Chapter 3: Auctions

The Auction House of the Demon Path Alliance was located in the core area of Jiemo Island, along with a Material Exchange, Elixir Exchange, Magic Artifact Exchange, Spirit Stone Exchange, and more—all direct subsidiaries of the Demon Path Alliance.
Every day, enormous quantities of materials, magic artifacts, elixirs, spirit stones, and other goods were traded in these places, generating vast wealth that flowed in and out of the Demon Path Alliance. As the intermediary, the alliance earned countless profits from these transactions.
If one were to calculate the daily wealth generated by all such alliances in the cultivation world, the figure would be truly staggering. And this wealth was divided equally among three major demonic cultivation forces—indicating just how powerful they were.
That day, an auction was to be held at Jiemo Island’s Auction House. Items collected by the Demon Path Alliance from various sects and individual cultivators were to be auctioned off in one large-scale event.
Naturally, people living on Jiemo Island, as well as those who had traveled specially from the South Demon Continent, gathered at the Auction House.
Qu Yi and Qing Wugui also arrived there. Looking around, they saw crowds of people moving about. Aside from those at the Golden Core stage, there were many at the Nascent Soul stage, though none at the Soul Departure stage had shown up.
Scanning with his spiritual sense, Qu Yi estimated that there were no less than ten thousand people at the auction. He sighed inwardly—this number was even greater than the total population of the four major sects on Cuimu Planet.
“Qing Wugui, why are there so many people here?” Qu Yi transmitted through his spiritual sense, filled with amazement.
Qing Wugui smiled faintly and replied, “There are thousands of demonic cultivation sects on the South Demon Continent of Tianfeng Planet. Just sending a few people here already amounts to thousands. Add to that the connections between Jiemo Island and other smaller cultivation planets, and more thousands arrive from there. Also, don’t forget—there are already many people living in the four districts on Jiemo Island itself.”
Qu Yi nodded, his surprise subsiding.
Suddenly, a loud announcement came from above the central area: “All cultivators who wish to attend the auction may now enter the Auction House.”
At that moment, everyone gathered in front of the Auction House square immediately filed inside. Qu Yi and Qing Wugui followed the crowd in, only to see them guided by the staff inside to different directions.
It turned out that the actual Auction House was built around a circular valley, filled with numerous arrays that were normally invisible. The part open to the public was merely a luxurious building used for announcing information and collecting items.

The crowd was guided to different locations and then settled in various seats throughout the valley. These seats were all separately isolated, built layer by layer starting from the bottom of the valley, with a total number of no less than 50,000. In the center of the valley, there was only one circular display platform, where the auctioneer would conduct the auctions. Qu Yi and Qing Wu Gui flew to a seat that had two soft nanmu chairs, with the number 2011 written on the ground. Clearly, Qu Yi’s seat number was 2011. Soon after, more people continued to fly in and take their seats, filling up the seats around the entire valley. Once everyone had arrived, the entrance to the auction hall was closed, and the valley underwent some changes. Suddenly, a mirror appeared above the valley and grew large enough to cover the entire valley. The mirror then emitted countless “well-shaped” beams of light that, upon reaching the ground, separated the seats from each other. Those sitting in the seats found themselves surrounded by walls of light, unable to transmit their spiritual awareness or see the seats next to them. Qu Yi and Qing Wu Gui encountered this scene for the first time; they shouted at first but, seeing that their voices couldn’t travel, calmed down, realizing it might be the effect of that magical mirror. Of course, many others who had been to the auction hall before didn’t react much to this strange sight. Then, an old man with a round face and white beard appeared on the circular platform in the center of the valley, accompanied by two alluring women in revealing clothing. The old man glanced around, smiled slightly, and picked up a mallet from the soundstone table on the platform. “Friends, welcome to the auction hall. I am Auctioneer No. 10259 of the Magic Path Alliance, Bai Xin,” the old man said softly. Immediately, Qu Yi, Qing Wu Gui, and all the others attending the auction noticed that the mirror in the sky reflected the scene in the center of the valley onto the light walls in front of them, while the other three sides remained pure walls of light. “Friends, before the auction officially begins, I must announce two rules as per tradition. First, the highest bidder wins any item. Second, those who bid on an item must bring spiritual stones to the scene,” Bai Xin said with a smile. Then, he picked up the mallet and tapped it on the soundstone table, declaring firmly, “Now, the auction officially begins!”

