"Doorless Auction House?"
Qin Shi frowned in surprise. "You're saying that such a large sum of money came from the Doorless Auction House?"
"Not all of it. After all, the Qin Sect is in control of the four regions and has hundreds of businesses. The daily income from these businesses is also very large. However, the total income only accounts for one-third of the money. The remaining two-thirds comes from the Doorless Auction House," Ling Xiao explained.
Ling Xiao explained, "Over the past year, our sect's disciples have been working closely with the Doorless Auction House. That's when we learned that the Doorless Auction House's influence is far beyond our imagination. Over the past few years, the Doorless Auction House hasn't just been doing auctions in the Crimson Flame Region. They have branches in thousands of empires in the Hundred Tides Zone.
Hearing this, Qin Shi stood up in shock. "The Doorless Auction House has branches in thousands of empires?
Is it an auction house? "
"That's right. I only discovered this in the past year. Because of this, the Qin Sect's auction items have a good market. That's why we have accumulated such a large sum of money." Ling Xiao nodded.
Hearing this, Qin Shi became serious. He thought, 'It seems that I've underestimated this Yuan Bo.'
A year ago, when Yuan Bo came to talk to him about cooperation, he had been suspicious of this Yuan Bo. After all, a person who could compete with Hua Ling in the Red Flame Empire would definitely be valued. But now, it seemed that he had underestimated this Yuan Bo.
"A year ago, I asked you guys to do something. How is it going?" Qin Shi asked.
Hearing this, Ling Xiao and the others looked at each other awkwardly. Elder Xun had always been in charge of investigating the Doorless Auction House. He said helplessly, "Reporting to the Sect Head, this year, we've investigated the Doorless Auction House several times, but the result …!"
Speaking up to here, Elder Xun fell silent.
"You didn't find anything?"
Seeing Old Xun remain silent, Qin Shi let out a long sigh. He had already expected this result. If the Gateless Auction House was merely a tumor in Scarlet Flame City, a business tycoon, then with Qin Zong's current influence in Scarlet Flame City, it wouldn't be too difficult for them to investigate.
However, after hearing Ling Xiao's explanation, he realized that the Doorless Auction House wasn't just in the Scarlet Flame Region, but in the entire Hundred Tide Region. In that case, it would be difficult to find out more about it.
After all, there were thousands of small empires like the Scarlet Flame Empire in the Hundred Tides, and the Scarlet Flame Empire was ranked at the bottom among the thousands of empires. This was also the reason why the Scarlet Flame Empire had been harassed for the past year.
If Scarlet Flame was as strong as the Beast King, then even if he was unified, anyone who wanted to invade would have to think twice about their own strength.
Of course, Chi Yan was different now. At least, with Qin Shi holding the fort, he wouldn't let any enemies invade Chi Yan's territory. Moreover, Chi Yan had obtained the military power of the Beast King. In the entire Hundred Tide Region, he was a terrifying force.
With regards to the Gateless Auction House, Qin Shi had been suspicious since a year ago. Now, it was even more so. A year ago, Yuan Bo told him that the reason he wanted to cooperate with him was to seek protection from the Qin Sect. At that time, Qin Shi already felt that it was impossible, and it was even more so now. With such a huge power in the Hundred Tides Alliance, why would they need the protection of a small Qin Sect?
This was clearly unrealistic.
But if that was the case, then the problem arose. If it wasn't to seek protection, why would Yuan Bo intentionally cooperate with the Qin Sect?
Thinking of this, Qin Shi asked Ling Xiao, "In that year, did Yuan Bo make any requests to the Qin Sect, or did he want to obtain any benefits from the Qin Sect?"
Ling Xiao pondered for a moment and shook his head. "No, at least not for now. To be honest, I'm not belittling the Qin Sect, but in the past year, the Qin Sect really didn't do much for the Gateless Auction House. Even the items we auctioned were sold at the same price, and the Qin Sect didn't even take any commission from them. On the contrary, the Qin Sect didn't help the Gateless Auction House at all. They didn't even need protection from the Qin Sect."
"There was one time when an external enemy invaded. It was the neighboring Gale Empire. After the Gale Empire invaded, their attacks were very ferocious. Because it was a sneak attack, Chi Yan and the Qin Sect were caught off guard and almost lost control of the southern region. But when the Gale Empire occupied more than half of the southern region, they suddenly attacked the Gateless Auction House in the southern region, wanting to plunder the treasures within."
"However, on the second day after the Gale Empire attacked the Gateless Auction House, the army that the Gale Empire sent to Chi Yan vanished into thin air. They were directly annihilated. There were over ten thousand of them, and over fifty of them were at the heavenly realm."
Even after such a long time, Ling Xiao was still sweating profusely when he mentioned this matter. From this, one could see how big of a commotion it caused in Chi Yan at that time.
"What?
Disappeared? "
Qin Shi abruptly stood up with a look of shock on his face. "An army of over ten thousand disappeared into thin air?
How is this possible? Were they killed by someone? "
"I don't know."
