166 Corruption

Feng Ming took a deep breath as he launched himself off a rooftop, his spear bearing down on a late-foundation-establishment expert. The man didn't know what hit him. It took a split second for his life to end as the butt of Feng Ming's spear crashed into the back of his neck. The newly promoted general proceeded to strip the man and confiscate his bag of holding.

He easily broke the spirit mark on the storage device and scoured the man's possessions. It wasn't long before he detected an ominous black card bearing the word "invitation." Luckily, this man had hidden it in an easy-to-find location. After securing it, he donned the man's black garb and doupeng, which happened to be his size. The last one he'd killed had morphed into his devil form upon death, destroying the uniform clothes these "customers" seemed to wear.

A hot wind blew over Feng Ming's obscured features as he made his way to the Honey Badger Inn. Like many of the figures he'd seen, he approached it without making a sound. The bar was empty save for two customers. Like the ones before him, he silently placed his card on the bar, prompting the bartender to pull a hidden lever. A carefully hidden flight of stairs opened to the basement.

The spiral staircase traveled fifty feet down before splitting up into several corridors, where a beautiful lady wearing black metal collar greeted him with a smile. "Right this way, esteemed lord," she said.

They walked straight through the intersection into a wide-open hall, where many figures were already seated. Like him, they also wore black garb and doupengs to obscure their features. They didn't speak or make a sound, which was curious given the voice-concealing features of their magical garb. Feng Ming took the opportunity to spread his resplendent force into the adjacent hallways. He spotted several guards, servants, and prisoners—information he rapidly relayed to Cha Ming.

"If sir could please leave the hundred high-grade-spirit-stone deposit, I will give you your bidding paddle," the servant said.

Feng Ming grunted and placed the deposit he'd pillaged onto a silver platter she held out. He then retrieved the black paddle with the number "77," his lucky number, and took a seat beside a tall cultivator.

As a formality, Feng Ming attempted to a relay a message outside to Cha Ming, but to no avail. It seemed that his communication earlier had hit a "sweet spot" in the dampening formation.

Well, he thought, at least they won't be able to communicate with each other. I hope.

A figure walked onto the stage as Feng Ming took a seat. "Welcome, lords and ladies to the thirty-seventh biannual auction," the figure said in a raspy voice. "Today, we offer premium goods in preparation for the upcoming struggle in the capital. Make sure you don't miss out; failure in this mission will cost you your life and soul. First up today is a devil-barb anemone, perfect for crafting devilish infusion pills. The bidding starts at ten high-grade spirit stones."

A flurry of rough, scratchy voices laid down one bid after another before the item finally sold at thirty high-grade spirit stones.

"The second item, ten mid-grade Sin Crystals," the figure intoned. "Ideal for condensing your initial devilish form or upgrading it to foundation-establishment level." Sin Crystals, devilish pills, and devilish-cultivation manuals were snapped up one after another.

"This item is called a karmic-enhancement flower," the auctioneer said as he procured a crystal globe containing a jade-and-ochre-colored flower.

Feng Ming's fingers itched with an urge to grab it.

"It is especially difficult to procure because it benefits both sin-based and merit-based cultivators. The starting price is ten thousand high-grade spirit stones."

"Eleven thousand!" a voice shouted.

"Thirteen thousand!" another shouted.

The bidding continued before finally stabilizing at 17,000. "Nineteen thousand!" Feng Ming shouted.

"Twenty thousand!" a new voice joined in.

"Twenty-five thousand!" Feng Ming yelled. Since the arena incident, he was practically swimming in money.

"Sold!" the auctioneer yelled after three breaths passed. The crystal ball floated to Feng Ming's seat. It was quickly followed by a collared servant that walked out with a tray. He placed his bid of twenty-five thousand high-grade spirit stones onto the tray and stowed the crystal ball into his bag of holding.

"The next item is one that my master personally refined with the anguish of ten thousand souls," the auctioneer said.

A black flag oozing a malevolent aura appeared on stage. Feng Ming was utterly repulsed by the item. He knew, however, that this was just the beginning. He clenched his teeth as he watched the auction unfold and waited for Cha Ming's signal.

***

"Finally, one who actually kept his invitation somewhere I could find it," Cha Ming said. He wasn't upset at having to kill and loot fifteen not-so-innocent people to secure it, but time was of the essence. He rapidly imitated the man's appearance and shifted his clothes to match the black garb everyone wore. Then he entered the bar and descended the spiraling staircase.

