The Auction, Part 4

Su Qing was unaware of the dispute in the upper VIP rooms.

The extremely rare Cold Moon Carp Pearl had already been intercepted above and had not even entered the internal arena, let alone the outer one.

As for her, the first Tier 3 spiritual item that appeared at the auction was a bottle of amber liquid, about the length of her pinky finger.

This item floated on the display stand, borrowing the power of an array.

Placed beside Song Yunzi, who seemed like an immortal being, it was quite unassuming and unremarkable.

But when Song Yunzi pulled out the jade stopper from the top of the small bottle, a viscous, thick earthy breath, as if it had a physical form, flowed into every cultivator’s sleeves, as if awakening the very life force within their bodies.

Su Qing smelled the characteristic heavy, fishy scent of soil.

“This item is a Tier 3 low-grade Earth Marrow Liquid, also known as the Breath of the Earth. It must be meticulously extracted from millennia-old rock strata.”

“This small bottle alone took over a thousand miners over a hundred years to excavate. The rock strata within a radius of ten million li turned to dust for it. Even within the Nine Heavens Pavilion, there has been only this one item in the past hundred years.”

Song Yunzi said calmly, “Do I need to elaborate on the preciousness of this item?”

The Earth Marrow Liquid was mild and profound, its texture extremely pure, most suitable for the advancement of Earth spiritual roots.

Besides this, it was also an indispensable ingredient for refining the Wutu Pill.

Even adding a drop to spiritual artifacts, magical treasures, array disks, or talismans had a supplementary effect.

High-grade Earth Marrow Liquid could also nourish low-tier spiritual veins and improve soil quality.

If sprinkled onto the soil, the spiritual plants of Tier 2 and above within that soil would be perpetually vigorous for a hundred years.

This item was a rare spiritual object in the world with broad applications and few side effects.

Upon the appearance of this item, not only did the Earth spiritual root cultivators show expressions of determination to obtain it, but the eyes of the others couldn’t help but overflow with traces of fervor.

Song Yunzi observed everything calmly, her lips curving into a slight smile.

She tapped the jade hammer in her hand, producing a crisp sound of jade colliding with jade. “Starting bid, one million spirit stones.”

Support mobile QR code scanning to read.

Before her words had even finished, price increases had already begun.

“One million one hundred thousand.” “One million two hundred thousand, no, one million three hundred thousand!” “One million seven!” “I bid one million eight hundred thousand!”

In the blink of an eye, the price had already reached nearly two million, and it showed no sign of stopping.

Su Qing inwardly cursed, ‘Truly treating spirit stones like they’re not stones.’

She also added, “Two million spirit stones!”

But immediately after, many people loudly called out, “Two million one hundred thousand,” easily surpassing the two-million mark.

“One million six…”

Su Qing wanted this Earth Marrow Liquid to improve the space within her mustard stone, to transform the vast but useless barren land inside into a place suitable for growing spiritual plants and housing spirit beasts.

But at the current price, the Earth Marrow Liquid was more expensive than the mustard stone. She wouldn’t continue bidding.

After an intense competition, as if the sky itself was about to be flipped over, this bottle of Earth Marrow Liquid was finally acquired by an Earth spiritual root cultivator for two million eight hundred thousand spirit stones, drawing envious and even hostile glances from others.

The first Tier 3 spiritual item alone caused such a sensation, fetching a price in the millions.

Su Qing counted her own assets several times in her mind.

No matter how she counted, she couldn’t even scrape together a single spirit stone. She sighed, once again feeling the familiar pang of poverty.

As she had expected, the remaining spiritual items were all extraordinary, causing the cultivators present to practically fight like mortals, almost wanting to roll up their sleeves and engage in bare-handed combat.

Seeing the scene getting out of control, Song Yunzi resorted to her usual tactic, tapping the jade hammer again.

This time, Su Qing was prepared. She held her breath, steadied her mind, and focused intently on the hammer face.

It didn’t matter if she couldn’t afford the item; if she could learn a move or two from the master, it would be a gain.

