Auction
Dao of Qi Refining. Mosquito Immortal City.
A steady stream of people flowed through the headquarters of the Mosquito Immortal Society, the largest merchant association in the outer city. Cultivators with powerful presences entered the auction venue one after another.
Fang Yu sat in a private room, eating spirit fruit as he watched the many Rogue Cultivators in the hall below.
The room offered excellent privacy and even had a dedicated secret passage for coming and going, making it well suited to Fang Yu's desire to keep a low profile. Its only drawback was that it cost far too many Spirit Stones: the room alone had set him back a thousand.
In the past, he would never have spent so many Spirit Stones, but now he didn't mind. Safety came first.
Suddenly, a line of writing appeared before his room: "The auction will begin in fifteen minutes. Honored guests may first peruse the auction catalog!"
The Mosquito Immortal Society's service is pretty good!
Fang Yu murmured to himself as he looked through the catalog that appeared, his eyes gradually lighting up.
From the catalog, everything on sale at the auction was good stuff: all kinds of spirit materials, Law Artifacts, Spiritual Qi, even Law Treasure fragments, ancient treasures, Cultivation Methods, and more. Seeing them all, Fang Yu could only lament how little wealth he had.
"There are actually ten Foundation Establishment Pills!"
Suddenly, Fang Yu's gaze fell on the prominently marked auction item, "Foundation Establishment Pill." This year, the Mosquito Immortal Society had put up as many as ten of them. In previous years, there had been three at most, but this year the number had increased severalfold.
Mosquito Immortal City truly deserved its reputation as a holy land for Rogue Cultivators.
One Foundation Establishment Pill could raise the chance of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment by roughly thirty percent. In other words, three Foundation Establishment Pills were basically enough to produce one Foundation Establishment cultivator. Ten released at once could produce three, and if some people had better luck, producing four or five would be no problem.
Releasing so many Foundation Establishment Pills at once must mean something unusual is going on!
Fang Yu unconsciously raised his hand and counted on his fingers to divine the answer. The Yuanchen Pearl in his sea of consciousness began spinning rapidly, and the Primordial Qi within it was quickly consumed.
[Mosquito Immortal City - Great fortune]
As soon as he sensed "great fortune," Fang Yu stopped the divination.
With great fortune in Mosquito Immortal City, he could continue cultivating here and even benefit from some of the city's fortune.
The greatest factor capable of affecting Mosquito Immortal City's fortune or misfortune should be its Golden Core city lord, Daoist Mosquito.
Could it be that his cultivation has soared and he's broken through to Nascent Soul, or that he's mastered some powerful Cultivation Method, or obtained a powerful treasure?
Whatever the reason, releasing so many Foundation Establishment Pills at once surely isn't just for Spirit Stones. It should be to build up his forces. If more Foundation Establishment cultivators come from Mosquito Immortal City, that would surely benefit the city, wouldn't it?
Hmm, that's Dao of Qi Refining thinking. From the Dao of Qi Ingestion's perspective, this must be some kind of scheme, using Foundation Establishment Pills as bait to fish, or to sound people out?
At that thought, Fang Yu rubbed his chin.
If anything could make the cultivators in the city bring out every last bit of their wealth, it had to be Foundation Establishment Pills. Ten of them were enough to dig up every last secret of the city's cultivators' finances.
But the result I sensed was great fortune. Hmm, as long as I don't reveal my wealth, there won't be a problem.
As he pondered, spiritual light blazed on the auction stage. More than a dozen graceful maids with thin veils over their faces filed out and took positions around it. A youthful-looking cultivator with a sharp presence, who had already reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, entered the venue.
"Qian Chongzi is hosting the auction himself!"
"There must be some good treasures at this auction!"
"I heard Qian Chongzi reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection at just sixty-nine. He has a chance of attempting Golden Core. If he succeeds, Mosquito Immortal City will have twenty thousand Golden Core ancestors."
"..."