Immediately, the two beautiful women beside Bai Xin each placed the two jade slips in their hands on the sound stone table. Bai Xin picked up one jade slip and scanned it with his spiritual sense before smiling and saying, “Friends, what we’re auctioning first are some medicinal pills. Please watch the images in front of you carefully.” It turned out that Bai Xin himself didn’t know what would be auctioned today either; he only found out after scanning the jade slips. This showed just how secretive the Demon Path Alliance was about its auction items. Qu Yi and Qing Wu Gui stared at the light wall in front of them, watching the images of various medicinal pills constantly changing, along with detailed descriptions. Of course, the lowest price and the minimum increase amount for each pill were also listed. One medicinal pill after another was introduced in turn. Although Qu Yi didn’t need them to advance in cultivation, thinking of how much Bai Man needed them, he watched very attentively. “Hey, this Jin Yun Dan is perfect for my senior sister!” Suddenly, Qu Yi exclaimed happily upon seeing the description of one of the pills. Jin Yun Dan was suitable for gold-based cultivation techniques and was excellent for cultivators at the early stage of the Golden Dan phase to break through to the middle stage. Bai Man was currently at the early stage of the Golden Dan phase and was also practicing the gold-based technique ‘Golden Splendor’. “Yes, the lowest price is ten medium-grade spirit stones, with each increase being at least one hundred low-grade spirit stones,” Qing Wu Gui said calmly. In the cultivation world, medicinal pills were divided into three grades: ordinary pills, precious pills, and spiritual pills, each further divided into low, medium, and high grades. This corresponded to the classification of magical artifacts: ritual tools, precious artifacts, and spiritual artifacts. Currently, Jin Yun Dan belonged to the high-grade ordinary pills category and was crafted by those at the later stage of the Golden Dan phase, making it worth ten medium-grade spirit stones. Ten medium-grade spirit stones were equivalent to ten thousand low-grade spirit stones, so an increase of one hundred low-grade spirit stones per bid seemed appropriate. “Qing Wu Gui, I’m not interested in the other medicinal pills. I’ll take a nap; wake me up when it’s time to auction Jin Yun Dan,” Qu Yi said with a smile, then actually closed his eyes and lay down on the soft nanmu chair. Qing Wu Gui shook his head, closed his eyes, and lay down on the soft chair as well. “Friends, I believe everyone has already reviewed the descriptions of all the medicinal pills and must have picked out a few they’re interested in. Now let’s begin the auction of the medicinal pills. The first pill is Chun Yuan Dan. The starting bid is one hundred low-grade spirit stones, with each increase being fifty low-grade spirit stones. Friends, please start bidding,” Bai Xin suddenly called out. Then, the images of the medicinal pills on the light wall disappeared, revealing the scene on the round platform in the center of the valley.

Chunyuan Dan is merely a lower-grade magic pill that can be used to replenish spiritual energy. It’s useful for those in the Foundation Establishment stage, but for those at or above the Golden Core stage, it’s completely useless, as they can absorb more spiritual energy with just one breath than what Chunyuan Dan can provide.

“I’ll start by bidding—100 lower-grade spirit stones,” said a man from one of the seats.

Although no one else could hear the man’s voice, as soon as he made his bid, a number appeared on the light wall of all seats: 100. Soon after, another number appeared: 150, clearly as someone else had bid. Then, the number 150 remained unchanged, indicating that no one else raised their bid. The number 150 stayed there for several breaths. Seeing that no one else was bidding, Bai Xin smiled slightly, picked up the tuning hammer in his hand, and struck the sound stone platform firmly. Smiling, he said, “Congratulations to the person in seat 4589—the Chunyuan Dan is yours. Please have the staff take the Chunyuan Dan and exchange it for spirit stones with the person in seat 4589.”

Everyone on the light wall could only see Bai Xin speaking; they couldn’t see the auction staff. At that moment, an auction staff member actually went to seat 4589, handed over the Chunyuan Dan, and took away 150 lower-grade spirit stones.

Immediately afterward, Bai Xin auctioned a few more pills. Since they were all magic pill-grade, their auction prices weren’t very high, and few people were interested in bidding, so the auction process for these pills was brief.

“Now, let’s start auctioning the next pill—Jinyun Dan. This is a higher-grade magic pill that’s a blessing for those in the early stages of the Golden Core stage who practice metal-related cultivation techniques. The starting bid is ten medium-grade spirit stones, with increases of 100 lower-grade spirit stones each time,” Bai Xin announced cheerfully.

As soon as Bai Xin finished speaking, Qu Yi and Qing Wugui both opened their eyes and looked at the light wall. They hadn’t actually been sleeping; they just didn’t want to keep staring at the light wall, so they had been listening carefully to Bai Xin’s words while pretending to sleep. Now that it was finally time for Jinyun Dan, Qu Yi didn’t dare slack off—this was related to Bai Man’s advancement, and he must win it.

“20!” Qing Wugui called out softly.

At that moment, a number 20 appeared on the light wall.

Qu Yi sneered and then said, “I’ll add 100 lower-grade spirit stones.”

Instantly, the number 10,100 appeared on the light wall, representing 10,100 lower-grade spirit stones.

Hahaha!

As soon as this number appeared, the people in the thousands of seats started laughing. It’s really funny that the guy increased the price by just 100 lower-grade spirit stones; he actually did increase it by only 100 lower-grade spirit stones.