Martial Peak

Chapter 1153, Ancient Map

The beautiful woman stood on the high platform and bowed elegantly, her glossy red lips curled into the most attractive of smiles as a pleasant voice leaked from them, “Honoured Guests from far away, thank you all for participating in my Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction. I would also like to say a special thank you to Shadow Moon Hall’s Elder Qian Tong for his strong support. This auction was only able to proceed so smoothly thanks to Elder Qian’s contributions.”

As soon as these words were said, several dozen people in the A Block and B private rooms immediately muttered curses. They had all received messages from their disciples just now and knew that Qian Tong had extorted five hundred thousand Saint Crystals from each of them in exchange for a single use of Heavenly Fate City’s Space Array. Knowing this, who would thank him at this time? Not shouting profanities at him right now was already giving Qian Tong a huge amount of face, but thanking him? In his dreams!

Yang Kai, in room C-13, observed this beautiful woman with interest. Although he had never participated in such an auction before, that didn’t mean he knew nothing about them.

The auctioneer played an important part in any auction. A good auctioneer could control the atmosphere of the room, heating it up to the point where prices also rose.

With this woman’s beauty alone, even if she didn’t say a word, she could increase the various bidders’ enthusiasm by several grades. Treasure Trove Pavilion was really sinister.

The beautiful woman on the stage reported her name, then humbly spoke about the hospitality offered by Treasure Trove Pavilion, apologizing for any shortcomings the guests may have experienced. Her words were smooth and sincere, so no one could find fault with her. She kept a fresh, spring-like smile on her face, causing everyone to feel warm and comfortable, as if they were relaxing in their own home. Her elegant eyes also moved about lightly but deliberately, making everyone mistakenly think that she was looking at them, hoping to see them display their valour, and wealth of course.

After speaking for a while, the beautiful woman let out a silver bell-like laughter before saying, “But enough idle talk, let the auction begin! The first item we are auctioning today is a Saint King Grade High-Rank Artefact Armour!”

While the auctioneer spoke, a woman donning an elegant dress slowly walked up on stage holding a large jade plate in her hands. Atop this jade plate was a five coloured Saint King Grade High-Rank Artifact Armour, one that was radiating powerful energy fluctuations and was exquisitely designed, it was no doubt a high-quality defensive artefact.

The beautiful woman paused for a moment, and after everyone had a chance to admire this Artifact Armour, she continued, “This five coloured Artifact Armour is a recent work of my Treasure Trove Pavilion’s Grandmaster Artifact Refiner, Grandmaster Gong. Grandmaster Gong’s reputation precedes himself so I will not elaborate on his skills. This Artifact Armour not only possesses excellent defensive strength, but it can also change size at will so it can be easily used by a man or a woman. The starting price is set at thirty thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals, each new bid must raise the price no less than two thousand Saint Crystals. Everyone, please!”

When this beautiful woman reported the starting price, Yang Kai frowned slightly before glancing over at Yang Yan.

If he remembered correctly, among the first batch of artefacts Yang Yan had refined for him, there was a single Saint King Grade High-Rank auxiliary artefact. That artefact was refined from the wings of an Illusionary Cloud Butterfly and according to Yang Yan was worth about thirty thousand Saint Crystals.

Although they were both Saint King Grade High-Rank artefacts, Yang Kai felt that Yang Yan’s wings were far better than this five coloured armour. Not only was it rarer and more beautiful, it also had better functionality.

If those wings were only worth thirty thousand Saint Crystals, could this Artifact Armour also be worth just as much? And this was just the starting price!

While he was thinking so though, someone had already started bidding, the price they offered causing Yang Kai’s eyes to twitch.

“Fifty thousand!”

The person who bid actually raised the price by twenty thousand Saint Crystals right off the bat.

The beautiful woman on the stage smiled and said, “This friend in seat one six nine is indeed a man who knows the quality of goods, he bids fifty thousand for this Artifact Armour, is there any…”

Before she could finish what she was saying though, someone shouted, “Fifty-two thousand!”

“Fifty-five thousand!”

“Fifty-eight thousand!”

The beautiful woman no longer spoke and simply stood atop the high stage while flashing the same enchanting smile she had worn since she appeared. She knew that she didn’t need to say anything more as those who wanted this Artifact Armour would definitely raise the price all on their own.

As the price rose, the cultivators sitting on the auction’s main floor scrambled to bid, none of them willing to show weakness, but the guests in the private rooms remained silent, none of them showing any intention to participate.

Those who could sit in the private rooms belonged to famous great forces on Shadowed Star. Although this Artifact Armour was good, it wasn’t worthy of them lowering themselves to compete with the people in the hall.

In Room C-13, Wu Yi stared at the five coloured armour with envy, her beautiful eyes filled with excitement, but the starting price already being thirty thousand, she could only sigh.

Yang Yan coldly snorted and spat disdainfully, “This kind of thing can also be sold for such a high price? There are too many blind people here.”

Yang Kai also felt the same. The cultivation resources on Shadowed Star were relatively scarce, especially Saint Crystals, so the value of a single piece of Saint Crystal here was much higher than in the outside world. Seeing this kind of defensive artefact still rising in price really made Yang Kai wonder what these people were thinking.

