I am the young master

(A/N: Join the discord, to have intellectual conversations with your fellow cultivators! You can also get news about the novel there!

Link: discord.gg/SC9HNKVj5e

P.S.: I'm back! For those of you who didn't know, my SSD died and I lost some of the chapters like this one, and rewriting it was too hard. Added to that we had a hectic week at work and I couldn't put the time needed for rewriting this. Anyway, I'm back and we will be back to daily chapters.

P.P.S.: I want to thank everyone who dropped their powersones here despite no updates. Okay, I won't rant anymore, read the chapter (might need to reread the previous one to refresh your memory.)

)

——(POV Li Huang, The money-grabber)——

"…" Cai ZhenKang just kept looking at me after we got out of the shop. To his credit, he didn't say a thing and gave the woods to the shopkeeper when we were in the shop. I was honestly surprised that he didn't break off the deal.

I couldn't handle the weight of his stare on me so I turned and faced him. Everyone had come out of the shop and we were walking aimlessly.

"Come on, didn't you see that Wen Mu for yourself? He wouldn't sell this tree root if it wasn't because he could make a lot of money with the logs that you gave him." I told him the reason I decided to give the merchant what he wanted. It wasn't because I didn't want to pay for it or because I wanted to mess with Cai ZhenKang. I gave the merchant something that had more value to him than the spirit stones, raw material. He could use the raw material and make it multiple times more than what I would be willing to give him.

Well, I would be willing to pay him more but I doubt he would accept because overpricing too much leads to the other party thinking they are underselling.

Cai ZhenKang looked at me for a few seconds and nodded, albeit a little reluctantly. His mood improved the next second significantly.

"You have to pay for the logs though. I have heard that you should keep business and friendship separated or else you can harm the friendship." Cai ZhenKang said as he was talking in his 'big brother' mode.

I almost laughed at his attempt to make me pay him some money. Well, he wasn't from a big family like mine and their sect was not one to give much money to their disciples in general, so it made sense for him to be looking for a bit more money as he was about to enter the best auction in the world.

I nodded and looked at him.

"I wanted to buy you an item of your choosing in the auction…" I said and Cai ZhenKang almost jumped out of his skin, "…But it seems that this might harm our friendship according to what you have heard…" I added. I just wanted to mess with him a little more.

"Haha, of course, I accept it! Don't think about what I have heard. This is why they say don't believe whatever you hear. Yes, they were definitely wrong." Cai ZhenKang said and nodded to himself a couple of times.

——(POV third person)——

…

"Let's use the teleport formation." Li Huang said. They were going toward the restaurant that he had in mind for a few minutes and everyone was window shopping on the way. This was a new experience for them but no one could say that they have found something useful there.

Li Huang could clearly see that this part of the city seemed to belong to the 'less useful' items so he decided to use the teleport formation to get to the restaurant as they didn't have all day to just walk around. They had to start their auction experience tomorrow, so a good night's rest would help.

"…Senior brother, would it be alright?" Dai Bao said as he was hinting at the price for this teleportation. Even as a core disciple of the heavenly sword sect he would have to think twice before spending this much on simple transportation, because of that he wanted to remind Li Huang that not only this is expensive, many of them might not have enough money to participate in the auction if they are going to spend this much money there.

"Don't worry about it. As I suggested to dine there, I should be the one that makes sure we get there in time." Li Huang said with a small smile. He appreciated that Dai Bao reminded him that not everyone can afford this teleportation. He wanted to pay for everyone from the beginning, but he didn't say so clearly and Dai Bao did him a favor by giving him the chance to clear this misunderstanding.

Hearing this Dai Bao could only nod but Li Wanrou frowned a little as she didn't want Li Huang to waste all his money for a useless gesture.

~'Are you sure about this? Won't you be short on money for the auction?'~ Li Wanrou sent a sound transmission to Li Huang as she didn't want to question him openly.

~'It's fine. Let's just say that the family head had made a not-so-small donation.'~ Li Huang answered back with a tune that let Li Wanrou know that he was smiling inwardly.

Li Wanrou now understood that Huang is loaded and she was worrying for nothing.

"Listen to big brother Huang. Let's go." Li Wanrou nodded and said to the other Li family members.

Li Huang laughed a little at Li Wanrou's reaction and then looked at his fellow disciples who were oblivious to his conversation with Wanrou.

"Let us go too. We should get back to our resident in less than two hours to rest." Li Huang said and others nodded to his words. Although they liked to explore the city, no one wanted to lose the start of the auction tomorrow.

…

When they reached the teleportation formation, or better called the teleport station, they didn't meet anyone who would stop them and ask for money. The formation would work automatically and only one guard was standing in front of the formation.

The guard just cupped his fists to them and didn't pay them any more attention. Seeing this Li Huang raised an eyebrow.

'It seems that they handled the problem of looking down on others well in this city.' Li Huang thought as he remembered all the notes that he had written before. In the past month, he read all the notes that he had written in galactic basic to help him be ready for the future. Li Huang knew that there are some truths in any fiction as human nature doesn't change.

He was waiting to hear the guard telling him that he doubts that they can pay for the formation and stop them but nothing happened and the guard was polite if anything. Well, the guards here are not one to judge a person as they have seen many 'hidden masters'. Also, Li Huang and his fellow disciples have the heavenly sword sect's robes on so he had no excuse if he were to stop them.

Li Huang and others got on the teleport formation and Li Huang went to deposit the payment. These formations would activate after the necessary amount of spirit stones is dropped into the payment location, meaning that the payment for everyone on the formation should be done before the activation.

There was a note in front of the payment location that read "1000 high-grade spirit stones for each person". Seeing this Li Huang could understand why many would opt to walk when this is more than what some people earn in a year. For comparison, an inner disciple of the heavenly sword sect, like Ye Ling, would get 100 high-grade spirit stones a month as their salary.

Li Huang did a quick scan with his Qi sense and counted the people with him. Nine disciples from the heavenly sword sect and six family members were here. He started pouring the spirit stones into the designated location. The stones seem to teleport to somewhere else as they entered the cylinder.

After a few seconds, Li Huang was 16000 high-grade spirit stones lighter. Well, if you consider his wealth right now, he is not much different from before.

Li Huang turned to the center of the formation and started the formation with a wave of his hand. He figured out how this formation worked after a few uses of the peeping eye of heaven, that coupled with his knowledge of the formations from the trial helped him to understand it in a matter of seconds.

After activation, you had to move your Qi to that part of the formation that had your destination on it, and you are good to go.

Within a blink of an eye, they were on the other side of the formation.

"The restaurant should be near here.." Li Huang said as he checked his map.