(A

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P.S.: No more E.A. in the novel, this is so sad. OG E.A. gang leave your mark in history.)

——(POV third person)——

"Let us go over the plan once more.

" Li Long said.

"Grandpa, I already know the plan by soul.

" Li Huang said exasperatedly.

These past hours they had been doing the same thing over and over, they went through their plan for the supposed abduction attempt on Li Huang and Li Wanrou. She also decided to go with Li Huang to the auction after she understood the situation about the plausible abduction plan from the Xu family.

Li Yong, Li Wanrou's grandfather, and Li Long's younger brother tried to reason with her that having them both on the same location might strengthen the enemy as they would need a bigger force to attack and capture them, and hence they would paint a bigger target on themselves but Li Wanrou didn't relent. As a result, Li Wanrou will be going to the auctions with Li Huang.

There are also others who decided to come with Li Huang to this auction when they were in the trial like Ye Ling and Mo Hui. Hu Anjing will also be there as she wanted to buy something as Li Huang bought some of the things that she found in the trial from her, and now she had money to spare.

Cai ZhenKang practically begged Li Huang to come to wherever that he is going regardless of where it is, as it would let him get a rest from that hellish training. Li Huang didn't accept at the beginning to play with him a little but Cai ZhenKang changed his plan of action soon after and tried to threaten Li Huang that if he wouldn't take him to this vacation, as he would like to call it, he would tell patriarch Li that he should be training too. Li Huang let him do just that as he liked to see what his grandfather would do. To no one's surprise, Li Long had to let Cai ZhenKang come to this auction with Li Huang, as he couldn't say that they are creating a setup to lure the Xu family into the net.

There were a couple more disciples from the sect that would also participate in this auction as they too had money to spend or they were from a background that would allow them to enter such auctions. Most of them didn't have any concrete plan to buy anything but they would like to see this grand auction for themselves. Li Huang too was no different to them in this regard as he too was excited about Golden phoenix auction, but he was also cautious about the possible attack from the Xu family.

As luck would have it, Li Long too was cautious about it or worded better, he was too cautious. He spent hours letting Li Huang know about their counterplan for the abduction in multiple sound transmissions. Although that Li Huang could barely feel his limbs in this past month, he wouldn't understand most of these messages, but when he was told about them more than a hundred times, he could even hear them in his sleep. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew that thinking about something that you were doing

/or hearing all day is natural, he would have thought that he has gone crazy.

Now that grandpa Long has brought the plan up again, Li Huang couldn't stand to hear it once more as he was sick of hearing it to the finest of details.

"But Huang, we have to be really prepared about this matter.

" Li Long said with a worried look on his face. It was obvious that he was worried about this plan because they were using Li Huang and Li Wanrou as baits so that they can handle the threat of the Xu family and get to know who is behind that so-called Fire Cult. They did so to minimize the threat to the family as a whole as these two were strong enough that it was hard to abduct them but that would also mean that they would have enough power to do so when they decide to abduct them. As a grandparent, Li Long couldn't help but worry when this plan could result in Li Huang getting harmed along the way.

"Don't worry grandpa. I have planned for different scenarios so we would be fine. This is something that someone had to do and I think I can do it.

" Li Huang said reassuringly. He knew that his grandpa's concern came from a place of love and for that exact reason, he didn't complain even once when he kept reminding him about the plan in his training. Now though, he was confident that he knew the plan even more than his grandpa as he had even dreamed about the plan for a couple of nights, and each night he experienced how and why it could go wrong, and he had to deal with it somehow.

You could say that Li Huang didn't rest even in his sleep as he was always coming up with countermeasures for his mind's countermeasures and the cycle continued. Now he was on a level that he was confident that he could handle almost anything that they want to throw at him.

"Alright, just know that if there was something that you couldn't beat, I'm only 30 seconds away and will come to you and Wanrou as fast as I can.

" Li Long nodded and said. He was going to be in a distance so that they couldn't detect him but if Li Huang were to give him the distress signal, he would fly through the sky as fast as his cultivation would allow him to reach him and Li Wanrou.

After a few more pieces of advice on how to detect good tools in an auction, Li Long let Huang get ready to depart as they were going to depart with a few sect elders.

These sect elders would have the responsibility to buy whatever that could prove to be useful for the sect from this auction. Although the chance of finding such an item is almost zero, they wouldn't be willing to risk it.

…

"Huang, what took you so long?

" Cai ZhenKang said as soon as he saw Li Huang near the entrance of the heavenly sword sect.

"Sorry, I was counting my spirit stones.

" Li Huang said with a smile.

These past days they were getting used to the training as Li Long didn't increase the difficulty on purpose, so that Li Huang could be in a good shape to go to the auction. This resulted in Li Huang and Cai ZhenKang having time to banter. One time Li Huang got challenged by Cai ZhenKang to show him how much wealth he has, so Li Huang kept pouring high-grade spirit stones out of his storage ring until he could see that Cai ZhenKang's jaw couldn't get any wider.

"HAHA, come here my good friend!

" Cai ZhenKang said as he remembered Li Huang's show of wealth.

"Don't you mean my rich friend?

" Li Huang said with a raised eyebrow as he couldn't believe that Cai ZhenKang would dare to try bootlicking this obviously.

"What are you saying, my brother? We were friends from the time that we only had some stones and woods in our storage rings. Don't tell me that the wealth is trying to build a wall between us…

" Cai ZhenKang said as he tried to look offended.

Li Huang couldn't believe his ears. It seemed that Cai ZhenKang learned to talk back a little after Li Huang kept going back and forth with Li Long. But Li Huang wasn't one to back down easily so he continued.

"You are right, we were friends from the trial.

" Li Huang said as if he was talking absentmindedly.

"How long has it been? Ah, yes, it is just more than a month.

" Li Huang nodded to himself.

"Haha, yes.

" Cai ZhenKang said nervously as other disciples could see that he was trying to leech off from their senior brother.

"Let me just say that it was the best month of my life!

" Cai ZhenKang said the second part louder than necessary so that the surrounding disciples could hear him. As soon as he said it, he saw flashes of this past month and not even of them could be even remotely close to pleasant.

"Then let us wish for more months like this for you my friend!

" Li Huang nodded as he was laughing.