It was not until the following evening that Xu Zhengyang stopped meditating and prepared to head to the auction house.
The Star Luo Empire's Starlight Auction House did not look particularly large, but only after entering did he discover a whole other world inside.
The red carpet outside the auction house stretched dozens of meters, covering a flight of stairs that extended downward.
Xu Zhengyang descended twenty meters before reaching the registration area. The procedures were extremely cumbersome: not only did everyone need a numbered paddle, they also had to provide proof of sufficient funds and even undergo screening.
However, after Xu Zhengyang displayed several gold soul coin cards containing quite a few gold soul coins, the process became much simpler.
Xu Zhengyang had brought plenty of gold soul coins when he first left home and had spent little during his years away. On the contrary, his long periods of training on the ice fields and in the Sunset Forest had seen him kill many hundred-year soul beasts and even thousand-year soul beasts. Their hides, flesh, and bones were all very valuable.
Xu Zhengyang still gave his name as Long Aotian. Only after receiving his numbered paddle did he follow a young woman in a long red dress into the auction house.
After they passed through a rustic wooden door, a whole other world opened up inside the auction house. The scene that met their eyes resembled a glittering ocean of gold and jade. Not only was the decor extremely lavish, there were also clearly all sorts of defensive measures in place. Even some of the guards here looked quite formidable.
Once he truly entered the auction hall, Xu Zhengyang put on a white mask, found his assigned seat, and sat down.
The entire auction hall was enormous, with thousands of seats alone, color-coded according to tier. The farther forward the seats were, the more luxurious their furnishings became, and there were even some special private boxes.
Xu Zhengyang sat in an ordinary seat toward the back, carefully surveying the auction hall.
Just as he had expected, everyone in the auction hall wore masks. Apart from their different colors, these masks were completely identical, and even soul power could not probe through them.
Moreover, those who could enter the auction house were not only wealthy or influential, but also extremely powerful. Xu Zhengyang even vaguely felt that quite a few of those entering during the latter half were probably Soul Sages, let alone ordinary Soul Masters.
After a short wait, an elegant, melodious female voice rang out from all directions. An elegant beauty had appeared at the very center of the auction hall.
"Welcome to the Starlight Auction House, honored guests. Our auction will begin shortly. Please take your seats."
"Good evening, honored guests. I am an auctioneer from the Starlight Auction House, and I will be hosting today's auction."
As the elegant woman spoke, the entire Starlight Auction House fell quiet, and everyone's attention shifted from her to the auction items.
Immediately afterward, the auction officially began. As the auctioneer introduced the item, a young woman assigned to the task pushed a small cart onto the auction stage. A purple cloth covered the cart, and only when it reached the very center did the young woman remove the cloth.
Xu Zhengyang took a closer look. The item being auctioned was actually a soul tool, an offensive soul tool at that. Judging by its rank, however, it should have been a Class 4 soul tool.
Xu Zhengyang had seen plenty of soul tools like this. The soul tool manufacturing factory in Dongyang City mainly produced Class 3 and Class 4 soul tools, while higher-class ones had separate manufacturing facilities.
The auctioneer gave a detailed introduction to the soul tool, including its functions, the Soul Engineer who had made it, and even its actual performance in use, before finally stating its price.
Even though these were all the most basic Class 4 soul tools, the auctioneer's lilting, captivating introductions made them seem like priceless treasures. She soon stirred many people's desire to buy, and quite a few began bidding frequently.
Xu Zhengyang could only feel helpless. Soul tools of Class 3 or 4 were not even qualified to enter an auction house in the Sun Moon Empire; they could simply be bought from specialized soul tool shops. Those shops merely imposed certain restrictions on offensive soul tools, requiring both identity registration and proof of qualifications.
As the auction continued, soul tools and other items sold one after another for extremely high prices, prices that left even Xu Zhengyang utterly dumbfounded.
Soul tools might have been precious, but their manufacturing costs were actually not high. Yet here at the Starlight Auction House, a single Class 4 soul tool fetched nearly twenty thousand gold soul coins, almost enough to buy a Mysterious Water Pill.
Moreover, his own father was a Class 4 Soul Engineer. In other words, as long as his father could find the materials, he could make a Class 4 soul tool and sell it for over ten times its cost, while the process required only a little time and soul power.
But even after waiting a long time, Xu Zhengyang never saw the Soul Devouring Carving Knife he had been anticipating. Instead, there were other strange little items, many of which aided Soul Masters in their cultivation. Some low-grade treasures even appeared, including a soul bone of extremely poor quality.
Yet these were precisely the things that all fetched high prices. Even that low-grade, poor-quality soul bone was actually bought for a high price.
Xu Zhengyang even wondered whether the Soul Devouring Carving Knife had reached the Starlight Auction House yet, and whether it had actually gone up for auction.
According to the original story, the Soul Devouring Carving Knife had been put up for auction dozens of times, but because of its terrifying curse, no one had ever bid on it, and its auction price had even been lowered again and again.
By the time the entire auction ended, the Soul Devouring Carving Knife Xu Zhengyang wanted had still never appeared. He began to wonder whether he had come too early. After all, he had arrived at the Starlight Auction House three years earlier than Huo Yuhao.
Over the next few days, Xu Zhengyang stayed in the hotel to cultivate during the day and only went to the Starlight Auction House at night.
The Starlight Auction House did indeed offer a vast variety of items, but most failed to catch Xu Zhengyang's eye. Even at some very high-tier auctions, treasures that looked extremely valuable amounted to little in his eyes.
On the fifth day, however, Xu Zhengyang finally saw something good, something he had also wanted all along.
When the auctioneer lifted the purple cloth and revealed the item, surprise appeared on Xu Zhengyang's face as well.
It was a pale blue pill. He had taken one before: it was none other than a Mysterious Water Pill.
He had never expected to encounter a Mysterious Water Pill at an auction like this. Judging by the current situation, many people seemed very interested in it.
The Mysterious Water Pill was a rarely seen treasure capable of increasing innate soul power. His father had once obtained one and had also said he would get him another in the future. But Xu Zhengyang had left home at the age of nine, and he did not know how things were at home now.
"Looks like I should finish my training journey sooner. I'm starting to miss home."