When I was supposed to be slaying the dragon, I accidentally started cultivating immortality - Chapter 196 Auction! Mogao Grottoes murals!

The lights in the auction venue were turned off one after another, and finally only the giant chandelier in the center of the dome was still on. The dome dimmed, and the enamel painting became closer to the gloomy starry sky.

In the dimness, waiters with blond hair and white clothes passed by in the aisles and rang bells. The sound of silver hitting each other was gentle and sweet, and the voices of the guests talking to each other became low.

The bright red curtain with gold lines shook, and a man wearing a black tuxedo like the guests walked out. The spotlight on the top of the stage lit up at the right time, shrouding the host in a tuxedo in a beam of light.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Sotheby’s directional auction will start in five minutes. I am the auctioneer this time. Please hold your number plate and don’t miss what you like, because we will bid for the next thing. , each piece is unique.” The auctioneer paused and said loudly, “Now, please close your eyes when it gets dark.”

Lu Mingfei, who had read the information, knew exactly what would happen next, so he closed his eyes. With the host’s “Dawn, please open your eyes”, he opened his eyes again, and the originally indifferent and cold black eyes turned into bright ones. Golden, at the same time, hundreds of golden lights lit up throughout the venue, instantly covering the starlight on the dome.

This is the tradition of auctions. Mixed-bloods use their most typical feature, golden eyes, to identify themselves. For mixed-races with not too bad bloodlines, as long as they concentrate, gold will appear in their eyes.

Lu Mingfei estimated that his bloodline was not high, but probably because of his training, his golden eyes were brighter and brighter than those of A-level hybrids.

The bright eyes attracted the attention of the people around him. The pair of dazzling golden eyes showed the extraordinary blood of its owner, but Lu Mingfei just blinked and let it fall silent – although the information said that the people attending the auction It is customary to keep golden eyes, but there are no similar regulations for auctions.

Of course, considering that there is only one lamp left above the head, the golden pupil with night vision ability is actually quite practical in dim light. However, Lu Mingfei, whose five senses have been enhanced again after the rotation of the illumination realm, thinks that night vision is no longer needed. Golden eyes.

Lu Mingfei’s eyes returned to black, indifferent and deep, mixed in a group of golden light spots, like two black holes, or a bottomless abyss. Under the abyss was deep darkness, and everyone who met his eyes looked away uncomfortably. , Searching the intestines and scraping the belly, trying to find information related to this young man in his memory.

Which mixed-race family suddenly had such an outstanding descendant?

The first auction item is a palace vase from the Mughal Empire. This Indian dynasty from the 16th to the 19th century had a very developed handicraft industry at the time. The vases on the stand were extremely poorly made and were said to have been made by one of the top masters at the time. Hand, the emperor once placed it on his bedside.

Lu Mingfei was not interested in these antiques. The auction items were being bid one by one. He sat there calmly, trying his best to create an image of himself that was not easy to mess with.

Due to the special nature of underground auctions, not all lots will appear on the flyer, but if they do, they will be marked with the lot number.

The crystal mandala was a public auction item. As one of the finale items, its number was ten. As the ninth item fell, and the tenth item was brought up, Lu Mingfei cheered up.

The crystal mandala has been brought to the booth. The screen on the booth displays the English name “Crystal Mandala”. Its flowers do not look much like ordinary mandala, but the shape is more similar to lily of the valley. To make everything bigger, and just like the “crystal” in the name, it is transparent, housed in a transparent bulletproof glass box, and the petals are like works of art made of glass.

“The next thing that will be filmed is ‘Crystal Mandala’. This plant that is highly integrated with dragon genes is the main material for making bloodline locking potions. Legend has it that if the first generation species is angry because of something, they will brew it with it. He can use the made wine to calm his anger and fall into a sweet sleep. For the noble first-generation species, this may just be hops used to brew sleep-aid wine, but for the mixed-race species, it is an excellent pharmaceutical material! Six flowers, auctioned together, starting price, six million US dollars!”

To be honest, even though he had expected it, when he heard the price, Lu Mingfei still had the urge to take a few leaves or petals from his golden hairpin with dragon head and phoenix tail and send it to the auction. This thing is more precious than a crystal mandala. precious!

After hesitating for a while, Lu Mingfei gave up the idea.

Although no one would dare to have any evil intentions as long as he borrows the help of his brother to sell materials, but he doesn’t seem to be in urgent need of money at the moment – the equipment department provides him with various materials for free.

