Looking at that archaic City Lord's Manor guest token.
The receptionist's businesslike professional smile froze on the spot.
She naturally recognized the City Lord's Manor crest, but exactly what rank this particular token held, what level of authority it represented—that wasn't something an ordinary receptionist could determine on the spot.
"Fellow Daoist... honored guest, please wait a moment."
Her tone had turned incomparably respectful in an instant, even a touch cautious.
She bowed hurriedly and immediately turned and jogged off to fetch the Inner Venue's steward.
Before long, a middle-aged man in a brocade robe with a notably composed bearing came striding out.
He accepted the token with both hands, examined it exceedingly carefully...
Then returned it with both hands and gave Mo Fan a deep, clasped-hand bow.
"So it's an honored guest of the City Lord's Manor. Forgive us for failing to greet you properly."
The steward bowed slightly, his tone carrying precisely the right measure of apology.
"My subordinates have poor eyes and slighted an honored guest. I hope you'll be magnanimous."
Mo Fan casually tucked the token back into his robe and waved a hand, feigning complete indifference:
"It's fine, rules are rules. Can I go in now?"
Though immediately afterward, he muttered internally:
This thing seems more useful than I expected. That Qing Luan—guess he really isn't your average guy?
"This way, honored guest."
The steward's smile grew warmer still as he personally stepped aside and led Mo Fan into the Inner Venue.
Along the way, seeing that Mo Fan was a newcomer, the steward didn't dare be negligent and smoothly began briefing this honored guest on the rules.
As it turned out, aside from guests holding formal guild invitations...
The distinguished patrons of Cangqing City's major merchant guilds, great clans, and the City Lord's Manor were all entitled to unconditional entry into the Inner Venue, so long as they carried a high-level token.
"Additionally, should the honored guest have items he wishes to consign, he may hand them directly to our appraisers for inspection."
The steward added with a smile, "After valuation, based on the tier and worth of the consigned item, our house can extend the client a temporary bidding credit line. Once the auction concludes, the accounts can simply be settled together."
Hearing this, Mo Fan's mind immediately started turning.
He was holding nearly two hundred and fifty Mid-grade Spirit Stones right now. But to fight over a high-tier spiritual object, he honestly couldn't guarantee that would be enough.
"In that case..."
Mo Fan stopped walking and rubbed his chin.
"I happen to have some high-tier demon beast materials I'd like to consign."
The steward was naturally overjoyed and immediately ushered Mo Fan into an appraisal room.
Mo Fan didn't bother hiding anything. He drew from his Storage Pouch a fairly large, exceptionally well-preserved sheet of dark red snake molt.
As that ferocious, baleful aura spread through the room, the eyes of the steward and the several presiding appraisers lit up simultaneously.
Once they confirmed the material's tier was extremely high—carrying the residual might of a late Golden Core, possibly even Peak Golden Core demon beast...
The appraisers swiftly registered it into the ledger and allocated Mo Fan an exceedingly high bidding credit line on the spot.
This youth looked utterly unremarkable, yet could casually produce something this rare.
The steward's gaze toward Mo Fan gained a few degrees of genuine awe.
In his view, Mo Fan had to be the young master of some top-tier great clan, out traveling and tempering himself just like Commandery Princess Ling'er. His attitude softened another notch on the spot.
Having finished the consignment paperwork, the steward personally led Mo Fan up to the second floor and into an independent guest room suspended in midair.
Only after stepping inside did Mo Fan truly appreciate the sophistication of this high-tier auction house.
The entire venue formed an exceedingly grand ring structure.
At the center stood an enormous display platform carved from white jade, while a hundred-plus independent guest rooms were distributed all around it like a honeycomb.
Every guest room was enveloped by a dedicated one-way isolation formation.
Sitting inside, Mo Fan could look down and see every detail on the white jade platform with perfect clarity...
But when he looked to either side, the other private boxes were nothing but blurry halos of light.
And during bidding, guests only had to input a price through the dedicated formation plate on the table to participate.
The outside world would only know that someone had raised the bid—never which cultivator had made the move.
Mo Fan swept the room with his gaze and nodded, satisfied.
"Convenient, actually."
After all, coming to a place like this, being able to conceal his identity to the greatest extent and avoid trouble was as good as it got.
Half an hour later, accompanied by a long, ethereal chime, the vast and somewhat noisy auction hall gradually fell silent.
At the center of the white jade platform, a man in his fifties wearing a purple robe, cultivation at late Foundation Establishment, slowly appeared.
This was the head host of the Cloud Sea High-Tier Auction.
He wore a composed smile and looked thoroughly practiced.
After all, high-tier cultivators were mostly accustomed to auctions of this caliber, so he didn't waste everyone's time with long speeches.
After briefly reiterating the rules for formation-plate bidding, he cut straight to the point and announced the first lot.
First lot: Three-Hundred-Year Dew-Condensing Lingzhi
The formation at the center of the white jade platform lit up faintly, and an exceedingly exquisite cold jade box slowly materialized.
