Chapter 111 – Seal Breaking Charm
After the trip to Fei Ling Island and the rewards from the sect, Lu Ping had about 120,000 spirit stones on him. From selling the Condensed Blood Beads and Spirit Stout Stones, his fortune had reached nearly 150,000 spirit stones.
After purchasing the Water Avoidance Shield and Emerald Spirit Pellet, Lu Ping still had 130,000 spirit stones in hand. Hence, it wasn’t a problem for him to take out a sum of 40,000 spirit stones to buy the Grade 2 spirit material.
However, Shi Lingling and the others in the room weren’t aware of Lu Ping’s wealth and were surprised by his bid of 40,000 spirit stones. Whilst Chen Lian and Hu Lili knew more about Lu Ping’s wealth, they thought that 40,000 spirit stones was already Lu Ping’s limit.
Hu Lili said urgently, “Why did you raise the price so high all of a sudden? You need to leave some spirit stones for emergencies.”
Having finished speaking, she signaled to Chen Lian.
Chen Lian was hesitant, but he couldn’t stand the pressure from Hu Lili and so he also advised, “Brother Lu, take it easy. Although it’s worth it to purchase a Grade 2 spirit material with just 40,000 spirit stones, I’m afraid it will also arouse the suspicion of others. ”
However, Lu Ping pointed to Old Man Chen on the auction floor. Chen Lian looked over suspiciously and saw Old Man Chen smile with relief and stop bidding.
Manager Gui, who had seemingly sensed something, hurriedly called over a staff member of the auction house and gave him some instructions. The staff member hurriedly walked to the back of the auction house.
At that time, Room 13 who was bidding against Old Man Chen seemed to be hesitating due to Lu Ping suddenly raising the price. After a long pause, Room 13 bid 42,000 spirit stones.
“45,000 spirit stones!” Lu Ping was determined and immediately raised the bid.
At this point the cultivator in Room 13 finally gave up and stopped bidding.
Manager Gui had wanted to say a few more words to stall for time so that the staff he had sent backstage could report back to him, but Lu Ping stepped in and said directly, “If there are no more bidders, can Manager Gui announce that I am the winner of this piece of spirit material already?”
Manager Gui, whose plan had been seen through, was worthy of being a qualified merchant. He quickly smiled and said, “Of course, congratulations to the honored guest of Room 19 for winning this piece Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron.”
As Manager Gui’s words had just fallen, the staff member who had gone backstage, rushed to Manager Gui’s side and whispered in his ear. Having heard the report, although Manager Gui still looked calm, Lu Ping could see from the corners of his eyes that Manager Gui regretted undervaluing the spirit material.
As expected, Manager Gui said, “Room 19’s guests are very discerning. I hope that everyone here will also bid passionately for the items you fancy, just like Room 19’s guests. After all, spirit stones can still be earned if you use them, but if you miss out on precious spirit materials, you never know when you’ll come across them again.”
Lu Ping wasn’t bothered by Manager Gui’s words, Multi-Treasure Pavilion naturally had its own rules of conduct for it to build up a great reputation amongst cultivators.
Manager Gui was just feeling a little regretful. If he had found out earlier that this was a Grade 2 spirit material, he would have been able to sell it for more than 45,000 spirit stones.
The auction continued with a series of large transactions. Lu Ping witnessed many Blood Condensation Realm cultivators that were much richer than him.
The next item that drew Lu Ping’s attention was an alchemist’s inheritance. It was found inside of a cave-dwelling in the buffer sea, after the sea ban was lifted.
Not only were many cultivators encouraged yet again to adventure to the separation zone, but Lu Ping himself also felt that there were many opportunities and couldn’t help but want to explore them.
The inheritance was left behind by a Blood Condensation Realm alchemist and contained several copies of medicinal pellet recipes for the Blood Condensation Realm. The starting price was set at 20,000 spirit stones, which made many cultivators marvel about the status of alchemists.
Lu Ping was also interested and tried to bid twice. But when the price quickly rose to 40,000 spirit stones he gave up, having felt that the price exceeded the items’ worth.
The inheritance was sold to an alchemist from Zhen Ling Sect for 50,000 spirit stones.
As the auction drew closer to the end, an item caught Lu Ping’s attention again.
“This Seal Breaking Charm made by a Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master is able to break all kinds of seals underneath the Core Forging Realm. It is a must-have tool for any explorer or hunter and guarantees that you will not return empty-handed if you encounter treasure concealed behind seals.
“This Core Forging Realm Seal Breaking Charm’s starting price is 20,000 spirit stones, with each increase no less than 500 spirit stones. Please start bidding now!”
As soon as Manager Gui finished speaking, Lu Ping called out a bid of 25,000 spirit stones.
Zhong Jian asked curiously, “What are you buying this for?”
Yao Yong’s eyes lit up and said, “Did you find any cave-dwelling, or are you going to the buffer sea to hunt monsters?”
Du Feng, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said, “Count me in!”
Lu Ping smiled, he said: “I have recently been cultivating in seclusion so I don’t have any plans to go to the monster race waters. But, if you have any plans to head out to the buffer sea, please don’t forget about me.”
Ma Yu laughed, “You are so cunning, we originally wanted to ask you about your plans, but you turned around and pried into other people’s plans.”
Shi Lingling also said, “Don’t mistake his quietness as obedience, he is actually very crafty. I have yet to see him suffer any losses before.”
While the group were laughing at Lu Ping, the price of the Seal Breaking Charm had risen to 33,500 spirit stones. Lu Ping didn’t want to argue with them, and raised the price to 35,000 spirit stones.
