Chapter 30: Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House

Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House, Red Pagoda Star Auction Hall. The Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House holds a minor auction once every century and a major auction once every millennium. In special circumstances, special auctions are also held.

Today is the eighth day of the eighth month in the nine thousand eight hundred and sixteenth year of the ninth epoch of the seventh cycle of the Immortal-Demon Calendar. This is the special pre-opening auction of the Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House ahead of the opening of the Divine Weapon Star.

Tang Yi and his group of six arrived in front of the Red Pagoda Mountain Auction Hall and saw the giant five-story building with those glowing silver characters flashing across its top.

"Divine Weapon Star? What on earth is that?" This was the first time Tang Yi had ever heard about the Divine Weapon Star since coming to the Immortal Realm.

Hearing Tang Yi's soft muttering, the old man Cang Mu, who fancied himself quite elegant, spoke up, "As for this Divine Weapon Star, this old man does know a thing or two about it. As for the specifics, well, let the big black fellow tell Little Brother Tang!"

Damn it, Tang Yi almost kicked the old dying man to death. Fortunately, the big black fellow was much more decent and said, "I have indeed heard of this Divine Weapon Star. Back in the day, in order to taste the Hundred-Phoenix Chicken raised by the Myriad Beasts Sect, I traveled hundreds of millions of miles specifically from the Three Stones Star Region to the Myriad Beasts Star Region..."

"Stop, stop, stop. Save your gluttonous history for when we are drinking tea; tell us the main point now," Tang Yi interrupted hurriedly upon hearing that Black Granite was about to flaunt his history as a foodie once again.

"...Well, this Myriad Beasts Star Region... ah, this Divine Weapon Star opens once every cycle, and the timing is devilishly accurate, precise down to the very second, so I've heard." The big black fellow stopped there, pulled a roast leg dripping with oil from his spatial ring, and began to bite into it.

"Is that it?" Tang Yi was left speechless by the big fellow's antics.

"This Divine Weapon Star is said to produce divine weapons, meaning Supreme Divine Artifacts," the big black fellow said after finishing the meat in two quick bites and wiping his mouth. "As for anything more specific, I'm not clear either. Back then, for the sake of that delicious Hundred-Phoenix Chicken, I endured untold hardships... Hey, why didn't you guys wait for me!"

Depending on the jade token obtained a few days prior, Tang Yi entered the auction hall. The exterior of the auction hall was super-sized, but the interior was even more cavernous. Guided by an attendant, Tang Yi arrived at the sellers' exclusive zone. This area was specially set up for sellers who consigned items here.

"Well, the security here is pretty decent. It seems the arrays inside are quite sophisticated too; I need to study them more," Tang Yi said, poking and patting various surfaces around the private box after the attendant left.

The auction hall resembled a modern stadium; the auction stage was in the center, surrounded by circular tiers of steps, each equipped with luxurious seats. Behind and above them were two tiers of suspended private boxes. The first tier was Tang Yi's seller box, and the tier above that consisted of VIP boxes, which only a select few were qualified to enter.

From inside his box, Tang Yi could clearly see the auction stage and all the seats on the ground floor, but the occupants of the lower seats could neither clearly see nor use immortal sense to perceive what was happening inside the box.

People continuously poured into the auction venue, yet it remained exceptionally quiet, perhaps due to the arrays. Before long, nearly fifty thousand seats on the ground floor were completely filled.

"This Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House certainly has some foundation; this auction is packed to capacity," Tang Yi observed as he looked at the full auction hall.

"Naturally. I've been to the Myriad Star Region branch of this Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House before, and it's much the same as this," the big black fellow said as he sat there, holding a roast leg in each hand and devouring them simultaneously from both sides.

Old Man Cang Mu wore sunglasses, holding a cup of tea in one hand and a tablet in the other, conveying the attitude that auctions and the like were fleeting clouds.

Little Vajra was building with metal blocks on the table, though the pile was getting smaller and smaller.

Little Fire Spirit was in the corner, hugging a customized Rubik's cube and twisting it while making babbling noises.

