Chapter 29: Rumors of the Secret Market
Wearing a mask, Wang Chen walked into the attic.
The attic looks very ordinary outside, but inside it's a different world! As a young girl walked for the time of a cup of tea, after passing through three layers of guards, Wang Chen finally arrived at a vast hall.
In the middle of the hall was a high platform, on which items were being auctioned off continuously. Underneath the platform were rows and rows of chairs, although only about 70-80% of them were occupied, with roughly over two hundred monks seated on them.
"Auctioning a bottle of 100-year-old Stone Clock Milk, with six drops in total. The 100-year-old Stone Clock Milk can be used as a material to refine and increase the cultivation of Qi or instantly recover spiritual power after taking the pill. As for its value, I won't mention it, but even if you directly ingest one drop, it can restore the spiritual power of a 9th-level Qi cultivator to that of a 4th-level! The bidding starts at 2,000 Spirit Stones, and each bid increase must be at least 100 Spirit Stones!"
As soon as the middle-aged rich man's voice fell, the monks from all sides rushed forward. Items that can instantly restore spiritual power are too rare! If two monks with similar cultivation levels are stuck in a stalemate and one of them suddenly drinks a drop of Hundred-Year Stone Clock Milk, the outcome is already decided!
Especially in the Hei Wu mountain range where monsters roam and cultivators run amok, items that restore spiritual energy are even more precious.
"Two Thousand Five Hundred Spirit Stones"
"Two Thousand Eight Hundred Spirit Stones"
……
The price continued to rise, and soon it reached 35,000 spirit stones. At this point, the cultivators who were competing for the item began to slowly increase their bids. After all, a top-grade artifact was only worth around 10,000-20,000 spirit stones, and even an extreme-grade artifact was only worth around 400,000-500,000 spirit stones per piece. It wasn't worth bidding any higher than that. Other recovery pills for spiritual power were also scarce, but they probably wouldn't be much more expensive than this either!
Finally, a black-robed monk shouted "45,000 spirit stones" when no one else was bidding!
"In the Qi-refining stage, a single restorative elixir that quickly recovers one's spiritual energy is generally worth 7,000 spirit stones. If it has a better effect, it will be even more expensive! However, for the same type of restorative elixir, it can only be used once within a certain period of time. Using it again will greatly reduce its effectiveness!"
Wang Chen thought to himself, "However, if other spiritual medicines are added and dozens of recovery pellets are refined, the value will be even higher!"
Wang Chen was deep in thought, but the auction continued unabated!
"Top-grade artifact, Cloudhook, forged from Golden Essence Stone, extremely powerful with armor-piercing effect... Starting price: 1,000 Spirit Stones, each bid increase must be at least 100 Spirit Stones."
Wang Chen stared at the Cloud Piercer, his heart burning with excitement. "This Cloud Piercer is made entirely of Golden Essence Stone, its sharpness is extraordinary, and it also has a armor-piercing effect, making it one of the best among top-grade artifacts." However, the next bid shattered Wang Chen's hopes.
One thousand two hundred spirit stones
"1300 Ling Stones"
……
The final price stopped at 1,900 spirit stones and was bought by a female cultivator. The 1,900 spirit stones were not a loss, as the Cloud-Piercing Hook's armor-piercing effect was very practical. Although its attack power was slightly inferior to that of an extreme-grade magic artifact, it consumed less magical energy, making its durability even better. Therefore, it could also be considered a second-rate extreme-grade magic artifact.
Wang Chen was originally quite confident in his own wealth, and with the cheating effect of the Causal Qi, Wang Chen had never been short of spirit stones. Adding to that, he didn't need to use elixirs for cultivation, so now he had stored up three thousand spirit stones!
Adding various demon beast materials, Wang Chen had a total of around 5,000 to 6,000 spirit stones on him. This was a huge sum for someone in the Qi Refining stage!
However, the next secret auction made Wang Chen feel embarrassed! One by one, top-grade artifacts, one bottle after another of elixirs, almost none of them were priced lower than 2,000 spirit stones! In the meantime, a set of top-grade artifacts triggered intense bidding.
To know that a master's divine consciousness is limited, it can only increase slowly with the increase of cultivation. A master controlling a magic tool needs to consume divine consciousness, and a strong divine consciousness master can manipulate multiple magic tools at the same time to attack, which makes the attack power much greater!
Generally, a late-stage cultivator can only manipulate one top-grade defensive artifact and one top-grade offensive artifact. Although there are several top-grade artifacts in a set, the cultivator only needs to control one mother artifact to indirectly control several other child artifacts. In this way, although the amount of divine consciousness used does not increase, the attack power is equivalent to using an extreme-grade artifact.
The preciousness of visible sets of equipment!
