In the following scenes, Sunan kept foreseeing, and within a few breaths, he had already predicted five times.
Fifteen minutes had passed in these predictions, and a total of eight items had been auctioned.
Due to the early stage of the auction, the items might be rare treasures for ordinary martial artists, but they were useless to Sunan.
However, he didn't come away empty-handed from these predictions.
He noticed that the highest prices for several items were no more than sixty drops of ordinary-grade essence blood, which was too cheap for him.
You see, every time he came to the Heavenly Palace Pavilion, it cost him dozens of drops of spirit-grade essence blood, and even for something he casually bought, it would require at least a few drops of spirit-grade essence blood.
Moreover, the items available for auction in the Heavenly Palace Pavilion were undoubtedly top-notch in their respective realms. Even so, they were only sold for a maximum of sixty drops of ordinary-grade essence blood, which, when converted to spirit-grade essence blood, was only six drops.
"This can only mean one thing: the martial artists in this world are generally very poor and don't have much monster essence blood."
Sunan came up with a possible explanation.
Low-level monsters mostly appeared in groups, and it was challenging for martial artists to hunt them down. It might take several days or even more than a dozen days to hunt just one monster.
Not everyone could kill monsters easily like him.
"No, it's not that the martial artists in this world are too poor; it's that I am too rich."
"It's not that the things I buy are too expensive; it's that the things I buy are all top-tier."
Sunan sighed.
The cheapest things he bought in the Heavenly Palace Pavilion, apart from the Beast Manual, were the Vitality-Boosting Jade Fluid. However, even such items were not accessible to ordinary players.
The predictions continued.
In the next predictions, Sunan suddenly noticed something that made him furrow his brows.
He discovered that among all the bidders this time, there was actually a tycoon.
...
[One minute later, the Scarlet Sun Blade was acquired by the owner of Room 304 for thirty-five drops of ordinary-grade monster essence blood.]
...
[Three minutes later, the Hundred Refinements Sword was acquired by the owner of Room 304 for forty-three drops of ordinary-grade monster essence blood.]
...
[Two minutes later, the Guardian Jade Pendant was acquired by the owner of Room 304 for fifty-one drops of ordinary-grade monster essence blood.]
The owner of Room 304! In nearly every prediction, the owner of Room 304 would bid for an item.
"Where did this tycoon come from?" Sunan wondered.
Someone who could offer so much essence blood must have formidable strength. However, if the opponent was genuinely powerful, they wouldn't need these items that were useful for ordinary martial artists.
The owner of Room 304 continued to bid, and in a flash, eighteen minutes had passed in the predictions, with a total of twelve items auctioned, six of which were unexpectedly won by the owner of Room 304.
Sunan made a rough calculation. The owner of Room 304 had already spent over three hundred and fifty drops of ordinary-grade monster essence blood.
At this point, the auction using ordinary-grade monster essence blood had finally ended, and they began auctioning items that would be settled with spirit-grade monster essence blood.
Meanwhile, the live auction had officially begun, but Sunan paid no attention to it and continued to focus on the predictions.
[The second round of the auction has begun. This auction only allows the use of spirit-grade or higher-level monster essence blood for settlement. The first item up for auction is a broken black ancient sword.]
[According to the auction's host, this black ancient sword was found in an ancient battlefield. Its power had long since been worn away by the passage of time, but due to its special material, it remained exceptionally sharp.]
[This time, the owner of Room 304 did not make a bid, and neither did you.]
[Three minutes later, the black ancient sword was acquired by the owner of Room 503 for twelve drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood.]
"It's a good thing that guy didn't bid again. I hope he won't bid when the psychic fragment comes up."
Although he had plenty of essence blood, if the owner of Room 304 continued to interfere, even if he successfully acquired the psychic fragment, he would likely end up spending more than necessary.
If not for the fact that all the previous items were won by the owner of Room 304, he would have suspected that the other party was a plant.
The eighth prediction began.
[The fourteenth item was presented by the auction's host, and it was a pair of black crystals.]
[The moment you saw the black crystals, you realized that they were the psychic fragments you needed.]
"Here it comes!"
Seeing the psychic fragments, Sunan immediately became alert.
What surprised him even more was that there were two psychic fragments, and he needed two to upgrade his psychic abilities. If he could win both at once, he would be able to increase his psychic abilities by one level.
