The auction hall resembled a concert hall or an auditorium. There was the main stage where the host was placing the items in the center for people to bid for, while "normal" customers sat in the front rows. Then we had the powerful clients who had their own private booths overlooking the whole thing from the second story. It felt almost like we were nobles.
Then again, the Huang family was clearly a clan of high social status, so I wasn't surprised. Especially when I saw Huang Qian Jin settling in the booth comfortably and making himself at home. Hui Ying stood a few paces away, ready to serve like the butler he was. Or steward, since "butler" was not an appropriate term to use in a medieval/ancient Chinese cultivator fantasy setting.
Below, Lan Bei Er and the rest of her cultivator friends had sat in the front row seats. Everyone was masked, but I could still easily recognize them. At least I could recognize Lan Bei Er because my love for her burned hot…okay, enough of the cheesy lines. You know what they say about true love – even if she wore a mask, I could still tell it was her.
If you had a problem with that, you could ask Ye Chen from Banished Disciple's Counterattack (Xian Wu Di Zun, which literally just meant Immortal Martial Emperor, so I don't know who the hell translated that). That was what he claimed, though he was a hypocrite who didn't recognize his master from her twin sister and was supposed to love the both of them. I guess double standards worked only in the protagonist's favor.
Anyway, I was having these idle thoughts and watching Lan Bei Er from above because the auction hadn't begun yet. I didn't know what to do, so I just stared at her. She shivered, sensing that someone was looking at her, and glanced around. I quickly withdrew behind the curtains. Damn, woman's intuition was sharp.
(Author's note: again, kids, don't do what the protagonist did. If you stare at girls like this in real life, they'll think you're a creep and might even report you for stalking – remember, Hei Ye is a villain!)
"Oh, they're finally beginning!" Huang Qian Jin suddenly said, sitting up. I turned to stare at him, surprised. There was no indication, nothing. How did he know?
As if on cue, the host walked onto the stage, waving a mallet and gesturing for the customers to settle down. I caught glimpses of shadows behind the curtains that veiled each of the private booths, sensing fearsome auras and tremendous quantities of qi from them. Unlike the junior cultivators below, these were the bigwigs, the experts from the high status clans. Some were like Huang Qian Jin, rich kids who came for fun and to throw money at the Silver River Pavilion, guarded by ancient elders and shady powerhouses. Others were elders or even clan heads, intent on buying the rare treasures or elixirs the Silver River Pavilion had, in order to improve their cultivation or boost the strength of their clans or sects.
The sect members made up the common audience, with representatives from the seven major sects masked and seated. I kept an eye on Lan Bei Er's group infrequently, but right now my attention was drawn to the stage.
"Thank you for settling down!" The host said, clapping his hands. He was dressed in a silver and green robe, sporting an emerald mask that covered his eyes. His black hair was concealed underneath a fancy hat as well. "The Silver River Pavilion has brought a lot of treasures today, and I'm sure you all would love to see what we have. Remember the rules! Highest bidder wins. Anyone who shows bad sportsmanship will be asked to leave. If you don't win the bid, calm yourself down and wait for the next item. Don't engage in threats and intimidation just because you can't afford to outbid your opponent."
No one said anything. I was surprised there was such a rule. I was half-expecting the usual cliché dramas of "you refuse a toast in order to drink a forfeit!" when someone refused to budge on his bid. At least the customers were behaving like civilized people here. For now.
"Without any further ado, let us begin! The first item up for auction is an Eight Trigrams Mirror! It's a rare spirit relic that can help conjure an impenetrable defense! Starting price, ten thousand spirit stones!"
I watched dully, feeling bored. Once you've read an auction scene in a manhua or web novel, you had read it all. There was little point in watching the whole process, and I found myself drifting off. I ignored the bidders shouting out ever-increasing prices, my interest only in the items they were fighting over and what they could do.
The Eight Trigrams Mirror was certainly a valuable treasure, but it wasn't worth spending money on when you were poor like me. I decided to close my eyes and wait the auction out, only to choke when I caught sight of a translated script. Wait, who the f translated Eight Trigrams Mirror as Gossip Mirror? Did the translator use machine translate or Google Translate or something? Yes, sometimes eight trigrams was colloquially used as a metaphor for gossip (Ba Gua), but you had to consider the context, not just randomly copy wholesale from machine translate!
"What's the matter?" Huang Qian Jin asked, turning to stare at me curiously. His eyes then brightened. "Ah, you want the Eight Trigrams Mirror, Brother Hei?"
"No!" I shouted, waving my hands. "It's nothing! I'm just reading an erroneous translation and burying my face in my palm, that's all!"
"Huh? Translation?"
"Never mind." I turned to look at the stage. "Looks like the bidding is over."
Apparently the highest bid for the Eight Trigrams Mirror was eighty-eight thousand spirit stones. That was a lot of money – I almost couldn't afford it, even with my newly acquired hundred thousand spirit stones. The inflated price was just absurd. I sure as hell wasn't wasting my money.
"Eighty-eight thousand spirit stones! Going once! Going twice! Sold!" The host yelled before hammering the panel with his mallet. "Excellent! The Eight Trigram Mirror now belongs to the gentleman with the black and white mask!"
A cultivator who wore an opera mask that was half white and half black put down his hand, his posture satisfied even though I couldn't see his expression behind the mask. The other customers seemed disappointed, but none of them complained.
