Beast Taming Clan: I Have a Jade Book

Chapter 366: Chapter 342: Struggle for the Foundation Establishment Pill

In the Ye Family’s private room on the second floor, Ye Jingcheng took a sip of spirit tea.

His gloomy expression improved a bit. The Wisdom Fruit definitely couldn’t be the centerpiece treasure, even if it hadn’t been bitten.

This was also the cleverness of the auctioneer Qiuxianyun, who intentionally mentioned it, without changing the base price, yet attracting quite a few more cultivators to bid.

“Three thousand one hundred spirit stones!” Seeing the price finally stagnate, Ye Jingcheng finally placed a bid.

Although Tier Two High-grade Spirit Fruits are exceedingly rare, Wisdom Fruit is especially scarce.

But as a fruit merely for enlightenment, the price was still a bit high.

It’s known that the price of a Tier Two Middle Jade Soul Pill is only around a thousand each, and ordinary Tier Two High-grade spirit medicines are considered precious at a thousand plus a few hundred spirit stones.

The Wisdom Fruit, however, can be used directly without the need for alchemy, much like the Longevity Spirit Fruit, and it comes without any erysipelas. Thus, its price can be several layers higher, but anything over two thousand would be the limit.

Once it exceeds three thousand, it’s exceedingly overpriced.

Ye Jingcheng had no choice but to bid, as the Ye Family’s Spirit Transformation Pill was effective for spirit beasts but hadn’t shown results for the Stone Spirit yet.

Ye Jingcheng hoped the Stone Spirit would start cultivating the Turtle Ancestor’s visualization diagram soon, expanding the Grotto Heaven Secret Realm, so his spirit beasts could practice magic daily even within the Grotto Heaven.

“Three thousand two hundred spirit stones!” At this moment, a cultivator overbid.

Ye Jingcheng couldn’t help but frown; the voice was from the Kong Family.

Evidently, the Kong Family also wanted it.

But since the Ye and Kong families had long been at odds, he couldn’t care less at this moment.

“Three thousand five hundred spirit stones!” Ye Jingcheng directly increased the bid by three hundred spirit stones.

There was still a gap with the Wisdom Fruit; if the Kong Family maliciously competed, he wouldn’t mind letting them win.

But it had to be at a high price.

However, after Ye Jingcheng’s bid, the Kong Family’s cultivator didn’t respond.

It was almost as if they were mocking Ye Jingcheng for spending so many spirit stones to buy a deficient Wisdom Fruit.

Ye Jingcheng felt relieved after purchase.

He now had over a hundred thousand spirit stones in his storage bag, not counting his contribution points with the Ye Family.

Most of these spirit stones were taken from the storage bags of Kong Family cultivators and Xu Family cultivators within the secret realm.

So the Kong Family laughed at him?

Who knows who’s truly laughing at whom.

Ye Jingcheng coldly snorted to himself and sat down again.

As expected, the subsequent treasures were all Tier Two treasures and Tier Two spirit materials, along with some rare and precious Tier Two magical artifacts.

Ye Jingcheng and Ye Xingliu didn’t lack for magical artifacts and naturally didn’t make a move.

Neither Wooden Square nor Stone Square treasures appeared, but quite a few Tier Two High-grade Thunder Cloud Grass for Thunder Rhinoceros Pills did, and Ye Jingcheng spent six thousand three hundred spirit stones to purchase three of them.

“Next up is the auction for Foundation Establishment Pills. This time, eighty Foundation Establishment Pills are for sale; twenty will be sold individually, and the remaining will be auctioned in sets of three!”

“Now the individual auction starts, with a base price of eight thousand spirit stones, and each bid must increase by at least one hundred spirit stones.” With a wave of Qiuxianyun’s hand, this time a Foundation Establishment female cultivator came forward with a storage bag.

She quickly took out forty jade bottles, but the first twenty contained only one Foundation Establishment Pill each, while the remaining twenty contained three pills each.

With the appearance of the Foundation Establishment Pills, Ye Jingcheng could noticeably sense the auction hall’s breathing becoming more rapid, as in this moment, out of five to six thousand people in the hall, eighty percent of the cultivators had fervent gazes.