The lid slid open on its own, revealing a lingzhi mushroom, wholly translucent white, its surface seemingly condensed with thousands of fine dewdrops, sitting quietly before the crowd.
Even through the formation, one could almost smell that pure medicinal fragrance.
The host smiled slightly, his voice carrying across the entire hall through the formation:
"Everyone, today's first appetizer lot is a Dew-Condensing Lingzhi of a full three hundred years."
"This item comes from deep within the Spirit Marsh in western Cangqing Province—a treasure recovered by an elite rogue cultivator team who ventured into the swamp and survived months of life-and-death hardship to find it."
"The Dew-Condensing Lingzhi's medicinal properties are exceedingly gentle and rich in spiritual energy."
"For late Foundation Establishment cultivators, it offers considerable effect in nourishing the meridians and harmonizing violent spiritual power within the body. Placed in the hands of a high-tier alchemist, it also serves as a superb auxiliary ingredient for breakthrough pills."
The host paused, surveying the blurred boxes all around, and announced the price with a smile:
"Starting price for this item: sixty Mid-grade Spirit Stones. Minimum raise of five per bid."
Mo Fan sat holding his teacup, looking at the lingzhi on the central platform with some interest.
A pure spiritual herb of three hundred years—back in Qingmu Market, you probably wouldn't catch so much as a glimpse of one. Yet here at the Cloud Sea Auction House, it was merely the warm-up lot.
Then, one after another, bid lights representing each guest room began flaring in midair.
Sixty-five. Seventy. Eighty.
The numbers climbed fast, and in the end, the Dew-Condensing Lingzhi was taken without hesitation by one of the rooms for ninety-five Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Mo Fan didn't make a move.
It was a good item, no question, but it didn't fit the "qi of heaven" standard Mo You's metamorphosis required.
More than that, just from this first lot, Mo Fan sharply realized that the wallet he'd considered fairly comfortable might not survive too many rounds in a place like this.
Second lot: Cold Star Iron Mother
Once the first lot was cleanly settled, the host didn't dawdle and immediately brought out the second treasure.
What appeared on the white jade platform this time was a heavy chunk of metal roughly the size of a fist, silver-gray throughout, with natural deep-blue veining faintly surfacing across it.
"Second lot: Cold Star Iron Mother!"
"This item was extracted from a deep ice vein in northern Cangqing Province."
"It is the metallic essence formed when ordinary cold star iron is gestated through vast ages and continually compressed—an outcome of exceedingly low probability."
"Its composition is extraordinarily tough, and its capacity to bear and conduct spiritual power surpasses ordinary spirit iron more than tenfold!"
"It is especially suited to forging high-tier artifacts, as well as heavy implements requiring exceedingly complex formation inscriptions. Should it be used to forge a cultivator's natal treasure, it would likewise serve as a core auxiliary material of the rarest sort!"
The moment this item came out, Mo Fan set down his teacup and studied it with exceeding attention.
Especially with [ Death Vision ] quietly activated, he could "see" with perfect clarity how spiritual energy flowed slowly through the natural veining inside that iron mother, distributed with exceeding evenness.
It instantly reminded him of the peculiar sight he'd witnessed while riding the Azure Cloud Sect's spirit ship.
A pity.
Being able to see it was one thing. Understanding it was another entirely.
Though he'd grown increasingly interested in orthodox artifact forging, he was nowhere near the point where he could buy a chunk of top-grade ore and just go home and "hand-craft" something.
So in the end, all Mo Fan could do was watch and covet, like a monkey scratching at itself in impatience.
The sect elders and great clan cultivators in the hall who genuinely needed top-tier forging materials, on the other hand, clearly weren't going to let this rare Cold Star Iron Mother slip away.
The bids rose steadily higher.
In the end, that fist-sized rock sold for the horrifying price of one hundred sixty-five Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Mo Fan leaned back in his armchair and rubbed his chin.
"Tch."
Rich people in the cultivation world really are as common as dirt.
Third lot: Dark Water Heart-Guarding Mirror
The lot that followed was a high-tier defensive treasure genuinely capable of causing a stir.
The Dark Water Heart-Guarding Mirror.
This treasure had been brought in by a heavily armed caravan that had traveled south from the Great Xia Dynasty's central hub—Dragon Capital. It was originally a secondhand piece consigned by a Golden Core artifact forging master.
Though it wasn't freshly made, it had been maintained rather perfectly, with no obvious fractures or damage to the defensive formation patterns within.
Most critically, this mirror wasn't built for offense. Rather, once a cultivator injected spiritual power to activate it, it would instantly form a layer of water-attribute heavy-water shielding with extremely strong buffering and force-dispersal properties.
For the orthodox cultivators of the Mystic Realm who specialized in spells and flying swords and whose physical bodies were relatively fragile, a top-grade defensive treasure like this was, at a critical moment, quite literally an extra life!
