Chapter 346 - End of the Sacred Lotus Auction

Lu Tianzi took in a deep breath as he stared at the words of light showing in the crystal that was hanging above the stage.

Two hundred and seventy-five mid ranked beast cores.

That was the price that the Moonlight Metal Ore had fetched in the end.

Going by this rate, even if the one in his possession was only around half the size, it would still be worth more than a hundred mid ranked beast cores!

Mid ranked beast cores were much rarer than low ranked beast cores.

Despite all that Lu Tianzi had been through, the mid ranked beast cores in his possession did not even amount to a hundred.

He never expected that just a single Moonlight Metal Ore would be worth this much!

While Lu Tianzi was trying to calm down the waves in his heart, the auction continued.

The appearance of the Moonlight Metal Ore seemed to mark the beginning of a new stage within the Sacred Lotus Auction, and the items that came out after that were much rarer than the ones before.

And it was only then that members of the Sacred Cliff City Guards began to reveal their wealth.

"Sold!" Juekang announced with a smile.

"The members of the Sacred Cliff City Guards sure are going at it this time," Grandmaster Tiequan remarked.

The previous item was already the fifth item in a row that had fallen into the hands of a member of the Sacred Cliff City Guards.

Only a small handful of people present had the wealth to compete against the upper echelons of the Sacred Cliff City Guards, and Grandmaster Tiequan was one of them.

However, he was still holding back just in case he needed resources to bid for the final few items.

On the other hand, the members of the Sacred Cliff City Guards seemed to be going on a frenzied shopping spree, as though they had already given up on the rest of the auction.

What was going on?

Regardless, Grandmaster Tiequan would not change his stance because of others.

He slowly bid his time, waiting for an item that truly suited his taste.

In the end, his patience finally paid off.

"I regret to say that we have come to the end of the Sacred Lotus Auction," Juekang's words triggered a sense of regret in the hearts of all listeners. "And now, I shall reveal the final item of the Sacred Lotus Auction!"

Once again, Juekang pulled off the dark curtain on stage to reveal the item underneath. As he did, loud gasps could be heard coming from the crowds.

The final item of the Sacred Lotus Auction was a huge glaive around two and a half metres long.

Its shaft was blue as the oceans, engraved with intricate carvings that resembled the rise and fall of the ocean currents.

Its blade was a polished silver, reflecting all light like a mirror. Just by looking at it, everyone felt a slight pain on their skin, as though the sharp edge of the blade was resting directly against them.

But the most significant of all were the intense energy undulations coming from within the glaive!

It was to the extent that normal Essence Condensation realm martial artists would feel pressured just from standing in its presence, and even a simple act like breathing would feel like a difficult task.

In fact, even normal Origin Core realm martial artists could not help but feel like the atmosphere had thickened, and every movement seemed to require more strength than usual.

Lu Tianzi widened his eyes in shock.

There was no doubt about it.

The grade of this item had far surpassed the Peak Origin Core rank, and was a true blue Overlord rank treasure!

"The Sea Parting Great Glaive, a legacy of the late Grandmaster Qing," Juekang introduced. "I am sure some present would have already heard about it, but for the sake of its future owner, I shall keep its abilities a secret. However, just know that there is a good reason why we chose it as the final item of the Sacred Lotus Auction. Only something as extraordinary as this has the right to take the place of our finale!"

Juekang's introduction of the item was uncharacteristically brief, bordering on the lines of extreme vagueness.

However, that only sparked the interest of others even more.

As an Overlord rank treasure, this Sea Parting Great Glaive could easily become the trump card of whoever managed to obtain it in the end. In that case, it was indeed best for its future owner if the Sea Parting Great Glaive's abilities were not announced to the public.

Otherwise, it would only allow others to make preparations against it, thereby causing the actual impact of this new trump card to be severely diminished.

Because of that, everyone felt that there was absolutely nothing wrong with what Juekang and the Sacred Lotus Auction were doing.

