"The 'Yue Xiao Jue' is a cultivation method passed down by a Yuan Ying period cultivator, and it's absolutely one of the top-tier earth-attribute techniques in the Starry Sea! Although I only have the incantation for the early stages of Yuan Ying here, it's still extremely valuable. It's not something that an ordinary Jie Dan initial stage cultivator can afford!" The short and stout cultivator quivered with fat on his face, looking at Zhao Di with a slanted gaze, his expression clearly showing that he didn't believe Zhao Di was a potential customer.

  It's another incomplete and imperfect technique, even if you buy it, the use is extremely small. You can't just start from scratch to cultivate this technique for the sake of Yuanying, and then after painstakingly condensing Yuanying, you have to change techniques again! Although his lifespan is still long, he can't withstand such torture! Zhao thought so, and simply didn't even ask about the price, smiled, and left, walking towards another stone table.

  The short and fat cultivator still thought that Zhao Di was indeed a poor and ordinary Jiedan stage cultivator, so he didn't dare to ask for directions. After Zhao Di left, he even coldly laughed twice at his back.

  With Zhao Di's powerful divine sense, he naturally detected the small movements of the short and stout monk behind him with clarity. He just smiled slightly in self-mockery and didn't mind it at all.

  Zhao Di circled around the stone table where the treasures were displayed, and although he saw many good treasures, either they were slightly inferior or not very useful, or the prices were too high. He was also unwilling to take out so many spirit stones, lest he attract attention. Of course, this was because these treasures were not what he urgently needed; otherwise, Zhao Di would have taken some risks and wouldn't have let them go easily!

  It's still early now, and many more Foundation Establishment cultivators will come to set up stalls and exchange treasures. Zhao Di stood with his hands clasped behind his back in a secluded corner of the grand hall, quietly waiting.

  The closer it gets to the auction, the higher the chance of getting good stuff with Ling Stone.

  This is because many cultivators have set their sights on certain treasures at the auction, and naturally need to prepare more spirit stones, lest they let the treasures fall into someone else's hands.

  Although generally speaking, the items to be auctioned at the auction are relatively confidential, there are always some well-informed monks who, through various channels, have inquired about some news and know that they may have their own urgent treasures. Just like Zhao Dizheng Guangda Master learned that a piece of agate leaf might be taken out for public auction.

  As expected, on the eve of the auction, many monks took out their treasured items to exchange for spirit stones. Some monks who had originally only been willing to trade goods for goods were now willing to exchange them for a large amount of spirit stones. Meanwhile, some monks whose goods had been priced too high and hadn't sold yet also proactively lowered their prices, eager to seize this last opportunity to exchange these items that weren't the most important to them for a substantial amount of spirit stones.

  On this day, many monks who didn't have high hopes for the auction would usually exchange some useful treasures. It was only then that the trading became truly lively. There were even a few monks who took out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of spirit stones. Those Foundation Establishment stage cultivators who were struggling financially found it difficult to participate in this grand event.

  Zhao Di also took advantage of this opportunity and made a few decisive moves to buy several quite good materials for making magic weapons.

  In this occasion where many wealthy monks showed off their wealth, the "brilliance" of his few transactions was completely overshadowed, so there is no need to worry about causing unnecessary trouble.

  The second one, Zhao Di, who was wearing a green mask, arrived early at the auction site on the third floor of Xingchen Pavilion.

  At the entrance of the third floor, two foreign sea merchant alliance's Jiedan period attendants stood guard. One of them was a middle-aged fat man who had been seen by Zhao Di near the transmission array. As long as they saw that the visitor was a Jiedan period cultivator, they would not ask any questions and would proactively hand over a jade card with several numbers written on it, then smile and welcome them into the grand hall behind them.

  In this huge hall of thousands of square meters, more than half of the space is neatly and sparsely arranged with 700 or 800 tea tables. Next to each tea table is a comfortable animal skin armchair. In front of these hundreds of tables and chairs is a stone platform tens of meters high, which appears to be the position where the host of this auction is located.

  In the grand hall, there were nearly a hundred slender girls wearing uniform light red long dresses, who led each of the Condensation Period cultivators entering the grand hall to their seats and immediately poured tea and water for them, being extremely attentive.

