Chapter 31: Auction

Lu Fengmian picked up the teacup and gently blew on the floating tea leaves, a trace of amusement in his tone: “I hadn’t expected Young Master He’s face to be this useful.”

He Shi’an had just been about to put a spirit fruit into his mouth, but when he heard that, he paused, and a flush quickly spread across his face.

“Senior Brother.” He set down the fruit, a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “Please don’t make fun of me.”

Lu Fengmian did not respond, only looked at him with a smile.

Under his gaze, He Shi’an became even more uncomfortable. He scratched the back of his head and laughed lightly twice.

“Compared with Senior Brother, it was simply not worth mentioning.”

Outside the window, a crisp chime rang out from the direction of the auction platform.

Distinguished guests—

A woman’s voice sounded out, gentle without being seductive, clear without being cold, slowly drifting into the ears of everyone present.

On the stage stood a woman in a long dress, graceful and poised, her hair pinned high and her features delicate and beautiful. Her bearing was elegant and steady, possessing both the charm of a mature woman and the professional qualities expected of an auctioneer.

She held a small jade mallet in her hand and lightly tapped the sandalwood table before her.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Lin'an Chamber of Commerce. I am Su Jinxiu, and today’s proceedings will be presided over by me.”

She gave a slight bow, her gaze sweeping across the room, her smile radiant. “There are twenty-five treasures in this auction. The rules remain unchanged: the highest bidder wins, and once the hammer falls, there is no regret. Please bid according to your means, maintain harmony, and create wealth together.”

Another bell rang.

“The first item—”

The red silk covering the tray beside her was lifted, revealing a pair of glossy jade bracelets.

“Yellow rank, superior quality, a magical artifact called ‘Clear Heart Ring,’ carved from thousand-year warm jade. The wearer can calm the mind, resist inner demons, and greatly benefit from breaking through bottlenecks. The starting bid is fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones.”

The moment her words fell, someone in the hall raised a placard.

“Fifty-five thousand!”

“Sixty thousand!”

“Sixty-five thousand!”

Leaning against the window, Lu Fengmian lightly pressed his folding fan to his chin and watched the bidding below with great interest.

The Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon had somehow poked its head out from his sleeve again, staring curiously at the people below holding up placards.

He picked up a piece of osmanthus cake and brought it to his mouth.

The little dragon lowered its head to sniff it, then turned its head away with restraint. It did not eat sweets.

Lu Fengmian let out a soft laugh and ate it himself.

In the end, a female cultivator seated in the corner won the pair of jade bracelets for one hundred thousand spirit stones.

She accepted the bracelets and immediately put them on her wrist, her face overflowing with irrepressible joy.

Just as expected, the auction items at the beginning were all rather ordinary.

The second, third, and fourth items appeared one after another: pills, talismans, and low-level magical items.

Most of the bidders were loose cultivators on the first floor. Occasionally, someone from one of the elegant rooms on the second floor would lean out to take a look, but after only a hurried glance, they would withdraw and go back to drinking tea.

That was until the fifth item was brought onto the stage.

It was a spirit plant entirely pale purple, emitting a faint glow. It had been placed inside a jade box, and the moment the lid was lifted, a refreshing medicinal fragrance rushed forward.

“The fifth item—Thousand-Year Purple Jade Lingzhi.” Su Jinxiu’s voice was pleasant and melodious.

“This item grows beneath ten-thousand-year ancient trees and grows only one inch every three hundred years. This specimen has already reached a medicinal age of one thousand years. It can be used in alchemy and artifact refinement, and can also consolidate one’s foundation and heal internal injuries. The starting bid is two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the somewhat lazy atmosphere abruptly changed.

“Two hundred twenty thousand!”

“Two hundred fifty thousand!”

“Two hundred eighty thousand!”

“Three hundred thousand!”

The cries of bidding rose and fell, fiercer than before.

The loose cultivators on the first floor raised their placards one after another, and the people in the elegant rooms on the second floor also leaned out in succession to call out their prices.

A thousand-year spirit plant truly was extremely rare.

