Chapter 322: Sky-High Bidding

"Two hundred!"

Contrary to everyone's expectations, the female cultivator who had bid on the demon core did not give up. She raised the bid again, this time increasing it by a full fifty immortal spirit stones.

At these words, almost everyone present was taken aback. Many looked at the female cultivator with a hint of peculiarity.

It wasn't that two hundred immortal spirit stones were an enormous fortune—after all, everyone present was at least a mid-stage True Immortal, and coming to this underground auction, they could naturally afford such a sum.

But immortal spirit stones were extremely useful. Besides quickly restoring depleted immortal spiritual power, they could also accelerate cultivation to open immortal apertures. Thus, True Immortal cultivators were always short of immortal spirit stones and used each one with great caution. Spending a full two hundred immortal spirit stones on a damaged immortal artifact was simply not worth it.

Yet the contest between the two did not stop there.

"Two hundred thirty!" The sharp voice yielded not an inch, bidding calmly.

"Two hundred fifty!" The female cultivator did not back down either.

"Three hundred!"

"Three hundred fifty!"

…

Both seemed determined to win the scroll, giving no ground. In the blink of an eye, they drove the price to an unbelievable level.

Seeing this, the others grew restless. A damaged immortal artifact could not possibly be worth such a high price, unless there was some secret hidden within it.

After some deliberation, a few people even joined the bidding midway, quickly pushing the price above eight hundred immortal spirit stones.

But lacking both resolve and wealth, they were soon left behind, and in the end, only the two remained in competition.

Han Li's eyes flickered with blue light as he carefully examined the blue scroll, his brow slightly furrowed.

No matter how he looked, he could not see anything special about the scroll. The only thing slightly unusual was the Profound Nether Cold Qi contained within it.

At first glance, this cold qi seemed unremarkable, but after releasing his divine sense to scan it several times, he found it gave him a peculiar feeling.

Han Li couldn't quite describe this feeling. If pressed, he would say it somewhat resembled the Essence Fire Bird.

After looking at the scroll for a while longer, he withdrew his gaze.

This item had nothing to do with him. He certainly wouldn't spend so many immortal spirit stones to bid on it, so why bother thinking about it?

"One thousand immortal spirit stones!" The sharp voice had lost its earlier composure, almost gnashing its teeth as it shouted.

"One thousand two hundred!" The female cultivator's voice remained perfectly calm.

"I bid... one thousand five hundred!" This time, the sharp voice fell silent for a long while, only bidding again when the short figure on the auction stage announced "second call."

"Two thousand!" The female cultivator seemed finally impatient, bidding an incredibly high price.

Everyone present drew in a light breath. Such a high price would be more than enough to buy ten immortal artifacts.

The sharp voice also fell silent. After a long moment, it spoke: "Hmph! You have great boldness, friend. Very well, I'll let you have this fragment of the Nether River Chart."

With these words, the person stood up, turned, and walked out.

Han Li watched the departing figure, inwardly guessing that this person, having failed in the bid, might try other means to seize the item, hence leaving early to make arrangements.

Thinking this, he couldn't help but glance at the female cultivator not far away.

She sat there calmly, not moving at all, as if completely unconcerned.

The short host also seemed a bit dazed, only then announcing the ownership of the Nether Cold Mountains and Rivers Chart.

The others present, though regretful, had also witnessed a jaw-dropping spectacle.

The auction soon continued. The items that appeared next grew increasingly precious, and all sorts of rare treasures emerged one after another, making Han Li's heart stir with desire.

Unfortunately, none of these items included the Dao Pill materials he sought. As for other treasures, though he had a fair number of immortal spirit stones, he was not particularly wealthy. He still needed to refine pills later, so he could only watch these things slip away with a pang of reluctance.

After another half hour or so, the last auction item was also sold, and the auction finally drew to a close.

"Alright, the auction ends here. Below is the time for free exchange. Fellow Daoists who have treasures they wish to offer may come up to the stage one by one to display them. I wish you all success in obtaining what you desire." The short host said this and walked off the auction stage with the two beside him.

As soon as the words fell, a streak of white light shot over, incredibly fast, and landed on the auction stage in a flash, taking the lead.

Several others who were about to ascend the stage saw this and had no choice but to stop regretfully.

In such an exchange meeting, it was naturally best to act early, otherwise watching a treasure slip away before one's eyes was hardly a pleasant experience.

"Haha, fellow Daoists, I humbly take the lead," said the man on the stage, cupping his hands toward the others with a laugh. His voice sounded somewhat aged, as if he were an old man.

Seeing this, the few had no choice but to return to their seats, except for one tall, thin figure who remained standing and sneered at the man on stage: "Heh, Brother Qiu's True Sun Wave Light Art is unmatched in speed; every time we attend an exchange meeting together, you always take the stage first."

"I wondered who it was—so Brother Fu is here too. My apologies, but I am in urgent need of a precious treasure," the old man surnamed Qiu on stage said with a smile.

The man surnamed Fu shook his head and turned to sit down.

"Fellow Daoists, I have brought two items this time," said the old man surnamed Qiu. As he spoke, he flipped his hand and produced two jade boxes, which hovered before him on the left and right, one large and one small.

With a flick of his sleeve, the box lids opened, revealing their contents.

