The Auction

Each private room had its own discussions—some approving, some critical, some doubtful, some astonished—but all fell silent when Liu Yunan announced, “The first auction of Xiushui City now officially begins.”

By this point, after everything they had seen on the way here and the arrangements made by the Lingxian Sect, the lingering doubts in everyone’s hearts had long since faded.

Now that the auction was about to begin, they could not help but grow curious about the items to be sold.

What treasures had the Lingxian Sect gathered so many sects here for with such grand fanfare?

“The first item up for auction: twenty high-grade Spirit-Gathering Pills.”

As he spoke, Liu Yunan picked up the pill case that had suddenly appeared on the small table beside him. He opened it and held it aloft for everyone to inspect the quality of its contents.

The elders of the various sects seated in the upper private rooms were stunned after only a distant glance.

They really were high-grade Spirit-Gathering Pills!

The Spirit-Gathering Pill was the primary cultivation pill for Foundation Establishment cultivators. In the mortal realm, where spiritual qi was already scarce, sects seeking to nurture Golden Core talents—and Foundation Establishment cultivators hoping to advance as quickly as possible within their limited lifespans—could not do without the aid of such pills.

In the past, a small number of Spirit-Gathering Pills would occasionally make their way from the cultivation world into the mortal realm. Yet they were not only exorbitantly expensive, costing one or two hundred spirit stones per pill, but also exceedingly scarce. Whenever they appeared, sects with the right connections would divide them among themselves. They never reached the broader market available to cultivators of the mortal realm.

One of the few major expenses for mortal-realm sects was purchasing Spirit-Gathering Pills with the spirit stones they had painstakingly saved.

Perhaps the cultivation world also knew how slowly the mortal realm accumulated spirit stones; it would only bring over a few pills for sale after a very long time.

That alone showed just how precious they were.

Who would have thought that the Lingxian Sect’s auction would open with twenty of them?

And after the elders of the various sects carefully examined the pills’ quality, they discovered in shock that they truly seemed to be high-grade!

High-grade Spirit-Gathering Pills... even Golden Core cultivators could benefit from taking them!

In an instant, the hearts of every elder in the auction hall went wild.

Without exception, they clenched their storage pouches tightly, calculating that they had to secure these pills even if it meant emptying their sect’s reserves of spirit stones. If they did not have enough on them, they would send someone back to fetch more!

Then they heard Liu Yunan below close the case unhurriedly and say,

“The opening bid is two hundred spirit stones.”

...

For a moment, all the elders present wondered whether they had misheard.

Someone even asked in a wavering voice, “How much?”

Liu Yunan found it rather strange. Weren’t these sect elders all Golden Core cultivators? How could their hearing be so poor? He had not spoken quietly. Still, he patiently repeated himself:

“Twenty Spirit-Gathering Pills. Opening bid: two hundred spirit stones.”

...

The hall fell silent once more.

Liu Yunan could not help but feel puzzled. “Does anyone want them? If not, we’ll move on to the next item.”

As though awakened by those words, the auction hall suddenly erupted with bids.

“Yes! I want them! Two hundred and fifty!”

“Three hundred!”

“Five hundred!”

“Eight hundred!”

“One thousand!”

“Two thousand!”

...

Once the sky-high bid of two thousand was called, no one else spoke.

After all, the elders of every sect had a fairly good grasp of their own sect’s spirit-stone reserves. Even if they bid higher, they might not have enough spirit stones to pay.

For a moment, everyone turned in unison toward the window from which the bid of two thousand had come, though they could not make out who was inside.

They were intensely curious—which sect could possibly produce two thousand spirit stones in one go?

Although their sects’ total assets certainly amounted to more than two thousand, they truly did not have many spirit stones readily on hand.

Liu Yunan was also somewhat surprised upon hearing the bid of two thousand. He felt the price was rather high and was faintly embarrassed by it.

But Brother Xiao had told him that no matter how high the bids went, an auction followed the rule that once a bid was made, it could not be withdrawn. Thus, Liu Yunan could only swallow that small trace of guilt.

“Private Room Three bids two thousand spirit stones. Two thousand spirit stones, going once. Is anyone else bidding?”

The elder of the Cloudmist Sect in Private Room Three sat calmly in his chair, his gaze sweeping over the windows of the other private rooms as he felt rather pleased with himself.

Recently, their sect had been doing business with the Li Imperial Clan. They had taken on many orders for crafting talismans, accumulated quite a few spirit stones, and exchanged for a substantial amount of supplies. Producing two thousand spirit stones at once was certainly a heavy expense, but their income was steady and continuous. They had no reason to fear spending.

“Two thousand spirit stones, going twice.”

There was only one thing the Cloudmist Sect elder did not understand. By all rights, the Clear River Sect should have no fewer spirit stones than the Cloudmist Sect. After all, among the orders from the Li Imperial Clan each month, the Clear River Sect took on the most. So why had they not competed for these Spirit-Absorbing Pills? Were they hesitating? Or were they planning to undercut them at the very last moment?

“Two thousand spirit stones, going three times—sold!” Liu Yunan brought down the hammer. “The twenty Spirit-Absorbing Pills go to Private Room Three.”

At this, the Cloudmist Sect elder let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the Clear River Sect had not bid.

Little did he know that Han Shangyi, the Clear River Sect’s Sect Master, was practically suffocating from holding himself back in his private room.

He wanted to bid so badly!

Heaven knew how hard he was restraining himself.

The thigh of Elder Lyu, seated beside him, had been pinched black and blue by him.

Of course, Elder Lyu had pinched his thigh black and blue as well.

That bid of one thousand spirit stones earlier had been called out by Elder Lyu when he had failed to hold himself back.

Now, watching the twenty Spirit-Absorbing Pills go to someone else, Elder Lyu finally asked with a miserable expression, “Sect Master, why aren’t we bidding? Why? Those are twenty Spirit-Absorbing Pills! Twenty of them! High-grade ones! Two thousand isn’t expensive at all!”

Han Shangyi wore an equally miserable expression.

Did Elder Lyu think he did not want them? He had troubles he could not speak of!

He could hardly tell Elder Lyu that, when they had attended the banquet at the Lingxian Sect earlier, his daughter had sent him a voice transmission telling him not to bid on any pills at the auction and to save their money for something else, could he?

If he said that aloud, Elder Lyu would surely refuse to listen—and would probably mock him for being a doting father. That would be far too damaging to his dignity as Sect Master.

Besides, there were disciples from other sects present.

After that, Liu Yunan auctioned off several more kinds of pills in succession. Without exception, they were all related to cultivation, but none were as impressive as the Spirit-Absorbing Pills. As a result, no further bids as high as two thousand spirit stones appeared.

Clearly, by the usual conventions of an auction, a pill of the Spirit-Gathering Pill’s caliber should not have been the first item put up for sale. Normally, each item presented would be more valuable than the last.

However, given the circumstances of the mortal realm—and the fact that this was their auction house’s inaugural event—they needed something sufficiently weighty to open with. That was why they had chosen the Spirit-Gathering Pill.

This high-grade Spirit-Gathering Pill had been refined just yesterday by Sun Yigao under Liao Pantu’s guidance.

Ordinarily, Sun Yigao’s current alchemy skills were still not quite enough for him to refine a high-grade Spirit-Gathering Pill. But he had the advantage of a master exceptionally well-versed in alchemical theory. Moreover, that master had now entered the Soul Formation realm, deepening his understanding of all the insights he had accumulated in the past—including those concerning alchemy.