There are several items in the catalog that caught Zhu Furong's eyes. One of them is a 5 by 3 inches, small, rectangular wooden plank that looks exactly similar to the wooden piece from Divine Tree he got back in the Beast Pavilion Market of Sunlight Sect. Zhu Furong decided to call it Divine Wood.
Another is the Heavenly Silk Liquid. It is a crafting material used to make clothes indestructible by natural means. So the clothes will never degrade with time or weather. It is the mucus left behind during the eclosion of Heavenly Butterfly from its chrysalis. The Heavenly Butterfly is not that rare in the upper realm, but the place where it lays its eggs is always protected by a strong illusion and impossible to find. After all, a Heavenly Butterfly is a high class spiritual beast capable of transforming into a human!— One must have traveled down to the lower realm to lay eggs.
The star of the show, the inner map of the Dragon Palace, is only 20 in number while there are 25 VIP rooms in the Auction House, not counting the hundreds of non VIP participants.
...
Zhu Furong mumbled, "Things are gonna get quite feisty over the maps." And started calculating his wealth.
'2 platinum coins, 4 large gold coins, 300 gold coins, 5 million silver coins, 12 rank 2 artifacts costing a million silver coins each, 5 rank 3 artifacts costing 5 million silver coins each. Rank 4 and 5 artifacts can probably buy a whole country here— I am quite rich ain't I?'
Zhu Furong relaxed after calculating his wealth.
...
"Sold for 500,000 silver coins to lot number 56!" The auctioneer slammed the hammer and called for the next item.
Two well dressed ladies rolled a trolley with an item covered in cloth.
The auctioneer uncovered the item revealing a bottle of pills.
"Rank 2 Clotting Pill. No matter how deep the cut is, it will heal within seconds! Only works till peak Revolving Core rank. The bid starts at 100,000 silver coins and the increment shouldn't be less than 10,000 silver coins!"
"110,000"
"150,000"
"175,000"
After this only two people fought.
"185,000!"
"195,000!"
"210,000!"
"220,000!"
"250,000!!"
"260,000!"
"300,000! Fuck you!"
"310,000!"
While one fought desperately, the other only increased the bid by 10,000.
"Y-You motherfucking Guo, want me to fuck your sister?"
"You bastard Shen, dare to fuck my sister?"
"Dare? I dare, just watch me do it tonight."
On the other side the auctioneer started the countdown, "310,000 once, 310,000 twice—"
"Fuck Guo's wife for 350,000!"
"360—" Mister Guo stopped midway.
Mister Shen snorted, "What? 360 what? Want to fuck your mother in 360? Done with the bidding? You fucking poor bastard! Wanna compete with your dad? You are 100 years early for that, humph!"
"500,000" A old man's voice echoed from one of the VIP rooms.
The two men looked towards the room then sat down with regret.
"500,000 once, 500,000 twice, 500,000 thrice! Sold to VIP room number 7."
"Next!"
...
The VIP rooms are covered in a one sided glass so people from the outside cannot see who is inside. It's better for them to not get on the bad side of the people in the VIP rooms as you don't know when you may lose your life.
But it's not the same for everyone. Not every influential and powerful person likes to stay behind cover, some love to show off.
Just like this peak Revolving Core rank Cultivator in the crowd who made a VIP retreat.
...
In the lower realm, anyone in the Open Ascension rank is considered a god by the masses and they are extremely rare to find.
Second in worship are the peak Revolving Core rank Cultivators. Since Open Ascension rank Cultivators are so rare, of course the peak Revolving Core rank Cultivators are the king.
It was quite weird for Zhu Furong to come across so many Revolving Core rank Cultivators and one Open Ascension rank Cultivator in the Gale Desert— It was the worst of the coincidences.
...
Soon the Divine Wood arrived.
"Not much about this piece of wood is known but one thing is for sure, it is indestructible!"
"Maybe someone in the audience is aware of what it is and knows the use of it, if so, it is a good opportunity for you to grab a piece of treasure for cheap."
The auctioneer doesn't expect any enthusiasm from the audience nor does he care. The Misty Eyes really is all about business and profit.
"There is no initial price for the item, so I will leave it to the bidders' judgment."
A man from room 3 shouted, "Mister Auctioneer, is it really indestructible as you promise or is it just a sales strategy?"
The auctioneer smiled, "Even the Open Ascension rank Cultivator of our Misty Eyes couldn't leave a single scratch on it. If the guest has any methods then, please..."
"Er... If even an Open Ascension rank Cultivator failed, then what can an insignificant Cultivator like me do? As an apology I bid 100,000 silver coins."
"Room 23 bids 100,000 silver coins, anybody else?"
"If no one, I will start the countdown."
