Chapter 41: The Auction Begins
"I still have one simulation opportunity left. Might as well use it now!"
"After all, someone will bring money to my doorstep after the auction."
"First, I'll raise my alchemy skills to the fifth-tier, then attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul stage."
Li Changsheng smiled faintly.
[Simulation begins.]
[At age twenty-one, you followed Su Qingyu back to the Su family's ancestral grounds and devoted yourself to studying alchemy.]
[...]
[At age one hundred and forty, a wormhole appeared in the sky above the Southern Domain, and countless powerful beings descended. You died!]
[...]
The simulation ended up being pointless!
After reaching the fourth-tier in alchemy, the difficulty of improvement skyrocketed. Over a hundred years passed, and he couldn't even advance a single minor tier.
"At least simulating once at the Golden Core stage only costs ten thousand gold coins. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to afford it!"
Li Changsheng murmured to himself.
"I still have some materials on hand. I'll use them to refine some pills and exchange them for money at the auction."
He immediately got to work. For the next few days, Li Changsheng stayed in his cave abode, refining pills.
...
Thirteen days later.
The day of the auction had arrived!
Li Changsheng emerged from his cave abode to find Qin Yi, Zhao San, and Bai Qing'er waiting for him outside.
"Young Master," they greeted respectfully as he stepped out.
Li Changsheng tossed a jade bottle to Zhao San and said indifferently, "Don't attend the auction. Go into seclusion and make your breakthrough instead."
"This…"
Zhao San caught the jade bottle, a look of confusion in his eyes. He opened the bottle and found a purple pill the size of a longan inside, adorned with six cloud-like patterns.
"This is almost a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill!"
Zhao San clutched the pill and knelt down, kowtowing three times to Li Changsheng with utmost respect. "Young Master's kindness is something I will never forget. From now on, I, Zhao San, will be your loyal hound. Whatever you command, I will obey without question."
"Get up," Li Changsheng said calmly.
"Focus on your breakthrough. There will be more tasks for you in the future."
With that, Li Changsheng left the cave abode with Qin Yi and Bai Qing'er, heading toward the auction venue.
When the three arrived at the venue, a long line had already formed outside. After all, this was the Tunmen Market's once-every-five-years auction, and it always featured many valuable items.
Some people were there to participate in the auction, while others had brought items they hoped to sell for a good price.
"Young Master, this is the invitation sent by the White Pavilion."
Qin Yi handed an invitation to Li Changsheng.
"Let's go in," Li Changsheng said, not bothering to take the invitation. He walked straight toward the entrance of the auction venue.
When Qin Yi presented the invitation, the auction's guards immediately ushered the three of them inside. This type of invitation was reserved for individuals of high status, so they didn't need to queue up like the independent cultivators or members of smaller families.
Once inside, two maids approached and escorted them to their designated private box.
"Who is that young man? So young, yet he has a gilded invitation?"
"Exactly. The maid beside him doesn't even seem to be at the first level of Qi Refining, and the middle-aged man is only at the first level of Qi Refining."
"Stop speculating. Anyone with a gilded invitation is not someone we can afford to provoke. Let's just wait in line quietly."
The independent cultivators whispered among themselves.
...
Across from the auction venue, on the fourth floor of a building, eight Foundation Establishment cultivators had gathered. Among them were three from the Wan family and three from the Sunset Sect.
The other two were from Foundation Establishment families of the Qi State.
When they saw Li Changsheng and his group holding the gilded invitation, everyone in the room was slightly stunned. While this wasn't the highest-tier invitation, it was still something only families like the Wan family were eligible to receive.
"Brother Zhou, are you sure this kid doesn't have any backing?" Wan Chongshan, a member of the Wan family, asked with a frown as he looked at Zhou Qi, the inner sect's top disciple of the Sunset Sect.
The Wan family was only a mid-tier family in the Southern Domain, unlike the Sunset Sect, which had Golden Core cultivators backing it. There were many forces they couldn't afford to offend.
