Chapter 598: Exorbitantly Priced Auction Items

Ye Feng never expected that in just five days, he would manage to bid on eleven substances with extreme attributes. Essentially, all such substances that appeared at the auction during those days were snapped up by him, except for one Earth-type substance called Xi Rang. The reason he didn’t bid for it was because he already possessed it.

Some people called Ye Feng’s frenzied bidding behavior insane, while others guessed roughly what he was trying to achieve.

“That kid—although his cultivation level isn’t clear, he should be at the Star Sea level,” said an old man in VIP Room No. 1 with a smile. “Xing Er, can you figure out why he’s trying to acquire so many substances with extreme attributes?”

“Grandfather, I guess that young man has already reached the peak of the Star Sea level. So he wants to cultivate more laws before breaking through, in order to develop more divine powers,” replied a young man who seemed around Ye Feng’s age respectfully.

“Hmm, you’re only partly right. You haven’t guessed the most important part,” the old man said with a shake of his head.

“Is there any other reason?” the young man couldn’t help asking.

“I guess he wants to turn all nine laws of each attribute into divine powers,” the old man said. At these words, the young man gasped in shock.

“How is that even possible?” the young man asked, filled with disbelief. “With my aptitude, it would take at least hundreds of millions of years to turn just one law into a divine power. Even for the five basic attributes—nine laws per attribute—that’s a total of forty-five laws, requiring 4.5 billion years. The laws of light and darkness are twice as difficult to master; each would take 200 million years, so 18 laws would take 3.6 billion years. In total, that’s 8.1 billion years. Who would stay stuck at the Star Sea level for so long? It’s better to advance to the Star Domain level earlier. Besides, many basic laws offer neither offensive nor defensive power—cultivating them into divine powers is pure waste of time.”

“Not necessarily. I’ve told you before that divine powers can be fused and upgraded, right? Though under normal circumstances, even those at the Star Universe level might not be able to do it,” the old man replied with a shake of his head. “The more divine powers one obtains, the stronger they will become later on. That’s an unchanging truth. It’s just that only madmen can endure the loneliness and put such ideas into practice. Ordinary people would rather advance to the Star Domain level sooner so they can learn domain powers earlier.”

Of course, Ye Feng couldn’t hear the discussions in the VIP room caused by him. Everything inside the VIP room was completely isolated from the outside world.

It was already the sixth and final day of the auction. Various high-value items were unveiled one after another and sold at prices that made Ye Feng’s mouth water. Of course, among them were also peak-grade spiritual treasures. The highest bid went to an offensive-type peak-grade spiritual treasure—a long sword—with a starting price of five million star crystals. This starting price was fifty times that of top-tier spiritual treasures, which surprised Ye Feng slightly; he had thought twenty times would already be quite high. Eventually, this offensive-type peak-grade spiritual treasure with a starting price of five million was sold for 1.68 million, giving Ye Feng a glimmer of hope for success. The auction neared its end quickly. On the final day, Ye Feng didn’t buy a single item. What he was most eager for was his own palace-type peak-grade spiritual treasure, which was set to be the grand finale. “Now, we welcome the last item in this auction, the starkest highlight of this event.” The auctioneer’s words stirred excitement among the crowd, though largely not because of him—many had already known what the final item was from advertisements, and quite a few powerful individuals had come specifically for it. “So, what is the last item in this auction?” the auctioneer continued to hype the crowd. “A… palace-type… peak-grade spiritual treasure!!! That’s right, you haven’t heard wrong—this is the third palace-type peak-grade spiritual treasure to appear in the entire star realm!” “According to Mr. Chen’s appraisal, this palace-type peak-grade spiritual treasure seems to still have no owner. He also conducted a very thorough inspection. In his own words, ‘This peak-grade spiritual treasure possesses the quality of a top-tier spiritual treasure and could easily rank among the top three defensive spiritual treasures.’” The auctioneer’s tactics were effective, and Mr. Chen seemed to have great prestige, which surprised Ye Feng a bit. He had thought the old man was just an ordinary appraiser—older and with more experience appraising items, but a profession that should remain obscure and unknown to most. “Enough talk. The starting price is two million star crystals, with increases of no less than one hundred thousand each time!” The auctioneer pulled back the cloth covering the item, revealing a miniature palace scaled down countless times. “The auction begins now!” Before he could finish speaking, bids started pouring in. “Two million one.” “Two million two!” “Two million three!”

“Two million four hundred!”
……
Ye Feng listened calmly as the bid kept rising. In just a few breaths, it had reached three million, and the upward trend showed no sign of stopping, instead intensifying further.
Another few breaths passed, and it reached four million.
The bidding continued without pause. Clearly, this palace-type spiritual treasure, capable of ranking among the top three among defensive spiritual treasures, was the best choice for ensuring survival. Since the top ten spots were already taken, the emergence of one that could rank in the top three naturally drew fierce competition from many.
The price kept climbing to eight million before the bidding voices noticeably decreased.
“Eight million one hundred thousand!”
“Eight million two hundred thousand!”
“Eight million three hundred thousand!”
……
Although the number of bidding voices had dropped from thousands to just three bidders, the price continued to rise steadily.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the price reached nine million.
At this point, although there were still three bidders, the speed of bidding slowed down significantly.
“Nine million five hundred thousand!”
“Nine million five hundred thousand—anyone willing to bid higher?” The auctioneer was overjoyed inside, but he didn’t show it at all. Instead, he said seriously, “This is the second most valuable defensive spiritual treasure in the entire galaxy after those two supreme ones…”
“Nine million six hundred thousand!”
“Nine million seven hundred thousand!”
After a brief silence, a bid of ten million came in from VIP Room Number One.
“Ten million—anyone higher? Ten million, first time… Ten million, second time… Ten million…”
“Ten million five hundred thousand!” Just as everyone thought the outcome was settled, another dramatic change occurred as VIP Room Number Two raised the bid again.
“The price is now ten million five hundred thousand!” The auctioneer grew excited. This was the first time he had auctioned an item worth over ten million. “Is there anyone willing to bid higher…”
The crowd fell silent.
In VIP Room Number One, the old man shook his head helplessly. “Sigh, I shouldn’t have bought that sword…”
……
In the end, VIP Room Number Two won Ye Feng’s top-tier palace-type spiritual treasure for ten million five hundred thousand.
Just as Ye Feng stood up, ready to go to the back to hand over the item, a voice reached his ears…