"250,000 silver coins."
"It's almost triple the first bid. Does Venerable Lou know what this item is?" A man from room 10 asked room number 7.
"Young Master Hui(wise) jests. This old man is only interested in pill refining— I thought, I may be able to make use of the wood in concocting some new kind of pill, after all that piece of wood may be a part of some divine herb."
Hearing the people's names and the title 'Venerable' the audience suddenly went into an uproar. While in his room, Zhu Furong almost choked on a spiritual fruit.
'Does this old man know about the Divine Tree? How?'
Murmurs could be heard everywhere in the hall.
"Venerable Lou? You mean the independent rank 3 Pill Concocter?"
"Young Master Hui? Is he the young prodigy of the Wei Dynasty? The second son of the duke, Yun Hui?"
"Yes he is, I heard he is only 23 years old and at an early Revolving Core rank!"
"Wow, for real?"
"Yes..."
The auctioneer cleared his throat, "250,000 silver coins once..."
"Since Venerable Lou wants the item, Little Hui won't bid for it."
"300,000 silver coins!" Zhu Furong shouted before the 3rd hammer fell.
"Who?" Yun Hui asked in a threatening tone but got no answer.
"Room no 20 bid 300,000 silver coins, 300,000 once, 300,000 twice—"
"500,000 silver coins!" Venerable Lou raised the bid.
"600,000 silver coins."
Yun Hui's displeased voice sounded, "Who is in room number 20? Why be so disrespectful to Venerable Lou? Are you even worth the sole of his shoes?" He snorted.
Zhu Furong didn't answer.
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Venerable Lou asked, "Young Man, do you know what this item is? I would appreciate it if you share the information with this old man."
"My apologies Venerable Lou, this kid just finds the wooden piece fascinating and wants to make a wood carving out of it."
The audience along with the auctioneer couldn't help but gawk towards room number 20.
Everyone thought the same thing, 'You want to create a wood carving with an indestructible wood? Are you insane?'
Venerable Lou laughed, "Haha, seems like the Young Man didn't hear the auctioneer clearly. This piece of wood is indestructible. Even an Open Ascension rank Cultivator cannot scratch it. How does my little friend plan to make a wood carving out of it?"
Zhu Furong spoke in a disappointed tone, "Is it so? That's quite unfortunate. But I still want the wood."
Young Master Hui snorted, "This Sir from room 20, why not let the item go? Venerable Lou is a rank 3 pill concocter, maybe he can find some use for it— It's way better than a swine holding a pearl."
Sometimes words aren't necessary to disrespect someone. The silent treatment works just fine. Especially when the person opposite is someone of higher authority—Like the son of a duke.
Zhu Furong didn't reply to Yun Hui again and this made people snicker.
Yun Hui raged with anger, "You bastard! Come out of your room right now, I will—"
Venerable Lou cut in-between to calm the situation, "Well, this is an auction, the higher bidder wins. Let's not argue— 1 million silver coins!" "Young Man, you can have the item if you can outbid this old man."
Zhu Furong cussed in his mind, 'Fucking old man, you sure you don't know what this piece of wood is? Or are you just faking it?'
Zhu Xingzuo sneered, "Hehe, Big Brother, let's show that old foggy the might of our wealth."
Zhu Furong rolled his eyes, "It's hard to earn but easy to spend. I would have preferred to get it for cheaper."
He sighed, "Well whatever."
"2 million silver coins!"
The audience suddenly started another uproar.
"What the fuck? Double? Who is this person in room number 20? So rich!"
"Maybe another aristocrat?"
"But a Young Master shouldn't have so much wealth? Who is he?"
Venerable Lou didn't fall back, "Good, good—3 million silver coins!"
Zhu Furong instantly shouted, "6 million silver coins!"
"The fuck? That guy again doubled it."
"That's insane!"
Venerable Lou snorted, "10 million silver coins!"
"20 million silver coins!"
This time the whole Auction House went silent.
Venerable Lou's somewhat irritated voice sounded, "Young Man do you even have that much wealth? You know you cannot make fake bids."
"Hehe, Sir Venerable Lou, that's for the Auction House to worry about. Please make your next bid, or is Venerable Lou out of money already?"
Venerable Lou snorted and raised the bid, "25 million silver coins!"
Zhu Furong followed, "50 million silver coins!"
"Woah!!" The audience couldn't help but be shocked.
50 million silver coins for a piece of wood? What the heck?
Even the auctioneer is somewhat doubtful now but he still continued his duty. The amount should be paid after each bid as the item is handed over to the bidder. If Zhu Furong couldn't pay, the Auction House will take proper actions. There is no reason for the auctioneer to halt his work.
