What met Xiao Hua's eyes was a massive hall. At its center stood a transparent platform several zhang high, while everywhere else sat cultivators attending the Bidding Convention, a black mass stretching as far as the eye could see—there had to be several thousand of them, no?
"Damn it! Why are there... so many cultivators?" Xiao Hua nearly blurted it out. Thinking of his number, "four hundred and twenty-two," it truly had been assigned at random, with no particular order.
Just like at the Bidding Convention in Yanyuan City, the cultivators in the hall sat upon jade chairs. Some wore Mihuan, some ordinary Daoist robes, and some strange cloaks. Though different from Mihuan, those cloaks likewise concealed their wearers' faces. Unlike the Bidding Convention in Yanyuan City, however, the chairs in this hall seemed to have restrictions placed upon them. When Xiao Hua swept them with his divine sense, it was actually repelled by the chairs, preventing him from discerning the cultivators' cultivation levels.
Seeing an empty chair not far ahead, Xiao Hua slowly walked over. As he walked, he looked around, hoping to spot Xun Shu and the others. To his delight, he could not see a single person's shadow. It seemed the empty areas of this hall also contained illusion arrays!
Excellent! Xiao Hua was immensely satisfied. He immediately sat down and examined the bidding token in his hand. It appeared to be made of jade, yet it felt icy cold to the touch, lacking jade's usual warm smoothness. Xiao Hua poured spiritual power into the bidding token, and it gave off a faint cyan radiance. A wave of spiritual energy flew out, but as soon as it left the range of the jade chair, it vanished into the hall's space rather than traveling farther. Xiao Hua knew