Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 34 – Auctioning Top Grade Pills

After leaving the Eastern Mountain Sect, Qin Yu placed Blacksky Demon back into the Soul Burying Flag. He didn’t know what sort of treasure the inkjade scepter was, but it could also be received into the Soul Burying Flag. It was no wonder that Blacksky Demon had instinctively taken this demonic treasure when he struck down Zhao Chan. With another demonic treasure, Blacksky Demon would be stronger and Qin Yu would also be that much safer.

As he hurried along he encountered many fleeing cultivators. Several days later when he left the southwest region that had been ravaged by the demonic path, he began to think about what his next step should be.

The demonic path had undertaken a large-scale invasion, and with their immense strength it wouldn’t be long before the majority of the Southern Empire would be ravaged with the flames of war. Although he had the Soul Burying Flag in his hands, it still couldn’t be considered his own strength. Qin Yu’s cultivation was only at the fourth level of Foundation Establishment. If he weren’t careful his tiny little boat would capsize beneath his feet.

“It seems I need to find some place to hide out.” Qin Yu mumbled to himself.

With the little blue lamp, he had no lack of pills. What he lacked was time. With the Southern Empire in chaos, this was the best time for him to concentrate on his own cultivation. The best outcome would be for him to form his own Golden Core. Then, no matter when or where he was, he would at least have the minimum level of strength needed to preserve his own life.

However, before living in seclusion, he had to restock the items on his body. In particular, the more Foundation Establishment realm cultivation pills he had, the better.

Woosh –

Qin Yu departed with a howl into the wind.

Two days later, Billowing Wave City.

As a great city of cultivators within the Southern Empire, this city was naturally splendid and prosperous. Its towering city walls were dozens of feet thick and nearly broke through the skies. They were also supported with array formations that left the citizens feeling safe from all external threats.

Countless cultivators were gathering here from all directions. After a short half month, the large city even seemed a bit overcrowded.

People stood shoulder to shoulder in the wide and long streets. In this hustle and bustle, everyone seemed to be in a rush, their eyes furrowed in hurry. The invasion of the demonic path was like a sword that hung above their hands. Even if it wouldn’t strike at them any time soon, it still made it hard for them to find inner peace.

Waves of people had gathered at the largest auction house in the city. Many powerhouses that were rarely seen on ordinary days had turned out in droves. In front of the auction house, many cultivators greeted each other as they entered. Those with experience knew that there must be some great treasure being auctioned today if so many powerful forces had decided to gather here.

Qin Yu walked in with the flow of people. As he entered the auction house, he took a seat in the far back. His fourth level Foundation Establishment cultivation seemed common and ordinary here.

“I heard yesterday that there was a batch of pills delivered for auction so the auction house vigorously spread out this news, leading to today’s grand event!”

“Pills? Are you sure you didn’t hear wrong? Just look over there, the first row, sixth from the left, that is an Elder from Immortal Eclipse Valley, an alchemy grandmaster who has spent his life refining pills. Do you think such a character would rush here from so far away just for a mere batch of pills?”

“Humph! If these were ordinary pills then the Elder from Immortal Eclipse Valley naturally wouldn’t spare this auction a glance. But from what I know, these are Spiritual Essence, Essence Augmenting, and Body Forging Pills, three different types of Foundation Establishment realm pills. There are three batches of 100 pills and all of them top grade!” The cultivator proudly said. “Do you know what top grade pills are? They are the best overall quality possible, a single one is equal to ten ordinary ones!”

“And do you know what this means? The most heaven-defying effect of a pill is when they are used when a cultivator is trying to make a breakthrough and increases their chances of success.” Another man sneered as he spoke, “So what do you think the large influences lack the most? Do you think it’s those common Foundation Establishment cultivators? No, it is Golden Cores! They are incredibly rare! And these batches of 300 top grade pills have a high possibility of producing five Golden Cores or even more. With the demonic path’s invasion, it wouldn’t be strange if there was a crazy competition for these pills! There will definitely be a sky-high price today!”

On the side, the meditating Qin Yu appeared as if he didn’t hear any of the conversations around him.

The auction soon started. The auctioneer walked up, an old man with a red face. He stepped onto the high platform and cupped his hands across his chest. “Today, powers from all over have gathered here truly bringing honor to my humble little auction house. With the current situation in the world being so tense, I won’t speak much and will officially begin the auction.”

With a clap, a crystal jade box as large as a fish bowl was lifted up onto the stage by two cultivators. The red silk covering it was lifted away and the 300 pills were clearly revealed in everyone’s eyes. Within the crystal jade box, the 300 pills were illuminated by lights glowing within; this scene was simply explosive!

Hu –

The entire auction house began to stir!

The two cultivators standing on the side of the crystal jade box took deep breaths. The aura of Golden Cores slowly released and shrouded the entire platform, capable of instantly responding to the tiniest movement.

The auctioneer clapped his hands together and excitedly said, “Today’s first auction will be 300 top grade Foundation Establishment realm pills! Spiritual Essence, Essence Augmenting, and Body Forging Pills, 100 of each kind. After being appraised by the auction house, we have determined that all 300 pills are top grade quality!

“These three groups of pills will be divided into three auctions and we only accept biddings of raw materials. The first auction will be the 100 Essence Soul Pills with a base price of 1000 Essence Soul Pill materials. Every increase in bidding can be no lower than 100. Let the auction begin!”

From the first row of seats, the Immortal Eclipse Valley Elder immediately called out a bid of 8000 sets of materials. This bid drove the entire auction hall into a frenzy. Everyone drew back in fear at such a terrifying offer, and without incident the 100 top grade Essence Soul Pills were won by Immortal Eclipse Valley.

