Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Greenwood Sect’s Wang Qian
Since two of the three were from the Greenwood Sect, the identity of the remaining one was easy to guess.

At first, Yu Zhao was quite surprised to see them, but when she thought it over, it seemed only natural.

The Greenwood Sect was centered on alchemy to begin with. Now that a fourth-grade pill recipe was up for auction, of course they would not miss it.

The family clans of Blackwater City had probably received the news from the auction house. As soon as they saw the three from the Greenwood Sect come in, they all stood up and paid their respects, leaving the others stunned.

Young Master Fan sat in a corner of the second row, and his eyes turned red when he saw this.

He had thought that just by sitting in the Honored Guest section, he would be wildly fawned over.

In reality, none of the people around him in the Honored Guest seats were willing to talk to him at all. It was as if he did not exist.

If that had been all, he might have grudgingly accepted it, but they were now flattering those three young men who were about his age. How could the proud Young Master Fan bear that?

No matter how upset he felt, he did not dare cause trouble at the Auction Gathering and could only sulk by himself.

After the three from the Greenwood Sect took their seats, the Blackwater City Auction was officially declared open.

The first to appear on stage was a female cultivator with a gentle bearing. Her looks were not striking in a sharp way, but she had a natural sense of warmth that made it hard to look away.

She smiled and said: “Thank you, honored guests, for coming to take part in the Blackwater City Auction. I am the auctioneer, Furong. There are one hundred and eighty-eight lots in this Auction Gathering. Each one has been carefully chosen by the auction house. We will never fake anything and will make sure every honored guest who wins a bid feels it was worth the price…”

Her voice matched her appearance.

Furong’s voice was like a gently flowing stream, soft and melodious. She did not need to raise her volume on purpose, yet she drew everyone’s attention to her.

In the huge auction hall, her voice was the only sound.

Yu Zhao’s eyes lit up slightly.

She had not expected Illusion Art to be used in this way.

Strictly speaking, what Furong cultivated should be called Charm Arts.

Or rather, Charm Arts were actually a type of Illusion Art.

Both used the five senses to confuse a person’s mind.

In the past, when Yu Zhao used Illusion Art, she usually used incense to distract attention and then wove an Illusory Realm with her techniques. She had never thought of Entering the Dao Through Sound. Furong’s Charm Arts gave her a lot of inspiration. [So Illusion Art can also work like this.]

Furong continued speaking: “Today’s first item is a third-grade Bottleneck-Breaking Pill. Its main effect is to help Foundation Establishment cultivators break through to the Golden Core stage, and its success rate is as high as seventy percent…”

While Yu Zhao was lost in thought, the Auction Gathering formally began. The very first lot was the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill that the Chen Clan had sent in for auction.

Before Furong even finished her introduction, everyone in the hall was already extremely excited, shifting restlessly in their seats.

Cries rang out from all directions: “What? A Bottleneck-Breaking Pill? Damn, they are really going all out this time!”

“It is actually a sure breakthrough Bottleneck-Breaking Pill for advancing to Golden Core. The auction house is really being generous this time!”

“Damn it! With so many people fighting over it, there is no way I will get a chance!”

The crowd buzzed with voices.

Among Foundation Establishment cultivators, the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill was extremely famous. It was the miracle pill that almost every Foundation Establishment cultivator dreamed of.

Everyone’s eyes burned as they imagined themselves swallowing the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill and going straight into the Golden Core stage.

As for the pill’s thirty percent chance of failure, they completely ignored it.

Young Master Fan was especially excited. His breathing turned rough as he gasped: “A Bottleneck-Breaking Pill! It is a Bottleneck-Breaking Pill!”

The two guards were worked up for a while as well, but when their excitement faded, they remembered how much Young Master Fan’s money pouch had shrunk, and their hearts tightened.

The money Young Master had on him did not seem enough to buy even one Bottleneck-Breaking Pill.

