Chapter 369: Mr. Alden is in Trouble

As if sensing his confusion, the Penglai Immortal Ship provided an answer.

The fusion would take time; the process would only be truly complete after three to five days.

Wendell Locke nodded. "I see. But this is great. I haven’t felt this strong in a long time."

After all, he had been born with a weak constitution. He was always either sick or on the verge of getting sick. He had barely attended school, instead being tutored one-on-one at home. Over the years, he hadn’t made many friends.

This was the first time he had felt so healthy and strong.

Even though he had no Penglai Star Coins left, Wendell Locke didn’t leave immediately. He had already gotten what he wanted; now, he could sit back and enjoy the show.

Now that he was healthy, his appetite had improved as well.

Previously, the aroma of the fruits and pastries on the table hadn’t tempted him in the slightest, but now, for some reason, he suddenly felt ravenous.

He snatched a pastry from the table and shoved it into his mouth. A savory, fragrant flavor instantly flooded his senses.

’For all these years, I had eaten merely to survive; this is the first time I’ve found food to be so incredibly delicious. No wonder people say online that you can neglect anything but your own appetite. So this is what a healthy person’s sense of taste is like!’

In the blink of an eye, the pastries on the table were gone. Wendell Locke licked his lips, still wanting more, and then started on the fruit. He ate with such gusto it was as if an appetite, lost for over twenty years, had finally come home.

While he was eating the fruit, a fresh platter of pastries materialized on the table, along with a menu.

While Wendell Locke was busy eating fruit, pastries, and ordering more food, the second auction item appeared.

This new body looked much like the first, but a closer look revealed it was covered in fine golden patterns.

If the last body’s main feature was endurance, providing inexhaustible strength and immunity to fatigue, then this body’s specialty was speed.

The auction time was once again five minutes.

Perhaps having learned a lesson from the last round, the bidding was noticeably less aggressive this time.

’After all, what was the point of bidding early? As long as someone outbids you in the last second, everything that came before was for naught. Better to just wait patiently; the final ten seconds were the only time to make a move.’

Soon, the countdown reached the final ten seconds.

As the final ten-second countdown began, the previously stagnant price started to skyrocket, jumping from one Penglai Star Coin to five, then to ten.

In the final second, Seth Larkin won the body with a bid of fifteen Penglai Star Coins.

Seeing this price, Wendell Locke, who was still eating, felt incredibly fortunate about his earlier decision. After all, his entire net worth was only 8.9 Penglai Star Coins, and he needed to set some aside for his future living expenses.

’If I’d been any slower,’ he thought, ’I could have forgotten about getting anything at all.’

"So lucky, so lucky!"

For the rest of the auction, Seth Larkin was on an absolute rampage, sweeping away all competition as if he were using a cheat code.

Others might not have realized it, but from Perry Yates’s perspective, she could clearly see that Seth Larkin had claimed over eighty percent of the items. The rest had to rely on sheer speed just to snatch up the leftovers.

Two hours later, the auction ended. Seth Larkin left with a huge haul, while the rest were the very picture of disappointment.

This was especially true for the elderly attendees; their eyes were bloodshot, and they trembled with rage for failing to get what they wanted.

If it weren’t for the abundant Spiritual Energy within the Penglai Immortal Ship, some of them probably would have fainted from sheer anger right then and there.

After seeing everyone off, Perry Yates asked curiously, "Quite a few people mortgaged real estate this time. How do you plan on collecting those properties?"

"Since they chose to offer them as collateral, those assets are now your private property. You may do with them as you please."

Perry Yates hadn’t expected to be involved in this at all.

She thought for a moment and said, "Let’s just maintain the status quo for now."

’I really don’t know the first thing about this stuff,’ she thought. ’With this many assets, I’ll probably have to hire a few people to manage them later.’

After leaving the Penglai Immortal Ship, before Perry Yates even had a chance to rest, her phone started ringing wildly.

She picked up the phone; it was an unfamiliar number.

When she answered, her eldest maternal uncle’s voice came through. "Your grandfather is in trouble. Get back here right now."

’In trouble? What kind of trouble could he get into?’

Although she had no fondness for the Alden family, Perry Yates still returned to the Alden estate.

The moment she walked in the door, she saw a crowd of people gathered outside Mr. Alden’s room. Inside, several paramedics were performing a detailed examination on the man in the bed, while a nearby ventilator emitted a steady "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP."

When Perry Yates arrived, she spotted Xavier Alden trying to make himself invisible in a corner. She sidled up to him and asked in a low voice, "What happened?"

Xavier Alden looked just as clueless. "How should I know? They called me back in a hurry, too."

Just then, Perry’s eldest maternal uncle walked over, his expression clearly looking to assign blame.

Perry was all too familiar with this kind of situation. It was the classic look of someone hunting for a scapegoat.

However, times had changed. The Perry of today wasn’t about to indulge him. A dagger with a chilling glint materialized in her hand. Her gaze was ice-cold as she stared at her uncle, as if to say, ’You dare open your mouth, and I’ll kill you.’

Seeing this, her uncle immediately stopped in his tracks, his aggressive, accusatory posture deflating.

After all, the Alden family knew that Perry was only here out of respect for the old patriarch. She had no such patience for anyone else in the family. It could even be said that the fact the Aldens were still living peacefully was a sign of her benevolence.

"Your grandfather is in this state, and this is your attitude?" Though he had been intimidated, her uncle still managed to voice his accusation.

Perry gave him a look that said, "Are you kidding me?"

"I don’t even know what happened, and you’re blaming me?"

Perry laughed, amused by their shamelessness. She simply took out a device, aimed it at her grandfather in the room, and a moment later, an image appeared before them all: the auction scene from inside the Penglai Immortal Ship.

Watching the projection of Mr. Alden, his face flushed and neck veins bulging with anger because he couldn’t win a single item, everyone fell silent.

Perry, for her part, had a strange expression on her face. ’So it turns out,’ she thought, ’this really does have something to do with me.’

’No wonder the back of one of the attendees had looked so familiar. It was her grandfather.’