Ninth In the World

Panda Novel

The auction on the Small World Planet Square would last at least two days. However, Di Jiu didn’t plan on staying long. He would leave the auction house once he bought the Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit.

He trusted that the Spirit Stones on him would be enough. Before he left, Huan Mingzi had given him another 200 million high-grade Spirit Stones that he said they had been given by the Star Mesh Mountain and the Heaven Medicine Valley. Although Yue Qiongyu from the Star Mesh Mountain and Xin Qilun from the Heaven Medicine Valley actually owed him 100 million Spirit Stones each, Di Jiu hadn’t thought of getting them back. The price he had quoted was so high that everyone else didn’t take it seriously, or rather didn’t really plan on returning the 100 million Spirit Stones to him.

The Star Mesh Mountain and the Heaven Medicine Valley must have heard that he had gone to the Ax Overlord Palace and killed Third Hall Master Huang Chuanlun. Therefore, they had been worried that he would look for them and had pro-actively brought the Spirit Stones over. Now that they had, Di Jiu didn’t plan on returning them. 100 million meant a lot to a seven-star sect. If these two sects had actually delivered the Spirit Stones without being asked, they must have been scared.

The auction hall was a huge venue that had been temporarily built on the Small World Planet Square. Di Jiu only wanted to buy an Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit, so he naturally wouldn’t spend money on a cabin.

When he reached the auction house, the auction hadn’t started but the entrance tickets were nearly sold out. Luckily, he arrived early enough to buy a back-row ticket.

Di Jiu sat down and waited for nearly an hour. An elderly man walked up to the auction platform. Di Jiu had the equivalent of a level-eleven Spiritual Force, so he could instantly sense that this elderly man was a fourth-stage True Form cultivator.

It looked like some top-notch spirit herbs would be appearing at this auction. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent a fourth-stage True Form expert to host the auction.

“This auction was supposed to be hosted by the Pavilion Lord of the Prophecy Pavilion. However, the Prophecy Pavilion has had a lot to deal with lately, so it will be hosted by me. Many Daoists know me. I am Min Yongliang—an Elder from the Five Continent Pavilion. Spiritual herbs will take center-stage at this auction. Besides some extremely rare and precious level-eight spirit herbs, the rest are all level-nine spirit herbs. If somebody wishes to place a bid along the way, you can look for me directly. Let’s cut the crap—the auction will begin now.”

Min Yongliang was very brief. After he said a few words, he took out an exquisite jade box and lifted it. “The first auction item is a Marrow Essence Mushroom. I believe everyone knows the value of the Marrow Essence Mushroom. This is a spirit herb that can be used to refine the Quintessential Marrow Elixir. The starting bid for the Marrow Essence Mushroom is 100,000 high-grade Spirit Stones. Every incremental bid cannot be less than 5,000 high-grade Spirit Stones. The bidding starts now…”

“110,000…”

“120,000…”

Many people started competing over the Marrow Essence Mushroom. If Di Jiu hadn’t had a few Marrow Essence Mushrooms already, he would have placed a bid too. The Marrow Essence Mushroom was the main spirit herb for refining the Quintessential Marrow Elixir. The Quintessential Marrow Elixir was no ordinary elixir. It was a level-nine spirit elixir used for restoring Quintessential Essence.

This was happening because there was no grade-nine Elixir King on the Small Central World. If there had been one, Di Jiu believed that the price of the Marrow Essence Mushroom would have increased more than 10 times.

In the end, the Marrow Essence Mushroom was sold at the price of 260,000 high-grade Spirit Stones.

Although everybody knew that the Marrow Essence Mushroom was worth more than 260,000, they were aware that, without a level-nine Elixir King, the price of a level-nine spirit herb would take a big hit.

Min Yongliang was considerably satisfied with auctioning off a Marrow Essence Mushroom for 260,000. He opened his hands again, grabbed a second jade box out of nowhere and lifted it. “The second auction item is the Bloody Fruit, a level-nine spirit herb…”

Di Jiu decided to shut his eyes and refresh his spirits. He came from the Small Central Planet, so apart from any extremely rare and precious spirit herbs, he had loads of high-level spirit herbs on him.

The attendants of the auction were mostly people who hadn’t been to the Small World Planet or representatives of commercial buildings. Although Di Jiu didn’t care for these spirit herbs, the other bidders were competing over them fiercely. Almost every level-nine spirit herb that was presented was sold at several times its value.

“The next auction item is a qualification card that allows one to take part in the True Dominion Genius Tournament…”

After two to four hours of auctioning spirit herbs, something else was finally presented. Di Jiu didn’t plan on buying this qualification card. Huan Mingzi would let him be the representative of the Prophecy Pavilion, which meant that he already qualified to take part in the tournament…

Wrong! Di Jiu suddenly recalled something. The Prophecy Island had recently been facing some issues, so whether or not Huan Mingzi still qualified to represent the Prophecy Pavilion was questionable.

“Although this qualification card isn’t of much use in the Small Central World, you can use it to go to the True Dominion and widen your horizons, which is a good thing too. The starting price of this card is 100,000 high-grade Spirit Stones. Every incremental bid cannot be less than 10,000.”

“110,000!” Di Jiu placed a bid without hesitation when he realized that Huan Mingzi might not be able to take part in the True Dominion Tournament.

