But Du Wanyi must have her own reasons for not saying anything; Ji Yuan couldn't possibly force her to speak.

So in the following days, Ji Yuan stayed at Du Wanyi's place, just waiting for the auction to begin.

Du Wanyi had originally wanted to take a day off and show Ji Yuan around Cyan Leaf City, but in the end, she was too busy with recent affairs and couldn't get the leave. This made her even more irritable.

But every day when she returned and spent time with Ji Yuan, she was still genuinely happy.

Several days passed in the blink of an eye.

Three days before the auction started, Cyan Leaf Auction House stopped accepting consignment items.

Two days before the event, the auction house published the list of items for this auction.

Ji Yuan's copy of the list was delivered by Du Wanyi right away. After delivering it, she rushed out again, and for the next three days—until the auction ended—she wouldn't be able to come back.

On duty at Shuiyitang, when it's idle it's really idle, but once things get busy, it's also truly busy.

Ji Yuan looked at the auction list in his hand.

"First item: Two stalks of Thousand-year Green Orchid Grass."

Ji Yuan: "???"

Well now, looks like this auction really was worth coming to!

Who would have thought the very first auction item would be Thousand-year Green Orchid Grass.

If he wasn't putting up that Foundation Establishment Pill for auction, even if Ji Yuan saw this Green Orchid Grass today, he wouldn't be able to afford it. But now...

Ji Yuan already considered it as being in his pocket.

"Second item: Low-grade Spiritual Artifact—Red Duster Sword."

"Third item: Tier Two Array—Spiritual Earth Mountain Array."

"..."

There were a total of five grand finale items to be auctioned.

But as for what they actually were, the auction house did not reveal them, leaving it as a mystery.

Ji Yuan knew about one of them, but had no idea what the other four were.

"I hear that those with slightly better connections can learn what the finale items are in advance, so they can prepare spirit stones ahead of time..."

Obviously, Ji Yuan had no such connections, but even just looking at the regular auction items, the more he looked, the more he liked them.

If only spirit stones weren't in short supply, he would have liked to buy all of them in one go.

Going through from beginning to end, aside from those first two stalks of Thousand-year Green Orchid Grass, Ji Yuan had his eye on two other things.

One was an earth treasure called "Red Marrow Thunder Jade."

For the [Talisman Room] to get to level 2, he'd need a piece of this.

Ji Yuan hadn't really understood this before, but now he happened to come across it at the auction... this Red Marrow Thunder Jade must be quite rare.

Since that's the case, he'd have to do his best to take it.

Hundred Treasures Tower at the Water Dragon Sect might not even have this stuff. If he missed it this time, who knows when the next opportunity would come.

The other item Ji Yuan fancied was something brought from the Spirit Control Sect up north.

It's called the "Spirit Beast Bag," pretty much their special skill at the Spirit Control Sect.

The one up for auction this time was even a tier two Spirit Beast Bag—as the name implies, it's used to store tier two spirit beasts.

Ji Yuan planned to buy it and keep it in reserve for the Big Toad.

In the future, if he ever needed to venture into some dangerous place—say, to kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator—he could bring the Big Toad along.

When the critical moment came, he'd let it out and launch a sneak attack!

That way, it could turn things around with one decisive blow.

Of course, all this was just what Ji Yuan wanted—whether he could actually buy them was another story.

The two remaining days went by even faster.

Ji Yuan did a bit of cultivation, and soon it was the day of the auction.

The auction started at chen-shi (7–9am), so Ji Yuan set out at mao-shi (5–7am).

But when he arrived at the auction house, he realized he was already running late; there were hardly any people left at the entrance.

He came forward, took out his token, and only a female cultivator approached to lead him in through the main doors, heading up to the third floor.

Ji Yuan had looked into this before: everyone seated in the first-floor hall was at the Qi Cultivation Stage.

The rooms on the second and third floors were occupied mostly by Foundation Establishment cultivators, or Qi Cultivation folks with some connections like Ji Yuan.

As for the eight private rooms on the fourth floor, those were said to be reserved for Golden Core Zhenren.

But for an auction of today's level, it clearly wouldn't attract any Golden Core Zhenren. The highest attendees this time would be Foundation Establishment cultivators at best.

Ji Yuan was assigned to room 306. Inside, tea, wine, and all kinds of fruits and snacks had been prepared.

From the third-floor window, he could directly see the main auction hall on the first floor, but people outside couldn't see what was happening inside.

The arrangements were extremely thorough.

For Ji Yuan, attending this auction wasn't much different from shopping at All Things Island. If something caught his eye, he'd just raise his bid. If it went over his budget, he'd drop it; if not, he'd try to take it.

He hadn't brought spirit stones this time, so his spending would have to rely on that Two-striped Foundation Establishment Pill.

The starting price at this auction was five hundred mid-grade spirit stones. Based on previous stats, Ji Yuan estimated the final price might end up around eight hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

So he set his own limit for this auction at seven hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

Any higher and he'd be unable to pay.

The first item up—those two stalks of Thousand-year Green Orchid Grass—was taken by Ji Yuan for a price of 160 mid-grade spirit stones.

The Red Marrow Thunder Jade he was aiming for also ended up in his hands, costing him a full 49 mid-grade spirit stones.

Luckily, not too many people competed for this one, and the starting bid was only 40 mid-grade spirit stones.

Ji Yuan was quite satisfied with that.

The last item, the tier two Spirit Beast Bag, had a lot more interested parties—after all, it could hold living creatures, and even tier two spirit beasts.

The starting bid was set at 100 mid-grade spirit stones.

But in just a short while, the price had already climbed to 300.

After that, the bidding gradually slowed down. Ji Yuan only began bidding after the price hit 350, so there were just him and two other Foundation Establishment cultivators competing at the end.

Ji Yuan had a total of 700 mid-grade spirit stones. After buying the two previous items, he was left with 490, so he could bid without any worries.

And since the grand finale auction hadn't started yet, the other two Foundation Establishment cultivators didn't dare go all out with their bidding.

In the end, Ji Yuan successfully won the Spirit Beast Bag for the price of 385 mid-grade spirit stones.

For the first time, he really got a taste of what it means to spend money like water. Mm... these 385 spirit stones definitely count toward the Big Toad. When they get back, it'll have to go out and hunt demon beasts.

Until it pays off its indenture, no more spirit pig!

With everything he wanted already secured, Ji Yuan switched to just watching the fun.

With the tier two Spirit Beast Bag auctioned off, the grand finale phase of the auction finally arrived.

But what Ji Yuan didn't expect was that the very first finale item... was actually a talisman treasure!

——

(I really don't know how to pad out auction scenes, so these will always be done in just a few lines—rest assured!)

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