Swallowing the Stars: My Comprehension is Beyond the Heavens!

Chapter 162 Qianwu Auction

December 15th, 2065 in the Chinese calendar.

The triennial Qianwu Auction is approaching.

Luo Xia received the notification and entered the virtual universe with Luo Feng.

"Xia, when you get back, tell me all about what was at the auction."

On the way, Luo Feng spoke to Luo Xia as they walked toward Luo Hua's studio.

Because the money from the sale was all deposited into a bank account opened by Rorschach, the Qianwu Auction House gave Rorschach the invitation.

So this time, it was Rorschach who went to the auction.

Luo Xia said, "Big brother, why don't you go..."

In the original novel, it was Luo Feng who went to this auction.

Rorschach wasn't particularly interested in the auction.

Luo Feng smiled and shook his head, "I'd rather stay home with Pingping and Xiaohai than waste that time."

This invitation can be renamed.

It's just that very few people exercise this right.

After all, the Qianwu Auction is a grand event, so who would give up this opportunity?

In other words, large families would give these spots to their own disciples so that they could broaden their horizons.

"Alright, I'll go then." Luo Xia nodded. "If I see anything suitable, I'll buy it for you."

Luo Feng nodded with a smile.

As the two brothers were talking, they arrived at Luo Hua's studio.

Upon entering, one can see a room of nearly 100 square meters filled with young men and women, all intently typing on their keyboards in front of virtual computers. They are so focused that even the noise of Luo Xia and Luo Feng entering does not disturb them.

Luo Hua, who was otherwise uninvolved, noticed Luo Xia and Luo Feng, stood up in surprise, and asked with a smile, "Brother, Xia, what brings you two here?"

Luo Feng glanced around the studio and chuckled, "Your place is quite lively."

Luo Hua smiled and said, "So-so."

"Hello, Mr. Luo!"

"Hello, Mr. Luo!"

At this moment, the other people in the studio also noticed Luo Xia and Luo Feng, and they all stood up to greet them.

"Brother, Xia, what made you decide to come here? Come on, let's go over there and talk. Uh—wait a minute."

Luo Hua returned to his seat, clicked on the computer, and then called to Luo Feng and Luo Xia, "Let's go."

The three of them went to the studio next door.

This is a tea room.

The three brothers sat down.

Luo Xia poured tea for his two older brothers. Luo Hua, holding a teacup, looked at Luo Feng and Luo Xia and said, "It's not uncommon for you to come over while I'm working. Big brother, Xia, is there something you need?"

Luo Feng nodded, took a sip of tea, and then said, "Well, tomorrow is the triennial Qianwu Auction. Xia has received an invitation and wants to ask you how much money you have."

Upon hearing this, Luo Hua nearly spat out the tea in his mouth.

He swallowed hard, his eyes widening as he said, "The Qianwu Auction House? I've heard many of my partners talk about it; it's the highest-level auction house in the entire Qianwu Universe, with very high entry requirements!"

Luo Xia nodded. "Yes, the minimum requirement is being a three-star customer of one of the two major banks."

"Damn!" Luo Hua opened his mouth, "A three-star client? Xia, when did you become so rich?"

Rorschach said, "This is the money my brother and I earned through adventure. Didn't we give you two trillion cosmic coins a couple of years ago? It was taken from the money we earned."

Luo Feng continued, "Xia and I came here today to ask you how those two trillion cosmic coins are doing? After all, he's going to the auction tomorrow, and having more money on hand will give him more confidence."

After a moment's thought, Luo Hua said:

"Last year I traded pancreatic cancer. At its peak, I made 50%, but there were also times when I lost money. So, overall, the two trillion cosmic coins you gave me didn't result in either profit or loss."

"I've made quite a bit of money this year, and I still have 3 trillion in assets. But I used that money to make strategic investments six months ago, and I can start working on it soon... If you're in a hurry, you'll have to sell it."

"If we sell now, it will cause the price to drop, and we can probably get back 2.8 trillion Cosmic Coins."

Luo Xia and Luo Feng exchanged a glance.

Luo Xia had made his money by trading stocks online when he moved into the villa with his family years ago, so he understood Luo Hua's meaning very well.

"Second brother, there's no rush. The auction will last for ten days anyway. I'll send you a message if I need the money then."

Rorschach said.

If he hadn't focused all his attention on cultivation these past two years, with his intelligence, he could have easily joined forces with Luo Hua to make waves in the cosmic financial market and multiply their previous assets several times over!

