Chapter 170: For You

The next morning, I was miraculously fully recuperated and I was finally able to escape the boredom of my bed. Shen Rong was waiting for me to come out and he handed me ten Element Orbs,  implying that I was the one who won the Red Sea Tournament. Apparently, Wu Jia, my opponent in the finals, surrendered the match after seeing my fighting prowess against White.

I knew that that girl was scared half to death but I never thought she would yield the match just because she saw how impossible it was. Well, I guess that's some kind of strength in its own way. Someone who does the impossible is strong, but someone who knows his limits and doesn't overextend is strong as well. Wu Jia is the latter and I think she'll be a fine addition to my disciples, assuming she accepts my invitation.

"Yongrui, are you going somewhere?" Shi Meili asked upon seeing me head out with Shen Rong. It had only been a day since she started looking after me but she felt right asleep midway into it. Since she seemed incredibly tired and exhausted, I decided to let her get a few more minutes of shut-eye before getting breakfast with her. But then again, she woke up a little earlier than I had expected.

"Shelter Lea— er I mean, Shen Rong and I are going to the Red Sea Auction House," I responded. "Apparently the auction can now be held today now that representatives of the Tang Shelter are here."

"Shen Rong? Wha— " Shi Meili was aghast. It came as a shock to her that I was calling the Red Sea Shelter Leader by his name alone.

"I insisted that he called me that." Shen Rong quickly explained. "Tang Yongrui here is a Sect Master and a Sect Master has a higher rank than a Shelter Leader. I insisted on calling him Sect Master but he didn't want the formalities, so we settled on calling each other by our names."

Shi Meili slowly nodded but she had no idea how to react. "I see, how about the auction, why is it going to be held now?"

"Ah, that? Shen Rong was waiting for everyone to get here. Tang Shelter didn't plan on coming this year but recent events caused them to come here so now the auction can be held." I relayed, repeating what Shen Rong just told me a minute or so ago. "Do you want to come with us? We'll be grabbing breakfast later on."

After saying yes in her delicate and gentle voice, she meekly followed behind me as if she was ashamed to walk on my side. I didn't know what to tell her so I just let her be.

Pretty soon, we entered the marketplace right outside the Coliseum wherein the Red Sea Tournament was held. I thought that it was still early in the morning but upon seeing the huge crowd and the bustling streets, I realized that I woke up later than I had imagined.

While looking around, I noticed that Shi Meili was struggling to keep up with us. It must be because she was still disoriented after waking up, or maybe she just didn't want to accidentally use her powers and end up hurting someone. Whichever the case, she was struggling.

"Come on," I called out, offering my hand to her.

She bashfully extended her hand, paused, and softly placed her hand on mine. I smiled, as I pulled her closer to me.

To think that it would take more than two decades for me to pay attention to her, well, it was unbelievable. There were countless times when she tried to get closer to me but I was too blind to notice. At that time, the only thing in my mind was power and power alone. There was nothing else. But having experienced death so many times made me realize that power is not everything in this world. If I were to live a fulfilling life, I should at least develop friendships, relationships, and the like. You can be the most powerful person in the world but at the end of the day, you'll die alone if you don't make any connections. Well, technically I didn't die alone since Natalia was with me... but that's not the point. I really did die alone as a person.

Having said that, the reactions I got from Shi Meili were enjoyable, to say the least. It was probably because, in the past, she was the one to make a move on me and I don't even bother with her. But right now, not only was I the one to call out to her,  I even went as far as to extend my hand towards her.

That's when I felt how pursuing someone really feels like. I felt a sense of achievement when Shi Meili obliged in grabbing my extended hand. If I had known that it has this kind of effect, I should've had accepted Shi Meili's hints in the past. I should have appreciated her more back then. Even though I was always alone, I never felt it because she would always show up out of nowhere.

I hope I can make it up to her during my stay here on the Lower Plane. I will be leaving in seven days... Honestly, I don't know if this will be enough but I've made up my mind to do my best.

"Yongrui, I'll be going on ahead since I still need to talk to all the owners of the items that will be sold in the auction. If you want to sell or get rid of anything, just tell me. I'll be sure to put it up on sale." 

"If that's the case, then... " I waved my hand in the air, activating my Silverwing Storage Ring. After a split second of showing a faint blue light in the air, I held out my hand and showed its contents to Shen Rong. "These are all Spirit Beast Cores I got while I was on the Void Tower Dungeon. The Void Tower Dungeon is one of the hardest dungeons to complete due to its time limit and abundance of spirit beasts. Just from that fact alone, these Spirit Beast Cores would fetch at a high price. You can appraise all of them later but I know for sure that all of these are Titanium Rank Spirit Beast Cores." I informed him. "And adding to that, I have at least a hundred or so Platinum Rank Spirit Beast Cores in my other storage ring. If the attendees of the auction need more Spirit Beast Cores, then you can sell them."

"You mean... these twenty-five Spirit Beast Cores are all Titanium in rank?!" Shen Rong continued, activating his Blood Element as he tried to assess the Spirit Beast Cores. His eyes turned bloodshot and it was obvious that he was looking into the Spirit Beast Cores too much. He probably already confirmed that they were all Titanium Ranks but he didn't want to believe it so he just had to double-check/ triple-check it just to make sure.

"That's right. These are all Titanium Rank Spirit Beast Cores. A Spirit Beast Core has a huge chance of containing a summonable Spirit Beast so these are all priceless treasures. Of course, there's no specific way to check if it contains one or not, but even without that guarantee... it's worth the gamble." Shen Rong continued. "Say, before you sell all these to the auction, mind if I buy a few of them from you? Ever since the outbreak, the amount of Spirit Beasts that could be found in the world had been so few that not many elite cultivators have them. And even if they did, they'll only be at Gold or Diamond Rank at most."

"Shen Rong, you don't have to do that. You can just choose one and take it as a gift from me. I've already inspected all these Spirit Beast Cores and all of them contain a summonable Spirit Beast. That's why I specifically chose to sell all of them this time."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Shen Rong screamed.

As soon as he said it, a light redness appeared on his face as he realized that they were still in the middle of the crowd. Screaming like that out of nowhere certainly attracted everyone's attention, making them pause midway through their walk as they glanced at their Shelter Leader. Shen Rong didn't hesitate to slightly bow down to everyone, gesturing that he felt bad for causing a commotion.

"If that's the case, then all of these Spirit  Beast Cores would fetch a higher price! Usually, a Spirit Beast Core of a Platinum Rank Spirit Beast would have a starting bid of 400 Gold. As for a Spirit Beast Core of a Titanium Rank Spirit Beast, it would have a starting bid of 800 to 1000 Gold depending on its appearance and power."

T-thats a lot of Gold Coins! Even I only have 20000 Gold Coins at most!

"Oh, and before I forget." I glanced at Meili as I handed her a Spirit Beast Core. "This is for you."