TL: Etude
"What treasure could it be that it's so mysterious?" someone couldn't help but ask.
The auctioneer lifted the cloth, revealing a box underneath. The box was taller than a person and was covered with an array of inscriptions, clearly arranged in some sort of array. The auctioneer opened the box, and a gigantic egg appeared.
The egg was entirely golden, pulsating with life, thereby proving that it was truly an egg, not merely a piece of gold.
"Is it a beast egg?" someone inquired with doubt.
"Why all the secrecy for a simple beast egg? It can't even be identified, which is quite odd."
"It is an egg, but we haven't sensed any beastly aura from it. Any beast would normally emit a certain aura, but this egg doesn't," the auctioneer explained. "What's even more surprising is that this egg is extremely tough. Even a Grandmaster-level expert cannot break its shell, and a King-level expert cannot penetrate the shell to observe what's inside with their divine sense. If it weren't consigned for auction, we would have tried every means to crack it open. Since we can't identify it or know how to hatch it, we can't offer any guarantees to bidders. Therefore, the starting bid will only be one billion."
"Could it be the egg of some powerful creature? If it hatches, won't that be a huge gain?" someone exclaimed.
"Heh, maybe it's just metal with a life aura? Anything's possible! If it doesn't hatch, then it's just an ornament," someone chuckled.
"Hmph, no matter what, it has extraordinary value; a starting price of just one billion is nothing," another person said.
"Hehe, then let's bid!"
The martial warriors began to bid, starting from one billion and going up.
Ye Tian stared at the egg, his eyes filled with astonishment. It was far from ordinary.
"Copy Talent!"
Ye Tian tried to use his Copy Talent to investigate. If it were a beast egg, perhaps his Copy Talent could probe its inherent abilities, thereby revealing its origin. He thought it wouldn't work, but a line of information appeared on his retina, proving it was indeed an egg, and it had a very imposing name.
Species: War Blood Sky Dragon
Bloodline Talent: ????
Strength Talent: ????
Flight Talent: ????
Speed Talent: ????
Defense Talent: ???? …
A series of talents completely dumbfounded Ye Tian; this was certainly the creature with the most talents he had ever encountered.
No, it shouldn't be called a beast, but a dragon!
"This is a legendary dragon egg; these clueless people actually put it up for auction!" Ye Tian disdainfully said.
However, he didn't consider that, without his Copy Talent, would he have been able to discern the egg's origin?
Regarding this question, Ye Tian conveniently ignored it.
"It's strange, why can't I see the levels of the talents? Could it be that they are too high?" Ye Tian wondered to himself.
But he quickly rejected that notion. With so many talents, it was impossible for all of them to be unviewable. If these talents truly exceeded the limits of his Copy Talent, then to what extent would this War Blood Sky Dragon be formidable? Could it destroy the Earth with a single sneeze?
According to Ye Tian's speculation, there was only one possibility. That was, the War-Blood Sky Dragon had not fully incubated, and its innate talents had not completely formed. Only after its birth would its abilities be set in stone, a rule that all creatures must abide by.
"I have to buy it. A dragon with unlimited potential is far more awesome than Xiao Jin and Xiao Zi. In the future, I plan to give Xiao Jin and Xiao Zi to my sister as pets. Naturally, I must have a pet with unlimited potential, and this dragon fits the bill. Plus, it can fly. Riding it in the future would be so impressive!" Ye Tian had set his sights on this dragon egg and participated in the auction without haste.
Although the price of the dragon egg was not low, it quickly rose to 10 billion. However, there were plenty of wealthy tycoons who didn't care about this amount of money.
20 billion!
30 billion!
40 billion!
50 billion!
In the end, the people participating in the auction were undoubtedly top-tier Grandmasters. Only Ye Tian, a Great Martial Warrior, was mixed in, which was somewhat strange. "80 billion!" Ye Tian shouted a price that left people in despair. Some of the masters frowned, calculating whether the item was worth it or not. They had other treasures to bid on, and their real target wasn't this dragon egg. If they spent too much money on the dragon egg, it would be a loss if they couldn't win the items they actually wanted later on.
Thus, the other Grandmasters all gave up on bidding, and Ye Tian won the dragon egg.
As for the auction of other treasures, Ye Tian did not participate. It wasn't that he lacked money, but those treasures weren't of much use to him. They were mostly auxiliary items for Grandmaster-level cultivators. The final item, a treasure capable of boosting a Grandmaster's chance of breaking through to the King level by 50%, was auctioned off for a staggering 1 trillion, leaving everyone astonished.
The auction concluded, and Ye Tian collected the won items, paid, and turned to leave. After leaving the martial guild headquarters, a few people who were interested in his identity followed him secretly. However, Ye Tian had already sensed their presence through spatial perception. He found a deserted corner and teleported away, shaking off these people.
…
Upon returning home, Ye Tian took out the auctioned items. The most precious was undoubtedly the dragon egg. He studied it for a while but found nothing and set it aside for further research in the future.
"King-level cultivation insights!" Ye Tian took it out very carefully, slowly flipping through it. The document was quite thick and made of a very durable material, clearly the hide of a top-tier ferocious beast. It began from the stage of a martial warrior and went all the way to the King-level, clearly stating what to focus on at each level. It also provided many auxiliary methods for cultivation or breaking through bottlenecks.
What interested Ye Tian the most were the precautions for breaking through to the Grandmaster and King levels. "To break through to the Grandmaster level, one's cultivation must reach the extreme of a Great Martial Warrior. The more stable the foundation, the higher the success rate. If the foundation is unstable, even if one has extraordinary talents for cultivation, it will be easy to become a Grandmaster, but the success rate for breaking through to the King level will be reduced!"
"Ordinarily, breaking through to the King level with extraordinary-level cultivation talents should have a 100% success rate. However, almost all extraordinary-level cultivators cannot create a perfect foundation, so the success rate is only 80%. An imperfect foundation will hinder further breakthroughs!"
Reading this, Ye Tian was utterly stunned. Even extraordinary-level cultivators couldn't create a perfect foundation, what was going on? He continued reading and finally found the content on creating a perfect foundation.
"To build a perfect foundation, it must be done before reaching the Grandmaster level. Once the Grandmaster level is reached, the embryonic form of the foundation is set. If it's not a perfect foundation, it's impossible to build one later. To build a perfect foundation, one must break the limits in refining skin, flesh, bones, blood, as well as tempering the five viscera and six bowels!"
"Breaking the limits?" Ye Tian heard this for the first time. But as a King-level 'Typhoon King,' there was definitely a basis to what he said.
At this moment, Ye Tian felt fortunate to have come across this cultivation insight. Had he not seen it, he might have rushed to break through to the Grandmaster level soon, resulting in an incomplete foundation, and that would have been a regret for life.