Chapter 129: Sea of Clouds Auction (1)
“One of the clan’s elders needs it. He was wounded badly two years ago in a duel with someone and has no way of recovering completely. We don’t know how much longer he’s going to be able to hold on. The only way to ensure his survival was to activate the s.h.i.+ning Dragon Bloodline in his body,” Gu Qingluo said.
The s.h.i.+ning Dragon’s bloodline was incredibly powerful and possessed a powerful lifeforce. As soon as it activated, he would naturally recover.
“But if that happens, that elder is going to need to leave the Longxi Gu Clan and head for the Empty Mountain, right?” Su Chen asked.
“Yes, but so what? The Empty Mountain Kingdom is a prison meant to contain the Gu Clan, but it isn’t totally restrictive. As long as he doesn’t leave Empty Mountain, he’ll still have some freedom. The amount of territory the s.h.i.+ning Dragon Gu Clan has there isn’t small either; if he goes there, he might not be that bad off,” Gu Qingluo laughed.
So that’s how it was.
In other words, the Gu Clan all over the kingdom were born with a secret skill: if they couldn’t defeat their opponents, they could just ingest a vial of Awakening Medicine and immediately turn things around on their opponent.
Most people couldn’t handle this way of playing.
It seemed like this top quality Awakening Medicine was hard to come by, however; otherwise, if each person could get their hands on a vial, the whole continent would be thrown into chaos.
“Sixth Elder Tang is the manager of the Sea of Clouds Auction. I originally was hoping that he would stop the auction and sell it to me directly, but unfortunately he refused. However, he agreed to save the medicine until the end of the auction, behind a number of important treasures. This way, everyone would have spent most of their money, and the compet.i.tion wouldn’t be that fierce.”
The Gu Clan wasn’t the only clan with a powerful bloodline. Many Bloodline n.o.bility Clans had diverse and complex bloodline pedigrees. If they traced it back all the way, some might even have traces of a Desolate Beast. If some Desolate Beast Bloodline n.o.bility Clan individual leaves behind some seed elsewhere, but it gets suppressed for any number of reasons and is slowly diluted as it is pa.s.sed on from generation to generation, that individual would still have an opportunity to suddenly rise to power…… this kind of person would also need the top quality Awakening Medicine.
There was still a lot of room to fight for this top quality Awakening Medicine. Gu Qingluo couldn’t directly buy the medicine, so she could only use this kind of tactic to decrease the intensity of the compet.i.tion.
When he heard this, Su Chen laughed. “Don’t worry. With me here, you’ll be able to get it for sure.”
Gu Qingluo, however, shook her head. “There’s no need. This is just for an elder who is about to leave. Even if you buy it for him, nothing will really happen.
Gu Qingluo identified the crux of the matter with a single sentence.
Even though the Gu Clan’s people possessed the ability to “transform at any time”, after transformation they would be “recycled”, making it so that the amount of support they would receive from the clan afterward would be very much decreased.
No clan would invest all of their resources into a person who was definitely going to run away.
As such, Gu Qingluo was only here on her clan’s orders, but the money was that elder’s own – the clan had only symbolically offered twenty thousand Origin Stones.
By the same principle, Gu Qingluo didn’t plan on letting her man dig into his pockets for an elder that was about to leave.
From this aspect, it was obvious that Gu Qingluo was also maturing. She was no longer the silly inexperienced girl from before.
Su Chen understood Gu Qingluo’s meaning and didn’t continue to insist.
The two of them continued their happy life, walking through Long Coiling City together and holding hands until the Sea of Clouds Auction was slated to begin.
On that day, Su Chen, Gu Qingluo, Gu Jintang, Cloud Leopard, and Iron Cliff all came to the Sea of Clouds Pavilion.
The time when ma.s.sive amounts of money were going to be thrown around had come.
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The Sea of Clouds Pavilion was bubbling with movement.
The guests, who had come from all over the continent, gathered here. Each one of them was from an incredibly rich n.o.ble family.
