Tomb raiding: It all started with shocking the archaeological team.

The female auctioneer's seemingly professional fabrication sounded utterly absurd to Chen Yibai.

When did he start wearing this tomb-raiding talisman when he went down to the tomb of the Gu King in southern Yunnan?

Absorbing the yin and yang energies of heaven and earth can not only bring good fortune and ward off evil, but also attract wealth and blessings—something even the person himself was unaware of.

And that so-called personal signature was clearly hand-carved by the auction house itself.

Needless to say, this whole fabrication was definitely to enhance the prestige of this tomb raiding talisman, so that it could fetch a high price at auction.

The viewers in the live stream all expressed their doubts after listening to the female auctioneer's introduction and started tagging Chen Yibai like crazy.

[@Captain Chen, is this true? If it is, I'll buy it right away!]

[@Chen Xiaowei, are you still in the live stream? Come out and corroborate this.]

[I feel it's probably real. After all, Captain Chen isn't dead yet. If it were fake, a company as big as Jiuding Auction House wouldn't dare to fabricate something so blatantly!]

The guy upstairs makes a good point; that's what I was thinking too...

Looking at the mentions and discussions in the live stream, Chen Yibai just smiled faintly and did not reply.

After all, this last Tomb Raider Talisman was the only item in the entire auction that was of interest to him, since the final sale price would go straight into his pocket.

Therefore, Chen Yibai can even cooperate appropriately when necessary.

The female auctioneer continued her introduction: "This special Tomb Raider Talisman is one of a kind in the world. It was given to our Chairman Yan by Captain Chen, and we are bringing it out today as the grand finale of the auction."

"Regardless of the final transaction price, our company will donate the entire 10% auction commission to domestic archaeological research to support archaeological work..."

"The starting bid for this tomb raiding talisman is... one million!"

When the female auctioneer announced the starting price, the initial gasps from the audience instantly turned into astonishment.

The previous introduction made it seem so high-class, but I didn't expect the starting bid to be only one million.

Even a regular tomb raiding talisman is worth five million on the market now.

So when the bidding started, everyone frantically raised their paddles.

In less than five minutes, the bidding had been relentlessly driven from the initial one million to thirty million, then forty million, fifty million, sixty million...

When the price reached 70 million, the bidding both inside and outside the venue came to a standstill.

But this is still a far cry from the 3 billion that Chen Yibai wanted from Yan Tianjiu.

But it doesn't matter, all of this was within Yan Tianjiu's expectations.

With Yan Tianjiu making a phone call, capital officially began to intervene.

In a VIP box, a buyer bid 80 million, followed by a phone call where a mysterious buyer bid 90 million, and then someone in the audience raised a paddle to bid 100 million.

After several rounds of bidding, the price was raised to 200 million.

The starting bid of one million was driven up to two hundred million in just a few minutes, which is so crazy that it's hard to believe.

However, this was only the beginning of a crazy spree.

Without a doubt, these buyers, both inside and outside the venue, who were bidding wildly in units of hundreds of millions, were all people arranged by Yan Tianjiu himself.

The purpose of arranging for people to buy their own things was simply to launder some clean money for Chen Yibai through the auction.

Chen Yibai naturally noticed this as well, and silently smiled as he watched Yan Tianjiu's performance of shifting his position from one hand to the other.

The bidding continued relentlessly, creating a tense atmosphere both inside and outside the venue. All the buyers seemed determined to acquire the Tomb Raider Talisman.

It must be said that Yan Tianjiu's self-directed and self-acted bidding was quite a performance. When the price reached 2 billion, some buyers began to withdraw, and some began to think things over carefully. Everything was so real that there was no trace of acting.

However, on the other hand, this is Yan Tianjiu's profession.

When the price reached 2.5 billion, the atmosphere at the auction became unusually quiet and tense.

All the unrelated buyers then became onlookers, staring wide-eyed at the "treasure talisman" on the screen and the ten-digit bidding price that looked like a phone number.

The live stream was also abuzz with discussion.

[My goodness, this world is insane! A single tomb-raiding talisman can fetch billions at auction. The world of the rich is truly different from ours!]

[You know nothing! To top tycoons, billions are just a string of numbers!]

[Exactly! Don't you guys know? The richer you are, the more you believe in this! Forget billions, if it were really like what's described, even tycoons worth tens of billions would buy it!]

That's right, the more money you have, the more bad things you do, and the more you crave a sense of security, both spiritual and emotional. For that security, billions really aren't much...

However, every time he bid, Yan Tianjiu felt a pang of pain in his heart.

Ultimately, I'll have to pay for all of this myself!

bang bang bang...

Suddenly someone knocked on the door.

Yan Tianjiu gave a wink, signaling the waitress next to him to go open the door.

The person who came in from outside was Yan Tianjiu's personal assistant and group secretary-general, surnamed Wu. He was quite tall, wore black-rimmed glasses, and looked very refined.

Yan Tianjiu dismissed all the female waitresses and looked directly at Secretary Wu, asking, "Is everything progressing smoothly?"

Secretary Wu nodded first, then frowned slightly, bent down beside Yan Tianjiu, and whispered, "President Yan, everything is proceeding smoothly as you instructed, however..."

"But what? Spit it out!"

Yan Tianjiu angrily rebuked.

What Yan Tianjiu fears most right now is encountering unexpected situations.

Secretary Wu continued, "However... among these bidding buyers, an outsider has appeared and is also constantly bidding..."

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Tianjiu frowned in surprise.

The price of this Tomb Raider Talisman has already reached 2.6 billion, and there are still outsiders participating in the bidding?

Yan Tianjiu quickly asked, "Do you know who the buyer is?"

Secretary Wu shook his head: "This buyer is from Australia, registered under a company called OJO. I checked, and it's a shell company. This buyer is very mysterious and very generous, having paid a 100 million yuan auction deposit in advance..."

Yan Tianjiu nodded after hearing this, and after a moment of contemplation, he said, "Once the price reaches 3 billion, we'll give it to him!"

"Yes, Mr. Yan!"

Secretary Wu nodded respectfully and left.

That's interesting, that's really interesting.

I originally intended to buy Chen Yibai's deal myself, but unexpectedly, a mysterious competitor appeared out of nowhere!

People are even fighting over a 3 billion gold-digging talisman; it just goes to show how crazy the world of the rich really is.

If someone were truly willing to spend 3 billion to buy this tomb-raiding talisman, Yan Tianjiu would certainly be more than happy to do so...