Seize [Please Read On]

"Let's sit here. The auction will be starting soon." Tang Ya briefly pointed to some empty seats toward the back.

"Sure."

As long as he could see and bid, Jiang Mu would not be picky.

He was not so insistent on sitting in the front.

The group settled into their seats and waited for it to begin.

"Xiao Mu, why are we attending this?"

Jiang Nannan was not particularly interested in auctions. She did not like spending money.

She was a thrifty, homemaking sort of girl.

She did not care much about appearances. Otherwise, she would not be wearing such plain clothes in so many different styles.

She was even worse off than Tang Ya in that regard.

"Mm, let's see if there's anything Nannan can use."

Jiang Mu nodded and replied calmly. He genuinely had that intention.

"Oh, don't spend money. Save it up. We can have a new home in the future, and didn't you say you wanted to build up a faction? That'll need money too."

Jiang Nannan smiled sweetly and nestled closer into Jiang Mu's arms, her tone full of happiness.

She did not need anything, but she loved the way Jiang Mu cared about her.

From her earlier words, it was easy to tell that Jiang Nannan cared deeply about Jiang Mu. For instance, she had remembered even a casual remark he had made.

Back when Jiang Mu had not awakened his cheat, he had never mentioned building any kind of faction.

He had only hoped that those around him would not be harmed and that he could live out the rest of his days peacefully with Jiang Nannan and Mother Jiang.

The idea of establishing a faction had only emerged after he awakened his cheat. He had only casually mentioned it a few days ago, yet Jiang Nannan had taken it to heart and treated it seriously.

"Mm..."

The envy in Tang Ya's eyes was impossible to hide when she saw this.

"Hehe, I do have some money on hand. I can try to help bid for it."

Tang Ya had earned quite a bit of money. To revitalize the Tang Sect, she had saved up a considerable amount as well. To repay this life-saving favor, she had decided to take out all of her private savings.

"Hehe, then I'll trouble you."

Whether they could successfully win anything was another matter, but it was goodwill nonetheless, so he would let her do as she pleased. They might not even come across anything useful. At least, that was how it seemed for now.

The auction did not begin immediately, and they had to wait for a while. Everyone was bored during that time and simply sat quietly.

Jiang Mu happened to have time to open the treasure chest the system had given him.

Whoosh~

The treasure chest opened.

Jiang Mu checked the rewards he had received.

There were two of them: one cultivation art and one Heavenly Secrets Stone.

The Heavenly Secrets Stone was easy enough to understand. It concealed heavenly secrets and hid one from detection. It would be quite useful in this Douluo II world, where gods could descend through machines.

Rule-based powers were not so easily broken through or discovered.

Jiang Mu raised his eyes toward the cultivation art. Could it be some top-tier cultivation technique from another world, one that would speed up his training?

With that strange thought in mind, he saw the cultivation art's name.

Blood-Extraction Soul-Refining Creation-Seizing Art.

What a long name.

Jiang Mu curled his lip.

Did it just spell out its function right in the name?

It sounded like some rather evil cultivation art, like something from a demonic sect in a cultivation world, or perhaps one of the local evil soul masters. Did it extract souls?

Jiang Mu fell silent and pondered those words for quite some time.

"Could I extract it from afar?"

He muttered inwardly as he guessed.

Could he use the cultivation art to draw blood from a distance?

The more Jiang Mu thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Given the system's twisted sense of humor, it probably wanted him to torment them this way.

After all, they had already harbored killing intent toward him. How could he not properly target them?

Even if there was backlash, he had the tools on his revenge list. Jiang Mu was not worried in the slightest.

But worried or not, cultivation arts like this usually enhanced one's strength by drawing blood and refining souls, absorbing other people's blood or souls. Jiang Mu found the idea somewhat nauseating.

He felt that the blood and souls of anyone who made it onto his list would be disgusting.

He should keep studying the cultivation art. Judging it by its name alone was not enough.

[Retaliation from afar is the deadliest. Make good use of your cultivation art and abilities, and torment those good brothers who made the list!]

It started with a tease, followed by an explanation.

The explanation was simple. It was not what he had imagined. Using someone's soul was more like extracting their energy to replenish himself. He would use the energy he drained to create essence blood or souls.

At least there was a conversion process. That made Jiang Mu feel much better, since he would not have to absorb disgusting souls and the like directly.

While he was still thinking, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Phew, phew~"

Jiang Mu interrupted his thoughts and looked up. Only then did he realize that a scantily dressed woman now stood on the previously empty auction stage, holding a sound-amplifying soul tool.

"Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I am the auctioneer for today's auction..."

The auction had begun. After a brief introduction, the auctioneer brought out the first item.

"This is a five-thousand-year left arm soul bone, produced by an Iron Fist Gorilla. It provides a powerful enhancement to the arm. The starting bid is one hundred thousand gold soul coins, and every increase must be no less than ten percent of the starting price."

Jiang Nannan was somewhat surprised to see that the first item was theirs.

"I didn't expect our item to be first."

"It's enrollment season, so there are plenty of rich people around. Naturally, they'd put out something impressive. Ours is only a thousand-year soul bone, so it belongs near the front. Still, I didn't expect it to be the very first."

This only showed that the auction house was confident that higher-grade items would follow.

Or perhaps it was deliberate targeting, but either way, it did not matter.

Ten percent of the starting bid was ten thousand gold soul coins.

This was also the auction house's fee. Normally, it was only five percent. Ten percent of one hundred thousand coins was ten thousand, while five percent would have been five thousand.

It was only natural that the auction house would raise its prices at Shrek Academy. It was exactly as expected.

Those seated in the private rooms were not overly surprised. This thousand-year soul bone did not draw much of their attention.

But they still began calling out bids.

"I bid one hundred and twenty thousand gold soul coins."

If they could win it, they could use it to recruit people into a sect or faction, offering it as a reward. It was neither too valuable nor too cheap, and a thousand-year soul bone was sufficient.

After all, some people might cultivate all the way to Soul Sage or Soul Douluo and still never lay their hands on a single soul bone.

Naturally, more than one or two groups shared that thought, and the price quickly climbed.

"Three hundred and fifty thousand gold soul coins. Any higher bids?"

The auctioneer onstage continued looking around, confirming whether anyone still wished to bid.

Three hundred and fifty thousand gold soul coins was already a high price for a thousand-year soul bone. After all, it was only five thousand years old, and it was a relatively common arm soul bone.

The price could not rise much further. Everyone was waiting for better items later on, so this was already the limit. No one spoke again.

"Very well, then congratulations to this buyer..."