Chapter 64
The sun is starting to set when Shin Jiao and Qian Li decided to go back to the underground base. They didn't stay that long and even bother to watch the crafting contest anymore as Shin Jiao already lost interest in them. He had previously gauged and planned the things that he should do so that he can increase the number of settlers in his base. Shin Jiao's target is at least a hundred people, but he needs those free mortals and not a servant of any cultivator.
And upon looking around the town he was also able to buy some raw materials for crafting, farming, and alchemy. These things will be useful for the growth of the underground base. While the two are walking, Shin Jiao noticed someone shouting in the middle of the street.
"The Roc's Eye merchant group in the town of Dis is going to conduct an auction. Those who are interested you may go now at the Roc's Eye merchant house. They are going to auction many crafting materials, cultivation arts, and more… and there is even a black stone on sale. Go now, what are you waiting for?" the boy shouted at the top of his lungs.
Shin Jiao turn to look at Qian Li, as their eyes met a tacit understanding suddenly came between them. With that, no words needed to say as Qian Li is already familiar with Shin Jiao's way of thinking. And so both of then nod their heads and began to walk towards the direction of the Roc's Eye merchant house.
Arriving at the reception area of the merchant house, Shin Jiao and Qian Li were able to see that there are already many people coming in and out of the auction hall. Shin Jiao was suddenly approached by a woman wearing the Roc's Eye uniform with its logo.
"Dear customer, how may I help you?" the woman showed a dashing smile.
"I'm here for the auction, what are the things that would be sold?" Shin Jiao said straightforwardly he didn't want too much time than needed in this place.
"Here is the list of things that would be auctioned today." The woman said as she presented the list to Shin Jiao.
When he scanned the leather scroll, Shin Jiao's eyes were attracted to three items, a ton of metal essence, a low-grade flying ship, and a fist-size black stone. Shin Jiao needed a lot of metal essence as a crafting material for the underground base to strengthen and upgrade their current equipment and so 1 ton of it is already a lot of help. As a mortal base, Shin Jiao is already expecting trouble to come their way someday. With the help of the metal essence, he can combine it with more flexible ore to make a full-body suit for defenders.
The low-grade flying ship may be an old and slowpoke to others, but for an expert crafter like Shin Jiao, he can study it and improve its design or make his own. As he has been looking for a viable aircraft but he is still unable to learn more about them as he always lacks the time and resources.
And of course, the black stone is an essential material for his arsenal. This time he plans to make either another BARRETT or upgrade his black wakizashi and turn it into a katana or a nodachi which is good for both offense and defense.
After looking at them and counting the price Shin Jiao realized that they lack funds to enter the bidding. After a deep thought, he looked at the woman and asked.
"Excuse me, I wanted to auction an artifact that I found would it be alright?"
The woman pauses for a little and answered in a polite way with a smile.
"Dear customer, the auction time is still 2 hours from now, we can still process your item provided it would be good enough to attract our manager's attention."
"Okay, no problem… here is the item." Shin Jiao took out a small shield.
When Qian Li saw this she had a look of disbelief in her eyes. The one that her master took out is just a shield for them as mortals, how could cultivators value such a thing?
The woman has been working in the auction hall and knew a lot of things. She can even appraise an item on her own and upon seeing the artifact she already knows that the craftsmanship is not ordinary.
"This item, if… if… I've not mistaken this item is a spirit level artifact. And from the craftsmanship and refinement, it's about mid to high level… this… this is my lucky day! If the manager would approve this then I might get a commission of at least 2%. This is awesome! Well... Did he really just found this?... or maybe he is a... Nah... I think he is still too young to be a craftsmaster." she suddenly thought.
"This… this customer, I will tell my manager about this would you like to come in and take a seat at his office first?" The woman acted really fast and guide Shin Jiao and Qian Li inside a pleasantly decorated room with a hint of rustic style.
