Bang!
Ah Meng saw a blur before his eyes, then felt a powerful force slam into his chest—and the next moment, he was sent flying.
Once again, Ian dealt with Ah Meng in just one move.
The next moment, Ian’s gaze fell upon Felix Song.
Feeling Ian’s eyes on him, Felix instinctively retreated a step. "W-what do you want? I’m warning you, if you dare touch me, my family won’t let you off!"
"Scram!"
Ian spat out the word slowly.
"Y-yes, I’ll leave right now!"
Hearing the word 'scram,' Felix didn’t feel insulted at all. On the contrary, he was relieved, and fled in panic—he didn’t care about his two injured bodyguards at all.
After driving Felix off, Ian didn’t bother with Wendy Jiang and strode straight back to his room.
She might be beautiful, but she’s naturally suspicious—even after he saved her, she still thought he had ulterior motives.
Her attitude just now had really put him off.
She knew exactly who Felix Song was, but still used him as a shield. If it were any ordinary martial artist, even if they managed to drive Felix away, the Song Family would come for revenge.
That just showed how selfish she really was.
Did she really think that just because she was pretty, he’d risk life and limb for her?
He wasn’t the type to lose his head over a pretty face.
Besides, Hannah Han and Mira Su were just as beautiful as she was.
That’s exactly why Ian couldn’t be bothered with Wendy Jiang and simply left.
Wendy watched Ian walk away without even saying goodbye. First she was stunned, then she realized something and felt a little regret—but quickly comforted herself: Forget it, this guy’s background is a complete mystery. Maybe he approached me with some hidden agenda. It’s better this way.
Still, she wondered if he could really handle Felix Song’s revenge.
Back in his room, Ian called Hannah Han and chatted for an hour before hanging up.
After a shower, Ian lay down on the bed and pulled out a book on Eastern Medicine to read.
Ever since he reached the Innate realm, his energy had been off the charts—even going three days and nights without sleep was nothing to him.
Meanwhile...
Felix Song fled in disgrace, but he was far from willing to let it go.
In the end, he decided to call for help from his family—to send an Innate expert to kill Ian.
He might be ugly, but as his father’s only son, the patriarch didn’t mind at all.
It’s not that his father couldn’t have other kids.
It’s just that he worried any younger siblings would threaten his status.
So whenever one of his father’s women got pregnant, Felix would do whatever it took to make sure they had an abortion.
His father suspected something, but Felix always covered his tracks. With no proof, and only one son, the patriarch couldn’t do anything about it. After all, if Felix died, who would inherit the family?
When Felix made his request, his father Song Baixiong hesitated briefly, then agreed. He promised to send an Innate Second Layer expert to Blackfield the next day to follow Felix’s orders.
The next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, Ian and Xiang Shan drove to the event venue.
The small town hosting the public auction was only about forty kilometers from Jadeport City, and the roads were pretty good.
Ian was riding in a Mercedes sedan rented from the hotel.
An hour later, the car arrived at the small town called Sake.
Normally, Sake Town didn’t have many people, but today there were at least a hundred thousand gathered here.
Since parking was tight in town, Ian left the car outside and walked in.
The town had only one street, perfectly straight, lined with low houses on both sides. But at the end of the street stood a massive roof, seventeen or eighteen meters tall, with five- or six-meter-high walls around it.
That was the site of the Blackfield Public Auction.
On both sides of the street, besides vendors selling snacks, fruit, and drinks, plenty of locals had set up stalls to sell raw jade boulders.
Of course, the rough stones at these stalls were all low-grade—rarely could you cut out jadeite from them. But they were cheap, so they still attracted plenty of buyers.
Generally, all the big jewelry and jade companies in the Yanhuang Republic preferred to work directly with the warlords who controlled the mines. Buying rough stones from them was way cheaper.
For example, the same rough stone from a Blackfield warlord might cost just ten thousand yuan, but in a domestic Jade Gambling Hall, the price would be thirty to fifty thousand—or even higher.
Now about the Blackfield Public Auction itself...
It was actually jointly hosted by several warlords who controlled the mines.
The reason so many people came was simple—the stones at the auction were at least half the price of those in domestic Jade Gambling Halls. Rich folks aren’t stupid; if there’s a bargain, why not go for it?
Plus, every year, the five major warlords would put up a few premium rough stones for auction.
You could say that in the domestic Jade Gambling Halls, it was almost impossible to find top-grade jadeite, but every year at the auction, several extremely valuable pieces would appear.
It was a tactic by the warlords, of course, and also a way to drum up publicity.
In recent years, the Yanhuang Republic’s jadeite market had boomed, thanks in no small part to the warlords in Blackfield deliberately controlling rough stone supply and hyping things up. But the biggest reason was simple: the country’s economy was getting stronger every year, and there were more and more rich people.
At the entrance to the auction venue, dozens of armed soldiers stood guard.
Anyone who wanted to enter had to go through a body search—after all, money makes people crazy, and if someone brought a weapon in, what if they tried to rob a winner after a big jade find?
Of course, there were exceptions.
Anyone with an official invitation from the organizers could skip the body search.
Because only the rich or powerful ever got invitations.
Just as Ian and Xiang Shan were about to submit to a body search, an elderly voice called out, "Wait a moment!"
Then a spirited old man approached, accompanied by a young man and woman.
"Haha, it really is Young Master Song! For a moment I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!" the old man laughed heartily.
"Long time no see, Master Han! I didn’t expect to run into you here!" Ian laughed back. This old man was none other than Harold Han, the legendary jade-gambling master and head of Zhouman Jewelers.
Now that Ian was planning to get into the jewelry and jade business, he naturally needed to learn the ropes.
Zhouman Jewelers was an absolute giant in the industry, with over 200 branches nationwide and total assets exceeding 600 billion yuan. And that was before going public—if they ever did, their assets would multiply several times over.
Harold Han chuckled, "Young Master Song, you weren’t very sporting last time—disappeared halfway through our drinking session!"
Ian couldn’t help but blush. Last time, he’d gone to the bathroom midway, run into Mira Su, and ended up taking her to a hotel.
"That was my bad last time. How about we do it over again?"
"Perfect! Tonight, I’ll host, and we’ll drink properly this time," Harold Han said with a big smile.
"Then you’ll have to go easy on me, Master Han!"
"Haha!"
After a bit of small talk, Harold Han introduced the young man and woman with him to Ian: the guy was Victor Liu, his disciple, and the girl was Sabrina Han, his granddaughter.