After restraining her divergent thoughts, the first bid for the crystal mandala had already begun. A girl wearing a black gothic skirt in a Yishui evening gown raised a sign and raised the price from six million to seven million.

Before the auctioneer had time to drop the hammer for the first time, someone raised a sign and raised the price to 7.5 million.

“Seven and a half million! Once!”

The auctioneer dropped the hammer for the first time.

Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment, then raised the sign and increased the price by more than half of the original price in one breath: “Twelve million!”

Holding the sign, his eyes were indifferent, his voice was steady and resolute, coupled with his indifferent expression and cold eyes, coupled with his boldness to increase the price by more than 50% in one go, he immediately shocked the other guests.

Six crystal mandalas cost US$12 million, with an average price of US$2 million per flower. Even if crystal mandalas are commercially available and priceless, there is no guarantee of a guaranteed profit if one is sold for US$2 million.

Although it can be refined into a precious bloodline locking agent or a powerful bloodline enhancer that can keep people awake for a certain period of time, it is a consumable after all and will be gone after one use.

Secondly, if you want to use crystal mandala to make alchemical potions, most mixed-race families do not have this ability. They must go to those top alchemists. Their asking price may not be higher than the selling price of crystal mandala. Cheap, which is another big cost.

The auctioneer dropped the hammer twice in a row but no one bid. Just as Lu Mingfei was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a man in a modern white formal suit in the corner raised his sign: “Fifteen million.”

He looked calm and composed, but Lu Mingfei’s five senses were enough to detect the anxiety hidden under his calm mask – the slight contraction of his pupils, the inconspicuous rapidity of breathing, and the movement of wanting to purse his lips but then stopping immediately were all revealed. It seems that he lacks confidence.

Before the auctioneer dropped the hammer for the first time, Lu Mingfei immediately raised his sign again: “Eighteen million.”

His behavior when shouting out this number was the same as when he shouted “twelve million”, as if the two numbers made no difference to him, but in fact, as long as the auction price increased by another three million, he would have to stop. ——The equipment department still has more than two million in funds, and he can still spend about one million himself.

Perhaps because Lu Mingfei’s momentum intimidated others, or perhaps because others felt that the price was too high, the auctioneer finally made the third hammer price with Lu Mingfei’s eighteen million.

Lu Mingfei didn’t feel that he was losing money. Other families had to consider the additional cost of hiring an alchemist master to buy crystal mandala. However, the equipment department asked him to refine the crystal mandala by himself. Neither he nor the equipment department needed it. Consider labor costs.

The waiter took the hammered crystal mandala from the booth and sent it to the backstage. After the auction, someone would come to Lu Mingfei and take him to hand over the money and get the items.

After taking the crystal mandala, Lu Mingfei lost all interest in the auction and waited silently for the last two items to be sold.

Speaking of which, the last two grand auction items were not disclosed in the promotional materials, and Lu Mingfei was actually a little curious.

The eleventh lot was placed in a transparent bulletproof glass box with a soft velvet cushion underneath. Lu Mingfei’s gaze fell across the crowd to the booth, and he suddenly became gloomy.

Inside the glass box is a slate. The slate is incomplete. It is approximately square, with a side length of about thirty or forty centimeters. There is an incomplete pattern on it. It is twisted and complicated but seems to have some kind of meaning hidden in it. The slate and the pattern themselves are full of meaning. Mottled traces of time.

Lu Mingfei did not immediately recognize what the stone slab was, but the screen on the booth already displayed its name – Langdon Warner’s Alchemy Sutra mural in the Mogao Grottoes.

Mogao Grottoes… murals? !

Lu Mingfei’s historical knowledge reserve is not very large, but he still knows about the murals of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and “Langdon Warner”, the notorious thief of Dunhuang cultural relics from the United States!

This thief from the United States used chemical glue to peel off more than 10 exquisite Tang Dynasty murals from the Mogao Grottoes in 1923, and stole two precious painted sculptures. Lu Mingfei saw this name in a history textbook, but he did not expect it. He is also a mixed race, and the things he stole are far more than what appears on the surface!

Thundercloud-like anger was brewing in his chest. The cold murderous aura that originally remained in his eyes was just rootless, but now it became more and more powerful with the support of anger.

Langdon Warner’s Mogao Grottoes murals? !

Who gave this lot such a name! What qualifications does a shameless thief have to name China’s ancient cultural relics?

The invisible momentum spread due to the influence of emotions. The people sitting around Lu Mingfei felt that the air suddenly became depressed inexplicably. First, unreasonable uneasiness surged out of their hearts, and then the uneasiness quickly fermented into inexplicable fear, and even… Hysterical fear.

