Chapter 108 – Auction
On the twelfth day of the fourth month, Di Kun Island’s Blood Condensation Realm auction began.
The scale of the auction was unprecedented thanks to the sea ban lift. Not only had the number of cultivators increased greatly, but the precious spirit materials harvested after the cultivators returned from the sea in the past six months were also getting auctioned this time. This hugely enriched the content of the auction.
Originally Lu Ping did not plan on attending the auction. He was at a critical moment of reconditioning his arcane energy with the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] and had no urgent need for cultivation supplies at the moment.
However, on the day before the auction, Yao Yong, Du Feng, Shi Lingling, Zhong Jian, Ma Yu, Leng Qian, Niu Dazhuang, and Zheng Jie had all come to Huang Li Island. Yao Yong and the others were naturally here to invite Lu Ping and Hu Lili to go to the auction together, while Niu Dazhuang and Zheng Jie had come to find Hu Lili.
As they had enthusiastically invited him to join, Lu Ping had no choice but to end his closed-door cultivation. At the same time, he also invited Chen Lian to join the group and so the eleven of them set off to Di Kung Island in great enthusiasm.
By the time they arrived the auction field was already packed with cultivators. Multi-Treasure Pavilion was quick to respond and had temporarily expanded the size of the auction field, nonetheless the auction house was still really crowded.
Lu Ping took a brief look and estimated that there were at least thousands of Blood Condensation Realm cultivators present.
Shi Lingling complained: “How can there be so many people? If only we were still in the Blood Refining Realm, we would’ve been able to go directly to the VIP room. Now that we are in the Blood Condensation Realm, it’s not possible anymore! The adults in my clan think that I’m a low-level cultivator and won’t give me an invitation card so they want me to attend with them. No, I won’t do as they wish!”
Knowing Shi Lingling’s unusual status and that she was the youngest among them, the others only smiled slightly and just listened to her complaints.
Since the lifting of the sea ban, everyone’s cultivation base had improved. Lu Ping had reached the Third Layer Blood Condensation Realm. Yao Yong, Du Feng, and Zhong Jian, had successfully advanced to the Second Layer Blood Condensation Realm.
Although Ma Yu had not yet broken through to the Third Layer, she had also reached the peak of the Second Layer Blood Condensation Realm. Hu Lili, who broke through the Blood Condensation Realm later than the rest, had also reached the peak of the First Layer Blood Condensation Realm.
Whereas Shi Lingling, Leng Qian, Zheng Jie and Niu Dazhuang were the four who had just broken into the Blood Condensation Realm.
Most of the cultivators who came to participate in the auction were in the Mid Blood Condensation Realm and above, Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators could rarely be found in the auction. After all, auctions like this generally targeted the elites in a specified cultivation realm, or those who were rich.
Therefore, Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators like Shi Lingling and the group of friends, were naturally not placed in the eyes of management at the auction house.
Just as they were about to pay the entrance fee of 500 spirit stones and experience the auction by staying in a corner of the auction house, Lu Ping abruptly took out and handed over an invitation card.
When the guards at the entrance saw Lu Ping’s invitation card, they couldn’t care less about the cultivation base of these Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators anymore and said politely, “This is a VIP invitation card, so you can enjoy the VIP room, please follow me.”
The group of friends looked at Lu Ping with great surprise, to which he only shrugged and said, “I often buy things here, so I got acquainted with the manager and asked for an invitation card.”
Shi Lingling laughed and said, “I will believe you only if I am stupid!”
The group followed a concierge of Multi-Treasure Pavilion to a teleportation array formation, the concierge said, “This teleportation array formation is specially established for the secrecy of VIPs identity. Your invitation card is the teleportation array formation’s activation charm, which can send you to any private room, even Multi-Treasure Pavilion won’t be able to know the number of your private room.”
After hearing that, everyone was amazed and praised the Multi-Treasure Pavilion for its thoroughness.
The eleven of them came to the teleportation array formation, and the invitation card in Lu Ping’s hands shined flashes of light. Then, the group disappeared from the teleportation array formation and reappeared in Room 19. Through the windows in the room, they could clearly see the huge auction field packed with thousands of Blood Condensation Realm cultivators.