Ice Spirit was playing with water! Ever since he saw Tang Yi effortlessly display water-control wizardry last time, he had pestered Tang Yi to teach him. Once he learned it, he practiced it incessantly!

...Aside from these noises, the box appeared extremely quiet. Well, Tang Yi was being ignored, so he had no choice but to ignore these five oddballs as well.

A flash of white light swept across the auction stage, raising a protective barrier. The floor in the center split open into a large gap, from which rose a large jade platform along with two people: an old man wearing a blue long robe, and a young woman dressed in a colorful patterned dress adorned with glittering jewelry, a feast for the eyes.

"Welcome, everyone, to the Red Pagoda Mountain Auction House once again. I am old man Gong Fuzi, honored to serve as today's auctioneer. Today's special auction is held for the opening of the Divine Weapon Star a little over a hundred years from now. Everyone should be quite familiar with the Divine Weapon Star, so I won't elaborate further here. What I want to mention is: what does this auction have to do with the opening of the Divine Weapon Star? You will all understand once the auction items are presented. Heh, please allow me to keep you in suspense for a moment. Now, let's get down to business," the old man said, signaling to the woman beside him. "Now, please look at Lot Number One!"

The woman retrieved the item marked with the number one from her spatial ring and placed it onto the jade platform. A beam of light swept across the jade platform, and the image of the first item was rapidly magnified and projected into mid-air, allowing bidders to view the item clearly through the array.

This auction featured nearly a hundred items, including several consigned by Tang Yi, such as the Lingbing Derivative Origin Crystal—a head-sized piece Tang Yi managed to wrest from Ice Spirit only after negotiating numerous conditions. There was also the Blazing Gold Stone belonging to Little Fire Spirit, and the Nine-Star Separation Gold, which Tang Yi had unceremoniously stripped from Little Gold's left palm. Anyway, this metal-eating foodie would just grow it back after eating. Then there was the Thousand-Layer Azure Dragon Wood—Old Man Cang Mu's original body was so huge that he simply chopped off a massive section. Old Man Cang Mu had dismissed it as a minor matter, on the condition that he could get more movies and television dramas in return. Next was the Tiangang Dust-Clearing Essence, sourced from Black Granite—well, to be precise, the big black fellow's dandruff.

The first fifty or so items were not what Tang Yi wanted. Some were regional specialties he had consigned, such as Blazing Sun Heavy Iron, Lingbing Crystals, Separation Fire Gold, Azure Dragon Wood, and Wind Dust-Clearing Essence. Though secondary and not of the highest grade, their sheer volume earned Tang Yi a total of six hundred thousand superior immortal stones, giving him the sudden feeling of an upstart.

"Just these things fetched six hundred thousand superior immortal stones? If I sell everything inside the Divine Immortal Ship, wouldn't I have hundreds of millions of superior immortal stones? I'm rich now, ha-ha! Well, keep a low profile, keep a low profile!"

"Next up for auction is a set of combined items: Five Elements Immortal Spirit Materials. Legend has it that these five materials can respectively generate the Five Elements Immortal Spirits. Everyone should know what they are!" Seeing the commotion among the crowd in the seats, the old man continued with a satisfied smile, "That's right, they are the Lingbing Derivative Origin Crystal, Blazing Gold Stone, Nine-Star Separation Fire Gold, Thousand-Layer Azure Dragon Wood, and Tiangang Dust-Clearing Essence. Although these Five Elements Immortal Spirits are merely legendary and have not appeared for hundreds of millions of years, the intrinsic properties of these five materials themselves are exceptionally powerful."

Pausing for a moment, the old man continued, "As everyone knows, the immortal dwellings or universe realms currently crafted in the Immortal Realm, while capable of housing living immortals, are completely devoid of vitality. For instance, when immortals enter them, aside from surviving, they cannot cultivate within them at all, which makes such immortal dwelling-type artifacts increasingly obsolete and useless. However, now with this set of Five Elements Immortal Spirit materials embedded into your artifact realm, your immortal dwelling will brim with vitality and become a supreme sanctuary for cultivation. Friends with immortal dwellings, make your bids boldly! Starting bid—eighty thousand superior immortal stones."