Chapter 0784: Mysterious Treasures
Shui Wuchang knew Ning Cheng, but she didn’t expect Ning Cheng to dare jump in at this time and bid against Booth 19. She even forgot to call in the price.
But before she could call it in, the person from Booth 19 spoke up, “I’d like to ask the auction house to take a break. I want to negotiate with the person in Row 39, Seat 139.”
Ning Cheng sneered, who did this fellow think he was? Even Qiao Jierui wasn’t in a position to order an auction house to take a break to resolve personal grievances, right?
But what surprised Ning Cheng was that Shui Wuchang agreed to this fellow’s rude request. Not only did she agree to it, but she also came forward on the auction stage and said aloud, “Respected guests, Booth 19 belongs to the top 20 booths here. According to the rules of my Ash Pagoda Auction House, owners of the top 20 booths can negotiate directly with those in the lobby during a conflict of interest over auction items. We hope that the guests here understand.”
Ning Cheng shook his head; he didn’t think Ash Pagoda Chamber of Commerce would have such a weird rule. If this happened in his Jiangzhou Star, he would have slapped the fellow in Booth 19. No matter the position, to participate in the auction, they would treat everyone equally, regardless of the price of the item or the status of the person. If people did not agree to it, they would simply kick that fellow out the door.
Although Ning Cheng found this behaviour strange, the others did not find it strange at all. In any case, how many places within the vast starry skies held the same rules as Jiangzhou Star? Besides, the only reason Ash Pagoda Chamber of Commerce added this rule was to create a sense of honour among the guests occupying the first twenty booths. Just think about it, which cultivator sitting in the hall or the lobby would dare to compete against the owners of the top cabins? Moreover, even the admission ticket for these booths sold for an astronomical price.
Yet such a thing happened. Not only did it happen, but it also happened in such a large-scale auction. Shui Wuchang, as the third deputy-leader of this auction house, naturally knew about all the rules and regulations about such a scenario.
The auction venue remained quiet. Everyone wanted to see how the person from Booth 19 would handle this matter. Even those cultivators who knew about Ning Cheng’s identity also remained silent. Besides, from what little they knew about Ning Cheng, Ning Cheng was the type of person who didn’t give a damn about anyone. As for those who didn’t know about him and didn’t want to speak, they simply didn’t care about Ning Cheng’s life or death.
At this moment, a male with late-stage Heaven’s Mandate Cultivation came out of Booth 19 and walked over to Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng, through his spiritual consciousness, already knew that Booth 19 had two more cultivators inside. The one still sitting inside was someone with a late-stage Life and Death Cultivation. While the one who came out, and the other person inside most likely, were this person’s followers or servants. Moreover, the Life and Death cultivator had a look of deep disdain in his eyes, as if he didn’t consider Ning Cheng as even an ant.
The Heaven’s Mandate fellow walked up to Ning Cheng, took out a ring and placed it in front of Ning Cheng and said, “This contains 5 million Permanent Essence Pills, it’s yours now.”
“What do you mean?” Ning Cheng asked with a frown.
The Heaven’s Mandate fellow spoke up with a cold voice. “Little Lord is a reasonable person. These 5 million Permanent Essence Pills are here for you. Take out that Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein. As for bidding on the Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear, you’re not allowed to put in any.”
Ning Cheng understood that this bastard wanted to exchange the 5 million Permanent Essence Pills for his Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein. How was this a reasonable exchange? Moreover, it had nothing to do with him, but the auctioneer.
If he took out a Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein and only exchanged it for 5 million Permanent Essence Pills, it would result in a huge loss. Moreover, this ‘little lord’ could use another 5 million Permanent Essence Pills for the Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear. At the same time, he would also gain a Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein.
Ning Cheng took the ring with the five million Permanent Essence Pills and said, “I’ll take it. You can leave now.”
The Heaven’s Mandate cultivator, on seeing Ning Cheng take the Permanent Essence Pills without taking out the Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein, immediately exploded with killing intent. He immediately raised his hand to grab Ning Cheng’s neck.
Ning Cheng snorted, raised his hand and gave a casual slap.
“Slap” With a loud snap, that Heaven’s Mandate cultivator shot backwards and hit the defensive restriction in front of the auction stage, stirring a flurry of alarms.
With another ‘bang’ sound, that Heaven’s Mandate cultivator fell to the ground and spurted a blood arrow from his mouth. With Ning Cheng’s power, it was already mercy that he didn’t shatter this man’s cultivation.
Some cultivators, who felt slightly worried about Ning Cheng, couldn’t close their mouths on seeing Ning Cheng’s actions. Ning Cheng had only casually slapped that Heaven’s Mandate cultivator, which meant that he was at least above Heaven Seated Realm. But even if one were an Eternal cultivator, doing such a thing would create a life and death grudge. At that point, even escaping Returning Capital Starry Sky City would prove impossible.
“You’re looking for death……” The man in Booth 19 stood up angrily, filling the entire booth with killing intent. Ning Cheng had taken his Permanent Essence Pills but didn’t take out the Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Veins. Even if he disregarded that, this fellow had even slapped his servant. Never had anyone dared to act in such arrogance in front of him. Only he had the right to be arrogant in this place.
“Enough. Booth 19 has already exercised its right. The auction will continue.” A cold voice emerged that immediately stopped the man in Booth 19.
Even if blue veins popped up on his forehead and he oozed with rage and brutality, he immediately stopped and forcibly calmed himself on hearing this voice. Another servant rushed out of the booth and quickly brought the injured Heaven’s Mandate cultivator, who hit the defensive restriction, into the cabin.
