Gu Bei followed Zhou Yan to a neighboring source stone shop, and then, to the astonishment of countless people, purchased tens of billions of source stones.
He went from one shop to another, buying, and more and more people followed him. His reputation as a prodigal spender shone brightly throughout the entire Source Stone Convention.
Every shop he visited received over ten billion spirit coins in sales.
In addition, he bought any source stones that others had successfully opened.
Some even specifically sought him out with valuable items, not only to trade but also to forge a connection.
Someone with such immense wealth was surely no ordinary person.
Yet, none of them knew Zhou Yan's true identity.
It was precisely because Zhou Yan's identity was so mysterious that people respected him more and more.
In turn, this increased respect only deepened the mystery surrounding his identity.
None of them would have ever imagined that Zhou Yan had no identity at all.
He simply had a little bit of money.
The crucial point was that no one knew he wasn't from this world.
"This Source Stone Convention is truly excellent. I've managed to acquire many rare materials. This will allow me to upgrade many of my buildings."
Zhou Yan was very satisfied after purchasing these materials.
Someone had calculated that the spirit coins he had spent on his journey had exceeded a terrifying one trillion!
That was one trillion spirit coins, no small sum.
Even the ancient aristocratic families would not casually provide their descendants with such funds.
The more spirit coins Zhou Yan spent, the more mysterious he became in everyone's eyes.
Zhou Yan's gains were indeed substantial. Such a Source Stone Convention only occurred once every three to five years, thus offering a plethora of rare source stones and treasures.
"Brother Sun, would you be interested in acquiring this?"
"I will!"
"Brother Sun, I wish to befriend you. I have a batch of high-quality source crystals..."
"I'll take it all, we can discuss the price."
...
Many people offered valuable treasures and specifically sought him out for trades. Because he was so generous with his spending, many were eager to do business with him.
He naturally did not care about small sums of money.
These items were incredibly useful to him.
He couldn't even buy them with money.
Therefore, later on, he found himself constantly acquiring other people's goods.
This forced him to have Xiao Wei and Jin San Yi send a few people over to help.
With two people dedicated to acquisitions assisting, along with Gu Bei dispatching his own people, and even Ji Mingyue sending help after hearing about it, Zhou Yan finally had some free time to focus on the final ten source stones to be auctioned that day.
These ten source stones were all extraordinary.
The first was round, perfectly spherical, resembling a giant egg.
He probed it, but found its energy levels to be low, deeming it of little value.
He then examined the other nine. The second source stone would have little value if its price exceeded fifty billion.
He continued until he reached the fifth source stone. This one was peculiar, it was a turtle shell source stone.
Its surface resembled the shell of a turtle, and it even activated the Tai Chi diagram within him.
He was greatly surprised; he had to acquire this source stone.
As for the remaining source stones, he examined them all, finding no other particularly special ones. They were inferior to the three source stones from the ancient clans.
However, they still held some value. If the price became too high, he certainly wouldn't contend for them.
He visited other shops to acquire another batch of source stones, and finally, the auction for the ten source stones began.
Following the auctioneer's enthusiastic and polite opening remarks, the first source stone went under the hammer.
The starting bid was one billion spirit coins.
Soon, it surpassed the source stone's intrinsic value.
"Are you not interested?" Gu Bei inquired of Zhou Yan.
"I'm not interested in this one," Zhou Yan replied.
"Oh, then I'm curious which one Brother Sun fancies. I doubt anyone could outbid you."
Having witnessed Zhou Yan's financial prowess, Gu Bei did not believe anyone could surpass him in terms of capital.
Zhou Yan himself felt the same way.
With hundreds of trillions in liquid assets, no matter how much he spent, he couldn't exhaust it.
Compared to him, the combined liquid assets of several ancient aristocratic families might not even measure up.
These ten source stones, once purchased, all had to be opened before departure.
This source stone was purchased for eleven billion spirit coins.
Unfortunately, when it was opened, the source stone within was found to be of low value.
Finally, the buyer put the opened source crystals up for auction, hoping to recoup some of their losses.
Zhou Yan quickly assessed the value of these source crystals and directly bid fifty billion spirit coins.
The moment he spoke, everyone else fell silent.
Because this price was very reasonable, and it wouldn't go much higher.
So, no one else bid.
He acquired these source crystals for fifty billion.
Next, the second and third source stones were auctioned.
Unfortunately, these source stones were of too low value, and their opening resulted in losses, causing many to grumble about the source stone auction.
However, there was little they could do. This was inherently a gamble.
Even the most skilled source stone master could not be absolutely certain if there was anything inside a source stone.
These individuals had terrible luck. Every time they brought items to auction, without exception, they could not compete with the financially powerful Zhou Yan, and he acquired all of them.
Finally, it was time for the fifth source stone.
With the painful lessons of the previous four source stones, fewer people bid for the fifth source stone.
Only about a dozen individuals were competing.
Seeing that the bids were around the expected range, Zhou Yan called out, "Eight billion."
Upon hearing Zhou Yan's bid, the competition behind him dwindled. Perhaps they were aware of his immense wealth and felt there was little hope, so they stopped bidding.
This was a fortunate find for Zhou Yan.
He had expected to spend at least over a hundred billion on this source stone.
Who would have thought that, after the lessons learned from the previous four auctions, they would dare not compete?
After paying eight billion spirit coins, it was finally time to open the stone.
"Seeing Brother Sun's confidence, I wish you success in unearthing treasures."
Gu Bei clasped his hands in greeting.
"It's all a matter of luck. It didn't cost much anyway," Zhou Yan replied.
Gu Bei's smile faltered. He felt a pang of insult.
If eighty billion wasn't much, then what was considered a lot of money?
The crowd below was chatting when a powerful wave of energy emanated from the stage, forming a Tai Chi diagram that enveloped the heavens and earth.
Everyone in the hall was stunned.
Witnessing this miraculous scene, they fell into a daze.
They had assumed this one wouldn't yield anything good either, which was why no one had bid aggressively.
But the reality proved them utterly wrong.
Not only did this source stone yield something good, but its value was astonishing.
They marveled at the item above, amazed that a treasure was hidden within.
"What is this?"
"This is no ordinary treasure. It's the Yin-Yang Stone! Good heavens, to actually see this item, which hasn't been heard of for thousands of years. I never imagined we'd uncover such a supreme treasure this time."
"This is incredible! Eighty billion spirit coins was absolutely worth it."
"If we had known there was a Yin-Yang Stone inside, we would have bid even five hundred billion spirit coins."
"Let's be realistic. We all thought this source stone had nothing inside beforehand."
...