He slammed the hammer, "50 million silver coins once, 50 million silver coins twice—"
Venerable Lou gritted his teeth and squeaked "100 million silver coins!"
It was now about prestige. One of the top Pill Concocters in the lower realm cannot lose to a kid of unknown origins.
Like Zhu Furong cares, he wants the item, he will get it. Right now, money is just a number to him.
"Heh, 200 million silver coins!"
Venerable Lou breathed out, "400 million silver coins!"
Zhu Furong praised, "Venerable Lou is quite rich."
"1 billion silver coins!"
In his room Venerable Lou almost puked out blood. But thankfully it was warm tea that came out of his mouth wetting his long white beard. He started coughing vigorously.
'1 billion silver coins for a piece of wood? Is that kid crazy? Even if I can pay, that's not a sum to be wasted on something useless. That's one percent of a country's total wealth!'
Venerable Lou might be a successful pill concocter but even for him it is a ridiculous amount.
A cute, fair, beautiful and petite woman in green hanfu, about 20 years old, yelped in fear and held Venerable Lou's arm and back.
She asked with worry, "Master, are you alright?"
Venerable Lou raised his hand, gesturing he was alright and took a few deep breaths. Adjusting himself in his seat, he spoke, "It is my loss Young Man. I hope your wood carving turns out well."
It was sarcasm but Zhu Furong didn't care, he got what he wanted.
"Venerable Lou is kind." Zhu Furong politely greeted.
The audience let out a sigh of relief but they all shook their heads thinking the same—
'At last this gruesome battle ended. But that Young Man in room 20 is quite pitiful. Not only did he insult a rank 3 pill concocter, he also made an enemy out of the Yun family of Wei Dynasty.'
"1 billion silver coins once, 1 billion silver coins twice, 1 billion silver coins thrice! Sold to the guest in room number 20. Congratulations!"
The presentation of the next item was delayed till Zhu Furong's payment was done. After all, it is a huge sum of money. The Auction House has to make sure it is paid.
A knock was heard on the door. The female assistant present in Zhu Furong's room opened the door and carried a jade plate with the wooden plank on it.
Zhu Furong picked the wooden plank and made sure it was the Divine Wood, then threw it inside the Nine-Layers Pagoda.
After that he paid the money.
The auctioneer got the signal and he continued the auction.
The woman beside Venerable Lou snorted with irritation, "He really paid the money. I wanted to see him humiliated, humph!"
Venerable Lou poked his little disciple's nose, scolding, "Little girl, who taught you to act discourteously?" "Not having enough wealth is your Master's fault."
The woman twisted her nose, "Humph! He must be spending his father's money, what's great about it?"
"You..." Venerable Lou made a striking gesture with his hand and the beautiful woman dodged while sticking out her tongue.
...
Next a rank 4 sword artifact was displayed which was sold to room number 1 at an astonishing price of 3 billion silver coins!
After this Zhu Furong's bid doesn't look that great. Though the fact that he paid 1 billion silver coins for an unusable piece of wood, still remains.
"Next is a 50 milliliter bottle of Heavenly Silk Liquid. Enough to make one set of clothes immune to natural weathering. Your chance to make sure that your favorite dress lasts forever."
The auctioneer smiled, "The starting price is 10,000 silver coins and the subsequent bids shouldn't be less than 1000 silver coins. Please..."
"12,000 silver coins!"
"13,000 silver coins!"
"15,000 silver coins!"
"16,000 silver coins!"
"20,000 silver coins!"
"21,000 silver coins!"
"You surname Guo, want to die? You motherfucker always raise the bid only by the fixed increment. You want your family to disappear?"
"You surname Shen, do you dare?"
"Dare? I dare, watch me fuck your sister tonight."
"Fucker, where did my sister came into this?"
"Er, I don't know, but I will fuck her!"
Mister Guo jumped from his seat waiving a sword, "Son of a bitch, I will kill you today."
Mister Shen didn't fall back and pulled out his Saber, "Come, I will rip your heart and fry it in sunflower oil."
"Ya...!"
"Hiyaa...!!"
Before the blades could clash the auctioneer shouted, "Stop you two or you both will be buried under your seats. Where do you think you two are?"
Both the men halted and returned to their seats glaring fire at each other.
The auctioneer snorted, "I won't warn you next time. You know the rules of Misty Eyes Auction House."
He hammered, "21,000 silver coins once, 21,000 silver coins twice—"
A soft, female voice called from room number 7, the disciple of Venerable Lou, Xu Xiu(beautiful).
"25,000 silver coins!"
The two men gave up again.
Yun Hui spoke from room 10, "It seems Venerable Lou is visiting with his disciple. It's an honor to hear Sister Xu's voice."
