Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Ancient Tower Master
The figure who arrived walking on air was a handsome man of about twenty-three or twenty-four. He clasped his hands to the assembled guests from all sides and said, “I am Gu Huaiyu, the master of Tianfang Tower in the Tianfeng Empire. I will be presiding over this Tianfang Tower auction. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for coming.”
“The Master of Gu truly lives up to his reputation—a dragon among men. He’s only twenty-three and already leads Tianfang Tower.”
“So that’s Master Gu? He’s so young!”
“I’ve heard that Master Gu’s cultivation has reached the peak of the Yuanfa Realm. He’s just one step away from condensing his Yuan Core.”
The moment Gu Huaiyu appeared, the leaders and elders of various factions seated in the gold, silver, and bronze sections began discussing him in hushed tones. Even among the notables in the 108 floating boats, 36 pavilions, and 12 towers—royals, nobles, and aristocrats of Tianfeng—there was a low buzz of conversation.
Though Master Gu was only at the peak of the Yuanfa Realm, as the head of a division of the Moon-Inviting Sect, it was said that he possessed a top-tier low-grade magical treasure: the Nine-Dragon Bell. Legend had it that nine ferocious beast souls, each with dragon blood, were sealed within the bell. When fully activated, the bell could manifest nine dragon beasts, forming a lethal array—terrifying enough that even those below the Earth rank would face near-certain death if caught within it.
Thus, Master Gu Huaiyu’s strength ranked among the very highest in the Tianfeng Empire. With him presiding over this auction, no faction dared cause trouble—his mere presence was enough to keep all in line.
“Just a pretty boy!” snorted Yi Kuang at the sight of Gu Huaiyu’s striking looks, refined bearing, and formidable power, all of which captivated the entire assembly as soon as he appeared.
“Exactly!” echoed Yi Feng, standing close by.
Yi Shan, Yi Li, and Yi Hong remained silent, but Yi Tian could sense a battle intent radiating from them—a desire to challenge Gu Huaiyu.
Yi Tian himself couldn’t help but feel a measure of surprise at how young and powerful this master was. At only twenty-three or twenty-four, he had already broken through to the peak of the Yuanfa Realm—a true prodigy, a once-in-a-millennium genius.
During his days in the capital, Yi Tian had learned a few things: at present, in the Tianfeng Empire, only seven individuals under twenty-five had broken through to the Human rank. These were the geniuses of the major factions and the imperial family, known as the Seven Stars of Tianfeng.
Yet Gu Huaiyu, master of Tianfang Tower, at just twenty-four, had already reached the pinnacle of Yuanfa and was poised at any moment to step into the Yuan Core stage. His talent was simply astonishing. Tianfang Tower was wealthy and powerful, but reaching the Yuanfa Realm required more than resources alone; it demanded great insight and opportunity. Without these, one might languish at the Yuan Gang stage for a lifetime.
“Enough, let us begin the auction in earnest!”
Gu Huaiyu’s voice was not loud, yet it carried across the entire small lake of Tianfang Tower and its surroundings.
Clap! Clap!
He gently clapped his hands.
In the next instant, a beautiful woman walked across the air from afar, carrying a jade tray covered with a silk cloth.
The fact that even a maid was a Human-rank cultivator startled many in the crowd who had never witnessed such a spectacle. Tianfang Tower’s extravagance was truly staggering—to have a Human-rank expert serve as a mere attendant.
Gu Huaiyu lifted the silk covering.
Upon the jade tray lay a talisman, glimmering with a faint treasure light and emanating a mysterious, powerful aura.
“The first item for auction is a mid-grade treasure talisman. It contains a Yuan technique of an Earth-rank master—the Thousand Net Seal—at fifty to sixty percent of its original power. The starting bid is one hundred thousand high-grade Yuan stones.”
No sooner had Gu Huaiyu spoken than the assembly of experts and factions erupted in shock. None had expected a mid-grade treasure talisman to appear at this auction.
