I Reloaded the Save File! [Transmigration] - Chapter 48

While Xuan Shuang was escorting the cultivators out of Nanfeng City, Mo Xiao and the others were also preparing to pack up and leave.

Upon hearing that the group was departing, Chu Ting immediately set aside her matters and hurried over. Since she didn’t have any impressive items to offer, she adopted the most simple and unpretentious way of showing her gratitude: giving each of them a large sum of spirit stones.

“Fellow Daoist Qiu, if you wish to collect artifact refining materials, you might consider staying in Bafang City for a few days. An auction will be held there soon, and perhaps Fellow Daoist Qiu can bid for some useful items,” Chu Ting said, also presenting them with a map.

The map didn’t cover many regions, but it had detailed markings of the large cities and small towns near Nanfeng City.

“Good, thank you, City Lord,” Qiu Wu politely thanked her. After accepting the map, she casually took out a small knife. “This is something I recently forged. Consider it a farewell gift to the City Lord.”

After saying this, Qiu Wu crudely stuffed the knife into Chu Ting’s hand and quickly retreated to the back of the group, standing beside Yun He.

Chu Ting looked helplessly at the weapon in her hand. Seeing that Qiu Wu was pretending not to see her, she could only accept the knife. “Chu Ting wishes you all a safe journey and a swift reunion.”

After flying by sword to a wooded area, Yun Yu took out her spiritual energy boat. The five boarded the boat and headed for Bafang City, following the map provided by Chu Ting.

Bafang City was not too far from Nanfeng City. The journey took about two days by spiritual energy boat.

Unlike Nanfeng City, which prospered due to a nearby secret realm, Bafang City became a major town entirely because of its uniquely advantageous location. Bafang City’s existence lived up to its name, Bafang (Eight Directions), as it was a veritable transport hub, with a massive flow of passing cultivators every day.

The time of Mo Xiao’s arrival was also quite opportune; the annual large-scale auction was exactly two days away, giving them enough time to secure seats at the auction house.

“Fellow Daoists, we can provide complimentary seating for those at the Nascent Soul stage and above, but for Fellow Daoists whose cultivation is insufficient, a fee of ten high-grade spirit stones is required,” the auction house steward said with a smile. “Do these two Fellow Daoists need to purchase seats?”

“Here you go,” Qiu Wu handed the spirit stones directly to the steward. “Since this is an auction house, I presume I can consign items for auction?”

“Yes,” the steward nodded, handing five small, inscribed tokens to Qiu Wu. “However, this particular auction has requirements regarding the quality of the items. If the appraisal does not reach one thousand high-grade spirit stones, it cannot be included.”

The steward then added, “Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t consign it at all; it just needs to be postponed and may be arranged for bidding in the smaller, monthly auctions.”

Simply put, the annual auction needed to maintain a certain prestige, and items that didn’t meet the standard were not eligible to participate.

“I see. In that case, can spiritual artifacts be consigned here?” Qiu Wu asked.

“As long as the appraisal is above one thousand high-grade spirit stones, yes, it can,” the steward repeated his earlier statement.

It wasn’t that he thought Qiu Wu couldn’t produce such an item, but he had served many people and developed a highly efficient method of reception. He maintained the same attitude whether the person opposite him was a Qi Condensation stage cultivator or a Spirit Transformation Grandmaster.

Unperturbed by favor or disgrace; that must be me, he thought.

Just as the steward was feeling proud of his professional demeanor, Qiu Wu walked over to a side table and pulled out one, two, three… a total of fifteen spiritual artifacts, each suitable for a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

The standard smile on the steward’s face slowly stretched open with Qiu Wu’s action of pulling out the artifacts, eventually forming an ‘O’ shape.

“Are you consigning all of these spiritual artifacts?” the steward manually closed his jaw, which had nearly dropped, and asked excitedly.

Fifteen spiritual artifacts, all suitable for the Nascent Soul stage! He knew that the spiritual artifacts they had prepared for this auction only totaled fifteen! This just doubled their offering!

What a pity. If this person had come earlier, they could have generated buzz sooner and attracted even more people. Perhaps they could even have drawn a few more Sect Elders.

Seeing the steward’s complete shift in attitude, Qiu Wu spoke quite calmly. “I’ll consign this many for now. Aren’t you going to appraise the price?”

“No need!” The steward answered quickly. Any spiritual artifact above the Nascent Soul stage would certainly be worth more than one thousand spirit stones. And he could sense that the quality of these artifacts was excellent; the starting bid would only be high, not low!

“Fellow Daoist, the rule of our auction house is a ten percent commission. You are aware of that, I presume?” the steward asked.

“Mhm,” Qiu Wu nodded. “I don’t want the news of me consigning so many artifacts at once to spread too widely. I trust you understand what I mean, Steward?”

“Of course, of course. We strictly keep our customers’ information confidential. Whether seller or buyer, if the person is unwilling to disclose, we will absolutely not say a single word,” the steward guaranteed, and immediately summoned his subordinates to begin inspecting and cataloging the spiritual artifacts.

Thanks to Qiu Wu, the small tokens in the hands of the five people were replaced by small jade plaques when they left the auction house, and their seating changed from ordinary public seating to VIP box treatment.

Although the auction was only two days away, the steward was quick to spread the news. The message that the number of spiritual artifacts in the auction had doubled quickly spread throughout Bafang City, almost doubling the number of Nascent Soul cultivators planning to attend.

Two days passed in a flash. The auction was scheduled for the afternoon. The seats for Mo Xiao and the others were excellent; moving just a little closer to the center would put them in the most central position.

