What Do You Think?
When Li Mo Shang saw Su Zhen Zhen up close, he instinctively frowned before quickly returning to his indifferent expression. Deep inside, he mused at the uncomfortable sensation of an unknown familiarity. The only relation he could make when comparing his memory was Su Yuan'er, but Su Zhen Zhen's temperament, appearance, nor demeanor did display similar characteristics at all. Su Zhen Zhen was also examining Li Mo Shang in curiosity, for a person who could get Appraiser Wu this excited was bound to be extraordinary.
"What are you doing! Go deliver the items, not stare around like an infatuated girl!"
Grumbling at the fuming Appraiser Wu, Su Zhen Zhen approached Li Mo Shang with an airy smile before presenting a silver tray with both hands. Placed onto the tray were a purple bank card and a jade pillcase, of which Li Mo Shang spared a short glance before properly accepting the items. Turning to face Appraiser Wu, he then smiled before indicating for the prancing man to sit.
"Then, shall we get into the details?"
As if receiving a jolt of electricity, Appraiser Wu immediately rushed into the seat across of Li Mo Shang. Indicating for Su Zhen Zhen to sit down as well, he flashed an apologetic smile.
"She's the treasured auctioneer favored by the Treasure Pavilion's owner," he explained. "He stated that when she entered the room, she was also to partake in any future business deals."
Li Mo Shang nodded in understanding before directly listing the specifications. Although he only listed the overall appearance of the spear, Appraiser Wu could only gape in shock before jotting down a long list of numbers on a nearby notepad.
"A spear of two meters in length, with a shaft of consecrated gold and a tip of compressed diamond over two millennia in age…that's definitely going to rake in a serious buyer! Do you know the history of the spear? If it's from some glorious age, then the value could be doubled, no, tripled!"
"He never told me the specific period it was obtained from, although he did state that it was found on an ancient battlefield in the North."
Li Mo Shang tossed that sentence, nearly completing his cover story for the next item he was going to create, a spear of consecrated gold. Deciding to focus more on aesthetics than performance, Li Mo Shang found within his memories of an ancient empire in the north referenced as the Holy Church Papacy, an extremely vast empire ruled by a religious organization.
Utilizing weapons of consecrated gold, they had conquered a large portion of Blue Flame World. It was only that the general studies library had too few records of the Holy Church Papacy, that Li Mo Shang couldn't find any references of how they forged their weapons. More precisely, he knew of no method to create consecrated gold.
Gold, when forged into bricks, was relatively dull in luster and greater in weight compared to other metallic materials. As it was considerably softer compared to steel and silver, gold was mostly used in accessories and currencies for their rarity and the natural complementary effect with other gems.
Consecrated gold was vastly different from regular gold; described in archived recordings, consecrated gold was nearly weightless, much harder than compressed diamond, and was hypoconductive of electricity. Serving as an opposite manifestation compared to gold, consecrated gold brought out and embellished the advantages of original gold to abnormal degrees.
Some legends even spoke of consecrated gold triggering natural phenomena, including the intentional descent of lightning. Li Mo Shang had a guess that consecrated gold was formed from superconductive materials fused with gold and some insulating substance, but wasn't exactly sure on where to begin experimenting.
Hence, he purposely mentioned that it would take considerable amounts of time for the spear to arrive, of which Appraiser Wu showed no dissatisfaction. Setting a proper time limit would force him to actively complete the assignment unless he wanted to be shamed.
With some unnecessary banter, Li Mo Shang was escorted out by Su Zhen Zhen, of which Li Mo Shang obtained a clue to his earlier musing, but also thrown into misery.
"Little brother, so you were the one who sold the divine sword to us!"
"Hey, hey, why don't you tell Elder Sister where you got it from? I want to know too, you can't just tell Appraiser that old man!"
"Why are you so silent? Nervous? Hehe, why don't you tell me why you bought the Yin Restoration Pill for so much? Men can't use it anyways, was it for some lucky woman?"
"…"
Li Mo Shang immediately plugged his ears with spiritual qi the moment he detected the foreshadows of a barrage of questions. Somehow, the fatigue experienced by Su Zhen Zhen disappeared as she fervently asked his background, social life, interests, and even his private life, completely ignoring the fact that he didn't utter a single reply.
Merrily chatting to herself, she didn't even realize that Li Mo Shang had already left until she was outside in the chilly autumn night. Shivering, she hurriedly ran back inside, while Li Mo Shang could not help but associate Su Zhen Zhen with Su Yuan'er. Their ability to rain a storm of questions matched far too well, and Li Mo Shang didn't another chatterbox grinding away at both at his ears and sanity.
Returning to the private room that he had rented for 30,000 RMB, Li Mo Shang discovered that Wan Xue had recovered from her emotional spell to be able to walk with stiff movements akin to a rusted robot. Although, she always averted her face whenever he sent an inquisitive glance, glaring at his back with a wronged expression whenever he was looking somewhere else.
Gradually, Li Mo Shang's opinion of Wan Xue had dropped to that of a young naïve maiden compared to a prestigious professor. She remained like that until they had returned to Blue Rose University's campus, of which she finally agreed to remove her pout.