In the larger jade box was a spirit herb about a foot tall, shaped like a young bamboo, with sparse leaves—only twelve in total. What was peculiar was that each of the twelve leaves was a different color, emitting various colored halos.

"This is the Heavenly Spirit Bamboo Leaf Herb. This herb grows one spirit leaf every ten thousand years, meaning it has a medicinal age of one hundred and twenty thousand years. As for its effects, I trust you all know them, so I won't elaborate."

Then, the old man surnamed Qiu opened the other, smaller jade box, which contained some golden fine sand that emitted dazzling golden light, stinging the eyes when looked at directly.

"This box contains Hao Yang Profound Gold Sand, an excellent material for refining metal-attribute flying swords. It can also be mixed into other immortal artifacts, greatly enhancing their toughness and sharpness," continued the old man surnamed Qiu.

A stir arose below the stage, as many were clearly interested in the two items the old man had presented.

"For this Heavenly Spirit Bamboo Leaf Herb, I wish to exchange for a ten-thousand-year-old or older Meridian-Connecting Herb. As for this box of Hao Yang Profound Gold Sand, I wish to exchange for a spiritual material containing the law power of the earth attribute," said the old man surnamed Qiu after a pause, stating his requirements.

Han Li's gaze fell on the Heavenly Spirit Bamboo Leaf Herb, his eyes flickering.

The Heavenly Spirit Bamboo Leaf Herb was a spirit herb containing a trace of the law of poison. Using it as a medicinal guide, one could theoretically concoct a panacea that could detoxify all poisons. Although his own medicine garden had some detoxifying herbs, they were clearly incomparable to this rare treasure of heaven and earth.

Unfortunately, he had never even heard of this so-called Meridian-Connecting Herb, and the other party would obviously not agree to exchange such a spiritual medicine for immortal essence stones.

As for the box of Hao Yang Profound Gold Sand, he was not particularly interested.

Just then, a thin-built cultivator stood up and waved his hand, sending a red light enveloping a long jade box that landed on the auction stage.

"Fellow Daoist, what do you think of this Meridian-Connecting Grass of mine?"

The old man surnamed Qiu picked up the jade box, opened it a crack, then snapped it shut and said crisply, "Deal."

He then waved his hand, sending out a white light that transported the Celestial Bamboo Leaf Grass to the side of the gaunt cultivator.

Han Li sighed regretfully at the sight.

The old man surnamed Qiu picked up the box of Haoyang Mysterious Gold Sand, asked several times, and when no one responded, he had no choice but to put it away and step down from the platform.

No sooner had he stepped down than a streak of green light shot forth, arriving at the platform first—it was the wealthy man surnamed Fu from earlier.

"Hehe, I am not so wealthy. This time I have brought only one stick of Seven-Spirit Barrier-Breaking Incense, which is of considerable help to True Immortal realm cultivators in opening immortal apertures. If lit while assaulting an immortal aperture, it can increase the success rate by about ten percent." The wealthy man surnamed Fu took out a rosewood box and opened it to reveal a stick of incense that was red and black in color. Although not lit, an indescribably strange fragrance had already spread.

Seeing this, almost everyone below fixed their gazes on the red-black incense stick, their eyes burning with eagerness.

Such spiritual items that aid in breaking through cultivation bottlenecks were naturally the most sought after.

"I wish to exchange this incense for one Musk Fruit of Heaven's芒." The wealthy man surnamed Fu seemed quite satisfied with the reaction of the crowd below and continued.

Han Li, however, did not show much interest, for he was currently relying on a large quantity of rare elixirs to assault his immortal apertures. To him, this incense was at most an embellishment, not a necessity. After all, even if he obtained it, he lacked the ability to propagate more of it like medicinal herbs.

Although the Seven-Spirit Barrier-Breaking Incense was rare and precious, the Musk Fruit of Heaven's芒 was also not easy to come by. The wealthy man surnamed Fu asked several times, but no one in the audience responded.

Seeing this, someone below proposed exchanging other spiritual items or purchasing directly with immortal essence stones, but the wealthy man surnamed Fu flatly refused and quickly stepped down.

The exchange meeting continued. One by one, cultivators who had been sitting below ascended the platform to display the items they wished to exchange. Some were fortunate enough to obtain what they desired, or agreed when the other party offered something far exceeding their expectations. However, most items were merely shown on stage without actually being exchanged successfully.

This was only natural, as the scale of this exchange meeting was not large, and most of the cultivators present were not loose immortals but people of considerable status on the surface. Hence, the items they sought were by no means ordinary goods that could be purchased anywhere; otherwise, they would not have come to such an exchange meeting.

Han Li sat quietly, not vying with the throng of people rushing to the platform. He watched as one rare treasure after another passed before his eyes, taking the opportunity to broaden his horizons—an opportunity he had not often had in the past.

As the exchange meeting progressed into its latter half, the rush among those ascending the platform gradually subsided. Sometimes, after one person came down, there would even be a lull before someone else went up again.

Han Li saw that after the previous person had descended, there was no response from below for a long time. He was about to stand up when a black light shot forth ahead of him and landed on the platform.

Black qi surged around this person, clearly visible even through the layer of spiritual light, and a strong yin-sha aura emanated.

Seeing this, Han Li said nothing and simply sat back down. His gaze, like that of the others, fell upon the figure in the black light on the platform, wondering what item this person, who had waited until so late to make a move, would produce.