They looked around, but could not find the source of uneasiness and fear. The aristocratic temperament had long since disappeared.

The auctioneer on the stage began to introduce the lot: “This is a treasure from ancient China. It comes from a hidden cave in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Its history has exceeded 1,500 years. At that time, it was proficient in ancient Chinese alchemy. The Buddhist monks gathered there, and this stone slab hides the Buddhist scriptures they left behind, and the Buddhist scriptures contain the secrets of ancient Chinese alchemy!”

“In the early part of the last century, the mixed-race explorer Langdon Warner went to China, unearthed this stone tablet recording the secrets of ancient Chinese alchemy, brought it back to the United States, and tried to use his and other alchemists’ wisdom to I came to crack it, but in the end I found nothing, so I had to sell it in the hope that a more intelligent buyer could crack it and make outstanding contributions to the field of alchemy, so in the end it ended up here!”

The auctioneer introduced the cultural relic in a solemn tone and manner, but the words he spat out were disgusting.

Excavate? Take it back to the United States? Contribute to the field of alchemy?

Lu Mingfei discovered that he might have met the last shameless person he had ever seen in his life. He described theft as excavation, transporting stolen goods as bringing them back to the United States, and cracking the Chinese alchemy as making a contribution to the field of alchemy… Is the United States still contributing to the European field of alchemy?

Compared to the tuxedoed auctioneer in the middle of the stage, Fingal’s integrity is as strong as the Statue of Liberty—although the Statue of Liberty is not free.

With the temptation of the auctioneer, “As long as you can decipher the Buddhist scriptures in the slate murals, you will have a chance to master ancient Chinese alchemy,” the atmosphere in the auction house has reached an unprecedented high. It seems that many people are interested in ancient Chinese alchemy. For this auction, they showed ten times the enthusiasm of the crystal mandala.

The base price of the slate mural was US$10 million. After just a short while, it soared to a high price of US$20 million!

Lu Mingfei watched the guests bidding with cold eyes.

He didn’t want this Chinese cultural relic to be traded away by others under his nose.

But the current auction price has exceeded 20 million US dollars. Even if he did not use the mission funds to take the crystal mandala, it would still be far from enough to bid for this treasure.

He has read some online novels. According to the development in the novel, some protagonists encounter something they like at an auction but have no money for the time being. They will contact the auction house urgently to auction off one of his treasures, and then spend more than their savings. You can use the money to buy the treasure, and when your treasure is auctioned later, you will get a large amount of funds, which is enough to pay the auction price of that treasure.

He can also send part of the golden hairpin with the dragon head and phoenix tail to the auction, and then confidently bid a high price in the auction of the stone murals. Anyway, the price of the golden hairpin with the dragon head and phoenix tail may be several times or even ten times that of the crystal mandala. times he could afford it.

But…

Firstly, the auction is very cautious in appraising the items consigned for auction, and usually does not arrange them for auction within a few hours.

Secondly, the Dunhuang murals are different from the treasures in the novel after all…

The feeling of selling your own things for money and then buying back things that originally belonged to you makes people extremely uncomfortable just thinking about it.

He was so unhappy that Lu Mingfei almost wanted to tear something into pieces.

So he didn’t think about spending money at all, let alone selling the golden hairpin with a dragon head and a phoenix tail.

Watching coldly as the stone mural was auctioned for 31 million US dollars, Lu Mingfei watched as the waiter took it off the stand and sent it to the backstage.

In his sea of ​​consciousness, the Book of Heaven suddenly unfolded, revealing a translucent rune wrapped in it. The runes were twisted and weird, with lines like dragons and snakes.

This was the “trial version” service given to him by Mingze on Shennongjia Road. It had a detection function and helped Lu Mingfei open the Nibelungen.

It should have dissipated after being used once, but in the coercion of the Book of Heaven, whether it dissipates or not is not decided by it – compared to the beginning, its remaining power is not much, it is so transparent that it almost disappears, and it can no longer be pried. The Nibelungs were moved, but one more exploration was carried out.

Invisible fluctuations swept through the entire venue. In a moment that no one knew, this dark underground building had revealed everything to Lu Mingfei.

“Ha…” Sitting on the red velvet chair, Lu Mingfei exhaled softly. He whispered to himself in a voice that only he could hear. His eyes were bottomless, as if there was an abyss entrenching him, “We Whatever happened to you will come back the same way you went!”

Two updates! Seven thousand six hundred words! Keep praising me! Akimbo.JPG