Manager Gui’s words were very motivating. Most of the cultivators in the auction were those who had been to the buffer sea before or were planning a trip there. They all believed that they were prodigious and would naturally have fortunate encounters.
So, wouldn’t a Seal Breaking Charm equal an even bigger reward to them if they ever came across a cave-dwelling in the buffer sea?
On the other hand, Lu Ping needed the Seal Breaking Charm because of the jade box covered in seals that he had obtained in the Core Forging Realm cave-dwelling on Fei Ling Island. In that cave-dwelling, Lu Ping had obtained a total of five treasures.
All the other four treasures were extraordinary, with the jade box being the only unidentified item as a result of the seals applied on it. But, due to the seals, Lu Ping was convinced that the contents inside the jade box were even more precious than the other treasures. Perhaps, it was even on par or better, than the spatial mystic instrument, Book of Thousand Millets.
At this time, the price of the Seal Breaking Charm had been slowly advancing towards 40,000 spirit stones. Several cultivators were gradually raising the price by 500 or 1,000 spirit stones, which annoyed Lu Ping.
“45,000 spirit stones!” Lu Ping directly raised the price by 5,000 spirit stones, causing the few cultivators who were bidding slowly in the auction to curse out loud.
After calling out his bid, Lu Ping noticed Hu Lili rolling her eyes at him.
These cultivators that were bidding were mostly rogue cultivators or cultivators from other sects. As they were regularly involved in dangerous hunting activities outside of the safe zones, they had become unscrupulous and unfettered.
Additionally, most of them didn’t have a fixed location where they could be found and targeted. Therefore, they had no fear of retaliation from the people they offended, regardless of their status or strength, such as the honored guests in the VIP rooms.
Since Lu Ping was able to obtain the Seal breaking charm, he couldn’t care less about the reactions from others in the auction. He took the Seal Breaking Charm in his hand and carefully observed the array formation engraved in the jade charm.
Technically speaking, the Seal Breaking Charm was also a kind of seal. However, the crafting of this type of charm also required the craftsman to be very proficient in the casting and breaking of various seals, which was one of the many cultivation professions.
But a Seal Breaking Charm was still closely related to charms, and so Lu Ping was able to learn something from carefully studying it.
The auction was nearing the end with only a few truly top-tier items still to be auctioned. The final items consisted of top-grade mystic instruments and some medicinal pellets for breaking through to the Core Forging Realm.
These items were only suitable for Late Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. Lu Ping had no use for them now. Besides, a price of 50,000 to 80,000 spirit stones for each of the items made Lu Ping feel helpless.
Following the auction’s conclusion, Lu Ping returned to his cave-dwelling on Huang Li Island and began another closed-door cultivation session.
In the cultivation room of the cave-dwelling, faint traces of spiritual energy emanated from the spirit veins and filled every corner of the room.
Lu Ping was sitting on the gray-white spirit mat, holding the jade box from Fei Ling Island in his hand.
He injected arcane energy into the Seal Breaking Charm, and at the same time, performed sixteen hand seals in a row. The Seal Breaking Charm was instantly covered in a ball of multicolored light and dived on the seals of the jade box.
A section of the seals on the jade box quickly dissolved like snow in hot water, while the remaining portion of the seals burst apart like fireworks. After a flash of light, the jade box had returned to normal.
Lu Ping opened the box, and saw two purple jade scrolls neatly placed inside. One of the two jade scrolls was glimmering. He picked it up and tried to use his divine sense to read it, but the sparkling light on the surface of the jade scroll blocked his divine sense from entering the scroll and reading it.
Lu Ping was slightly disappointed. There were no seals on this jade scroll anymore. The glimmering light was clearly an indication that it was a special jade scroll recorded by the Core Forging Realm cultivators’ divine revelation.
This type of jade scroll could only be read when a cultivator’s cultivation base reached the Core Forging Realm, a realm where divine sense would transcend into divine revelation. This was always the case unless the scroll was specially made, allowing it to be viewed by a cultivator with divine sense.
Lu Ping picked up the second jade scroll and viewed it with his divine sense. This time there were no obstacles.
The [Natal Life Primordial Stars Chart]!
This was an inheritance jade scroll that recorded the forging and enhancement of natal mystic instruments.
However, unlike other natal mystic instruments which normally only had one piece, the instrument recorded in the jade scroll was a set containing several pieces. Not only that, it also had to be combined with a formation chart to form a natal array formation.
Lu Ping had never heard of anything like this before.
The natal array formation had a formation chart as its core and consisted of 12 natal mystic instruments.
In battle, the formation chart was used for defense and the 12 Primordial Star mystic instruments were used for offense. This natal array formation’s combat prowess was incredible.
However, crafting it was quite difficult. Cultivators would have to gather more than ten times the spirit materials in order to forge the 12 Primordial Star mystic instruments. Additionally, the refinement of the natal mystic instruments would consume an enormous amount of arcane energy.
At the same time, using the natal mystic instruments also required a huge amount of arcane energy.
Therefore, whilst this natal array formation was extremely powerful, it wasn’t suitable for ordinary cultivators!
Even if a cultivator could gather enough spirit materials to forge the natal mystic instruments for the natal array formation, they likely wouldn’t have the amount of arcane energy needed for the refinement of those instruments.
And even if they had barely enough arcane energy for refinement, spending too much arcane energy on the natal mystic instruments would affect the cultivators’ cultivation speed.
Without a profound and abundant arcane energy backing them, a cultivator might not even be able to cast the natal array formation for long enough to win a fight and with the high arcane energy expenditure it might just speed up their defeat.