Mo Fan slowly sat up straight, eyes burning, fixed on that dark red snake molt on the auction platform.
He'd actually test-sold fragments of this molt before.
Back then, a palm-sized scrap had fetched as much as ten Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
But fragments were, in the end, only good as offcuts.
The piece before him now—one he'd carefully selected—was an entirely different matter.
It was enormous in area, the scale patterns unbroken, with almost no damage marring the surface.
A top-grade material of this quality needed only a single glance from anyone with an eye to see its immeasurable worth.
And so.
The instant the host smiled and announced a "starting price of two hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones," the Cloud Sea Auction House did not go cold.
The brief silence was merely the gathering of force before the storm.
"Two hundred twenty!"
"Two hundred sixty!"
"Three hundred!"
Bidding lights flashed madly across the formation plates like a sky full of stars, the leaping numbers too fast to follow.
At first, it was only a few artifact forgers with deep pockets locked in fierce contest.
What they valued was the material's commercial worth and its forging potential.
But once the price broke the four-hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stone barrier...
Several Golden Core cultivators who'd been watching from the sidelines finally couldn't sit still.
They plunged in one after another, joining the white-hot scramble.
Every raise came with a few degrees of unyielding resolve.
And Mo Fan, seated in his box, watched the climbing numbers on his formation plate with eyes growing brighter and brighter...
Unable to suppress the grin tugging at his mouth no matter how he tried.
Good, good, good.
He was quietly rubbing his hands together inside, even muttering under his breath:
That's the rhythm. Keep going, don't stop!
He half wanted to go down there and cheerlead in person.
Finally, after several rounds of tug-of-war, the snake molt settled firmly on a staggering figure.
"Six hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones! Sold!"
With one crisp strike of the host's gavel, the contest came to a close.
Six hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones!
That price was a full three times the starting bid!
After deducting the auction house's commission—
That snake molt netted Mo Fan five hundred and seventy Mid-grade Spirit Stones in pure profit.
"Hssss..."
The instant he worked out that number, Mo Fan couldn't help sucking in a soft breath.
Converted into Low-grade Spirit Stones, plus his existing savings, that was a full eighty thousand plus!
Now I'm actually rich.
After the snake molt, the auction's pace slowed a little, as if to let everyone's strung-out nerves settle.
A few more lots went under the hammer—precious, but niche artifacts and materials with relatively small audiences.
Then the formation on the central white jade platform lit up once more.
An exceedingly small jade vial, carved entirely from warm jade, rose slowly at the center of the display.
The host lifted the vial with great care and smiled faintly.
"The next lot is called—Nine Heavens Clear Dew."
"This is a rootless spirit dew, naturally condensed over a century of years under exceedingly special heaven-and-earth conditions."
"Its five-element bias is extremely weak, nearly nonexistent, yet the spiritual energy contained within has been purified to the utmost extreme."
"This item's greatest characteristic is a single word: pure."
The host paused, his tone carrying a fair and measured assessment.
"While it possesses no earth-shattering effect capable of remaking one's constitution or raising the dead..."
"Its strength lies in its exceedingly gentle medicinal nature—it will conflict with virtually no ordinary spiritual power."
"Whether fellow daoists wish to use it in refining high-tier pills or in nourishing their physical constitution, it serves quite well."
Hearing this introduction, Mo Fan—who had been half-reclining in his armchair—opened his eyes.
"[ Death Vision ], on!"
Piercing through the interference of the display formation, Mo Fan "saw" it with perfect clarity.
Inside the jade vial, a mass of energy—exceedingly pure, ethereal, like newborn morning dew—flowed quietly within.
Exactly as the host had said. Purified to the utmost extreme.
At the same time, Mo You in the [ Necrotic Realm ] sensed that aura through the link between them.
On that face identical to Mo Fan's, an unmistakable flicker of longing passed.
"That's it."
"The 'qi of heaven' I need to stabilize my formless body—it matches perfectly!"
With his avatar's definitive answer, Mo Fan's heart settled.
He looked at the central platform, a resolve in his eyes that said he would have it.
"Starting price for this item: one hundred fifty Mid-grade Spirit Stones. Minimum raise of five."
The host's words had barely fallen before a scattered handful of bids lit up in midair.
After all, nourishment-type spiritual objects had a considerably narrower audience.
Precious as it was, it was nowhere near as sought-after as the offensive and defensive treasures from earlier.
After a few rounds of normal bidding, the price stalled at one hundred ninety.
"Two hundred."
Mo Fan tapped the formation plate lightly, calling out a round number with exceeding decisiveness.
The hall went quiet for a moment.
Then another box tentatively added five.
"Two hundred forty."
Mo Fan didn't hesitate for an instant, jumping straight off the other party's bid to a price high enough to discourage most of the field.
In an auction, you either go in hard or you grind it out slowly. Otherwise, you give the other side hope and inevitably fall into a war of attrition.
He was flush with money now and had no interest whatsoever in wasting time on this item.
The moment that price appeared, the competing box flickered once—and in the end, gave up.
"Two hundred forty Mid-grade Spirit Stones! Sold!"
As the gavel fell, Mo Fan let out a long breath.