  At this time, there were still more than two hours before the auction, and the monks who had arrived at the Grand Hall to sit down were few. Zhao Di casually chose a slightly biased position to sit down, and immediately a 15- or 16-year-old girl poured a cup of spiritual tea and placed it on the tea table in front of Zhao Di, then bowed and retreated.

  Zhao Di took a glance at these girls, most of whom were in the middle to high stages of Qi Refining, but each and every one of them had slender figures and above-average looks. Moreover, this large hall was also shrouded by a special restrictive formation that targeted spiritual awareness, causing the cultivators' spiritual awareness to wander only within the hall. It seemed that the Outer Sea Merchant Alliance had made quite some thoughtful arrangements for this auction targeting Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

  Zhao sat quietly in this corner, just happened to be intentionally or unintentionally facing the entrance of the main hall. Any monk who entered this room could not escape his eyes behind the mask.

  "It's another late-stage Jiedan cultivator!" Zhao Di said to himself in his heart.

  Less than half a time before the auction, there were already two or three hundred cultivators sitting in the main hall. All of these people had achieved the Foundation Establishment stage, and more than ten of them were even in the later stages of Foundation Establishment!

  Another monk with a slightly higher and longer neck entered the grand hall, and Zhao Di's eyebrows furrowed slightly. Although this slender monk was only in the middle stage of his foundation-building cultivation, he gave off a very unusual and eerie feeling, as if he were extremely dangerous. This feeling did not manifest itself even among those monks who had reached the later stages of their foundation-building cultivation. Could it be that this person had cultivated some sort of special technique?

  Zhao Di just thought for a moment, seeing that the person sat down at a relatively far position from himself, and didn't pay much attention to it, but secretly remembered the person's physical characteristics in his heart.

  Soon more masters entered the grand hall.

  Less than half an hour later, nearly four hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators had taken their seats in the grand hall, and the auction was about to begin!

  Many monks came in pairs, whispering to each other or communicating through gestures. A few monks were talking loudly or waving greetings. For a moment, the grand hall was quite lively.

  For over a hundred years since Zhao Di entered the Xianxia world, he had only seen a handful of Jiedan stage cultivators. This time, however, he was sitting in the same hall as hundreds of senior Jiedan cultivators. It seemed that one could only come into contact with a corresponding group after reaching a certain level of cultivation.

  Looking back on those years when he was in Tai Xu Men, the elders of the Condensing Dan period were legendary figures, and he had never been fortunate enough to see them. Now, these hundreds of high-ranking Dan cultivators gathered together, with a great difference between past and present, which made him feel quite emotional.

  Zhao quickly stopped reminiscing about the past, because four monks without masks entered the main hall and stood directly on the stone platform at the front of the main hall.

  These four cultivators, three of whom were in the later stages of forming their elixir, consisted of two elderly men and one younger man. The fourth was a woman dressed in black, who appeared to be twenty-five or twenty-six years old and was at the middle stage of forming her elixir.

  These two old men in the late stage of Jiedan, one with a Taoist hair bun and holding a Buddhist duster, is obviously an out-of-the-world Taoist. The other old man was thin and dry, with a faint layer of black air on his forehead, it's clear at a glance that he is a person from the Demon Gate.

  These people all stood silently around the young man, slightly surrounding him. Among them, surprisingly, was a youth who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old as the main figure.

  The young man wore a white robe and swept his gaze over the crowd seated below the platform. The grand hall suddenly fell silent.

  Zhao Di was swept by the young man's gaze, and he only felt that the young man's eyes were cold and sharp, not revealing any flaws, but also showing a sense of majesty, extremely mature, and completely inconsistent with his youthful appearance. It seems that this person is either due to his cultivation method or has taken age-halting pills such as Age-Halting Dan in his youth, which allowed him to maintain such a young face. With his level of cultivation, he must be hundreds of years old in reality.

  The young man nodded in satisfaction as the crowd quieted down, and said in a loud voice: "I am Yuan Ziyun, this is Wu Chen Daozhang, this is Chu Hanshi Daoyou, and this is Ling Lingshenzi. The four of us are the main managers of the Outer Sea Merchant Alliance responsible for this auction. I suppose many fellow Taoists present have already recognized us." After introducing his group with an air of seniority, the young man continued: "I won't say much more nonsense. The rules of the auction are understood by all fellow Taoists - the highest bidder wins! If you don't have enough spirit stones, you can also put up some treasures as collateral, but their value needs to be recognized by us four. Generally speaking, it's about 90% of the market price."