Qi Cultivation Cultivators must prepare a Foundation Establishment Pill to advance to Foundation Establishment; otherwise, failure means death.

Foundation Establishment Cultivators and Purple Mansion Cultivators, even more so, need a large number of Foundation Establishment Pills to ensure a continuous supply of Foundation Establishment cultivators for their families.

Currently, throughout the Yan Kingdom’s Taiyi Three Commanderies, there are no known family forces capable of refining Foundation Establishment Pills.

“Ten thousand spirit stones!”

“Eleven thousand spirit stones!”

…

With the appearance of the Foundation Establishment Pills, even though the first ten are emphasized to be off-limits for sect participants, the price soared straightforwardly.

Though more Foundation Establishment Pills are available this time, it’s obvious that many loose cultivators are actually family cultivators in disguise.

Just like a decade ago, Ye Jingcheng and Ye Haiyi pretended to be ordinary loose cultivators.

Real loose cultivators find it multiple times more challenging to purchase Foundation Establishment Pills compared to family cultivators.

The price for the first one ultimately stopped at twenty-one thousand.

This left Ye Jingyong and Ye Xingyi somewhat uneasy.

Though they had many spirit stones, this was just the first one, and family cultivators hadn’t participated.

They could imagine how families like the emptied Kong, Xu, and Wan would strive to acquire Foundation Establishment Pills.

Having the secret realm open before the auction was definitely a strategy by the Taiyi Sect to hike prices.

Ye Jingcheng also noticed Xu Xiuqing’s face full of disappointment, evidently having lost the bid.

Her bid stopped at eighteen thousand eight hundred spirit stones.

Ye Jingcheng had no doubt that if it were possible to bid by individual spirit stones, there might be even more fractional amounts.

But this price wasn’t actually low.

A decade ago, it would have been enough to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill.

The first one was auctioned off, and the second one quickly followed.

The price for ten consecutive items was auctioned for twenty-two to twenty-three thousand Spirit Stones.

Xu Xiuqing was also unsurprisingly unsuccessful, and at this time, her body was trembling as she gazed at the high platform for a long time.

Having missed out on the first ten Foundation Establishment Pills, the subsequent pills were even harder to auction.

Xu Xiuqing clenched her fist tightly, still hoping for a chance to get a bargain on the next Foundation Establishment Pills.

Ye Jingcheng saw this and couldn’t help but sigh.

This is the reality for those at the bottom of cultivation; facing the auction of Foundation Establishment Pills, they can only watch helplessly.

The Spirit Stones collected turned into nothing, with many cultivators not having the opportunity for another decade to wait for the next auction. They could only desperately try to succeed before reaching the critical age of sixty, hoping to be resurrected from death by a successful breakthrough.

But after all, it is like gambling with fate.

Therefore, once the auction ends, many of these low-level cultivators recklessly take risks, even if they know they might become stepping stones or financial benefactors for other cultivators.

“The eleventh Foundation Establishment Pill, still starting at a price of eight thousand, each increase cannot be less than one hundred Spirit Stones!” Qiuxianyun said with exceptional enthusiasm, the higher the Foundation Establishment Pills sold, the more Spirit Stones he could receive.

“Eleven thousand!”

“Twelve thousand!”

“Twenty thousand Spirit Stones!” This time, it was Ye Xingyi who spoke, having been restrained for a long time, he couldn’t hold back any longer.

But when this price appeared, it was quickly overshadowed again.

Especially from the Xu Family’s private room, directly came a price of twenty-four thousand eight hundred, setting a new record for the Foundation Establishment Pill.

For a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, the Foundation Establishment Clan means uniqueness, and for the Purple Mansion Clan, it is absolutely indispensable as a backbone force.

Therefore, with such a large regional territory, the Xu Family must produce more Foundation Establishment cultivators to maintain control.

Just as the Ye Family currently lacks Foundation Establishment cultivators to oversee things in Taihang Market, Taichang Market, and even Buqing Mountain Medicine Garden.

Only the Ye Family has more Tier Two Demon Beasts; otherwise, a large territory is not necessarily a good thing.

