Senior, Senior Sister... Why Are You Here?

The first auction item.

Maple Leaf Town's Star Scar Sword, nine feet long and five inches wide. The hilt was dark green, its surface carved with intricate patterns. It looked utterly ordinary, yet contained a sense of hidden power, drawn but unreleased.

The starting bid was five hundred Spirit Stones. The price looked low, but after a round of bidding, it shot straight to two thousand three hundred, and finally fell at two thousand five hundred Spirit Stones.

The second auction item was also a treasured sword.

Maple Leaf Town's Heavy Wave, five feet long and seven inches wide. It looked much sturdier than the previous sword, and wherever its edge pointed, it could cut iron like mud. Because its specifications differed greatly from ordinary treasured swords, the number of people bidding was much smaller.

In the end, it sold for two thousand one hundred Spirit Stones.

The third auction item, Maple Leaf Town's Eight Trigrams Staff. Users of staff-type weapons were even fewer, and in the end, it sold for one thousand six hundred Spirit Stones.

After these three auction items appeared, Lin Heng's earlier guess came true.

Swallow Cloud City forbade people from bringing weapons into the city, then turned around and began selling weapons with great fanfare itself.

They truly understood how to do business.

The auction items that followed were more or less the same, with all kinds of attribute-type essences beginning to appear.

Heavenly Thunder Wood, evolved from an ancient tree that had once been struck by heavenly lightning, possessed dense lightning-attribute elements.

Water Glass often appeared in icy seas. It was a crystalline substance formed from the excrement of a kind of fish and possessed water-attribute elements, though it might be mixed with some impurities.

Of course, this thing definitely could not compare to the Water Spirit Mother Lin Heng had obtained.

Black Shine Goldstone, a product formed when volcanic rock erupted, fused with ordinary metals, and condensed once more. Its natural formation conditions were harsh, and it contained various metal-attribute substances.

To evaluate it in one sentence: the Cultivation World's metallic vitamin C.

In other words, its gold elements were not pure. Its main feature was being a complete mess, and the results of refining it were barely satisfactory.

But it could not withstand the sheer quantity. There were more than a hundred pieces of Black Shine Goldstone on the stage, filling a small pouch to the brim, and even Lin Heng felt a little greedy looking at it.

Although he had not finished refining Golden Scale yet, he still needed to have the awareness to swallow up and stockpile resources.

But after thinking it over, up to now, only the people on the first floor had been bidding. Even the people on the second floor had not participated.

At any rate, he was on the third floor. If he called out a bid now, it would feel somewhat lacking in style.

"With more than two hundred auction items, the opening ones should all be appetizers. The good stuff is still behind..." Lin Heng steadied his heart and quietly watched.

He could not be certain when Ye Tian would make a move, and in terms of financial strength, he was no match for these great clans.

Keeping the money clenched in his hand and not spending it recklessly was ultimately the safest choice.

The tenth auction item.

The twentieth auction item.

The fifty-third auction item.

Lin Heng stared straight below, his brows nearly wrinkling into an inward eight.

What was going on!

This morning's round of auction items was almost over, yet Ye Tian still had not made any movement!

"Young Master Lin, after the auction ends, why don't we go out and have a meal together?" Zhao Wanqing asked.

"Sure." Lin Heng nodded in agreement. "Tsk tsk, looks like there wasn't anything good this morning!"

He sighed again.

"Lady Zhao, let's leave now. I'm afraid it'll be hard to get away if we run into someone familiar later."

"Someone familiar..."

"All right, let's go."

The familiar person Lin Heng spoke of was naturally Mu Liuxi. The third-floor chambers all belonged to Swallow Cloud City's local great clans. On such an important occasion, it was impossible for her not to appear.

To avoid bumping into her head-on, it was better to leave early.

However, the two of them leaving the chamber was seen clearly by the opposite Tenth Chamber.

"Xiao Yao, where are you going!"

When Mu Liuxi saw Yun Yao rise as well, she hurriedly asked.

"Senior Sister, I'm not watching the final auction item of the first half. Now I'm going to meet our Junior Brother Lin!"

"I feel like you're a little strange today. You can't do anything foolish in Swallow Cloud City. There are many restrictions on cultivators here." Mu Liuxi was afraid Yun Yao would go out and cause trouble.

"Aiya, don't worry, Senior Sister. I'm not going to kill anyone. I'm just simply going to meet Junior Brother, that's all." Yun Yao answered with a sweet smile.

