Immortality Starts With Investment

The auctioneer sensed something amiss and realized the War God Clan had overplayed their hand. She tried every trick in the book to revive the atmosphere, stringing together eloquent pitches that extolled the water and earth attributes of the Black Tortoise Realm-Protecting Armor and its vital role in nurturing the foundation of a cave heaven. All in a desperate bid to lure Ye Chen into bidding again.

Yet no matter how flowery her words or how relentlessly she spoke, the box occupied by Ye Chen remained as silent as a grave. Not a single sound emerged.

No one knew what that esteemed guest was busy with inside. But the auction could not drag on indefinitely. With a helpless sway of her tail, the auctioneer began the countdown.

Finally, under the stunned, bewildered, incredulous, and heartbroken gazes of the three War God Clan semi-saints, she brought down the gavel.

”Congratulations to the guest in VIP box eighteen! The Black Tortoise Realm-Protecting Armor is yours for three hundred million top-grade spirit stones!”

The moment her words landed, a sharp crack echoed from the War God Clan’s box—the unmistakable sound of a cup shattering.

The three semi-saints’ faces darkened until they looked ready to drip water, utterly thunderous.

”Why didn’t Ye Chen raise the bid? Doesn’t he want it?”

”He can obviously afford it—why pass?”

”Three hundred million top-grade spirit stones! We don’t have to pay the principal, but the thirty million auction fee is unavoidable. That’s more than the armor itself is worth!”

”The Heavenly Emperor’s heir is so filthy rich—why grudge us a little extra profit? What a bastard. We’ll blow him to pieces the next chance we get!”

The trio nearly spat blood in frustration. Losing thirty million out of pocket was a disaster they could never explain back home. Their hatred for Ye Chen sprouted like wild grass, growing unchecked in their hearts.

The onlookers outside were no fools. From this incident, they all discerned the Heavenly Emperor heir’s stance. He accepted a tenfold premium. But if they grew greedy and pushed beyond that, they could keep the item and play with it themselves.

Realization dawned, and the Peacock Clan patriarch felt a wave of relief. Thank goodness he hadn’t been greedy earlier. Otherwise, he would have earned no profit and lost millions in fees instead. Who could stomach that?

The War God Clan’s loss, however, delighted everyone. They silently thanked the clan for sacrificing itself to probe Ye Chen’s attitude and bottom line.

After all, ten times the price was no small windfall. The resources gained could greatly nurture their own prodigies and bolster their strength. And whatever Ye Chen bought, they could always seize back later. A risk-free, massively profitable deal—what was there to complain about?

...

Thus, after the War God Clan ended up stuck with the Black Tortoise Realm-Protecting Armor, the rest of the auction flowed smoothly. Gone were the absurd million-by-million increments.

Instead, the moment an item appeared, Ye Chen immediately called ten times the base price. The hostess would dutifully canvass the room once. Upon confirming no challengers, the item was delivered straight to his box. She was a veteran of auctions, steeped in the trade for centuries.

Occasionally, after a sale, she would spend a few days ”exchanging feelings” with high bidders. Yet even she had never presided over an auction this ridiculously streamlined. If every buyer acted like the Heavenly Emperor’s heir, she might as well be out of a job. They could simply slap an extra zero on the price tag and sell outright.

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The cultivators in attendance twitched involuntarily. They had always known the heir was wealthy. But this wealthy? Watching him squander spirit stones so freely hurt them more than it hurt him.

Among them were numerous saints and saint kings—true heavyweights. Yet even they felt a pang of bitterness as they watched Ye Chen spend like water, claiming treasure after treasure. They had cultivated to sainthood and still scrambled for resources. Some still wielded only low-grade Extreme Dao weapons.

Then there was the Heavenly Emperor’s heir. Truly, some people started life at the finish line. As for his peers of the same generation, their envy, jealousy, and hatred had long since ignited. They were all heavenly prodigies of this era. Why did he alone get to be so obscenely rich?

Seeing him throw money around like this pained them more than death. But it also fanned their killing intent higher. Next time, they would absolutely slaughter the Heavenly Emperor’s heir. Every last treasure in his vaults—they would explode them all out of him.

...

The most shocked of all was undoubtedly the auction manager. He discovered that the Heavenly Emperor’s heir refused to even open his door. Treasures were delivered right to the threshold, where Ye Chen retrieved them from afar.

After confirming they were genuine, he sent out the auction fees the same way—across the empty air. By rights, this violated protocol and invited risks like substitution or tampering. But faced with a super-VIP whose transactions had nearly reached a billion in mere hours, rules no longer mattered. As long as His Excellency the Heavenly Emperor’s heir was satisfied...

...

During this auction, only about a dozen items were truly useful for cave heavens, or at least tangentially related. Yet some cultivators present, watching Ye Chen throw money around like dirt, could no longer resist. They pulled cave heaven-related treasures from their own storage rings and handed them to the auction house for consignment.

The auction house naturally raised no objections. The more items sold, the more they earned. In the end, Ye Chen claimed a full seventeen treasures connected to cave heavens. Every single one sold at a tenfold premium—an astronomical price.

”Spiritual Jade Source-Gathering Pearl—eighty million top-grade spirit stones. Let us congratulate...”

”Sands of Time, capable of enhancing control over time flow within a cave heaven. Of immense value to fourth-realm semi-saints, it can also deepen a cave heaven’s foundation...”

”Two hundred million! Sold!”

”Spiritual Star Cave Heaven Mirror: a supreme Extreme Dao weapon. Once refined, it fuses with the cave heaven, allowing its surface to reflect everything within at any moment. It detects the slightest changes and greatly aids mastery over the cave heaven...”

”Cave Heaven Cauldron: a low-grade Extreme Dao weapon. Heavenly materials and earthly treasures placed within can be transformed into spiritual liquid perfectly suited for cave heaven absorption, enriching its spiritual charm and deepening its foundation. It can also stabilize the cave heaven, rendering it unshakable by any dao or law...”

”Purple Flame Cave Heaven Furnace: a supreme Extreme Dao pill furnace. Drawing upon cave heaven power during refinement dramatically increases both success rate and pill quality. Each successful batch releases special pill vapors that nourish the cave heaven. The effect is minuscule per use, but over time it accumulates into a staggering total...”

”Divine Rune Seal: a cave heaven suppression artifact. It can anchor one’s own cave heaven. Against external enemies, it can be driven by cave heaven power to suppress them outright. The larger the cave heaven, the larger the seal becomes. This seal also possesses refinement capabilities, converting suppressed enemies into the purest essence...”

The hostess continued her introductions without pause.

The cultivators in the hall listened with wide eyes; some items they had never even heard of. Yet the moment each appeared, Ye Chen claimed it outright. For a time, only his bids and the hostess’s voice echoed through the venue.

When the final cave heaven spiritual artifact—the Divine Rune Seal—fell to Ye Chen at yet another tenfold premium, silence finally descended.

The myriad races who had profited grinned from ear to ear. The remaining bidders breathed sighs of relief. The outrageous Heavenly Emperor’s heir had at last concluded his spree.

Now ordinary cultivators like them could bid normally. Even the hostess on stage felt a strange sense of loss. In all her years of auctioneering, she had never experienced one this effortless. What a pity Ye Chen finished so quickly.

No—it wasn’t that Ye Chen was too fast. It was that the myriad races possessed too few treasures tied to cave heaven origins. The upcoming items had no connection to cave heaven sources. Thus, even if the Heavenly Emperor’s heir desired them, he would never again pay ten times the price.