Chapter 0768: The Appearance of the Stone Essence

“Interesting,” Huang Long thought to himself.
The Golden Ape Clan was very powerful in the Hongmeng Realm, one of the Five Dominant Clans, with strength ranking only after the Thunder Roc Clan and the Heavenly Phoenix Clan.
Although there was no official ranking among the Five Dominant Clans, most god-tier powerhouses in the Hongmeng Realm believed the Thunder Roc Clan was at the top, followed by the Heavenly Phoenix Clan!
The Golden Ape Clan came in third, the Heavenly Dragon Clan in fourth, and the Silver Fox Clan at the bottom!
In the Chaos Divine Realm, Yi Dehai and Mu Li, a couple from Mount Twin Apes, allied with Leo, Keller, Hebray, Opot and others, turning against their own side. Such betrayal naturally made Huang Long hold no goodwill toward the Golden Ape Clan.
“I hope they don’t run into me during the rooftop duel!” A cold glint appeared in Huang Long’s eyes.
If he encountered an elder from the Golden Ape Clan during the duel, Huang Long wouldn’t hesitate to kill him in front of many powerful clans from the Hongmeng Realm!
After the second Supreme Divine Blade, the third item up for auction was a plant that resembled ginseng.
This ginseng-like plant was not very tall, just over a meter, with a trunk as thick as an average person’s arm. The entire plant was yellow-brown, with a sparkling glow within it, making it striking from a distance.
What caught people’s attention were the several thumb-sized fruits hanging from its branches. These fruits even resembled human faces, with complex expressions.
“Is this the Spirit Human Tree?” When this ginseng-like plant appeared on the auction stage, shouts of surprise erupted among the audience, which continued for quite some time before gradually subsiding.
Spirit Human Tree? Huang Long and the others were also surprised. Although it wasn’t at the level of a Hongmeng Spiritual Treasure, it was still extremely precious, comparable to ordinary Hongmeng Spiritual Treasures in many ways.
Of course, it couldn’t compare to the Tianxian Tree that Huang Long had given to Huoyang back then. The Tianxian Tree had even drawn competition from the Nine Great Divine Kings of Feili.
However, the fruits of the Spirit Human Tree reminded Huang Long of the ginseng fruits from the Pan Gu Ginseng Tree. While the ginseng fruits resembled infants, these Spirit Human Fruits could change to mimic human facial expressions.
“I never expected the Heavenly Phoenix Clan to bring out the Spirit Human Tree for auction!” Huoyang beside him couldn’t help but exclaim.
Huang Long nodded.
“I believe everyone recognizes the origin of this plant. That’s right—it is the Spirit Human Tree!” After the audience’s excitement died down, the auction host raised his voice and said.
Then, the host explained some of the uses of the Spirit Human Tree.

Once the crowd on site grew intensely eager, the host finally announced the rules for bidding on the Spirit Tree.
“This time, our Tianfeng clan is auctioning this Spirit Tree mainly to obtain an innate artifact of the fire attribute. Of course, whoever presents the most precious innate artifact will get the Spirit Tree,” the host said.
The Spirit Tree was an earth attribute artifact, but since the Tianfeng clan specialized in fire attributes, it made sense that they wanted to exchange it for an innate artifact of fire.
Although innate artifacts were valuable, there were still many of them. As soon as the host started the bidding, several people brought out fire attribute innate artifacts to compete.
“Is there anyone else willing to bid on the Spirit Tree with a fire attribute innate artifact?” the host asked. After seeing the artifacts presented by those people, his eyes showed clear disappointment.
Innate artifacts also came in different qualities, just like divine artifacts. The fire attribute innate artifacts shown by those people were far less valuable compared to the Spirit Tree.
“Fire Spirit Flower!” At that moment, a deep voice rang out.
Fire Spirit Flower?! The crowd exclaimed in surprise and turned to look in the direction of the voice.
Huang Long was also stunned, for it was Huoyang who had spoken!
What did Huoyang want with the Spirit Tree? Huang Long wondered.
Under the gaze of everyone, Huoyang summoned the Fire Spirit Flower. A crimson glow flashed in front of him, dazzling the eyes of the gods. Then, a swirling crimson light appeared in mid-air above the square. Through this glowing light, everyone saw a flower half a meter tall, half-circular in shape, and the size of a palm—elegant and radiant.
As this half-circular, palm-sized flower appeared, spiritual energy from the surrounding area rushed toward it at a visible speed, swirling around it. A small vortex of air formed around it.
“It’s indeed the Fire Spirit Flower!” In the VIP room, Wei Lie stared at the Fire Spirit Flower below the square, muttering to himself. This Fire Spirit Flower was the pinnacle of fire attribute innate artifacts. It hadn’t appeared for countless thousands of years—yet here it was at the Fengming Merchant Guild’s auction.
The Spirit Tree was rare, but the Fire Spirit Flower was even rarer. Moreover, for the Tianfeng clan, the fire attribute Fire Spirit Flower was far more useful than the Spirit Tree.
Without surprise, in the end, Huoyang won the Spirit Tree through his bid for the Fire Spirit Flower.
After the third item came the fourth, then the fifth. But Wei Lie had no interest in paying attention to the auction anymore. He remained in the VIP room, focusing his attention on Huang Long and the others.

The person with the appearance of Huoyang was the second eldest of the Naisi family. Yet, both the family’s progenitor, Lus, and the clan leader, Perkin, acted cautiously around him. Although Lus and Perkin hid their feelings well, Wei Le still noticed their restraint.

Wei Le frowned. It was unusual for a family’s progenitor and clan leader to be cautious—or even reverent—toward a second eldest. Yet he couldn’t see anything abnormal about Huoyang.

“Now, we will auction the tenth item. This tenth item was entrusted to our merchant guild by Elder Hassen of the Maide family for auction,” said the host. Then he ordered the item to be brought up—yes, it was carried up by two youths dressed in the attire of the Tianfeng clan’s servants.

What was carried up was a stone half a meter high!

This stone was quite strange. Its surface appeared ordinary, like any regular rock, but from within came faint thumping sounds, similar to a human heartbeat.

When Huang Long saw the stone being brought up, his eyes narrowed, and he slowly said, “Stone essence!”

“That’s right! What Elder Hassen of the Maide family entrusted to our guild for auction is indeed a piece of stone essence!” the host declared loudly, noticing the puzzled expressions among the audience.

Instantly, the auction hall erupted in chaos. Even some of the powerful clan members who had been unsure before were now astonished, excited, and stared intently at the stone on the auction stage.

If the Spirit Tree and the Fire Spirit Flower were rare, they paled in comparison to stone essence!

This stone essence could be used in two ways! The outer layer of stone-iron could be used for crafting weapons; it was said to be an important material for holy kings to create their sacred treasures. Meanwhile, the inner layer of jade essence was one of the key materials for crafting innate divine pills.

Of course, the uses of stone essence extended far beyond these.