The set of artifacts was finally bought by a cultivator for 8,000 spirit stones. The cultivator who got it had to mortgage many materials to the secret city at a low price because of this.
Having seen this far, Wang Chen had already gained a lot of experience and was about to leave, but the introduction of the next item caught his eye.
"Qianjun Sword, a weapon for the Body Refining Cultivator, cannot use magical powers, weighs 10,000 catties! The material contains yuan magnetic stone, can break through the five elements spell! Starting price: 4,000 spirit stones!"
Wow!
After hearing this introduction, the secret city suddenly became noisy.
"Li Daoyou, originally made of magnetite, isn't afraid of strong winds blowing out his tongue!"
"It's just that, although nobody has seen a primordial magnetic stone before, at least it should be something that only Golden Core or Primordial Infant stage seniors can use, right?"
……
Li Daoyou, the top auctioneer, looked slightly embarrassed and coughed, saying: "Indeed, a piece of yuan magnetic stone was incorporated into it, but the yuan magnetic stone is too small to be used for other purposes! At the same time, a small amount of heavy crystal stone was added to the Thousand Jun Sword, making it extremely heavy and tough!"
The above explanation made everyone barely acceptable, although the yuan magnetic stone is not used much, but at least it's a rare and strange stone that even yuan ying cultivators would look for, how could it appear here!
Barium crystal is also a strange ore, the name of which indicates that this stone is extremely heavy. A fist-sized piece of barite weighs as much as 100 kilograms. However, this is still considered low-grade barium crystal. It's said that mid-grade barium crystal can weigh up to 10,000 kilograms for a single fist-sized piece. Therefore, weapons made from barium crystal are often used by Body Refiners.
However, Tianguo's body repairmen are extremely rare, and no one needs them in the secret market! Suddenly, there was no one bidding, and the scene suddenly became much colder!
"The value of this yuan magnet is well known to everyone, and even a small piece is worth no less than 4,000 spirit stones. This treasure sword is worth 20,000 spirit stones, which is not expensive at all. And let alone the heavy crystal stone..." The cultivator on the stage was talking endlessly about the advantages of the Qianjun Sword, but none of the cultivators below the stage were moved.
No cultivator who can reach this step is a fool, the Thousand-Pound Sword is not bad, but no one would spend 4,000 spirit stones to buy something they can't use. Yuan Magnetic Stone is precious, and Heavy Crystal Stone is also extraordinary, maybe a few cultivators can afford it, I'm afraid that among the Qi Refining stage cultivators, there are only a handful who can afford it!
The Mr. Li on the stage continued to speak non-stop, but the atmosphere below was very dull. If this continues, the atmosphere will be gone and the prices of the items below will not be high. Thinking about it, beads of sweat appeared on Mr. Li's forehead.
Finally, no one bid, when Li decided to bring out the next item for auction, "Four Thousand Spirit Stones", a voice appeared from the corner like heavenly music. Li looked at the green-robed cultivator and shouted twice before striking the gavel.
Arriving at the bottom of the platform, Wang Chen took out a storage bag and bent down.
"Three thousand spiritual stones", the beautiful female cultivator took away the spiritual stone and then handed over the storage bag again! Next, Wang Chen handed over two more storage bags. These two storage bags were all the demon beasts that Wang Chen had hunted for half a year, and they were worth quite a bit. Although the value would be less when pawned to the secret city, Wang Chen couldn't help it!
She took over the storage bag, slightly surprised, and began to check it out. Some of the demon beast materials inside were from the later stages of Qi training, which was unexpected for a Qi training middle-stage cultivator like Wang Chen. However, she didn't show any doubt on her face. After finishing checking, she handed Wang Chen a new storage bag, replacing his old one.
"Eighteen hundred spirit stones!"
The price given by the female cultivator made Wang Chen slightly frown, as this material would never be less than 2,500 spirit stones in the Flowing Clouds Pavilion. However, since she had already quoted a price, Wang Chen wouldn't haggle too much and took out another stack of talismans! He handed them over, and after a moment, the female cultivator returned 500 spirit stones.
Wang Chen was even more puzzled, one hundred talismans were actually given seven hundred spirit stones, which is much higher than what the Flowing Clouds Auction House offered! However, after thinking about it for a moment, Wang Chen roughly understood.
Actually, the prices are not much different. It's just that Hei Wu Fang City is close to the Yao Shou mountain range, and most of the Yao Shou materials come from here, so the price won't be too high. Moreover, the secret market has a discount of one or two percent, which makes the low price understandable. However, Fu Yin is different. In this place, Fu Yin is a consumable item for fighting and hunting Yao Shou, with a huge demand, so the price has increased somewhat. In fact, most of Liang Guo's Fu Yin are consumed in the Yao Shou mountain range!
Wang Chen took a look at the Qianjun Sword in his storage bag and left without further delay.
;