"Relax. I've already bought information about this kid from the White Pavilion. He somehow obtained a legacy and cultivated all the way to Foundation Establishment peak," Zhou Qi shook his head and said coldly:
"This kid has offended our Sunset Sect. He's already marked for death."
"Besides, for someone so young to reach Foundation Establishment peak, he must have a great opportunity. Aren't you all interested?"
Hearing this, everyone in the room revealed expressions of greed.
"If we don't take care of this kid now, when will we ever get such a good chance?"
Wan Mohe, another Wan family member, smiled. "Elder brother, our Wan family's legacy only allows us to cultivate up to Foundation Establishment peak. If we seize this kid's opportunity, you might even have a chance to break through to the Golden Core stage!"
Wan Chongshan pondered for a moment before saying, "In that case, we'll follow Brother Zhou's arrangements!"
"We'll follow Daoist Zhou's lead," the other Foundation Establishment cultivators chimed in.
"Then we'll move after the auction ends. There are a few things I need from this auction as well," Zhou Qi said with a gleam of disdain in his eyes.
The Sunset Sect had no shortage of Golden Core cultivation techniques. Did these people really think breaking through to the Golden Core stage was as simple as acquiring one or two techniques?
Without vast resources and innate talent, reaching the Golden Core stage was no easy feat. Even the Sunset Sect only produced one Golden Core cultivator every two to three hundred years.
...
In the top-tier private box on the fourth floor of the auction venue.
Su Qingyu sat inside the box, while the leader of the silver-armored knights stood guard at the entrance. Her young maid, Lu He, chattered incessantly beside her.
"Mistress, Li Changsheng has arrived."
"Mistress, what could possibly be worth your personal attendance in an auction held by such a minor market?"
"I really don't understand how Li Changsheng cultivated so quickly. According to the intelligence, he was just a fisherman three years ago. Reaching the mid-Golden Core stage in three years—even the Long family's ancestor, with his Heavenly Spiritual Root, didn't cultivate that fast when he was young!"
The Long family's ancestor also possessed a Heavenly Spiritual Root, specifically the metal element, which was the most powerful for combat. He reached the Golden Core stage at eighteen and entered the Nascent Soul stage at fifty. Now, three hundred years later, no one knew how strong he had become.
Su Qingyu lightly tapped Lu He's head and said softly, "Li Changsheng's aptitude might be even more terrifying than the Long family's ancestor. Grandfather will be overjoyed if we can bring such a genius into our fold."
Lu He stuck out her tongue playfully. She was used to joking around with Su Qingyu and didn't take her words seriously.
"Mistress, you have a water Spiritual Root, and Li Changsheng's aptitude is so extraordinary. If the two of you were to have a child, how extraordinary would their aptitude be?" Lu He said without a care in the world.
"Enough," Su Qingyu's cheeks flushed slightly, but she quickly regained her composure and said in a low voice, "Don't talk nonsense in public, or I'll make you go into seclusion for five years without letting you out."
"Alright, alright, I won't say anything more," Lu He quickly replied. She was at an age where she loved being active, and the thought of being forced into seclusion for five years was worse than death to her.
...
Li Changsheng's private box was on the third floor, just below the top-tier boxes on the fourth floor. The entire box was made of spiritual materials, engraved with intricate formations that provided strong defensive capabilities and some degree of isolation from spiritual sense.
Even the spiritual sense of a Golden Core cultivator would be significantly weakened here.
Li Changsheng had a servant call for the auction's manager.
"How may I assist you, young master?"
The manager arrived at the box somewhat reluctantly. If it weren't for the gilded invitation required to enter this box, he wouldn't have bothered coming at all.
"Please put these items up for auction," Li Changsheng said.
With a wave of his hand, over a dozen bottles of pills appeared on the table in front of him.
The manager, seeing that the occupants of the box didn't have high cultivation levels and that the leader was a young man, initially looked down on them. However, he maintained his professionalism and picked up one of the bottles to inspect it.
"We—"
Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes widened in shock.
"This is a third-tier Spirit Nourishing Pill…"