As the three took their seats, the lights in the grand auction house abruptly dimmed.
In the darkness of the hall, the clamor of the crowd gradually faded.
A beam of light struck down upon the raised stage.
Immediately after, a woman clad in a black qipao walked slowly onto the platform.
Her lustrous dark hair was casually pinned up at the back of her head, framing an exquisite, breathtakingly beautiful face.
Her figure, in particular, was an eye-opening sight for the three.
Ye Feng stared with wide eyes and muttered, "Damn, that's huge!"
"Is that... even real..."
She wore sheer silver-threaded gloves on both hands, and the high slit along the side of her qipao had more than a few men swallowing hard.
Every smile and frown of hers seemed to hold a magical allure, involuntarily drawing every gaze to her.
Swaying her hips, she soon stepped beneath the beam of light and bowed to the crowd below, completely indifferent to the covetous stares and crude wolf whistles.
It was as if she had long grown accustomed to it all. A faint smile graced her lips, revealing pearl-white teeth, and when she parted her vermilion lips, her voice was gentle and elegant.
"Greetings, everyone. I am the auctioneer for today, Han Qiu."
"Since we are all familiar acquaintances here, Han Qiu will not waste words. First, please welcome our very first auction item of the day!"
As she spoke, the platform beside her faintly shimmered with light, and a longsword glinting with a frigid gleam abruptly appeared.
Golden radiance emanated from the entire blade. One glance was enough to tell it was an exceptionally rare spirit tool sword, and one that provided a considerable boost to metal-attribute primal energy.
Han Qiu held up the longsword in both hands, walked a circuit around the raised stage, and said softly, "This is a new work by a renowned weapon crafting master—a mid-grade spirit tool, the Red Gold Sword. It provides a substantial amplification for cultivators with a metal spiritual root."
"The usual rules apply. The starting bid is thirty thousand low-grade spirit stones, with minimum increments of one thousand."
Before her voice even faded, a faint stir rippled through the crowd below.
Li Guanqi was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected the auction house to operate on such a high level.
The very first item up for bid was already a spirit tool.
Yet this price... it was indeed hard to stomach bidding for.
After all, his goal today was that top-grade spirit tool alchemy furnace.
Just then, Li Guanqi noticed the look in Ye Feng's eyes beside him, catching a trace of longing.
Not wanting Ye Feng to feel he was playing favorites, Li Guanqi sent a voice transmission with a chuckle: "We'll buy Cao Yan's furnace first this time."
"Once that kid has a furnace, earning money will be a breeze for him."
"When the time comes, I'll have him buy you a treasured sword."
He didn't keep Cao Yan out of the loop either; Cao Yan heard it clearly as well.
Cao Yan scratched his head somewhat self-consciously and said, "Eldest Brother, how about... we don't buy it this time?"
"That furnace... is a bit pricey. If all else fails, we can just find an alchemy workshop later and use theirs."
Li Guanqi shook his head firmly and said, "The furnaces in alchemy workshops are for public use, and their quality is extremely poor."
"Besides, to do good work, an artisan must first sharpen his tools."
"Having your own furnace will make refining pills much easier for you. Just listen to me on this."
Helpless, Cao Yan could only nod slightly.
Inwardly, however, he was deeply touched.
Whether it was Ye Feng or himself, both could feel that Li Guanqi truly cared for them without any reservations, looking out for their feelings just like a true big brother.
Ye Feng shrugged, curling his lips as he said, "Once we get Big Head that furnace, I'm going to make him refine pills every single day."
Soon, the bids from below came faster and faster. The price quickly blew past fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones and continued to soar.
In the end, the sword was hammered down for seven hundred and thirty mid-grade spirit stones.
As the atmosphere warmed up, Han Qiu on stage capitalized on the enthusiastic momentum and began introducing the next auction lot.
Ten bottles of top-grade Essence Augmentation Pills with nearly ninety percent potency!
Each bottle contained ten Essence Augmentation Pills, with a reserve price of three thousand low-grade spirit stones per bottle!
For all ten bottles, that came to fifty thousand!
However, these ten bottles were auctioned off separately, and the first and second bottles were soon sold for around four thousand eight or nine hundred stones each.
Li Guanqi thought for a moment and decided to buy two bottles first.
When the bids below reached four thousand five hundred, he raised his hand slightly, lifting his paddle, and called out in a raspy voice, "Five thousand."
The bidding crowd below froze slightly, not expecting someone to actually be seated on the second floor.
Five thousand low-grade spirit stones was already somewhat inflated.
Yet the medicinal potency of these Essence Augmentation Pills was exceptionally well-preserved, so Li Guanqi was willing to spend a bit extra to secure them.
Han Qiu looked up at the three on the second floor, the smile at the corner of her lips deepening. Extending her hand, she said softly, "Honored guest number one hundred and eighty-eight on the second floor bids five thousand. Are there any higher bids?"
"There are only ten bottles of Essence Augmentation Pills in this auction. If you miss this, you'll have to wait for the next time."
Han Qiu's words carried great sway, causing quite a stir among the audience.
After all, Essence Augmentation Pills were virtually hard currency; one could even treat them as spirit stones.
Yet someone on the second floor had placed a bid...
Besides, this was only the third bottle; there would still be opportunities later.
Many people thought along those lines, and they also had no desire to needlessly offend Li Guanqi's group.
Just as Li Guanqi was secretly feeling pleased, Wang Heyang's venomous voice suddenly drifted down from the upper floor.
"Six thousand!"
The wooden gavel in the woman's hand was just about to fall when it abruptly halted. Flashing a radiant smile toward the third floor, she said softly, "Honored guest number two hundred and fifty on the third floor bids six thousand low-grade spirit stones."
"Are there any higher bids?"
Li Guanqi's face cooled slightly as he casually glanced back toward the private box upstairs.
By the window, a youth with a bruised and battered face glared coldly down at him, not bothering to hide his intentions at all.
He even cast a provocative look toward the three of them.
Li Guanqi smiled faintly and said softly, "Six thousand five hundred."
Han Qiu's lips curled into a gentle smile as she directed her gaze toward the second floor. "Honored guest number one hundred and eighty-eight bids six thousand five hundred."
"This batch of Essence Augmentation Pills is guaranteed to retain ninety percent potency, each radiating pill fragrance. It would truly be a pity to miss out."
By now, however, everyone in the auction house had settled into watching a good show.
After all, under normal circumstances, a bottle of Essence Augmentation Pills would fetch at most five thousand low-grade spirit stones; anything more was hardly cost-effective.
When it came down to it, the primal energy provided by these Essence Augmentation Pills couldn't match the total volume of five thousand spirit stones.
Yet the advantage of pills was that they could rapidly advance a cultivator's cultivation, and their medicinal potency was exceedingly easy to refine.
The moment Li Guanqi finished speaking, Wang Heyang upstairs could hardly wait to raise his paddle and shout, "Seven thousand!"
Hearing this, Li Guanqi merely smiled and lapsed into silence, uttering not another word.
The woman on stage said quite a bit, but seeing that Li Guanqi had stopped bidding, she proceeded with the auction protocol.
For the subsequent bottles, Li Guanqi placed bids consecutively, yet each time he stopped at five thousand and refused to go higher.
During this time, the fellow upstairs repeatedly drove up the price, winning the Essence Augmentation Pills at around six thousand stones each.
By the fifth bottle, Li Guanqi's bid had once again been pushed by him all the way to six thousand five hundred!
Chapter 229