Chapter 318: Auction

Xue Wei was unaware of Tao Wu's train of thought; all his focus was on the auction hall that was spread out beneath him.

Thousands of people were pouring into the hall, and soon all the seats were filled. The auction was not free for all to attend, each ticket cost a full fifty low ranked essence stones, and the Thousand Treasure Pavilion invited only the VIPs as honored guests.

Time went by fast; soon, the auction hall was filled to the brim with people, and no more could be squeezed into the venue.

Just as the final person entered, the light of the auction hall dimmed, and the only place where the light still shone brightly was the stage.

A young woman stepped onto the stage. Her appearance was exquisite. She was beautiful as a fairy, and her clothing was provocative, enough to make the audience in the hall whistle at her.

The woman was not insulted. Instead she winked at the audience before she swaggered towards the side of the stage. Here an auctioneer's podium was located.

She took her position, but she was not in a hurry as she glanced at everyone in the audience. Even the boxes and booths on the upper floor were looked over. Even though she could not see who was inside, she still sent a flirtatious smile their way.

"Welcome to yet another auction at the Thousand Treasure Pavilion," the woman began her introduction to the auction. "As you all know, we often hold auctions. However, this time, it is different from the usual. Not only are the treasures we have brought with us outstanding, but even the audience is not to be belittled."

"We have a mysterious two-colored Rainbow Alchemist in our audience today. And as if this was not enough, we also have Sir Tao Wu visiting our humble auction."

As she spoke, her words caused absolute silence at first in the auction hall and the booths, before it suddenly erupted in excitement.

"A two-colored Rainbow Alchemist?" someone exclaimed shocked and unable to believe what he had just heard. "She said it is a two-colored Rainbow Alchemist!"

"I heard earlier that there were rumors about one-colored Rainbow Pills appearing at this auction, but to think that the seller was a two-colored Rainbow Alchemist! That's simply out of my expectations!"

"He is too cheap!" someone suddenly complained. "He is a two-colored Rainbow Alchemist, but he is only auctioning the one-colored pills! This is simply making light of us; he should have sold some two-colored pills too!"

Hearing the person who was filled with anger, the others looked at him scornfully. "Who are you to require what he brings out? Would you perhaps bring out your pill if you owned a two-colored rainbow pill?"

The man was stumped for words at first and then embarrassed, but after a bit of consideration, he still did not think he had said something wrong. "Well, it is true that I would not sell my pill if I had one. However, this is an alchemist! He is capable of refining these pills, so they are not as valuable to him as they are to us!"

"He is likely to keep all the pills for himself as well," someone said annoyed. "Unless he is as strong as Sir Tao Wu, then he needs to strengthen himself in an attempt to become a third-colored rainbow alchemist. It makes sense that he is keeping these pills to himself."

The argument did not end there; it continued to go on for a long time. Not only was it in the hall but also in the different boxes amongst the VIPs.

The VIPs were able to understand that two-colored rainbow pills were much more challenging to get your hands on than one-colored pills. The resources they needed as ingredients were exponentially higher.

Although they could not buy a two-colored rainbow pill from the auction, if they managed to get a good relationship with the two-colored rainbow alchemist, then there was a possibility that they could convince this expert to make a pill for them.

The female auctioneer was smiling when she saw how her words had stirred up the entire auction house, but she then smiled and called out.

"Okay, please calm down," she called out, and soon the talks within the auction hall died down. "Today, we will go with the items of lower value first, but we have many rare treasures up for sale today, so make sure to bring out your essence stones.

"Every price will be bid on in low-grade essence stones. One thousand low-grade essence stones equal one medium-grade essence stone, and another thousand medium-grade essence sones equal a high-grade essence stone. Thousand high-grade essence stones are the same as one peak-grade essence stone.

"You can pay with whatever essence stones you have in your hands, but the bids are made in low-grade essence stones."

Although this conversion rate was the standard conversion rate for essence stones; the truth was that essence stones were a resource of limited quantity.

Although they could be found in veins in the ground, there were limited amounts of them, so medium, high, and peak graded essence stones were scarce. People would rarely exchange them for low ranked essence stones, and when they did, it was because they had no other option.

Xue Wei had gotten two million low-grade essence stones from selling things to the Thousand Treasure auction house, and on top of that, he had around a hundred thousand from earlier.

Although he was not incredibly rich, he did not feel poor either, and he was eagerly awaiting the auction to begin.

Unfortunately, he soon found that he had overestimated the auction. As it started, it was putting up a few martial arts techniques, and although they were interesting, they were not at the point where Xue Wei felt a need to have them.