"The second item is a Ghost Iron Ore!" The host signaled for the staff to carry a huge slab of rock onto the stage. They put it down with a huge thump. "It can be used to fashion a spirit weapon. This is particularly useful for defensive armaments such as shields or heavy weapons like sabers and hammers! The starting price is fifteen thousand spirit stones!"
There was a murmur in the audience and they were all taking their wallets out. I wasn't sure what was so good about Ghost Iron Ore, but I didn't care. It wasn't as if I was going to buy it anyway. I wasn't some super rich guy who provoked people and artificially raised prices in auctions just because.
So when Jian Shen began bidding for the Ghost Iron Ore, I said nothing.
"Twenty thousand spirit stones!"
"Why are you bidding for this?" Lan Bei Er asked, confused. Jian Shen folded his arms proudly.
"I need it to forge a sword. Ghost Iron Ore is known for their defensive properties…but what most people don't know is that they also ward against soul attacks! That's why they have the ghost in their name. They are also useful to cultivators who practice soul techniques, so they enhance soul attacks too."
If nobody knew about this before, they did now because of how loudly the idiot was explaining. Within moments, there was a flurry of bids, much to Jian Shen's chagrin.
"Thirty thousand spirit stones!"
"Fifty thousand!"
"Why, you…!" Jian Shen growled. "Sixty thousand!"
"Do you even have that much?" Bai Ning Shuang asked coldly. "Don't forget what we are here to bid for."
"If you want the Blue Heart Elixir, you can have it. Consider it a courtesy from the Ten Thousand Sword Pavilion."
Oh. That was interesting. I didn't know Bai Ning Shuang was here for the Blue Heart Elixir. It explained why she and all the other junior disciples from the major sects traveled all the way to Azure Cloud City.
Eventually, Jian Shen won the bid, having to spend seventy-five thousand spirit stones for it. What a waste of money.
More items came, ranging from spirit treasures to rare medicinal herbs to elixirs. But the one that everyone was waiting for came at the end. As an aside, Lan Bei Er and her friends didn't bid for anything else. Neither did Huang Qian Jin. Evidently the kid was just here to watch the fun.
"And ladies and gentlemen…the highlight of our auction today…the Blue Heart Elixir!" The host waved his staff onto the stage. They carried a bottle atop a palanquin, the azure fluid shining miraculously within the clear container. Immediately I could sense the potency of qi emanating from the bottle. The host chuckled as he surveyed the audience's reaction, though we were all masked. "I don't need to elaborate much – you all know what it does. It can help an innate realm cultivator breakthrough to the saint realm!"
I wasn't at the peak of innate realm yet, so it was useless to me.
"Starting price…one million spirit stones!"
Holy f…that was absurd. One million spirit stones for a single bottle of elixir? Then again, for a family to have a Saint Realm cultivator was priceless. A single Saint Realm cultivator was basically an army onto himself. My master, for example, was a peak Saint Realm cultivator and he was practically invincible under heaven.
The hall exploded to life.
"1,200,000 spirit stones!" Bai Ning Shuang said immediately, raising her board.
"1,500,000 spirit stones!" One of the bigwigs hidden in the private booth shouted.
"1,800,000 spirit stones!" Another VIP in a second private booth yelled, his silhouette barely visible behind his curtain.
"Two million!" Bai Ning Shuang said stubbornly. Wow, where was she getting the money from? Oh, right. Azure Water Sect.
Bored out of my mind, I drowned out the competing voices with my own thoughts, closing my eyes and drifting halfway to sleep. I finally woke up when I heard the hammering of the mallet against the panel.
"Sold!" The host bellowed boisterously. "To the beautiful lady in the blue robes and blue mask! For a total of five million spirit stones!"
Holy moly, where the f did the Azure Water Sect get five million spirit stones from?!
Huang Qian Jin must have seen my reaction, for he shook his finger at me.
"Five million spirit stones is nothing. For a major sect like the Azure Water Sect, their assets run up to several billion."
That was a number I simply couldn't imagine. On the other hand, after I returned to earth, I realized something.
"You didn't buy anything," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Why did you even come to the auction for?"
"Because this wouldn't be a cultivator story without an auction scene in it."
"…huh?" I gaped at Huang Qian Jin. Breaking the fourth wall was supposed to be MY job.
The kid cleared his throat, looking sheepish. "I'm just here to watch the fun."
"The young master simply came to buy you a spirit weapon," Hui Ying spoke up. He then sighed. "And we were supposed to bid for the Blue Heart Elixir too. However, there is no way the master will countenance spending over two million spirit stones for it, never mind five million."
"There will always be other opportunities, huh." I suppressed a snort, remembering their conversation from earlier. Hui Ying nodded.
"Exactly. There's no point wasting so much money on something we can achieve through other cheaper means."
"Well…I guess we're done here!" Huang Qian Jin hopped out of the luxurious couch and stretched himself. "Let's go home now!"
I glanced down at the main hall and saw everyone leaving the place. Lan Bei Er's group was departing as well, now that Bai Ning Shuang had received the Blue Heart Elixir. They appeared to be in a hurry for some reason.
I didn't blame them. Now that they had the Blue Heart Elixir, they probably just painted a huge target on their backs. I wondered what was going to happen to them now.
Well, except for Lan Bei Er, whatever happened to the rest of the group was not my problem.