The surprise was immense. Each mid-grade treasure talisman was incredibly rare—there might not be many even in the imperial treasury. Such a talisman could easily kill a Human-rank expert at the Yuan Core level. Whenever one appeared, fierce bidding would break out among all factions.
What’s more, this time, the item’s price was set in high-grade Yuan stones, not Yuan crystals as would usually be the case for such rare treasures. Only in rare circumstances, when a sect desperately needed Yuan stones, would treasures be auctioned off in this way to amass huge reserves for the sect’s needs.
“One hundred and one thousand!”
At that moment, an aged voice called out from one of the floating boats.
Despite the frenzy surrounding the talisman, one hundred thousand high-grade Yuan stones was an immense fortune. None of the guests in the gold, silver, or bronze sections dared make a bid.
“One hundred and two thousand!”
“One hundred and three thousand…”
Thus, the price for the mid-grade treasure talisman slowly crept upward. For many factions, a sum of over a hundred thousand high-grade Yuan stones equated to over a billion low-grade stones, a fortune not easily mustered.
The experts aboard the floating boats represented the top powers from each province of the Tianfeng Empire, but even they bid with caution.
“One hundred and twenty thousand!”
From one of the waterside pavilions, someone drove the price up by ten thousand at once.
Instantly, the bidding on the boats fell silent—such extravagance was intimidating.
“One hundred and thirty thousand!”
A bid rang out from another pavilion.
“One hundred and forty thousand!” “One hundred and fifty thousand!” “One hundred and sixty thousand!”
The thirty-six pavilions bid back and forth, and even the twelve towers joined in. Under such competition, the price of the talisman soared, finally reaching three hundred thirty thousand high-grade Yuan stones before being claimed by a bidder from one of the towers.
Witnessing this, Yi Tian and his companions could not help but feel a bit surprised. They had underestimated the deep foundations of these powers, some of which had endured for hundreds or even thousands of years. Even though Yi Tian’s tribe had discovered a large Yuan vein mine, aside from a few thousand Yuan crystals, their reserves of Yuan stones could hardly compare to the centuries of accumulation of these great factions.
Fortunately, in the remainder of the auction, there were no treasures as rare as the mid-grade talisman.
There were items such as the lower-grade Frenzy Pill, the supreme spiritual instrument Mandarin Bell, and the supreme spiritual herb Dragonbone Grass.
Each item stirred excitement throughout the auction hall. Factions in the gold, silver, and bronze sections bid energetically, and every lot fetched a hefty price.
For such ordinary items, Yi Tian and his group were uninterested; they were of little use to Human-rank experts and not worth competing for or spending Yuan stones on.
“The thirty-first lot in today’s auction is a storage ring from the Device Sect, with an interior space of a thousand feet. The starting bid is five thousand high-grade Yuan stones!”
At the announcement of the storage ring, Yi Tian focused his attention.
A storage ring with a space of a thousand feet was immense—capable of holding a small mountain, a true rarity among storage rings. An ordinary ring held only forty or fifty feet, or, at most, a few hundred feet. Rings of a thousand feet were seldom seen, perhaps once in several years.
When Yi Tian and his group first arrived in the capital, their priority was to trade their storage pouches for rings. The smallest cost hundreds of thousands of low-grade Yuan stones for a space of a hundred feet; their own had cost over five million low-grade Yuan stones.
A ring with a thousand feet of space was a true treasure. For experts like Yi Tian, the larger the ring, the better—it provided security while traveling or cultivating, and should a great opportunity arise that required a vast space, they wouldn’t have to miss out for lack of capacity.
Yi Tian was determined to win this storage ring.
For the first time, he joined the bidding, competing with other factions from the floating boats and pavilions.
In the end, Yi Tian spent nine thousand high-grade Yuan stones to secure the thousand-foot storage ring.
Yi Feng and the others also bid on several items—some pills, some talismans. The price of lower-grade treasure talismans was not high, generally around six or seven hundred thousand low-grade Yuan stones, with better quality fetching higher prices.