Sword light tore through the sky. The Linyue City Lord reacted extremely quickly as well. A shield flew out of his storage ring, then kept expanding until it stood before him.
Clang-!
The piercing collision was deafening!
Under everyone's stunned gazes, the sword light sliced through the shield like tofu, instantly cutting it in two!
Utter astonishment appeared on the Linyue City Lord's face.
This was... his strongest defensive measure, yet it... could not stop the attack even in the slightest?
Still bewildered, the Linyue City Lord was split in two and fell from the sky.
The Linyue City Lord, at the King Realm Third Layer, was dead!
The vast auction hall was frighteningly quiet. Everyone had yet to recover from the shocking scene.
First King Mingkong, at King Realm Second Layer Perfection, then the Linyue City Lord, at the King Realm Third Layer and ranked among the best even at that level—Lin Xuan had slain them with one slash each...
That was King Mingkong and the Linyue City Lord! They were no random cats or dogs, yet they had just... fallen?
Words could not express the horror in everyone's hearts.
They could well imagine that Linyue City would likely see its skies change after this.
"Continue the auction."
Ignoring everyone's shock, Lin Xuan sat back down after killing the two men and pocketing their storage rings. His voice sounded particularly loud in the silent auction hall.
"Young master, should we still send word to the sixth elder...?"
In VIP seat 26, the household servant standing behind Mu Lang asked hesitantly.
Hearing this, Mu Lang shot the servant a fierce glare. Send word? Send word, my ass!
The anger in his heart had completely vanished like smoke after Lin Xuan killed King Mingkong and the Linyue City Lord with two slashes.
Recalling how he had warned Lin Xuan earlier, Mu Lang felt a wave of lingering fear. He really had taken a stroll before the gates of death.
In another VIP section of the auction house, the Sword King Yuansu, his good friend, and his disciple had also witnessed the entire scene.
"Master, look at the young lady behind that senior... isn't she the one you wanted to take as a disciple before...?" Lu Han said slowly, his gaze fixed on Su Lianxin behind Lin Xuan.
Earlier, their attention had been almost entirely focused on Lin Xuan, causing them to overlook Wang Yan and Su Lianxin behind him.
Only now did they notice that the young lady behind Lin Xuan was none other than the monstrous young talent who had comprehended sword intent at just sixteen or seventeen years old on the arena platform a few days ago.
"It's her!" The Sword King Yuansu also recognized Su Lianxin at a glance.
"So she's actually that senior's disciple. No wonder, no wonder..."
His thinking back then really had been naive. The Sword King Yuansu smiled self-deprecatingly.
After the auction ended, Lin Xuan left the Dusk Moon Auction House with his two disciples, thoroughly satisfied, as the auction house's owner, the Moon King, respectfully saw them off.
At this auction, the Purple Scorpion Demon King's remains that Lin Xuan had consigned fetched a total of 5.63 million Spirit Stones. After deducting the 320,000 he had spent bidding on the One-Pattern Spirit Gathering Pill, he still had 5.31 million left. This was an enormous sum.
Aside from that, there had also been an unexpected windfall: the storage rings of two King Realm experts.
However, the storage ring obtained from King Mingkong contained nothing particularly valuable, only a King-grade escape technique called Heavenly Peng Shadow.
"A broke bastard. No wonder he resorted to this sort of business."
After inwardly expressing his disdain, Lin Xuan extended his Divine Sense into the Linyue City Lord's storage ring. By comparison, the Linyue City Lord's storage ring held far greater riches.
There were over seven million Spirit Stones alone!
Aside from those, there were also plenty of fine items, such as spiritual armor, pills, and spirit herbs.
"I'm rich!"
The items on the Linyue City Lord were worth considerably more than the Purple Scorpion Demon King's remains Lin Xuan had auctioned.
He had gone from having only a few hundred thousand Spirit Stones to carrying over ten million. Tsk, tsk!
Ten million Spirit Stones were already enough to purchase a seventh-grade pill. Although it would only be a low-tier seventh-grade pill, it was still seventh-grade!
If he used it to invest in a disciple...
Wouldn't he receive at least an eighth-grade pill in return? Even ninth-grade wasn't impossible!
The more Lin Xuan thought about it, the more excited he became.
After returning to the inn, Lin Xuan summoned Su Lianxin alone and bestowed the Spirit-Gathering Pill and Mystic Trace Steps upon her.
It could not exactly be called favoritism on Lin Xuan's part. But Su Lianxin's talent was simply so much higher than Wang Yan's. Although giving the items to Wang Yan would also trigger a return, the returned items would be far, far inferior to what he would receive by giving them to Su Lianxin.
Of course, Lin Xuan would compensate Wang Yan in other ways. They were both his disciples, after all. He could not claim that he could remain completely impartial, but he would do his best to look after Wang Yan as well.
Ding! Congratulations, host. Invested: Spirit-Gathering Pill. Return: Heaven-Gathering Mystic Pill (seven-pattern). Ding! Congratulations, host. Invested: Mystic Trace Steps. Return: Heavenly Demon Shadow (Emperor).
My fine disciple, what a fine disciple!
You never disappoint your master.
The Heaven-Gathering Mystic Pill had the same effect as the Spirit-Gathering Pill, except that the latter was a seventh-grade spirit pill, while the former was only a fourth-grade pill.
As for Heavenly Demon Shadow...
It was a Thearch Grade escape technique that could be used not only to flee, but also to fight enemies!
Heavenly Demon Shadow had nine levels in total. At the first level, it could condense ten demonic shadow clones, each possessing one-tenth of the user's strength. Although they were clones, apart from their strength, they were no different from the original and were very difficult to distinguish.
They could be used to escape or to deceive enemies while attacking. As long as an enemy's cultivation realm was not too far above the host's, it would be very difficult for them to find a flaw.
Most importantly, this was only the effect of the first level.
Lin Xuan looked through the effects of the later levels. The further he read, the more terrifying this Thearch Grade escape technique became.
At the fourth level, it could condense ten demonic shadow clones, each possessing two-tenths of the original's strength.
At the seventh level, three-tenths!
At the ninth level, it would undergo a qualitative transformation!
At the ninth level, Heavenly Demon Shadow could only condense a single demonic shadow clone, but it possessed ninety percent of the original's combat strength!
That was a little absurd.