Mu Yunxue's Protector

Inside the private room.

Qin Nanyue drew a deep breath, her voice trembling with a shock she couldn't suppress. "It's Azurite Jade Liquid! Someone was actually willing to put heavenly materials and earthly treasures of this grade up for auction?"

The expression on her heroic-looking face twisted, then grew a little glum.

"What a pity. It's too expensive. I can't afford it."

She said it without hesitation.

Even if she hadn't bought the Gold-and-White Sword-Scar Waistband for Lu Yang earlier, the price of the Azurite Jade Liquid was beyond her reach right now.

Lin Ying's reaction was much calmer.

Instead of lamenting like Qin Nanyue, she gave a little laugh, her tone carrying the lightheartedness of someone uninvolved. "I couldn't afford it in the first place, so I'll just enjoy the show. Hehe~~"

Qin Nanyue shot her an exasperated glance. "This is a spiritual treasure that can awaken your Divine Sense while you're still in the Qi Refining Realm. Don't you want it?"

Lin Ying gently pursed her lips and smiled. "I know my limits. Something like this is beyond my reach."

Qin Nanyue opened her mouth, but for a moment she didn't know what to say.

Something suddenly occurred to her, and she turned to Lu Yang. "Junior Brother Lu, do you want to bid for it?"

Lu Yang nodded, a flame dancing in his eyes. "Of course."

The Azurite Jade Liquid was a rare fortuitous opportunity for him too.

Now that he had come across it, there was no reason to let it slip away.

Qin Nanyue fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a note of regret. "I'm afraid the Azurite Jade Liquid will sell for more than eighty thousand. Do you have enough Spirit Stones? If I'd known, I wouldn't have bought that waistband just now. I should have saved the money for you to bid on this."

Lu Yang chuckled. "It's fine. I still have some."

Though he said that, he wasn't entirely confident himself.

All told, he had only a little over a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

If the price shot up any higher, it really would slip through his fingers.

But there was nothing he could do. None of the items auctioned earlier had been suitable for him.

Spending a hundred thousand on something he couldn't use just for the rebate would have been too wasteful.

Although Lu Yang was quite wealthy now, he had no intention of scattering Spirit Stones around like that.

As the three spoke, Liu Yaoyao's voice rang out from the raised platform.

"Azurite Jade Liquid, starting price twenty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Each bid must be at least two thousand higher than the last. The bidding—begins!"

Before her voice had faded, a cool voice came from a private room on the fourth floor, its tone flat. "Fifty thousand."

The atmosphere in the auction hall, which had been on the verge of boiling over, went cold in an instant, as though a basin of ice water had been dumped over everyone's heads.

The air fell silent for a breath.

In the first-floor hall, a Foundation Establishment Rogue Cultivator who had already raised his hand froze with it in midair. His lips moved twice, and he silently lowered it.

In private room nine on the third floor, Li Feng sat with his mouth open, the bid he had yet to call forced back down his throat. For a long while, he made no sound.

Beside him, Li Yao's face had been burning with excitement just moments ago. Now his expression was as stiff as if it had frozen over.

Li Feng gave a bitter laugh and leaned back in his chair, his voice full of resignation. "All right, give it up. It's not that I'm unwilling to bid for you, but she opened at fifty thousand. We can't handle a figure like that."

Li Yao's face twisted, his eyes full of unwillingness.

He stared fixedly toward the fourth floor and asked in a low voice, "Brother, the people in the private rooms on the fourth floor... they must have high status, right? Who is that?"

For once, Li Yao didn't lose his temper.

He knew perfectly well that anyone who could sit on the fourth floor had someone on the level of a Nascent Soul True Lord standing behind them.

That wasn't someone he could afford to offend.

Li Yao might have been overbearing, but he still had a brain.

He was simply curious, and a little envious too... why couldn't the Li Household produce a Nascent Soul True Lord?

Li Feng also looked toward the private room on the fourth floor, his gaze complicated.

There was awe in it, along with a trace of heat that was hard to conceal.

"That's the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect's greatest genius in the last few hundred years. Forget about it. With her here, I'm afraid no one else has a chance."

"The greatest genius in the last few hundred years?" Li Yao froze. A thunderclap suddenly flashed through his mind, and his eyes flew wide as he blurted out, "Could it be Mu Yunxue—that monster with a Transcendent-Grade Spirit Root?!"

Though Li Yao had joined the sect late, the name Mu Yunxue had spread throughout Qin Province four years ago.

Not only those under the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect's rule, but even the other five top powers were discussing this Transcendent-Grade Spirit Root that had appeared out of nowhere.

To Li Yao, that name was like an unreachable legend. He had heard it countless times, but he had never expected to bid against her at the same auction one day.

Li Feng nodded. "Yes, it's her."