The qualification card for the True Dominion Genius Tournament did, in fact, have very little use in the Small Central World. Even the most formidable genius from the Small Central World might not enter the top 1,000 if they took part in such a Genius Tournament. The True Dominion Genius Tournament would only be worth it if one could enter the top 10. If one could not even enter the top 1,000, then what use would getting this qualification card be?

Thus, Di Jiu did not place a second bid.

When he saw that the price on the bidding panel didn’t change, Min Yongliang said reluctantly, “Since nobody else has placed a bid, I shall announce…”

“1,000,000!” a hoarse voice shouted before a new price appeared on the bidding panel.

Di Jiu and everybody else were puzzled. A spot to enter the True Dominion Genius Tournament wasn’t worth that much, because it would be useless even if one went. Just as Min Yongliang had said, with this jade card, the most one could do was widen one’s horizons at the True Dominion. That was all.

Would the True Dominion Geniuses lack a qualification card for the tournament? This man was bidding 1,000,000! Had his brain gotten damaged from the sheer number of Spirit Stones? Even if he wanted this qualification card, he could have bought it for less than 200,000 Spirit Stones.

“1,010,000!” Di Jiu increased his bid without hesitation. Since he was going to take part in the tournament, it would be more reassuring to obtain a qualification card first.

“2,000,000!” The hoarse voice now contained a hint of disdain.

“2,010,000!” Di Jiu didn’t even bother speaking. He directly wrote the number 2,010,000 on the bidding panel.

Only now did the people at the auction understand. Even 2,000,000 Spirit Stones would not be enough to get this qualification card, let alone 200,000.

…

The auction was starting to become intense. If something as worthless as a qualification card could actually cost a few million, could the Small Central World really have a genius? This was a competition between two people after all. Could they both be geniuses?

“10,000,000!” The hoarse voice was angry that Di Jiu kept increasing the price by 10,000 Spirit Stones. Thus, he slammed his hands down on the table and directly raised the price to 10,000,000. The voice then said with killing intent, “I’d like to see who will dare increase the bid further.”

Even though this was just a temporary auction, people who ignored the laws of the auction were reproached by the auction organizers. However, when Di Jiu noticed that Min Yongliang didn’t plan on reproaching the man at all, he realized that this was either because Min Yongliang knew that this guy was not to be trifled with, or because temporary auctions didn’t care if people went plain crazy. They only cared if they had enough Spirit Stones.

“10,010,000!” Di Jiu increased his bid again.

There were Spiritual Force restrictions all over the auction, so one couldn’t spy on others even if one had a level-ten Spiritual Force. Those Spiritual Force restrictions applied to everyone else, but not to Di Jiu. They were like mere decorations to him. His Spiritual Force permeated those Spiritual Force restriction shields easily and landed on the cultivator who was seething with anger.

The hoarse-voiced cultivator was actually just a bearded youth, which sounded unbelievable. The bearded man detected by Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was actually just a youth. Based on his Spiritual Force, Di Jiu was sure that this bearded cultivator was no more than 20 years old. He was probably around 16 years old.

However, this youth was already at the fifth-stage True Form.

Di Jiu gasped. He was sure that this youth had been possessed by somebody. Could one still take part in the True Dominion Genius Tournament even if they had been possessed? Di Jiu didn’t quite believe this. If one could still join the Genius Tournament while being possessed, then this loophole of the Genius Tournament was too big.

“I don’t care who you are. As long as you back out of the competition, I will let bygones be bygones. If you dare increase your bid further, then don’t blame me for being merciless.” The bearded youth was in the cabin. He only looked outside briefly, so he didn’t know who was competing with him over the qualification card.

As soon as he spoke, the bid on the screen became 11,000,000.

Di Jiu then increased the bid to 11,010,000. It didn’t bother him that his opponent didn’t know who he was. Would it matter even if he did? He wasn’t too bothered about competing with a possessed fifth-stage True Form expert after all.

The price on the bidding panel finally stopped jumping. The bearded youth who had threatened Di Jiu didn’t say anything else. Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force could clearly sense that he was meditating with his eyes closed, as if he wasn’t the one who had gone crazy just now.

All the cultivators in the auction hall exclaimed, impressed by Di Jiu’s guts. Although on the surface, these auction houses would not reveal any information about the competing bidders, if there were benefits to be reaped, anything could be revealed. After the auction ended, Di Jiu’s information would most likely be sold by the auction house to the man competing against him.

Min Yongliang was still expressionless. After the trading of the qualification card ended, he took out a box refined from an orange-colored warm piece of jade and said, “The next auction item is a level-nine spiritual fruit called the Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit.”

Di Jiu’s spirits lifted. The thing he needed had finally appeared. He had competed for the True Dominion Genius Tournament jade card out of convenience. The Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit was the thing he really wanted.

“The starting bid for the Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit is 1,000,000 high-grade Spirit Stones. Every incremental bid cannot be lower than 10,000. Let the bidding begin now…”

As soon as Min Yongliang’s voice trailed off, the price on the bidding panel began jumping rapidly.

Although the Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit had a higher value than any other level-nine spirit herb, it was not by much. Still, its price continued to soar. This was because it didn’t have to be turned into an elixir—it could be consumed directly.

In order to turn a level-nine spirit herb into a grade-nine Spirit Elixir, there had to exist a grade-nine Elixir King.

However, there was no grade-nine Elixir King in the Small Central World now, so naturally, the price of the Embodiment of Truth Fern Fruit, which didn’t need to be turned into an elixir, soared.