One of the Shadow Moon Hall female disciples who had been waiting by the side chuckled lightly and explained, “They are competing over this artefact due to Grandmaster Gong’s fame. If this Artifact Armour had been refined by an unknown person, it would be impossible for it to have such a high price.”

Yang Kai nodded gently, understanding that fame had an effect no matter where one went. Gong Tai Hong was apparently an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner, so even if the product he produced wasn’t the highest of quality, others would still compete to own it. As such, it was only natural for his artefacts to sell for more than other Artifact Refiners’.

However, after the price of the five coloured armour reached eighty thousand, the rate of new bids slowed down noticeably. It seemed those who were interested in this Artifact Armour were running out of Saint Crystals.

A short time later, this Artifact Armour was purchased for eighty-four thousand Saint Crystals by a young man in the hall.

The Treasure Trove Pavilion female disciple holding the Artifact Armour stepped off the high platform and delivered it to the young man while accepting his payment.

The young man who received the Artifact Armour immediately handed it to the beautiful woman nestled next to him, winning him a kiss his cheek. The young man laughed heartily as if he were the biggest winner in the world.

The second item auctioned was a set of ten King Transformation Pills with a starting price of ten thousand Saint Crystals. These pills eventually sold for twenty-seven thousand Saint Crystals and were similarly purchased by someone on the main floor. From the winner’s appearance, they were obviously here to represent some small family and had purchased them to bring back home with them.

The next items were a variety of pills, artefacts, Secret Arts, Martial Skills, etc. There were even some precious raw materials with high and low starting prices.

The atmosphere in the auction house gradually became hot and as one precious item after another was brought out, countless people rushed to bid. The most expensive item selling for two hundred thousand Saint Crystals, shocking Yang Kai speechless.

He felt that he had greatly underestimated the capital of Shadowed Star’s forces. Most of his understanding of Shadowed Star came from Wu Yi, but Wu Yi came from a relatively small background and didn’t understand the true strength of those great forces or what kind of wealth they possessed.

Apparently there was no lack of rich people on Shadowed Star.

Soon, Yang Kai was infected by the atmosphere of the room and even had the urge to shout out a bid for some items, even knowing they weren’t useful to him.

Fortunately, he was completely broke and had no ability to participate in this auction; however, even if he could participate, he had enough self-control to not do so.

Secretly though, Yang Kai marvelled at these things called auctions. An item worth only ten thousand Saint Crystal could be sold for several times more once it was put up in a good auction, it seemed auctions were definitely a great way to gather money.

Yang Kai was a bit calmer and sensible, but Yang Yan and Wu Yi were completely different. They had become completely caught up in the heat of the auction and even though neither of them were qualified to bid, that didn’t prevent them from standing up, pointing at others, and cheering them on, celebrating when the ones they were rooting for won and sighing forlornly when they failed.

Where had their poised ladylike looks disappear to?

With a slightly blushing face, Yang Kai grabbed two spirit fruits and shoved them into Wu Yi and Yang Yan’s mouths, finally settling them down a bit.

The two female Shadow Moon Hall disciples stood behind them pursing their lips as their shoulders trembled, doing their best to not laugh.

The auction was in full swing, and as time passed, the value of the items Treasure Trove Pavilion brought out was getting higher and higher. For the first hour or two, the auctioned items were basically for the cultivators sitting on the ground floor. Those in the private rooms up above had barely participated up to this point, but after the two-hour mark, voices from the private rooms began calling out with much higher frequency.

The beautiful woman on the stage has been standing there for so long yet the pretty smile on her face never wavered and she didn’t seem the least bit fatigued, her words still ringing out crisp and sweet. At the most appropriate times, she would raise the enthusiasm of those people who were bidding so that every item was sold for a high price.

“The next item to be auctioned is a very special one…” The beautiful woman opened her lips again, her charming voice seemingly drawing Saint Crystals out of the crowd’s pockets, “The reason why this thing is special is that its value may be high or may be low.”

While saying so, the elegantly dressed woman responsible for displaying the auction items stepped out onto the high platform holding a jade plate in her hands. Almost everyone’s eyes were fixed on that jade plate, wanting to know what was being sold as the beautiful woman’s description had been so ambiguous.

Atop the high platform, the woman set down the jade plate and picked up its contents, pinching its corners with her hands and slowly rotating around so that everyone could get a good look at it. Countless Divine Senses swept the stage immediately, and after waiting for everyone to see this item, it was placed back down on the jade plate.

The beautiful female auctioneer giggled and proceeded, “Everyone should have seen it clearly. This is an ancient map! The origin of this ancient map is very special. When one of my Treasure Trove Pavilion’s disciples was out collecting items to be auctioned, he coincidentally saved someone’s life, and in return for his actions, he was given this ancient map. The saved individual said that this was an ancestral relic of his family and according to the research of many experts in my Treasure Trove Pavilion, this ancient map is only a fragment of a much larger map. We don’t know the specific fraction this map is of the complete map, but it is at least several thousand years old. The location pointed to by this ancient map isn’t clear and no one knows what treasures it is hiding. Perhaps there is nothing special at its end, but perhaps… there is amazing wealth, profound inheritance, or high-grade artefacts and Secret Arts just waiting to be discovered!”