Hundred Treasure Purse
At the sight of the enormous city that had appeared in the distance, Su Tianyu's eyes filled with awe. Full of anticipation, he walked into Haagen-Dazs City.
After passing through the city gates, Su Tianyu wandered through the city, stopping here and there. The streets bustled with carriages and people, and Soul Masters dressed in brightly colored clothes headed toward the city center, talking and laughing.
Watching their hurrying figures, Su Tianyu's eyes flashed with curiosity. He quickly stopped a passerby and politely asked him a question.
"Sir, I'm very curious. So many Soul Masters are hurrying toward the city center. Is today some important festival in Haagen-Dazs City?"
When Su Tianyu stopped him, the passerby was initially quite displeased. But when he heard that Su Tianyu was asking him for information, his expression softened, and he spoke calmly.
"Today isn't an important festival in Haagen-Dazs City. The Soul Masters you see walking down the street are going to an auction being held today. If you're interested, hurry over now. If you arrive late, there won't be any seats left."
After explaining, the passerby hurried toward the city center.
Understanding dawned on Su Tianyu's face when he heard the explanation. He had thought he'd happened upon some important festival today, but it turned out he had overthought it.
Su Tianyu walked behind the many passing Soul Masters, following them toward the center of Haagen-Dazs City. He wanted to visit the auction house and see whether he could bid on any treasures or valuable metal items.
After less than half an hour, Su Tianyu saw an oval building appear before him in the distance. Its exterior was decorated with white jade, giving the entire building a luminous, translucent beauty beneath the sunlight.
Su Tianyu arrived at the plaza outside the white jade building. As far as he could see, long lines stretched out at the plaza entrance, with roughly several hundred Soul Masters waiting in line. Everyone whispered to one another, and all kinds of expressions could be seen on their faces. Some looked excited, their hearts full of anticipation for the auction, hoping to bid on a treasure to their liking.
Soon, the auction house staff began checking the Gold Soul Coin balances of the Soul Masters in line in an orderly fashion. Those found to have insufficient funds were immediately turned away by the staff, and the number of people in line quickly fell by a third.
As time passed, the staff checked the Gold Soul Coin card of the Soul Master in front of Su Tianyu and quickly let him through.
"Hello, please show me your Gold Soul Coin card. Thank you for your cooperation."
The young staff member's sweet voice gave Su Tianyu, who had grown tired of waiting in line, a sudden lift. He quickly took a black card out of his Storage Soul Tool.
The device in the young staff member's hand scanned it, displaying a balance as high as 230,000 Gold Soul Coins.
After confirming that the honored guest before her met the Gold Soul Coin requirement, the young woman spoke happily to Su Tianyu in a sweet voice.
"Honored guest, welcome to the Starlight Auction House. We hope you find the treasure you want at the auction. Please, come in." With that, the young woman bowed to him and resumed checking the Soul Masters behind him.
Passing through the inspection gate, Su Tianyu entered the auction hall, and his eyes immediately lit up.
The interior of the auction hall was entirely white jade in color. Whether the walls or the floor tiles, all were made of white jade ore, famous throughout the Douluo Continent. Beneath the crystal lamps overhead, light flowed across the hall, and a faint jade luster shimmered in the soft glow. Even the air seemed to carry the warmth and smoothness of jade. Walking through it, one felt surrounded by that warm, jade-colored light.
He passed through a passage in the hall, and the view suddenly opened up. The interior space was curved, with an auction platform made of white jade at its center. Lavishly decorated private rooms stood above the curved seating area, for Soul Masters who had traveled from afar to choose according to their needs.
Su Tianyu followed the other Soul Masters to the chairs in the hall below the auction platform and sat down, quietly waiting for the auction to begin.
After a short wait, the red curtain behind the auction platform slowly opened. An auctioneer in a long white dress emerged, a professional smile on her face as she took small, quick steps along the passage leading to the white jade platform.
The female auctioneer soon reached the platform. Beaming at the hall and the private rooms, she raised the Amplifying Soul Tool in her hand, and her mature, feminine voice rang out.
"Welcome, honored guests, to the Starlight Auction House. I am your auctioneer, Wang Qianqian. Next, I will introduce the first item up for auction. Now, would the staff member please come onto the stage and display the auction item for everyone to see?"
As soon as the auctioneer on the platform finished speaking, a staff member came out from the back, holding a tray in both hands. She carefully placed the auction item on the display stand, nodded to the auctioneer, and slowly stepped back.
The auctioneer quickly came to the display stand, grabbed a corner of the red cloth, and pulled hard. A stalk of Three-Leaf Soul Grass shimmering with pale blue light appeared before everyone in the hall.
"Honored guests, what you see before you is a stalk of Three-Leaf Soul Grass. Allow me to introduce its effects and uses. This herb has the medicinal effect of increasing spiritual power. I'm sure all the Soul Masters present know its value. The starting price for this stalk of Three-Leaf Soul Grass is 50,000 Gold Soul Coins, with each bid increasing by no less than 1,000 Gold Soul Coins."
After introducing the herb's effects to the Soul Masters in the hall, Wang Qianqian swept her peach-blossom eyes over those seated below, then looked up at the private rooms, anticipation in her eyes.
At once, bids rang out from the private rooms above the hall as their occupants competed for the herb that could increase spiritual power.
The herb was soon won by an old man whose raspy voice had come from one of the private rooms above.
As one item after another was auctioned off, Su Tianyu sat in the auction hall with a slight frown. Are the items I want to bid on too precious? But metal items should be common. Why hasn't the auction house brought any out for bidding? Su Tianyu was baffled. Could it be that ore and metal are nothing but scrap copper and iron in the eyes of nobles?
After Su Tianyu had looked forward to each item in turn, the fifteenth auction item happened to be something he badly needed at the moment. If he could secure it, he would finally have something to hold the Immortal Herbs when he went to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well in the Sunset Forest.
"The fifteenth item up for auction is a Hundred Treasure Purse. This treasure can keep medicinal herbs placed inside it alive. With this treasure, the medicinal potency of the herbs can be preserved as it was when they were freshly picked. It is truly a rare treasure."