reaping any benefits from the Blood Fiend Gang, Hai Chao harbored this grievance and blamed Ye Cheng for it.

Hearing Hai Chao address the former as "Big Brother," it was evident that this scholarly young man holding a folding fan was none other than Shang An, the eldest of the Three Young Masters and the young master of the Shang family in Poison Dragon Town. His cultivation base had just broken through to the Elemental Realm not long ago.

"Oh? Even Tie Muqing was no match for him? That means this kid is no pushover, then," Shang An muttered with a sinister tone, staring fixedly at Ye Cheng across the way, who was chatting and laughing with the woman he held dear. "In that case, I'd like to see what kind of capability this brat actually has to warrant such treatment from Liu Yan."

Hearing the chilling undertone in the former's voice, Hai Chao wisely kept his mouth shut. He naturally understood his big brother's intentions; it was likely that he would take action against Ye Cheng, which was precisely what he wanted to see anyway. With Shang An making a move, Ye Cheng would certainly be taught a lesson, thereby venting the pent-up resentment in his own heart.

Ye Cheng, sitting beside Liu Yan, suddenly sensed a chill locking onto him. Following his intuition, he looked over and was greeted by the cold, vicious gaze of the white-robed man sitting next to Hai Chao, while Hai Chao stood off to the side with an expression of schadenfreude.