The Grand Finale

The street-vendor district was enormous.

Countless makeshift stalls were crammed densely along both sides of the narrow streets.

Most of the vendors had their faces covered with black cloth or wore all manner of bizarre masks.

The goods on display were even more varied.

Fragments of battle armor stained with dried blood.

Unidentified beast organs giving off a pungent, fishy stench.

There were even hearts, still faintly beating, sealed inside specially made glass containers.

Su Yu walked through the crowd.

His Martial King-level spiritual power spread silently outward like ripples across water.

It sifted through every item on every stall.

It was clear that most of the merchandise was junk meant to fool low-level martial artists.

There were occasionally a few spirit herbs worth looking at, but the vendors’ asking prices were outrageously high. There was no chance of finding a bargain.

After wandering around for more than ten minutes, Su Yu’s brows drew together slightly.

It seemed that stumbling upon hidden treasures, like in novels, really wasn’t all that reliable in real life.

Just as he was about to withdraw his spiritual power and head straight for the auction house—

Suddenly.

Su Yu came to an abrupt stop.

A trace of deeply concealed astonishment flashed through his clear, profound eyes.

His gaze crossed the packed crowd.

It landed on an inconspicuous stall in a corner.

The vendor was a gaunt old man wrapped in a tattered gray robe, dozing against the wall.

A pile of mud-caked scrap metal lay on the stall.

And beneath that pile of junk—

Was half of a dull gray roof tile.

That half-tile!

When Su Yu’s spiritual power had swept over it just now—

It had been repelled.

No.

Not repelled.

Absorbed.

The seemingly ordinary half-tile was like a bottomless black hole.

It had instantly swallowed that thread of Su Yu’s Martial King-level spiritual power whole.

Without even causing the slightest ripple.

Su Yu’s heart gave a sharp thump.

Something capable of devouring Martial King-level spiritual power?

Could it be a treasure?

Su Yu walked over to the stall in the corner.

He crouched down.

Casually pushing aside the mud-stained scraps, he picked up the dull gray half-tile.

It felt cold to the touch.

Its rough surface bore no trace of deliberate carving.

Su Yu tried once again to send a thread of spiritual power into it.

It vanished without a trace.

That thread of spiritual power was swallowed instantly, producing no energy fluctuation whatsoever.

“This is a little strange...”

Su Yu muttered to himself.

He did not assume that this thing had to be some earth-shattering, peerless treasure.

It was also possible that its material was simply unusual, naturally capable of blocking or absorbing spiritual power.

After all.

This was the largest underground black market in the Great Xia Nation.

Countless sharp-eyed old monsters had been entrenched here for years.

If there really were some peerless bargain that could be recognized at a glance, someone would have snapped it up long ago. Why would it be left for a newcomer to the black market like him, visiting for the first time?

“Boss, how much for this broken tile?”

Su Yu’s tone was casual.

The gaunt old man dozing against the wall lifted his eyelids. His cloudy eyes rolled over Su Yu once.

He held up one withered finger.

“One hundred thousand.”

Su Yu’s eyes brightened. That cheap?

“Deal.”

He took out cash directly.

One hundred thousand yuan.

To Su Yu now, it did not even amount to a drop in the bucket.

There were still more than nine hundred million in cash sitting inside his storage ring.

One hundred thousand was no different from buying the most ordinary pill.

It was cheap. He could take it back and use the system’s paid deduction feature on it. If it turned out to be a treasure, he would make a killing. If it was junk, throwing away a hundred thousand would not hurt in the slightest.

He casually tossed the tile into his storage ring.

Su Yu rose to his feet and continued browsing the vendor stalls.

Half an hour later.

Su Yu shook his head.

Other than that inscrutable tile, everything else was obviously fake trash.

Not wanting to waste any more time, he turned and headed straight for the magnificent, glittering building at the center of the underground city.

The Darknet Auction House.

After entering the auction house, Su Yu was led by an attendant to a discreet appraisal room on the second floor.

The black market’s rules were simple.

They charged only a one-percent commission on the final sale price.

And to prevent the source of funds from being traced, they accepted cash only.

After that—

once you walked out of the auction house doors, they bore no responsibility whatsoever.

If you got robbed or killed, that only meant you were not capable enough to protect yourself.

Inside the appraisal room.

