The second seal required a total of four heavenly treasures: Millennium Dragon Scale Fruit, Millennium Blue Vein Vine, Millennium Earth Dragon Tendon, and Millennium Sea Dragon Marrow.
A thousand years.
Every single one was a thousand years old.
Even Han Li found it rather absurd.
The first seal had only required two century-old spirit fruits and ten drops of blood.
Yet the second seal immediately demanded nothing but millennium-grade materials.
The gap was simply too great.
However, Han Li was not too worried.
After all, he had been saving up for three years.
Aside from the two Millennium Plant Soul Beasts he had previously sold, he still possessed one Ten-Thousand-Year Plant Soul Beast and seven Millennium Plant Soul Beasts. Along with his thirty million in savings, obtaining these materials would not be difficult.
He had never sold the Ten-Thousand-Year Plant Soul Beast because he had been waiting for a suitable opportunity.
After all, something like that was far too conspicuous.
Taking it out rashly would invite unnecessary trouble.
Afterward, Han Li took stock of his assets. Once he had a clear idea of what he had, he left the house.
Eastsea City's auction house was located in the East Sea Museum.
That was because Eastsea City's auctions were jointly organized with the museum.
As a result, the museum had a dedicated auction item exhibition area and regularly held auctions.
This model was not uncommon in the major cities of the Sun Moon Federation. Museums provided venues and exhibition platforms, while auction houses handled organization and transactions.
Both sides benefited.
The East Sea Museum stood slightly south of Eastsea City's center, a complex of ancient-looking buildings.
From afar, its bluish-gray walls gleamed with a tranquil luster beneath the sunlight. Its soaring eaves, bracket sets, carved beams, and painted rafters exuded a weighty air of history.
The complex covered a vast area, consisting of one main building and two side buildings. The main building stood tallest, while the side buildings flanked it symmetrically, presenting a magnificent sight.
The main building displayed specimens of various soul beasts, relics bearing witness to Eastsea City's development, and items from different eras.
Its exhibits covered every aspect imaginable, making it the best place to learn about Eastsea City's history and culture.
The auction itself was held on the upper floors of the main building.
Only those with invitations or sufficient wealth could enter. Security was tight, and not just anyone could go upstairs.
The side building containing the auction exhibition area, however, required no admission ticket and could be entered directly.
It remained open to the public year-round. Anyone could visit and learn about the auction items in advance.
If someone took an interest in an item, they could complete the relevant procedures before the auction began and obtain bidding qualifications.
As such, quite a few people came to browse.
Han Li entered the side building, and the first thing he saw was the constant flow of people.
There were well-dressed merchants, stern-looking soul masters, groups of young people arriving together, and middle-aged men quietly browsing alone.
Everyone's gaze drifted among the various exhibits.
Some spoke in low voices, some carefully studied the item descriptions, and some were already calculating how much they should bid.
The side building had four floors in total.
Though it was merely a side building, its scale was still enormous.
From the outside, it was fully two hundred meters wide.
After all, Eastsea City was the second-largest city in the eastern coastal region, and this was its only auction house. Its sheer size was easy to imagine.
The first through fourth floors were all auction item exhibition areas, with displays arranged according to different categories and grades.
The first floor contained more common auction items, with relatively affordable prices.
The higher one went, the rarer and more valuable the items became.
Of course, some particularly rare and expensive items were displayed only in special areas, beyond the reach of ordinary visitors.
Those items were usually not placed in public exhibition areas. Instead, they were kept separately by the auction house, and only invited VIP clients could preview them in advance.
As soon as he entered, Han Li saw a huge sign stating that the first floor of the auction exhibition area was divided into two major sections:
The Soul Tool section and the non-Soul Tool section.
The sign used eye-catching lettering to mark each section's location and direction, making it convenient for visitors to quickly find the categories that interested them.
The Soul Tool section was further divided into several areas, including the rare metals area and the finished Soul Tool area.
The non-Soul Tool section was even more varied, containing spirit fruits, medicinal herbs, soul beast materials, antiques, and everything else imaginable.
Han Li had a clear goal. He headed straight for the non-Soul Tool section and made his way toward the spirit fruit area.
Soon, Han Li arrived in a spacious rectangular room.
This was the spirit fruit area.
The room was roughly three hundred square meters.
All kinds of spirit fruits and rare plants were displayed within...
Every exhibit had a detailed plaque beside it, listing its name, age, place of origin, and estimated price.
Han Li walked slowly between the display cases, his gaze sweeping over one plaque after another as he silently recorded the information on every spirit fruit he saw.
There were many century-old spirit fruits here, everywhere he looked.
Century-old Red Flame Fruits, century-old Ice Crystal Fruits, century-old Vermilion Blood Fruits, century-old Clear Spirit Fruits...
All sorts of century-old spirit fruits filled three rows of display cases, dazzling the eye.
However, although century-old spirit fruits were considered precious...
At an auction of this level...
They were nothing particularly rare.
Millennium spirit fruits, however, were scarce.
After Han Li had walked through the entire spirit fruit area...
The number of millennium spirit fruits he could find could be counted on one hand.
This left Han Li conflicted.
What he needed were a Millennium Dragon Scale Fruit and Blue Vein Vine.
But if he searched for the things he needed at too many auction houses, he could easily catch the attention of someone with ulterior motives.
A nine-year-old child asking everywhere about millennium spirit fruits and constantly traveling between major auction houses was already conspicuous enough on its own.
Who could blame the information age for having no privacy?
In this era, a person's movements, spending records, and social connections were practically transparent.
The Spirit Pagoda, the Federation government, and the major powers all had their own comprehensive information networks. Checking up on someone took only a few minutes.
Although Han Li had always been cautious, he knew he could not appear in the public eye too frequently.
Still, after searching carefully...
He eventually found a Millennium Dragon Scale Fruit.
The fruit in the display case was round and golden-brown throughout, its surface covered in dense scale-like patterns resembling the scales of a dragon's body.
The plaque read:
Millennium Dragon Scale Fruit, price: four million.
Han Li stood before the display case for a moment, carefully examining the Dragon Scale Fruit. After confirming that its age and quality were both satisfactory, he went to find an auction house staff member.
After some discussion, he successfully secured it.
At the same time, he also bought a century-old Blue Vein Vine.
He had not found any Millennium Blue Vein Vine...
But there were several century-old ones.
Although there was no millennium-old one...
He had Green Liquid in hand.
As long as he dripped Green Liquid onto the century-old Blue Vein Vine every day, it would not take long to ripen it into a millennium-old one.
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