15 – Spending a Fortune for a Smile, Crazy Buying.
Baili Zheque’s arm strength was immense. With a sweep around Liu Wuzhi’s waist, she was practically lifted off her feet. Dazed, she asked, “Why did you say I’m a cultivation furnace? Is it because I can be used to refine pills?”
Had her identity as a spiritual plant been discovered?
Baili Zheque ignored her. Upon reaching their destination, he tossed her aside. “Bid as you wish.”
“Feel free to quote high prices. If you can’t lure out the Defiled Realm’s Realm Lord, you’ll be sacrificed to the sword along with these worthless things.”
Cultivators valued simplicity and frugality, so Liu Wuzhi had never indulged in extravagance or waste. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.
The Defiled Realm’s auction was quite different from ordinary ones. Instead of an audience seated before a stage, bidding item by item, it was arranged as an open market. Auction items were categorized and displayed with starting prices. Buyers could negotiate with the stall owners and complete transactions on the spot, saving time and avoiding cutthroat competition.
Several stalls were already crowded with people. Little Lingzhi curiously squeezed forward, only to find that the items up for bid were beauties of various charms, each with a price tag pinned to their chests. Some buyers even leered at Liu Wuzhi, asking her starting price instead.
After all, she was spending the Demon Lord’s money, so Liu Wuzhi politely sought Baili Zheque’s opinion. “Do you still need beauties?”
The Demon Lord glanced at her and sneered. “Do you have accomplices among them?”
Liu Wuzhi: Accomplices? Could they help her attend the bedchamber?
Never mind. As long as they weren’t taken back to the Demon Palace, these beauties might live a little longer.
Further ahead was the baleful weapon section. The murderous aura of divine weapons wilted in the presence of the Demon Lord, making them appear utterly fragile. Liu Wuzhi circled around but didn’t see anything she wanted to buy.
Moving forward, she unexpectedly encountered many relics from the Immortal Realm.
The area was bustling with people. Compared to magical artifacts that might not suit the demon race’s constitution, the diverse array of spiritual plants was far more popular. Two people even came to blows over a single strand of golden-thread grass.
Bidding voices rose and fell, drawing even the aloof and picky Demon Lord’s sidelong glance. Liu Wuzhi found it all the more incomprehensible.
The crowd around her gasped in awe or sighed in regret. “They say even the Immortal Alliance can’t keep the nine-leaf lotus alive. They can only rely on small sects to offer regular tributes. This trip was worth it.”
“Exactly. To seize those heaven-and-earth spiritual materials for the demon realm, the Realm Lord has killed countless disciples of Immortal Venerables.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier! I spent all my savings on peerless beauties, and now I can’t afford these treasures. Beauty truly leads one astray!”
Staring at the astronomical starting prices, Liu Wuzhi was utterly stunned.
Back at the Azure Mist Sect, she could grow several varieties of these spiritual plants in just one cycle of spring and autumn. The sect only rewarded her with ten spirit stones. Who knew these tributes would be so sought-after in the Immortal Alliance and the demon realm?
Recalling her “demonic cultivation talent,” Little Lingzhi couldn’t help but deeply lament being born in the wrong place. If she had taken root in the demon realm, perhaps she would have long been a wealthy demonic plant with assets worth billions.
The crowd was too frenzied. In a moment of distraction, she was pushed by the flow of people to an unnoticed corner—a stall that was actually selling seeds.
With seeds, couldn’t she cultivate them continuously?
The starting price of “ten demon crystals” was far too low. Liu Wuzhi offered as high a price as she could. “One hundred demon crystals. Will you sell?”
The stall vendor lazily yawned. “Ten bags of seeds, right? Take them. These things are just fillers anyway. Might as well roast them as snacks.”
Liu Wuzhi explained, “I meant one hundred per bag. If that’s not enough, how about one thousand?”
The other person gave her a look as if she were an idiot: “The demon realm is barren; aside from poisonous things, not even a bean sprout can grow. These seeds have been sitting here for decades with no one interested. Are you sure you want to waste your money like this?”
This provoked a protest from the plant-growing expert: “The temperature, light, and humidity are all suitable. Growing some shade-loving plants would definitely be possible.”
The vendor made a gesture for collecting money, his eyes filled with mockery for the sucker: “With the constant wars across the Seven Territories and Eight Wildlands, do you think there’s any place left for farming?”