After settling in their seats the stone table in the center of the room suddenly lit up and eleven jade tea cups appeared on top. Steam was rising from the jade cups which were filled with the same type of Cloud Inspiring Tea Lu Ping had used to serve Hu Lili before in his cave-dwelling.
The group was at first uncomfortable with this situation, especially after seeing that Lu Ping had an invitation card, which made them curious about his identity. At this moment, it was as if Lu Ping had become a stranger in their eyes, and a simple and honest man like Niu Dazhuang was very restrained in the room.
Suddenly, Hu Lili giggled and said, “This should be the platform used for trading in the auction. After successfully bidding for an item, the cultivators in the room will place the spirit stones on this small teleportation platform which sends the payment to the auctioneer. After the payment is received, the items will be sent back to the private room through this same teleportation platform.”
As Hu Lili spoke, she handed out the teacups to the group.
Hu Lili, who was both knowledgeable and articulate, was very good at controlling the atmosphere. In just a few sentences, she was able to resolve the awkward tension in the room and relax the restraints between the friends.
A few moments later, the group had resumed talking and laughing, forgetting about the invitation card. Even Niu Dazhuang, Zheng Jie and Chen Lian, the three new people that joined the group also got acquainted with the rest quickly.
In fact, Lu Ping had no special identity whatsoever, he only had the invitation card because he had made a lot of transactions in the auction back when he was still in the Blood Refining Realm.
After entering Blood Condensation Realm, he still had several transactions with Multi-Treasure Pavilion. This made Manager Gui, who was in charge of his transactions, think highly of him and give him an invitation card.
But because it involved the three Condensed Blood Beads of Xuan Ling Sect’s Qiao Xipeng, Lu Ping wasn’t able to explain his situation to the rest.
The start of the auction was soon announced and everyone in the room was attracted to the item bidding, except for Lu Ping. He didn’t care much about the auction and was silently cultivating the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture].
At the same time, he opened the spirit pet pouch and three little snakes came out and wrapped around Lu Ping’s right hand as they slithered on his arm. Each of these little snakes was one foot long and had crystal-like scales.
These three little snakes were none other than the Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes hatched from the eggs.
During their incubation process, Lu Ping had used his arcane energy to enhance the vitality of the eggs.This shortened the incubation period and caused these three baby snakes to be very familiar with Lu Ping’s scent. They were affectionate with him and treated him as their parent.
Despite being from the same parents, the three small snakes had different colors, the first one was emerald green, another one blue-black and the last one crystal white. Lu Ping named them Lu Bi, Lu Hai and Lu Ling, meaning Emerald Sea Spirit Snake.
(TL: Emerald Sea Spirit Snake in Chinese is Bi Hai Ling She)
When everyone in the room saw that Lu Ping had three snakes as spirit pets, the ladies even laughed at him for having such eerie monster beasts as a spirit pet. But they were quickly amazed after they noticed how beautiful and cute the three snakes were.
But sadly for them, it was human nature to have a natural fear towards snakes. Hence they didn’t go near and play with the snakes and only looked on from their seats.
The Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes in the early stages were not very different in appearance from ordinary monster snakes. Therefore, even Hu Lili didn’t realise that these three baby snakes were the famous Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes of the monster race.
Lu Ping fed each of the baby snakes a medicinal pellet he had specifically concocted for them, and some meat from the young monster beasts in the separation sea that he had bought from the cultivators.
After seeing that the three baby snakes had filled their stomachs and were wrapped motionless on his arm, Lu Ping kept them back into his spirit pet pouch.
At this time, people were bidding for a high-grade flying sword mystic instrument. Lu Ping took a look at the flying sword that was inferior to his Soaring Wing Swords and was indifferent to it. On the contrary, Hu Lili and the rest were watching with great interest.
“6,200 spirit stones, this bidder bids 6,200 spirit stones, are there any more bids from the floor? This high-grade flying sword is forged from the high-grade spirit material, Flaming Iron Essence. So, rest assured, it is of the highest quality. This flying sword is the best and most reliable partner every fire-element cultivator can ask for.”
