Quan Yi came to the auction house specifically to auction off his bicycle.
His main purpose was to observe the reactions of the bidders and promote the bicycle itself.
This was crucial to Quan Yi's next plan.
The results of this investigation also greatly satisfied Quan Yi.
High-quality bicycles also held a certain allure for people in the upper echelons of society.
This gave Quan Yi some anticipation for future developments.
After Quan Yi's bicycle was sold, only thirty minutes had passed of the two-hour-long premium auction.
Quan Yi and Huo Wu showed little interest in the remaining auction items.
They only watched the bidding of two or three more items before leaving the auction center along with other departing guests.
Stepping out of the auction center, Quan Yi and Huo Wu simultaneously let out a long sigh of relief.
Huo Wu looked back at the closed doors and said, "The inside and outside are simply two different worlds."
Indeed, Quan Yi now only felt that his state of mind had become clear and open.
At this moment, Quan Yi only wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
After staying for an entire afternoon, the atmosphere here began to make Quan Yi feel uncomfortable.
"Let's go."
Just as Quan Yi was about to pull Huo Wu away from the auction house, a beautiful young woman in a silver dress walked towards them.
The silver-skirted girl's attire was not revealing.
Upon seeing this, Quan Yi secretly complained in his heart: 'Just how many kinds of female service personnel does this auction house have?'
"Distinguished guests, Supervisor Zheng invites you both," she said, making a respectful gesture of invitation.
Quan Yi was slightly surprised, but thinking about how he had arranged for the bicycle auction to be held in the evening, he felt it was necessary to have a good conversation.
Quan Yi nodded in agreement and followed the silver-skirted girl back to the supervisor's office.
Zheng Xiao walked into the room and quickly approached the two of them from his desk, then apologized to Quan Yi and Huo Wu with a face full of regret.
"Distinguished guests, I am truly sorry. I sincerely apologize to you both for this auction."
"Due to my negligence, you both have suffered a partial loss of profit. As compensation, our auction house will not charge you any handling fees this time."
"The 120,000 gold soul coins from the transaction have already been transferred to your savings accounts in full."
With that, Zheng Xiao stood up and gave a slight bow to Quan Yi and Huo Wu.
Quan Yi stretched out both hands and quickly helped Zheng Xiao up, saying, "This matter is not Supervisor Zheng's fault. Various unexpected events can occur during the auction process, and this is not something you or I can control."
Zheng Xiao said, "However, this incident was entirely because I suggested that you both postpone the auction until the premium auction time, so I have an unshirkable responsibility."
"Not charging the handling fee is just to express my apology. Please accept it."
Zheng Xiao's attitude was very sincere, and the compensation was also very sincere.
Although the auction house was wealthy, a handling fee of 12,000 gold soul coins was not a small amount of money.
Quan Yi's impression of Zheng Xiao greatly increased, and he greatly admired his professionalism.
In the following month, under Quan Yi's attention, the development of events went in the direction he had hoped for, and even exceeded his expectations.
According to the information Quan Yi had gathered, the kingdom's prince had ridden that bicycle in public on several occasions.
Moreover, even more exaggeratedly, the kingdom's prince had specifically cleared the avenue connecting the east and west gates in order to test the specific performance of the bicycle.
And, he hired many Soul Emperors and Soul Saints of the agility-attack system to conduct a speed test with him.
This unique competition attracted the attention of many residents in the city.
In addition, with the kingdom's prince sparing no effort in promoting it, a large number of people gathered along the entire road on the day of the competition.
In the beginning, the people did not hold any hope for the prince.
This was because the inherited spirit of the Sauss royal family was the scepter spirit.
As a weapon spirit, this kind of spirit's enhancement to the body was not as good as other agility-attack beast spirits.
In this long-distance raid spanning the entire city, it had no advantage at all.
They did not believe that something called a bicycle could make up for this difference.
However, when the prince rode that bicycle and crossed the entire city at a speed that other agility-attack soul masters could not match.
Everyone's understanding of bicycles underwent earth-shattering changes.
Since then, many people have begun to inquire about the origin of bicycles.
Even many blacksmith shops in the city began to imitate bicycles.
However, bicycles look simple, but they are actually very complicated to make.
Especially the tires and bicycle chains, which look very simple, but if you don't have some knowledge and skills, the final product will be very disappointing.
In the end, after a month of hard work, some blacksmith shops relied on pure hand forging to create pure iron bicycles.
The entire body of the car, including the tires, was also forged from refined iron.
However, the final riding effect greatly disappointed everyone.
Pure iron tires without elasticity are extremely easy to wear and cannot generate friction with the ground.
Moreover, the chain and gears cannot be perfectly matched, resulting in constant problems during driving.
However, even so, this imitation was bought by a wealthy man for a price of thousands of gold soul coins.
At this point, blacksmith shops in the city with a certain level of skill keenly realized the business opportunities in it.
They began to try to shift their business to the production of bicycles.
Quanjia Blacksmith Shop, underground forging room.
Quan Yi looked at the hundreds of refined iron bicycles neatly placed in front of him and asked Yuan the blacksmith, "What is our daily output now?"
Yuan the blacksmith smiled and said, "Young master, our daily output can reach twenty vehicles."
"Not bad. Then what is the cost of manufacturing one?" Quan Yi asked.
Yuan the blacksmith picked up the record book in his hand, which recorded the specific process, glanced at it, and then said, "One car requires 20 kilograms of refined iron and 5 kilograms of alloy material. These two items together cost 400 gold soul coins."
"In addition, the materials required for tires, such as rubber and carbon black, are extremely cheap, including the material consumption allocated to each car, transportation costs, etc., which cost 10 gold soul coins."
"So, the cost of each bicycle is 410 gold soul coins."
A satisfied smile appeared on Quan Yi's face.
One kilogram of refined iron costs ten gold soul coins, plus a rare metal alloy of forty gold soul coins per kilogram.
This is still the cost calculated according to the market price. With the steam forging hammer, Quan Yi can further reduce labor and time costs.
Therefore, the specific cost of consuming this car is even lower.
Moreover, according to strict procedures and precise production lines, the quality of the products produced, although not as good as the one the prince auctioned, is enough to withstand the power of Soul Kings and below.
