novelraw Chapter 168 : Final Interpretation Rights, Belonged to Me
Chapter 168 : Final Interpretation Rights, Belonged to Me
Chapter 168: Final Interpretation Rights, Belonged to Me
Give up?
When these two words were lightly uttered from Chu Feng’s mouth, the entire Heaven-Piercing Auction House fell into a kind of eerie silence that was even more terrifying than death.
Time seemed to have frozen at that very moment.
Everyone’s minds crashed because of this sudden, earth-shattering reversal.
The frenzy and ferocity on Lei Qianjue’s face instantly stiffened, turning into utter bewilderment.
Even Murong Tian’s iceberg-like face, unchanged for ten thousand years, showed its first crack.
Jian Wuxin’s heart, which had just fallen into the abyss, was suddenly hoisted up to his throat.
Murong Xue stared at Chu Feng in shock, completely unable to understand why this man, who had been as steady as Mount Tai just a moment ago, would suddenly choose to throw in the towel and concede defeat.
“Ha… haha… hahahahaha!”
After a brief deathly silence, Lei Qianjue’s manic laughter shattered the stillness.
He laughed so hard that he rocked back and forth, laughing until tears were about to spill out.
“Gave up?”
“You fucking finally gave up?!”
He pointed at Chu Feng’s private room, mocking him without restraint in the posture of a victor.
“I thought you were something special! After all that noise, you’re just a soft egg who can only flap his gums!”
“Twenty million! That scared you into pissing your pants?”
“Trash! Trash from the Eastern Wasteland!”
Inside the venue, countless gloating, contemptuous, and mocking gazes shot toward the Ascension Group’s private room.
“Tch, thought it was some fierce river-crossing dragon. Turns out it’s just a paper tiger.”
“Put on an act for so long, and in the end he still chickened out.”
“Offended the Lei Family and the Heavenheart Holy Land—let’s see how they walk out of this City That Never Sleeps!”
Inside the private room, Feng Zhiruo’s face alternated between pale and flushed. Although she knew Chu Feng must have a backup plan, facing this tsunami of ridicule still made her feel her cheeks burning.
Only Chu Feng remained calm and unhurried, sitting there steadily, holding his teacup and gently blowing away the steam, as if everything outside had nothing to do with him.
On the high platform, the auctioneer snapped back to his senses from the immense shock. A professional smile piled onto his face as he raised the auction hammer high.
“Twenty million top-grade spirit stones! Is there any higher bid?”
No one responded.
“Twenty million, first time!”
The crisp sound of the hammer struck everyone straight in the heart.
Lei Qianjue puffed out his chest and spread his arms, greedily inhaling the air of victory.
“Twenty million, second time!”
He was already imagining that after obtaining that skeleton, the Lei Family, under his leadership, would stride toward an incomparably glorious future!
He even glanced at Murong Tian and sneered inwardly, thinking that once he fully unraveled this mechanism art, the first one he would swallow up would be this dilapidated Heavenheart Holy Land!
Just as the auctioneer raised the hammer high, about to bring down the decisive third strike—
A lazy voice rang out again, utterly out of place.
“Wait.”
The auctioneer’s hand froze in midair.
All eyes in the venue once again focused on the instigator.
They saw Chu Feng slowly set down his teacup, stand up, and unhurriedly straighten his clothes.
“I just said that our Ascension Group was giving up ‘bidding’.”
“I never said that I was giving up this ‘item’.”
What did that mean?!
Everyone was dumbfounded.
If you didn’t participate in bidding, you still wanted the item?
Did you plan to rob it?
This was the Thousand Illusions Pavilion!
Lei Qianjue was so furious that he laughed instead.
“Chu Feng! Are you fucking stupid from losing? What nonsense are you spouting here?!”
Chu Feng ignored him and shifted his gaze upward, toward the enchanting figure who had been watching everything with great interest.
“Pavilion Master Yao Yue.”
He smiled faintly. His voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone’s ears.
