"This old scoundrel is truly detestable!"
Seeing Situ Jue turn to leave, Shui Xiang clenched her fists, her face filled with defiance.
"It's fine, I'll make him pay soon. This old man is used to being arrogant and overbearing. Soon, I'll make him lose face in front of all the antique industry elites. Let's see how he can still smile then!"
Li Yang said calmly. Just then, he saw Tian Feiyu and He Ling also walking in from outside.
They walked directly towards Situ Jue's side.
This surprised Li Yang!
So Tian Feiyu and He Ling were in league with Situ Jue. The alliance of these three ruthless individuals was no good news.
"Uncle, I'm a step late. I haven't delayed today's assembly, have I?" He Ling approached Situ Jue, a smile on his face, speaking courteously.
"Haha, my good nephew, you've arrived just in time. Not late at all. I'll show you my strength later. I've got the top spot today," Situ Jue said, patting He Ling's shoulder.
Wow!
Hearing their conversation, everyone on Li Yang's side was shocked!
That was the young master of the He family from the capital!
Situ Jue was actually young master He's uncle!
No one present had expected this, not even Li Yang, who was greatly surprised.
After speaking with He Ling, Situ Jue couldn't resist glancing arrogantly at Li Yang's group, as if to say, "See, kid? Even the young master of the capital's He family has to be polite to me. How dare you oppose me?"
However, Li Yang was completely dismissive of this.
He turned to Huang Bai and said, "Brother Huang, let's go to the assembly venue too."
"Mr. Li, wait a moment. Before you go to the venue, there's one more thing you need to do."
Huang Bai hurriedly stopped Li Yang, telling him that before entering the venue, he had to pass three trials with a voucher to obtain the qualification certificate for the appraisal competition.
Li Yang suddenly remembered Huang Bai mentioning the three trials. He first let President Feng and Boss Lou enter the venue to wait for him.
For Li Yang, passing the three trials was no difficulty. The first trial tested eyesight. There were seven or eight antiques laid out, with only one being genuine. He needed to use his vision to find the real item.
Li Yang only glanced at them and pointed to the third item, a blue and white porcelain bowl, saying, "This one is real."
"Congratulations, sir, you have perfectly passed the first trial. Please proceed to the second checkpoint."
A beautiful waitress stamped Li Yang's voucher and gestured for him to head to the next checkpoint.
The second trial tested knowledge of antique categories and theoretical knowledge of antique characteristics.
When Li Yang arrived at the second checkpoint, another beautiful waitress handed him a test paper and smiled, "Sir, please write your answers below according to the test paper. You can only pass if all your answers are correct."
"No problem!"
Li Yang nodded in agreement, quickly finished writing his answers, and handed them to the waitress. "I'm done. Please check them."
"Congratulations, sir, all questions were answered correctly. You have passed the second trial!"
The waitress compared the answers and couldn't help but be surprised that all her answers matched the standard answers perfectly.
This had never happened with previous contestants.
Huang Bai looked at Li Yang passing the trials smoothly, a satisfied expression on his face. He then quickly led Li Yang to the third trial.
This final trial was also the most difficult of the three.
This trial tested not only eyesight but also psychological fortitude. The task was to correctly appraise at least ten antiques within a fixed time of one minute.
Most appraisers failed at this stage, even after passing the first two trials.
The difficulty of this trial was immense; without sufficient appraisal skills, mistakes were inevitable.
However, when Li Yang arrived at this checkpoint, he merely swept his gaze over the row of antiques in front of him and immediately declared the authenticity and origin of all the antiques.
Most importantly, Li Yang's answers were all correct!
The supervisor for the third trial looked at Li Yang in astonishment after seeing the results, almost unable to believe her eyes.
This handsome young man had appraised ten antiques in less than ten seconds.
She had never seen such a contestant before.
"Congratulations, handsome sir. You have successfully passed the three trials and can now participate in today's Spring and Autumn Melee大会."
"Also, you are a record-breaker for passing the three trials in this session's大会. Please register your name here. Regardless of whether you win today, the大会 will present you with a beautiful gift," the waitress said to Li Yang with a smile.
"Okay, thank you."
Li Yang politely replied and turned to leave with Huang Bai.
Huang Bai was also amazed by Li Yang's appraisal just now. Even he hadn't seen the items clearly before Li Yang had finished his appraisal. The speed was simply unparalleled.
"Mr. Li, your appraisal skills truly amaze me. When you were appraising those antiques just now, I hadn't even seen the appearance of each item clearly, and you had already finished," Huang Bai praised Li Yang.
"They were just a few items that posed no challenge. The real test of skill will be in the appraisal competition later," Li Yang said with a faint smile. He soon followed Huang Bai to the entrance of the appraisal competition venue.
He handed the pass stamp from the three trials to the staff at the entrance and walked in with Huang Bai.
According to the rules, one could register for today's appraisal competition with three stamps. Fortunately, Li Yang was fast enough, and by the time he reached the registration area, there were only three minutes left before registration closed.
This meant that anyone who passed the three trials later would no longer have the chance to participate in today's appraisal competition.
"Li Yang, you're finally here. I thought you wouldn't make it for today's competition."
Shui Xiang, already waiting anxiously in the audience seats inside, watched as the outer doors were about to close, fearing Li Yang would be too late.
Li Yang smiled and said, "How could that be? I have it under control. Has the appraisal competition started yet?"
"Yes, it has. Today's appraisal competition uses the same format as before, still a ring system. The current defender of the ring is Boss Lou. He has already defeated three appraisal masters consecutively," Shui Xiang explained excitedly.
She recounted the process of Lou Dong's three consecutive victories to Li Yang, who listened with his blood boiling.
It turned out that Lou Dong had won each match by a narrow margin, with victories achieved with great difficulty, almost being defeated by his opponents.
Now, Lou Dong stood on the stage, already looking somewhat exhausted. His energy and spirit had been greatly depleted, and his eyes were sore from appraising.
"Is there anyone else who wishes to challenge Boss Lou? If no one comes on stage, then the winner today will be Boss Lou," the host announced with a smile to the audience.
"Wait a moment!"
Just then, an old man from the audience slowly walked onto the stage, stroking his beard.