[Compared to the complete psychic seed you once used, the psychic fragments are less than half the size.]
[According to the auction's host, the psychic fragments contain a portion of the psychic power and can be used to unleash psychic abilities equivalent to the strike of a late-stage spirit-grade martial artist. Many people were interested in them.]
[The owner of Room 304 made a bid again, directly offering a price of ten drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood. This time, you didn't hesitate and decisively raised your bid to twenty drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood.]
"Did that guy from Room 304 bid again?"
Sunan's heart sank; he didn't want to see what he feared the most.
[You doubled the price, and many people in the room looked in your direction. The owner of Room 304 didn't give up and added five drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood to your bid.]
[A brief three rounds of bidding, and the price for the psychic fragments had reached twenty-five drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood, causing many people to give up.]
[In their eyes, spending over twenty drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood for two psychic fragments that could unleash the power of a late-stage spirit-grade martial artist once was not worth it.]
[However, you didn't give up and added five more drops of essence blood. The owner of Room 304 also raised the bid again.]
[You continued to raise the bid, and one minute later, you had pushed the price to fifty drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood, and finally, the other side did not raise the bid.]
[Congratulations, you successfully won two psychic fragments.]
[A moment later, a maid delivered the two psychic fragments to your room. After paying the essence blood, you finally obtained the two fragments.]
"He gave up just like that?"
"I thought it might have been some formidable expert like Zhou Cheng or Li Ye, but it seems not," Sunan breathed a sigh of relief.
Fifty drops of spirit-grade essence blood were equivalent to fifty early-stage spirit-grade monsters. Perhaps this price would be a fortune for other spirit-grade martial artists, but it was nothing for Sunan.
[Auction continued. Two minutes later, the host of the auction brought out the fifteenth item, a
short sword measuring about one foot in length.]
[The short sword was ancient and covered in rust. According to the auction's host, this short sword also came from ancient times. Like the previous ancient blade, its power had long been lost, leaving only its special material.]
[The owner of Room 304 made a bid again, this time directly offering twenty drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood.]
[The bold bid left everyone at the scene shocked, and no one was willing to raise the bid, including you. Ultimately, the owner of Room 304 won the short sword for twenty drops of spirit-grade monster essence blood.]
[You noticed that after winning the short sword, the owner of Room 304 clearly didn't want to continue bidding on other items. After the maid delivered the short sword to the room, he got up and left the room, heading towards the outside of the auction venue.]
[You saw that he was a young man in his early twenties, looking ordinary.]
[You didn't realize that he, like you, was an outsider.]
"A player?"
"This guy is actually a player?" Sunan was surprised, his eyes filled with astonishment.
The young man had offered over three hundred drops of ordinary-grade essence blood and twenty drops of spirit-grade essence blood. If he were a native martial artist of the monster world, offering so much essence blood might not be a big deal. However, if he were a player, it was a different story.
"Over three hundred drops of ordinary-grade essence blood might not be much, but twenty drops of spirit-grade essence blood is definitely not something an ordinary player can afford."
"If it were Zhou Cheng or Li Ye, maybe it would be possible, but for anyone else, it's impossible to come up with so much spirit-grade essence blood."
In an instant, Sunan realized that something was amiss.
As he looked at the predictions again, he came up with a possible explanation.
"This guy left after winning the short sword, which means that the short sword was his real target."
"It's even possible that his earlier display of extravagance was to create the illusion that he had a lot of essence blood, so that when he finally made his move, others would be reluctant to bid."
The more Sunan thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
This was evident from the young man's direct bid of twenty drops of spirit-grade essence blood at the end.
In auctions, those who bid a high price all at once were usually one of two types of people.
The first type were those who genuinely had a lot of money and didn't care about the cost.
The second type were those who were running low on money or weren't completely confident.
Chapter 170: Another Wealthy Player
They wanted to go all in and take a gamble.
If others didn't know their details, they would easily be intimidated and wouldn't dare to continue raising the bid.
"Interesting, could that short sword hide some secrets?"
Curiosity gleamed in Sunan's eyes.
Since the other party wanted to win the short sword, he naturally wouldn't let them succeed easily. What if the short sword really had some significant secrets hidden within it? He didn't want to miss out.
