Chapter 45 – Auction

In order to prevent cultivators from putting out fake bids to inflate the items’ prices, Multi-Treasure Pavilion’s auction house made it mandatory for every bidder to deposit 50 spirit stones as an entrance fee. The deposit would only be returned to the bidders after the auction.

Lu Ping arrived at the auction house in advance and handed his deposit. He then consigned the flying carriage mystic instrument to the auction house. But after mulling it over, he took out a hundred top-grade blood charms and also two sets of Parent-Child Warning Charms, consigning them to the auction house as well.

Adding up all items he put up for auction, he was now considered a major customer and hence, the auction house arranged a private room for him.

Obviously, the reason Lu Ping chose a private room was solely for confidentiality.

Prior to this, Lu Ping had learned from Xuan Qi Island’s Shi Lingling that Blood Condensing Pellets would be included in the auction this time.

And these medicinal pellets were definitely something Lu Ping would fight for.

Just thinking about them made Lu Ping cheerful. He entered the private room and took out an exquisite jade bottle from his interspatial pouch.

He pulled out the cork on the top of the jade bottle and a fragrance wafted out. Inside of the bottle was a purple medicinal pellet the size of a lychee. The surface of the medicinal pellet faintly shone.

This was the Blood Condensing Pellet he purchased from the Medicinal Pellet Store on Di Kun Island.

Initially, Lu Ping was going to participate in the auction with the other members of Group 7. However, after arriving on Xuan Qi Island, he learned that Yao Yong had succeeded in advancing into the Blood Condensation Realm. He was now officially a Zhen Ling Sect inner disciple and had returned to Zhen Ling Island to receive the sect’s true heritage and further enhance his cultivation.

Coincidentally, Du Feng had also reached the peak of the Ninth Layer and was making his final preparations for a breakthrough. Hence, he couldn’t make it to the auction either. Shi Lingling was disappointed that she was left alone.

To make things worse, Li Cheng and Zhang Zicheng had also entered the Eighth Layer Blood Refining Realm and had been assigned to Xuan Qi Island for their sect missions.

Li Cheng had always been at odds with Lu Ping, especially when Lu Ping entered the Ninth Layer Blood Refining Realm earlier than him, inciting more of his jealousy.

Li Cheng was from a big clan. And so, the first thing he did when he came to Xuan Qi Island was to woo the other disciples from Group 7 and deliberately isolate Lu Ping from the group.

Lu Ping couldn’t be bothered by these trivial matters. In fact, he’d intended to go on his own so he could hide his secrets from the rest. Li Cheng’s petty plan only gave him the perfect reason to do so.

Lu Ping was already known as an oddity in Group 7. It was due to his strong prowess that brought him closer to Yao Yong, Du Feng and Shi Lingling. The only other person in the group he still kept contact with was Zhang Zicheng. Hence, Lu Ping’s departure from the group didn’t affect anyone other than Shi Lingling who was a little upset.

Lu Ping put away the Blood Condensing Pellet, then took out two mid-grade armored vests. The outer layer of the vests was gold in color and crafted mainly from the sea snake’s scales. The soft and durable inner lining was made from the sea snake’s skin.

After briefly inspecting the armored vests, he stored them away neatly and took out a three-inch square stamp seal. He looked at the mystic instrument and smiled even brighter.

This mystic instrument was none other than Landslide, now upgraded into the ranks of a high-grade mystic instrument. With the addition of Dark Iron in its composition, it became several times heavier. It now had seven Arcane Inscriptions with the same type of attributes, making it much stronger than before. But the increase in power didn’t come without a cost, he now had to expend more arcane energy in order to cast it.

He couldn’t help sighing deeply when he thought about this. It seemed like he had to wait to enter the Blood Condensation Realm in order to wield this mystic instrument with ease.

He put away Landslide and with a solemn expression, then took out a jade scroll.

This was a gift of gratitude from Yao Yong for lending him the spirit-gathering putuan. Before departing for Zheng Ling Sect’s sect mountain, Yao Yong requested Master Immortal Liu to pass the jade scroll to Lu Ping while also returning him the putuan.

