[Half a month later, the auction was held as scheduled.]
[This was Azure Moon Immortal City's Medium Auction, held once every three years. Besides the precious spots in the Azure Moon Pool, it offered numerous treasures, pills, rare curiosities, magical artifacts, and more.]
[You had arranged to attend with Alchemist Zhao Kan.]
[Buying a spot in the Azure Moon Pool was nothing shameful, so there was no need to conceal your identity.]
[Cultivators with middle-grade spiritual roots reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm were not uncommon in the cultivation world.]
[Almost everyone attending the auction was a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.]
[The few Qi Refining Stage cultivators present had mostly accompanied their elders to broaden their horizons.]
[Azure Moon Immortal City's Medium Auction had a high barrier to entry. Ordinary Qi Refining Stage cultivators had no way to gain admission even if they wanted to.]
[Of course, the auction items also started at the second tier. A Foundation Establishment Pill went up for auction at the end of the first half alone.]
[In your second simulation, the Ouyang Family had brought out a Foundation Establishment Pill as the auction's grand finale to revive their Market District.]
[The results had been obvious.]
[Yet at the Immortal City's Medium Auction, a Foundation Establishment Pill appeared in merely the first half.]
[You made no bids during the first half, intending to save your spirit stones to buy a spot in the Azure Moon Pool later.]
[Alchemist Zhao Kan, however, bid several times and won the Spirit Materials and treasures he wanted.]
[The auction soon entered its second half, which was even more heated than the first.]
[Precious resources appeared one after another.]
["Now, next up are spots in the Azure Moon Pool. There are ten in total."]
["The price of each spot starts at ten thousand spirit stones."]
["I'm sure all of you fellow cultivators know what the Azure Moon Pool does. Even if you have no use for it yourselves, buying a spot for a favored junior would be an excellent choice."]
[The moment the host on the raised platform finished speaking, Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators began bidding.]
["Twelve thousand spirit stones!"]
["Fourteen thousand spirit stones!"]
["Eighteen thousand spirit stones!"]
[The price of the first spot in the Azure Moon Pool soared straight past twenty thousand spirit stones.]
[You did not join the bidding. There were ten spots in the Azure Moon Pool up for auction this time.]
[The first usually fetched the highest price, while the later ones went for somewhat less.]
[Soon, the seventh spot went up for auction.]
[You tried bidding sixteen thousand spirit stones, but another Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator quickly outbid you.]
[You sighed and did not raise your bid.]
[The price of the eighth spot in the Azure Moon Pool likewise quickly soared past eighteen thousand spirit stones.]
[You fell silent, no longer optimistic about the remaining two spots.]
[Sure enough, the prices of the ninth and tenth spots in the Azure Moon Pool also rose rapidly beyond your budget.]
["Forget it."]
[You had underestimated how fiercely sought-after the spots in the Azure Moon Pool were.]
[With word spreading after the previous three auctions, even more cultivators had probably come specifically for these spots.]
[Using previous auction prices to estimate the current prices was unreliable.]
[Inwardly, you had already given up on obtaining a spot in the Azure Moon Pool at this auction.]
[You intended to turn your attention to the next auction, or the next simulation.]
[Compared to other cultivators, you had more opportunities. You did not have to obtain a spot in the Azure Moon Pool right now.]
[Just then, Alchemist Zhao Kan, seated beside you, gave you a surprised look and could not help asking, "Pill Master Wang, are you interested in a spot in the Azure Moon Pool? Is it for yourself, or for someone else?"]
["I am interested. I wanted to use it myself, but unfortunately..."]
[You shook your head.]
["If it's for yourself, why not go through the Pill Hall?"]
[Alchemist Zhao Kan seemed to realize something. "I forgot-you only recently joined the Pill Hall, Pill Master Wang, so you don't know about this..."]
["Our Pill Hall receives five spots in the Azure Moon Pool every ten years. Any guest elder can apply, without spending any spirit stones."]
["Not many people know about this, and the guest elders aren't particularly interested either. The Pill Hall's spots can only be used by the guest elders themselves and cannot be given to anyone else. Besides, few of the Pill Hall's guest elders have middle-grade spiritual roots. Those eligible to apply did so long ago..."]
[Alchemist Zhao Kan said.]
[To become a guest elder of the Pill Hall, one first needed to be in the Foundation Establishment Realm, and then to have second-tier attainments on the Alchemy Path.]
[With a middle-grade spiritual root, reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm alone already took everything one had. How could one also cultivate second-tier attainments on the Alchemy Path?]
[Alchemy also required vast amounts of time and effort, so most of the Pill Hall's guest elders had high-grade spiritual roots.]
[The few guest elders with middle-grade spiritual roots had also applied for spots in the Azure Moon Pool over the past several decades.]
[Most importantly, the Pill Hall's spots in the Azure Moon Pool could only be used by the guest elders themselves, whereas the auctioned spots were so fiercely sought-after precisely because they could be given to others.]
["Oh?"]
[You froze for a moment.]
[Then joy welled up in your heart.]
[You had already been planning to give up competing for a spot this time.]
[You had not expected the winding road to reveal a new turn, with another way to obtain a spot in the Azure Moon Pool suddenly appearing.]
["Go ask Elder Wu about this. He knows the details best."]
[Zhao Kan said.]
[The auction ended.]
[You immediately went to find Elder Wu.]
["You want to apply for a spot in the Azure Moon Pool?"]
[Elder Wu gave you a surprised look.]
[Applying for a spot in the Azure Moon Pool meant that your spiritual root was only middle-grade.]
[At most, the Azure Moon Pool could only improve a middle-grade spiritual root.]
["Yes."]
[You nodded.]
[In truth, your spiritual root was only low-grade.]
[But naturally, you could not reveal this. Guest elders of the Pill Hall with middle-grade spiritual roots were merely uncommon, while a guest elder with a low-grade spiritual root had probably never appeared since the Pill Hall's founding.]
[As for how a cultivator's spiritual root was tested... the person being tested had to lower every defense completely and allow the examiner's mana to enter their body and probe it.]
[Lowering every defense... was both deeply humiliating and dangerous for any cultivator, so you were not worried that Elder Wu would inspect your spiritual root.]
[No Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator would accept such an examination.]
["All right, I understand."]
[Elder Wang asked no further questions.]
In the third year, you were nineteen. In between cultivating and refining pills, you finally gained an initial grasp of the Formation Path and became a low-grade formation master.]
[Within your dantian, you successfully condensed your seventeenth drop of liquid mountain sea mana, further improving your strength.]
[That same year, you received word that your application for the Azure Moon Pool had been approved.]
[Under Pill Master Wang's guidance, you arrived before a hall in the immortal city's central district.]
["Go inside."]
[Elder Wu said, looking at you with a warm smile.]
[You entered the hall and approached a pool several dozen meters long.]
[Thick, emerald-green liquid rippled within the pool, radiating abundant vitality.]
[You removed your clothes and immersed yourself in the thick liquid.]
[You could feel an exceedingly gentle power seeping into your body through the pores of your skin, slowly nourishing some aspect of your flesh's underlying potential.]
[Several days later, you opened your eyes and stepped out of the pool.]
[You sensed that your perception of the spiritual energy in the surrounding world had improved enormously, and your ability to refine spiritual energy had also increased.]
[Your spiritual root had improved, reaching middle-grade.]