  The young man paused, looking at the crowd below, and revealed a slightly proud smile, saying: "This auction will feature three finale treasures, each of which is worth an astronomical figure to ordinary Yuan Ying initial stage cultivators, let alone us Jie Dan stage cultivators! Hehe, some well-informed fellow daoists must have already known what I'm talking about, and even received the entrustment of the sect's seniors to grab these treasures at all costs. I wish you all a successful bid! I believe you've all been waiting impatiently, so let's get started with the auction!"

  The young man finished speaking and suddenly flashed to one side of the stone platform, smiling as he looked down at those below.

  The black-clothed woman named Ling Xianzi stepped forward a few steps, and with a light movement, she took down a storage bag from her waist. With a flip of her jade hand, a red wooden box appeared in her palm. She gently opened the box and took out an oval-shaped red fruit that was over two inches long, holding it up for everyone to see.

  This fruit is bright red all over, emitting a faint sweet fragrance while also accompanied by an astonishing amount of heat.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, the first item up for auction is a mature Dragon Flame Fruit. This fruit can be consumed raw or used in medicine to refine elixirs. For those who cultivate fire-attribute techniques, it's an excellent spiritual medicine. I believe many of you are more familiar with its effects than I am, so I won't introduce it further. The base price is 8,000 Spirit Stones, and each bid increase will be 500 Spirit Stones. Please place your bids, fellow Taoists!"

  The woman's voice was not loud, but it clearly entered the ears of every cultivator. Suddenly, a black-robed cultivator in the middle of the Foundation Establishment stage raised his jade token and shouted: "I bid 9,000 spirit stones!"

  "9,500 Spirit Stones!" A loud and clear voice of a young man rang out a moment later.

  "Ten thousand spirit stones!" Not far from Zhao Di, a female cultivator with a fiery figure and wearing a tight-fitting long dress also raised the jade plate in her hand to bid. Her voice was exceptionally calm, giving people a feeling of being out of this world. Although her face was covered by a green mask, her voice gave Zhao Di a fresh and elegant first impression.

  "Ten thousand and five hundred spirit stones!" The loud voice of the man rang out once again.

  "Eleven thousand spirit stones!" The black-robed cultivator who had made the first bid was unwilling to back down.

  "15,000 spirit stones!" The female cultivator still spoke in a calm and collected tone, directly raising the price by nearly half.

  She raised the price by such a large margin all of a sudden, it seems that this woman is determined to get this treasure.

  The two male bidders who had previously called out prices cast admiring glances at the woman but did not continue bidding.

  "15,000 spirit stones! Is there another fellow daoist who would like to bid?" The black-clothed woman on the stone platform asked. After a few breaths, seeing no one else bidding, she smiled and said: "15,000 spirit stones, deal! Congratulations to fellow daoist 153. Fellow daoist, will you pay with spirit stones now to receive the treasure, or wait until the auction ends and exchange it for a jade token?"

  "Let's wait until the auction is over, I still have some treasures in mind." The voluptuous female cultivator responded.

  "Alright! Let's not waste any more time, let's move on to the next treasure!" The black-clothed woman said with a hint of a smile, her hand already holding an additional dark yellow mineral stone the size of a fist. "This is a top-quality material for refining earth-attribute artifacts - Shoushan jade, weighing in at 2 jin and 7 liang. The starting price is 10,000 spirit stones, with each bid increase being 500 spirit stones. Please place your bids, fellow daoists!"

  Shoushan jade, this renowned material for refining treasures, is so well-known that even a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator who doesn't know much about refining equipment would be familiar with it. So the woman didn't introduce it further, only mentioning its quantity and price before letting everyone start bidding.

  Shoushan Yu is an excellent material for refining powerful earth-attribute magic treasures. Zhao Di's heart stirred slightly, and if he were to buy this treasure, combining it with a few other top-notch earth-attribute materials, he might be able to refine a "Yushan Yin"-like magic treasure. Under the premise of purely pursuing attack power, its might could also be extremely formidable!

  Even Lian Zhaodi, who was used to doing things in a straightforward manner, was moved by this, let alone those cultivators who specialized in earth-attribute surname techniques. Immediately, several people loudly bid on it.

  "Eleven thousand spirit stones!"

  11,500!

  ……

  （）