292 Cost to come (1/2)
Meanwhile, Remian had run into a most typical problem.
”I need a what, now?” he stared blankly.
”The Nine Dragon Jade Cauldron.” Professor Qin smirked. ”Buy that for me, and I'll give you the cipher.”
That cipher, incidentally, was the fruit of Professor Qin's thirty years of research into the ancient formation's symbols. It was practically a dictionary and covered the remaining one third of the symbols that Remian hadn't managed to decipher with the other professors' help.
Well, fine. The man wanted payment for his work? Remian could accept that. ”Where would I buy something like that?”
”That's the thing. It's only available in a students auction, and teachers are not allowed to participate.” Professor Qin explained. ”Otherwise, I'd have bought it myself.”
”Can't it be found elsewhere? Another city, or some global delivery service?” Remian asked weakly.
”A what?” Professor Qin blinked, then shook his head. ”This cauldron and all its kind were made by Professor Chan himself, and he absolutely hates my guts, so… no. There's nowhere else, and no other way.”
Remian paused. ”This is going to be really troublesome, isn't it?”
”Very likely.” Professor Qin agreed.
”It would likely make me a lot of enemies, wouldn't it?”
”Almost definitely.”
”There's some arrogant, hostile, unreasonable high status students who is going to swear vengeance on me and try to rob me afterward, isn't there?”
”Six of them, at least.”
”And if I fought them in a bidding war, the cost is likely going to be all I could afford or more, isn't it?”
”For sure.”
Remian let out a long, long sigh. ”Where and when is the auction?”
”Tomorrow night, East Market Square, Golden Chariot Hall.”
”And who are these six in question?” Remian asked.
”Why?”
”I was rather hoping not to run into them at the auction.” Remian shrugged. ”Wouldn't it make things a lot simpler for me if they simply… didn't turn up?��
***
That night, hoarse screams rang out in dorm after dorm throughout the campus.
”What's going on? Are we under attack?” A worried guard shouted.
”It… it's fine! Just a nightmare. A nightmare…” someone sheepishly called back.
Remian frowned and redoubled his efforts.
Bloodcurdling screams rang out throughout the night, and the next morning, more than half the student body showed up at the cafeteria with pale faces from lack of sleep.
”What happened to you?” A particularly sound sleeper asked.
”Some guy next door was screaming his head off. Couldn't sleep all night.”
”And you?”
”Got interrupted during cultivation. Internal damage.”
”What about you?”
”Was so frightened by the screams, I stole my roommate's ear plugs, and he beat me up when he found out.”
As the day went by, Remian kept an eye and an ear on those particularly troublesome six people.
We could spend a whole chapter on how bad these people were, but frankly speaking, they weren't actually important or anything so let's just skip all that.
Goodness, they really were arrogant, bullying, trouble-raising brats. Even after such a horrific night, they were swaggered around blatantly robbing, cheating, hurting, and in one case almost killing the less privileged students around. Four were guys, two were girls, and all six said they were still going to the auction tonight regardless of their strange dreams last night.
Not good. Remian frowned, and upped his efforts some more. He went out and got some special herbs, and then set to work.
Another entire chapter could be devoted to the tension and sneakiness and preparation of Remian's, but again, not important, so never mind that.
This time, he targeted the kitchens and kept his psionic senses on the cooks and kitchen staff. Then, during an opportune moment when they were all away, he slipped in and added a little something to a few dishes.
Within an hour after lunch, no less than forty percent of the sleepy students decided to take a nap. They slept well that afternoon, surprisingly well, even considering the sleepless night before. In fact, they slept like they had been drugged or something…
Four of those six arrogant brats were still asleep when the auction doors opened. The fifth barely woke up in time to rush to the auction as it started. The sixth had eaten lunch outside and hadn't slept at all.
Even more amazingly, one of the four sleepers had a few of his henchmen drag him to the auction even when he wasn't fully awake.
”Not good.” Remian grimaced. Time was running out. The Nine Dragons Jade Cauldron was set for lot 17, and was the third last in the list. Scanning the thoughts of the three arrogant brats who made it, all three of them were eyeing the cauldron as a 'must buy'.
Yet more chapters could be spent on the environment of the auction and the tension building up and how these brats swaggered and boasted among themselves and looked down on that poor-looking chap who kept sneaking glances at them likely out of jealousy…
But again, not important.
Suffice to say that by the time Lot 09 ended, the bids were running as high as 20,000 Black, as each item was more valuable than the last, and prices were already beyond what about half the students in the hall were able to reasonably afford.