A senior appraiser wearing a faceless mask sat behind a desk.

Su Yu pulled out a chair and sat down.

With a flick of his wrist, he placed a lotus flower that was entirely dark violet and radiated dense spiritual fluctuations, along with an ancient jade slip, on the table.

A Nine Nether Soul-Nurturing Lotus!

*Formless Calamity Blade!*

Before taking them out, Su Yu had secretly had the system appraise both items in his mind.

[Eight Nether Soul-Nurturing Lotus: High-grade spiritual treasure. Estimated buyback value: 20 billion Dragon Coins.]

That price was fairly reasonable.

The three hundred billion he had mentioned included a certain amount of premium.

But the appraisal of that jade slip was absurd.

[Worn jade carrier: Contains inscribed information. Inferior material. System buyback value: 3,000 Dragon Coins.]

Three thousand!

A top-grade Heaven-rank spiritual power technique was worth only three thousand yuan in jade material to the system!

Su Yu could not help grumbling to himself at the time.

This lousy system was practically illiterate—it only cared about physical materials!

The most valuable part of a technique was the knowledge and inheritance contained within it, yet it assessed the price solely by the quality of its carrier!

Since the system’s buyback offer was such a rip-off, he could only turn it into cash on the black market.

Su Yu intended to use these two items to test the waters first.

If the premium truly was as outrageous as Nie Changkong had claimed, then he would bring out that Demon Saint–grade demon core and make a fortune!

The instant the appraiser’s gaze fell upon the Nine Nether Soul-Nurturing Lotus, it froze.

His breathing beneath the mask grew noticeably heavy.

“Th-this is...”

The appraiser put on a pair of specially made gloves and carefully lifted the lotus. Even his voice trembled.

“A three-hundred-year-old Nine Nether Soul-Nurturing Lotus!”

“Superb! An absolute treasure!”

He set down the lotus, then picked up the jade slip.

A faint thread of spiritual power probed into it.

Boom!

The appraiser sharply inhaled, springing straight out of his chair.

“Top-grade Heaven-rank!”

“A spiritual power attack technique?!”

He stared at Su Yu, his eyes filled with undisguised shock.

One had to understand: in martial cultivation, vitality and blood were easy to train, but the mind was difficult to cultivate!

The market was flooded with techniques for improving one’s vitality and blood. As long as a martial artist was willing to invest resources and put in the hard work, they could steadily grow stronger step by step.

Mental power, however, was intangible and elusive—exceedingly difficult to temper.

The vast majority of high-level martial artists could only passively nourish their mental power through advancements in their martial realm.

For this very reason, mental cultivation techniques had always been as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns in the martial world. Nearly all of them were monopolized by the top aristocratic families—clans with inheritances stretching back centuries, their foundations unfathomably deep—and were never shared with outsiders!

What was more, this was an offensive supreme art centered on slaughter and combat!

Its rank had reached the astonishing level of high-grade Heaven Tier!

And then there was that three-hundred-year-old premium Nine Nether Soul-Nourishing Lotus!

The greatest taboo in mental-power cultivation was spiritual exhaustion and cultivation deviation. This premium heavenly treasure happened to provide the gentlest yet most abundant nourishment for the spirit, perfectly eliminating the risks involved in cultivating soul-based techniques!

One offered an immense foundation of mental power; the other provided the ultimate means of destruction!

Together, they formed a perfect, tailor-made cycle for mental-power cultivation!

If these two items were bundled together, they would undoubtedly turn tonight’s auction house completely upside down!

“Can they be auctioned?” Su Yu asked calmly, leaning back in his chair.

“They can! Absolutely!” The appraiser nodded repeatedly, his tone respectful to the extreme.

“Honored guest, these two items will be the grand finale of tonight’s auction!”

“Please proceed to the Heaven-tier private room and await the good news!”

At six in the evening, the auction officially began.

The enormous circular auction hall was packed to capacity.

Countless martial artists and influential figures, their identities concealed behind masks, stared intently at the central stage.

On the second floor, in Earth-tier Private Room No. 3—

Wang Teng, the eldest son of the Wang family in Magic City, lounged comfortably on a genuine leather sofa.

In his hand, he slowly swirled a glass of crimson wine.

His eyes carried the lofty arrogance of someone accustomed to looking down on others, along with the confidence born of immense wealth.