The Auction Is Only Just Beginning

"No matter how many years pass, this never changes. Everyone has their eyes on it." Old Turtle looked down at the seemingly bustling city below, though undercurrents flowed everywhere. Countless people were watching the auction closely.

When the auction began, countless beings had poured in from every direction—magical beasts and humans from all corners of the land. But now that the auction had ended, very few had left.

Zhu Jin chuckled to himself. Auctions in novels never end normally. An ending is just another beginning.

"Let's return to the inn first. The real auction won't begin so soon. I need to find out some things, and those things are more important than anything else."

Old Turtle flew toward their prearranged lodging and asked as he flew, "Master, should we erase the soul mark on that Dou Ling Pill?"

The reason Old Turtle had opened his eyes when the Dou Ling Pill was brought out was not out of curiosity. He had discovered a soul mark attached to the pill's surface. It had no other purpose beyond tracking and locating its target. If Old Turtle had not once been a Rank Eight magical beast with the strength of a Dou Venerate, even he would have struggled to detect it.

"No. Leave it for now. Letting them monitor us will lower their guard. I need to investigate that Zhou Ziyang fellow further." Zhu Jin shook his head.

Hearing Zhu Jin's words, Old Turtle fell silent for a while before asking curiously, "Master, I feel as though you suddenly became a different dragon. You seem... different."

Zhu Jin, seated on Old Turtle's back, said nothing. He had not changed, but his state of mind had. His plans had changed. His path had changed. And he was beginning to adapt.

When Zhu Jin and Old Turtle returned to their lodging, they found that Xie Dong and Flame Wolf had already been waiting for them.

The intelligence the two beasts had gathered was largely the same as what Zhu Jin had learned himself. Starfall Pavilion had publicly announced that a Soul Hall Venerable had intruded into Starfall Pavilion, after which Venerable Yao had gone missing. As for which member of the Soul Hall had done it, that remained unknown.

The more useful information was that there were still twelve or thirteen years until the next Pill Convention.

When Zhu Jin heard that the next Pill Convention was twelve or thirteen years away, his brow furrowed tightly as his dragon claw lightly tapped the ground. That time point was extremely sensitive. According to the book's records, Yao Lao met Xiao Yan when Xiao Yan was fifteen, while Xiao Yan participated in the Pill Convention at around twenty-six or twenty-seven. The timing matched perfectly.

Of course, it was also possible that Yao Lao would not meet Xiao Yan until the Pill Convention thirty years later. More than forty years might have passed between Han Feng betraying Yao Lao and Xiao Yan awakening him. After all, the book never clearly stated whether the Pill Convention Yao Lao won and the one Xiao Yan won were consecutive events.

However, judging from logic, Han Feng had only been a Dou Emperor when he met Yao Lao again. With his abilities as a seventh-tier alchemist, it was unlikely that he had cultivated for decades and remained only a Dou Emperor. Thus, the most likely possibility was that after Yao Lao was betrayed and hid inside the storage ring, Xiao Yan's mother soon obtained it and gave the Bone Flame Ring to Xiao Yan when he was four.

At the Pill Convention following Yao Lao's victory, his disciple Xiao Yan won the championship. Master and disciple had claimed two consecutive Pill Convention titles.

"Master, what should we do?" Seeing Zhu Jin grow increasingly silent, Old Turtle could not help asking curiously.

After a long silence, Zhu Jin slowly uttered, "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."

At noon the next day, an eerie stillness hung over the entire empire and lingered without fading... Countless magical beasts and cultivators kept their eyes fixed on the city gates and the various inns. Winning an item at auction was not true skill; leaving safely with it was.

Without question, the most valuable items at yesterday's auction had been the pills of Venerable Yao Han Feng. They ranged from fourth-tier healing pills to fifth-tier Dou Ling Pills and sixth-tier Dou Emperor Pills. The most precious among them was the Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill purchased by the Ice Wolf Ant tribe.

Rustle, rustle. Faint sounds suddenly arose within the quiet forest.

A black figure suddenly flashed past a dense thicket. It was a person completely wrapped in a black robe, but a closer look at the face beneath the hood revealed that it was not human at all. It was a creature with the head of an ant and the body of a wolf!

The Ice Wolf Ant Emperor had used a body-shrinking secret technique and a disguise technique to conceal himself as a human cultivator. He had even left his subordinates behind at their lodging, intending to confuse the magical beasts seeking to steal the Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill.

Despite being a Rank Six magical beast at the peak of the Dou Emperor realm, the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor did not even use Dou Qi wings in order to avoid attention. Instead, he hurried through the forest, terrified that someone would discover his trail.

At that moment, the sound of rushing wind suddenly rang out. A fierce palm print blasted from the shadows, hurtling viciously toward the running Ice Wolf Ant Emperor.

Just as the energy palm print was about to strike him, the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor's expression changed drastically. He no longer concealed his peak Dou Emperor cultivation and struck out with a palm of his own. Boom! The Ice Wolf Ant Emperor's attack collided with the energy palm print, and the violent force uprooted the surrounding trees.

The Ice Wolf Ant Emperor's black robe was shredded by the energy, and he staggered back several steps. He shouted sharply, "Who is it?!"

"Haha, worthy indeed of the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor. This ice power is truly formidable." As soon as his shout fell, a sinister laugh echoed through the forest. Immediately afterward, a cold aura shot into the sky. A black figure burst from the forest and appeared before the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor.

Its flickering snake tongue and slightly red-glowing eyes radiated an unconcealable coldness as they swept over the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor.

"Zhou Ziyang?!"

Upon seeing the six-eared giant python clad in a black coat, the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor's expression changed drastically. Then, putting on a fierce front despite his inner weakness, he shouted, "Zhou Ziyang, what is the meaning of this? Your Nine Nether Commerce Association auctions items, yet you come to steal them afterward! Is this how shameless the Nine Nether Deep Earth Python Clan is?!"

"Haha, then you are mistaken. This matter has nothing to do with the Nine Nether Deep Earth Python Clan, nor does it have anything to do with the Six-eared Spirit Python Empire." The six-eared giant python smiled, but his smile carried mockery, as though he were laughing at the Ice Wolf Ant Emperor for not even knowing who the real player was.

"It has nothing to do with the Nine Nether Deep Earth Python Clan?" The Ice Wolf Ant Emperor was stunned at first, but then he suddenly realized something. He swiftly took out the Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill from his storage ring, his face filled with shock.

"Hahahaha! Did you think you could take it away just by erasing the soul mark on the pill's surface? That was merely a mark I deliberately left there to numb your vigilance. The real tracking mark is inside the pill." Zhou Ziyang laughed loudly as his six long, sharp ears swayed.

"Inside the pill... Could it be?!" The Ice Wolf Ant Emperor's face turned pale. Once a pill was formed, no one could tamper with its interior. The only possibility was that the soul mark had been imprinted before the pill took shape.

"That's right. This was all Venerable Yao's order." The Ice Wolf Ant Emperor then deliberately took out numerous pill bottles from his storage ring, each bearing a maple leaf insignia. These were all the "Charity Pills" auctioned off yesterday. And now, they were all in his hands.