“Ah?”

Dantai Xiu was stunned for a moment, not reacting immediately. Seeing her reaction upon looking at Qu Zhengfeng’s name, he thought she would ask more questions about it, but unexpectedly she changed the topic so quickly.

For some unknown reason, he felt a strange sensation in his heart.

But Dantai Xiu didn’t think deeply about it, because Jian Chou’s question was somewhat special for him, making the dark divine light in his eyes suddenly flicker.

“Mm, this… if I said I wanted to buy Zuoliu because he has the Karmic Fire Red Lotus and I want to use him for cultivation, would Miss believe me?”

“Cultivation…”

Buy him back for cultivation?

When Jian Chou first heard this, she couldn’t understand what he meant. She was about to ask “what kind of cultivation,” but before the words left her mouth, her mind suddenly jolted, and she realized—

Wait, cultivation?

Dantai Xiu’s “cultivation”?!

In that instant, she was so frightened that she became completely alert!

Dantai Xiu!

His constitution, his cultivation—who in Mingri Xinghai didn’t know? And he was telling her he wanted to buy Zuoliu back for “cultivation”?!

Jian Chou had thought that as a Nascent Soul stage old monster who had experienced life and death and seen great storms, she should remain calm and composed when encountering anything in the future.

But she never expected…

To be defeated by this casual phrase “buy him back for cultivation”!

She suddenly felt dizzy and couldn’t speak for a long time.

Perhaps knowing that his words were truly shocking, Dantai Xiu covered his lips with his hand and coughed, concealing the slight, unclear smile in his voice: “Cough, that… Miss?”

“…”

Hearing his voice, Jian Chou finally came to her senses somewhat, looking at him rather stiffly. Only then did consciousness and reason slowly return to her.

“I don’t believe it.”

“Why don’t you believe it?”

Dantai Xiu immediately seemed surprised, his eyes widening slightly. He obviously hadn’t expected Jian Chou’s answer, especially since her previous expression had looked like she believed it completely.

Jian Chou didn’t understand Dantai Xiu well.

Actually, she had no basis for judgment; she simply couldn’t imagine a scene where Zuoliu, with his thuggish habits, would get entangled with this man-and-woman-devouring Dantai Xiu.

If she had to make up a reason…

“Young Master Dantai has a special constitution. If you wanted to cultivate, you shouldn’t lack for any type of person. Though the Karmic Fire Red Lotus is a once-in-a-millennium treasure, if it’s to enhance someone’s cultivation, it would mostly need to be made into pills. Thus its power would enter the consumer’s meridians and flesh. Even for cultivation purposes, I’m afraid you couldn’t gain much benefit from it.”

“Hahaha, Miss is truly prophetic!”

After listening, Dantai Xiu laughed, sighed, and walked to the table.

On this round table, besides tea sets and the incense burner, there was actually another item.

A deep blue jade slip.

The four corners were decorated with exquisite silver cloud patterns, while the center bore the ancient characters “Silver” in seal script, about two fingers wide and one finger long. From its form, this jade slip should be the “catalog” of what the Silver Building would auction today.

Dantai Xiu reached out and picked up the jade slip, playing with it in his hand.

“I naturally covet the power of the Karmic Fire Red Lotus, but now that Zuoliu has cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage, he must have completely absorbed the red lotus. To regain its power would require draining this person dry. I don’t have that kind of courage…”

“Don’t have that courage?” Jian Chou was surprised.

Dantai Xiu’s eyes revealed some deeper meaning, but he didn’t answer Jian Chou’s question anymore. He just remained standing by the window, his voice carrying a leisurely tone: “Isn’t Miss curious why I came?”

“Would Young Master Dantai be willing to say?”

Jian Chou slightly raised an eyebrow, calm and composed.

“Heh.”

Dantai Xiu smiled, just holding that jade slip, gently turning it, still looking through the extremely narrow gap in the bamboo curtains at the increasingly lively upper three floors outside.

“The auction is imminent, and quite a few important figures are coming. When there are many people, there are always a few who are my enemies…”

Bright heavenly light shone through the gap onto him.

The tea sets were neat, the incense burner ancient, with curling wisps of smoke rising in thin layers, drifting toward the window. But Dantai Xiu’s voice was actually more elusive than this light smoke.

