Chapter 3: Journey & Auction
It’s been 6 months since Shen and the duo started their journey. Normally, Shen expected to reach his destination by now, but he underestimated the hugeness of this world greatly. The regions in-between every continent are typically filled with wastelands, where Spiritual Qi is not abundant and mostly filled with Wild Beasts.
In this time, they only just crossed the wilderness between the Central and Greencloud Continents. While he wished to rush on Hundred Miles City and take the Yin-Yang Pendant as soon as possible. But he decided to play it safe. Ruyan might already have some suspicions on him and being rush at this point will only make things complicated.
He planned to enjoy his journey with Ruyan and Lingshuang. He wanted to spoil Lingshuang a little more. Plus, he could also collect different types of medicinal seeds which could be planted inside the Realm of the Violet Jade of Immortal.
Although Yu Ruyan felt skeptical as to why he was buying seeds, she didn’t stop him. She already treated him like an adult because of his high wisdom and intelligence. But still reminded him that it takes a long time to mature, ranging from 100 years to tens of thousands.
Shen just thanked her but still instructed her to buy different varieties of seeds from normal to rare ones. It would real tragic if he couldn’t get the Yin-Yang Pendant. But after some thinking, he found it impossible to happen. If Qing Shui didn’t get it then no one should either and even if Qing Shui got it. He had to take it from Qing Shui before the blood spills on the pendant. At this point, Shen evilly laughed which earned him a light slap on the head.
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Currently, the trio relaxed in a luxurious room. This was a VIP room of Prestige Auction Hall. Like the name, they were famous for their prestige surrounding the few cities nearby.
The trio heard about this Auction during their journey. Since it was about to take place soon, they decided to wait two days to attend this Auction. Shen, even though was one of the most powerful amongst the humans, never attended an Auction Hall as it was too rare. And he could get things he wanted by himself. More like, he just looked down on those Auction Hall's.
He was surprised how expensive this Auction Hall’s could be, just this VIP Room cost them 10,000 taels. They didn’t really spend much during their journey. Their most expenses went to seeds of various herbs.
Still, Shen didn’t worry about money. They had enough for spending 20 years lavishly. Of course, if they spent with care. Even so, he could earn them later on.
Shen checked the room while unintentionally his gaze fell upon Ruyan. He really felt amazed by how dedicated this woman could be. Even before leaving Duanmu Family, she decided to visit her late husband’s grave.
He slowly came to know more about her, at the same time his love for her became stronger. He wanted her to dedicate for himself, not some dead guy, who probably only had a skeleton now. Unknowingly a warm smile crept on his face.
As if feeling his gaze, Ruyan turned her face toward him. She felt weird about this kid. Sometimes, he would act like a ‘kid’ in front of her, but sometimes, she felt him acting more mature than herself. She returned a smile and took her attention toward the Auction.
The auction was about to begin.
The auctioneer seemed to be a woman on her late twenties, the time when a woman reaches her peak beauty. While her assistant seemed like a middle-aged man with a poised look. Both wore clothes that presented them as capable and experienced. After they went up the stage, they smiled. Greeted the people below, and immediately announced the start of the auction.
The first item was the cub of a desolate beast, a Grade 1 Mountain Tiger!
Shen didn't know that the cubs of demonic beasts, ferocious beasts, and desolate beasts were the most expensive. Also one of the most desired ones. After all, it was easier to tame the younger ones and the chances of them turning their backs on you would be much lower as well.
"The starting bid is 50,000 taels of silver and each increment must not be lower than 500 taels."
What surprised Shen was that the bids shot up to 450,000 taels very quickly.
The next few items were mostly weapons or equipments, and those that were useful were bidded off at high prices. However, nothing compared to the cub of the Mountain Tiger. Shen did not have many requirements for weapons. Moreover, those were only normal weapons. For weapons, he had the minimum requirement of them being Divine Weapon.
If Yu Ruyan knew his thought, she would thrash him repeatedly for being such so shameless and greedy!
Shen started feeling depressed, he expected some interesting items to appear on this auction but so far nothing caught his attention. He looked forward to the last three items which will be presented shortly.
Very soon a youthful girl took out a small tray, veiled by a red cloth. She kept the tray on a table as the announcer took over.
"Everyone we are now auctioning our last three item, this item is definitely a treasure. Although we couldn’t find the usage for it, according to Elders of the Auction Hall this item holds a great amount of vitality and mystical properties. As the owner of this treasure needs urgent money, we had to bring this treasure before the schedule. The starting bid is 50,000 taels of silver, and each increment cannot be lower than 1000 taels. Let us start the bidding now!" as he said this he removed the veil and a crystalline branch of a tree appeared on everyone’s view.
The branch is completely leafless but it didn’t have a lifeless appearance, rather it brimmed with vitality. From time to time the branch would sparkle a little. If someone didn’t know better, they would definitely use this item as decoration.
"51,000 taels!"
"56,000 taels!"
"57,000 taels"
After a few seconds of silence, people started to bid . Although the usage was unknown it might possibly increase some old cultivators lifespan. Many wanted to study this strange branch. It looked like a crystal, at the same time it looked similar to a tree branch. Either way, they can tell it's made by nature and not handy work.
On the other hand, Shen frowned deeply with his baby face. At least he tried to frown. He couldn’t remember about crystal tree branch in the story so he was pondering whether he should get this tree branch or not.
"Buy this one! I’ll need it." After another good three seconds, he finally decided to get this branch.
"Are you sure?" Ruyan suddenly wondered why this kid was so obsessed with trees.
"Definitely and don’t forget to mask your voice."
Ruyan just nodded and only sighed a little. Shen kept ordering her and she didn’t know why she couldn’t refute him. Eventually she became used to following his order. It makes one wonder who was the older one.
In the end, they were able to get the branch with 220,000 teals. Ruyan felt it was unnecessary but again didn’t question it. It didn't look completely useless either.
After the branch was delivered to the VIP room, Shen quickly took it to see carefully. From close, this branch really wants to make one look at it for days. He looked at the branch’s information with the help of Absolute Upgrade. He didn’t try to upgrade it. He could feel it will shatter in thousands of pieces as soon as tried it.
[Holy Branch
A branch from the Holy Tree.]
A little bit skeptical, Shen looked at the branch again. ‘Holy Tree?! What is this a game?’
Shen started having a headache but remembered AST world looked more or less like a game. Items and Gears could increase the wearer's power. So having a holy tree shouldn’t be too surprising.
"So, Is it useful?" Shen handed the branch to Ruyan who just giggled a little looking at his expression.
"Oh, you should keep that branch with care. You might get a scare if you knew what this branch was?" Shen’s voice contained a little amusement.
"So, you know about this branch? What is it?"
"It is a... secret!" Shen laughed out loud. Thankfully VIP Rooms were soundproofed for ‘various’ reasons. So, nobody found out.
Another Pill and Sword was auctioned which none of the three took fancy to. In the end, Lingshuang sulked how it was boring. Even though she curiously asked about almost every item. Shen apologized to her and promised to make it up to her.
They left the Auction Hall and didn’t really get ‘invited’ by some people. Which caused Shen to be quite surprised. It looked you don’t always encounter cliched villains.