For someone as beautiful as Sima Zhaoxue, not to mention Bi Ningshuai, with some methods and a willingness to do so, she could make a supreme elder from a cultivation sect die for her. Moreover, he wouldn’t have been able to touch a finger of hers beforehand.
At this moment, it was clear that she must have done something to these crazy fans in the audience.
The auction has finally begun.
The first treasure was stored inside a two-meter square trunk made out of steel and was brought to the stage.
With her silver hair fluttering with the wind and a spiritual glow to her, Sima Zhaoxue’s snow-white fingers reached out and elegantly grabbed a jade-card on a silver tray. She softly spoke with a charming smile: “The first auction is a two-meter-long stone-dragon wooden pillar. The starting price is one spirit stone with no less than one seed for each increasing bet.”
Stone-dragon tree is a legendary tree with the trunk growing to something resembling a dragon. This wood was as hard as a rock and could be used to create second-ranked dragon-image pills.
This breed of tree had been extinct for several thousand years now. This particular one was dug out from the muddy bottom of the Jin River. This might be the only trunk of this type in the entire dynasty.
Even though second-ranked pills weren’t that rare, this amount of wood was enough to refine more than one thousand dragon-image pills. Its value was definitely above one spirit stone.
“Two spirit stones.” Bi Ningshuai was the first and doubled the price.
Some others wanted to bid but the big increment made them hesitate.
“Number 323, two spirit stones. Anyone higher?” Zhaoxue’s enchanting eyes were sweeping through the crowd in order to search for people with money.
“Three here.” A sixth-level pill master raised his card.
This pill master was the best from the Eagle Marquis Faction. Wang Yi Wang, the young marquis there was following this master to learn the art of alchemy.
The dragon-image pill could help a cultivator train their physique. This was too important for this faction since they focused on physique cultivation so their hands were forced in this matter.
This trunk was worth around 3 spirit stones so they were confident that no one else would bid higher.
“Four.” Ningshuai raised the bid without any hesitation.
Each spirit stone was worth 300,000 gold coins. Thus, just raising it by one stone was a monstrous sum, enough to buy half a small city.
People with money would carefully raise the price by small increments. Being reckless could end with a heavy loss.
Feiyun quickly pulled on him and asked: “You’re not a pill master, why buy this trunk?”
“I can’t act weak in front of Xue’er.” He declared.
‘This guy is so poisoned now.’ Feiyun wiped the sweat off his forehead: “You have this much spirit stones?”
“You’re here with me.”
The pill master from Eagle Marquis Faction begrudgingly said: “Five stones.”
Ningshuai raised his card again and shouted: “Six spirit stones.”
“...” Feiyun was speechless.
The pill master and the young marquis were already going crazy. It took a lot out of them to big five stones for this trunk that was only worth three stones. However, this number 323 guy was too strong or maybe he was just messing with them.
The young marquis gritted his teeth and raised his card: “Seven spirit stones.”
Their faction must have this trunk.
“Ten stones.” Ningshuai stood up and posed coolly after declaring an impossible price.
The pill master and the young marquis almost vomited blood and stopped raising the bid.
Even Zhaoxue was slightly surprised after hearing this bid. She was wondering which prodigal son was this?
Her pretty eyes glanced over at Ningshuai and gave him a smile. She had naturally forgotten about this fella. After all, she talked to so many prodigies every day, how could she remember this one guy?
However, Ningshuai was so elated just to see her charming smile.
Feiyun had the urge to turn and walk away at this moment. ‘A man bewitched by a woman, even dumber than an idiot… But wasn’t I like this back then too?’
He decided to save this guy from his pitiful circumstance.
“Sold for ten spirit stones.” Her smile became even more enchanting.
The higher the price, the more her commission so she was naturally happier than anyone else.
“Ten spirit stones to buy a stone-dragon trunk, what a loss. WHich idiot is number 323?” Someone quietly discussed.
“Must be an idiot musical fan that had been charmed by Sima Zhaoxue. Using ten stones to buy a beauty’s smile? Bankruptcy will be soon.”
“This is the style of the Yin Gou Ward, baiting in the idiots, hehe.”
Feiyun glanced at the people sneering at Ningshuai. ‘You all dare to mock my friend? Just wait, I’ll make you cry later.”
A little after, a young girl brought up another jade tray. There was a golden metal square around one foot long, the second treasure of the auction.
This metal looked like brass but there were many strings with a faint, golden glow within. Its value was clear at first glance. This was a good material for blacksmithing.
Zhaoxue waited a bit for the crowd to become curious before announcing: “The second auction is a Golden Spirit Silk weighing at one hundred and twenty pounds, found by a treasure-master from a mine in the frontier. According to our appraisers, this is a rare, natural metal. When using ordinary steel to create a weapon, just by adding one or two strings, it would raise this mortal weapon to the treasure level. As for crafting spirit treasures, infusing these strings can increase the probability of success.”
“The starting price will be three spirit stones. Each raising bid must be at least one stone.” She put down the introductory card while standing elegantly on the stage and smiled: “Begin.”
“I bid six stones.” Bi Ningshuai immediately raised his card and doubled the bidding price.
The one-star and two-star guests all wanted to vomit blood as well. They didn’t have much spending power and could only buy the lower-level treasures. But this damned number 323 was doubling the bid of these treasures. How the hell were they going to live?
If it wasn’t for him actually buying the dragon-stone tree earlier, they would have thought that he was working for the Yin Gou Ward.
The price of this golden silk was much higher than the tree. Moreover, it could refine many treasure weapons in the future. It was truly crucial for the big powers since it could increase the battle potential of their young disciples.
Six stones weren’t enough to scare the clan and sect masters so many raised their bidding card.
Feiyun was fixated on this treasure with a strange pulse from his spiritual sense. This pulse would only happen when a top treasure was around.
“Is there something else hiding in this spirit silk?” Even though his spiritual sense wasn’t top-notch, the phoenix soul in his body was peerless. Even grand treasure-masters didn’t have such great sensitivity. This was why he could spot hiding treasures easily.
This was also the case for the Daomization Stone that was taken by the Evil Woman.
Even Zuo Qianshou, a ninth-ranked treasure master, couldn’t spot the Daomization Stone yet he was able to cut it out.
He activated his phoenix gaze in order to peer past the outer layer to see the supreme treasure hiding inside. However, he still couldn’t see through the surface.
“A piece of mineral from a mine, gestated by the earth, this alone can’t excite the phoenix soul, there must be something else.” Feiyun used his Minor Change Art to calculate again.
The Minor Change Art was one of the eight arts in the Grave Palace Treasure Seeking Record. It was the ultimate treasure-seeking art and it also felt something incredible within this piece of metal.
At this moment, the current bid was fifteen stones for the metal. This was quite a high price so only three people left were bidding.
Number 218, an old half-step Giant.
Number 479, a young overlord from a big clan.
Number 323, which was where Feng Feiyun and Bi Ningshuai were sitting.
They were all guests with money at the VIP section
The young overlord slightly frowned and raised his card again: “Sixteen spirit stones.”
The golden metal was precious but it was only valued around fourteen stones. They were sitting at the VIP section and had great powers as their backing but prudence in terms of bidding was still required.
The half-step Giant was a supreme elder of a sect. He truly wanted the metal and didn’t mind paying a high price: “20 stones, I want this metal.”
If anyone else were to bid higher, they would be an idiot.
Feiyun smiled and told Ningshuai: “Bid as high as you want.”
Ningshuai was ecstatic after hearing this. He would finally be able to shine before his goddess. With a stately pose, he raised his card and shouted: “One hundred stones!”
Some people were scared off their chair after hearing this bid.