Everyone understood that the owner of Booth 19 would not let Ning Cheng go once the auction ended. But at least for now, many people started looking at Ning Cheng with some fear.
Ning Cheng had remained calm throughout, without a single fluctuation. If the cultivator in Booth 19 dared to find trouble with him outside, he would get rid of the problem without batting an eye. Even if the auctioneer himself came up to him at that point, he would still do it.
But he never expected that the auction house would give Booth 19 such a right. After seeing the potential of trouble, the auction house immediately tried to act in fairness. Since this was the case, he also would not continue to make trouble, at least as long as others didn’t trouble him. In any case, he picked up five million Permanent Essence Pills for free, didn’t he?
Shui Wuchang spoke with a resonant tone, “Congratulations to this friend in Row 39, Seat 137. You won the Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear.”
As Shui Wuchang’s words ended, a ring containing the long spear appeared in front of Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng scanned it with his spiritual consciousness and confirmed that this weapon surpassed top-ranked Dao Artefacts. Taking out the long spear and putting it away, he then put a Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein into the ring, following which the ring then disappeared.
“The next item for auction is quite strange. Honestly, even I have no idea about this item. That’s because the sender has a very out-of-the-box request. That is, we have to open this box on the spot, and if no one bids for it, we have to destroy it on the spot. Please rest assured that my auction house doesn’t think that this item is a worthless object. In fact, even if you added up the price of all the things taken out earlier, it wouldn’t match the base price of this auction item.”
Shui Wuchang’s words once again roused the curiosity of all the cultivators in the auction venue. Even adding up the prices of the previous items wouldn’t reach the base price of this auction item? Was there such a valuable treasure? Besides, if it was such a precious treasure, why would someone ask to destroy it if no one bid for it? Wasn’t this a contradiction? But that wasn’t even the strangest part. Not even the host of the auction house didn’t know about it.
Shui Wuchang’s tone turned even more charming, “I believe everyone here is just as curious about this item as I am. I want to know more about this item and what makes it so mysterious. I would also like to know why the sender made such an arbitrary request to destroy the item if no one bid for it.”
Duan Gantai suddenly frowned at those words. He had a bad feeling about this item.
Ning Cheng sneered internally. He didn’t believe that Duan Gantai wouldn’t make a bid on this item. The truth is, Ning Cheng had made a deal with the auction house. If someone bought it, he would give the auction house 5% of the selling price. But if no one bought it and they had to destroy it; he would still provide the auction house half a Starry Sky Essence Qi Spirit Vein.
Although this cut was less than the usual 10% that the auction house charges, the auction house readily agreed to Ning Cheng’s generous request without hesitation.
“Quickly show it to us. We can’t wait any longer.” Some of the anxious cultivators sitting in the lobby called out. As for the conflict between Ning Cheng and Booth 19, it took a backseat in front of this mysterious item.
Shui Wuchang lifted a jade box and said, “Let’s all see what this mysterious treasure is, and why would someone put in such a mysterious request?”
Everyone in the venue intently stared at Shui Wuchang’s hand and watched Shui Wuchang slowly open it.
The moment the lid of the jade box fully opened, Shui Wuchang’s mouth almost popped open as she stared at the jade box in shock.
There was a restriction covering the auction stage that blocked spiritual consciousness from looking at anything. The auction house had made such an arrangement to not allow people from sweeping in; therefore, everyone could only watch with their eyes. But the people simply couldn’t see the items in the jade box from their seats. Therefore, seeing Shui Wuchang’s reaction, the people in the auction venue turned even more anxious.
Seeing such a scene, the people at the auction wanted to know even more about this item. What kind of thing was it that it even shocked the auction host into speechlessness?
“What is it?”
“Yes, hurry up and announce….”
…….
The flurry of noises finally sobered Shui Wuchang from the shock, and her shocked expression also quickly returned to normal.
“Respected guests, forgive me for the previous debacle. The thing inside is just a key, but how is it a mysterious treasure? It wasn’t until I saw the key by myself, did I start to understand why it had such a mystery to it.”
As she spoke, Shui Wuchang quickly calmed down her inner emotions, and her tone once again turned soft and crisp. “Many people surely know that Culmination Grand Starry Sky’s Striking Order Starry Sky had three mysterious temples. The Ancient Shadow Temple, the Guardian Temple, and the Temple of Time. That’s right. This key is the key to one of these three temples. More specifically, this key opens the Temple of Time. Or rather, this key is one of the three keys to open the Temple of Time.”
“It’s no wonder the seller put such a sky-high price for it. After all, the Temple of Time is a legacy left behind by the Perpetual Moon Holy Emperor. I heard that one could not only understand the Laws of Time on entering it; it also contains many worldly treasures. Unfortunately, there is only one key here….”
After she said the last sentence, Shui Wuchang suddenly felt something wrong. She shouldn’t have said such a negative statement for an auction item. However, she subconsciously wanted to own this key. Rather, more specifically, this key once belonged to her.
Fortunately, she reacted quickly, realising her position and her job. She quickly changed the subject and said, “Now let’s look at the starting price of this key….”
Shui Wuchang’s words caused quite a stir. Even if it was just one key, it was still the key to the Temple of Time. Everyone in the starry skies knew about the value of Temple of Time’s Time Stones. One would find it almost impossible to find someone within the starry sky who didn’t know about this particular treasure. But if one obtained this key, wouldn’t it also invite a whole host of troubles to their doorstep? At the same time, if someone managed to get into the Temple of Time and took control of the Laws of Time inside, then ….
The only person with a livid face, however, was Duan Gantai who sat in the row behind Ning Cheng.