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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Lu Ye had exchanged imprints with Kitty Shen and Ruan Qingzhu because they had signed a Sacred Pact together. They were companions he could trust.
He stayed at the hotspot until it was nighttime. Then, he attended the amulet auction.
Unlike the usual auctions Lu Ye had attended, the Divine Trade Auction gave every participant a small object. He didn’t know what it was made of, only that it looked like a jade finger.
After a manager of the Divine Trade Association had instructed him on how to use the jade finger, he sat in his private room, held it in his grasp, and poured his mind into it.
The scenery before his eyes changed immediately. The experience was similar to when he entered the Vault of Providence. His mind had appeared in a small, confined space in an instant.
There was nothing in the room besides a ton of floating Amulets. He counted a hundred White Amulets, a dozen or so Green Amulets, a few Blue Amulets and a single Purple Amulet.
He wondered who was the lucky cultivator who managed to nab a Purple Amulet for themselves. He also wondered why they chose to auction it instead of using it themselves.
The answer came to him as soon as the question passed through his mind. Cultivating cost a lot of resources, meaning that there were always more poor cultivators than otherwise. Their financial situation wouldn’t improve just because their cultivation level had increased.
Every Amulet was labeled with a number. Lu Ye also noticed that these numbers were rising continuously. He immediately knew that they represented the bid price of the Amulets.
Countless cultivators must be immersed in this small space and taking part in this auction just like him. It was an unusual way to carry out an auction because the participants’ anonymity was preserved. This way, the participants would not need to worry about being identified and ganged up on afterward.
Lu Ye had a feeling that the auction was held this way because the currency involved was Contribution Points. To cultivators, the only safe place to trade in Contribution Points was the Vault of Providence.
In fact, he reckoned that the Heavens were involved in the auctions in some capacity. That was generally the case when Contribution Points were involved.
Lu Ye had a small problem. He wasn’t sure what was considered a fair price for each type of Amulet. So, he messaged Kitty Shen about it.
“You’re at the Divine Trade Association?” Kitty Shen replied, “White Amulets are worth around two hundred Contribution Points. If the price goes over two hundred and twenty, just forget it and move on. As for the other Amulets, just do the math based on the conversion rate I told you before.”
Lu Ye thanked her for her swift and candid response.
If White Amulets were worth around two hundred Contribution Points, then Green Amulets must be worth around six hundred Contribution Points, Blue Amulets around one thousand and eight hundred Contribution Points, Purple Amulets around five thousand and four hundred Contribution Points, and Gold Amulets around sixteen thousand and two hundred Contribution Points.
Also, anything that went over ten percent of its estimated price wasn’t worth getting.
Lu Ye checked the Amulets again now that he had a base of reference. It was as Kitty Shen said. The White Amulets were generally sold at two hundred, Green Amulets at six hundred, and Blue Amulets at one thousand and eight hundred. The one and only Purple Amulet was currently sitting at five thousand and five hundred Contribution Points.
Lu Ye was gunning for the Purple Amulet, of course. He tapped the Purple Amulet once and saw the bid price changing to five thousand, five hundred and fifty Contribution Points. It was also shining slightly compared to before.
Seeing this, Lu Ye tapped a White Amulet next and saw its price changing. The White Amulet started shining a little as well.
So, Amulets he bid for would shine, and only if he was the leading bidder. Otherwise, they would turn dim or remain lightless.
Lu Ye started bidding for real after he had figured things out. It wasn’t long before a massive amount of Amulets were lit. However, they quickly turned dim when someone surpassed his bid.
Lu Ye had over seventy thousand Contribution Points though. Knowing that it was highly unlikely that there existed anyone who could stop him from getting what he wanted, he bid away without fear or worry.
Time passed bit by bit. From time to time, an Amulet would vanish into thin air and enter the possession of the highest bidder.
So far, Lu Ye had won a dozen or so White Amulets. They were all priced below two hundred and twenty Contribution Points.
More time passed, and he managed to get his hands on a handful of Green Amulets and two Blue Amulets.
The Amulets would continue to disappear until finally, the Purple Amulet was the only one that was left.
According to Kitty Shen, it wasn’t worth bidding for the Purple Amulet if its price exceeded six thousand Contribution Points. However, Lu Ye’s current priority was to increase his cultivation level as soon as possible. He did not mind paying more to obtain the Purple Amulet.
The shining Amulet turned dim not long after he entered his bid, and the price changed to five thousand, nine hundred and fifty Contribution Points. Clearly, someone had outbid Lu Ye for the moment. The young man did not hesitate to respond to the challenge.
The contest would continue for a while longer until finally, the price stopped at six thousand and two hundred Contribution Points. His unknown competitor had finally given up either because they deemed it too expensive to continue, or because they physically did not have the Contribution Points to challenge Lu Ye further.
A while later, when the Purple Amulet had flashed three times in succession, it abruptly shone like a mini sun.
All the Amulets he had won the bid on had reacted like this at the end of the bid. Lu Ye knew then that the Purple Amulet was his. He immediately grabbed the Purple Amulet and stored it in his Storage Bag.