Venerable Lou laughed, "I thought it was a good opportunity for XiuXiu to gain some worldly experience. It is not good for her to always coop up at home Cultivating and practicing pill concoction."
Someone from room 8 asked, "I heard Venerable Lou's disciple is also a rare talent. May I know what her Cultivation rank is?"
"Haha, XiuXiu is my pride. The girl just broke through to early Revolving Core rank a few days ago."
"She is still quite young isn't she? That's not just some rare talent. Congratulations to Venerable Lou!"
Others also congratulated.
...
Contrary to these people, Zhu Furong is confused on how much he should bid.
Others don't know that Heavenly Silk Liquid not only makes clothes infinitely durable, it also removes any resistance against Qi from the clothes. This is a huge plus for Cultivators which cannot be neglected.
The resistance on Qi from clothes may be negligible, but that negligible amount when stacked up over a long period of time during a battle is nothing to scoff at.
Most high rank wearable artifacts in the upper realm are coated with Heavenly Silk Liquid.
"50,000 silver coins!"
Of course double. Gotta maintain his style.
"It's that person from room 20 again. He doesn't even show consideration to a lady."
"What a scumbag!"
The public started calling Zhu Furong all names.
'How dare he not fawn over a lady? Is he even a man?'
Zhu Furong's image was completely ruined.
Xu Xiu hung her mouth with displeasure and cried to her Master, "Master, XiuXiu really wants the Heavenly Silk Liquid. I want to use it on my pink hanfu"
Venerable Lou caressed her head, "You look wonderful in any clothes my disciple."
The girl pouted, "But I like my pink hanfu. Get that liquid, pleeeease?"
Venerable Lou sighed, "100,000 silver coins!"
He snorted inwardly, 'You want to play double-double? Let's play! Let me see if you can pay the price of irritating my disciple.'
Zhu Furong yawned, "200,000 silver coins!"
The battle started and stopped at 500 million silver coins with Zhu Furong coming at top.
"Masterrr..." The woman almost cried.
"It's not worth it XiuXiu. According to the records, a Heavenly Butterfly leaves about a liter of Heavenly Silk Liquid during eclosion. We can just get it from somewhere else."
The lady can only give up.
The auction continued and the 20 inner maps of Dragon Palace were presented as the final item.
All twenty were sold at a price ranging from 500,000 million silver coins to 1.5 billion silver coins.
Our hero didn't buy any because—
'Who the fuck buys a map for a billion silver coins? I can just follow someone or loot it from a dead body, humph!— If necessary, I have Divine Sense!'
He cannot be more wrong. A place that restricts Cultivators above early Revolving Core rank definitely has some mechanism to stop the usage of Divine Sense.
Zhu Furong didn't delay and slipped out of the city as soon as the auction ended.
People searched for him, but with no success.
...
At night, kilometers away from Basara city, somewhere in a shabby guest house of a village, suddenly an aura mixed with the prestige of the four races diffused throughout the air covering the entire village.
Inside the shabby house, Zhu Furong is sitting in a lotus posture, lost in meditation.
After almost one and a half year, Zhu Furong's practice of Nascent Soul Tempering stage is now complete and following that the Nascent Soul Perfection stage was also completed instantly.
His somewhat distorted blue colored Spiritual Body which had a hint of his past life's looks is now completely vivid and identical to his current life Physical Body.
Inside the Spiritual Body is another golden body which wasn't visible before. This is the Nascent Soul, the essence of Soul Energy!
Now his Spiritual Body looks like a blue colored human with another golden colored human inside. The whole Spiritual Body is emitting a golden-blue glow.
With the formation of a perfect Nascent Soul, Zhu Furong's Divine Sea also widened. The Divine Sea which looked like a small lake now looks like a large lake with a diameter of 40 kilometers.
His former peak Revolving Core rank Spiritual Cultivation has now shot up to peak Open Ascension rank!
Though this didn't bring any changes to his Body Cultivation and his raw strength is still equivalent to a peak Foundation Establishment rank Cultivator, if Zhu Furong can use some techniques or arts which uses Soul Energy, he can definitely gain a new kind of strength.
This is a good opportunity to start practicing the Law of the Jungle skill.
Also—
With his Spiritual Cultivation reaching the peak of Open Ascension rank, he has good news and bad news.
The good news is that, he just needs to completely fill his dantian with spiritual energy and he can ascend to the upper realm anytime.
The bad news is that, before completing the Body Transformation, he is not allowed to consolidate Qi in his dantain. So from now on he has to be extremely careful when letting Qi inside his diantian which in turn is just adding extra work for Zhu Xingzuo. If by any chance his diantian is filled to the brim, he will be kicked out of the lower realm by the Heavenly Laws against his will.