Chapter 22
Six days later.
Dressed in white and wearing a fox mask, Han Zhao disguised himself as Song Que and arrived at the Chen Family Fort in Nine Links Town.
Although it was called a fort, it was actually a small city.
The prosperity inside was not inferior to the inner city of Blackrock City, but it was not as big as the inner city.
As a force with a Force Tempering Martial Master, the Chen Family Fort had the ability to do so.
No one dared to cause trouble around Nine Links Town. Otherwise, they would be disrespecting the Chen Family Fort.
That day, after Han Zhao left Nine Links Mountain, he ran straight back to Blackrock City.
Although he did not know how Zhu Kangsheng dealt with the aftermath, the other party had indeed returned to Edge Sharpening Manor safely.
Obviously, Flying Dragon Stockade did not know that he had killed three bandits.
“I hope it fetches a good price.”
Han Zhao originally thought that the auction would be held in the Chen Family Fort, but after asking around, he found out that the auction would be held in the hall on the second floor of the Jiangyue Restaurant in the center of the town.
This made things much more convenient.
When Han Zhao arrived at the Jiangyue Restaurant, a row of martial artists with swords and sabers on their waists stood at the door. They were all wearing blue slim-fit clothes with the word “Chen” embroidered on their chests. They were all from the Chen family.
Seeing Han Zhao walk towards the door, one of the Chen family disciples walked forward and cupped his fists at him. “Are you here to participate in my Chen family’s auction?”
“Yes.” Han Zhao’s tone was calm.
“Please show us the invitation token for the auction, or pay the entrance deposit of ten taels of silver first. After the auction ends, the silver will be returned.” The Chen family disciple explained.
Han Zhao took out the token he had obtained from the Saber Hunters’ stronghold.
The Chen family disciple took the token and checked it. After confirming it, he returned the token to Han Zhao and gave up his position. “The auction venue is in the hall on the second floor. Please!”
Han Zhao paused and asked, “I want to auction a secret manual. Who should I look for?”
“The supervisor is on the second floor. Just look for him.”
“Yes, thank you.” Han Zhao nodded, stepped through the door, and went up the stairs to the second floor.
There were about 70 to 80 armchairs placed in the hall on the second floor. Each chair was about two meters apart, and half of the chairs were already occupied. Among these people, there were martial artists in tight clothes and nobles in luxurious clothes.
Many martial artists were also wearing masks and hiding their figures. Some of them were even covered in black robes, and they could not even tell if they were male or female.
At the front of the hall was a wooden table. A muscular middle-aged man was sitting on a chair with four martial artists with sabers at their waists standing behind him.
Han Zhao walked forward and took out the Pine Breeze Sword Technique to request for an auction.
“Pine Breeze Sword Technique?” The middle-aged man seemed to have heard of this sword technique. He sized up Han Zhao, who had hidden his figure, and stood up. He cupped his fists and said, “Are you Song Que?”
“Yes.” Han Zhao nodded. As he killed wanted criminals one after another, he had become somewhat famous among the Saber Hunters.
“I’m Chen Yang, the manager of the Chen Family Fort’s auction.” Chen Yang handed a white token with a number written on it to Han Zhao. “After the auction ends, please use this token to withdraw the money. In addition, the starting price of this sword technique is set at 80 taels. If it isn’t sold, you still have to pay a 5% commission. Is that okay?”
“Okay.” Han Zhao took the token. The starting price of the Pine Breeze Sword Technique was not high.
After giving Chen Yang a fist salute, he went to the window seat in the back row far away from the staircase, and sat down.
After waiting for about half an hour, the auction began.
People came to the second floor one after another, but the chairs in the hall were still not full. There were still more than ten empty chairs.
Chen Yang stood up and cupped his fists at everyone present. “I didn’t expect so many people to come to support the large-scale auction before the end of the year. I thank everyone for coming.”
“Manager Chen, you’re too kind. Of course, we have to support the Chen Family Fort.”
The martial artists below immediately responded.
Chen Yang stopped being polite and said, “Let’s not talk too much. The auction will begin now. The first item is a spear technique that can be cultivated to the Bone Tempering Realm. It’s called the Soul Chasing Spear Technique. The starting price is 30 taels.”
The martial techniques used to practice weapons were clearly stronger than fist and leg techniques. The most common ones were saber techniques and sword techniques. Spears, halberds, and rods were rarer.
