When Shen Qiang returned home in good spirits, Qian Shanxue, Ali, Ye Xiaolei, and Su Xiaonuan had just finished dinner and were chatting on the terrace garden. Naturally, the conversation was centered around topics of interest to women.

After a brief exchange of greetings, Shen Qiang headed to his own bedroom.

No sooner had he entered the room than he received a phone call from Xu Nan.

"Shen Qiang, I've searched through all the auction items and the non-saleable items list of Wanxin Hesheng and I'm sorry to say that I couldn't find the Illusion Butterfly Silk you urgently need, so it seems I'm unable to help you with this," Xu Nan said with an apologetic tone in her voice.

Hearing the apology in Xu Nan's tone, Shen Qiang laughed cheerfully and said, "It's okay. In fact, you already helped me a great deal today. Without your help, I couldn't have bought that Treasure House, so let's skip the formalities. I know that if you could help, you definitely would."

On the other end of the phone, Xu Nan fell silent for a moment before sighing deeply and speaking in a cooler tone, "Alright, I know this is very irrational of me. As a manager of Wanxin Hesheng, I shouldn't be telling you this."

"But on a personal level, I feel I must let you know, Cheng Xinyi has the Illusion Butterfly Silk you're looking for and it will be up for auction this Saturday. From what I know, the starting bid for the Illusion Butterfly Silk will be around eighty to a hundred million. If you really need it, please prepare in advance."

After Xu Nan had spoken, the line went dead.

The somewhat cold tone, contrasting greatly with her earlier demeanor, left Shen Qiang feeling inexplicably surprised.

But after giving it some thought, the matter wasn't hard to understand.

As far as Shen Qiang knew, there were quite a few people in the Cultivation World who operated auction houses, but only two of them were really substantial.

One was the Wanxin Hesheng where Xu Nan worked.

The other was Cheng Xinyi.

In terms of true scale and strength, Cheng Xinyi was actually the stronger and more formidable auction house compared to Wanxin Hesheng.

Shen Qiang needed Illusion Butterfly Silk to make a garment for the Spirit Corpse Golden Cicada, and Wanxin Hesheng didn't have it.

But Cheng Xinyi did.

From a business perspective, Wanxin Hesheng and Cheng Xinyi were the top two competitors in the industry, harboring a rivalry. Xu Nan informing Shen Qiang about Cheng Xinyi's Illusion Butterfly Silk was almost equal to handing over a client to them on a silver platter.

After all, whatever Wanxin Hesheng could offer to Shen Qiang, Cheng Xinyi could as well—plus, they were larger in scale and stronger in power!

If Shen Qiang were more satisfied with their service, it would be very possible for Xu Nan and Wanxin Hesheng to lose a client who clearly could bring them huge profits.

So, logically speaking, Xu Nan shouldn't have told Shen Qiang about Cheng Xinyi's Illusion Butterfly Silk.

But she did.

"Telling me this from a personal standpoint, does that mean she considers me a friend?" he wondered.

With the thought in mind, a slight smile crept across Shen Qiang's lips as he fondly recalled the verbal gentleman's agreement he'd had with Xu Nan before.

But after the smile, his brow furrowed.

He had made a lot from the purchase of Treasure House today.

Yet neither the antiques nor the shop itself could be liquidated immediately.

There were four days until the auction on Saturday.

In these four days, Shen Qiang had to procure the funds to buy the Illusion Butterfly Silk from Cheng Xinyi.

The awkward thing was, the working capital from Sun Kaiping and Boss Ma had just been invested in Treasure House today, and as Cheng Xinyi was a direct competitor of Wanxin Hesheng, Shen Qiang now owed Xu Nan more than 170 million.

Asking her for another loan was out of the question—not just for what Xu Nan might think, but Shen Qiang himself couldn't bring himself to ask.

After all, that money would be spent on something from a competitor of Wanxin Hesheng.

"Damn it, having no money really makes every step difficult!"

