Pill Hunt

Once the auction was wrapped up, it was time for the winners to collect their items. Those of the general audience had to follow the staff to get their winnings, but VIPs could stay in their rooms and wait for it to be brought to them. As the powerful life nourishing pill would also be delivered in this manner, one might think that this was the perfect opportunity to make a move, but this was only an option for the foolish or crazy. Coin Storm Auction House retained its responsibility for the items until they were handed over to the winners, so anyone who robbed an employee carrying an item would be robbing Coin Storm itself. Rather than doing something as reckless as that, everyone judged that it would be better to rob the VIP getting the item.

While everyone was watching the cute and well-endowed woman who carried the pill, Shui and the siblings were receiving their winnings which was delivered by a similarly cute but more petite woman. Although it was made impossible for an outsider to tell who inside a VIP room voted, the plaque that needed to be tapped to make a bid would memorize the unique aura of the person who tapped it. Through this method, the auction house knew who made the final bid and so the prizes were already separated into three storage rings. The storage rings were of minimal quality, but this was still an extravagant benefit for VIPs.

Within the storage ring that Shui was given, were the two items he had won, hethion and the ape beast lord heart, as well as 400 high quality spirit gems for the pike. The auction house was supposed to take twenty percent of the final bid, so he could tell that a certain uncle was being generous, but it still left him with mixed feelings.

"So, do you two have any plans after this? If not, I reserved a table at a nearby restaurant that we could have dinner at."

Alex looked at Shui and Emily for a response.

"That's fine with me. How about you, Shui?"

"You can go on ahead, I have something else to handle first."

Alicia narrowed her eyes at him, but she snorted before heading to the exit.

"Let's go."

Alex and Emily sensed that there was tension between them, so Alex told Shui where the restaurant was and then went after Alicia with Emily. After catching up with her, Alex asked what the problem was, but Alicia only shook her head.

"It's nothing. If he wants to be reckless, let him be. He's already made up his mind."

Alex and Emily were smart enough to guess what Shui was going to do based on the conversation Alicia had with him, but it was so ridiculous that they doubted themselves. Even if they stayed out of the commotion, there was a chance that they could still get wrapped up in it, but to plunge into it voluntarily seemed like suicide. Still, they didn't believe he was dumb enough to take action without a plan, so they hoped their worries were unnecessary.

Many influential figures or those working for them waited outside the auction house for the occupant of room 30. His background and appearance were already shared among them, as they would cooperate at least until the pill was taken from him. People from the city's administration had warned them not to get violent, but they only replied that it would depend on what the one they were waiting for decided. Although none of them desired to offend the city, they knew that their combined influences was something Paraj also didn't want to have trouble with.

Although the unfortunate VIP likely wanted to hide in the auction house, they had no such services so he wouldn't be able to linger inside for very long. The auction house did have a storage service where VIPs could choose to leave valuables for safekeeping, but if the VIP died then his valuables were free to be auctioned again, so the group was certain that at the very least, the pill wouldn't have the same owner by the end of the night.

They were prepared to wait for about an hour since they were sure that the VIP would be ousted by then, and it would give the rest of them time to fill any gaps left in their net. However, their target appeared twenty minutes earlier than they predicted.

It was a plump middle-aged man who moved carelessly, seemingly under the influence of alcohol. Furthermore, his cultivation was only at mid Earth Realm, so despite his appearance matching their information, it took a while before the crowd could accept that this was their target. They didn't know what he was thinking, but it didn't matter.

"Hey, you!" one well-built man shouted.

The middle-aged man turned to him with a dazed expression. If he was acting then he was definitely a master at it, for he seemed to have no idea why the man was talking to him.

"Do I, know you?"

"You probably don't, but you should be able to guess why all of us are waiting here."

They thought that the man would finally stop his act, but he kept going like it was an impervious shield.

"Is there an after party?"

"No!"

Unable to restrain himself, the well-built man roared in frustration and crushed the middle-aged man with his Sky Realm aura. It was only now that the middle-aged man's face went pale, but confusion remained in his eyes.

"Wait, I'm sorry if I did anything to offend you. Please forgive me."

The fact that he was still pretending to be ignorant didn't help abate the well-built man's fury, but his tone was more fitting now.

"Hmph, if you're smart, then leave the pill on the ground and get out of here."

The pill probably wasn't the only thing he would be robbed of tonight considering the amount of money he showed off at the auction, but the well-built man didn't tell him that. He waited with a cold expression, but the middle-aged man didn't follow his advice and instead asked a ridiculous question.

"Uh, could you specify what pill you're talking about?"

"Stop playing with me!"

It wasn't much of an answer, but after that response the middle-aged man hurriedly began taking pills out from his storage ring and placing them on the ground. There were life nourishing pills among the ones that he took out, but not one of them was the pill everyone was waiting for.

Fed up, the well-built man took his storage ring and searched inside it, but his target wasn't there. He then used his spiritual sense to search the middle-aged man's body, but he still couldn't find it.

"Damn you!"

The well-built man lifted him by the collar and then dragged him towards his furious face.

"Where is the pill you bought tonight? Did you leave it with the auction house?"

"I-I, don't know what you're talking about. I didn't buy anything."

"You dare lie to my face! Weren't you using room 30?"

"Yes, I was, but I didn't-"

"Shut up!"

The well-built man slammed his fist into the other man's face, forcing him to spit out a tooth. He could see genuine fear in the other man's eyes, but that wasn't what he wanted to see.

"Please! Believe me! I didn't buy anything, I just woke up a few minutes ago. I didn't even get to see what the main attraction was."

The middle-aged man continued to beg for mercy with tears in his eyes, but the well-built man was already preparing to end his life. However, before nature energy fully wrapped around his fist, a hand landed on his shoulder.