Book 25, Novessence Thunder, Chapter 18 – Completely Broke
As soon as the silver-eyed woman stopped talking, the cultivators in the hall all began to call out, especially the World Gods. “Two hundred and twenty cubes!”
“Two hundred thirty.”
“Two hundred forty!”
The price rapidly began to rise.
As for Ji Ning, he watched silently from the third floor even though he also desired this item quite badly. There were a number of World Gods in the great hall who were interested but were in no rush to make a bid. Most of the initial bidders were just trying to see if they could pick it up on the cheap, as most ‘normal’ top-grade Dao armors would go for at least three hundred cubes.
Top-grade Dao armor with the aquaflect property would naturally be worth much more.
“Three hundred twenty.”
“Five hundred!” Suddenly, a deep voice rang out. It came from a muscular alien World God whose entire body was covered with fiery red scales, and with his growling bid the price instantly rocketed up to five hundred cubes.
The hall grew much quieter.
There were ‘customary’ prices for most magic treasures. Ordinary top-grade Dao armor would go for around three hundred cubes, while something like this Primalwater Armor would go for around six hundred cubes or so.
“Five hundred and ten.”
“The disciples of the Badlands Court are truly impressive.” Many cultivators turned to look at the third floor. During this auction, many of the disciples of the Badlands Court remained silent until they chose to make a bid, at which point they would stun everyone present. This was their territory, after all, and everyone would look at them when they bid from the third floor. They generally wanted to ensure that they would gain face from their bids.
“Six hundred cubes!” A World God seated in the great hall whose entire body was covered by a gray robe suddenly spoke out in an icy voice.
“Six hundred and ten cubes,” the fire-scaled alien World God snarled.
“Six hundred and twenty cubes,” the gray-robed World God bid.
The alien World God hesitated, not sure if he should continue.
“Six hundred and ninety cubes!” Ning made yet another bid.
This bid caused two other hesitating cultivators to fall silent. Ning’s bid had caused them to both change their minds. Although Primalwater Armor was rare, one or two would appear during each treasure auction, and they’d generally go for around six hundred cubes. Sometimes the price would a bit higher; other times, the price would be a bit lower. Six hundred and ninety cubes was fairly high.
“Forget it. Later I’ll go back and buy some World-level golems that can be used in a formation. They’ll cost the same amount and will be a bit more useful to me than this armor.”
“Forget it.”
Quite a few World Gods began to talk themselves down from joining the bidding. This was an enormous sum of money, after all. The combined treasures which Ning had initially acquired from Immortal Origination and Immortal Bloodpool in the Windsource Ruins weren’t worth as much as this single suit of armor. The only reason why Ning was able to afford it was because World God Cavecry had left behind some nice treasures as well.
“Six hundred and ninety cubes. Any higher bids?” The silver-eyed woman spoke out as the suit of armor began to descend towards her palm. Finally, it came to a rest. “This suit of Primalwater Armor has been sold. The bidding is over.”
“Whew.” Ning let out a sigh of relief, sitting down and picking up a glass of wine. He took a small sip of it. Just now, he had been so nervous that he had jumped to his feet. He knew very well that the only reason why he had so much chaos nectar was thanks to Daolord Solesky. If it wasn’t for him, who knew how long it would’ve taken for Ning to acquire so much wealth?
“Congratulations, Master.” Elder God Wilddog spoke out.
“I imagine there aren’t many World Gods who can afford a treasure like this,” Su Youji said.
Ning chuckled.
Strictly speaking, for now, this suit of armor wouldn’t be as helpful to him as seven hundred cubes worth of bugbeasts or golems. For example, Ning could’ve purchased thirty-six sinfiends like the ones he had sold off! Generally speaking, most World-level experts would purchase quite a few bugbeasts or sets of golems.
Golems were magic treasures that could be deployed in formations, after all. An entire set of five or six golems in a formation would prove to be extraordinarily powerful.
“Fellow Daoist.” A soft voice rang out from outside.
“Come in,” Ning said.
Creeeeak. The door swung open and a woman walked in holding the suit of armor. Smiling, she said, “Primalwater Armor, six hundred and ninety cubes.”
“Right.” Ning tossed out a storage treasure.
The woman accepted it, glanced at it, then placed the suit of armor on the table and departed.
Ning reached out to gently stroke the suit of silver armor, filling it with his divine power. He was able to bind it quite easily. Whoosh. The armor instantly appeared over his body, while the set of high-grade Dao armor Ning had previously been wearing was put away.
