txolops Chapter 55 Auction
Chapter 55 Auction
slam-la-
A pile of things poured out of the storage bag and scattered all over the ground.
Luo Ming squatted down, carefully examining the jumbled objects with his fingertips. After a moment, his brows furrowed slightly, and a sense of disappointment welled up in his heart.
After searching for a long time, he found that only one top-tier magic artifact shaped like a tortoise shell was somewhat pleasing to the eye. The other magic artifacts were rather useless to him. He did have a lot of spirit stones, but he knew they were stolen from the spirit stone mine's stockpile. Apart from these spirit stones, he could only find an opportunity to get rid of the rest of the items.
"Is this all the foundation a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator has? Or am I just being too picky?" Luo Ming couldn't help but complain.
As soon as he uttered the words, he came to his senses—this was actually the norm in the cultivation world. If it weren't for the Spirit Gathering Cauldron in his possession, which continuously nurtured spirit stones, he would probably be in an even more dire situation than the owner of this storage bag.
It wasn't until he examined one of the jade slips that he began to understand why the other party was poor. The jade slip contained the cultivation method for the Golden Core stage, the "Spirit Control Technique"!
Luo Ming understood immediately and grasped the cause and effect. He also understood why Lü Tianmeng was so eager for spirit stones.
Major sects have always maintained strict control over high-level cultivation techniques. To obtain higher-level techniques, one must not only complete numerous sect tasks and accumulate sufficient contribution points before being qualified to enter the exchange hall, but also meet the exchange threshold for Golden Core stage techniques—in addition to sufficient contribution points, one must also pay a huge sum of 10,000 spirit stones.
He currently has abundant spirit stones, but his contribution points are far from sufficient, so naturally he cannot exchange for the Golden Core chapter of the "Spirit Control Technique" from the sect. Meanwhile, Lü Tianmeng has already entered the late Foundation Establishment stage, so he must have used all the spirit stones he has accumulated in his life to prepare for exchanging for the cultivation technique, which is why his storage bag is so meager.
"After decades of painstaking cultivation, he ended up benefiting others. How pitiful." A trace of pity flashed through Luo Ming's mind, but it vanished in an instant. With a flick of his finger, he carefully stored the jade slip into his storage bag. The cultivation world is a dog-eat-dog world. Lü Tianmeng died here because he was inferior in skill. This cultivation technique falling into his hands is his opportunity.
After putting away the cultivation manual, Luo Ming's gaze fell on the spirit beast pouch beside him. As a disciple of the Spirit Beast Mountain, he knew all too well that, besides their own cultivation, sect disciples would invest at least half of their resources in spirit beasts.
He himself had spent so many spirit stones nurturing his spirit beasts that he had lost count, knowing only that it had already exceeded his own cultivation expenses. Since Lü Tianmeng was a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, his spirit beasts must also be quite powerful, which inevitably made Luo Ming more expectant.
But the moment he released the seal on the spirit beast pouch and probed it with his divine sense, the pity that had just arisen vanished completely, replaced by a surge of anger. The spirit beasts inside were all barely breathing, clearly their souls severely damaged and their lives hanging by a thread.
As a disciple of Spirit Beast Mountain, Luo Ming immediately saw through the crux of the problem—it was caused by his master detonating the soul restriction before his death.
There are several ways to cultivate spirit beasts in the Spirit Beast Mountain. The gentlest way is Luo Ming's method, which makes the other party willingly acknowledge him as their master. The restriction is relatively simple, so it does not harm the other party's soul and the loyalty is also very high.
The second method is like that of Lü Tianmeng, who uses a soul restriction to bury deep within the other party's sea of consciousness and controls them by force. This method is suitable for spirit insect-type demon beasts with low intelligence. These demon beasts have a chaotic sea of consciousness and do not know what it means to recognize a master, so this is the only way to achieve this.
The last method involves extracting a portion of the spirit beast's soul to create a soul tablet. Whoever holds the soul tablet can control the spirit beast and decide its life or death with a single thought. This method is used to deal with the spirit beasts inherited by sects.
Lü Tianmeng clearly used the second method.