Unfortunately, Lu Fengmian understood neither alchemy nor artifact refinement.

In the end, the Purple Jade Lingzhi was bought by one of the elegant rooms on the second floor for three hundred fifty thousand spirit stones.

Lu Fengmian cast a glance in that direction and vaguely saw a figure nodding in satisfaction.

He withdrew his gaze and continued watching the show.

The auction items that followed were even more precious than the last. The starting bids rose steadily, soaring from a bit over one hundred thousand spirit stones to several hundred thousand.

Propping up his head, Lu Fengmian watched the increasingly frenzied bidding below and sighed sincerely: “Rich people really were terrifying.”

He Shi’an was stuffing the third spirit fruit into his mouth when he heard that and responded vaguely, “Hm?”

Lu Fengmian ignored him.

His yearly salary plus subsidies amounted to at most only sixty-five thousand.

That soft body armor from just now had cost seven hundred eighty thousand—how long would he have to save to afford that much—forget it, better not calculate it.

Lu Fengmian silently drank his tea.

The competition that followed became even more intense.

The ninth item: earth rank, superior quality magical artifact, ‘Dark Night.’ This blade had been forged from extraterrestrial meteorite iron and engraved with armor-breaking array patterns. The starting bid was six hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

“Six hundred fifty thousand!”

“Seven hundred thousand!”

“Eight hundred thousand!”

“Eight hundred fifty thousand!”

Watching the ever-climbing numbers, Lu Fengmian rested his chin on one hand, calm and unperturbed inside.

Fortunately, he already had Xianyun; the system really was his little money-saving helper.

No one on the first floor was bidding anymore; now, all the bidding came from the brightly lit elegant rooms on the second floor.

The price climbed at an astonishing speed, breaking through the one million mark before even the time it took one stick of incense to burn out had passed.

Just as the bidding gradually slowed and the result was about to be decided, a woman’s voice suddenly came from the elegant room next door: “Three million.”

The bidding stopped abruptly.

That voice had been too decisive—so decisive that it made people abandon the thought of continuing to bid.

Su Jinxiu froze for a moment, then immediately reacted. “Three million spirit stones! Is anyone willing to raise the bid further?”

No one answered.

“Three million spirit stones once… three million spirit stones twice… three million spirit stones three times—sold!”

Lu Fengmian glanced at the wall separating the two elegant rooms, a trace of curiosity in his eyes.

That voice did not sound old, yet that confidence was astonishingly powerful.

He picked up his teacup and took a sip, sighing inwardly.

Three million spirit stones. How many years would I need to save? Forty years?

Lu Fengmian silently did the math, then decided not to think about this sorrowful topic.

The young girl’s voice from next door rang out again. She won a piece of “Soul-Nourishing Jade”—it was said that this jade helped cultivators newly tempering and refining their divine souls—five million seven hundred thousand, and Lu Fengmian finally could not resist silently calculating it in his heart.

From the Dark Night dagger, to the storage ring, to the magical protective robe, and then the Soul-Nourishing Jade just now… he counted them off on his fingers.

The dagger was three million, the ring was two million eight hundred thousand, the robe was four million, the Soul-Nourishing Jade was five million seven hundred thousand.

That did not even include the other smaller items won in between.

Lu Fengmian lowered his fingers and took a deep breath.

Fifteen million.

That unnamed wealthy person next door had spent fifteen million spirit stones in just one short hour.

He lowered his head and touched the pitiful few hundred thousand in his storage pouch. Magnanimous indeed, truly magnanimous.

“Junior Brother He.” He turned his head and looked at the person beside him, who had been eating the whole time since entering. “Is there really nothing you want?”

He Shi’an was stuffing a piece of pine nut and lily pastry into his mouth. Hearing that, he chewed and answered vaguely, “Mm, there’s nothing in particular I want.”

He swallowed what was in his mouth, drank another sip of tea, then said seriously, “Everything I used for cultivation was prepared by Master. Baicao Peak provided the pills, and I also have a handy magic treasure. If there was more than that, I would not be able to use it anyway.”