The Sea of Clouds Pavilion had sent forth their most experienced servants and most beautiful maidservants, and had set up the most luxurious hall to treat the guests.
As Gu Jintang and the others stepped into the auction hall, they were greeted by a ceiling embedded with 4800 fragments of colored ceramic and the path beneath their feet made from twelve high-tier Demonic Beast hides. Cloud Leopard and Iron Cliff were a bit dazed.
The Gu Clan was placed in guest room 16.
Upon entering the guest room, they found two maidservants already waiting inside for them, large crystal goblets filled to the brim with wine – “Jade Amber Wine”, to be specific.
This kind of wine cost five hundred Origin Stones per jug and had no additional effects. They only drank it for the flavor, so it was just to show off – most wealthy people would die if they didn’t show something off.
Su Chen didn’t have this issue yet. He picked it up and took a sip, then laughed, “This is the Jade Amber Eye? It doesn’t seem like much.”
“That’s true. You usually drink wine much more expensive than this.”
He wasn’t lying. To improve his consciousness ability and control the Flood Dragon Emperor Shuttle better, Su Chen had begun to drink Spirit Sobering Medicine at an incredible pace once again.
However, the maidservants nearby who heard took exception.
The Sea of Clouds Pavilion’s maidservants all had quite poisonous eyes. They could tell immediately that Su Chen and the others had come in with the Gu Clan. The Gu Clan’s members hadn’t even said anything yet, yet these two attendants dared to act so arrogantly. Of course, they only dared to say this within their hearts; their expressions didn’t reveal anything.
As they spoke, the Sea of Clouds Auction began.
A middle-aged man stepped up to the podium. He was the host for today’s auction.
Iron Cliff was greatly disappointed. “The host isn’t a beautiful woman? Aren’t most high-tier auctions hosted by the most beautiful women?”
The two maidservants couldn’t help but look down on them disdainfully.
Using beautiful women as the hosts wasn’t something the highest-tier auctions used. Actually, it was the exact opposite; the not-as-prestigious auctions used these kinds of lowly tactics to attract the others. Truly large auctions looked down on using these kinds of tactics; what they needed was not beautiful women but a professional host who had a deep understanding of the goods being auctioned.
The host for today was called Sun Zhengtao, the Sea of Clouds Pavilion’s best host. He had a profound wealth of knowledge and experience.
After Sun Zhengtao offered the auction’s opening words, he said, “Next, we’ll start by auctioning today’s first item: the Sanxiang Ghost Jade Bracelet.”
As the red veil was pulled aside, a purple-bluish jade bracelet appeared on the podium.
“The Sanxiang Ghost Jade Bracelet is the last creation of Tool-Refining Master Elder Shangkong. Even though it is only a Grade Six Origin Tool, it has an extraordinary ability. It contains an incredibly powerful Origin Skill, Malicious Ghost Claw. According to tests, its attack power reaches 150!”
Normally, the maximum limit of an Origin Skill unleashable by a Qi Drawing Realm cultivator was around 30, Blood Boiling around 100, and Yang Opening around 300.
A Grade Six Origin Tool was an Origin Tool useable only by a Blood Boiling Realm cultivator or above, making it quite a scary tool.
The aforementioned numbers mentioned were very close to the limit. To most people, reaching an attack power of around sixty or seventy in the Blood Boiling Realm was already quite impressive.
This Grade Six Origin Tool had an attack power exceeding 150, making it close to normal Grade Five Origin Tools. This was quite rare.
If any Blood Boiling Realm cultivator were to possess a treasure like this, it would be a huge killing tool.
The auctioneer said, “The starting price of this treasure is 800,000 Origin Stones!”
Normal Grade Six Origin Tools usually started at around 300,000 – 500,000 Origin Stones. Grade Five Origin Tools were at least a million Origin Stones.
This Origin Tool’s starting price was already set at 800,000 Origin Stones.