FVN Chapter 73 The Qin Family Auction in Yuanwu Kingdom
Chapter 73 The Qin Family Auction in Yuanwu Kingdom
The three major sects of the Yuanwu Kingdom—the Tianxing Sect, the Shenbing Sect, and the Wanmiao Temple—were all once extremely prosperous, with more than ten thousand disciples. But now, all of them have become a thing of the past.
The three sects were successively destroyed by the demonic forces. Their disciples either fled to other places or joined the demonic path, but most of them became rogue cultivators, wandering within their homeland. In addition, after the various demonic sects took over, the uneven distribution of benefits and constant open and covert struggles led to chaos, and the rogue cultivator world became increasingly mixed with all sorts of people.
In the northern part of Yuanwu Kingdom, the former Wanmiao Temple Market, now Qingping Market, has become an important stronghold of the Qin family, a rising immortal cultivation family in recent years. Three late-stage Foundation Establishment disciples from the family were specially dispatched to lead people to garrison and manage it.
The fact that the family is growing stronger at this time naturally means that it has intricate connections with the demonic forces.
However, the Qin family still adhered to rules and regulations, which is why many independent cultivators were willing to come here to trade and stay temporarily. In this chaotic world, Qingping Market appeared unusually prosperous.
As Lin Jingchu walked along the slightly noisy streets of the market, his gaze swept over the various shops on both sides, and a faint ripple stirred in his heart.
Back then, the Tianxing Sect was thrown into chaos by internal strife. He and seven or eight fellow disciples bribed the guards of the flying treasure ship and took the opportunity to sneak into the Wanmiao Temple market. Today, revisiting this place, the layout and bustle of the market are not much different from what he remembers.
The most noticeable difference is that the five-story pavilion in the center of the market has had its plaque changed from the original Wanmiao Baoge to Qinzhen Ge.
The pavilion's doors were wide open, and a red carpet was laid out. From time to time, cultivators whose faces or even their entire bodies were covered by magical artifacts entered.
As Lin Jingchu stepped into the pavilion, a beautiful and graceful maidservant immediately rushed to greet him, a gentle and polite smile on her face, and asked respectfully, "Senior, are you here to attend the auction?"
Lin Jingchu glanced at the maid through the mask and saw that she was at the late stage of Qi Refining. He thought to himself that the Qin family was developing well, and then gave a cool "hmm" in response.
The maid understood immediately and led him to the second floor.
The second floor was an extremely spacious hall, capable of accommodating several hundred people. Chairs were arranged about ten feet apart, surrounding a central platform. At this moment, more than thirty cultivators were scattered throughout the hall.
Lin Jingchu glanced around and saw that everyone present was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, with a few even possibly in the late Foundation Establishment stage. He withdrew his gaze, casually chose an empty seat, and waited for the auction to begin.
Then, one after another, cultivators who concealed their faces entered the hall. When the number of people in the hall approached fifty, a middle-aged cultivator with a thin face, dressed in a dark green brocade robe, ascended the central stone platform.
The auction officially began as the man rang the bronze bell on the stage.
Various century-old spiritual plants, rare spiritual materials, and exquisite magical artifacts were displayed one by one, and the rogue cultivators in the room put up bids, gradually making the atmosphere more and more heated.
Lin Jingchu simply sat quietly to the side, observing coldly. It wasn't until the sixth item—a three-legged alchemy furnace entirely purple-gold with a faint spiritual light—was placed on the stage that he straightened up slightly.
However, he did not intend to buy the alchemy furnace.
This furnace was provided by him; it was a reward he obtained from completing Song Yu's quest. He also had another similar furnace among the quest rewards. As it was a furnace exclusively owned by the Song family, he was afraid of causing trouble by selling it in Xi Kingdom. Now that he had come to the chaotic Yuanwu Kingdom, it was a good time to sell it.
To avoid attracting attention, he only brought out this alchemy furnace and a top-tier ice crystal defensive magic artifact that he had "scraped" from Song Yu for sale.
The defensive magic artifact had already been acquired by the Qin family for 1,500 spirit stones. As for this alchemy furnace, since the Qin family had no shortage of such items, it was put up for auction. They would bid whatever they could get, with the Qin family taking a 10% commission.
