"Fourth senior brother, please! Stand up! We're fellow disciples, why will I not agree to give you one of them if you asked?" Zhang Wu Ji quickly pulls his senior brother back on his two feet without any intention to receive that kneeling at all. For him, this was over the limit he can accept.
"You must remember your promise! In return, let me get you another gift in my collection vault!" he smiled after seeing how quick his junior brother agreed to his request. In exchange, he wanted to give Zhang Wu Ji one of the treasures kept in the vault, but who will expect that the gift he intends to present to his junior brother was something Zhang Wu Ji wishes he did not see that before in his life.
Their trip went unobstructed as they close their distance with the Wen Wu City. Being one of the most welcomed guests in the city, the nine junior and senior disciples entered the city and went straight to the location where the auction will be held. It was a recently opened establishment known to the public as;
-Humble Hall of Treasure-
Their name was extremely humble in the opinion of the public, but under the sharp eyes of sect disciples, this wasn't true at all. With the ability to hire two 9th Stage Inner Qi Fighters as their guards in the entrance, who dare to look down on this humbly named establishment?
Without an invitation card needed, the nine fellow disciples entered the courtyard three times larger than their own inside the sect and were ushered to the private seating that was allocated for those representatives came from the sect. Inside the moderate auction hall that was big enough to cater for 300 participants, it was bustling with cries of bidding and exchange of words among one part of the hall to another.
"Calling once!"
"Calling Twice!"
"Sold! Congratulations to Patriarch of Tang to successfully win the bid for this Inner Qi Replenishing Jade with the price of 300,000 Gold Coins!" the auctioneer announced the successful bid made by one of the participants within the hall.
After spending a few minutes of courtesy exchange between the auctioneer and the buyer, the auction return to their originated situation once again, with a different treasure was taken into the stage at this moment.
"As an auctioneer myself, I am hateful to announce that, if I am not the one standing here, I will covet this treasure from everyone! May I proudly announce that the next treasure that was put into this auction, is!!!"
"Mysterious Alchemic Coal!"
"This treasure is something that all qualified Pill Master coveted, in fact, we only have one of this treasure to be auctioned this time. I have to explain again even if everyone present in this hall knows their miraculous effect." the auctioneer was too qualified to stand at such a position when Zhang Wu Ji sees how skillful is his tongue in twisting the words to increase the prices of this treasure.
Perhaps, many people were like him here, unknown of what was the mysterious coal is all about, but through the word he used to describe that he will need to explain it again, it will create a symptom that caused everyone to act as they know about it before putting up their bids.
"The treasure we have here are capable of increasing the success rate of a concoction by 50%. I doubt everyone here was well informed of the difficulties faced by a Pill Master when they were trying to concoct a pill where their quality far surpassed any other pills we've seen in everyday life!"
"In fact, I personally saw one Pill Master use this Mysterious Alchemic Coal before, and the results is a stunning Top-Quality Qi Bursting Pill that allows one to break through the border between Stage 19 and Stage 20! That attempt created two Top-Quality Qi Bursting Pill, which one of them were sold in our auction a year ago!" the auctioneer explained and shares even his own experience witnessing the creation of two Top-Quality Pills through the usage of this coal.
Given the fact the Humble Hall of Treasure was indeed sold a Top-Quality Qi Bursting Pill in their previous year's auction, thus further confirming the fact that this miraculous coal does possess the ability to increase the success rate of concoction by 50%. But at the same time, the auctioneer hides another fact as well, in order to trap the bidders to bid!
He deliberately hid the fact in order to use this Mysterious Alchemic Coal, the Pill Master will need to spend three sets of the materials instead of one set to concoct the pills. At any case, this will not affect the final quality of the end product, but if one is going to concoct some rare pills, how will that be easy for them to gather the required materials?
"The price of this treasure is priced at 200,000 Gold Coins. Each bid increase the price by 10,000 Gold Coins, please start bid now!" the auctioneer started the bidding process with a knock of his hammer, and the prices begin to raise without the intention to stop.
"250,000!"
"260,000!"
"300,000!"
The prices strike until it slowdown at 550,000 Gold Coins and begin to stops at 570,000 Gold Coins. The final battle of this bid end up between two fat elderly, which look like a person with some background in medicine and pill concoctions.
"600,000!" a voice belonged to a youngster surprised everyone inside the hall when he suddenly outbid the two elders in their battle of prices. While everyone turns their attention at him, one of the fat elders shouted again.
"650,000!" he said.
"700,000!" the youngster outbid him again by 50,000 Gold Coins, making everyone become silent, included the fat elder.
"Calling once!" the auctioneer smack his hammer and announced for the first time.
"Calling Twice!" he maintained the tempo between the calls to see if there will be any new bids before it was sold.
"Sold! Congratulation of this young master for successfully bid this treasure, I wish your Pill Concoction succeed and please consider the Humble Hall of Treasure if you wish to sell them in the future!" the auctioneer congratulates him while the staffing process the purchase with the youngster, when he obtained the treasure, he did not remain in the hall but left without a word.
