The host pointed, and a seller stepped out, strode forward, and brought out his treasure before everyone's eyes: a Water-Repelling Pearl.
Even in the Anhe Kingdom, with its extensive waterways, treasures such as Water-Repelling Pearls were uncommon. They came from the bellies of aquatic demons at least at the Profound Connection stage, and not every aquatic demon possessed one-only a handful of species did. Their origins were unusual, but their function was singular: they only repelled water. That was why one could appear at an auction for low-level cultivators.
"A Water-Repelling Pearl from a Turtle Dragon. It repels water within thirty feet and gives off a faint glow of its own. Even among Water-Repelling Pearls, this one is of superior quality.
"The bidding starts at three hundred Spirit Stones. This is a rare opportunity. Interested buyers, please bid."
An auction needed peaks and valleys. The lots could not simply be arranged from lowest to highest value, or the early items would often fail to fetch high prices. Most auction houses started with a bang to stir up the crowd. Even if the subsequent lots were mediocre, they could often ride that favorable wind to sell for several tenths above their value.
By repeating those rises and falls throughout the auction, they pushed the overall selling prices up another notch.
That required a host with excellent eloquence and an innate gift for stirring people's emotions. Not everyone could do it.
What if the opening bid on the first lot was too high, nobody bid, and the room fell flat? Naturally, they could never let that happen. That was where the shills came in to warm things up, an indispensable part of any auction.
This Water-Repelling Pearl, for instance, at least let Hou Niao identify which buyers were shills.
Just when he