Seeing her aggrieved glance as she got out of the car, Li Mo Shang couldn't help but silently chuckle before driving off to park the car in the lot reserved for students. It was only when he had gotten out of his car that an amused snort made him pause mid-stretch, before stiffening in surprise.
Turning around, he saw his father and mother leaning against an identical silver luxury car, gazing at Li Mo Shang with smirks on their faces. Li Yuan was the first one to break the uncomfortable silence, his aura changing to one of extreme gloating as he gazed at Li Mo Shang with narrowed eyes.
"Nice suit you got there! How come your father didn't know that you loved harassing women?"
"Sweetie, you shouldn't say it like that. Shang'er simply doesn't know how to interact with women, he's always hanging around with those old men addicted to medicine."
"My son doesn't possess such interests…right? After all, how would he have sweet-talked that genius girlfriend of his to give him such a divine appearance-changing medicine?"
Watching the staged play boisterously enacted by his parents, Li Mo Shang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Taking a step forward, he adopted a similar wronged expression that Wan Xue had flashed towards him, before speaking in a hesitant tone.
"What do you want?"
"What do you think?"
Li Yuan and Jiang Lanying simultaneously answered without a split second of delay, startling Li Mo Shang. Before he could protest his innocence, Li Yuan continued his charade, adopting a stern expression even if his eyes were smiling.
Next to him, Jiang Lanying displayed interest, giving Li Mo Shang the same gaze to when she observed worms struggle to move after being pinned to the table.
"Who was she? I didn't think our Shang'er was interested in abusing women to the point they cry! I mean, you're well at the age to develop an overexaggerated interest in the opposite sex, but why did you have to awaken your inner masochistic trait?"
"…"
"…To even spend three hundred billion yuan for a Yin Restoration Pill before her eyes, only to not present it as a gift. Tsk tsk!"
Li Mo Shang could only watch silently until his father had stopped attempting to berate him. Once Li Yuan figured that nobody was actually buying into his tiny scheme, he lightly coughed before his expression become serious.
"How was it? Who bought the pill, and who were its main contenders?"
"It sold for 1.3 trillion RMB, although I think it could have risen much higher if there was an accidental news leak. The main contenders of the pill were the Second Prince of the Huo Imperial Family and someone named Gong Caiwei. In addition, the Western Holy Nation managed to auction a genetically created mutant."
Upon hearing his words, Li Yuan and Jiang Lanying's expressions could not help but become heavy. Royal families were a true inconvenience when creating divine medicines, for they would always ask for a lion's share simply for being the presiding 'sovereign'.
Nan Qing's Imperial Family was a prime example, for the Li Family Patriarch was continually pestered in the early stages of developing medicinal panaceas, the Emperor directly confiscating at least seventy percent of his production. Eventually, he had passed a decree forbidding family members from presenting more than five percent of their creations to anyone, while the rest were to be stored in the Family warehouse.
If they could dilute the pill's effects, they would to the maximum without breaking the medicinal effects beyond recognition before offering them up for sale.
The Filial Piety and Heaven's Grace Pill were commonplace examples of this, not to mention the Yin Restoration Pill being the prime example. Within the Li Family Warehouse, there were hundreds of thousands of Nine Yin Restoration Pill, Heaven's Piety, and other predecessing products to the auctioned medicines, of which breaking down a single of these preceding pills could result in the forming of hundreds of the diluted versions.
By restricting the outflow of these pills to the maximum, they had created a ruthless but effective source of influence and income for the Li Family to serve as a buffer against the Imperial Families. If the news of a Heaven's Piety Pill or any of the Li Family's 'progenitor' medicines was leaked, then a true calamity would descend onto Blue Flame World.
The actions of the Second Prince Huo, mysterious Gong Caiwei, and the Nan Qing government intervening during the auction caused Li Yuan and Jiang Lanying's vigilance to arouse, both withdrawing their terminals to alert the Li Family. Li Yuan clapped Li Mo Shang onto the shoulder, before taking over his car.
As Jiang Lanying and Li Yuan drove both cars off into the distance, Li Mo Shang stared at their departure before moving silently towards Magnolia Dormitory. He had a premonition that in the future, there may be pressure from the Imperial Families regarding the Heaven's Grace Pill. Since it was announced during the auction as the sister pill of the Filial Piety Pill of the Li Clan, he would also receive considerable attention from the various royal families as a scion of the Li Clan.
Moving like a wraith, Li Mo Shang utilized his
Near the central building were a platoon of men in plain, black uniforms, each hoisting a menacing gun over their right shoulders. A metallic mask hid their distinctive facial features from detection, and from Li Mo Shang's perspective, it seemed as if they were searching for something.
Near each dormitory unit, he saw a similar but smaller squadron of these black-uniformed men, only none of them entered nor existed. Drawing closer, Li Mo Shang was fifty meters away from the central building when one of the men suddenly turned, the gun's barrel directed towards Li Mo Shang. Startled, Li Mo Shang willed his spiritual core to provide him copious armounts of spiritual qi as he utilized his
Just seconds later, a quiet popping noise could be heard as a bullet of death pierced through the location where Li Mo Shang was previously hovering.