Shen Qiang sighed, the idea of giving up on the Illusion Butterfly Silk flickered through his mind as well.

But then, he immediately dismissed this thought.

Nine-transformed Heavenly Silkworm Silk was very precious, very luxurious—one strand could be used to create a Divine Artifact, but as long as one found the Nine-Turned Heavenly Silkworm and possessed absolute patience, it wasn't difficult to collect its silk.

As for the Illusion Butterfly,

it was a peculiar creature that could shuttle between the realms of Yin and Yang at will.

Encountering it was already a stroke of luck, and obtaining its cocoon was nearly as difficult as a fantasy.

In such a scenario, if he missed the auction for the Illusion Butterfly Silk, he might not encounter it again for decades, or even centuries.

The Spirit Corpse Golden Cicada had perfect proportions, a striking figure.

Shen Qiang wished she had no clothes, but that was the very thing she hoped to acquire thus far, right?

Although her true form was that of a Spirit Corpse Golden Cicada, she still had the heart of a young girl.

Without garments, she would undoubtedly feel insecure and self-conscious.

So, no matter what, Shen Qiang had to find a way to gather enough money before the Shenghe Chengxin Yi auction on Saturday to resolve this issue.

But as for how exactly to do that, Shen Qiang didn't have any good ideas at the moment. In terms of Spiritual Medicine, he had already given Xu Nan the Jade Cream and Blood Ganoderma Bone Healing Ointment. Even if he could sell them for some money, it was only right, in both sentiment and reason, to offset the debt he owed.

Selling antiques was an option, but unless he sold the powder blue glazed embossed dragon pattern jar, he would have to sell all his share of antiques to make enough.

That clearly wasn't realistic.

Now, the only valuable things Shen Qiang could put his hands on and sell were the Qi Gathering Powder and Qi Gathering Pill.

Having completed the Qi Condensation cultivation, the Qi Gathering Pill was no use to Shen Qiang anymore. However, the quantity of Qi Gathering Pill was too small, and as a novelty, it might not be accepted in the Cultivation World. And since he hadn't reached the Foundation Establishment stage, he couldn't refine basic simple Elixir Pills either.

Therefore, gathering one hundred million in just a few days seemed to be a really tough challenge.

After much consideration, Shen Qiang couldn't come up with any good ideas.

It was past ten in the evening when a very cheerful Su Xiaonuan, after taking her bath, came back to the bedroom with a coy smile, climbed into bed, and playfully said to the daydreaming Shen Qiang, "Shen Qiang, Cousin Qian Shanxue is really interesting—I can't believe she's never worn a dress in her whole life!"

Shen Qiang was startled and asked, "What did you say?"

"Cousin Qian Shanxue, she's never worn a dress." Su Xiaonuan's eyes were wide with surprise, "You didn't know?"

Shen Qiang's eyes gleamed with clarity as he smacked the back of his head with a loud slap.

"Qian Shanxue! How did I not think of her? She has killed many cultivators and has a habit of collecting spoils of war like Magical Treasures. She must have a lot of them in stock. As long as she agrees to sell those items, it would undoubtedly turn into a lot of cash. Then, I could use her money to bid for the Illusion Butterfly Silk first."

"Once I've got some breathing room, paying her back won't be difficult at all!"

Seeing Shen Qiang with a suddenly enlightened expression, Su Xiaonuan couldn't help but pout, "Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Coming back to his senses, Shen Qiang smiled and gave Su Xiaonuan a kiss.

With the kiss turning Su Xiaonuan's cheeks red, she playfully chided, "What are you, out of your mind?"

Shen Qiang laughed and pinned her down, lifting her chin with his finger, and said with a smile, "You've helped me a lot, so I've decided to reward you with three hundred rounds."

Su Xiaonuan's face blazed like fire, and with seductive eyes and arms tight around Shen Qiang's waist, she coyly chided in a tone that belied her words, "No, you bad man!"

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