The youthful-looking Qian Chongzi came to the front of the auction stage and cupped his fists. "Greetings, fellow Daoists. Both the opening and final treasures of this auction are five Foundation Establishment Pills, ten in total. We will now auction five Foundation Establishment Pills by sealed bid, with a limit of one per household. The starting price is one hundred thousand Spirit Stones..."
"Sealed bids?"
Fang Yu murmured and checked the more than five hundred thousand Spirit Stones in his Storage Bag with his senses. If he put them all up, he wondered whether he could win one.
Forget it. Better not reveal my wealth!
He had already revealed a fair amount of wealth when he bought the second-tier pill-refining inheritance. Fortunately, two hundred thousand Spirit Stones wasn't considered much in Mosquito Immortal City. In the years since, although he had often bought various spirit materials for refining pills, he had been very careful, spreading his purchases among different shops and the stall marketplace, so there hadn't been any major problems.
If he suddenly put up five hundred thousand Spirit Stones now, it would be somewhat conspicuous. After all, as far as anyone knew, he was only a Qi Refining Ninth Layer Rogue Cultivator, and one of unknown origins at that.
If Mosquito Immortal City really was using this opportunity to find out how much wealth the city's cultivators had, he would inevitably attract attention.
So I'll just make a token bid!
He immediately connected to the auction token and bid "one hundred thousand and one Spirit Stones," mainly for the sake of taking part.
A moment later, Qian Chongzi said, "Thank you for your bids, fellow Daoists. All five Foundation Establishment Pills have been sold, and the exchange can take place shortly. Our second item is a Spirit Artifact called the Black Tortoise Shield..."
"Sure enough, I didn't win!"
Sensing the notice in his auction token that his bid had failed, Fang Yu picked up a spirit fruit and tossed it into his mouth, listening carefully as Qian Chongzi introduced the item.
He hadn't expected to win a Foundation Establishment Pill directly at this auction. He had come to broaden his horizons; there was a great difference between merely hearing about something and seeing it with his own eyes.
With Foundation Establishment Pills opening and closing the auction, the atmosphere throughout was heated, and each item sold for a higher price than the last, leaving Fang Yu feeling inferior.
The more than five hundred thousand Spirit Stones he had really weren't much at an auction.
"The next item is a hundred-year-old Crimson Flame Flower in excellent condition. It is an essential spirit medicine for refining various pills. The starting price is ten thousand Spirit Stones..."
Finally, something I need!
Fang Yu's eyes lit up. He contacted the auction token with his divine sense and placed a bid.
The Crimson Flame Flower was an important supplementary ingredient for refining Foundation Establishment Pills. Although the major shops sold it, there really weren't many that were a hundred years old. A Crimson Flame Flower of this quality would be a considerable help in improving the quality of Foundation Establishment Pills.
A moment later, Fang Yu successfully secured the Crimson Flame Flower for thirty-one thousand Spirit Stones.
Soon afterward, someone from the Mosquito Immortal Society knocked on the door and brought the Crimson Flame Flower over. Fang Yu promptly paid the Spirit Stones and put it away.
As item after item went under the hammer, Fang Yu gradually won some useful items that weren't too expensive, including a piece of Void Spirit Stone for making Storage Bags, as well as other artifact-refining and pill-refining materials.
By the time the five Foundation Establishment Pills were brought out for the final auction, Fang Yu had spent nearly one hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
"Next is the final item of this auction: five Foundation Establishment Pills, to be sold by open bidding. We will now auction the first pill, with a starting price of one hundred thousand Spirit Stones..."
"Two hundred thousand!"
"Five hundred thousand!"
"Eight hundred thousand!"
"..."
The venue immediately erupted. The price climbed higher and higher, until a cultivator in a private room won the Foundation Establishment Pill for the astronomical price of 1.2 million.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth pills that followed also sold for over a million each.
After the auction ended, Fang Yu departed through the secret passage, sighing as he went:
"There really are so many cultivators with Spirit Stones. Fortunately, I've almost finished honing my pill-refining skills, and I've obtained the key spirit materials. After another year or two of practice, I'll be able to refine Foundation Establishment Pills."