The predictions continued.
Unfortunately, the next predictions didn't show anything he needed.
After another four consecutive predictions, the auction finally came to an end.
Taking his eyes off the personal information panel, Sunan looked down at the auction platform.
At this point, they had already reached the third item in the auction.
Knowing that the psychic fragments would ultimately end up in his hands, Sunan wasn't in a hurry and patiently waited.
Sixteen to seventeen minutes passed, and the ancient blade he had predicted appeared.
Sunan's expression remained unchanged as he continued to wait.
One minute later, the ancient blade was won by the owner of Room 503.
Immediately after, the psychic fragments were presented.
"The next items for auction are two Dao Embryos, crafted from the insights of ancient powerhouses."
"But don't underestimate these two Dao Embryos. Although the use of psychic arts and techniques has been lost since ancient times, if you activate these shattered Dao Embryos, you can still unleash the full power of a late-stage Spirit-Grade martial artist."
As per the custom, the old auctioneer introduced the psychic fragments.
"Two Dao Embryos are now up for auction."
As soon as the old auctioneer finished speaking, the voice of the young man from Room 304 rang out, "10 drops of Spirit-Grade monster essence blood!"
"20 drops!" Sunan didn't hesitate and quickly followed suit.
This was the first time Sunan had made a bid so far.
The young man in Room 304 reacted swiftly, adding 5 more drops of essence blood to his bid.
Sunan's expression remained unchanged as he continued to raise the bid.
Little did he know, as he continued to increase the bid, the young man in Room 304 was growing anxious. He was constantly communicating with someone through a private chat channel.
"What should we do, boss? The price for those two psychic fragments has already reached 40 drops of essence blood."
"That person in Room 309 didn't make any moves before, but now he suddenly bid, and it looks like he's determined to get those two psychic fragments."
The young man explained the situation in the auction venue to his boss.
After receiving the message, the other person quickly replied.
"What if he's also a player?"
"Even if he's an ordinary player, he wouldn't know the use of psychic fragments. Only people in the Tianyun County might know about psychic fragments, like Zhou Cheng, Zhang Yang, and that new guy, Wang Nan."
"If it's Zhou Cheng, it's not a big deal. He probably doesn't have much essence blood either. But if it's Zhang Yang or Wang Nan, it could be dangerous."
"Forget it, don't bid anymore for the psychic fragments. Focus on the sword."
"Alright, boss."
With the reply in hand, the young man breathed a sigh of relief and didn't continue raising the bid.
At this point, the price for the two psychic fragments had reached exactly 50 drops of Spirit-Grade monster essence blood.
No one else raised the bid, and in the end, Sunan successfully won the two psychic fragments.
Shortly after, a maid brought the two psychic fragments to him. After paying the essence blood, the completion notification for the task popped up.
"Congratulations, you have completed the daily task 'Win any item from the Heavenly Palace Pavilion,' and received 5 points of demonic power."
"Current available demonic power: 11 points."
With the task completed and the items in his possession, Sunan had successfully achieved his goal this time.
He examined the two psychic fragments.
"Psychic Fragment: Fragments of a psychic seed after it shattered, containing a small amount of profound insights. Can be used to enhance psychic abilities. Do you wish to use them immediately?"
"Use!" Without hesitation, Sunan chose to use them.
As he focused his mind, the two shattered psychic fragments quickly melted and merged into his body.
"Congratulations, your Psychic Dimensional Shift has been upgraded to the second level. You can now use it one more time per day, and the maximum teleportation distance has increased by one thousand kilometers."
"An increase of one thousand kilometers at once! Not bad."
A smile appeared on Sunan's lips. Although the usage limit had only increased by one, the teleportation distance had doubled.
One teleportation of two thousand kilometers, three teleports would be a total of six thousand kilometers!
With such an ability, he could easily teleport out of Tianyun City if needed. Even the Demon King would find it difficult to catch him now.
His survival abilities had improved once again.
"Would you like to spend 4 psychic fragments to upgrade Psychic Dimensional Shift to the third level?"
"You do not have enough psychic fragments for the upgrade at the moment."
"Four fragments!"
"Upgrading will be more challenging next time." Sunan sighed, but he wasn't surprised.
Turning his attention back to the auction, the short sword he had been waiting for was finally brought out.
(End of this chapter)