The unwillingness in Li Yao's eyes slowly faded, replaced by longing. "I heard this Mu Yunxue is extraordinarily beautiful, like a fairy descended to the mortal world... I wonder who'll catch her eye someday..."

Before he had finished speaking, Li Feng jolted as if he had been stabbed with a needle.

His face turned ashen, then pale, and his low, urgent voice came through clenched teeth. "Li Yao, are you insane?! Is Mu Yunxue someone you can gossip about?! If you want to die, don't drag me down with you!"

He wanted nothing more than to slap his cousin, who didn't know how high the heavens were or how deep the earth was, to death.

Li Yao also came sharply to his senses.

Although he didn't think much of Li Feng's attitude, he wasn't stupid. He understood what he had just said.

He hurriedly forced a smile, softening his tone. "Brother, don't be angry. I was just speaking off the cuff..."

But Li Feng couldn't help stealing a glance toward the private room on the fourth floor.

Through the hazy lamplight, he couldn't shake the feeling that a gaze was resting on them from behind the half-drawn gauze curtain.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on his back, and his voice grew hoarse. "Don't even think about it! Is Mu Yunxue someone you can think about?!"

Li Yao frowned. The anger in his heart flared, but he forcibly suppressed it and muttered, holding back his displeasure, "I can't even think about her? What..."

Halfway through his sentence, Li Feng's voice transmission rang coldly in his ear.

"Mu Yunxue's protector is a sect elder at Peak Golden Core."

Li Yao froze.

His eyes widened in disbelief, and he turned stiffly to look at Li Feng, swallowing involuntarily.

Fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

A Peak Golden Core elder as her protector—how the hell was that any different from having the Li Household's own ancestor as a protector?

The Golden Rainbow Sword Sect wouldn't do something meaningless.

For an elder at Peak Golden Core to serve as her protector could only mean one thing: in the eyes of those lofty True Lords, Mu Yunxue was valuable enough to deserve such protection.

In other words, in the eyes of those Nascent Soul True Lords, she was probably certain to reach Nascent Soul!

She might even be able to touch upon Spirit Transformation!

Li Yao shuddered involuntarily, tasting fear for the first time.

He opened his mouth, his voice unconsciously growing quieter. "I understand, Brother."

Li Feng slowly let out a breath, though his tone remained tense. "Good."

He really was afraid that this fool's loose tongue would drag the entire Li Household down with him.

Of the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect's Nascent Soul True Lords, any one of them could step out and take a few paces, and the Li Household would be reduced to ashes.

Meanwhile, the others in the auction hall had also recovered from the shock of that single bid of "fifty thousand."

Fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones was indeed no small sum, but for Azurite Jade Liquid, it was clearly nowhere near the limit.

In a private room on the third floor, an old man wearing the robes of a Golden Rainbow Sword Sect elder looked up toward the fourth floor.

His face was gaunt, his temples streaked with gray, and his eyes slightly sunken. Yet a sharp light still lay within them, imposing without anger.

He murmured to himself, "She wants it too? Well... I still have to make a bid for it."

He didn't have much time left.

But among his younger generation, a promising youngster with good talent had appeared.

He had to make some plans for that child's future.

The Golden Rainbow Sword Sect was an upright and reputable sect with strict rules.

Since the item had been put up for auction, there was no reason anyone had to yield to anyone else.

The cultivators in several other private rooms were clearly thinking the same thing.

But just as they were preparing to raise the bid, a flat voice rang out unhurriedly from the second floor.

"One hundred thousand."

The tone was as casual as if he were saying "ten."

Li Yao: "????"

Li Feng: "????"

In several private rooms on the third floor, people nearly lost their grips on their teacups.

It was as if someone had pressed a pause button on the entire auction hall.

Everyone turned in unison, their gazes shooting toward that private room on the second floor.

"Holy shit?! Number fifteen on the second floor? That kid again?!" Li Yao's eyes had gone green, and his voice was full of disbelief. "That kid can actually produce a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones?!"

He might have come from a top Golden Core Aristocratic Clan, but he wasn't the only one in his Lineage who needed resources to cultivate.

As a direct descendant, he did receive plenty of resources every year, but there was no way he could produce a hundred thousand Spirit Stones all at once while still in the Qi Refining Realm.

Even for Li Feng, who was in the Foundation Establishment Realm, producing a hundred thousand at once was no simple matter!

They might receive a lot of resources, but they also had plenty to spend them on!

Yet now, this kid sitting on the second floor had called out a hundred thousand without even blinking!

In the private room on the fourth floor, behind the gauze curtain, a rare trace of surprise appeared on Mu Yunxue's small, cool, jade-like face.

She lowered her eyes slightly, her gaze passing through the half-drawn gauze curtain toward the private room on the second floor.