“According to the ‘Supplementary Agreement’ of the ‘Supreme VIP Client Strategic Cooperation Memorandum’ signed by both parties before the auction, regarding the ‘Irrational Bidding Risk Avoidance Clause,’ Article Three, Clause Seven…”
“When the final transaction price of an auction item is deemed by our side to involve a ‘malicious bidding premium’ exceeding fifty percent above its ‘fair value,’ our side has the right to activate the ‘final interpretation rights’ and bypass the public bidding process…”
Chu Feng paused slightly. The smile at the corner of his lips resembled a devil’s whisper.
“…and exercise the ‘priority acquisition right’ at one and a half times the item’s ‘fair value’.”
As soon as these words fell, the entire venue fell silent!
Everyone stood there as if petrified, minds filled with nothing but deafening blank noise.
Strategic… strategic cooperation memorandum?
Risk avoidance clause?
Final interpretation rights?
Priority acquisition rights?!
What the hell were all these things?!
An auction in the Cultivation World could be played like this?!
The smile on Lei Qianjue’s face completely froze. It was as if he were seeing Chu Feng for the first time, staring at him with the eyes of someone looking at a monster.
Even in Murong Tian’s eyes, which had known neither joy nor sorrow, towering waves finally surged!
He had calculated everything—except that Chu Feng, this madman, never intended to win at the card table at all!
From the very beginning, he had flipped the table and even rewritten a new set of rules favorable to himself!
“Pavilion Master Yao Yue!”
Lei Qianjue suddenly snapped back to his senses and roared hoarsely toward the upper level.
“This is unfair! This is cheating! My Lei Family refuses to accept this!”
Yao Yue’s soul-stirring, coquettish laughter drifted lazily from above, carrying a trace of indolence and undisguised appreciation.
“Giggle… Young Master Lei, please calm down.”
“Our Thousand Illusions Pavilion does business with an emphasis on ‘contractual spirit.’”
“Black ink on white paper, soul imprints from both sides, with Heaven’s Dao as witness.”
“Every word spoken by CEO Chu is correct.”
She extended her slender jade finger and pointed through the air.
A light screen appeared out of thin air at the center of the venue.
On it was that very “Supplementary Agreement,” filled with all kinds of unheard-of commercial terms. At the bottom of the agreement, the soul imprints of Chu Feng and Yao Yue glowed with dazzling brilliance.
Yao Yue’s voice continued, tinged with playful amusement.
“This skeleton has been assessed by our Thousand Illusions Pavilion’s chief appraisal team. Its ‘fair value’ is eight million top-grade spirit stones.”
“And Young Master Lei’s final bid of twenty million carried a premium exceeding one hundred and fifty percent, already severely triggering the ‘irrational bidding’ clause.”
“So, according to the agreement…”
She looked toward Chu Feng, her eyes like silk, her smile radiant.
“Congratulations, CEO Chu. You may now take this treasure for twelve million top-grade spirit stones.”
“As for the payment method… as you suggested, we’ll use ten percent of Ascension Group’s net profits over the next hundred years as collateral.”
“This investment—our Thousand Illusions Pavilion is in.”
“Pff!”
Lei Qianjue could no longer hold it in and spat out a mouthful of reversed blood, his body swaying unsteadily.
He had lost.
Lost utterly.
Lost inexplicably.
With twenty million, not only had he failed to buy the item, he had instead personally delivered this treasure into his opponent’s hands at an even lower price!
He had become the biggest joke in this shocking gamble!
On the high platform, the auctioneer took a deep breath and looked at the cultivators below, who were already completely petrified. Gathering all his strength, he slammed down the belated third strike!
“Dong!”
“Sold!”
“This ‘Ancient Strange Skeleton’ is finally awarded to—”
“Ascension Group!”
The moment the words fell, the metallic skeleton, radiating an aura from time immemorial, turned into a streak of light and flew precisely into Ascension Group’s private room.
“Chu—Feng—!”
Lei Qianjue’s roar, filled with boundless resentment and killing intent, nearly tore off the dome of the Heaven-Piercing Auction House.
“If you have the guts, don’t you dare leave this City That Never Sleeps!”
“I, Lei Qianjue, swear that I will tear you to pieces and grind your bones to dust!”