Although Oscar and Ma Hongjun weren't very old, the owner of the horse shop had already come to know them both, because they had ridden horses to Soto City several times before.
After securing their horses, the two walked side by side toward Soto City.
Soto City's city gate also had checkpoints set up, similar to ancient times in Oscar's previous life, with people checking there.
If they were soul masters, they could directly take out their soul master identification, and the guards checking the city would respectfully say "please."
However, because of Flender, neither Oscar nor Ma Hongjun had registered as soul masters. Because their talents were too good, Flender was afraid the Spirit Hall would notice and take away these two precious treasures.
So when it was Oscar and Ma Hongjun's turn, they were just like ordinary civilians, letting the city guards casually look them over before being allowed through.
After all, although the two had been handsome since childhood, they were still children, and no one would give them trouble.
After entering Soto City, Oscar and Ma Hongjun walked toward Flender's small shop.
Although Flender was a Soul Sage-level expert, he didn't seem to have much business talent.
The small shop he opened basically had very few customers in a month, and the sign even said "Soul Master Shop" - ordinary people wouldn't even go there.
Oscar even suspected that Flender opened this shop, besides to scam some inexperienced soul masters, for another purpose: to hide here and slack off.
After all, most of the time Oscar was at the academy, he looked for Zhao Wuji. Flender would disappear for a whole day and only return to the academy at night.
Oscar indeed came to Soto City to relax, after all, he hadn't been there for a while.
The reason he came to Flender's small shop was that this had already become something Oscar came to do once every month.
Because he knew that in the original story, Tang San had found a treasure like gold-filling hair at Flender's shop, Oscar basically came to browse once a month.
However, over these two-plus years, Oscar basically hadn't seen anything he liked. The best time, he only got a century-level spiritual herb, which he used for medicine to refine his body.
Speaking of body refining, Oscar had been looking for a body-refining treasure for over two years - specifically the whale glue that appeared in Douluo 2.
However, this thing was extremely rare even in the Douluo 1 era, because that stuff only had a chance to circulate in coastal cities.
On the continent, perhaps that thing now only had one use: as an aphrodisiac.
Over two years, Oscar had been searching, but there was no trace of whale glue within Soto City.
The only place with any information was the city lord's mansion, where that old man used it as an aphrodisiac.
And Flender happened to not get along with this city lord, so Oscar had given up hope on this.
Oscar came today also wanting to try his luck at the auction house.
Actually, this was also Oscar's helpless point. Because he was now at Shrek Academy and basically had no influence, finding these things meant he had to do it himself.
Oscar had also told Flender that he wanted to find whale glue. At first, Flender thought Oscar wanted to do "that."
Later, Oscar explained the special uses of whale glue to Flender, saying he had seen it in a book.
After all, Oscar was a support-type soul master, and to train his physique, he had to find alternative methods. Although ordinary methods could strengthen Oscar's physical fitness, they were limited.
So Oscar approached it from external substances. Flender didn't doubt this, because he knew that Oscar spent every day reading pharmacology and medical books.
Oscar's explanation was that he wanted to see if he could find some ways to improve his physical fitness from them.
Although over these two years Flender and others helped Oscar search, because they lacked connections and channels, there had been no results until now.
However, for some reason, today the more Oscar had this idea, the more excited he felt, as if today he would get his wish fulfilled.
Fortunately, Oscar, having experienced some storms, could stabilize his mood. After going to Flender's shop and not finding any good treasures, Oscar took Ma Hongjun toward the Soto City Grand Auction House.
Although Ma Hongjun wanted to go play in the city now, seeing that Oscar wasn't talking, he just followed along.
However, Oscar noticed Ma Hongjun's little thoughts, thought about it, and said to him, "Since you don't like going to the auction house, I'll go by myself first. You can stroll around the city by yourself, and come wait for me outside the auction house in two hours."
Hearing Oscar's words, Ma Hongjun was excited like a wild horse off its reins, nodding repeatedly at Oscar.
"Don't worry, Oscar bro, I definitely won't cause trouble!"
Looking at Ma Hongjun's solemn appearance, Oscar smiled and didn't say anything more, walking alone toward the Grand Auction House.
Ma Hongjun watched Oscar leave, then started strolling around Soto City.
With Oscar as a big brother, Ma Hongjun now had some small money, and having never seen much of the world, he liked hearing what people said when he spent money lavishly.
For Ma Hongjun, those people selling things were all good people, their words sounded nice, and they didn't stint on praise...
Oscar wasn't worried about Ma Hongjun encountering danger. After all, this was a medium-sized city, so public security was no problem.
Plus Ma Hongjun himself was a fourteen-level soul master. In this Douluo Continent where soul masters were rare but noble, even if Ma Hongjun really encountered trouble, showing his hundred-year soul ring could solve most things.
Because although soul masters were rare, those whose first soul ring could reach the hundred-year level were generally symbols of nobility among soul masters.
After all, civilian soul masters didn't have powerful family forces as backing, so obtaining soul rings was very difficult.
These were all things Oscar rarely appreciated when reading the original story. Only after truly coming to this world and experiencing all this did Oscar have these realizations.
When Oscar arrived at the auction house, he had already put on a silver-white mask. The mask covered his face, leaving only his eyes visible, and he also had an additional silver-white luxurious cloak that covered his exposed skin.
The reason Oscar hid himself so carefully was to avoid being remembered by people with ulterior motives if he auctioned something valuable.
Oscar doing this wouldn't attract attention, because ninety percent of people who came to auction things basically had this appearance.
The remaining ten percent were those with high status and position, who had power and influence and weren't afraid of being remembered.
This wasn't Oscar's first time at the auction house. He had registered a ten thousand gold soul coin identity card. Although not the lowest level at the Soto City auction house, it wasn't much better, but at least he had the identity to enter.
This identity card represented the financial power you possessed, to prevent malicious bidding.
The auction house was divided into five areas: the white area at the very back, which only required registering one thousand gold soul coins.
Then there was purple at ten thousand, black at a hundred thousand, and red VIP at a million.
However, although Soto City was considered a medium-sized city, there were only a handful of red VIPs with millions in assets.
The most numerous were white and purple, with black already being the top-level VIPs at Soto City's Grand Auction House.
It's worth mentioning that Flender, using Shao Xin's identity for auctioning candy beans, had also registered an identity card - a hundred thousand gold soul coin level one.