Furong raised her hand and said clearly: “The starting price for the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill is one hundred mid-grade spirit stones. Each bid increase may not be less than ten mid-grade spirit stones. The bidding begins now.”

One hundred mid-grade spirit stones were about equal to a single high-grade spirit stone. Young Master Fan could barely afford that much.

But one hundred mid-grade spirit stones was only the starting price and there was no cap on the final amount. He had no confidence at all that he could win the bid for the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill.

Sure enough, as soon as Furong finished stating the bidding rules, countless number plates shot up.

Voices called out one after another: “Number one hundred forty-three, two hundred mid-grade spirit stones!”

“Number two hundred ten, two hundred sixty mid-grade spirit stones!”

“Number forty-seven, three hundred mid-grade spirit stones!”

The price climbed swiftly amid the shouts of bids, soon going far beyond what Young Master Fan could afford.

His face grew dark. [If I had not bought those three Honored Guest tickets, I might still have had a chance.]

He clenched his fists in anger, his eyes full of unwillingness.

The only person who could still smile was Chen Tian Dong.

The more fiercely everyone bid, the more excited he became.

Just as Yu Zhao had guessed, the Chen Clan had not developed well in recent years, and none of the younger generation of their family clan had outstanding talent. Once the Chen Clan Ancestor passed away, the Chen Clan would have no one to succeed him, and their trade caravans would soon be swallowed up by other family clans.

After much thought, the Chen Clan Ancestor had decided to sell the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill he had obtained many years ago, then use the full strength of the clan to gather the resources for a furnace of pills that would raise his cultivation level, so he could fully charge toward the Nascent Soul stage.

This plan carried huge risks. The slightest mistake would ruin everything. It was a gamble with his life.

Of course, Chen Tian Dong knew nothing of the Chen Clan Ancestor’s thinking. He was simply happy that the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill could be sold for a high price.

In the end, the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill was taken by the Wei Clan from the Honored Guest seats for the price of one thousand three hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

The Wei Clan members were overjoyed, but Guo Ming En curled his lip in disdain and said: “Tch, getting this happy over a mere third-grade pill?”

When Tian Han heard this, he immediately sensed a chance to flatter someone and quickly agreed: “Senior Brother Guo, those small families like them have low vision. How would they know that even what Junior Brother Wang Qian casually lets slip through his fingers are all third-grade pills?”

Guo Ming En also heard the hint in Tian Han’s words and smiled as he chimed in, making Wang Qian, who sat between them, feel proud and light as air.

With a mix of pride and pretended modesty, Wang Qian said: “You two senior brothers praise me too much. At my current level, second-grade pills are no problem. Third-grade pills still take some effort.”

Although his words sounded modest, his face was full of arrogance.

Guo Ming En and Tian Han exchanged a look and thought to themselves: [No wonder Wang Qian is always pressed down by Mu Ye in the Alchemy Hall. With his nose so high in the air, he is far worse than Mu Ye.]

But last time, they had completely offended Mu Ye, so all the Alchemy Hall disciples led by her were unwilling to give them any missions. That left them with no choice but to curry favor with Wang Qian, who did not get along with Mu Ye.

After all, making money was hard, and sometimes what you had to swallow was as nasty as eating shit.

For the sake of resources, this kind of sacrifice did not count as much.

Although the three did not purposely raise their voices, they did not try to hide their words either, so the Zhang Clan members sitting next to them heard everything clearly.

The young heir of the Zhang Clan could not hide the envy on his face.

Even if he wanted a second-grade pill, he had to get the patriarch and all the elders to agree first. It was nothing like the people of the Greenwood Sect, who treated pills like candy and could eat them whenever they wanted.

The other Zhang Clan members were also shocked by how rich and powerful the Greenwood Sect was, but when they thought of the sect’s status in the cultivation world, they felt it was only natural. Even so, their state of mind was affected and no longer as calm as before.