Not long after Shin Jiao and Qian Li were seated on the soft sofa, a man in his 30's came running in.
"Ah, dear patron, please forgive me for not attending to you both immediately I was a little bit busy. I am Baoxian Koi, the manager of the Dis town Roc's Eye merchant group. I understand that you wanted to sell?... or auction the defensive artifact?" the manager said in a smooth and polite manner.
"Nice to meet you Manager Koi, I am Shin Jiao. And yes I wanted to auction this defensive artifact." Shin Jiao said as he showed the artifact to manager Koi.
Upon seeing the artifact, manager Koi's eyes lit up in a blink and returned to normal. But still, he didn't show any outrageous reaction and maintain a normal demeanor of a businessman.
"Dear Patron, this artifact is a mid-grade spirit artifact, am I right?" he asked.
"I'm not that sure, I found this in a cave and think that it's useful. I discover that it can use either spirit Qi or beast core as a power source and the defensive strength depends on the power level of the core or spirit Qi." Shin Jiao said.
"I was traveling at that time when I encountered a level 5 beast. Luckily I have a level 5 beast core with me where I found the artifact and so I used it to escape without even receiving a scratch." Shin Jiao continued as if telling a story of his adventures.
"Are… are… Are you sure about this? How... How about the level 5 beast core, is it still available?" the manager suddenly stood up with bulging eyes.
He suddenly could not control his emotion; as if this is true then this defensive artifact and level 5 beast core would fetch a really high price and would be the center of attention in this auction. The hand of manager Koi suddenly trembled in excitement, if he really could auction such an item, then he can receive a lot of spirit stones as a bonus for this.
"I'm sorry but the reason why I can escape at that time is because of the level 5 beast core. So... it's gone." Shin Jiao said as he shrugs his shoulder.
"Are you willing to auction this with us today, kind sir." He immediately asked although he felt a little disappointed that the level 5 core is already gone.
A level 5 beast core is a treasure, if he could only auction one tonight then the prestige of this branch of Roc's Eye in the town of Dis would raise a level. But at least he can auction this very unique artifact.
"Yes, and… can I…" Shin Jiao asked with reluctance.
"Ah! Of course no problem, this is a VIP card for your entry in the auction house. I will offer the upper private booth 3 for your viewing pleasure." The manager immediately understood Shin Jiao's thought and offered a gold card and a plate with number 3 on it to Shin Jiao.
Seeing this Shin Jiao felt happy and approve of the fast thinking of this manager. He would really like to tell Susu Ling that the merchant store her family own is really top class.
Shin Jiao and Qian Li enters the private booth number 3 and saw that it is already protected by a lot of array formations. But Shin Jiao is a little bit disappointed as the array formation is a little low, so he just set up his own spiritual sense and sound blocking array.
They didn't wait long before the time of the auction finally arrived. Shin Jiao's spirit sense is not yet that wide to scan his surroundings, so he just used his goggles to check every booth. To his surprise, his goggles could not see inside each booth because of the array formations and all he can see is a square-shaped aura surrounding it.
"I'm guessing that there are many powerhouses today. This is due to the swamp incident where the plant essence appears. If this true, then many sects would be attending this auction today." Shin Jiao thought.
What Shin Jiao assumed was right, as today almost the entire famous sect in the land of Xi are present in this town. This is also the reason why the Roc's Eye merchant group conducted the auction.
Then his gaze turns towards a familiar aura and a smile crept on his face, it was Qin Lou. He knows that she would not fall that easily in the swamp plus he also knows that Lemy has his own small world. So when it comes to priority Lemy would first save the two women. And true to his conjecture he can also see a child sitting beside Qin Lou; the aura is that of Lemy.
"I guess she has already recovered her cultivation strength and has even progressed to mid-stage of gold core realm… That's good." Shin Jiao thought as he is genuinely happy for Qin Lou, but he still needs to find a way to heal the mana poison on her face before he could return to them.