Right before reaching the bottom, he spotted a shadow just outside a torch's illumination.

It's your turn, Huxian, he sent mentally. Fortunately, their bond could not be disrupted by a petty dampening formation. He wreathed himself in shadows and followed Huxian into the thin world that ran along the hallway.

We need to be quick, Huxian said. This is very draining. I can give you can hour at most.

An hour's all I need, Cha Ming said. He jumped between the sparse islands of shadow separated by a sea of bright light and found what he was looking for: thirty-six obscured locations in the outer ring where the guards and servants walked. He rapidly threw down pairs of formations—the first was a least-grade obscuring formation, which was there for the sole purpose of hiding the second ice-based formation. Then he hopped over to the other thirty-five spots and placed down similar formations.

How long do we have left? Cha Ming said after placing the last flag.

A half hour, Huxian replied.

Cha Ming quickened his pace. He traveled through the shadows to the inner hall, where the auction was proceeding. In the shadow world, he could only make out partial conversations at best. He carefully avoided the senses of the many cultivators and laid down another thirty-six formation eyes. Many of them had even been erected right beside a foundation-establishment cultivator's foot!

Get out quick! Huxian yelled.

Cha Ming immediately hopped out of the shadows where he'd entered at the foot of the stairwell as Huxian ran out of energy. Then he activated a formation he'd carefully placed near Feng Ming's foot. Chaos would ensue shortly.

***

Feng Ming waited nervously as the auction proceeded. It was one thing to kill a few people, but it was an entirely different thing to catch a crowd in an inescapable dragnet. For this, they needed a distraction.

Maybe I should eat that weird flower for now, he thought. Under the curious gazes of the surrounding cultivators, he withdrew the crystal globe from his robes and shattered it. A wonderful fragrance wafted out to them, causing them to twitch nervously. Feng Ming wasn't sure if it was fear of the unknown or fear of the ten core-formation cultivators outside that kept them in check.

Ignoring their greedy looks, he popped the delicate ochre-and-jade flower into his mouth. It immediately dissolved and bypassed his body, entering his soul directly. As it did, he instinctively became aware of the function of the flower—to increase merit by twenty-five percent. For most people, this would be a piddling amount, but for Feng Ming, it was an enormous quantity. His soul was immediately surrounded by a thick jade glow, which immediately began syphoning toward his resplendent vestment. Soon, a jade rune just like the first appeared on the white garment.

Feng Ming's cultivation automatically began evolving. The qi of heaven and earth rushed toward his body unbidden as it caused his core to increase in diameter. It grew rapidly until it reached a bottleneck at one and a half times its original size.

But to his surprise, it didn't stop there. The jade glow, which had previously formed a second rune, had also condensed into a third rune. As soon as this happened, Feng Ming's Dantian let out a soft pop as it expanded to double its initial size, propelling him to early core formation.

***

Feng Ming's breakthrough naturally didn't go unnoticed. At first, the auctioneer was slightly annoyed that the winner of the flower had taken it out, arousing the envy of nearby cultivators. Once the current auction was completed, he walked over to a nearby guard and instructed him to pass on a message to the first through third protectors. They were to evict the man immediately, before any chaos broke out in the auction hall.

He then continued with the auction. Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as expected. In the middle of a fierce bout of bidding, the heaven and earth qi in the room suddenly rushed over to the man who had taken out the flower. Who would have thought that someone could immediately break through just by consuming the flower?

He immediately halted the auction. "Everyone, please bear with me for a moment. First through ninth protectors, seize that man. I sense merit glow on him."

This was, of course, pure nonsense. He just didn't have a legitimate reason to kick the man out, so he made one up on the spot.

Nine core-formation cultivators rushed into the room. Including himself, there were ten core-formation cultivators overseeing the auction. It wasn't a large force by any means, but rather the minimum allowable for any traveling auction house in their organization.

The nine black-cloaked protectors very cautiously approached the man who was breaking through. They brandished their weapons, approaching him with a set of black chains.

But why would he break through now, of all times? the auctioneer wondered. Isn't that just suicide? Unless… could it be a distraction?

The auctioneer directed his resplendent force to the entrance of the hall and found it was obstructed. He pushed against the obstruction aggressively until it shattered. To his surprise, he saw a large blue circle containing ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, which were rapidly being ground to dust.

