Mysterious Tier Sword Technique

The Mitel Auction House was a premier auction house with branches in every city of the Gamma Empire. It belonged to the Miter Family, one of the Gamma Empire's Three great families.

Although the Gamma Empire had an Imperial family, the Nalan, Mu, and Miter Families respectively controlled the military, political, and financial powers. Thus, the Three great families were also known as the Gamma Empire's three giants.

A dynasty might last a hundred years, but a great clan could endure for a thousand. Though the Miter Family had existed for only several centuries, the wealth and foundations of this obscenely rich family still far surpassed those of the Imperial family.

The Gamma Empire's Imperial family went to great lengths to treat alchemists favorably in hopes of winning over this special group. Yet there were not many alchemists supported by the Imperial family, while the Mitel Auction House could dispatch a second-grade alchemist to every branch auction house for appraising treasures. This showed just how immense the Miter Family's financial power was.

Black Rock City was quite vast, spanning a hundred li in every direction. With the Alchemist Guild located there and its convenient transportation, every trade and industry in the city was exceptionally developed.

Even after making a full round of Black Rock City, Ling Li still marveled inwardly. No wonder he had heard so many people say, "If you want a city to develop quickly, building an Alchemist Guild is the fastest way."

Before heading to the Mitel Auction House, Ling Li had sent Little Doctor Fairy out of the city alone. He was not worried that she would run away midway. Back in Qingshan Town, Little Doctor Fairy had specially prepared a marking powder to label young medicinal herbs so she could find them once they matured. By sheer coincidence, Ling Li had found this stuff on her.

As for how Ling Li knew what it did, the method was simple. After experimenting with several medicines on Little Doctor Fairy, the little wench had spilled everything.

Using the tall tower at the city center as a landmark, Ling Li followed the streets for a long time before finally arriving at the heart of Black Rock City—the Alchemist Guild. It was a towering structure over a hundred zhang high. Figures wearing Alchemist Robes frequently entered and exited its entrance, and whenever passersby looked at them, their gazes could not help carrying a trace of admiration and envy.

"I really want to go in and see what it looks like inside. Too bad only alchemists are allowed in." Shaking his head, Ling Li shifted his gaze to the destination of his trip—the Mitel Auction House.

Ling Li glanced at the luxurious building opposite the Alchemist Guild. It was built entirely from white jade, with gold laid across the ground. Even the banners hanging outside were woven from platinum and gold threads. After silently remarking on how rich they were, he slowly walked inside.

The moment Ling Li stepped into the Mitel Auction House, a refreshing coolness washed over him. The jade used to build it was not ordinary cheap white jade, but a special kind of warm jade. Its unique property was its ability to regulate temperature, cooling the air when it was hot and releasing heat when it was cold. A building constructed from such warm jade could naturally remain warm in winter and cool in summer with ease.

This jade was not particularly rare, but neither was it common. Some reasonably well-off families only used it to make furniture or laid it over small areas like tiles. Using it as building blocks as the Mitel Auction House had done was something few forces in the entire Gamma Empire could afford.

Before Ling Li had taken more than a few steps into the hall, a female receptionist wearing the Miter Family uniform hurried forward. With a professional, polite smile on her face, she said, "Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

"I want to buy a cultivation technique here," Ling Li said. After thinking for a moment, he added, "Mysterious Tier. The higher the grade, the better."

The female receptionist was somewhat startled when she heard this. A Mysterious Tier cultivation technique was worth at least a hundred thousand Gold Coins, and Ling Li was at most sixteen or seventeen. Though he looked somewhat mature, he did not seem like someone who possessed such a huge sum.

After a moment, the female receptionist resumed her professional smile. "Sir, please follow me."

Ling Li's request was nothing much to the Mitel Auction House as a whole, but she did not have the authority to handle a transaction worth at least a hundred thousand Gold Coins.

The receptionist had some doubts about whether Ling Li could afford it, but that was not her concern. The Mitel Auction House welcomed all guests, and her job was simply to receive every guest properly. If Ling Li lacked the means to pay, someone else would deal with it.

The female receptionist led the way and brought Ling Li to a reception room. After brewing him a pot of hot tea, she said, "Please wait a moment. We will arrange for a professional to serve you shortly."

"No wonder the Mitel Auction House became the richest force in the Gamma Empire. Treatment like this makes it hard to feel any dislike toward them." Ling Li lifted the teacup from the table and gently blew on the emerald-green tea. A fragrant aroma that invigorated the mind drifted into his nose along with the steam.