…

Song Huiyi slowly opened her eyes and looked at her sister. “How is it?”
Song Huisi frowned, quite displeased. “I haven’t noticed anything unusual.”

The two sat opposite each other.

Their faces, about seventy percent alike, faced each other.

In their arms and hair buns, the purple jade qiong flowers vied to bloom, emitting wisps of fragrance.

The VIP room they occupied was not luxurious like the others.

Instead, it was a blank space, with only four walls and nothing else.

However, if someone with profound cultivation were to enter, they would discover that these walls were densely covered from top to bottom with transparent talismans, one after another.

These talismans were all of the same style, depicting an ancient eye.

Although there was no wind in the room, thousands of talismans still rustled, yet made no sound.

The Song family’s manipulation techniques were tied to their bloodline.

Perhaps due to being chosen by fate, the Song family members were born with delicate fingers and supple bones, skilled in weaving spiritual threads.

They often used their divine sense and spiritual energy to manipulate objects, beasts, and people, hence the name “manipulation techniques.”

At this very moment, if someone possessed divine eyes, they would see that beneath each talisman, a spiderweb-like spiritual thread was connected, converging at Song Huisi’s fingertips.

This room, from beginning to end, was her meticulously prepared trap, and also her eyes for observing the situation. This long-planned auction was designed to lure people into the scheme.

After the two of them reached adulthood, the Song family head, who was also their elder brother, selected one character each from the family’s carefully collected Ancient Divine Language to teach them, as the foundation for their manipulation technique cultivation.

Song Huiyi received the character meaning “Eye,” and Song Huisi received the character meaning “Divination.” Both characters carried the meaning of observing the current situation and foretelling the future.

The talismans on the wall were called Divine Eye Talismans.

The ancient methods were infinitely mysterious, far surpassing ordinary reconnaissance talismans.

At the very least, the Golden Core and Nascent Soul powerful cultivators in the internal arena did not discover that all the currents and undercurrents stirring on the stage were being observed by a mere Foundation Establishment girl.

However, manipulation techniques were obscure and difficult to learn.

Given their age, they had only grasped some superficial knowledge.

The terms “divination” and “eye” were even more profound and difficult to comprehend. Without a hundred years of accumulation, one could hardly grasp the first level of understanding.

Therefore, they greatly needed external help. 

The Immortal of Fate was one such crucial item.

The Immortal of Fate originated from the Wu clan.

The Wu clan was also once a divine descendant clan.

The word “once” is used because the Wu clan no longer exists in this world. In essence, these “eye” and “divination” techniques were plundered from the Wu clan’s ancestral teachings.

According to the Origin records, the Wu clan’s earliest ancestors should have been a great shaman who managed sacrifices by “her” side.

After thousands of years of proliferation among this lineage, the clan members had lost most of their primitive characteristics.

Only one pair of eyes remained.

Although completely blind, they could see through the world’s karma and know the future, attracting countless covetous glances.

Through repeated cycles of destruction and rebirth, eventually, during one instance, these eyes were detached from flesh and blood under flashes of blade light, carefully gathered into jade boxes, passed down through layers, and finally, by the hands of ingenious craftsmen, transformed into a hundred magical artifacts capable of deciphering the trajectories of fate—the Immortal of Fate.

It was a pity that the maintenance conditions for the Immortal of Fate were too harsh. Even with careful care, after a hundred years, only three items remained in usable condition.

Among them, two were in the hands of Song Huiyi and Song Huisi.

“Since the two of us stepped into the Sword School, there have always been constant storms. But after thinking it over, what on earth do we possess that is worth risking death for?”

Song Huiyi held a flower in one hand and gathered spiritual threads in the other, closing her eyes to deduce.

She opened her lips and said, “Now that I think about it, it all began with the first Orchid Bamboo Gathering. Back then, I should have guessed that the steward’s second son’s death might have involved the Wu family, after all, we brought the Immortal of Fate.”

Song Huisi caressed the qiong flower at her temples, showing a hint of amusement.

