"Hmm, the grand finale auctions have started already? What is it?"
Yang Hong confirmed that it hadn't been long since he directly read the jade slip's information, and the auction was already starting its grand finale.
"Sect Master, there are nine final treasures, all of them are ninth-tier treasures!
Nine of them! Nine of them, ah! Nine ninth-tier treasures!"
"Hmph, nine is nine. Do you think we can afford ninth-tier treasures?"
"Uh... perhaps, maybe, one person can't afford it."
The excited Ran Borren, upon hearing Yang Hong's dampening words, quickly calmed down.
Ninth-tier treasures, without the sufficient backing of a major force, were simply unaffordable.
The price increase in the cultivation world of Taiyuan Continent was very regular.
A first-tier magic artifact's price was generally from a few spirit stones to a few dozen spirit stones. Occasionally appearing top-grade artifacts were only a hundred-odd spirit stones.
Second-tier magic artifacts were hundreds of spirit stones, third-tier artifacts were basically four-digit figures, fourth-tier artifacts were five-digit figures, increasing very regularly.
Eighth-tier magic artifacts cost hundreds of millions, and ninth-tier magic artifacts theoretically should be tens of billions. However, due to the difficulty in refining them, once they appeared, they were often in the tens of billions and upwards.
Spirit pills and spirit talismans, being mostly consumable items, were priced a bit lower, but only about five or six times lower, and at most not less than ten times lower.
Additionally, because the Myriad Monster Sea Region's demon race was not skilled in various arts of cultivation, resources like magic artifacts and spiritual medicines were three to five times higher than in Taiyuan Continent.
Therefore, considering Qingfeng Mountain Villa's economic conditions, Yang Hong directly shook his head, having no intention of participating in the bidding, but he could still watch the spectacle.
"Eighty... Eighty billion! A distinguished guest from Heavenly Chamber Number Two has bid eighty billion. This Dao friend is truly a connoisseur.
This Kun Tu Sword is not only a ninth-tier flying sword, but it is also a ninth-tier battle armor. I will demonstrate it for everyone."
The competition had reached a relatively stable stage. The old auctioneer, after shouting for a while and seeing no one increasing the bid, began to discuss and promote with a performance.
"Unseal~"
With his light shout, his hand seals rapidly changed. The three-foot-long sword, which initially looked dull and gray, suddenly shattered silently.
The fragments of the flying sword quickly flew up and assembled themselves. The sword hilt, after a Transformer-like transformation, became a helmet. Then, the sword blade fragments formed battle armor, a battle skirt, gauntlets, greaves, and shoes.
In just three breaths of time, the old auctioneer was clad in a majestic golden battle armor. The armor had fierce angles and was imposing and dominant. The entire set of armor formed a powerful Qilin.
"Slurp~ Slurp~~"
Upon seeing this imposing battle armor, the auction hall erupted with sounds of people swallowing.
"The Kun Tu Sword is not only sharp and durable, its innate Heavy Earth Sword Domain provides unmatched offensive power, coupled with the Qilin Battle Armor in its armor form, a Mahayana cultivator holding this Kun Tu Sword can easily fight three opponents; if a cultivator with an Earth-element Heavenly Spiritual Root wields it, they can even fight five without issue!"
As the old auctioneer spoke, a four-tribulation Loose Immortal standing near the auction stage unleashed a soul-stirring attack, sending a fire dragon towards the old auctioneer.
*Poof*~~ *Poof*~~
The old auctioneer stood motionless, letting the fire dragon charge and burn him!
The cultivators near the auction stage, even through the defensive formations, had their hairs singed and their faces flushed red, indicating how high the temperature was.
"One thousand high-grade spirit stones!"
Guang Ji from Heavenly Chamber Number Six, upon seeing the second form of the Kun Yuan Sword, directly made a large jump in his bid!
The auction hall instantly fell silent.
The spirit stones in the Taiyuan cultivation world also had grades. The higher the grade, the purer and more abundant the spiritual energy, the easier it was for cultivators to absorb, and the more valuable it was.
They were divided into four types: Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade, and Top-grade.
The exchange rate of spirit stones was in "thousands."