There's always a trade-off between what you gain and what you lose.

Because he devoted all his energy to cultivation, he is now able to make rapid progress in his understanding of the fundamental laws.

Luo Hua nodded and said, "No problem. If you urgently need money, I'll sell immediately. I can definitely get you over two trillion!"

……

The next day, Rorschach bid farewell to his family and relatives and went to attend the Dry Witch Auction.

He rode his celestial horse to the teleportation point, holding the invitation to the Qianwu Auction in his hand. He then teleported and instantly arrived in a floating city on the Qianwu Continent.

Before Luo Xia could even get a clear look at his surroundings, the invitation emitted points of light, causing the floating city's defenses to automatically open a passage.

"Hello sir, welcome to this year's Qianwu Auction. This is your seat number."

Upon arriving at the auction hall of the Floating City, countless people were queuing up.

Rorschach walked to the back of a line and heard a waiter respectfully hand over a black plaque before letting the man with a tail on his back into the auction hall.

"Wow, so many people..."

Rorschach spoke to Babata in the wristband's space.

Babata said, "This is the highest-level auction in the Qianwu Universe Kingdom, so there will definitely be a lot of people. After all, the Qianwu Universe Kingdom is an incredibly vast universe kingdom! Almost everyone here is a Realm Lord! Only a very small number of people are big merchants and some young people with extremely powerful backgrounds..."

She paused for a moment and then said to Luo Xia, "For example, you are the kind of young person with an incredibly powerful background in other people's eyes."

At this moment, the two people in front of Rorschach started talking. They seemed to be friends and knew each other.

One of them said, "Nanu, how many people do you think will attend the auction this year?"

"The last auction attracted over 131 million people," another person replied. "Judging from the queue today, it's likely to far surpass the scale of last year's auction. And..."

The guy named Nanu lowered his voice, and Rorschach focused his attention to hear what he said—

"I heard that there's a spot at this auction for entering the 'Primordial Universe' for enlightenment... This spot is for a Realm Lord. It allows a Realm Lord to enter the Primordial Universe for enlightenment. Many Immortal-level powerhouses have come, all wanting to snatch this spot."

Rorschach feigned confusion and asked, "Babata, what is the primordial universe?"

Babata explained, "The universe we live in now is called the 'Primordial Universe,' which is a very complete universe that has already passed the initial stage. The so-called initial universe is the universe that has just been formed, where one can better comprehend the fundamental laws... That's all I know."

Luo Xia frowned: "Even you don't know the answer?"

Babata shrugged and said, "After all, your teacher never went to the initial universe back then."

While talking to Babata, Rorschach also kept his ears open, listening to the conversations of the others.

He could obtain information from these people that he had never heard before.

For example, "Extraterrestrial Battlefield" and "Starfield Secret Realm"...

"Young man, which family or organization are you from?" Suddenly, a person standing in the line next to Luo Xia asked him.

Luo Xia glanced at him and laughed, "No family, no organization."

"Oh……"

Upon hearing this, the man nodded and did not ask any further questions.

But judging from his expression, he didn't believe Rorschach's words.

After all, those who can get here are all three-star clients of the two major global banks. If they didn't have some kind of background, how could they stand here at such a young age?

They stood in line, utterly bored.

Soon, it was Rorschach's turn. A beautiful woman smiled and handed Rorschach a black token, saying:

"Sir, welcome to this year's Qianwu Auction. This is your seat number."

Luo Xia took it and found that there was a semi-transparent screen on the black token, with the seat number KND99286 on it.

"Why not just make it a tablet?"

Rorschach grumbled as he walked into the auction hall with the token in his hand.

The entire auction hall was like a football field on Earth, with the auction venue in the middle and densely packed stands all around.

Babata said, "This auction hall has a total of 300 million seats! Each seat is six meters wide and ten meters high!"

Luo Xia complained, "It's so wide and long, we might as well have made a private room."

Babata said, "We made such large seats to accommodate larger customers! If we were to make private rooms, we would need an even larger space."

As the two were talking, Luo Xia had already found a seat.

The seat was very comfortable, six meters wide, bigger than his bed.

So Rorschach lay down and took out some snacks from his spatial storage to start eating.

The others sitting next to Rorschach glanced at him with interest when they saw him lying down.

So young, yet so relaxed in this setting.

That's quite unusual.

Time passed slowly, and Rorschach yawned, asking, "Babata, isn't the auction starting yet? It's been almost three hours."