However, martial artists who could cultivate weapons more or less had some family background. Therefore, no one was very enthusiastic about spear techniques that could only be cultivated to the Bone Tempering Realm.
However, someone still made a bid.
“35 taels!” A man wearing a ghost mask made a bid.
“40 taels.” An old man beside Han Zhao followed.
However, other than the two of them, no one else made a bid.
In the end, the ghost-masked man won the Soul Chasing Spear Technique for 50 taels of silver.
Then, Chen Yang threw out two more Bone Tempering Realm weapon cultivation methods, but there were still very few bidders.
“The next ‘Pine Breeze Sword Technique’ can be cultivated to the Blood Tempering Realm. Although there’s no fundamental diagram of grasping Internal Force, there’s a blood qi circulation diagram. The starting price is 80 taels.”
Seeing that everyone was not in a good mood, Chen Yang took out a better secret manual.
“The Pine Breeze Sword Technique? Isn’t this the Pine Breeze Sword Zhou Han’s famous ultimate technique?”
“He broke through to the Blood Tempering Realm? So he’s short of money and has to sell the secret manual?”
“Sell my ass! He must have been killed!”
As soon as Chen Yang finished speaking, the sound of conversation could be heard in the field.
Zhou Han was considered a relatively famous martial artist below the Blood Tempering Realm.
Of course, it was not a good reputation.
“90 taels!”
“100 taels!”
“110 taels!”
Everyone made their bids.
“200 taels!” At this moment, a young man in his early twenties in the front row raised the bid by 90 taels.
The scene instantly fell silent.
Although the Pine Breeze Sword Technique was somewhat famous, it was only worth about 150 taels of silver. Now that this price was expensive, no one made another bid.
Han Zhao was overjoyed. There were so many rich people.
After the deal was made, the Chen family disciples brought over a tray covered with a red cloth.
Chen Yang lifted the red cloth and introduced a purple booklet. “Everyone, this secret manual is called the Sword Accumulation Technique. It’s a special sword technique that can be cultivated at any realm! No matter how low one’s aptitude is, one can still master it. Furthermore, the power after mastering it is astonishing! Previously, a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist used this sword technique to severely injure a Blood Tempering Realm expert with a single strike.”
“What? The Bone Tempering Realm severely injured the Blood Tempering Realm?”
“Bullsh*t! The cultivation technique you sold last time had the same description. What happened in the end? Isn’t this a lie?!”
“Why didn’t you mention the fatal prerequisite beforehand?”
As soon as Chen Yang finished speaking, there was an uproar below, but they were all newcomers.
Some of them had already been tricked. The Chen family auctioned a few such cultivation methods every year, and most of them were scams.
[It’s a pretty good explosive sword technique. Although it has a lot of restrictions, it’s nothing to you. It can be used as your trump card to trick people at critical moments.]
A reliable notification appeared, and Han Zhao’s interest was piqued.
Chen Yang no longer kept him in suspense and added, “There are naturally some restrictions to this sword technique that can allow one to surpass one’s realm to fight an enemy. That is, before drawing the sword, one has to use one’s essence, qi, and spirit to ‘nourish’ the sword. The longer the ‘nurturing’ is, the more blood qi it consumes, and the stronger the power of the ‘drawing the sword’. If everyone wants to keep a trump card, this Sword Accumulation Technique can’t be missed. The starting price is 80 taels!”
In fact, Chen Yang had hidden something. The martial artist at the perfected Bone Tempering Realm had spent two years ‘nurturing the sword’. He had exhausted his blood qi with one strike and died on the spot. That was how he had severely injured the Blood Tempering Realm martial artist. Furthermore, the prerequisite was that the Blood Tempering Realm martial artist had been stalled and taken the strike head-on.
Although the Chen family kept a copy of the manual, this kind of sword skill was fatal. No one was willing to cultivate it.
“I knew it!”
“How can there be such a good thing!”
“As long as there’s a chance to break through to the Blood Tempering Realm, who would expend their blood qi to cultivate such a thing?”
Chen Yang’s words extinguished everyone’s enthusiasm.
Even if it was a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist who had already passed the peak of blood qi at the age of 25, as long as they had the slightest chance of breaking through to the Blood Tempering Realm, they would definitely not give up.
