Jade Cloud Pavilion, the biggest auction house in the entire Lingshan County.
It is backed by a powerful force called the Jade Cloud Chamber of Commerce, with branches spread across the entire Qingyun Province.
It is also one of the overlord level entities in Qingyun Province, with Foundation Establishment Realm powerhouses overseeing it.
Even in a branch as insignificant as Lingshan County, there was still an Innate Realm expert residing within it, although he only presided over auctions that held extremely important items, just his existence alone caused no one to dare cause trouble in the Jade Cloud Pavilion.
The reason why the Jade Clous Pavilion wasn't considered a top power of Lingshan County was simple, it was because they disdained such a position. Even though they still possessed territory and resources equal to the three great mansions, they weren't officially named among the top powers.
At this moment, the Jade Cloud Pavilion was bustling with people.
Today was the date for the monthly auction of the Jade Cloud Pavilion in Lingshan County, leading to such a scene.
The Jade Cloud Pavilion had 3 auction sequences, a weekly one, a monthly one, and a yearly one.
As for the once in a decade and once in a century auctions, those were all held at higher branches of the Jade Cloud Chamber of Commerce, with the latter held at the main branch in Qingyun Provincial Capital.
Even though it was only the monthly auction, the auction house was filled with people.
It was mainly because monthly auctions, while not holding much attraction to those top tier forces like the three great mansions or the City Lord's Mansion, still held much allure for those powers and cultivators at the Body Tempering or Meridian Cleansing Realms.
Inside the main venue of the auction house, countless cultivators were seated in rows, the Moonstone on the ground glowing with a soft hum.
At first glance, there were thousands, if not tens of thousands of people here.
There was not a single mortal in sight, even the weakest person here possessed the cultivation base of Body Tempering Realm.
It meant that there were at least thousands of Body Tempering Realm cultivators here, and that was without accounting for the dozens of Meridian Cleansing Realm experts mingling with the crowd.
The Lingshan County City had a population of several hundred thousand, so it was normal for there to be so many cultivators living among the populace.
Most of these Body Tempering Realm cultivators were here to broaden their horizons, and maybe buy a thing or two beneficial to them or the power behind them.
After all, almost all of them lived in the Lingshan County City, and it was prohibited to do anything like snatching or killing in the open, and if discovered, there would be severe consequences according to the law of Great Jing.
No one was afraid their hard won treasures would be stolen after exiting the auction house. All these worries were handed over to the City Lord's Mansion to solve.
At this moment, on the second floor of the auction house, there were several private rooms reserved for the vips.
Only those with powerful cultivation, great connections, or immense wealth could book these rooms for themselves.
In one of the private rooms, Ji Haotian let out a long sigh, muttering to himself, "It's a pity brother Wu couldn't come to the auction due to some family matters, otherwise, he could have also bought something for himself to enhance his cultivation."
Ji Haotian deeply empathized with Wu Liang.
Being outshone by your own brother's brilliance to the point your existence felt far inferior than his must have been a very bitter feeling.
Although he himself did not have any siblings, his talent was indeed too mediocre compared to others around him. At that time, he could only try to work as hard as possible, yet still couldn't overcome his shortcomings in terms of talent, thus, he understood Wu Liang.
However, Guard Chen, standing on the side, narrowed his eyes at Ji Haotian's words.
Being someone who had been guarding him for years and one of the most trustworthy people to Ji Tianyu, he held different views towards this matter and was not as naive or idealistic as Ji Haotian.
He knew that the people of Wu Mansion were extremely shrewd, he had dealt with them before.
There must have been a reason for that second young master of Wu Mansion to invite Ji Haotian here and then vanish by giving such a half hearted excuse.
But he did not know what it was, so he could only silently observe everything, and then report back to Ji Tianyu.
...
At the same time, outside the auction house, a young girl confronted several guards of the Jade Cloud Pavilion, her beautiful eyes seething with rage. Behind the girl stood a young man with a cold expression, it was none other than Su Yang.
The girl was Su Qingxian, the adopted daughter of the Su Mansion Lord, a genius who had reached the Third Stage of Body Tempering Realm at the age of 16 in the eyes of the outside world.
At this moment, one of the guards stepped forward, cupping his fists in a formal greeting, but there was only indifference in his eyes.
"Miss Su, please do not cause a scene here. I admit it was my oversight that my subordinate overstepped his boundaries and unintentionally said some crude remarks for young master Su Yang over here, and I wholeheartedly apologize for that. However, that does not mean you are above the rules of my Jade Cloud Pavilion. I can allow you entry in the main venue of the auction for this oversight, but you must pay the required amount to get a vip room."
Hearing his words, veins popped up on both Su Yang and Su Qingxian's forehead.
The three great mansions were the three great mansions because their power was known throughout the entire Lingshan County, considered on par with the County Magistrate's Mansion.
They had great reputation, and such top tier powers were not required to pay to get a vip room in the previous auctions.
However, the Jade Cloud Pavilion now pulling this stunt simply meant that they did not put the Su Mansion in their eyes at all!
However, even if Su Yang was angry, he could not do anything. After all, the guard standing in front of him was a powerful expert at the Meridian Cleansing Realm, even if he could fight across realms, fighting someone an entire major realm above him was beyond his ability at the moment.
Su Qingxian narrowed her eyes subtly before taking out a pouch hanging at her waist, throwing it at the guard captain.
"Senior, can we get a vip room now?"
She asked indifferently, forcefully suppressing her anger.
The guard weighted the pouch in his hand, hearing the clang of gold taels in the pouch and respectfully stepped aside.
"You may."
As they entered the auction house, a maid came forward to greet them, leading them to the next floor where the vip viewing rooms were located.
At the same time, an ethereal, illusory voice sounded in Su Yang's mind.
"Disciple... this adoptive sister of yours doesn't seem to be so simple, after all."
Su Yang momentarily halted at these words but then continued walking, asking in his mind.
"Master, what do you mean?"
From the other end, a soft sigh entered his mind.
"You will understand as you grow. She must have a reason to not tell you about it."
Su Yang was confused, but did not inquire further.
Sometimes knowing too much could lead to death, or worse. This was a common principle known among cultivators of all realms.
After Su Yang and Su Qingxian got seated, the auction officially began.
At first, all the items auctioned were common things for cultivators, such as Low-Rank Yellow Grade Spirit Artifacts, rare minerals and ores like Moonstone, healing pills, and so on.
When the auction reached its midpoint, the session for Meridian Cleansing Realm cultivators finally started off with a Mid-Rank Yellow Grade Spirit Artifact, causing much of the auction house to instantly quieten down.
Most of them were merely Body Tempering Realm cultivators, they had no right nor courage to speak during the auction for Meridian Cleansing Realm experts.
It was at this time the several vip viewing rooms finally showed some activity, and the Spirit Artifact was finally bought by room no. 7 for a whopping 3,000 taels of gold.
Ordinary people in Great Jing Dynasty mostly used copper coins and a small amount with connections to cultivators could use silver taels, while only cultivators below the Qi Refinement Realm had silver taels and gold taels as currency.
It had to be known that the entry fees for the monthly auction was a tael of gold, while for the vip rooms it was ten taels of gold.
A hundred copper coins were equivalent to a single silver tael, and a hundred silver taels were equivalent to a single gold tael.
As for the Spirit Stones used by Qi Refinement Realm cultivators and above... they couldn't be measured in merely gold taels.
Although 3,000 taels of gold were indeed a huge amount, it was not surprising for a Meridian Cleansing Realm cultivator to possess even more.