But following that, the competition for the Essence Augmenting Pills and Body Forging Pills were no less intense; they were even more explosive. The appearance of top quality pills was a rare enough occasion that they could be counted on one hand, so it was completely unheard of for 300 pills to appear from nowhere. If one were to miss such a chance, it was unlikely they would ever encounter something like this again.

Immortal Eclipse Valley showed just how disgustingly wealthy they were. They showed off their ability in the auction and soon won the 100 Essence Augmenting Pills too. The other forces present couldn’t sit still any longer. After a short discussion they decided to band together, and thus the last 100 Body Forging Pills were bought by joint forces for a heaven-quaking price of 11,000 material sets.

The Immortal Eclipse Valley Elder’s face darkened. He flicked his sleeves and left!

There were also a good number of cultivators that couldn’t withstand the heated atmosphere in the auction hall and started to leave with pale faces, their hearts and minds still ringing.

8000 Essence Soul Pill materials, 8000 Essence Augmenting Pill materials, 11,000 Body Forging Pill materials, these were a total of 27,000 material sets. According to market price, while there were minor fluctuations for material prices, each material set could be converted into approximately three spirit stones. This meant that the final total bid was 81,000 spirit stones!

If a Golden Core cultivator possessed several thousand spirits stones they were already considered rich. As for over 80,000 spirit stones, that was enough to cause a Nascent Soul realm cultivator to be envious!

Even though the auction house only took a 20% cut, there was still more than enough profit. Thus, when they received the cultivator who put up these pills, they were absolutely respectful. Of course this was also due to the strong aura of the person as well as their mysterious identity.

A dark and chilling voice sounded out from beneath a hooded black robe. “Where is it?” The voice was hoarse and gravelly, like two dry stones rubbing together.

The auction house chief manager beamed a smile that was brighter than the sun. “A 20% cut was supposed to be deducted, but I have taken responsibility so that fellow daoist will receive 22,000 material sets. And following your request, 10,000 material sets were exchanged for 30,000 spirit stones. There are still 4000 material sets for each pill left.”

The black-robed figure took out a storage bag. “Put it in.”

The chief manager clapped his hands. 12,000 material sets and 30,000 spirit stones were placed into a box and into the storage bag. After the exchange, both sides tore up their contract to signal the completion of the transaction.

“I want to take a rest here for a while. Is that possible?”

The chief manager’s eyebrows wrinkled for a brief moment before he recovered himself. “If my honored guest asks, how can I refuse? Take our honored guest to the best room so that he can rest, and make sure all his requests are fulfilled.”

The black-robed figure cupped his hands together and followed a guard away. A light flashed in the chief manager’s eyes as he pondered the situation.

“Teacher, this honored guest clearly has a tremendous background, so why not try to form a closer relationship with him so that we can cooperate more in the future?” A youth asked on the side.

The chief manager shook his head, “Are you trying to ask why I am performing business so cut and dry and clearly separating our involvement with this person?”

The youth nodded, “I ask teacher to clear my doubts.”

The chief manager’s face sank. “You are too young. Do you really think that this world is so happy and wonderful like your dreams? That is over 60,000 spirit stones, a wealth that even tempts my own heart, so do you think all those wolves and tigers gathered outside will let him off? And even if his strength is great, it doesn’t matter too much. It is hard for two fists to face four from the enemy. I fear this person won’t be able to get a hundred miles away from Billowing Wave City!”

As Qin Yu followed the stream of people out of the auction house, he discovered many individuals with imposing auras sweeping their eyes around, investigating everyone like hawks, as if they were looking for something. He maintained his calm composure as he left the crowd and arrived at a remote corner. From beneath his voluminous robes, a light flashed in his hands as he took out the Soul Burying Flag. A black gas rose up from the ground with a thought and entered into it.

After finishing this, Qin Yu left the corner and joined back into the stream of people. He didn’t walk too far from the auction house and entered a shop that was selling all sorts of spiritual plants. He had only been planning to stroll around to pass the time, but soon he had the idea of making some purchases. At the back of the Medicine Codex, there were many methods listed for raising spiritual plants. Since he didn’t know how long he would be in seclusion, he might as well take this opportunity to learn.

The materials needed to refine Golden Core level pills could be bought ahead of time. Golden Core and later level pills were incomparably precious and rarely circulated on the market. If there really came a day when he would need such pills then it was best to be prepared early.

After having these thoughts, Qin Yu started to earnestly select different spiritual plants. If he didn’t look he wouldn’t have known there were hundreds upon hundreds of types of spiritual plants here. He didn’t need Energy Refining realm spirit plants, so what he looked for were Foundation Establishment realm spirit plants as well as some Golden Core realm spirit plants. There was no need for him to consider anything higher. Of course, even if he wanted to he wouldn’t find any. The seeds of Nascent Soul realm spirit plants were valuable and needed to be carefully preserved, so it was impossible that shops like these would take them out for others to peruse.

Qin Yu thought of the packet of seeds in Blacksky Demon’s storage bag. If he preserved them so carefully, they were likely uncommon items. He definitely had to try cultivating them; he might be pleasantly surprised.

An hour later, Qin Yu had chosen 37 different types of spirit plants. Perhaps it was because of the chaos in the region, but the prices of everything had dramatically risen, causing him to need to spend nearly a hundred spirit stones. This amount attracted many surprised gazes.

However, as these people saw Qin Yu’s young age coupled with his cultivation, as well as his calm demeanor, they thought he was the disciple of some large faction that was secretly purchasing things. Such a person often had a powerhouse from the sect following them, so no one dared to have any evil thoughts against him.

When Qin Yu put all the seeds away he suddenly heard a disturbance from outside. The gloomy cultivators waiting outside the auction house began to race away, and there were even people that lit up signal flares despite being in public. Soon, a massive storm rose up in Billowing Wave City as people rushed out, soon vanishing from sight.