This was because after reaching the peak of blood qi, only the probability of breaking through would decrease. It was not that he could not break through.
Reaching the Blood Tempering Realm could increase one’s lifespan by 20 years. This was a temptation that no martial artist could resist.
If they used their blood qi to nurture the sword, it would extinguish their last hope.
Even if they could not break through, martial artists with exuberant blood qi could live a few more years. Exhausting blood qi was equivalent to using their lives to nurture the sword.
“Sword Accumulation Technique?” Han Zhao’s eyes flickered slightly. This thing was naturally not attractive to others, but he had the system. If others wanted to use blood qi to nourish the sword, he could use the true qi of the Life Nurturing Technique to replace them. As long as there was enough energy to replenish it, true qi and blood qi could be easily recovered.
In any case, the process of cultivating true qi required the consumption of stamina and blood qi.
Although his current attribute points were not enough to cover his expenses, as his strength increased, he would be able to obtain more Yin energy and gold sooner or later.
During this process, the enemies he faced would definitely become stronger.
Although he liked to crush his opponents with a higher realm, it was hard to guarantee that he would not encounter top experts of the same realm or martial artists of a higher realm than him.
“As long as there’s enough nutrition, even the ‘sword nurturing’ won’t affect my cultivation progress. I’ll buy it!” Han Zhao made a decision.
With the Sword Accumulation Technique, other than true qi, he had another trump card.
At that time, it would be the real ‘Sword and Saber Duo’!
“80 taels.” Just when Chen Yang thought that he was going to lose the bid, a middle-aged man made a bid with an uncertain tone.
Han Zhao was stunned. Then, he raised his hand and said firmly, “90 taels!”
“There are really people who buy this kind of sword technique?”
Everyone looked like they were watching a show.
When the middle-aged man saw Han Zhao’s determined look, he hesitated for a moment and gave up on bidding.
“Alright! Congratulations to the guest on the 25th for winning the ‘Sword Accumulation Technique’.” Chen Yang hurriedly confirmed it. It was fine as long as it didn’t fail.
The following items became more and more expensive, and many of them made Han Zhao envious. However, he only wanted to take a look.
The final item was 100-year-old ginseng. It was sold for a high price of 1,000 taels. This thing could save a severely injured martial artist’s life. The price depended on the demand.
The item on the stage was a prescription called the Blood Nourishment Powder. Taking the Blood Nourishment Powder for a long time could increase one’s blood qi and increase the chances of grasping Internal Force.
In the end, the formula for the Blood Nourishing Powder was sold for an exaggerated 3,500 taels of silver.
It could only be said that poverty limited Han Zhao’s imagination.
After the auction ended, Han Zhao went to the counter to look for Chen Yang. After deducting the commission and the cost of the Sword Accumulation Technique, he took 100 taels of silver from him.
He did not exchange it for gold because the Essence Soul Bead still had to accumulate Yin energy for a period of time before it could be simulated. During this period of time, he needed to eat more meat to satisfy his body’s consumption and speed up the cultivation of the Life Nurturing Technique. Therefore, he needed money.
Before leaving, Chen Yang gave Han Zhao a green token as an entry ticket to the annual large-scale auction.
Han Zhao took the token and left the Jiangyue Restaurant.
After taking a few steps out of the door, he realized that someone was following behind him.
‘Someone’s here to give me their fortune?’
However, when Han Zhao quickened his pace and left the town, a low cry of surprise suddenly came from behind. “Damn it! I remember now. He’s Song Que!”
“Which Song Que?”
“It’s the one who killed Zhou Han!”
“You guys go ahead. I’m leaving.”
“F*ck! Wait for me!”
There was the sound of hurried footsteps.
Han Zhao watched as the four of them quickly disappeared. He was dumbfounded. “…”
‘They changed their mind after so long?!’
Some time ago, he encountered a robber on the road. The robber was very polite and apologized on the spot with his death. He also compensated Han Zhao for his mental damage.
These four people were not professional at all!
Since they were short of money, they should rob him!
‘Don’t you know that fortune comes from danger?’
[I suggest that you change your alias and act like you’re stupid and rich. Only then can you be better at baiting… I mean, enforcing justice on behalf of the heavens!]
“I was too careless.” Han Zhao sighed in his heart. When he left, his back view became even more lonely.