Chapter 434: Layers Of Plans.
The auctioneer called out, "5,000 low-grade energy stones from room 21. That's a bid of 5,000 from room 21. Any more bids?"
Usually, when the auctioneer asks that question, no one bids. But this time was different because this portion was supposed to be the last. Someone else bid 6,000 energy stones.
Arthur didn't back down. He raised the bid to 7,000 energy stones.
This went back and forth until the person bid 10,000 energy stones. But instead of raising the bid, Arthur gave up.
He even spoke out loud so everyone could hear, "You're right, fellow daoist. I shouldn't go too far. 10,000 is just too much for that material. Besides, I already have two of it."
The lady at the third mortal coil was already angry that she spent three times as much as was financially smart on the material. What he said made her so angry that she decided to kill him.
She didn't say anything more to Arthur. To her, he is already a dead person.
Instead, she sent a message with her divine sense to another person nearby, saying, "Count me in. But I must have the two red shoots in his possession."
The person she sent the message to was an old man with a thin and frail body. The man smiled when he heard her message.
Then he said, "You won't regret it."
The lady nodded and exhaled deeply. Inwardly she thought to herself, "I hope I won't regret it."
There are many reasons why she wanted to attack Arthur. The first reason is obviously for the two materials that Arthur bought. The second reason is that he pissed her off.
She didn't intend to buy that third material. She had actually been raising the price to make Arthur pay an exorbitant price for it. But Arthur gave up and saddled her with the price.
If she had a choice, she would return the material to the auction house and apologize. But that is unacceptable behavior.
So rather than offend a large cultivation family, she would rather take on Arthur. This is why she decided to join the group of people who are planning to rob the other guests.
Meanwhile, the old man that she messaged also messaged someone else. He said, "The White Face lady has decided to join us. That makes 12 in total."
The person the old man spoke to said, "Good. Good job. I have called for backup. The entire venue will be surrounded soon."
The old man was happy to hear that. But he didn't let the news get to his head. He asked, "Are you sure this is fine? The Milton family won't take kindly to us disrupting their event."
The person assured him, "Don't worry. I am not suicidal. The Milton family have their own problems. They will be too busy to deal with us."
The old man wasn't completely assured. He said, "Still, even if we escape, that doesn't mean the Milton family will let us go."
The person swore, "I swear it upon the Ethera tree that the Milton family will not bother us for the heist. If they do, I will take all the blame and try to appease them. If I fail, let my life be forfeit."
Only now did the old man truly relax. He even smiled and said, "In that case, it is nice doing business with you."
He doesn't know what the Milton family will be busy with or why this person is so confident that the Milton family won't bother them, but he doesn't care. All he cared about was the oath and the assurance it gave him.
If the person hadn't sworn, he wouldn't have bothered to join the heist personally. He would have only done his job of recruiting people from within the auction house.
But now that the oath has been sworn, he felt motivated to deepen their cooperation. As long as there was someone going to take the blame, he didn't mind going all out.
The person on the other side of the divine sense snorted and said, "Happy now?"
The old man replied, "Yes. Very happy."
"Then don't disappoint me. Do your job well."
The communication ended there. The old man continued to recruit more cultivators at the third mortal coil.
He promised them different benefits and swore not to leak their identity or involvement with the heist. All he wanted them to do was to attack the people in the auction house as soon as they got his signal.
Everyone can attack whoever they want and take whatever they want. But everyone must swear not to reveal the identity of other people.
As this was going on, Arthur was silent, and the person the old man contacted was watching him intensely.
This person wasn't using their divine sense to watch him so as not to alert him. They were using a formation in the private room that recorded what was going on in the room and transmitted the information to another array outside the private room, which serves as the display.
This system of spying arrays were not set up today and we're not set up just in Arthur's room. Every private room had it, so the identity of the person or people who set it up must be tightly linked to the identity of the people who are hosting the auction.
Actually, the people who set up the spying arrays and the people who are hosting the auction are the same people. They are the Milton family.
This person spying on Arthur is part of the Milton family. He wasn't spying on Arthur for personal reasons and he wasn't inciting people to rob the guests for personal reasons either.
All he was doing, he did for his family. This was why he was so sure that the Milton family won't come after the robbers.
In turn, the Milton family was doing all of these because of Arthur. They are doing it to get Arthur.