The hostess's assistant had already brought over a jet-black skull of an unidentifiable creature, which she then placed on a blood red cushion for everyone to admire.
Well, other than being a skull, the treasure seemed to be nothing special, many people, including Thiago, thought so, but they were all stunned when the hostess revealed what kind of treasure this skull really was.
"Our penultimate item in today's auction is a highly sought-after Mental Strength Enhancing Treasure! It works by continuously releasing soul energy into your soul, thereby strengthening the latter. I won't say much more, as I'm sure you all know how valuable this item is."
"Therefore, the starting price will be 50.000 low-grade mana crystals and each subsequent increment may not be lower than 5.000 low-grade mana crystals."
And with a brief pause to let everyone digest the information, she announced:
"Let the bidding begin!"
Thiago was at once interested in this treasure, not for himself, but for Faye.
"With this treasure, she will be able to strengthen her soul without having to do the same as me." Thiago thought.
Even though Thiago could certainly buy such a treasure from the system shop, there were two main reasons why he did not do so at the moment.
The first was that the treasure would probably cost him a lot of [System Points], which was not a necessary expense if he could buy the treasure here in this auction after having already bought so many mana crystals.
The second reason was that Thiago enjoyed the bidding process, and he wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment instead of just buying the treasure from the system shop.
Having decided to get this treasure, Thiago was in no hurry, as most of the people present today had already started bidding for this particular treasure.
Meanwhile, both Gong Tieshan and the representative of the Bright Sword Sect were extremely eager to obtain this treasure, as it would help them immensely in their cultivation if they could strengthen their soul.
If they could obtain this treasure, they would be able to strengthen their soul senses, as well as improve their overall combat power by having more mental endurance with stronger mental power.
All in all, this treasure could be said to be of great help to every cultivator.
There were not many treasures like this, and normally, any treasure like this that could steadily increase one's soul power with basically no side effects would be in the hands of some powerful great powers or extremely powerful rogue cultivators.
So when the item was announced, it caused quite a stir in the crowd, but everyone was happy to have the chance to get their hands on this treasure.
Slowly, the bidding became more and more heated as the price continued to rise, from the initial 50,000 low-grade mana crystals to the current 115,000 low-grade mana crystals.
At this price, many people had already given up bidding, but this did not stop many enthusiastic bidders from continuing to place new bids, raising the price by the second.
When the price reached an astonishing 150,000 low-grade mana crystals, more people had already given up on this treasure, and at that moment, Gong Tieshan started bidding 155,000 low-grade mana crystals. Right after that, the girl from the Bright Sword sect followed with 160,000 low-grade mana crystals.
"Well, I guess it's my turn now." Thiago muttered as he also bid, but immediately raised the price by over twenty thousand and also changed from low-grade mana crystals to medium-grade mana crystals, as he was simply too lazy to say such a long number every time he bid.
"1.800 mid-grade mana crystals."
At first a few people thought Thiago was crazy for only bidding 1.800 mana crystals when the previous bid was clearly over 100.000 low-grade mana crystals, but then they heard him say his bid in medium-grade mana crystals and they immediately shut up.
Generally speaking, it was certainly possible to convert higher-grade mana crystals into lower-grade ones, but few people were actually willing to do so, as it was a loss-making business.
This was because even if you made up for the lack of quality in the mana with quantity, it would still not reach the original level. This was the case with mana crystals.
They not only had a difference in mana quantity, but also in quality and purity. So even if you got 100 low-grade mana crystals for every medium-grade mana crystal.
They would still not be equal to the medium-grade mana crystal in terms of helpfulness for cultivation.
However, the auction would still believe in Thiago's credibility, as he had paid for the mysterious black box after it had been delivered to his seat with ease.
Normally, in order not to lose face, one would have expected Gong Tieshan to bid in medium-grade mana crystals as well, but this was not the case. He still placed his new bid in low-grade mana crystals:
"185,000 low-grade mana crystals"
Gong Tieshan really seemed to be a smart character, as he did not engage in these useless face-saving actions. He was above that, knowing that most people would not even care about it, and that it was only a temporary thing.
He did have some mid-grade Mana Crystals, but he was reluctant to use them unless it was really urgently needed.
It was the same thing for the girl from the bright sword sect. She also continued to bid with low-grade mana crystals.
"190.000 low-grade mana crystals"
Thiago, the perpetrator of all this, was unaware of this and continued to bid happily, raising the price again drastically:
"2,300 medium grade mana crystals -" This made Gong Tieshan's blood boil with rage, and he once again punched the table next to him.
The girl from the Bright Sword Sect also cursed a little, although she was a bit cute: "Damn it, you want to annoy me, Xiao Fei, on purpose!"
"Hmph!"
"Let us see who will really win this treasure and if you can keep raising the price so maliciously."
"235.000 low-grade mana crystals!"
Xiao Fei, as she called herself, seemed to really want to get her hands on this treasure, as mental strength was also extremely important for a swordsman to further improve his sword moves.
That is why she was prepared to spend the greater part of her savings on this treasure, which was so hard to come by.