"The starting bid price is five hundred mid ranked beast cores, and each raise has to be by at least ten mid ranked beast cores," Juekang announced.

"Five hundred mid ranked beast cores?" Young Master Xuan Hao exclaimed in shock.

He had managed to acquire two rare equipment earlier, but still had around four hundred mid ranked beast cores left.

This was not a small amount by any measure.

When the Sea Parting Great Glaive was revealed on stage, Young Master Xuan Hao was still slightly hopeful about obtaining it for himself.

However, just the starting bid price alone had already exceeded the total amount of his remaining wealth!

Young Master Xuan Hao let out a disappointed sigh.

As expected, an Overlord rank treasure was different.

The final price would surely be an astronomical number.

As for Lu Tianzi, he had given up long ago.

Ever since the Moonlight Metal Ore, the price of every item was more than a hundred mid ranked beast cores, each one exceeding the total amount of mid ranked beast cores he had.

It seemed that while he thought himself to be relatively rich after the incident at Bog Town, he was nothing when compared to the truly wealthy.

Currently, Lu Tianzi was just focusing on Juekang's explanations of the various items in order to learn more about these high tier resources.

For the Sea Parting Great Glaive, Grandmaster Tiequan finally stopped holding back and joined the bidding war.

Everyone in the room was shocked by his aggressive bidding style, raising the bid by a hundred mid ranked beast cores each time.

But even so, there was another party who never failed to raise the price after each of Grandmaster Tiequan's bids.

[Bidding Card #3: One thousand five hundred and ten mid ranked beast cores]

The auction hall fell into silence, and Grandmaster Tiequan furrowed his brows in frustration.

He thought that his last bid of one and a half thousand mid ranked beast cores would be enough to discourage his competitor, but the counter bid came just as quickly as before.

It was almost as though one and a half thousand mid ranked beast cores meant nothing to the other party.

Grandmaster Tiequan sighed while putting away his bidding card.

Because the bidding card number was shown to everyone, he had known who his competitor was from the start.

It was the strongest and highest ranked member of the Sacred Cliff City Guards – Captain Emerald Wind.

Within Sacred Cliff City, this person was known to be second only to the Burning Titan Overlord.

From the looks of it, Captain Emerald Wind was determined to obtain the Sea Parting Great Glaive no matter the cost.

If that was the case, Grandmaster Tiequan did not stand a chance.

So this was why the other members of the Sacred Cliff City Guards were bidding without restraint on the earlier items... they probably knew that Captain Emerald Wind had come to the auction.

As long as Captain Emerald Wind was attending, any exceedingly rare item would surely fall into his hands anyway, so why would they bother waiting for those to appear?

Seeing that there was no further movement from Grandmaster Tiequan or the rest of the crowds, Juekang could not help but feel slightly disappointed.

Then again, one thousand five hundred and ten mid ranked beast cores could still be considered a rather decent price.

"Sold!" Juekang announced. "Congratulations to the owner of Bidding Card #3 for successfully obtaining the final item of this year's Sacred Lotus Auction! Unfortunately, this also marks the end of the Sacred Lotus Auction. We will be back in two years with even better items to show. For those who are interested, feel free to head over to our front store to take a look at the other rare items that we have in stock. Some of them might not pale in comparison even to the items auctioned! To mark the success of this year's Sacred Lotus Auction, there will be a ten percent discount for most items in our store for the rest of today!"

The crowds put their hands together as they applauded the end of the Sacred Lotus Auction.

It was only after Juekang left the stage that people started to leave their seats as well.

Slightly frustrated about not getting anything out of the auction, Grandmaster Tiequan bid them farewell and left in an impatient manner.

On the other hand, Lu Tianzi, Nanlan Qianxue, and Ruan Ling accompanied Young Master Xuan Hao to go collect the items that he had successfully bid for earlier.

For the sake of privacy, the Sacred Lotus Auction had prepared hundreds of separate rooms for the collection of items, and no two bidders had to meet during the collection process.