"That man is very mysterious." his eldest senior brother comments, but then, a staff came through the curtain to see if the group of 9 fellow disciples have any request. As expected, the eldest senior brother took out nine of the Double Xuan Paper Rolls and look at the staff.
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"We have some high-quality treasures for sale, can you get the appraiser to come and appraise the treasure before opening the price?" the eldest senior brother speaks as he passes one for him to have the first look.
"This!" it was impossible for a staff of an auction hall was not knowledgeable to inspect the treasures. He can easily discern that this paper here was a precious Superior-Quality Xuan Paper. To easily took nine rolls out for the auction, the staff immediately excuse himself out the curtain and ring the bell twice.
It was an indication that somebody has a precious treasure that required an experienced appraiser to personally attends. Without spending too much time to wait, the senior appraiser came to inspect the treasures, while another treasure was sold again. It was a mineral rock with a high concentration of Crystal Iron, which was a rarity even in the Wen Wu City with a mineral vein not far from them.
Their next treasure was a set of three yet to mature Violet Majestic Grass, an essential ingredient that was used to concoct the Purple Majestic Pill that can enhance the quality of Inner Qi of a cultivator. It was said that if one were to refine their Inner Qi through the usage of Purple Majestic Pill over five times, the quality of their Inner Qi will be as pure as somebody who went through the Sheng Xian Process.
"Pei! What was the use of three Purple Majestic Grass if the King of Valley Dew is not in your hand? The grass can only survive for ten days after they were removed from the soil, but the dew is only available if there is a three-day continuous rain before collection!" Zhang Wu Ji scorns in his heart because the material was great, but their usage was limited.
Added with their effect were only allowed one to refine the pill each time they went through a tier, it will be ridiculous to refine such a pill unless they came from some prominent families or imperial families.
Without paying too much attention at the auction, Zhang Wu Ji eavesdrops the discussion between the senior appraiser and his eldest senior brother, and the agreement to sell the treasure were sealed with a cost of 5% of their total sales will be deducted as the processing fee. The two staff left them after they collected the treasure with care.
"Junior brother, the treasure you took out is actually one quality above the Superior-Quality Xuan Paper, where did you get them from?" his eldest senior brother shares the word spoken by the appraiser to all of them to listen.
"I made them." he smile and answered his eldest senior brother with a lack of seriousness expression. But the simple word he muttered surprised the eight of them.
"The appraiser say their price is at least 1 Million Gold Coins each roll. Since you got 9 rolls there, it's worth 9 million at least." his eldest senior brother shared the last sentence the appraiser spoken.
"Wow..." all of them can only give out a surprised expression, including Zhang Wu Ji himself.
"It seems we have some new treasures just came into the auction hall! Because the seller wishes to sell this in a hurry, we have no choice but to reduce the expectation on the selling prices. May I present all of you with a treasure that only used by the Imperial Families?" the auctioneer brings his antique speech out once more, and introduced the treasure brought by the staff onto the stage.
"This is the Superior-Quality Xuan Paper, but their quality was one tier above the superior as well! We afraid we do not have any of the names to categorized them for now, but I'm sure the few we have here will be the only one for sold until we get more news about this treasures."
"The opening prices are 1 million each, do bid freely if this treasure were your interest!" he slammed the hammer and started the bid.
"Two million." one of the bidders immediately outbid the others by doubling the price. With a hefty amount of 2 million was offered in the first call, he kills all other competitors in bidding on this roll of Xuan Paper. The whole auction hall turns quiet from his action. Even the auctioneer is speechless, but no matter what, he will have to proceed with the auction.
"Two million, calling once!"
"Calling Twice!"
"Sold! Congratulations to Elder Yang from the Wen Wu Military Forces, I am sure this roll of superior among Superior-Quality Xuan Paper will be the best when used by you." the auctioneer did not forget to lick the shoe of the bidder to create some familiarity between the Auction Hall and the bidder.
"Settle the bill later! Quickly went through with your other auctions! You all, listen well to my words, if you're not looking for trouble, do not mess with me on getting all the Superior of Superior-Quality Xuan Paper!" the Elder Yang warned the others of his intention in getting the Xuan Papers and will resort to threatening if somebody tried to mess with him.
"This elder is a Sh*t! He purposely threatened the others so the next roll will not be that expensive because nobody will try to compete with him!" the fourth senior brother muttered while looking at the Elder Yang seated not far from them.
From his background and also visibly seen guards standing behind him, this person should carry quite a position within the Military Forces of Wen Wu City. It's said that no matter how strong is a sect, their strength will be lost to the Militarized Forces. No matter how strong is the Military Forces, they will be defeated by the hand of Elite Forces, and of course, the Elite Forces will not be able to become a match against the Imperial Army.
the differences in their power are similar to a force of Inner Qi Fighter against an Inner Qi Warrior, and so forth. The higher the tier of your opponent, the easier you fall without a chance to retaliates.
Under the warning, the bidding for next item continues, but when it comes to the second, third, and fourth unit of the Xuan Paper, their prices end up being bought through 1.1 million Gold Coins each. The trend continues until they reach the eighth roll, where it was sold for 1.1 million again.