Ling Xiao shook his head helplessly, saying: "They disappeared, and the southern region that was originally lost also returned because of this. It was as if those ten thousand or so people had been wiped off the main road by someone out of thin air. Afterwards, the Qilin Universe Sovereign and our Qin Sect both sent people to investigate, but there were no signs of fighting. This matter is still a mystery now."
"Hiss …!"
Qin Shi sucked in a breath of cold air. An army of over ten thousand people disappeared into thin air?
What kind of skill was this?
Even the current him didn't dare to say that he could win, let alone kill them. Moreover, it was in a situation where no one was alerted and no one was aware of it.
"This Gateless Auction House actually has such terrifying strength?" Qin Shi could no longer remain calm. This was completely beyond his imagination.
"Sect Leader, I've been paying attention to the things you asked me to do before. But in this year, the Doorless Auction House didn't have any plans that are detrimental to the Qin Sect or Chi Yan. Could we have misunderstood them?" Ling Xiao hesitated for a moment before speaking.
However, Qin Shi shook his head decisively. "That's impossible. Although I still don't know what Yuan Bo is up to, I'm certain that his cooperation with Qin Zong is not a simple one. There must be a misunderstanding that no one knows about."
"For a person like him, who spends his time in the business world, he wouldn't do anything without benefits. How could he have helped Qin Zong unconditionally in a year?
There must be something fishy about this! "Qin Shi concluded.
Hearing this, Ling Xiao frowned as if he also felt that something was wrong. "Yes. The Gateless Auction House is a big business. I wouldn't know if I didn't investigate it. After investigating, I found out that the economic lifelines of many empires in the Hundred Tide Region are controlled by the Gateless Auction House. Compared to that, how much benefits can a small Chi Yan bring them? They have no reason to cooperate with us."
"I think so too." Qin Shi nodded his head.
The crowd suddenly fell into deep thought.
Right at this moment, Elder Xun stood up from the side and slapped himself on the forehead. He said with surprise, "Right, Sect Master, there's something I didn't mention earlier. Not long after you left, Yuan Bo did indeed come to my Qin Sect to discuss something with me."
"What is it?" Qin Shi suddenly grabbed the end of the thread and asked.
Old Xun's eyes spun as he said, "Boss Yuan Bo came looking for me at that time because he wanted to borrow a place from our Qin Sect."
"Borrow a place?
Where? "
"Snow Plain," Elder Xun said seriously.
"Snow Plain?"
Hearing this place, Qin Shi frowned. The three forbidden areas of Chi Yan Empire were the Time Vortex, the Bejewelled Lava Volcano, and the Snow Plain. Qin Shi had directly or indirectly come in contact with the first two, but he didn't come in contact with the Snow Plain. He only knew that the Snow Plain was in the southern region. It was cold all year round, and ice and snow piled up there. It was an extremely dangerous place.
"If I remember correctly, the Snow Plain is more dangerous than the Bejewelled Lava Volcano. Even Heaven Realm experts can't enter it easily. Why did Yuan Bo want to borrow this place from you?" Qin Shi asked in confusion.
Elder Xun shook his head. "I don't know either. Boss Yuan Bo didn't say anything either. But since Chi Yan has earned a lot from the Gateless Auction House, our Qin Sect can't use the Ice and Snow Plains, so I agreed to give it to him."
Ling Xiao suddenly said, "Based on what Elder Xun said, the Doorless Auction House's activities in the southern region have been very frequent this year. There were several times when they transported a large number of spirit stones to the southern region. Each time, the amount was very large, and all of them were above one billion. However, they only sent in and didn't send out. I also investigated this matter. They were all transported to the Snow Plain."
"There's such a thing?"
Qin Shi became serious. If this was the case, then he was almost certain that the cooperation between the Doorless Auction House and the Qin Sect was all in the Snow Plain.
"Billions of spirit stones are only sent in and not sent out. What does the Doorless Auction House want to do?" Qin Shi was curious about this.
"I also asked Boss Yuan Bo about this matter, but every time I asked him, he would evade me. Now, the majority of the Qin Sect's income comes from the Doorless Auction House, so I didn't ask too much." Ling Xiao shook his head, then said, "Sect Leader, do you want me to investigate this matter?"
Qin Shi hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand. "No need. If that old fellow doesn't want you to know, then even if you dig three feet into the ground, you won't be able to find anything. It's the same as his identity."
Speaking up to here, Qin Shi let out a long sigh, and a glimmer flashed in the corner of his eyes. He said, "Forget it, let him be for now. As long as he doesn't do anything to harm the Qin Sect or Chi Yan, don't go against the Doorless Auction House and continue the cooperation."
"I'd like to see exactly what tricks this old geezer Yuan Bo has up his sleeves."
Qin Shi thought. Vaguely, he felt that there must be a huge conspiracy behind this, and this conspiracy was very likely to have a huge impact on him in the near future.
It was just that he still couldn't judge whether this conspiracy was good or bad.