“If not for the new news from the steward’s side, we would truly have been kept in the dark. The great physician who served Guan Jiayu also possessed a trace of Wu clan blood.”

Following this faint thread of the great physician, they investigated and indeed uncovered many unexpected things.

For example, the dead can indeed be resurrected.

Who would have thought the Sword School had such audacity, to hide it for so long?

“The living puppets refined by my elder brother originally used the Immortal of Fate as eyes, and adding a trace of spirit essence of the same origin would be even better.”

Song Huiyi calmly opened her eyes.

A trace of ruthlessness flashed in her tender and benevolent eyes.

The qiong flower branch in her hand snapped with a sound. “It’s just enough to offset the karmic debt from the Myriad Beast Forest.”

Since Guan Jiayu’s death, the Immortal of Fate had reappeared for the first time.

Rumors of its auction had been released long ago, and the actual item had indeed been brought.

Even if it meant leaving the Sword School’s territory, even if they knew it was a trap, Song Huiyi dared to predict that the person behind it would have no other choice but to confront them.

Song Huisi said, “Sister’s thoughts are naturally thorough.But we have already used the Divine Eye Talismans to carefully search the venue three times and still haven’t found anything unusual. However, Song Yun sent a message saying that the Rakshasa fragments were bought by someone. Perhaps this person possesses other related inheritances. We have already sent people to search thoroughly after the auction.”

Song Huiyi was not impatient.

“Ghostly beings are naturally different from ordinary beings. I don’t fear her coming; I fear she won’t come.”

Although she wished to personally atone for her sins, given her noble status, no matter what she did, someone would always cover for her.

She only needed to do what she wanted to do.

As for why both the internal and external venues used the jade hammer’s “Purify” intent to repeatedly suppress and search.

“Purify” originated from ancient righteousness, possessing the effect of a Clear Terrace and a Tranquil Soul. Moreover, it carried the implication of “righteousness residing within, evil cannot intrude,” making it one of the nemesis of ghostly beings.

This ghostly being was still showing no sign of appearing. Song Huisi pondered, “Perhaps there’s a problem with someone on our side.”

Her eyelid twitched.

The spiritual threads in her hand trembled, ripples spreading through them.

Pairs of “Eyes” detached from the talismans, roamed the walls and floor, the ceiling, spreading to all directions of the room.

Qi Liwei used all her savings to bid for the Cold Moon Carp Pearl.

Before the next monthly allowance, she could only spend Qi Libei’s spirit stones.

Qi Libei, ever since being stabbed by Miss Tian Ning, had been unable to accept it.

If she knew she had bought the Carp Pearl, she would probably be furious.

Thinking this, she lost interest in the remaining treasures, no matter how astonishing they were.

Qi Liwei stood up, pushed open the door, and said to the Nine Heavens Pavilion attendant waiting outside, “I have something to attend to and need to leave first to retrieve the Cold Moon Carp Pearl.”

The attendant knew her identity and dared not look at her, only bowing respectfully and looking at the ground, nodding in affirmation.

Soon after, he brought two escorts, who carefully held a tray with the Cold Moon Carp Pearl, bowing deeply as they delivered it to the VIP room. They wished they could crawl.

After waving away the unnecessary personnel, Qi Liwei lifted the silkworm silk cover above the tray, revealing a jade box sealed with a prohibition below.

Heart.

She lifted the jade box, hesitated for a moment, then gently opened it.

In an instant, a biting cold wind and frost swept out, as if an endless snowfield was spreading from this bead as its center.

The indoor temperature instantly dropped below zero. Frost flowers formed on Qi Liwei’s eyelashes and hair.

She exhaled a puff of white air and exclaimed, “As expected of an extreme Yin and extreme cold object.”

She wondered how Miss Tian Ning endured it…

Qi Liwei’s eyes suddenly sharpened.

She caressed the pearl and said strangely, “Why is there a black mark here? Is it a flaw?”

And in the very next second, a faint black mist squeezed out from the bead, spreading in the room and condensing into a human form.