Jian Chou stood behind watching him, then slowly shifted her gaze to what he held in his hand—that jade slip decorated with silver patterns.

“Snap.”

A crisp sound rang out as the deep blue jade slip bounced twice on the dusty, dry ground, slipping perfectly through the gap of the cage before him and landing beside Zuoliu’s crossed legs.

He opened his eyes and saw a figure standing in front.

This was beneath the Silver Building’s Isolation Platform, in an extremely dark space, but a delicate silver lamp hung ahead.

The lamplight stretched this person’s shadow long, casting it on the ground, folding right up to the cage. Zuoliu couldn’t see the other’s facial features clearly, but after this period of time, he had become very familiar with this visitor.

Liang Tingyu.

She stood with arms crossed, back to the silver lamp, watching Zuoliu’s somewhat dejected posture in the cage. Her ice-cold voice carried several traces of mockery: “The auction roster is out. In less than half an hour, the feast will begin, yet you’re quite leisurely.”

Sitting here, how could he not be leisurely?

Zuoliu leaned his head against the cage bars on one side, looking listless. Hearing Liang Tingyu’s words, he disrespectfully yawned: “I don’t have to busy myself investigating the identity of whoever broke into the dungeon that day, so of course I’m leisurely. Wine Offerer Liang must have been terribly busy these past two days, right?”

“…”

This bastard!

Hearing his words, Liang Tingyu couldn’t control the twitching at the corners of her eyes. For a moment, she was so angry she gritted her teeth and couldn’t speak.

These past few days, she had indeed been terribly busy.

But what could she do?

The deepest dungeon had been entered and exited like a vegetable market on a main street, and she hadn’t been able to keep any of the intruders. How could she not take the blame?

And the root of all this lay with this guy full of thuggish habits right before her eyes!

“If you weren’t still useful, I would have chopped you up and fed you to the dogs long ago!”

The killing intent and disgust in her words weren’t concealed at all.

Liang Tingyu didn’t walk over, just stood where she was, her eyes already filled with cold cruelty: “I won’t argue with you now. You should know yourself that when the auction ends, it will be your death!”

“Death?”

Zuoliu finally moved, reaching out to pick up the jade slip from the ground. With a casual glance, he couldn’t help but sneer.

“I already knew you captured me for the auction for ulterior motives. But I’m just a nobody without sect or school, a stinking rogue, a dirty thug, yet you dare set a starting bid of one hundred thousand spirit stones…”

One hundred thousand spirit stones!

Zuoliu swore he had never seen even one-tenth of this amount of spirit stones in his lifetime! This sum was so large that his inexperienced brain couldn’t even form a clear concept of it.

Had the night sailing ship gone mad?

“Even highway robbery isn’t this exaggerated. Your esteemed sect thinks far too highly of a small fry like me, doesn’t it?”

Zuoliu shook his head, thinking everyone on the night sailing ship had something wrong with their brains.

Seeing this, Liang Tingyu only sneered coldly: “Whether we think highly of you or not, we’ll know in two hours. However, you must be struggling inside, right?”

“…”

Zuoliu looked up at her without speaking.

But Liang Tingyu seemed to have already seen through his thoughts. She remained standing straight-backed, backlit before Zuoliu, slightly raising an eyebrow: “After all, if I were you, I would very much hope someone would come rescue me, but also wouldn’t want them to fall into a dangerous trap…”

“Crack!”

The deep blue jade slip held in his hand was instantly crushed by the sudden force from his fingertips, emitting a sharp cracking sound.

Zuoliu sat in the shadows, veins bulging on the back of his hand, his originally carefree gaze suddenly becoming fierce.

“Do you know what you look like? Like a trapped beast.”

Watching him like this, Liang Tingyu finally felt that the frustration from his earlier mockery had been relieved. She felt satisfied, with a hint of bloodthirsty anticipation.

“Now, let’s wait and see if anyone comes to rescue you, and who it might be…”

Who it might be?

Zuoliu’s fist slowly clenched tight, but he felt a bloody taste rising in his throat. He stared at Liang Tingyu ahead, but another female cultivator’s image appeared in his mind.

More composed, and more proud…