The auction was hosted by none other than Lu Ping’s acquaintance Manager Jia.
Yao Yong was interested in this flying sword. However, he was already a student of Enlightened Master Qu Xuan-Cheng who had already promised to reward him with a fire-element high-grade mystic instrument after he advanced into the Mid Blood Condensation Realm. Therefore, he didn’t participate in the bidding of this flying sword.
After a round of great advertising by Manager Jia, this flying sword mystic instrument was finally sold for 7,000 spirit stones.
“Next up for auction, we have the top-grade medicinal pellets for Early Blood Condensation Realm, Emerald Spirit Pellets! I believe all of you would’ve already heard of these medicinal pellets before even if you have not seen them. They are one of the top cultivation medicinal pellets that every Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivator would die to get their hands on.
“The effectiveness of each Emerald Spirit Pellet is one and half times greater than the ordinary Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivation medicinal pellets. Not to mention all the other benefits it can bring. These five bottles of Emerald Spirit Pellets will be auctioned together with a starting price of 6,000 spirit stones, with each increase of no less than 100 spirit stones. The bidding starts now!”
The moment Master Jia finished his introduction on the pellets, Lu Ping’s spirit was lifted.
This kind of top-grade medicinal pellets was exactly what he needed urgently. But the problem was which Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivator wouldn’t covet these medicinal pellets?
The bidding that followed quickly raised the price of the five bottles of Emerald Spirit Pellets to 8,000 spirit stones, which discouraged many Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivators.
“8,500 spirit stones!”
Lu Ping’s bid once again shocked the friends in the room.
Hu Lili said with surprise, “They are not worth that much. Plus, haven’t you obtained a lot of medicinal pellets from Fei Ling Island? Besides that, you are already in the Third Layer Blood Condensation Realm, shouldn’t you have enough medicinal pellets to advance into the Mid Blood Condensation Realm by now?”
But Shi Lingling, Ma Yu and the others had heard the rumors of Lu Ping displeasing the sect’s alchemists on Tian Ling Mountain. Hu Lili was at Huang Li Island for a long time and so her news wasn’t up to date. When she learned about what happened from the others, she couldn’t help but secretly blame Lu Ping for his intolerance. The sect’s alchemists weren’t an ordinary group of cultivators that one could easily offend.
However, Lu Ping wasn’t just preparing for the possibility of being spurned by the sect alchemists in the future when he needed the sect’s medicinal pellets.
Lu Ping was reconditioning his cultivation base with the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture]. Hence the conversion of his original arcane energy into the new cultivation method’s arcane energy required a large number of medicinal pellets to speed up the process.
After everyone in the room learned about what happened between him and the sect alchemists, they didn’t stop him from bidding the medicinal pellets anymore. In the end, Lu Ping won the bid with 9,400 spirit stones.
He placed an interspatial pouch which contained the payment inside on the stone platform. Shortly after the payment was received by the auction house, five exquisite jade bottles appeared on the stone platform.
Lu Ping picked up the jade bottles, opened them, and admired the green pills inside. A bright smile of satisfaction was seen on his face.
After the Emerald Spirit Pellets, the Mid and Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivation medicinal pellets were auctioned next.
The group of friends in the room listened as the cultivators bid tens of thousands of spirit stones, no longer feeling extravagant about Lu Ping spending 9,400 spirit stones for the Emerald Spirit Pellets.
After a while, the medicinal pellets for cultivation finished being auctioned.
On stage, Manager Jia suddenly wiped away the smile he previously had on his face and replaced it with a solemn expression, and said in a deep low voice,”Ladies and gentlemen, it is well known that the Blood Condensation Realm cultivators, in their breakthrough from Early to Mid, Mid to Late, and Late to the next Core Forging Realm, are required to replenish the lost bloodlines in their cultivation base. Therefore, in these bottlenecks, cultivators will have to look for a bloodline that is compatible with their foundation bloodlines and cultivation methods.”
“…”