Yunxi didn't withdraw her pressure. Since she had already chosen to crush him with sheer force, she had to see it through to the end. Otherwise, the moment she let Shopkeeper Liu go, he would turn around and call for reinforcements, and everything would be wasted. So she kept stroking Li Li's head at an unhurried pace, her fingers moving rhythmically through the soft white fur as she smiled while speaking.
"Shopkeeper Liu, are you planning to tell Běnjūn which storage ring the Fortune Reversal Pearl is in, or should this Lord test them one by one?"
The man was suffering beyond words, the invisible weight of her aura pressing down on his shoulders until his bones seemed to groan under the strain. He even regretted carrying all of that night's auction items on his person. Normally, that wasn't a problem, but he had never encountered someone who ignored all rules and common sense like this. Worse still, the other party had deliberately concealed her cultivation, leaving him without even a chance to call for help.
When she received no clear answer, she didn't hesitate. She forcibly broke open the storage ring on his right index finger. With a loud crash, the contents spilled out—glittering spirit stones and various jades cascading onto the floor—and nearly filled the entire room. Yet the Fortune Reversal Pearl wasn't there. Her gaze shifted calmly to the ring on his right middle finger.
By now, blood was already seeping from the corner of his mouth in a thin, dark line. He hurriedly twitched the little finger of his left hand, signaling that the Fortune Reversal Pearl was in that storage ring.
Yunxi patted the small beast's head. Li Li immediately hopped onto the unmoving man's knee and clamped down on the storage ring from his left little finger, carrying it back to her master.
She examined the ring, which was set with a polished red gemstone. Under his furious glare, she swiftly erased his spiritual imprint. The sudden backlash caused his face to go even paler.
Her divine sense swept inside the small spatial dimension, yet she still didn't find the Fortune Reversal Pearl. Her expression cooled as she looked at him. Trembling, he forced out the words in broken breaths.
"It's inside. The spirit severing box."
Yunxi understood at once. She sent her divine sense in again and retrieved an unremarkable gray box tucked away in a shadowed corner. Holding it in her palm, she studied it for a moment before asking calmly.
"Shopkeeper Liu, are you sure it's inside? You aren't mistaken this time, are you?"
He struggled to nod against the crushing weight. His double chin had turned into three layers, and his eyes were filled with certainty, absolute and unwavering.
She didn't open the box. An item this valuable would never be placed so casually in a single spirit severing box. He was clearly unwilling to give up and was still trying his luck. She wasn't going to give him that chance. With a flip of her hand, she put the box away into her storage bracelet and sent a voice transmission to her companion.
"Xiao Meng, his divine sense is injured. Pull him into a dream immediately. Later, make sure he personally escorts us out of Chong'an Auction House."
"No problem, Zūnshàng."
Xiao Meng answered without hesitation. They were of the same realm, and with his divine sense already damaged, success was guaranteed.
The pink crystal ornament on her forehead flickered with a soft, hypnotic light. In the next instant, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier until they finally closed. Soon after, the sound of rhythmic snoring filled the room. He had clearly fallen asleep.
With a wave of her sleeve, Yunxi packed everything in the room back into the storage rings—the scattered treasures flying through the air—and returned them to his fingers. Naturally, she also placed the auction voucher for the Fortune Reversal Pearl into the final storage ring. Then she gathered Li Li back into her arms.
The room fell into an unnatural silence, the air still and heavy. A quarter of an hour later, Xiao Meng sent another transmission.
"Zūnshàng, I have set up a false dream for Shopkeeper Liu. I will wake him now."
"All right."
The moment her words fell, he opened his eyes. There was obvious confusion in them at first, a glazed look that lasted only a heartbeat, but clarity soon returned. He cupped his hands toward her.
"Daoyou, your enhancement potion can continue to be auctioned at Chong'an Auction House. We will deduct the auction house's share according to the rules, and the remainder will be deposited into a Zijin Card. It can be used at any auction house, whether here in Chong'an City or in larger cultivation cities."
His memory was clearly still stuck on the enhancement potion she had mentioned earlier. Xiao Meng had altered the latter part of his memory, making it so that she had received an urgent message and needed to leave Chong'an City, leaving her unable to attend the auction that night. She had discussed with him whether to withdraw the items instead.