The number of auction lots remained the original forty-five, but the steward changed the individually auctioned spiritual artifacts into bundled sales, doubling the starting bid accordingly.

“By buying two or three pieces together, will Qiu Wu earn a lot more, or a little less?” Yun He couldn’t quite understand the steward’s maneuver. Wouldn’t this reduce the number of cultivators who could bid on multiple artifacts at once?

“That depends on how well the steward understands the people present. As long as he can step on their Achilles’ heel, the price will only be high, not low,” Zuo Wuyi said.

The reason was simple: the spiritual artifacts Qiu Wu forged were all high-quality, and any Nascent Soul cultivator would generally be tempted. If auctioned individually, some people would give up when the price got high. Ultimately, those artifacts would mostly be divided up tacitly among the major families in Bafang City—you take one, I take one.

But bundling them together changes things. If three spiritual artifacts fall into the hands of a single power, it means they will have even more formidable Nascent Soul cultivators, posing a threat to the other families that didn’t acquire them.

Faced with the choice between threatening others and being threatened, no one would choose the latter. Thus, they would definitely bid to acquire those artifacts to the greatest extent possible—and the more, the better.

The materials Qiu Wu was interested in were scheduled relatively early. After casually increasing the bid a few rounds, she easily secured all of them.

When the auction reached the middle stage, intense bidding began. Hearing them increase the price by several hundred or even a thousand high-grade spirit stones with a single shout, Yun He felt both excited and indignant.

Excited that Qiu Wu could earn so many spirit stones, and indignant that these spirit stones were not hers; she remained a pauper.

“If you want one, I can custom-make one for you later, based on your sword-fighting style,” As the owner of the artifacts, Qiu Wu was quite indifferent, as she would still choose to use the spirit stones she earned to buy materials, and they wouldn’t stay with her for long.

“Really?” Yun He looked at Qiu Wu with gratitude, then very honestly asked the doubt in her heart. “Qiu Wu, if one day I run out of spirit stones, would you mind if I took the spiritual sword you gave me to auction?”

“Why would I mind that?” Qiu Wu raised an eyebrow. “Since I gave it to you, it is your possession. You can dispose of it however you like; I won’t mind.”

“But aren’t the spiritual swords you give away all something you spent time and effort forging?” Yun He asked. In her impression, the Elders of the Artifact Pavilion were completely different from Qiu Wu; they all valued the spiritual artifacts they forged greatly.

If someone were to sell an artifact given by an Elder for money, the severity of the offense would be akin to smearing spoiled food on the Elder’s face; the hatred level would immediately max out.

“That’s right. The spiritual artifacts I sent to the auction house were also forged with my time and effort, and didn’t I still sell them?” Qiu Wu replied.

Yun He pondered this seriously. Hearing Qiu Wu say it that way, it did sound quite reasonable. That led to the question: why weren’t the Elders of the Artifact Pavilion as understanding as Qiu Wu?

Yun He mulled over this question for a while. Finding no answer, she tossed it aside and refocused her attention on the auction.

Although she wasn’t planning to buy anything, hearing the cultivators raising the bids one after another made her feel a rush of excitement, giving her a full sense of participation.

“Next, I would like to introduce our third-to-last auction item!” The auctioneer’s stage presence was excellent, and a few simple formalities quickly galvanized the atmosphere.

“This item is very unique; the lot is not a thing,” the auctioneer said, clapping his hands. Soon, an iron cage covered with a black cloth appeared beside him.

“As everyone knows, when demonic beasts cultivate to a certain level, they have a chance to cultivate a human form,” the auctioneer did not rush to lift the black cloth, but instead recounted a slightly melodramatic story about a demonic beast and a cultivator.

“Regrettably, a demonic beast is a demonic beast after all. At the last moment, it devoured its own wife. If the Sect Master of our Lotus Flower Sect hadn’t arrived in time, the cultivator’s child would likely have been eaten as well.”

The auctioneer spoke, and seeing that the atmosphere had been adequately built up, he dramatically pulled back the black cloth. “And now, the one in the cage is the child rescued by the Sect Master of the Lotus Flower Sect.”

The moment the words fell, a scattered murmuring broke out in the venue. Most people felt that this ‘living’ auction item was inappropriate. Even if her father was a demonic beast, her mother was a legitimate cultivator. How could a cultivator’s descendant be bought and sold as mere goods?

“That’s too cruel, isn’t it? Why are they selling a living person as merchandise?” Yun He looked confused. “Eldest Senior Sister, Senior Sister, are we just going to watch a living person be auctioned off?”

Yun Yu shook her head and analyzed, “Look closely. Although the child is confined in a cage, her movement is not restricted. Furthermore, her eyes are clear, and her clothes are very clean.”

“She likely chose to stay in the cage herself,” Mo Xiao summarized.

“Everyone, please calm down and allow me to explain,” Sure enough, seeing the murmuring grow louder, the auctioneer began his explanation.

“Our auction house would never do anything against human morality. Although this young lady is an auction item, she is also the one who provided the item,” the auctioneer said. Seeing the venue quiet down, he continued to explain.

“This young lady inherited the bloodline of both her parents; she can both cultivate and transform into a demonic beast when necessary,” the auctioneer said. “It is precisely because of this that her cultivation requires a large number of spirit stones and demonic beast inner cores, which is a great burden for her.”

“Therefore, she has offered up one hundred years of her time for auction. The highest bidder will have her service as their subordinate for one hundred years.”

“This auction has no starting bid. Fellow Daoists who wish to gain a capable subordinate, you may place your bids!”