On this side, Zhao Wanqing and Lin Heng quietly walked down from the VIP passage on the other side of Treasure Pavilion, so as not to disturb the others' interest in the auction.

"Young Master Lin, I know there's a restaurant not far ahead. It has gathered almost all of Swallow Cloud City's specialties. Why don't we go there?" Zhao Wanqing suggested.

"Of course."

Lin Heng was not picky about eating. As long as he could fill his stomach, he did not always have to pursue delicacies from mountains and seas.

Before long, the two arrived before the restaurant.

The restaurant used a small three-story design. At the entrance stood two stone statues of green-faced jade lions, and in the mouths of the stone statues, a couplet hung between their teeth.

First line: Wine smoke and lamplight for three thousand guests

Second line: Candle shadows and spring wind in a hundred-foot tower

Lin Heng raised his head to look at the plaque. "Drunken Immortal Inn. This couplet has some artistic conception."

Zhao Wanqing smiled and nodded. "The owner of this restaurant is called the Wine Immortal. It's said that when he was young, he once traveled everywhere to visit famous wine-spring scholars of various lands. He was also skilled in poetry, lyrics, songs, and rhapsodies, so after settling in Swallow Cloud City, this Drunken Immortal Inn came to be."

"Wine Immortal..."

The two stepped into Drunk Fragrance Pavilion.

Inside the restaurant, people surged to and fro. Shouts, calls, and the sounds of raised cups clinking rose and fell one after another, displaying Drunken Immortal Inn's liveliness.

"Ah, Miss Zhao, you've come. Please, both of you, come inside. Your timing is just right. There's only one empty seat left!"

The waiter greeted them attentively, his face piled full of smiles.

In Swallow Cloud City, one could fail to recognize anyone, but only this young lady of the Zhao family had to have her face remembered no matter what.

As a Medical Clan with a legacy of several hundred years, the Zhao family's contributions to Swallow Cloud City and its surrounding city-states were enough to be praised by the people.

An ordinary person's life always had to go through birth, aging, illness, and death. Birth and aging followed the laws of life, while illness and death were not controlled by man.

Ever since the Zhao family's ancestor, a profound physician, had saved the world, they had widely bestowed kindness. In the Thirteen Cities of the Western Continent, almost every street had a free Zhao Family Medical Hall to be found.

Added to that was the matter of three generations of the Zhao family's grandparents and grandchildren dying in Hedong, and the ordinary people of Swallow Cloud City all felt respect in their hearts.

The two arrived at an empty table relatively toward the back of the first floor and sat down.

"May I ask what Miss and Young Master would like to eat?"

"Bring Drunken Immortal Inn's Full Feast. Also, please convey my greetings to Old Master Wine."

After saying this, Zhao Wanqing took out a jade slip from her Storage Ring and handed it to him.

"Right away. Please wait a moment."

Before long, when the waiter returned again, there were two extra jugs of wine in his hands.

Black ceramic jugs, much larger than ordinary wine jugs.

Lin Heng's brows furrowed slightly. The scent of wine was very rich, so it should belong to a type of spirit wine. "Lady Zhao, are you sure you can drink spirit wine?"

"It's fine. It's called Spirit-Transforming Wine, an extreme among spirit wines. After drinking it into the stomach, it will neutralize with the spiritual power in the body, and to a certain extent, it has the effect of cleansing the meridians."

"Drinking it can make my body feel much better."

Lin Heng picked up the wine jug and examined it, then poured some out and tasted a mouthful. The texture did not have such a strong spicy burn. "Spirit-Transforming Wine... This is my first time hearing of it."

However, at this moment, a shadow passed through the slanting sun and stretched across the table.

Lin Heng had his back to the direction of the door, and at first, he did not pay it any attention.

Until a fresh and familiar aura lingered at the tip of his nose, that scent faintly mixed with a trace of purity born as if from fire.

A red skirt drew near. Under Zhao Wanqing's astonished gaze, and with Lin Heng numb and unmoving, it gradually occupied the right half of his vision.

That charming yet imperial-beautiful face leaned close to Lin Heng's ear, breathing out warm air. The mouth with its lower lip lightly bitten opened and closed, slowly spitting out a sound. "Lin... Heng."

Lin Heng clearly knew, but had no choice but to face it. He stiffly turned his head, and as their four eyes met, he saw Yun Yao looking at him with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"Senior, Senior Sister... why are you here?"