That is, 1000 low-grade spirit stones were exchanged for 1 mid-grade spirit stone, and 1000 mid-grade spirit stones were exchanged for 1 high-grade spirit stone.
However, in actual exchanges, if one wanted to exchange low-grade spirit stones for high-grade ones, they would often have to pay an additional 10% exchange fee.
As for top-grade spirit stones, no cultivator would take them out for trade.
Top-grade spirit stones were immensely valuable. They could not only assist high-level cultivators in breaking through their cultivation but also, due to their inherent spirit gathering effect, were the best treasures for improving the quality of spirit stone mines and were also important materials for setting up formations of the seventh-tier and above.
Therefore, unless one was a prodigal son from a family with mines, and a very rich one at that, no one would exchange top-grade spirit stones.
Thus, the highest quality spirit stones circulating in the market were high-grade spirit stones.
1 high-grade spirit stone was equivalent to 1 million low-grade spirit stones, and 10,000 high-grade spirit stones were equivalent to 10 billion spirit stones.
In fact, their actual value exceeded 10 billion spirit stones!
"This bald donkey is truly rich and powerful!
I'm very curious, why did this guy not bid higher when he was competing with me for the Azure Sky Willow Seed?"
Hearing the bid from the monk Guang Ji, Yang Hong was also surprised.
It wasn't the shock of the monk being rich, but the shock that he was so rich yet yielded in the previous bidding.
"I suspect this bald donkey wants to ambush me and rob me."
Yang Hong's eyes rolled, and he thought of a possibility, suddenly feeling a bit of anticipation in his heart.
"Ten thousand high-grade spirit stones~ Heavenly Chamber Number Six's distinguished guest bids, ten thousand spirit stones, and..."
"10,100 high-grade spirit stones."
"Heavenly Chamber Number Two's distinguished guest bids..."
"10,200 high-grade spirit stones..."
"10,300..."
Without the auctioneer's instigation, the two from Heavenly Chamber Number Six and Heavenly Chamber Number Two started fighting amongst themselves.
[This Heavenly Chamber Number Two must be some immortal sect, otherwise, they wouldn't dare to be so bold.]
Hearing them increase the bid by a hundred at a time, although the numbers seemed small, when converted to low-grade spirit stones, it was an increase of a hundred million at a time!
[All are wealthy tycoons! If you were to rob them, wouldn't you become rich?]
Yang Hong continuously rubbed his clean chin with his right hand, countless thoughts rapidly swirling in his mind.
*Clang*~~
"11,100 high-grade spirit stones! Sold! Let us congratulate the distinguished guest from Heavenly Chamber Number Six for acquiring our first ninth-tier supreme treasure!" m..oΓg
In the end, the monk Guang Ji was wealthier, purchasing the ninth-tier [Kun Tu Sword] for a staggering 11.1 billion spirit stones.
In fact, the old auctioneer was a bit flustered. Such a high price, although Chaoyang Sect would receive a higher commission, with so many immortal sect buyers, it would likely lead to unrest later.
If it weren't for the auction being in its final crucial stage, he would have wanted to throw in the towel and let other fellow disciples preside over the auction.
"Next, we will begin the auction of the second ninth-tier treasure, the ninth-grade spirit fruit Wind-Thunder Ginkgo, with a starting bid of 1 billion spirit stones!"
One billion?
For a spirit fruit, it was a bit high, even though the Wind-Thunder Ginkgo could alter a cultivator's spiritual root, turning it into a Wind-element Heavenly Spiritual Root or a Thunder-element Heavenly Spiritual Root. However, the most likely outcome was an Earth Spiritual Root with affinity for both wind and thunder.
Gambling 1 billion spirit stones for a chance at a Heavenly Spiritual Root was simply not worth it.
The previously heated auction atmosphere cooled down considerably.
This was the old auctioneer's tactic. Although calm buyers would cause the auction house to earn less spirit stones, it would also offend fewer forces that could not be offended.
Yang Hong, however, was interested in the Wind-Thunder Ginkgo. After all, as long as it was a spirit fruit, it generally had seeds. With seeds, he had a 100% guarantee of cultivating this Wind-Thunder Ginkgo spirit plant.
Therefore, Yang Hong had been paying close attention to this not very lively but very expensive auction.