"Young masters and patriarch of prominent families, may I present you all with the main attraction for today? Everyone, please take attention on the stage now, where our main treasure will make its appearance!" the auctioneer activates the mechanism hidden under the stage, allowing a hole to be opened from the middle, slowly rising up to the center of the stage with a beautiful box embed with gemstones.
The fruit was releasing a beautiful and mesmerizing color of its skin, which carries a hint of pink like apple, but hairy like a Kiwi fruit. on top of its stem, it was still attached with a tree branch, where at the end of the branch is a container with a glistening liquid that seems nutritious for the fruit.
"This is the Converging Qi Fruit! I believe everyone in the hall knows, that if a none cultivator consumes this fruit, the possibility of having at least 5 strands of Inner Qi constructed in their Core is almost 100%. The fruit will still be effective to people that were stuck in the border between stages, and usable to all cultivators from Inner Qi Fighter to Inner Qi Master!"
"The bidding price of the Converging Qi Fruit will starts at 700,000 Gold Coins, each bid will increase the price by 100,000 Gold Coins! If you're ready, please start your bid!" the auctioneer slammed the hammer and started to get barrage with bids coming from all over the hall, with screams and sign lifted in all four corners.
"This is crazy!" Zhang Wu Ji looked at the heated battle between the bidders and how concentrated is the auctioneer in calling for their bidding price. If this were a match of who can speak and repeat the fastest, the auctioneer will win even if he was competing against the whole Auction Hall visitors.
The bidding competition soon stopped at 5.5 million Gold Coins, which were bid by the Elder Yang personally. At first, there were a few bidders still dared to fight against him, but when the bidding amount reaches 5.5 Million, nobody dares to outbid him any longer. It wasn't because they were afraid, but it was because they don't have such a capital to fight against the Wen Wu City's private militarized forces!
Unfortunately, while everyone is disappointed with the current situation, Zhang Wu Ji suddenly called in.
"5.8 Million Gold Coins!" he raised the number board up to announce his participation, which wasn't well received by the elder. His smiling face turned sour at that moment, and two of his guards personally make their trip to the other side where they were to warn them.
"6 Million Gold Coins!" Elder Yang shouts after he notices that two of his subordinates has taken the action to warn them for their guts to compete with the elder. He was thinking about how will he utilize the Converging Qi Fruit, but before a smile came to his face once more, another call for a higher bid came into his both ears.
"6.2 million!" Zhang Wu Ji has no restriction in his action. Even if the elder from the Militarized Forces is threatening him, so what? With his master still owing him a favor, it will not be difficult for him to behave as he wishes while still inside this Auction Hall!
"Brat! Are you trying to look for trouble when visiting the Wen Wu City? Do you know what is our background?" one of the guards threatened the group of nine, warning them to back off from continuing their bids. But it was unfortunate because they finally met their match inside of this Auction.
"Go back and tell your master, we're from the Seven Star Sect. The nine of us are the direct disciples of the sect headmaster, Lord of Seven Sword's Liang Tian!" elder senior brother stands up to warn the two guards to a standoff. He did not use the word [Get Lost] but it was nevertheless an imposing action.
"So what if you're from the Seven Star Sect? 6.4 million!" Elder Yang stands and step closer to the edge of where they were, and decided to see which youngster were so daring while fighting against him in the bid. When he noticed that his opponent was a youth in his fifteenth, all his patience burst at that moment.
"I was disturbed by a youth of fifteen years old?" both of his eyes opened wide, unable to believe that an elder like him was actually annoyed by a youth. When his subordinates came to report what they were told by the disciples, his impression towards the nine youth become even worse than ever.
"How dare the disciples of Liang Tian dare to come to make trouble with me!" the elder started to lose his mind after knowing that the one that was messing with him was in fact, the disciples of the headmaster himself. This was taken by him as a provocation! An action that indicates the Seven Star Sect possess the mind to rebel against the Militarized Forces and the Wen Wu City!
"So what if you're the disciples of the headmaster? With the power of my troops, I can easily eradicate the Seven Star Sect and leave them without a single leaf remain alive! Men! capture them!" the elder turned into complete ridicule, trying to apprehend the nine disciples before the auction was over.
"Elder Yang, friends from Seven Star Sect, please stop." a cultivator suddenly appeared between the two sides, stopping them from continue to clash with each another.
"Please, for the sake of the flourishing business and also the kindness of both side of gentlemen, kindly remain calm as we continue with the auction." the middle-aged man appeared in between of the two, and stop them from starting a fight.
"Guo Cheng Hai, get lost from my sight and I will leave your Humble Hall of Treasure alone! If you tried to stop me, don't blame me when my troops lever your building and leave you with only the walls from four sides!" Elder Yang warned the middle-aged man who stands in between them.
"Guo Cheng Hai? The Tonfa Battle Maniac Guo Cheng Hai?" as the eldest senior disciple of Liang Tian, he was extremely knowledgeable with the well-known cultivators traveling around the Ping An Continent. The person before them was a well-known battle maniac that once challenged the whole generation of an Imperial Families for a fight, where he defeated 99 younger generations before defeated by the strongest cultivator in the same generation.
But it was a surprise to see a maniac in fighting suddenly become the boss of the Humble Hall of Treasure.