Lu Ye withdrew from the small space after the auction was over. He tallied his gains and confirmed that he had obtained fifteen White Amulets, six Green Amulets, two Blue Amulets and one Purple Amulet at the total cost of sixteen thousand and eight hundred Contribution Points. This meant that he only had a little over fifty seven thousand Contribution Points now.
Lu Ye was very satisfied with this harvest. With this many Amulets, he should have no problems hitting the Second-Order in a matter of days, though he wouldn’t use them until he had returned to the Arcane Glade. While it was unlikely he would reach the Third-Order before he used up his haul, he had still saved himself a considerable amount of time.
The moon hung high in the sky when he exited the hotspot, though there weren’t many stars.
It was unsafe for a low level cultivator like Lu Ye to travel at night. Logically speaking, he should spend a night at the Divine Trade Association and leave in the morning. Despite this, he still set out because the Arcane Glade was much more vulnerable without him.
Moonlight cast down a silvery sheen across the land as Lu Ye flew on his Spirit Boat. On his shoulder, Amber looked even more energetic than it was during the day.
Ever since Amber learned how to cultivate using the essence of the moon from Ju Jia, clear, moonlit nights like this had become its favorite weather. It was visibly inhaling the essence of the moon into its stomach.
They were making good progress when suddenly, Lu Ye saw a streak of light heading straight toward him. It was too fast for him to escape as well.
Lu Ye’s face darkened as he lamented his luck. He did not know what the newcomer was plotting, but he was certain that it couldn’t be good. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the cultivator was at the Seventh or Eighth-Order Realm at least.
By now, Lu Ye had encountered enough Cloud River Realm cultivators to form a subjective base of reference. He wasn’t arrogant enough to think that it was perfectly accurate, but it definitely wasn’t far off the mark either. The point was that he was certain that the cultivator was beyond his ability to defeat.
Lu Ye immediately turned around and buffed himself with Windwalk. But despite pushing his Spirit Boat to the max, the distance between them was shortening slowly due to the massive discrepancy between their cultivation levels. He was just wondering if he should use Soar when suddenly, Yi Yi said, “Lu Ye, something isn’t right with that guy. Look, he’s falling to the ground.”
Lu Ye turned around and saw that she was right. Not only had their pursuer’s aura dimmed to almost lightless, he was also falling toward the ground. He was unable to control himself despite his best efforts.
[He looks… injured?]
Lu Ye stopped in his tracks and watched as the man fell. The man managed to catch himself right before he would hit the ground and turn into a splatter of gore and blood.
If the guy was perfectly unharmed, then Lu Ye was going to escape as far as possible. But if he was grievously injured, then he supposed that there was little risk in interacting with him.
Now that he thought about it, the guy had chased him probably not because he wanted to hurt him, but because he wanted Lu Ye to save him or something.
A moment of hesitation later, Lu Ye flew toward the fallen man. When he landed on the ground and looked up, he saw a bloodied man leaning against a large tree and barely keeping himself up. There was a fist-sized hole at the center of his chest deep enough to reveal wriggling organs. He was also covered in wounds from head to toe. It was clear that he had fought a great battle, and it was just as clear that he wasn’t going to survive his injuries. Lu Ye could tell because he had taken more wounds than he had eaten rice his whole life.
The man was breathing shallowly when he sensed Lu Ye and met his eyes. While gripping his blood-drenched sword, he shot Lu Ye a weak smile and commented, “Your flight speed is impressive, fellow cultivator!”
“Why were you chasing me?” Lu Ye asked. The guy looked like he could die at any moment, so he did not understand why he would choose to chase a random stranger at night. Otherwise, Lu Ye would not have thought that he held malicious intentions and escaped with his tail between his legs.
The guy said, “I’m dying. You’re the only cultivator I found in miles. I would like to ask you to carry out my last wish.”
“What is it?”
“Can you please return this sword to the Divine Freedom Sect for me?” The man asked while raising the blood-drenched sword.
“The Divine Freedom Sect… that’s a Thousand Demon Ridge sect, isn’t it?” Lu Ye replied. If he remembered correctly, the sect had paid him the mercy fee when he was at the Spirit Creek Battlefield. This meant that the Divine Freedom Sect was a Core Circle sect that was Tier-Three or higher.
“Do you hail from the Grand Sky Coalition, fellow cultivator?” The dying man caught Lu Ye’s meaning immediately. When the young man remained silent, he said, “That’s fine. You do not need to bring the sword to my sect yourself. You can simply entrust it to the Divine Trade Association. If you agree, you may have all the wealth I carry on my person. I’ll have you know that I’m pretty wealthy.”
“I can do that.” Lu Ye nodded.
All the man asked was that he bring the sword to the Divine Trade Association to return it to his sect. It was but a simple matter.
“Thank you.” The man relaxed before letting out a bitter chuckle. “It was a long and hard journey. In the end, it amounted to nothing at all.”
Lu Ye did not say anything. He wasn’t moments away from death, so he could not possibly empathize with the man. This was how the Cultivation World had always been though. Death was the constant companion of all cultivators.