After the martial arts techniques, materials were being displayed, the majority of which came from Xue Wei's own hands so bidding for them would be utterly stupid.

The prices rose higher and higher, and Xue Wei was feeling surprised to see that items he had deemed ordinary, or at least just slightly rarer than most, were selling for a price more than ten times the estimates of what they cost on the continents he had come from.

After the items, he saw formations and inscriptions put up for sale. These inscriptions were some he had directly sold to the Thousand Treasure Pavilion. A wry smile could not help but appear on his lips.

"Big Brother," Luoluo looked at the smile and felt that something was off. She looked at the stage and frowned. "These inscriptions are the ones that we sold to them? They are quite cheeky, putting them up on auction like this and earning a benefit."

"It's fine," Xue Wei smiled as he rustled her hair. "I already sold it to them, so what they want to do with it, it is their choice."

Luoluo puffed her cheeks indignant and looked with disdain at the woman on the stage. "It is bad behavior!" she said with her adorable childish voice, "They are cheating you!"

Xue Wei could not help but laugh when he heard her words, but he did not mind. Although it was true that the Thousand Treasure Pavilion would earn some low-grade essence stones this way, their profit would at most be around fifty thousand low-grade essence stones.

Considering their dealings and how much Xue Wei had earned from them, he did not feel that it was that bad a move from them, he was not insulted at all by their actions.

Luoluo, on the other hand, was very indignant because of it, her cheeks were puffed in anger, and her expression was simply too adorable.

After the inscriptions came the weapons and armors, these weapons and shields alongside armors were treasures. They did not have a spirit within them, but they could enhance one's attack power and strengthen the Qi or spiritual energy.

These weapons were beneficial for most people, but once again, the team had no use for them.

Bai Tianyi was a sword. It was impossible to get a better weapon than what he already was.

Hei Gou was a beast, and he had his beast claws. These claws were a part of himself, and even when he was in human shape and used the claws, they were fused together, and the boost his fighting ability got was way better than any of these weapons.

Xue Wei had his Inner Might technique which was capable of forming Qi into any weapon, an ability which could already enhance his fighting strength. He also had his beast form.

Then was Lin Xiao. He was a diviner, and he needed a special weapon to provide him support when taming beasts. If it was not a diviner weapon, then it was useless to him.

Luckily, Lin Xiao was the genius from the entire sect of diviners, and thus he had been given the temple's most treasured item, the beast staff.

This staff was able to grow together with the owner. It was a treasured weapon with a weak consciousness, and although this consciousness still had not turned into a spirit, it was not long away from doing so.

Luoluo was a spirit. She couldn't enhance her fighting strength by wielding a weapon, and thus, they were wasted on her.

The armors and shields were also quickly dismissed by Xue Wei. Although a flexible armor could save their lives, it was easy to become a crutch and weaken one's alertness because they were trusting their external help too much.

After the items came the pills, many different pills were displayed at the auction, Xue Wei again provided most of them. Some had been sold to the Thousand Treasure Pavilion; others were put up for auction by himself.

The pills got more and more exquisite and expensive as time went by, and finally, it was time for the final ten pills, the one-colored Rainbow Pills.

This was the most crucial part of the auction, and the moment it appeared, everyone held their breaths as they looked at the ten vials that were placed in a glass case in the middle of the stage.

"As you all are aware, we are now reaching the end of the auction," the female auctioneer said with a smile on her face, "you have all heard the rumors that we will be bringing one-colored rainbow pills up for sale at this auction, and I can now confirm these rumors!

"We do not have one, nor two one-colored rainbow pills up for sale; we have a full ten pills!

"The pills will be released one at a time for sale, and the minimum price is a hundred thousand low-grade essence stones. Each bid has to be raised with a minimum of a thousand low-grade essence stones a bid."

The auctioneer quickly explained the rules of their auction, and everyone was eager to begin bidding.

When the auctioneer was sure that everyone understood the rules, she smiled as she raised her hammer. "We will begin with one pill at a time," she said, "one pill will be auctioned at a time, so you have ten chances to get your hands on the pill, we will start the auction at one hundred thousand low-grade essence stones. Who is willing to bid a hundred thousand?"

She looked around, and multiple people lifted their cards when she was about to pick one of them, a dominating voice reverberated through the entire auction house.

"Five hundred thousand low-grade essence stones."

The voice belonged to Tao Wu, and everyone within the auction hall recognized it.

Hearing him call out a price, no one dared to bid against him, but the price he had offered was already immensely high, so although he had intimidated everyone, he was still paying a decent amount for the pill, so Xue Wei did not mind his actions at all.