Once the host finished explaining its function, the atmosphere throughout the ring-shaped hall grew several times more heated than before.
"A genuine top-grade Golden Core defensive treasure—I imagine this requires little further salesmanship from me."
The host raised his volume slightly, his smile confident:
"The Dark Water Heart-Guarding Mirror. Starting price: one hundred eighty Mid-grade Spirit Stones!"
Fierce bidding erupted instantly, the formation lights in midair nearly merging into a single sheet.
Two hundred! Two hundred twenty! Two hundred sixty!
Finally, after several rounds of thoroughly gunpowder-scented bidding...
The bronze mirror was hammered down at the terrifying sky-high price of three hundred and ten Mid-grade Spirit Stones!
Mo Fan had been watching the cultivators bid with interest, in a learning frame of mind.
But when he heard that final gavel call—"Sold, three hundred ten Mid-grade Spirit Stones"—even he couldn't help clicking his tongue.
He couldn't resist looking down at the Storage Pouch at his waist.
"..."
Well now.
Those two hundred and fifty-odd Mid-grade Spirit Stones he'd scraped together through all that painstaking effort over this whole period.
In a place like this, he couldn't even afford one secondhand mirror?!
Of course, that wasn't counting the potential value of the snake molt he'd just consigned.
But it did finally give Mo Fan a much more visceral understanding of this so-called "high-tier auction."
The goods sold here were genuinely top-grade items you'd never see outside.
But the prices were also genuinely enough to scare a man to death.
Mo Fan silently picked up his teacup and took a large gulp of spirit tea to calm his nerves, feeling immeasurably grateful that he'd decisively consigned that snake molt.
After that, the auction settled into a steady rhythm.
High-tier spiritual herbs, rare forging materials, finished artifacts, even lost ancient pill formulas...
Treasure after treasure, the sort ordinarily near-impossible to find in a regular shop, was delivered to the central white jade platform in a continuous stream.
The host would intersperse a few words about the bizarre origins of these items.
Some came from the savage wildlands on Cangqing Province's borders, some were the spoils of rogue cultivators' near-death ventures, and others were imperial treasures brought down from Dragon Capital.
One rare marvel after another, seldom glimpsed in ordinary times, flowed onto the platform and was swept away by the heavy coin of wealthy patrons hidden in their boxes.
Mo Fan quietly played spectator. While his eyes were being thoroughly opened, he also waited patiently for what he actually needed.
He still wasn't in a rush to move.
His goal was exceedingly clear. Good steel goes to the blade's edge.
Some time passed.
After more than a dozen treasures had gone under the hammer in succession, the purple-robed host on the central platform suddenly paused—exceedingly noticeably.
Then a confident, even faintly mysterious smile returned to his face.
"Everyone."
The host's voice carried clearly into every box through the formation:
"The next lot is somewhat special. Moreover, it is a superb treasure only just added to this auction's sequence on short notice."
"For the artifact forging masters present in particular, and for any fellow daoist intending to craft a top-tier protective treasure, I imagine its appeal will be irresistible."
His words fell.
The transmission formation at the center of the white jade platform blazed with dazzling light once more.
When the light faded, a large, remarkably well-preserved sheet of scaled hide-molt, its surface covered in exceedingly intricate dark red patterns, floated slowly before the crowd.
Even long separated from the demon beast's body, even sealed behind the formation...
The fine scale patterns across its surface still faintly exuded a ferocity and savagery that set the heart pounding.
The host raised a hand and gestured toward the central platform with great ceremony.
"This item is an exceedingly rare, exceedingly hard-to-obtain high-tier demon beast snake molt!"
"Through the joint appraisal of several of our house's treasure appraisers, the demon beast that shed this molt had a cultivation of at least late Golden Core!"
At that point.
He deliberately paused for a full three seconds, stringing everyone's anticipation taut.
Then he sharply raised his voice and dropped the real bombshell:
"And there is a very strong possibility it was approaching Peak Golden Core!"
Whoaaa——!
Though no one in the ring-shaped hall could see anyone else, Mo Fan could still feel the entire venue's atmosphere boil over the instant those four words—"Peak Golden Core"—landed.
"Observe, everyone."
The host pointed at the details magnified by the light-projection formation.
"This snake molt is preserved remarkably intact, with almost no obvious damage to the scale patterns. By our house's appraisal, an ordinary artifact would struggle even to leave a mark on its surface!"
"Placed in the hands of a genuinely capable artifact forging master, using this as the primary material to forge a high-tier defensive treasure would be an absolutely natural result."
"What's more precious still—this snake molt contains exceedingly pure baleful qi. If properly utilized, it might well lend the finished treasure a few extra measures of power out of thin air!"
Listening to the host's highly inflammatory sales pitch.
In a certain independent guest room on the second floor.
Mo Fan, who'd been lazily slumped in his chair enjoying the show, slowly sat up straight. He set his teacup down gently on the table, producing an exceedingly faint clink.
"Here we go."