Sword Sect Outer Sect

Chapter 75 Concealing One's Edge and Waiting for the Right Moment (Combined)

However, he quickly dismissed the idea himself.

On the day the Zhenshan Seal fell into the swamp, he was seriously injured and had no mind to search for it.

The Mountain-Suppressing Seal has been submerged in the swamp.

"It must just be a coincidence..."

"I believe you are all familiar with the renowned Zhenshan Seal."

Luo Sheng said in a relaxed tone: "The first item up for auction today is a replica of this Zhenshan Seal."

Counterfeit products actually offer very good value for money.

It possesses the effects of a weakened and simplified version of the genuine article, but it allows cultivators to activate it even when their cultivation level is low.

Moreover, the price won't be too high.

"It's okay if you don't know, I'll give you a brief introduction..."

It was roughly described, and it was exactly the same as the one that Song Yan saw Wang Xi use in the secret realm that day.

Luo Sheng's explanation was clear and concise.

Her words were so enticing that even Song Yan was somewhat tempted.

"Alright, the starting price is sixty spirit stones, and each bid must be at least ten spirit stones higher."

"Everyone, let's get started."

A gentle tap of the jade hammer signaled the official start of the bidding process.

"seventy."

Someone made a bid; the voice was calm, and the words were brief.

"I'll offer eighty spirit stones!"

The replica of the Zhenshan Seal only requires the late stage of Qi Refining to be used normally. In the eyes of those young masters who have no shortage of spirit stones, it is very worthwhile to bid one or two hundred spirit stones to buy it.

Therefore, the bidding was incessant.

The starting price is low, mainly to encourage more people to bid.

"One hundred spirit stones."

"two hundred."

The person who made the first bid announced this number, instantly doubling the price.

The hall immediately fell silent.

The price of two hundred spirit stones is acceptable, with a slight premium, but if it were to go any higher, it wouldn't be worth it.

"Boom..."

"Boom..."

"Boom..."

"Congratulations to this fellow Daoist for winning the first item of the day."

"Fellow Daoist may leave at any time and go to the side hall. After paying with spirit stones, you can take your items."

"The second item up for auction is the Qingling Pill."

"This pill should be familiar to those of you who cultivate the Wood Element Technique."

"It contains pure spiritual energy, and after consumption, it can slightly improve the efficiency of the Wood Element Technique in absorbing spiritual energy for a short period of time."

"The Qingling Pills auctioned this time consist of seven pills per bottle, and a set of three bottles."

"This is the only group available today."

"The starting bid is one hundred spirit stones, and each bid must be at least five spirit stones higher."

……

The sound of bidding echoed throughout the venue.

Various items, including all sorts of magical objects, were brought to the stage one by one. And one by one, they were snapped up.

Song Yan simply treated the banquet as a spectacle to broaden his horizons.

Sometimes, people in the surrounding private rooms would shout out incredibly outrageous numbers of spirit stones, leaving everyone speechless.

"As expected of a VIP in a deluxe private room..."

He paid little attention to the later auction items; he had heard Luo Sheng's sales pitches so many times that he was no longer bothered by them.

He came here solely to acquire the Qi-Boosting Pill and the Ren-Water Spirit Transformation Talisman.

Today, Song Yan still has a lot of confidence.

Although they had already spent most of their spirit stones before exploring the Foundation Establishment Cave together.

In just one trip through the world depicted in the painting, I obtained eight mid-grade spirit stones.

Song Yan sold two of them at almost the highest price on the black market at the time, exchanging them for more than 290 low-grade spirit stones.

As long as these two items aren't ridiculously expensive, I can easily afford them myself.

If all else fails, you can use mid-grade spirit stones to offset the cost.

While he was pondering, the slender female cultivator brought over a light blue talisman.

"The next item up for auction is quite interesting."

Luo Sheng added a comment.

Song Yan felt a pang of panic; he knew that once this person opened his mouth, he would probably have to spend an extra amount of spirit stones.

Heart is bleeding.

"A first-grade superior talisman, the Ren Water Transformation Talisman."

"The talisman paper is made from the spiritual algae of the cold pool, and the essence blood of the first-level demon beast, the Water Frost Toad, is mixed with the spiritual dew under the moon to make talisman ink for drawing the talisman patterns."

“The center is decorated with a water-retaining pattern, flanked by a fire-sealing spell and a spirit-dispersing seal.”

"Once activated, it can suppress about 40% of the fire elemental energy within a radius of 15 zhang for 30 breaths."

Forty percent?

Song Yan's heart stirred.

In retrospect, Wan Songran used the Yi Wood Severing Spirit Talisman that day, which almost completely blocked the earth elemental spiritual energy within the swamp pool.