Despite his regret, Luo Ming didn't hesitate. Since the spirit beast couldn't be saved, the demon beast materials couldn't be wasted.
After dealing with the demonic beast, Luo Ming had an idea. He took out the Spirit Gathering Cauldron from his storage bag. A faint five-colored halo flowed out, and eight round, five-colored beads lay quietly inside the cauldron—the very Heaven-Mending Pills he had obtained earlier.
At this moment, the Heaven-Mending Pill seemed to have a more concentrated spiritual energy. In his opinion, its effect should be stronger than the original version. He remembered that this Heaven-Mending Pill could be taken directly. Although it was slow to take effect, it could subtly nourish the dantian and improve the spiritual root aptitude.
He remembered the original version's cultivation speed, which allowed Han Li to go from four spiritual roots to three. So, wouldn't the current enhanced version...?
"The effects of this medicine require accumulation over time; the sooner you take it, the sooner you'll benefit." Luo Ming picked up a Heaven-Mending Pill and tossed it into his mouth. The pill melted instantly upon entering his mouth, and a warm, gentle medicinal power slowly spread, permeating his entire body along his meridians. There were no earth-shattering phenomena, but it made him feel incredibly comfortable.
This was the characteristic of the Heaven-Mending Pill, which Luo Ming already knew and was not surprised by. He simply swallowed the remaining seven Heaven-Mending Pills, then sat cross-legged, holding a mid-grade spirit stone in each hand, and began to circulate his cultivation technique to refine the spiritual energy within the spirit stones. Although there were no high-grade pills to enhance it, the effect of this kind of cultivation was far superior to simply sitting in meditation.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye. Luo Ming finished his cultivation, stopped his practice, and went straight to Tianzhu Tower. He paid a deposit of one hundred spirit stones and successfully obtained a mask that could block divine sense detection.
"It's a good thing." Luo Ming played with the mask, feeling that it was soft like gelatin, but he couldn't tell what kind of spiritual material it was made of. With this mask, one could conceal their cultivation aura.
Following the directions of the Tianzhu Tower waiter, Luo Ming walked a hundred feet along a deep, dark passage, passed through a restriction hidden behind a stone wall, and suddenly a bright and dark hall appeared before him. There were nearly twenty people sitting in the hall, most of them at the peak of Qi Refining, with only three Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Although there were restrictions preventing him from using his divine sense to investigate, Luo Ming still managed to clearly sense the fluctuations of magical power emanating from everyone using his spiritual eye ability. His arrival did not attract much attention; most of the people in the hall closed their eyes to rest or whispered a few words, all quietly waiting for the auction to begin.
Luo Ming found a corner to sit down, closed his eyes, and secretly circulated his cultivation technique to regulate his breathing. An hour passed quietly, and more and more cultivators arrived. Just as everyone was starting to get impatient, a steady footstep sounded.
A middle-aged cultivator in a green robe slowly walked to the center of the hall. His gaze swept across the entire hall, and a condensed late-stage Foundation Establishment mana quietly spread out, instantly silencing the previously noisy hall.
The cultivator's lips curled into a faint smile as he announced loudly, "Welcome, fellow Daoists, to this auction. I am the host of this auction, and I believe you all know me. Without further ado, let's begin!"
"This person is likely the mastermind behind this South Valley Market, but I wonder if he comes from a rogue cultivator or a sect," Luo Ming guessed, looking at the other party.
Behind every market, there must be at least a powerful Foundation Establishment cultivator to keep things in order, and there must be the support of a large force behind it, otherwise it would be absolutely difficult to gain a foothold.
As soon as the green-robed cultivator finished speaking, two gray-clad boys carried forward a tray covered with a dark red brocade cloth. "The first item for auction is the top-tier magic weapon, the 'Azure Edge Sword.' Its blade is tempered with cold iron essence, making it incredibly sharp. It can easily pierce the spiritual energy shield of a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator. The starting bid is three hundred spirit stones, with each bid increasing by at least fifty spirit stones!"
As soon as he finished speaking, several eyes lit up in the hall, and soon someone called out to bid: "Three hundred and fifty!" "Four hundred!"... The price climbed all the way up, and was finally won by a Qi Refining Perfection cultivator for six hundred spirit stones.