Judging from the reception alone, the Mitel Auction House had not the slightest flaw in either professionalism or attitude. Of course, that was how the Mitel Auction House treated its guests. If Ling Li suddenly got up and left now, he definitely would not make it ten steps before someone stopped him. When he had entered this place, he had sensed quite a few Dou Shi-level auras, and people who could dominate some remote small towns seemed to be nothing more than guards here.

Ling Li did not have to wait long. Along with the sound of the door opening, a rather magnetic voice reached his ears. "May I ask what attribute of cultivation technique this gentleman requires?"

The person who entered the reception room was a young man in a black uniform. He was quite handsome, with sharply defined features as delicate as a woman's. His attire was immaculate, but there were faint dark circles around his eyes and a few bloodshot veins within them. Though he spoke at a calm pace that made one feel like they were basking in a spring breeze, there was a trace of urgency in his tone.

Clearly, he was very busy. That also meant he was likely one of the people in charge of this Mitel Auction House. Ling Li came to that conclusion inwardly.

While Ling Li assessed Ole, Ole was also discreetly assessing Ling Li. The other party was very young, no older than seventeen. His face was unfamiliar, and he did not seem to be a local, or at least not someone Ole had ever met. Ole could not see through his cultivation, which meant he should be far above Ole, a four-star Dou Zhe. His eyes were sharp and fierce, and he seemed to carry the lingering scent of blood, like a soldier or a mercenary who lived by the blade. There was a layer of callus on the web between his right thumb and forefinger, suggesting that he often used a saber or sword and favored fierce, chopping attacks. This was rather different from Ling Li's refined appearance. Someone like this was either split-minded or insane...

"Could he be from the Nalan Family? Or perhaps an adventurer who travels everywhere?" Ole guessed inwardly, but Ling Li's clothing bore no symbols or items that could confirm his identity.

By chance, their gazes met. Ole did not feel the slightest embarrassment. He sat down across from Ling Li and said, "I forgot to introduce myself. I am Ole, the chief auctioneer here. Sir, you may tell me any requirements you have for the cultivation technique you need."

The Miter Family placed greater importance on commercial ability when raising its younger generation, and most of their training revolved around business. After the Miter Family's juniors held their coming-of-age ceremonies, they were divided into groups and sent to various Mitel Auction Houses for ten years of training. Only the person in each group who made the greatest contribution to the Mitel Auction House could return to the Miter Family's inner circle.

This was Ole's fourth year training away from the family. As the chief auctioneer, his abilities naturally needed no question, but his competitors were no pushovers either. Only by working hard enough could he ensure that he would not stumble in the gutter.

"Dark attribute. At least Mysterious Tier," Ling Li stated his requirements succinctly.

"A dark-attribute cultivation technique?" Ole froze. Cultivators with such an attribute were simply too rare. Even in the entire Gamma Empire, there were probably fewer than five, and there was not even a single renowned dark-attribute expert.

A rare Dou Qi attribute was both a blessing and a curse. A rare Dou Qi attribute could make one difficult to predict in battle, but an overly rare attribute also meant there was no experience from predecessors to draw upon. One could only explore it alone.

"It seems unlikely that he's from the Nalan Family. He may be an adventurer who found some treasure trove!" Ole gradually reached a conclusion inwardly.

"My apologies, but dark-attribute cultivation techniques are simply too rare. Our Mitel Auction House truly does not have any," Ole said somewhat awkwardly. Then he changed the subject. "However, our warehouse does have an attribute-less Profound Tier High-Grade Fighting Skill, a sword technique. Would you be interested, sir?"

"A Profound Tier High-Grade sword technique? Something like that actually can't be sold? There couldn't be some problem with it, could there?" Ling Li had been somewhat disappointed after receiving a negative answer, but when he heard Ole mention a Profound Tier High-Grade Fighting Skill, his interest immediately surged. Dark Night was a saber, but the Tang Dao fell somewhere between a saber and a sword, so practicing sword techniques would not be much of an issue.

However, whether it was a fighting skill or a cultivation technique, anything Mysterious Tier had always been priceless and scarce. Among the Three great families in Wutan City, only the Xiao Family possessed the Mystic Tier Middle Stage Raging Lion's Fury. To prevent it from leaking out, only the clan head could cultivate it. The other two great families' highest-grade cultivation techniques were merely Yellow Grade High Rank. Therefore, when the Mysterious Tier High Grade Wind Scroll Art appeared at the Mitel Auction House, several families had bid on it with the determination to bankrupt themselves.