When Gong Tieshan realized that the girl from the other private room had already bid again, he placed his bid as well.
The bidding went around in a circle, starting with Thiago, then Xiao Fei, then Gong Tieshan, repeating all over again.
Now it was Thiago's turn again, and he promptly quoted an even crazier price:
"3,000 mid-level mana crystals!"
"Boom!" This time, the table was unable to hold on and shattered into a million pieces, as Gong Tieshan had just smashed it again in a fit of rage after hearing Thiago's crazy price hike.
While there were of course two people who gnashed their teeth in anger at this, there were of course people who were happy, namely the auction hostess.
Since she would receive a small commission for each item sold, the higher the transaction price, the more commission she would receive, and the happier her superiors would be with her.
With a smile on her face, she watched the bidding war unfold…
Even though Gong Tieshan and Xiao Fei were angry they still honestly placed their own bids again.
"305.000 low-grade mana crystals!"
"310.000 low grade mana crystals!"
This time even Thiago could hear the slightly suppressed anger in the two voices, but it only motivated him to continue.
"Well, now the time has come for a bigger increase," Thiago thought a little wickedly, while an evil grin appeared on his face.
"5.000 medium grade mana crystals!"
Somehow, he had fun torturing these two.
"That bastard!" Gong Tieshan cursed, almost spitting out a mouthful of blood in anger.
Xiao Fei complained: "That evil, wicked, uhm... bad guy!"
The same thing happened as before, that is, the two of them complained, but they kept on bidding.
After another round of bidding, Thiago had enough fun and bid:
"7.000 medium mana crystals!"
This time, neither of the other two bid any more, as it was no longer worth it.
They would rather miss out on this treasure than spend so much money.
The hostess, seeing that no one had bid after Thiago, quickly resumed her role:
"This gentleman has bid 7,000 medium mana crystals, does anyone have a higher bid?"
Only silence greeted her, so although she was secretly sad that this great bidding war could not continue, she called out professionally:
"Then this gentleman has successfully purchased this soul-enhancing treasure!"
"Well, I hope this treasure works as well as they say it does," Thiago muttered, happy to finally get his hands on it.
Soon, an employee of the Baiming Chamber of Commerce brought the treasure over in a spatial ring. Thiago quickly retrieved the seven thousand mid-level mana crystals from his spatial ring.
The clerk respectfully handed over the spatial ring with the skull inside, while carefully checking the mana crystals Thiago had given him in a spatial ring as well.
Seeing that the mana crystals were of the right quality and in the right quantity, the clerk politely said goodbye to Thiago, who was already examining the skull with his soul sense, but only for a short time, as he would do it when he was back somewhere quiet.
As the next last item of this day's auction was being introduced, Thiago quickly lost interest, because it turned out to be some kind of very rare herb for alchemy.
To many of those present, this herb was worth many times more than the previous soul-enhancing treasure, as it was one of the key ingredients in an extremely rare and difficult to brew potion that could heal even the most mortal of wounds, known as the Death-Defying Potion.
That's why the bidding immediately became much fiercer than it had been before, because alchemists tended to be quite wealthy, and many of those attending this auction were alchemists.
That's why the price skyrocketed as soon as the bidding for this item started.
However, Thiago was not in the least bit interested in this herb and decided that now would be a good time to leave the auction, as he had already had enough fun.
So, while most of the people there were absorbed in the bidding, a conspicuous figure with green hair and a scar across his face left his seat and walked leisurely towards the exit.
While many did not notice him leaving, Gong Tieshan, who had been staring at Thiago for some time, noticed immediately and asked his assistant to send someone to follow Thiago, but he emphasized that they should do nothing more than follow.
The reason why Gong Tieshan did this was because he could not even sense Thiago's cultivation level, which could either mean that he was stronger than him, or that he had some great technique or treasure to hide his cultivation.
Coupled with his apparent financial resources, Gong Tieshan did not want to make a fatal mistake, so he simply asked someone to follow Thiago without doing anything more.
If they did anything excessive, it would be their fault and he would not take responsibility if anything happened.
Surprisingly, Xiao Fei also noticed Thiago's departure, but she made no move and continued to bid for the herb, happy that she had not spent her money on the previous soul-enhancing treasure, or she would have had no chance of bidding for the much more valuable herb that could be of great use to her in the future.
Thiago, who had already left the auction hall, was soon outside the building, and it was not until he had walked for a few minutes that he sensed someone following him with his powerful soul-sense.
"Oh, someone is actually following me."
"It seems that this Gong Tieshan was quite angry when I snatched the item from his hands twice, Hehe" Thiago guessed.
"There seem to be four people and each of them is in the master realm, damn, this Gong Tieshan really has a strong background, well, it's not like I wouldn't have a chance to defeat them." Thiago analyzed based on his perception.
Well, they don't seem to have any intention of attacking me at the moment, probably because we're still in town, or maybe they're looking for me to go to a secluded place and then kill me.
So, Thiago came up with a clever idea to relax their vigilance. He let a little of the aura of a first-stage student's realm leak out, as if the treasure he wore to hide his realm had a slight malfunction…