"Make a Killing in One Go!"

As an elderly man with a wrinkled, weathered face stepped onto the auction platform, the venue immediately fell silent.

Bang.

The auction hammer in his hand lightly struck the square table on the platform like a magistrate's gavel. Soon, five veiled women in cheongsams filed out from behind the platform, each carrying a rosewood tray.

Each tray was covered with a layer of red cloth.

The old man walked to the first woman, ripped away the red cloth, and casually waved his right hand. Streams of spiritual energy formed several lines of large characters in midair.

"First auction item."

"Spirit treasure: a Foundation Establishment Realm, Middle Class pill furnace, the 'Eight Trigrams Cauldron Furnace.' Pills refined with this furnace will have a higher success rate."

"Starting bid: 20 Spirit Stones. Each bid must increase by no less than 10 Spirit Stones."

That casual display alone had proven his strength. To release spiritual energy from the body and manipulate it with such precision, he had to be at least at the Seventh Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The sort who was only one step away from Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.

So long as he had enough lifespan left, breaking through a major realm and becoming a Golden Core powerhouse was practically a nail hammered into the board.

A Foundation Establishment Realm, Middle Class pill furnace was, in the underworld jargon, a Yellow Grade, Middle Class spirit treasure. Yellow Grade, Middle Class spirit treasures were not worth much to begin with; one was only worth around 50 Spirit Stones, hardly enough to qualify for an auction.

But this spirit treasure was a pill furnace, so its price was another matter entirely.

Spirit treasures like pill furnaces were extraordinarily difficult to forge, and their prices were several times higher than spirit treasures of the same grade.

Very soon—

Quite a few people began shouting bids.

"50!"

"60!"

"100!"

In the end, a middle-aged man in the hall stood up with his bid plaque raised and shouted the high price of 200 Spirit Stones, taking the first auction item. That price was fairly reasonable. After all, alchemists were money trees, and pill furnaces were the tools they used to make a living. Naturally, they would not come cheap.

Yet no one in the private rooms bid. Those seated in private rooms generally had powers backing them, and they had long since begun cultivating alchemists. A Foundation Establishment Realm, Middle Class pill furnace was somewhat beneath their notice.

They had not come for the items appearing at the beginning. The main event was still to come.

Chen Qiu, meanwhile, looked down at the auction platform in growing boredom. He had little interest in the several items that came up afterward. They were either for alchemy or talisman crafting, and he had no intention of pursuing either craft.

Until—

When the red cloth over the fifth auction item was lifted, Chen Qiu straightened up. At last, he had encountered something he wanted.

"Fifth auction item."

"Tag jade slip, green tag 'Self-Severing Root.' Sever one of your own organs to obtain one random white or green tag. The more organs severed, the more random tags obtained."

"Starting bid: 50 Spirit Stones. Each bid must increase by 10 Spirit Stones."

"500 Spirit Stones!"

Chen Qiu picked up the sound-transmission talisman on the table beside him, fed spiritual energy into it, and spoke softly. When his voice rang through the hall, it had automatically changed to sound like an old man's.

To him, this tag was equivalent to a full-force strike from the First Level of the Golden Core Realm. 500 Spirit Stones was an absolutely fair price.

A talisman equivalent to a full-force strike from the Ninth Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm cost 300 Spirit Stones. He did not know how much a talisman equivalent to a full-force strike from the First Level of the Golden Core Realm would cost, but it certainly would not be less than 1,000 Spirit Stones.

After all, the gap between the Golden Core Realm and the Ninth Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm was simply too vast. They were not on the same level at all.

The old man looked up toward the second floor. Seeing the jade embedded outside private room Heaven No. 7 flash red, he picked up the auction hammer and lightly tapped the square table. "Heaven No. 7 bids 500 Spirit Stones."

Only then did he sweep his gaze over the crowd. Seeing that no one raised a bid plaque, he continued.

"500 Spirit Stones, first call!"

The people in the hall began discussing it with strange expressions. It was not that they were shocked someone had spent 500 Spirit Stones on a green tag. Tag jade slips were exceedingly rare on the market; any that made their way there, unless they were truly garbage, could easily sell for 2,000 Spirit Stones.

It was just that—

Would someone qualified to sit in private room Heaven No. 7 use this tag?

Or were they buying it for someone beneath them? That would make sense.

Among the crowd in the hall, a young man anxiously looked toward the middle-aged man beside him. "Master, what are you hesitating for? Bid already!!!"

"I'm telling you, this tag is absolutely priceless to you. Forget 500 Spirit Stones—even 2,000 Spirit Stones would be worth bidding for!"

The middle-aged man pondered with an uncertain expression for a while, but still did not raise his bid plaque. By then, the hammer had already fallen for the first call at 500 Spirit Stones. The middle-aged man looked worriedly at the young man beside him.

"Attendant Liu, it's not that I don't trust you. You know my initial tag is 'Strength of Nine Oxen.'"

"This tag can indeed give me eight random tags, but they would only be random white or green tags. Whether their effects would be useful to me is still unknown. Even if they are useful, it would be hard for me to break through to the Golden Core Realm. If I cannot break through to the Golden Core Realm, it will be difficult to earn back so many Spirit Stones."

