Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

As soon as Ru Meng finished speaking, the bids came in without pause.

The reason was simple: the Dragon Scale Divine Wood had many uses. In alchemy, it could extend a lifespan by a thousand years. Alternatively, its essence could be extracted to strengthen the bloodlines of demonic beasts and trigger an ancestral awakening. Either effect alone was enough to drive cultivators mad.

The price quickly climbed to thirteen million high-grade spirit stones. For old freaks who had lived for who knew how long, anything that could extend their lifespan so much was rare, and this piece of Dragon Scale Divine Wood could enhance demonic beast bloodlines besides.

A large piece of Dragon Scale Divine Wood was truly priceless.

Li Guanqi hadn’t bid yet. He was waiting to see where the others’ limits lay.

When the price reached fourteen million, the bidding slowed significantly. No matter how hard Ru Meng tried to stir the crowd, those who could afford it either had other targets or decided to hold back.

Just when everyone assumed the Dragon Scale Divine Wood would go to someone on the lower floor, Ru Meng smiled and called the bid twice.

Then Li Guanqi calmly said, “Sixteen million.”

Ru Meng looked up at the private room and smiled gently. “A guest in one of the second-floor private rooms has bid sixteen million. Does anyone wish to bid higher?”

Li Guanqi stayed calm. He wasn’t nervous in the slightest. The two bidders below likely had other targets, so they had stayed conservative, raising by only a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand each time. By raising the price by two million at once, he had already exceeded their limits. The crowd below broke into chatter, everyone guessing who the guest in the second-floor private room might be.

Seeing that no one else bid and the final price had already run well past her expectations, Ru Meng’s lips curled. “Sixteen million, going twice.”

The hammer in her hand rose slowly.

Down below, Zhao Bin’s face darkened. He had wanted to raise the bid just to spite Li Guanqi, but after a glance at his ancestor beside him, he lost his nerve. If Li Guanqi stopped bidding, Zhao Bin’s ancestor might well beat him to death…

Li Guanqi let out a small breath of relief. As long as he secured the Dragon Scale Divine Wood, both Peng Luo and Nine Heavens should mostly recover from their injuries.

Just as the hammer was about to fall, a cold female voice came from another private room. “Twenty million.”

The crowd fell silent, mouths agape, stunned by the single bid of twenty million.

The Dragon Scale Divine Wood was worth around 12 million to begin with. Even 16 million was an overbid. And now, someone had called out 20 million.

“Twenty million! Who is in that room?”

“There shouldn’t be too many royals from the capital at this auction... but that woman’s voice sounds familiar.”

“Ye Bingxin! That’s Ye Bingxin’s voice!”

“The Saintess of the Nine Dragon Immortal Sect? No wonder. The Nine Dragon Immortal Sect is a beast-taming sect. They must want the Dragon Scale Divine Wood to help a jiao dragon evolve into a true dragon.”

Li Guanqi’s expression darkened. He hadn’t expected anyone to intervene.

As he hesitated, Gu Li shouted from beside him, “Twenty-five million!”

By the time Li Guanqi reacted, Ru Meng had already smiled brightly and repeated the bid.

“Brother Gu, you—”

Gu Li waved his hand casually. “Just place your bid. It’s only money. I’ve got plenty.”

Despite Gu Li’s words, Li Guanqi felt that the slight twitch at the corner of Gu Li’s mouth and the increasingly frantic movements of his talisman-drawing hand betrayed a hint of reluctance.

The enormous jump shocked the crowd all over again. 25 million—all in high-grade spirit stones.

A single top-grade spirit vein held about thirty million spirit stones at most.

Inside the spacious private room sat a woman in a black dress, her demeanor icy. Her features were sharp and refined, and her eyes held the detached indifference of someone to whom nothing in the world seemed to matter.

Still, Gu Li’s voice caused her to frown slightly. She turned her gaze toward Li Guanqi’s private room, her displeasure evident.

Her lips parted slightly, revealing her teeth as she softly said, “Thirty million.”

Gu Li shot up from his seat and cursed, “This woman is wild!”

Bang!

He stepped onto the table, flipped his wrist, and pulled out over eighty storage rings. He rapidly tapped them one by one, seemingly counting.

With a momentary sigh of relief, he waved his hand and declared, “Forty million! It’s just money, isn’t it? I have more than enough!”

The corner of Meng Jiangchu’s mouth twitched. He turned to Gu Changsheng beside him. “Has your son always been like this?”

But then he noticed that Gu Changsheng’s face had already gone as dark as iron.

Gu Changsheng clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth, his shoulders trembling. “He refuses me when I ask him for a single million spirit stones on an ordinary day! One million! This rebellious son! This rebellious son!”

Meng Jiangchu lifted his teacup and took a quick sip of spirit tea, his eyes darting between the father and son.

Li Guanqi felt a bit awkward and pulled Gu Li aside. “Brother Gu, getting this is not absolutely necessary. I think there’s more treasures that can replenish qi and blood, and—“

Before he could finish, Gu Li’s expression turned serious. “No. This Dragon Scale Divine Wood is a must. What else compares for replenishing Nine Heavens’ qi and blood?”

Li Guanqi nearly rolled his eyes. Nine Heavens... don’t blame me. If you really recover, this guy is absolutely going to come over grinning, asking to draw your blood...

The auction hall was utterly silent. The bidding for the Dragon Scale Divine Wood had reached a staggering forty million. By now, it had nothing to do with sense or intelligence. It was pure spite.

Even Ru Meng, standing on the stage, felt her chest tighten and frowned slightly.

She even suspected the guest in that private room might be deliberately disrupting the auction, so she kindly said, “Esteemed guests, our auction house has strict rules. We trust you are not stirring up trouble on purpose.”

Her caution was understandable. She knew exactly who occupied the largest private rooms, so she didn’t doubt they could afford their bids. The Saintess of the Nine Dragon Immortal Sect, Ye Bingxin, might not be able to pay on her own, but the sect backing her certainly could.

The guests in the smaller private rooms were another matter. And the bid they had just called out was incredibly high.

At her words, Gu Li’s temper flared. He raised his hand and loosed over a hundred talismans, blasting a hole clean through the protective array of their private room.

Boom! Boom!

The explosions echoed through the hall.

Gu Li stuck his neck out from the broken array and shouted furiously at Ru Meng, “You think we can’t afford forty million?! Who the hell do you think you’re looking down on?!”