And if each market’s storekeeper still remains Qi Cultivation cultivators for the time-honored Xu Family, it would be a huge joke.

This pill was unsurprisingly auctioned off by the Xu Family.

In the next nine pills, Ye Jingli auctioned one, while Ye Xingyi and Ye Jingyong ultimately lacked enough Spirit Stones to succeed.

Both were planning to borrow Spirit Stones, for the Foundation Establishment is naturally not to be abandoned.

It was only when Ye Xingliu spoke up, stating the family would auction a set of three Foundation Establishment Pills, that the two breathed a sigh of relief.

As the first twenty singular Foundation Establishment Pills finished auctioning, quite a few Loose Cultivators began to leave. Unlike when there were merely two Foundation Establishment Pills which could lead to collaboration, now three pills meant increased risk.

They might even preemptively wait at the exits of Taichang Market, lurking to target those Qi Cultivation Loose Cultivator who just finished auctioning their Foundation Establishment Pills.

Xu Xiuqing also got up, her eyes appeared resolute, seemingly having made up her mind.

Having endured to this day, one naturally won’t willingly give up on Foundation Establishment.

“Xu Daoist, will there be a small gathering at Chu Ye Pavilion in half a day?” a Transmission sounded.

Xu Xiuqing paused with a glance at the private room on the second floor.

Upon seeing Ye Jingcheng’s figure, she finally nodded.

Then sat back in her seat.

Utilizing the upcoming bid, the Ye Family finally auctioned a set of Foundation Establishment Pills, with a price precisely at sixty-nine thousand Spirit Stones, averaging twenty-three thousand per pill.

Far exceeded the previous selling price for Foundation Establishment Pills.

Even Ye Xingliu felt the pinch.

Ye Jingcheng at this moment even suspected, the Taiyi Sect arranged cultivators in the Secret Realm specifically to assassinate small family Foundation Establishment or loners.

Causing widespread demise of Foundation Establishment cultivators to raise the auction price for Foundation Establishment Pills, while ensuring the Taiyi Sect’s absolute status.

After all, back then there were three to four hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators entering the Secret Realm, but only a little over a hundred returned, with more than half lost.

As the Foundation Establishment Pills finished selling, the whole atmosphere of the auction turned extremely tense.

Those who obtained Foundation Establishment Pills were fine, but those who didn’t, whether Loose Cultivator or Clan Cultivator, presently wore unfriendly looks.

Constantly contemplating getting free Foundation Establishment Pills due to the lack of auction purchase.

“Next treasures are Tier Two Top-Grade Spiritual Artifact, Celestial Corpse Spear. Though not a virtuous weapon, it is indeed a supreme spiritual artifact and can be employed by any familiar cultivator!”

“The base price is twenty thousand Spirit Stones, each increase cannot be less than one hundred Spirit Stones!”

As Qiuxianyun brought out a cyan Corpse Spear, Ye Jingcheng’s eyes inadvertently glittered.

This Corpse Spear looks very much like his Talisman Treasure Corpse Spear, indicating this spear is an imitation of a Talisman Treasure, and very likely a spoil of the Corpse Daoist.

“The sect is fishing.” Ye Jingcheng transmitted to Ye Xingliu, glancing towards the figure that looked like Chen Ya he had seen earlier.

Yet now, there is no trace of Chen Ya’s shadow.

And as a Tier Two Top-Grade Spiritual Artifact, twenty thousand Spirit Stones is neither particularly high nor low.

Ultimately, it was auctioned for thirty thousand Spirit Stones.

Ye Jingcheng naturally wouldn’t bid for this item; the current bidders are easily tagged by the sect with Demon Sect labels.

Being questioned and tracked is a minor concern; being secretly subjected to Soul Search is a greater risk.

Involving the Demon Sect, there is no safeguard even from the True Masters of Taiyi Sect.

“The finale treasure of the auction is the Tier Three Cloud Silver Iron Crystal!” While Ye Jingcheng contemplated, Qiuxianyun spoke again from afar.

“This item is the perfect Spirit Material for crafting Tier Three Middle-Grade Defensive Treasures or Tier Three Special Spiritual Artifacts, with a base price of forty thousand Spirit Stones!!”