Chapter 204: Learning Never Ends
Feiyun Chamber of Commerce was the largest in the Nine Provinces. It was rumored that the upper echelon of the Chamber consisted of over a dozen Fusion Stage cultivators. Once, an old man at the Fusion Stage tried to forcibly snatch an auction item by relying on his cultivation, only to be severely injured by several Fusion Stage cultivators from the Chamber.
The Chamber’s terrifying strength was evident.
As for who those dozen or so Fusion Stage cultivators actually were, that wasn’t something the general public could know.
Jiang Li, of course, knew exactly who was behind Feiyun Chamber of Commerce.
After all, if you wanted to grow big in the Nine Provinces, how could you not report to the Human Sovereign Hall?
A power with over ten Fusion Stage cultivators was frightening—nearly on par with the Six Great Sects.
Tianji Tower and Feiyun Chamber of Commerce both fell into that category.
Feiyun’s headquarters was based in Great Zhou, with many branches across the Nine Provinces.
To complete the system mission, Jiang Li obviously couldn’t go to the main headquarters—no noble family disciples there would challenge you over something like this.
If he was going, it had to be the Tianyuan Dynasty, where internal strife among humans was the most intense. Jiang Li had been there in his weaker days, and it was full of noble family disciples walking around with their noses in the air, arrogant to the extreme.
Even after Yu Yin ascended the throne, she didn’t interfere with this, because the Tianyuan Dynasty’s national fortune was tied to chess. The more internal strife, the tenser the board, and the stronger the national fortune.
Jiang Li arrived in the new capital of the Tianyuan Dynasty, disguised himself, and entered the venue.
A servant handed him a list of today’s auction items, filled with dazzling treasures, all extremely rare.
Ninety percent of these rare treasures could already be found in Jiang Li’s storage ring.
That said everything about the quality of this auction.
Ordinary-level items weren’t even worthy of his storage ring.
The list didn’t include everything up for auction. It said that three special items would be auctioned last. As for what they were, where they came from, or their starting bids—the list said nothing.
Jiang Li didn’t care. Whatever they were, he could afford them.
When it came to money, few in the Nine Provinces could compare to him.
Money? Just a small matter of writing a few Fusion Stage cultivation techniques.
Of course, the techniques he sold to the Nine Provinces were different from the ones he sold to the system—his public ones were highly practical.
Jiang Li positioned himself just right. If noble family disciples were going to dislike him, try to rob him, or teach him a lesson, then he needed to act like a rich, unknown, low-cultivation upstart.
In the venue, Jiang Li saw a familiar figure in a black robe and cheerfully sat beside it.
“We meet again.”
“Human, mind your tone. Don’t get chummy with me.” The other party wasn’t moved by Jiang Li’s enthusiasm.
Jiang Li didn’t care, and absentmindedly said, “I wonder if Yu Yin knows you snuck out.”
The figure shuddered and suddenly realized who was sitting next to them.
“J-Jiang Bro?”
“Don’t call me that so intimately. Just call me Human.”
“You flatter me, I said ‘hoo-man.’” The other party forced a smile. “Please don’t tell my master about this.”
They wore a black robe and used an array to block divine sense, hiding their true body. But in front of Jiang Li, that was as good as useless.
Jiang Li used divine sense and saw that it wasn’t human—it was a yellow-skinned gourd held up by a spell.
An Immortal Artifact—Ruyi Gourd.
“You sneaked out?”
“No way.” Ruyi Gourd flatly denied it, then stammered, “I just told my master I was going for a walk… didn’t mention I was going to an auction.”
“What’s wrong with coming to an auction? Afraid Yu Yin will find out?”
Ruyi Gourd just giggled, saying nothing.
“You came here for…”
“Looking for some short-sighted folks. Waiting for them to try and fight me.”
Ruyi Gourd shivered. Waiting for them to fight you? More like waiting to beat them up yourself.
“Look, isn’t that the Confucian Envoy, Wang Bian?!”
Someone exclaimed, drawing everyone’s attention.
Sure enough, Wang Bian, dressed in Confucian robes and exuding scholarly elegance, entered a VIP room with the attendant’s guidance.
Originally, Ruyi Gourd could’ve entered one of those rooms, but for some reason chose to conceal its identity and sit in the regular section.
“That’s odd. There’s nothing on the list that would interest the Confucian Sect.” Someone was puzzled. The auction items were valuable, but not to the level of drawing a Confucian envoy.
“Could it be one of the three hidden items?”
“Why is someone from the Great Zhou Imperial Academy here too—and it’s Vice Dean Meng?”
“You’re out of the loop. A few years ago, Jiang the Human Sovereign came in last on the entrance exam for ‘disrespecting himself,’ so the Academy replaced the dean. He’s not Vice Dean Meng anymore—he’s Dean Meng.”
“Oh, I see.”
“But still, this auction doesn’t seem significant enough for big names like that.” Someone scanned the item list. The Great Zhou Imperial Academy focused on research, and none of today’s items were that academic.
“Do you know what the three hidden items are?” Jiang Li was curious too—he’d run into a lot of familiar faces today.
“No idea. I saw the list at the entrance and came in when I saw something interesting,” Ruyi Gourd replied.
Both were at a loss.
The hidden items were meant to build hype. In fact, Feiyun Chamber had already informed the potential buyers privately.
Clearly, Wang Bian and Dean Meng were here for those hidden treasures.
“Doesn’t matter, it’s got nothing to do with me,” Jiang Li didn’t dwell on it.
“The first auction item: a bottle of Heavywater Essence. It can add profound weight when refining spiritual treasures and increases cultivation speed for Water Root cultivators by twenty percent—limited to below the Golden Core stage.”
The elder on stage kept his eyes nearly closed—without looking closely, you’d think they were shut. He tapped the gavel. “Starting bid: one hundred eighty mid-grade spirit stones.”
“One eighty!”
“Two hundred!”
“Two forty!”
“I bid three hundred!”
The room buzzed with growing excitement, pushing everyone’s desire to bid.
“Five hundred and twelve!”
The elder’s eyes suddenly snapped open. Last time at the Dao Sect’s auction, someone had shouted that same number. Now again.
His years of auction experience told him—it was the same person as last time!
“Five hundred and twelve spirit stones once, five hundred and twelve spirit stones twice, five hundred and twelve spirit stones three times.”
The elder knocked the gavel again. “Congratulations to this fellow Daoist for winning the Heavywater Essence!”
He was secretly thrilled. At least this time no one yelled one thousand twenty-four or two thousand forty-eight.
Jiang Li was frustrated. D**n, he hadn’t managed to skew the price this time.
He shouldn’t have gone with a power-of-two bid on the first item. As a warm-up item, the Heavywater Essence was only worth five hundred mid-grade spirit stones. His bid had been just right.
Next time, he’d pick a more expensive item. Lesson learned.
“Truly, learning never ends. Even at the Mahayana stage, there’s still so much to learn,” Jiang Li reflected.
Ruyi Gourd looked at Jiang Li in confusion. This big shot can have auction epiphanies?
Why don’t I have any insights like that?