Sure, that price carried a premium of twenty-odd stones over the normal market valuation.
But as long as it let Mo You complete his metamorphosis and stabilize a genuine human body...
Forget a twenty-stone premium—even double the price and Mo Fan would have taken it without a second's hesitation.
At this moment, leaning back in his chair, Mo Fan felt himself relax completely.
Today's auction trip could be called perfect in the extreme.
His stock was sold, converted into a huge pile of cash.
The "qi of heaven" Mo You urgently needed was in hand, the pressing crisis resolved.
And most critically, even after paying for it, he still had nearly five hundred and eighty Mid-grade Spirit Stones in savings.
"Fuu..."
Mo Fan picked up his now slightly cooled spirit tea and drained it in one go.
He crossed his legs comfortably and turned his attention back to the auction platform.
Over the next half hour, though Mo Fan didn't bid frequently, his eyes never once left the display, waiting for the moment to spend.
Finally, when a jade slip radiating an archaic aura was brought onto the platform, Mo Fan's eyes lit up again.
"Hundred Forging Artifact Pattern Record."
The host's introduction was exceedingly solemn.
"This is an exceedingly precious forging inheritance! Personally compiled by a renowned Golden Core artifact forging master of Cangqing Province."
"It records the master's lifetime of learning, containing a vast body of forging insights from the basics all the way to high-tier work."
"However, our house must also inform you honestly."
The host smiled slightly.
"This inheritance is not the sort of secret manual that lets one ascend to heaven in a single step and immediately forge a peerless treasure. It is more a summation of experience."
"Unless a cultivator possesses genuinely exceptional talent and patience for the path of artifact forging, taking this item would likely amount to casting pearls into darkness."
"Starting price: fifty Mid-grade Spirit Stones."
That introduction was exceedingly objective—borderline discouraging.
After all, in the cultivation world, most cultivators would rather spend big on a ready-made top-grade treasure than buy a textbook that demanded endless effort and materials to work through from scratch.
So when this lot appeared, the whole hall felt rather cold, with only a few representatives from small merchant guilds tentatively calling out extremely low bids.
But Mo Fan had his eye on it.
"Eighty."
Mo Fan entered the price on the formation plate with exceeding flatness.
Sure enough, the moment that price appeared, the already lukewarm competitors wisely chose to fold.
"Eighty Mid-grade Spirit Stones! Sold!"
Watching a serving girl deliver the archaic jade slip into his box, Mo Fan tucked it away against his body with satisfaction.
This trip to Cangqing City wasn't wasted after all.
With this Hundred Forging Artifact Pattern Record, he was confident that one day in the future, he'd be able to bring his undead subordinates a qualitative leap forward.
The auction continued.
But Mo Fan was now entirely free of pressure.
What needed selling was sold, what needed buying was bought, and he still had a large pile of money in his pocket he couldn't spend.
He lounged comfortably in the box's soft armchair, even flipping idly through his newly acquired forging jade slip out of boredom, killing time while he waited for the grand event to wrap up.
However.
Just as the auction was about to enter its finale.
The purple-robed host on the central white jade platform suddenly put away his unchanging professional smile.
The expression on his face turned exceedingly rare in its gravity, with a faint undercurrent of mystery.
"Fellow daoists."
The host's previously booming voice shifted to a low register, as if relating some taboo, carrying clearly into every box through the formation:
"This next item... is rather interesting."
Mo Fan hadn't been paying much attention. He didn't even lift his head.
Until the host's next half-sentence exploded like a thunderclap through the silent hall.
"I imagine everyone present is aware. Our Mystic Realm's territory is vast, boundless."
"Since ancient times, there have occasionally been 'visitors from another world' who broke through the barrier and crossed over—hardly an unheard-of rarity."
The moment those words left his mouth, an exceedingly suppressed stir ran through the ring-shaped hall.
Those words—"visitors from another world"—were steeped in mystery and taboo in every era.
The host raised a hand slightly to quell the commotion and continued in that same low tone:
"Some of these otherworldly visitors are reborn through body seizure, others descend upon the Mystic Realm by different means."
"So long as they do not voluntarily expose their identity, ordinary methods—even high-tier cultivators—would struggle to distinguish them."
"Unless..."
The host spat out one cold word:
"Soul Search."
The instant those words landed.
Inside the independent box on the second floor...
Mo Fan—lazy and relaxed a moment ago—froze dead still, his hand halted mid-page-turn.
Crack!
He hadn't even controlled his grip, and a hairline fracture ran along the edge of the jade slip.
The host's faintly teasing smile carried on:
"Therefore, across these long ages, items that can be confirmed to have come from another world have always held considerable collection and research value in our Mystic Realm."
"After all, such a thing may represent an utterly different kind of enlightenment!"
"And today. Our house has been exceedingly fortunate to have obtained precisely one such item."
The host's voice suddenly rose, charged with an inflammatory fervor:
"According to the powerhouse who consigned it... this item was obtained only with great difficulty, after he personally confirmed the identity of its owner."
Inside the box.
Mo Fan's previously composed expression turned somewhat tense in that moment.
On the white jade platform.
The host smiled faintly and made an exceedingly elegant gesture of invitation.
"Everyone."
"Behold—"