Babata looked at Rorschach speechlessly and said, "It's about to start! You better take this seriously!"

"Why take it so seriously? It's not like you can win good items just by being serious," Luo Xia said while cracking sunflower seeds. "You need money to win good items."

Babata: "..."

That's absolutely right!

"Everyone!"

At that moment, a deep voice resounded throughout the auction hall.

Rorschach lay back in his chair and looked toward the central auction area. He saw a bald old man with a black tortoise shell on his back standing on the stage. Above him, a three-dimensional virtual projection thousands of meters high floated.

"Is it finally about to begin?"

Rorschach sat up cross-legged in the chair, slightly perking up.

Of course, the sunflower seeds in his mouth didn't stop.

The old man in the tortoise shell shouted:

"Welcome everyone to this year's Qianwu Auction!"

"Thanks to Virtual Universe Company, Universe First Bank, Universe Galaxy Bank, Giant Axe Arena, Universe Mercenary Alliance, and Qianwu Universe Kingdom for their strong support."

The old man smiled and said, "I believe many of you know me. You can call me Old Barto. It's still Old Barto hosting this top-tier event for everyone!"

"The last Ganwu Auction had 1316038 participants, and the statistics for this auction have just come out. Do you know... how many people participated?"

"1823959 people! 182 million, more than 50 more than last time!"

Rorschach muttered, "With so many participants, it seems they've all been drawn here by the opportunity to comprehend the Primordial Universe."

The old man below continued:

"Enough with the chit-chat!"

"Before the auction officially begins, as usual, let's have a warm-up auction!"

As he spoke, he pointed to the virtual projection above.

The virtual projection changed light and color, eventually revealing a series of galaxies.

"This is the Tana Star Region!"

"This is a small star field, ranking low among the more than 13,000 star fields in our Qianwu Universe Kingdom. The entire star field contains a total of 668 star systems."

"The Tana Starfield was previously the territory of an immortal being. Recently, this immortal being is preparing for a life-or-death adventure, so they are selling off the entire starfield!"

"The pre-auction auction is now in session, starting at 300 Mixed Yuan units!"

As the old man finished speaking, the entire auction hall erupted in commotion.

Many people were attending this kind of auction for the first time. They never expected that a mere pre-auction would be so impressive, actually putting an entire star field up for sale!

It should be noted that the Silver Blue Empire, as a primitive civilization in the universe, only controls the star regions of eight star systems!

This Tana star system contains 668 star systems!

"Awesome!" Rorschach gave a thumbs up in admiration. "No wonder this is an auction held by an advanced cosmic civilization; this auction is incredibly high-class!"

In other novels, the protagonist often attends auctions and finds bargains there.

For example, the Desolate Heavenly Emperor, who was invincible throughout the ages, participated in an auction in the desolate lower realm and managed to snag a set of armor that could enhance his combat power.

But no matter how prestigious that auction was, it couldn't compare to the Qianwu Auction.

The auction here involves an entire star system, encompassing over six hundred star systems, with countless people and resources!

This kind of auction can only be described with one word: awesome!

"Tsk... an entire star system. Too bad I'm broke. I can only watch the big shots compete in wealth."

He lay down again, in a comfortable side-lying position, watching the auction price continue to rise.

861...876...912...

1000!

In the end, 1000 Mixed Units were sold in the Tana Starfield!

With the pre-auction session over, the auction officially began!

"The auction has officially begun. You can now see the first batch of 1000 items to be auctioned on your auction tokens. If you wish to purchase them, please be prepared."

The old man, carrying a tortoise shell on his back and resembling Master Roshi, shouted loudly.

Rorschach picked at his ear, pointed at the auction items on the token, and checked their information.

"So, why make it look like a token?"

He continued to complain.

In his complaint, the first item for auction was already on the virtual projection.

The old man in the tortoise shell shouted:

"Now we have the first item—92 members of the Berna race, a metallic life form."

"The Berna race of metallic lifeforms can fuse with spaceships, giving them the ability to self-repair and self-upgrade."

"There are 92 Berna metal lifeforms in total, with a starting price of 2000 billion cosmic coins! The highest 92 bids will secure the Berna metal lifeform."

Rorschach blinked and asked Babata, "So, the 92 highest bidders will each receive a Berna metal lifeform?"

Babata nodded. "Yes, that's how it's done at large auctions like this, when there are many items to be auctioned."

I humbly request your monthly tickets and recommendation votes, dear readers!

(End of this chapter)