"Everyone, attack the man at the entrance, or we're all dead!" the auctioneer suddenly shouted. He pushed open the large black doors leading into the hall, revealing a blue-robed man and three small animals. The man held a pillarlike staff; he stood guard in front of the blue formation. Its energy was rapidly feeding a grid on the floor. The blue lines were so cold that white frost covered the floor beside them.

The nine protectors immediately pounced toward the door while the other cultivators were finally coming to grips with the situation.

"I said everyone!" the infuriated auctioneer yelled. The chaotic mass of customers immediately regained their composure and assumed battle positions against the blue-robed man.

***

Earlier, Cha Ming had seen three of the core-formation cultivators patrolling the outside perimeter rushing into the hall. It was less than expected, but he'd have to make do. To his surprise, however, the energies of heaven and earth in his surroundings suddenly thinned and rushed to the auction hall. The six remaining protectors rushed in as well.

I have no idea what he's doing, but it's working, Cha Ming thought. He threw out thirty-six flags and rapidly painted the complex lines of a Water-Gathering Formation. It was a formation he'd grown very comfortable with in his time in Songjing.

Sixty breaths later, the formation thrummed to life. He then painted a few dozen more lines, connecting the energy-gathering formation to a nearby formation eye. He tossed out ten thousand high-grade spirit stones onto the sacrificial formation. They began crumbling to dust as their energy was rapidly converted to the purest water energy that then seeped into rapidly growing runic lines.

Cha Ming took a deep breath and summoned Huxian and his two friends. The floor crumbled as he increased his weight to a phenomenal 400,000 jin, and he increased the Clear Sky Staff's diameter to two feet and its length to twenty-four feet. Its weight grew to 40,000 jin, which was slightly lower than his fist strength.

Shortly after, the black doors to the auction hall burst open, revealing the auctioneer, nine protectors, and hundreds of enraged cultivators. To his surprise, they ignored Feng Ming, who was calmly breaking through in the center of the room.

"That lucky bastard," Cha Ming muttered as he braced himself for the onslaught.

"Go tie a few of them up," Cha Ming said to Huxian and his friends. "I'll handle whoever gets through."

"You got it, bro," Huxian said as he split into two and executed his familiar style. A domain of white light expanded from the white fox and began eroding the many cultivators in the auction hall. Unsurprisingly, the light's purifying powers affected some more than others. Many of them roared as they changed shapes to their devilish forms in a futile attempt to ward off the light's powers.

Silverwing let out a piercing cry as he flew out toward two of the nine protectors. His silver wing strikes forced them to direct all their attention on defending. Meanwhile, Lei Jiang burst out with frightening power. Lightning was the bane of evil creatures, and the nine protectors were just that. They transformed to fight off the iridescent lightning and finally supressed Lei Jiang with two of their members.

"Shoot everything you have at the man with the pillar!" one of the protectors shouted. He raised his sword and accumulated core-formation qi into a malevolent flame. The four others followed suit, activating the black runes on their bodies to push their power up to early core formation. The two hundred cultivators behind them also charged up various attacks.

Seeing that only half of the grand formation was active, Cha Ming activated two mid-grade ice-shield combat formations. Then he activated a Hardening Talisman and three Myriad Ice Shield Talismans he'd purchased from Luo Ming before swatting at them with what he now called the Clear Sky Pillar.

Fire and ice burned his body simultaneously as techniques breached his defenses. Metal cut his skin and earthen spikes bruised his muscles as they bypassed the large staff and hammered into him. His strong body ripped away any vines that managed to sneak in and wrap around his arms and legs. The pillar continued through the barrage of blows unimpeded and smashed into two of the core-formation cultivators. The lead cultivator's body wasn't weak, so he managed to survive the blow with only a little damage to his internals. The one on his right, however, wasn't so lucky; he was mostly a qi cultivator that dabbled in devil arts, so he was reduced to nothing more than a meat patty.

Seventy-five percent of the formation was activated by the time the wave of blows came to an end. Many gouges and burns on Cha Ming's body were healing rapidly. His marrow worked double time to replenish the flesh and blood required for regeneration.

"One last wave," the lead cultivator yelled. "We almost have him!"

Cha Ming gritted his teeth as he prepared to defend against their last stand. His strength was bolstered by what he'd seen as he toured the underground facility—hundreds of trained slaves, to be used as vitality farms, soul farms, and cultivation furnaces by the cultivators who purchased them. What these people did was an abomination, and only by killing them here and now could he stop them from performing more of these atrocities.