Liu Wuzhi, brimming with fighting spirit, declared: “One thousand demon crystals per bag—I’ll take them all!”
The stall owner instantly changed his expression, swiftly collecting the money and handing over the goods, afraid she might change her mind. Dozens of bags of seeds that had been unsold for years were cleared out in one go, all stored away by Liu Wuzhi into the Abyssal Ruins.
Seeing this, the tense auction atmosphere dissipated, and everyone laughed: “A hundred thousand demon crystals could buy high-grade spiritual plants, yet that beauty bought a pile of old seeds. She must have gone mad from being over-drained.”
“Tsk, didn’t you see that lord over there watching? Clearly, he’s indulging his favorite concubine in throwing money around for fun—a true case of spending a fortune for a smile.”
“Look at her clueless expression—she probably doesn’t even understand how she’s being drained. Pitiful, really.”
“How long can a cultivation furnace last? Buying seeds—probably wants to bury them as grave offerings, huh? Hahaha…”
The malicious, lewd mood was sickening. A flash of purple light streaked through the crowd like lightning, too fast for anyone to see clearly. Those who had been gossiping, along with the treasures they had just bid on, exploded into fireworks.
Demon energy rippled, and the entire hall fell dead silent.
The killer stood still as an abyss, maintaining an almost arrogant sense of relaxation, like a thunderstorm brewing on the eve of a downpour, a jade mountain on the verge of collapse. The mask hid his cold, indifferent eyes, leaving only the curve of his lips, sharp and chilling as a winter moon.
Mountains laden with snow, heaven and earth extinguished.
The Demon Lord only killed and did not speak, and Liu Wuzhi had no time to explain.
She noticed a familiar-looking jade sword on a blood-red silk cloth. The hilt carved with flowing clouds and a mysterious bird… It seemed somewhat similar to the sword patterns worn by the direct disciples of the Cinnabar Glory Sect?
Could there be someone from an Immortal Sect nearby?
Seeing her linger, the stall owner spoke up: “One fixed price—three hundred thousand.”
Liu Wuzhi wanted to step closer to verify its authenticity and asked, “Where did this sword come from? Is the Sword Master still alive?”
The stall owner glared: “In the Defiled Realm, we don’t ask about origins. Don’t you know the rules?”
His fierce demeanor startled Liu Wuzhi, making her step back half a step and bump into a solid chest. A voice tinged with bloodshed fell from above: “Multiply it by ten.”
“T-three million?” Gasps echoed around them—a price enough to buy a territory’s ley line.
“An Eastern Continent jade sword,” Baili Zheque lowered his head, his heterochromatic eyes flashing behind the mask. “Even the scrap metal of the Immortal Realm is worth wanting?”
Liu Wuzhi was startled, almost thinking the Demon Lord had seen through her interest in Immortal Sect relics, and hurriedly said, “I just want to blend in better.”
The Cinnabar Glory Sect was close to the Azure Mist Sect. If the Demon Lord targeted her, it would be disastrous.
“Your identity as a Fallen Immortal needs no disguise,” Baili Zheque scoffed. Fortunately, he didn’t press further, tossing down a jade token. “Three hundred and ten thousand—still not enough.”
Taking the jade sword, Liu Wuzhi quickly moved forward, buying frantically: sugar crystals for the Netherworld Butterfly, spirit pearls for the Dusk Crow, and plenty of healing medicine, just in case Brother Yuan Lan got injured again…
No matter what she bought, the Demon Lord would silently multiply the price by ten, as if squandering not millions of demon crystals but ordinary stones. Such an arrogant and extravagant manner eventually drew more and more eyes toward them, with whispers beginning to include speculation about whether the “Realm Lord” would make an appearance.
The final section of auction items was the book area. The demon race generally had little interest in reading, and the place was sparsely populated.
Liu Wuzhi carefully selected a few introductory books on raising fierce beasts based on her interests. As she was leaving, the hem of her skirt brushed against a stack of books, causing an ancient tome wrapped in ebony-colored covers to fall at her feet.
The cover bore no author’s name, only a line of ancient gilded characters—
“Seven Souls Soul-Drawing Book.”
Author’s Note:
Zhizhi: This isn’t an auction—it’s clearly my wishing well [throws confetti]