Following his usual habits, he didn't want to miss the chance to earn spirit stones. He persuaded her to leave the potions with the auction house for consignment and to have the proceeds transferred to the universal Zijin Card used across the Weiling Realm's auction houses.
Xiao Meng had already explained everything to her, so she hesitated on the surface before finally nodding in agreement. He then summoned the Golden Core female cultivator who had assisted earlier. She handed her a newly issued Zijin Card, and he personally escorted her out of Chong'an Auction House.
Yunxi smiled and cupped her hands. "Shopkeeper Liu, no need to see me off. If the potion auctions go smoothly, we will meet again."
"Of course. Of course." He maintained his genial, profit-loving smile as he watched her leave. Only after she was gone did he turn back inside, feeling vaguely that he had forgotten something important.
An hour before the auction that evening, around you (rooster) hour (around 6 PM), he finally noticed that his storage rings had been tampered with. Nothing was missing except the Fortune Reversal Pearl. In its original place was the auction voucher he had issued earlier for that male cultivator.
He collapsed onto a chair, his face turning ashen. He replayed everything that had happened that day from beginning to end. In the end, his suspicion landed squarely on the red-robed female cultivator he had met in private.
The Golden Core female cultivator who had received her was also brought in for questioning. She recalled the two encounters in detail and couldn't find anything unusual. Most importantly, everyone at the auction house had seen him personally escort that red-robed woman out, and he had been extremely polite.
The anger nearly sent him reeling. In the end, he sought out the auction house's resident elder, whose cultivation was at the early Unity realm. That elder discovered that his memories had been tampered with.
Cold sweat broke out all over him. The fact that someone could alter his memories without damaging his soul spoke volumes about their strength. He should count himself lucky that the other party only wanted the Fortune Reversal Pearl and not his life. More importantly, they hadn't touched any of the other auction items. Otherwise, he truly would have had to repay the debt with his own body.
Although the Fortune Reversal Pearl was lost, the consignment voucher had been returned. It's counted as the consignor withdrawing the item, and the responsibility didn't fall on the auction house.
In the end, he personally explained the situation at the auction. He replaced the Fortune Reversal Pearl with Yunxi's enhancement potion, praising it to the heavens and repeatedly emphasizing that it was refined by a direct disciple of Yixian Gate. This appearance was meant to promote the potion, which was why it would be tested on the spot.
The first vial was purchased by a cultivator who treated it as a last desperate gamble. He gave it to a junior whose cultivation had long stagnated and had that junior consume the potion in front of everyone.
His thinking was simple. If there was no effect after the test, he would demand a refund from the auction house. If it successfully improved the junior's aptitude, then he would profit even more. The second vial would surely sell for a sky-high price, and he would have scored a perfect bargain.
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Hi, I am back here on the Webnovel side. LOL.
I will be here for about a day, so today and tomorrow I am going to update several novels that I paused for a few months. The reason is simple. AO3's server is down for around fifteen hours, and that blocks what I already planned on my roadmap. Because of that, this is going to be a special exception.
The titles I will be picking up for this exception are Stealing Luck from the Heavenly Dao's Favorite; True Heir of Chaos: From Villainess to Empress; After Killing Dao Partner, the Villainess Becomes the Demon Ancestor; and Crimson Lotus, Divine Path.
For Crimson Lotus in particular, the author has started updating again just last month after a few months of hiatus, so I decided to continue it as well.
You might notice that my translation style feels a bit different this time. Right now, besides translating, I am also expanding and refining the text more. There are a few differences compared to my usual style, and I hope you enjoy this improvement.
I really recommend joining my Discord server for announcements and updates. Anyway, consider this a small gift from me. I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for waiting for my updates.
If you want to support me, the best way is through Ko fi at Ko-fi.com/rikhi or Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/rikhi.
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I am sorry if some terms are different from before. It has been a long time since I last touched this novel, and I may not have written down some terms in my notepad. I also can't realistically reread the novel from the beginning just to cross-check everything, so I only reviewed one or two chapters before this.
My memory isn't that reliable, especially considering how many titles I have worked on and how long it has been since I last returned to this one. I am sorry for this, and I hope you understand.