The jade scroll recorded the details of Yao Yong’s breakthrough to the Blood Condensation Realm. It contained many of Yao Yong’s insights and his experience during the breakthrough, making it a priceless treasure for Lu Ping.

While Lu Ping was carefully studying the invaluable information within the jade scroll, a crowd started to gather in the auction house.

Lu Ping looked at the cluster of Blood Refining Realm cultivators but didn’t see anyone from Group 7. It seemed like Shi Lingling, Li Cheng, and the rest also chose a private room.

Amongst the crowd, only a third of them were Zhen Ling Sect disciples while the rest were rogue cultivators and disciples from other sects and clans.

Most sects generally didn’t prohibit outsiders from entering their territory as long as they weren’t from hostile sects. After all, communications and trades between cultivators helped the markets prosper and allowed them to expand and exchange their available cultivation resources.

Because of the imposed deposit of 50 spirit stones, and in addition to the limited seats in the auction house, roughly a thousand cultivators were able to participate in the auction.

In the midst of the commotion, a stout cultivator walked on to the auction stage with a smiling face.

Although he looked friendly and approachable, the arcane energy surging in his body clearly told everyone that he was a Blood Condensation Realm expert.

The cultivator silenced the crowd and said with a smile, “Fellow Daoists, I am Pang, one of the managers here at the Multi-Treasure’s auction house. I will be your auctioneer today.”

Seeing that he had everyone’s attention, Manager Pang continued, “Let’s not drag this out any further. I hereby announce the start of today’s auction.”

“In order to express our gratitude for your support, our first item will be a superb treasure!”

Manager Pang saw that everyone’s interest was piqued. He shouted loudly, “Bring the auction item to the stage!”

A young lady clad in a charming outfit walked up to the stage with a tray on her hands. On the tray, the item was covered with a piece of red silk.

As Manager Pang lifted the red silk and revealed the item beneath, the audience burst out with excited exclamations.

“A cauldron!”

“It’s actually a cauldron!”

One must know, forging a cauldron was much more difficult than any other equipment of the same grade. Hence, a low-grade cauldron was often worth as much as a high-grade mystic instrument, if not more.

However, there were no specific requirements when using cauldrons, they were just like ordinary mystic instruments. Any late-stage Blood Refining Realm cultivator could freely utilise a mid-grade cauldron mystic instrument with ease.

For example, Lu Ping, who was currently learning alchemy with a mid-grade cauldron.

Manager Pang introduced the item loudly. “A low-grade cauldron mystic instrument, it was forged with Wind Polished Copper as its main material. With three Arcane Inscriptions, this is definitely an exquisite treasure amongst all other low-grade cauldrons. The opening price for this particular treasure is 500 spirit stones. Each bid increment shall not be less than 10 spirit stones.”

Sure enough, the opening price of the low-grade cauldron was in the range of the high-grade mystic instruments. Even though many were daunted by the high opening price, the majority of bidders knew that alchemy was a profession with a high entry barrier, hence, they wouldn’t get to make use of the cauldron if they weren’t alchemists.

However, there were still many bidders for the cauldron.

“I offer 520 spirit stones.”

“550.”

“…”

In the blink of an eye, the cauldron’s price had exceeded 600 spirit stones and was steadily making its way to 700.

There seemed to be many wealthy Blood Refining Realm cultivators. Lu Ping couldn’t help but frown.

But he already had a mid-grade cauldron, so he naturally wouldn’t care much for a low-grade one.

He casually played with Dabao in the private room while immersing himself in the lively ambiance of the vibrant auction house.

Dabao was getting fatter recently. Ever since it entered the Second Layer Blood Refining Realm, Dabao had become Lu Ping’s test subject for the low-grade Blood Refining Realm medicinal pellets he concocted.

He concocted more than thirty medicinal pellets of different types. At the rate of one medicinal pellet a day, Dabao had already eaten more than half of them.

In addition to the sea snake’s meat, Dabao’s cultivation base was improving quickly while its size grew to match.

Lu Ping himself had some of the sea snake’s meat. The result was gaining a stronger body, one far beyond his peers and almost equivalent to those cultivators who specialized in physique cultivation.