It was early in the morning when Ning walked out of the hotel. The city was already alive and people were walking around in a hurry to get to their destination.
Only a few cultivators seemed to be relaxed and were just walking around. Ning looked towards the place downhill that had the actual main markets in it and walked towards there.
He looked around the roads at the different shops and started buying stuff he liked. Thanks to being a doctor for so long, he had a lot of money saved up that he hadn't used at all.
He bought clothes, food, different trinkets, and other items that he didn't necessarily need but was simply buying them cause he could afford them.
He went to restaurants to eat, went to the library to read up on different things, went to the market to buy ingredients for different medicines, etc.
He spent more than half a day doing just that before returning back to his hotel room. He then cultivated for the remainder of the day and the night.
He felt like he had progressed a lot as a 1st Foundation Establishment realm cultivator, but he still wasn't full. He could only know that he reached the breakthrough point previously when he started feeling the lack of Qi during his cultivation.
However, now it was different. He could simply check the level of Qi in his Sea of Qi and know how far along he was.
From what he could see with his divine sense, his liquid Qi had filled around 95% of the 2nd level. So he was not far off from reaching the 2nd Foundation Establishment realm.
Once he filled that level, he would fill the third level to reach the 3rd Foundation Establishment realm. So on and so forth until he filled all 10th level and reach the Golden Core Realm.
However, he was still very far away from that, so he would worry about it when he reached there.
Once again, it was morning and he stopped his cultivation. He had learned about something interesting that was going to take place today and was very much looking forward to it.
He went around the city for a few hours in the morning and finally came upon the place he wanted to visit.
The Auction House.
It was still a few minutes away from opening and there were people gathered outside of the auction house. He could see many different people waiting around outside.
Suddenly, someone tapped on his shoulders. He released his divine sense to check who it was and turned around with a genuine smile.
"Mr. Kaezir, it's nice to see you again. I hope you are doing good." The one that had just tapped him was none other than Kaezir.
He looked to the side and saw Mikaela there as well so he greeted her too.
"Ah, it really is you, Volunteer Ning. I almost couldn't recognize you with that long hair," Kaezir said. Kaezir seemed a lot older than a year ago when Ning had left the Starsight city.
"Haha, yes. Are you guys here for the tournament too? Starsight city must be doing good enough if it can send people here" Ning said.
Kaezir's face frowned all of a sudden and he simply just shook his head.
"I'm afraid Starsight city is no more. We tried to stay and keep it going for as long as we could, but when there is no public staying in the city anymore, it's hard to run a business going. So, both Mist Origin sect and we had to move to separate cities."
"Mist Origin sect moved to the Gray Forest Island, and we moved to the Bluestone island. So, today we are here representing Bluestone island instead of Starsight like we did the past years," Kaezir said.
"Oh," Ning got a little sad hearing that. It seemed that a sect couldn't last in a place where the people didn't stay.
'Mist Origin sect has beasts to feed. Without the materials from the city, it would be hard for them to survive,' he thought.
Mikaela suddenly nudged Kaezir and nodded her head towards somewhere.
Ning turned his head to see a group of people walk into the auction house even though the others weren't allowed yet. Every single one of the orange robe-wearing people was allowed free access to the auction house.
"Ah, I see they are here as well," Kaezir said.
"Who are they?" Ning asked.
"They are the Dazzling Sky sect from the Hero island and are the strongest sect in the scattered isles. Their sect leader is a golden core cultivator and thus they get a lot of fame and fortune. I hear they have exceptionally competent participants this time around. Those kids just now must be it," Kaezir said.
Ning hadn't managed to catch their faces since they had entered so quickly but didn't think much about it. He would do what he could and leave the rest to fate.
'The Hero island… that's a little up north from here. Are they stronger because they are north?' Ning wondered. He talked with Kaezir for a few more minutes and then the auction house opened.
People entered in droves and Ning didn't want to be late either.
"I will see you later, Volunteer Ning. We two have a room to ourselves, so we will be going there," Kaezir said and left.
Ning nodded and walked to where the rest of the people were being taken to.
He finally entered a massive hall with thousands of seats inside. He walked to a random free one and sat on it. He looked around and saw people seating down around him as quickly as they could to get their hands on a seat.
Soon the thousands of seats filled very quickly and suddenly there were no more people entering. 'It must be first come first serve,' Ning wondered.
He waited around a few minutes, listening to the murmur of the crowd when suddenly the curtain on the stage opened up.
The auction was now starting.