"The sixth item, the 'Purple Cloud Furnace,' is a top-tier alchemy artifact crafted by a master alchemist. Verified by our family's alchemists, it can increase the success rate of pill formation by an additional 30%, and enhance the quality of water-based spiritual pills by up to 20%. The starting bid is 600 spirit stones, with each bid increment no less than 50," the middle-aged cultivator announced loudly.
As soon as he finished speaking, several people in the hall lit up with excitement.
"Seven hundred!" A stout monk sitting in the front row was the first to bid, his voice booming.
"Eight hundred," a monk in a gray robe and wearing a bronze mask immediately followed up with the offer.
"Eight hundred and fifty!"
The price was quickly driven up. This alchemy furnace was indeed of excellent quality, and cultivation resources were scarce in Tiannan, so a good alchemy furnace meant a higher efficiency in converting cultivation resources.
Lin Jingchu remained calm beneath his mask, simply observing. He wasn't particularly concerned about the price it would fetch, as he still had eleven magical artifacts waiting to be sold in the system.
With the final hammer blow from the middle-aged cultivator, the alchemy furnace was sold for nine hundred spirit stones. This price wasn't considered top-tier, considering it was merely an auction held by a local family in the Yuanwu Kingdom.
In the subsequent auction, Lin Jingchu only purchased a jade slip containing the weapon-refining inheritance from the Divine Weapon Sect. It also included two sets of top-tier magic weapon refining methods and blueprints, which he used as a reference and for knowledge accumulation.
"This auction is now over. Now, everyone, please come up on stage one by one to make your own transactions." After saying this, the middle-aged cultivator stepped down from the platform.
As soon as she finished speaking, a female cultivator wearing a veil in the front row eagerly stepped onto the platform and took out a spiritual plant from her storage bag: "Two hundred-year-old Crimson Lingzhi, in exchange for a fire-attribute spiritual plant of equal value."
Several cultivators immediately communicated telepathically from below the stage. A moment later, a short, stocky cultivator wearing a black veil and a bamboo hat tossed out a jade box, which landed steadily in the female cultivator's hands. After opening and inspecting it, and confirming that everything was in order, the female cultivator stepped down from the stage to give up her seat.
The free trade session then began, with cultivators taking turns going up on stage to display the items they wished to sell.
Lin Jingchu remained seated, patiently waiting. Only after nearly half of the cultivators in the hall had gone up on the platform did he slowly rise and walk onto the platform.
After standing still, he flipped his hand and took out a fist-sized, pure white jade conch artifact.
"The Tide-Sound Jade Conch is a top-tier, exquisite magical artifact. It consumes very little mana to activate and can emit sound waves to attack enemies, as well as forcibly suppress and disrupt the opponent's spiritual energy flow. It is worth seven hundred spirit stones." He introduced it while injecting a small amount of mana to activate it. Instantly, the conch's mouth emitted visible ripples of sound waves towards the empty space beside it, causing the air to tremble.
The crowd below scanned the area with their divine senses, all revealing expressions of interest. Such unorthodox magical artifacts might prove surprisingly effective in combat.
Lin Jingchu observed everyone's reactions and added calmly, "This magical artifact will only be exchanged for the 'Starfall Jade.' If there is a difference in value, I can make up the difference with spirit stones."
Tempering one sword blank is tempering, and tempering two swords is also tempering. Since that's the case, he decided to prepare one for himself as well.
However, this "Starfall Jade" is extremely rare. Over the past year, Lin Jingchu has visited the markets of the Ancient Sword Sect and the Hundred Crafts Courtyard several times, but has come up empty-handed.
He even temporarily entrusted "Starfall Jade" to Song Yu to carry with him, hoping to "copy" it by "completing the task", but he was unable to get it to appear - after all, Song Yu had many items in his storage bag, and he could not tell him the truth.
On his way to Yuanwu Kingdom, he would take every opportunity to buy things in the markets he passed through.
After Lin Jingchu finished speaking, the room fell silent for a moment. Just as he thought he was going to leave empty-handed again and was about to turn and leave the stage—
A deep, aged voice suddenly rang in his ears:
"I happen to have a Starfall Jade in my possession. It weighs nearly twenty pounds and is worth at least two thousand spirit stones. Moreover, I will only accept it in exchange for a top-tier offensive magic weapon."