" 1010 Gold coins"
" 1020 Gold coins"
" 1030 Gold coins"
.
.
.
" 1100 Gold coins"
Before most people could even realize the bidding had started, the bid had already increased by 100 gold coins.
"1110 gold coins," Ning bid as well, but his voice was quickly drowned in other bids of higher value. Ning then decided to keep quiet and wait for the number of people bidding to lower.
It didn't take long for the price of the item to double as the bid reached 2000 gold coins. Only then did it even remotely slow down.
It took a bit longer for the bid to reach 2100 gold coins when there were only 3 people bidding. 2 people were from the VIP rooms on the upper floor and 1 of them was from the hall below.
"2-2160 gold coins," the guy on the hall below hesitated for a bit before increasing the bid. It didn't seem like he had much more money to bid.
"2170 gold coins," one of the people from the VIP room bid. He could hear a young man's voice, but couldn't see anyone there.
"2180 gold coins," a much elderly-sounding voice shouted from the VIP room.
The man on the ground lost all hope seeing the two of them instantly increase the bid and decided to drop out.
"2190 gold coins," the younger man in the VIP rooms bid.
"2200 gold coins," the older man bid.
The back and forth went on for a bit longer until the older man started hesitating.
"2450 gold coins," the older man bid after nearly 5 seconds, instead of the instant bid he was doing a bit ago.
"2460 gold coins," the young man didn't hesitate at all.
The old man deliberated for a bit and bid, "2480 gold coins."
"2490 gold coins," the young man once again bid instantly.
The old man didn't bid any longer. There was silence for a bit and then he finally spoke, "Sigh, alright you win. I don't want that spear anymore."
"Thank you, Elder," the young man spoke from inside the VIP room. "Haha, since there are no more bidders, I think we can proceed to the next item," the man said.
Niya on the stage nodded and said, "going 2490 gold coins, Once."
"Going 24— "
"2500 gold coins." Ning decided to finally step in and bid.
The audience was a little surprised that someone from the lower hall was actually bidding so high.
"2510 gold coins," the young man bid without hesitation still.
"2520 gold coins," Ning wasn't stopping either.
" 2530 Gold coins"
" 2540 Gold coins"
"2550 Gold coins"
" 2560 Gold coins"
The bid continuously increased as neither of them backed down.
Soon, the bid reached 2800 at which point the young man in the VIP room started to get a little nervous. He had quite a few gold coins, but he still needed to save some for the better items that would be sold later on.
So, he decided to negotiate. "Brother. I have a spear I currently use that costs around 1500 gold coins. I will sell it to you for only 500 gold coins if you let me take this spear," the man said.
"Oh," Ning was a little surprised that the man was actually so desperate for this spear. Unfortunately, he wanted it as well.
"Is your 1500 gold spear as good as the one currently being auctioned?" Ning asked.
"Umm… no, not rea—"
"2820 gold coins," Ning didn't even let him finish and directly bid.
The young man was shocked and continued bidding, but at some point he decided to stop. Spending so much money on an item like this wasn't worth it to him. Especially since he already had a good enough spear of his own.
Ning waited for the next bid but nothing actually came.
Niya realized this as well and decided to end the bid.
"Any more bids?" she asked, but nobody responded.
"3070 gold coins going once."
"3070 gold coins going twice."
"3070 gold coins going thrice."
"Sold to the gentleman on seat 583," Niya announced to the crowd. The spear was taken away by the staff and soon a staff member walked up to him in the crowd and handed him a slip of paper.
That was to identify that he was the one that bought the spear. Ning let out his divine sense to check the paper and felt some sort of energy in it.
'Oh, it's a talisman. Nearly didn't recognize it because of its shape,' he thought. 'Do I really need a talisman to show that I am the bidder? Or are they afraid I will run away after bidding and are using this as a tracker?' he wondered.
Either way, it didn't matter to him since he would buy the spear. To be honest, he didn't have to buy the spear. He could've simply waited for a little longer and he could've bought a better spear from the system.
But he didn't know exactly when his system was coming back and needed a spear for the upcoming competitions.
The auction went as per usual, but nothing came up that really interested Ning anymore. There were a few cool stuff that was put up on auction, but none of it was something he wanted.
The most valuable item sold on the auction was actually a journal of a cultivator's journey from being a mortal all the way to him reaching the Nascent Soul stage.
It had vivid explanations of what he did and how he reached that stage. Unfortunately, the cultivator was long dead, but the information lived on.
That book was sold for exactly 50 Spirit Stones. Once the auction was done, Ning walked to the staff who took him to get his spear.
He paid the bid price and stored the Spear in storage space before walking out of the auction house. Along the way, Orange clothed, handsome-looking man, kept staring at him as he left.
Ning didn't understand at first but soon realized that that was probably the man he stole the spear away from.
'Whatever, not like he can do anything inside the city anyway,' Ning thought and went to visit the rest of the city for the day.