Judging from the efficiency of Qi Refining stage cultivators in mobilizing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the earth element spiritual energy has decreased by at least 60% to 70%.

Moreover, the effective range of that talisman on that day should have been slightly larger than fifteen zhang.

If that's the case, then the grade of that talisman is probably even higher than that of the Ren Water Transformation Talisman.

"Although this talisman has no direct offensive effect, if it is set up in advance to ambush and kill some fire-elemental demonic beasts, the effect is excellent."

Luo Sheng offered a suggestion, hinting at the talisman's effects.

By the way, I'd also like to tell those of you who are interested.

The talismans are legitimate talismans, but how to use them is not something their auction house can control.

"The starting bid is fifty spirit stones, and each bid must be at least five spirit stones higher."

"Boom."

With a clang of the gavel, the bidding began.

Song Yan immediately offered a price: "Fifty-five."

Sixty spirit stones.

"..."

Song Yan only made one bid, and then stopped bidding and waited quietly.

Two hundred and seventy-five.

"..."

Once the number 275 was announced, most people stopped bidding.

This price is already very high; unless there is a special purpose, most people wouldn't consider it.

Two hundred and eighty.

If Song Yan doesn't use mid-grade spirit stones as collateral, he can currently access 362 low-grade spirit stones.

The price of Qi-replenishing pills won't be very high. If they're auctioned by the bottle, they'll fetch at most forty or fifty spirit stones per bottle.

If you can get the Ren Water Transformation Talisman for under 300, then you might be lucky enough to win a bottle of Qi-replenishing Pills.

Two hundred and ninety.

Ultimately, the person bidding against him was a handsome young man with striking eyebrows and bright eyes.

He was sitting not far from Song Yan.

Seeing that Song Yan was looking at him, he actually grinned and nodded at him to show his friendliness.

"..."

"Three hundred spirit stones."

Song Yan was determined to win.

The young man seemed slightly disappointed, as he appeared to be short of funds, and ultimately gave up bidding.

With no bidders, the deal was finalized.

"Good! Congratulations to this fellow Daoist on winning the treasure talisman. You can come to the back office to complete the transaction at any time."

Since there was still some time before the Qi-replenishing pill was ready, Song Yan decided to get the talisman first before returning to the auction house.

The auction mechanism here is very mature, and the transaction went very smoothly.

Upon obtaining the treasure talisman, faint blue ripples appeared on its surface.

Song Yan acquired it and returned to the auction room to take his seat.

The subsequent auction proceeded smoothly, but unfortunately, only three sets of Qi-replenishing pills were auctioned, and Song Yan ultimately won one set for 125 spirit stones.

The transaction was settled with a mid-grade spirit stone as payment.

In just one day, money was spent like water.

At this moment, he only had five mid-grade spirit stones and sixty-two low-grade spirit stones left in his Qiankun bag.

"These spirit stones are used up too quickly."

After his trip to the Foundation Building Cave ended, he thought he had become quite wealthy.

You can appear rich, but in reality, you can become poor in an instant.

The auction proceeded smoothly, and there were no disruptive incidents as Song Yan had imagined.

Come to think of it, this auction is backed by the Dongyuan Sect.

What undercurrents were swirling beneath the surface was none of Song Yan's concern.

He's content as long as he gets what he wants safely and securely.

Having obtained what he desired, Song Yan quietly waited for the auction to end. Then, he slowly left the venue with the crowd.

He noticed that there were two people who looked like rogue cultivators following a cultivator at a distance.

The cultivator was dressed in standard attire and looked very familiar; he must be a cultivator from a nearby small sect.

When Song Yan came to her senses, the others had already disappeared.

"..."

I couldn't help but sigh; I fear someone is going to die.

It's unclear whether the one who was being followed died, or one of the two rogue cultivators.

The Dongyuan Sect has a great reputation and protects its disciples very well.

These dark aspects of the cultivation world are only now beginning to truly unfold before Song Yan's eyes.

But he didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

The dead won't be held accountable, right?

……

This day.

Dan Zifeng strode towards the mission hall.

Zhu Huo encountered some minor bottlenecks in his cultivation of the entire chapter. He had previously encountered the Indigo Fire Flower at the auction house, but he had not been able to acquire it.

Thinking of that sunny and cheerful smile on Bamo Peak, Shan Zifeng wished he could skin him alive.

Unfortunately, he only had schemes and tricks, but no real power.

Today is the deadline he has set for accepting the mission in the past three months.

Inner disciples are exempt from miscellaneous duties.

However, a mission from the Mission Hall still needs to be completed every now and then.

"Um……"

Summary of each task appeared faintly on the jade wall of the main hall.

Shan Zifeng wanted to find the simplest task that could be completed to save time.