"The amount is indeed correct," a young man nodded after checking through the spatial ring that Young Master Xuan Hao passed to him. "Please follow me in, Sir."

The young man led Young Master Xuan Hao through a door to an adjacent room while the rest of them waited.

When they reappeared from behind the door, Young Master Xuan Hao had an awkward look on his face.

Following behind him was a little girl around the age of six.

This little girl was one of the items that Young Master Xuan Hao had successfully bid for earlier, much to the disapproval of Grandmaster Tiequan.

"How cute! What's your name?" Ruan Ling's face lit up the moment she saw the little girl, and stepped forward to greet her.

But what happened next was something that Ruan Ling completely did not expect.

When the little girl saw Ruan Ling approach, her body suddenly stiffened up, and her eyes glazed out as though she had fallen into a daze. Even though she instinctively let out a smile, it looked more forced than anything else.

No matter how one looked at it, the little girl was forcing herself to fake a smile despite being frozen in fear.

Ruan Ling immediately halted her steps upon seeing this, her expression turning dark in an instant.

Just what had the little girl gone through for her to react in such a manner to a stranger's approach?

The little girl quickly snapped out of her daze when she noticed the obvious change in Ruan Ling's expression.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore your question!" the little girl hurriedly bowed in apology. "My name is Bo'er!"

Seeing how desperately Bo'er was apologising, Ruan Ling felt an ache from the bottom of her heart.

"It's all right, Bo'er. You don't have to apologise," Young Master Xuan Hao patted her head with a sigh.

At the very instant that Young Master Xuan Hao's hand touched her head, Bo'er froze, and her body trembled subconsciously.

However, she quickly regained her senses and straightened her back. "Understood, Master."

Young Master Xuan Hao sighed, but at the same time he could not help but feel relieved.

Even though he could not undo what the little girl had been through, he had at least saved her from the dark fate that had been awaiting her.

This was not part of the plan.

But since Bo'er had come under his care, he would not allow her to suffer any longer!

"Now that the Sacred Lotus Auction has ended, what are Brother Xuan Hao's plans?" Lu Tianzi asked.

Previously, Young Master Xuan Hao had mentioned that the Sacred Lotus Auction was one of the main reasons for his visit to Sacred Cliff City.

Now that the auction was over, Lu Tianzi was curious as to whether Young Master Xuan Hao would be leaving the city soon.

As for the little girl who had appeared beside Young Master Xuan Hao, Lu Tianzi acted as though she was non-existent.

What Young Master Xuan intended to do with the little Bo'er had nothing to do with him.

"There is one other thing that I have to do, but I would need to make some preparations first. Don't worry. When the time comes, I will certainly invite Brother Tianzi and Sister Qianxue along," Young Master Xuan Hao answered. "How about Brother Tianzi and Sister Qianxue? What will you be doing from now?"

"About that, there is actually something that I have been wanting to ask..." Lu Tianzi said. "Would Brother Xuan Hao happen to know of anywhere that I can obtain information?"

Even though this was Young Master Xuan Hao's first time in Sacred Cliff City as well, he had obviously researched about the city beforehand to know about things like the Fortune Queen Inn and the Sacred Lotus Auction.

On top of that, Young Master Xuan Hao had also been exploring the city over the past week.

While he might not know about all the small intricacies of the city, he could at least give Lu Tianzi some pointers on where to go next.

"Oh? What type of information is Brother Tianzi looking for?" Young Master Xuan Hao asked. "Depending on the type of information you need, there are different places that will be suitable."

It was only natural for different organisations and influences to specialise in different fields.

In order to obtain more useful information, it was important to choose the right place to go.

"That makes sense," Lu Tianzi nodded. "In that case, where should I go to look for information regarding the art of artificing?"

Young Master Xuan Hao immediately widened his eyes in surprise upon hearing that. "I never knew that Brother Tianzi is an artificer as well!"