Shin Jiao's thought was suddenly jolted back to reality when a beautiful woman suddenly went up to the platform and everyone turned quiet.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, in behalf of the Roc's Eye Merchant group, I Nalin Ling welcomes everyone in our special auction for tonight. I know that every one of you is after the black stone that we have for a special auction. But I will tell you now that we have just recently received something of great value." The woman named Nalin Ling mysteriously said.
Everyone in the audience immediately murmured upon hearing her name. Shin Jiao thought that if her family name is also Ling then she might be a relative of Susu Ling. But when he looks at the woman closely he changed his mind as she actually looks like Susu Ling except for her hip which is a little bit bigger and plump. So she might also be one of the heiresses of the Roc's Eye merchant group.
"Alright! Let's the auction begin!... We'll start off with this item number…"
The auction started with some healing pills and medicinal plants which Shin Jiao is not interested. He already has his fill in the Daemon forest where he had gathered a lot of precious herbs and is already inside Gubu's ring. Although the world inside the ring would not support life as time seems to be frozen in it, however, Shin Jiao knows that there is more to it than meets the eye, he just couldn't figure it out yet.
Not long later, the woman showed a ring to the cultivators.
"This ring contains the 1 ton of pure iron essence which is a really good crafting material. The starting bidding price is 10,000 low-grade spiritual stone with an increment of not less than 500 low-grade spiritual stone." The woman calmly said.
But before the woman's voice ended someone immediately places their bid.
"We have a bid of 20,000 low-grade spiritual stone from booth number 3." The woman said as she saw the flashing number on top of the booth.
"I bid 21,000"
"I bid 30,000"
Not long later the bid reaches up to 100,000 in which Shin Jiao was the one who entered.
"100,000 low-grade spiritual stone for booth number 3… going once!" the woman suddenly said as she noticed that no one is bidding anymore because 100,000 low-grade spirit stone for a 1 ton of pure metal essence is already overpriced.
"100,000 low-grade spiritual stone for booth number 3… going twice!"
"Remember, this is a good crafting material for high-grade artifacts."
"110,000" suddenly a woman's beautiful voice broke the count down.
"Oh, isn't this the genius in our alchemy school in town." The woman suddenly said as she noticed that Qin Lou was the one who placed the bid.
Qin Lou is already a famous figure in the alchemy society as her insights and style in alchemy is unique. Many of her pills are really potent that a lot of cultivators are already lining up to buy them from the alchemy school. Luckily she already shared the formulas to the elders of the school, which made her concentrate more on making new formulas and pills.
"I didn't think that Miss Lou is also interested in crafting." A man suddenly said beside her while he cupped his hand with respect.
Qin Lou just cupped her hands and bowed towards the rest of the cultivators.
"She's that genius they were talking about right?"
"Yes, but they said that her face is ugly, that's why she wears that special veil on her face"
"Haha, who cares about her face. What's important is she's not just a genius in alchemy she is also a genius in cultivation."
The people began to chatter as everyone truly admires Qin Lou as a cultivator. Plus she never offends anyone as her nature is truly kind. When the powerhouse cultivators heard this they immediately scanned her and found her really admirable.
"Haha, a good seed. She would be a good pair for the genius of my Dongfang clan." An old man with a thick white brow said as he laughed.
"Good, good! She can be a great nun. Plus her cultivation method should still be at the basic level." And old nun said as she began to plan inside her head.
"Uncle, I never knew that the girl we saved from the swamp at that time turns up to be a genius." A very beautiful woman said at the man beside her.
Everyone in the booth is discussing things and having their own plans for the young genius that had suddenly appear. Qin Lou who is oblivious to this and didn't mind what these people were thinking.
Shin Jiao didn't bother to bid anymore as he didn't want to compete with a friend. So Qin Lou was able to get the 1 ton of metal essence.
"Shin, I know that you needed this. I will keep these metal essences and wait for your return." She said to herself as she held the item in her hands.