"One and a half million!"
In the auction, Xu Min raised his paddle and directly named a price.
"Oh my God!"
"Isn't he too bold? He actually jumped the price to one and a half million?"
"This dagger went from three hundred thousand to one and a half million, does it really have value?"
The hall was filled with voices of doubt.
Yet Xu Min sat there, looking proud and arrogantly satisfied.
In the second-floor hall, Zhang Li also smiled.
She wanted to ruin Yang Tian and Wang Ying; anything Wang Ying wanted, she would snatch it away, then cruelly taunt her face to face.
The auction hall was buzzing with excitement, and Zhang Li was delighted.
But soon, she saw Ling Ying walking toward Xu Min, and she frowned, a trace of doubt flashed in her eyes.
"Xu Min, you did this for Zhang Li, right?"
Ling Ying walked up and directly asked.
"What's it to you?"
Xu Min frowned.
"I'm here to tell you, you've been cheated on—half a day ago, your fiancée Zhang Li was making love with Yang Tian in the VIP room."
Ling Ying said.
"What? What did you say?"
Xu Min's face changed dramatically, and he stood up in shock.
"You're really pitiful, spending millions to please a woman, yet you didn't realize she already cheated on you! If you don't believe me, you can go question your fiancée!"
Ling Ying sneered, looked at Xu Min mockingly, then walked away.
Xu Min's face turned livid as he stood up and headed toward the second-floor hall.
"Xu Min, why aren't you bidding, what are you doing up here?" Zhang Li immediately snapped as she saw Xu Min: "Why are you staring at me like that? As if I owe you something, do you still want to marry me or not?"
Smack!
Xu Min slapped Zhang Li across the face.
For a moment, Zhang Li was dumbfounded.
"I'm asking you, three hours ago, did you or did you not have sex with Yang Tian in the VIP room?"
Xu Min asked relentlessly.
"Well... how did you know..."
Zhang Li became flustered.
"You damn whore!"
Xu Min, face full of rage, swung his fist, hitting Zhang Li and knocking her to the ground, blood flowing from her nose.
"Success!"
In the VIP hall, Wang Ying and Ling Ying watched everything unfold in the second-floor hall and smiled.
"Increase the bid by fifty thousand, we must get this dagger!"
Yang Tian said.
"Okay."
Wang Ying nodded.
From there, it became easy; without Xu Min bidding, Yang Tian and the others quickly acquired the dagger.
In the backroom, Wang Ying was handling the payment.
Meanwhile, Yang Tian picked up the dagger, used the X-ray Vision Technique to look inside, and saw the mark inside the dagger more clearly.
Wang Lingzhan!
"Yang, why did you bid on this dagger?"
Ling Ying asked.
Wang Ying, back from handling the paperwork, also looked at Yang Tian, curious why he spent so much on the dagger.
"This dagger belongs to Wang Lingzhan!"
Yang Tian stated.
"What?"
Wang Ying and Ling Ying were both shocked, unable to resist asking: "How do you know?"
"Because there's a mark inside, it's a pattern, and inside is the name 'Wang Lingzhan'."
Yang Tian explained.
Wang Ying and Ling Ying exchanged glances, feeling joyous.
A clue was finally found.
"This dagger should really belong to Wang Lingzhan, meaning Wang Lingzhan should be around this auction, or at least very familiar with the people at the auction. If not, the painting and dagger related to Wang Lingzhan couldn't have appeared so quickly!"
Ling Ying analyzed.
Yang Tian nodded but didn't respond to Ling Ying; instead, he used the X-ray Vision Technique to explore further into the dagger's base.
Inside the dagger, at the base, behind the mark, something was pressed.
The Spiritual Breath inside the dagger was continuously boiling.
Yang Tian always felt that the boiling Spiritual Breath was related to the object pressed inside the base.
"Yang Tian, what's wrong?"
Wang Ying noticed Yang Tian's expression and asked.
"There's something strange inside this dagger!"
Yang Tian said, operating the Spiritual Breath, suddenly pressing down on the dagger's base.
Crash!
A booming sound, Yang Tian used the Spiritual Breath to forcibly pry out the base's piece.
"These really are Wang Lingzhan's three characters!"
Wang Ying and Ling Ying also saw the characters on the pattern.
Bang!
A sudden boom, and the dagger in Yang Tian's hand began to burn quickly.
The boiling energy inside rapidly emerged, transforming into a beam of light in mid-air, shooting upwards.
Finally, with a bang, it exploded.
Very quickly, silence returned.
But Yang Tian frowned because the dagger in his hand was swiftly melting.
"Yang Tian, this dagger..."
Wang Ying became anxious.
"Don't worry..."
Yang Tian hurriedly stopped Wang Ying, watching as the dagger instantly melted into liquid and then evaporated, his brow furrowed with confusion, increasingly feeling something was wrong.
Yet pinpointing what exactly was wrong, Yang Tian couldn't say for the moment.
"Yang, this mark should indeed be Wang Lingzhan's, but the dagger is destroyed; where will we find him now?"
Ling Ying asked.
Yang Tian wanted to say something but found his mind blank.
He felt like something went wrong somewhere.
"Let's not worry about this for now; let's go to the auction and see if we can find other clues when our Red Porcelain is up for auction!"
Wang Ying saw Yang Tian's furrowed brow and quickly suggested.
"Yang, let's go in first!"
Ling Ying noticed Yang Tian lost in thought and also spoke quickly.
"Yes, let's go in and see if the Red Porcelain attracts any other Ancient Martial Artists!"
Yang Tian said.
"That's right, the porcelain has the aura of Ancient Martial Artists; now that you've dealt with it, Yang Tian, the Ancient Martial Artist behind it likely won't sit still!"
Wang Ying eagerly anticipated the Ancient Martial Artist behind it.
"Let's head inside then..."
Ling Ying said.
Just as the three were walking towards the auction hall, a surge of Spiritual Breath rushed at them from behind.
Wang Ying and Ling Ying didn't notice, but Yang Tian immediately stopped: "Don't go back, the Ancient Martial Artist is here!"
"The Ancient Martial Artist is here?"
Wang Ying and Ling Ying were both startled: "But our Red Porcelain hasn't even been auctioned yet."
"He's not here for the Red Porcelain; if I'm correct, he came for the dagger!" Yang Tian paused, then continued: "I just found it odd, and now I realize, the dagger is a trap; the Spiritual Breath inside explodes at a touch, meant to lure us out! The person who came should be Wang Lingzhan's enemy!"
"What?"
Wang Ying and Ling Ying were both shocked.
And at that moment, a cold voice sounded not far behind them: "Exactly! I used this dagger to draw out Wang Lingzhan! Who are you to Wang Lingzhan? How did you know the symbol inside this dagger? How could you trigger the explosive device on this dagger?"