His name was Wang Tiedan. He was fifty-six in bone age and a Third Level Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator. Starting from nothing, he had established a small Lineage of his own, a modest Foundation Establishment Lineage several hundred li from Windward City. Though it had no major industries, it still brought in more than 200 Spirit Stones a year.

Life had been fairly comfortable.

Until a year ago, when he met the young man beside him. Supposedly, the young man had escaped after bandits pillaged his village. Out of kindness, Wang Tiedan had taken him in, only to slowly discover that this man, Liu Zide, had a remarkably sharp mind.

He often spoke of strange new terms Wang Tiedan had never heard before.

Things like market makers, industry barriers, omnichannel operations, endorsements, and harvesting.

He had given Wang Tiedan quite a few ideas. With the young man's help, Wang Tiedan's business had grown larger and larger. Winter was about to arrive, and this year's net income was expected to reach 500 Spirit Stones—effectively doubling their annual profits.

He had formally hired the young man as an Attendant of his Lineage, placing him in the role of strategist to offer plans and counsel in his daily affairs.

He had basically never been wrong.

After Attendant Liu saw the auction list for Heaven-Question Market's annual auction, he had insisted that Wang Tiedan bring every Spirit Stone the Lineage could mobilize. They had hurried for five days to reach Heaven-Question Market in time for the auction, all for the green tag, "Self-Severing Root."

"Master, you're being foolish!!!"

Seeing that the hammer had already fallen for the second call at 500 Spirit Stones, the young man hurriedly said with an anxious expression, "Master, can't you change the way you think? Who told you that buying this tag was to make you stronger?"

"Let me ask you: if someone stood in Heaven-Question Market and declared that he possessed both 'Strength of Nine Oxen' and 'Self-Severing Root,' and was about to start cutting himself up on the spot for everyone to see what tags he could randomly obtain, do you think people would want to watch?"

"Of course they would!"

"That's human nature! What lies deepest in human nature? The urge to gamble. Reason forces most people to restrain themselves as much as possible, but watching others gamble brings the same tense, thrilling sense of enjoyment."

"For a spectacle this exciting, would it be excessive to charge one Spirit Stone for admission?"

"We'll put on just such a grand show. With Heaven-Question Market's annual auction going on recently and Windward City's Heavenly Dao Secret Realm as well, there will definitely be a massive gathering of cultivators in Windward City over the next few days. Heaven's timing, Earth's advantage, and human harmony are all on our side. For disciples of sects and Lineages, being able to watch such a show for one Spirit Stone is simply too rare!"

"One Spirit Stone is nothing to them, but if they do not watch this show now, there will be no chance later."

"As long as we can promote it and draw in 3,000 spectators, that's 3,000 Spirit Stones. If we get 5,000 spectators, then 5,000 Spirit Stones will go straight into our accounts!"

"Leave the operation to me. I'm confident we can make a killing in one go!"

"I'm fucking going to launch an era-defining full-process live broadcast of chopping up oxen right here in Windward City!!!"

"Those without much money can watch in the outermost area through the 'Mother-and-Child Mirror' in real time, for one tael of silver. Those with a little more money can stand on nearby rooftops for a better view, and we'll charge them ten taels of silver. As for disciples of sects and Lineages, we'll arrange the closest seats so they can watch face-to-face in real time, for one Spirit Stone!"

"The Great Xia Kingdom has no entertainment activities at all. With people's innate love of watching excitement, there definitely won't be few who come."

"Master, trust me. As long as you win this tag, I can give you a brand-new tomorrow!"

"And don't worry about losing face, Master. This place is a full 800 li from our home base. Once we finish making this money, we'll go home. By the time we return, no one will know about this!"

Perhaps the young man's exhilarated excitement infected the middle-aged man, or perhaps the young man's past achievements had earned his deep trust. In the end, before the hammer could fall for the third time at 500 Spirit Stones—

The middle-aged man stood and raised his bid plaque, shouting in a trembling voice, "1,000 Spirit Stones!!!"

"1,200."

Inside the private room, Chen Qiu glanced at the middle-aged man in the hall below. After pondering for a moment, he raised the bid again. This was already his limit. Any higher and it would not be worth it; buying a tag meant for self-destruction at that price had far too poor a cost-effectiveness ratio.

"1,500 Spirit Stones!!!"

Almost the instant Chen Qiu finished speaking, the middle-aged man raised his bid plaque again and roared with nearly all his strength, "I bid 1,500 Spirit Stones!!!"

This was nearly the entire fortune his Lineage had accumulated over so many years. To him, this was a colossal gamble.

Perhaps he truly would become rich overnight as Attendant Liu had said, but perhaps he would lose everything in the blink of an eye.

"..."

Chen Qiu, seated in the private room, shook his head with slight speechlessness. This price was far too outrageous. He would not bid again. Spending 1,500 Spirit Stones on a green tag like this—was that man insane?

Could the person bidding below also possess the "Strength of Nine Oxen" tag?

Still, Chen Qiu was rather curious. If that man truly had Strength of Nine Oxen, what tags would he randomly obtain after gaining "Self-Severing Root"? Unfortunately, every cultivator's tags were secrets, and under normal circumstances, they would not reveal them lightly to others.