Nowadays, even ordinary spiritual resources that one desires can be obtained through some less-than-proper means.

Saving time by going out is what's important.

Some tasks are quite time-consuming.

For example, collecting materials from monsters.

If there is no similar collection beforehand, then you need to search the whole world for traces of monsters to complete the task.

However, among the supplies he embezzled and confiscated were a lot of miscellaneous materials.

If these "junk" items can be used to complete the task, then of course we would be very happy to have them.

However, the probability of this happening is too low, and it obviously requires a certain amount of luck.

Escorting goods is also a common time-saving and labor-saving task if you want to save time.

"Oh?"

A summary of the task suddenly appeared on the jade disc.

"Escorting the sacred artifacts, at the foot of Nanya Mountain."

"Requires a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator to accept this task."

"The mission reward is..."

"Forging Fire Pill!"

Shan Zifeng was startled.

A set of Forging Pills is not cheap.

He made a lot of money by embezzling spiritual resources and selling spiritual stones.

However, this Fire Forging Pill cannot be taken for daily cultivation.

It is considered one of the more outstanding spiritual items among those used for fire-element cultivation.

but……

Shan Zifeng frowned.

"What a coincidence..."

It just so happens that I came to the mission hall today.

There just happened to be such a simple escort mission.

The reward turned out to be the cultivation pills he needed.

"..."

Dan Zifeng remained expressionless, his divine sense seemingly unintentionally sweeping across the surroundings.

I don't think I've offended any inner disciples.

As for the outer sect...

At this moment, most of the outer disciples in the hall were unfamiliar to him, and their cultivation level was only at the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining.

"..."

After a moment's thought, he stepped forward and accepted the task.

The task was issued by an outer sect cultivator named "Tong Chuping".

The information he left behind was comprehensive and detailed.

"The price of the Forging Pill is quite high. If it is used as a reward, then the treasures escorted on this trip should not be some scrap metal."

"An outer sect cultivator, yet he comes from a wealthy family."

Even Shan Zifeng himself didn't realize it.

Driven by evil thoughts, his focus gradually shifted from whether there was a problem with the mission to another direction.

Among the outer disciples, there are indeed many with abundant spiritual talent.

However, such cultivators usually have cultivator relatives.

It takes generations of accumulation to have it.

Dan Zifeng rubbed his chin, pondering the possibility of extracting resources from this outer sect cultivator.

When accepting a task, the client does not need to appear in person.

For missions like escorting treasures, the items to be escorted can be stored in the mission hall in advance.

However, if the person who issued the task is a cultivator from the sect, the task reward still needs to be handed over in person when the task is completed.

Having accepted the mission, Shan Zifeng left the mission hall.

"..."

Inside the mission hall, everything was as usual.

About half a day has passed.

Wearing a human skin mask, Song Yan slowly walked out of the crowd and headed out of the sect.

He activated the Hidden Sword Spirit Convergence technique, and at this moment, his aura was only at the level of the fourth level of Qi Refining.

When to complete the task is up to Shan Zifeng himself, and it won't take too long.

Song Yan still has a lot to do.

The fastest route from the sect to and from the vicinity of Nanya Mountain is this one, which passes through several important towns.

As planned, he arrived ahead of time near a small town.

This important town, like Linxi County, is a place where cultivators are prohibited from flying.

However, to prevent any accidents, he still prepared an anti-air formation.

Even if Shan Zifeng doesn't choose to go to Nanya from here because of some things, he will still pass through here on his way back to the sect.

"call--"

Be prepared for everything.

Song Yan concealed himself in the bushes of the forest. He took a deep breath and slowly activated the Hidden Sword Spirit Concealment Technique.

He minimized his spiritual energy fluctuations.

Apart from his faint breathing, he looked like a lifelike sculpture.

Spiritual power, sword energy, and even the flow of qi.

Everything has been contained to the extreme.

In this world of cultivation, there are simply too many unknown methods and supernatural powers.

In any case, it cannot be considered comprehensive.

He only sought to do his best, leaving the rest to fate.

"The next step is to sit back and wait."

……

One day.

two days.

Song Yan sat there motionless.

Fortunately, this place is secluded.

No one has come near for several days, except for one cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining who passed by.

The attire didn't resemble that of a sect; they must be members of a small family.

Until the third day.

Finally, the person I've been waiting for has arrived.

Dan Zifeng's spiritual energy stirred slightly as he urged it on, speeding up his journey.

It should have been delivered to the lakeside cabin at the foot of Nanya Mountain as described in the mission.

Nearly.

It's very close...

They were about to step into their own ambush trap.

Shan Zifeng suddenly stopped.

like a statue.

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(End of this chapter)