“I have Violetjewel as my weapon and the Primalwater Armor as my armor. For agility and evasion, I have the Thunderlight Wings.” Ning nodded slowly to himself. “Given my sword-arts have improved during this period of time I spent at the Badlands Court…I’ll wager only master-class World Gods are capable of suppressing me in might.”
Ning had already used up nearly half of his chaos nectar. He was in no rush to make any further bids.
The treasure auction continued to proceed day by day, and many new marvelous items appeared. Ning’s horizons were truly broadened. Only now did he understand how many treasures the Endless Territories possessed! The World-level experts he had previously encountered, such as God Emperor Blacklotus, were actually nothing more than failures. Truly powerful cultivators would be able to wield their treasures to absolutely devastating effect.
On the seventh day of the treasure auction, Ning purchased yet another treasure. A Pentabolt Gourd!
The Pentabolt Gourd was filled with five different types of divine chaos lightning. In truth, a single one of those five types of lightning was enough to utterly devastate anyone below the World level of power, but against World Gods and Chaos Immortals it wouldn’t be of much use. The Pentabolt Gourd, however, mixed all five types of chaos lightning together. It was enough to threaten the lives of weaker World-level experts, and even powerful ones would be entangled and ensnared by them.
“The Pentabolt Gourd can be used to launch group attacks. Even if I can’t kill my foes, I can slow them down.” Ning nodded to himself.
Ning had spent a total of 180 cubes to purchase the Pentabolt Gourd.
The eighth day of the treasure auction.
“This next treasure is a set of three golems.” The silver-eyed woman waved her hand, causing three fiery golems to appear in her palms before slowly levitating into the air. “However, these golems are unlike ordinary golems! They don’t have any treasure spirits within them, but they do have a compartment which a cultivator can enter and control them through.”
“When these three golems come together into a formation, their defensive powers will increase exponentially.”
“This set of golems has a reserve price of three hundred cubes. Let the bidding begin!” The silver-eyed woman said.
Instantly, quite a few cultivators began to make their bids.
These golems that could hold cultivators inside them were very popular amongst Chaos Immortals. Chaos Immortals had fragile bodies, but when they were inside golems they would be fairly safe! In addition, golems that fought on their own usually did so in clumsy ways. Cultivators had much higher levels of insight into the Dao; when they personally commanded a golem, it was only natural for the golem to be capable of much greater power.
However, there was a weakness!
Ning’s own stone titan golem was able to fight alongside him; the two were able to surround and pincer-attack a foe together. If Ning was to enter a golem, the fight would turn into a one-on-one fight.
“Three hundred and sixty cubes.”
“Three hundred and seventy cubes.”
Ning was rather nervous. Twelve hours ago, a set of five similar golems had appeared. Ning had made multiple bids, but in the end the price had risen to over eight hundred cubes. Ning only had roughly six hundred cubes left!
“I have to win this time,” Ning mused to himself. If he let his powerful Elder Gods or Ancestral Immortals control these three golems, they would actually be a bit more powerful than the stone titan was. Ning would then have much more resources at his disposal if he encountered dangerous situations when adventuring.
Originally, Ning had been planning on buying a Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation.
At this treasure auction, around two hundred cubes would be enough to procure one of these formations! As for the thousand Elder God slaves needed to operate it, they could be purchased for a hundred cubes. Three hundred cubes would translate into an army of Elder God slaves who were able to join together into a formation. However, by comparison the set of three golems was even more attractive to Ning, even though they were somewhat more expensive.
“Five hundred cubes.”
“Five hundred and ten cubes.”
The price continued to rise.
“Six hundred cubes!” Ning said. He only had a bit over six hundred cubes left.
A momentary silence.
The silver-eyed woman glanced at the people nearby, then said, “Six hundred cubes of chaos nectar. Any higher bids?” The three golems began to slowly descend from midair.
“Six hundred and ten cubes!” Suddenly, a green-robed Chaos Immortal located in the corner of the hall gritted his teeth and place a bid.
“Six hundred and twenty cubes!” Ning almost immediately raised his bid once more.
The green-robed Chaos Immortal raised his head to glance at Ning. He didn’t say a thing.
The silver-eyed woman continued to ask for more bidders as the three golems began their descent. Finally, they landed in her palm. “This set of golems has been sold for six hundred and twenty cubes! The bidding is complete.”
Ning was standing at the window, staring down towards the great hall. He broke out into a grin.
It was enough.
Daolord Solesky wouldn’t be around to help him out. Ning would go out adventuring by himself, and he had spent all of his chaos nectar to buy what he needed. He had acquired enough from this treasure auction.
“I’m completely broke now.” Ning sat down to simply watch. This treasure auction would no longer mean much to him.