"Welcome, honored guests, to the Temple Alliance Auction House in Aimei City. I am Xingxuan, and it is my pleasure to serve you."
A stunning woman with a tall, voluptuous figure walked onto the auction stage in a rose-red gown.
Lin Xin gazed at Xingxuan, utterly smitten, then suddenly turned to steal a glance at Jiang Xinran. His infatuation with Xingxuan immediately faded considerably.
"Our first item is a Jade Body Protection Pill, produced by Master Lin. This peak third-tier pill increases external spiritual power by five hundred for half an incense stick's worth of time after consumption, making the skin as hard as diamond. Bidding starts at one thousand gold coins, with a minimum increment of fifty gold coins."
Xingxuan's introduction astonished not only the other people in the auction hall, but Long Haochen and his companions as well.
Five hundred points of external spiritual power meant that almost every attack below the Fourth Order would be ineffective.
Even a prodigy like Long Haochen, whose internal spiritual power was currently approaching two thousand, had only a little over three hundred points of external spiritual power at most.
Meanwhile, Jiang Feng's external spiritual power of nearly three thousand meant that he did not even need to defend himself when fighting Long Haochen and the others. He could simply charge straight in.
Their cultivation had yet to reach the Fifth Order, so they would struggle to break through Jiang Feng's external spiritual power and injure him.
Even if Long Haochen reached the Fifth Order, ordinary attacks would have no effect on Jiang Feng, aside from a handful of exceptionally powerful skills.
In the end, the Jade Body Protection Pill sold for eighteen hundred gold coins, a price Lin Xin found somewhat unsatisfactory.
Jiang Feng greatly admired Lin Xin's pill-making abilities. Aside from having two prodigies-the Child of Light and the Reincarnation Saintess-Long Haochen's Demon Hunt Squad owed its repeated victories over stronger enemies in no small part to Lin Xin's pills.
But the thought of the Alchemy Furnace in the System Shop put Jiang Feng more at ease. I'll have pills of my own in the future, too.
Otherwise, with the right granted to the top three in the Demon Hunt Squad selection to choose their teammates, Jiang Feng might have snatched Lin Xin up first.
Seeing everyone's astonished expressions, Lin Xin smiled and said, "Don't look so surprised. How about this, Brother Jiang Feng, Brother Long? Let's make a deal."
"What kind of deal?" Long Haochen's interest stirred.
Jiang Feng said nothing and simply nodded.
"Answer one question each, and these two bottles of pills are yours." Lin Xin took out two crystal bottles, each containing three Jade Body Protection Pills, and set them before Jiang Feng and Long Haochen.
"The question is simple. Did you kill the magical beasts you sold me yourselves?" Lin Xin asked.
Long Haochen froze for a moment. "That's all? Yes, we killed them."
"This bottle is yours." Having received his answer, Lin Xin readily handed the pills to Long Haochen.
Then Lin Xin turned to Jiang Feng, waiting for his answer.
Jiang Feng smiled faintly. "I don't need this kind of pill. Give me something that increases spiritual power instead."
Lin Xin looked surprised. "How did you know I had pills that could increase spiritual power?"
"Just a guess," Jiang Feng said.
"Spirit Gathering Pills. If someone below the Fifth Order takes one daily while cultivating, they can gain an extra ten points of spiritual power." Lin Xin took out a small jade bottle containing five pills and placed it before Jiang Feng.
After hearing the explanation, Jiang Feng answered just as readily, "I killed both of them."
Lin Xin was visibly startled, but still handed the pills to Jiang Feng without hesitation.
By then, a new cart had been wheeled onto the auction stage. On the golden cart sat a stone sphere the size of a human head, with faint emerald-green patterns on its surface.
The sight energized Jiang Feng. Finally, it's here.
This stone sphere was the very reason he had come. Others might not know what it was, but Jiang Feng knew perfectly well: it was a Seventh-Rank Dragon Core.
The Dragon Race was exceedingly rare on the Holy Demon Continent, but every great dragon was at least a level-eight powerhouse. The strongest dragon kings could even reach level ten, equivalent to ninth-tier human powerhouses.
Now, aside from the Demon Race's Heaven-Defying Demon Dragons, almost no other pure-blooded members of the Dragon Race could be found on the Holy Demon Continent. They had already been on the verge of extinction in ancient times.
The Dragon Race was so scarce because of its low fertility. They often had only one chance to produce offspring every thousand years, while Dragon Cores were unhatched dragon eggs that had absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth over a thousand years.
In other words, a Dragon Core was a dragon egg that lacked a dragon soul and could not hatch.
And within Jiang Feng's system space was an item called the Demon Dragon Soul.
That was why Jiang Feng had spent the past two years hunting magical beasts and accumulating system coins without using them to purchase skills. It was also what gave him the confidence to forgo the Knight Sacred Mountain.
"Our next item is rather unusual. Even our auction house's most authoritative appraiser could not identify it, yet the seller has set a starting price of ten thousand gold coins. Please consider carefully before bidding, honored guests. Once sold, it cannot be returned."
As soon as Xingxuan finished speaking, silence fell over the auction hall. No one showed any interest in the unremarkable object.
Suddenly, in Lin Xin's private room, a purple-gold rune lit up between Long Haochen's brows, then spread into nine streaks of purple light.
A violet glow rippled outward, and a figure appeared before Long Haochen.
It had a body resembling an Earth Fire Lizard's, but was far more powerfully built, with two heads and four sturdy limbs. It was none other than Long Haochen's mount and companion, Haoyue.
The moment Haoyue appeared, he leaped to Long Haochen's side and began whining, seemingly trying to tell him something.
The others could not understand him, but Jiang Feng knew Haoyue had come for the Seventh-Rank Dragon Core on the stage.
Unfortunately, Jiang Feng was determined to obtain it.
Before Long Haochen could speak, Jiang Feng stepped forward and entered a bid of ten thousand gold coins on the bidding device at the front of the private room.
"Our honored guest in room six has bid ten thousand gold coins. Ten thousand, going once." Xingxuan sounded pleasantly surprised. She had thought the item would go unsold.
Only then did Long Haochen resolve to try to secure it for Haoyue, but Jiang Feng had already placed his bid.
Seeing that the bid had come from private room six, Xingxuan immediately thought of Lin Xin and felt a little exasperated. Believing no one else would bid, she hurriedly said, "Ten thousand, going twice. Ten thousand, going three times. Sold! This Mysterious Stone Ball belongs to our honored guest in room six."
Haoyue was highly perceptive. Understanding what had happened, he grew even more anxious.
Soon, a knock sounded at the door, and a young woman entered, pushing the same small golden cart from the auction stage. The Mysterious Stone Ball rested on it.
At the sight of the sphere, Haoyue could not restrain himself and lunged straight at it.
But Jiang Feng was a step faster. He had already reached the cart and taken the stone sphere in his hand.
Jiang Feng frowned slightly as Haoyue lunged toward him.
"Haoyue, come back." Long Haochen was angry. He had never imagined Haoyue would do something like this, leaving him both embarrassed and upset.
"Brother Jiang Feng, I'm sorry. Haoyue didn't mean it," Long Haochen hurriedly explained.
"It's fine." Having secured such a bargain, Jiang Feng naturally would not get angry. He put the stone sphere into his Storage Ring.
Yet, to Long Haochen's surprise, once Haoyue saw Jiang Feng put the sphere away, both his heads turned to glare at Jiang Feng with all four eyes, and a furious roar rose from his throats.
"Roar!"
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