Du Yan and the others were waiting outside. When they saw Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze being escorted out, with the man eagerly handing them an invitation as well, they all stared.
They exchanged glances, wondering whether the City Lord had given those six thousand seaweed fronds away for free, then immediately shook their heads. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Spirit-Gathering Pills falling from the sky would happen sooner than that.
Xia Yunzhao accepted the invitation and came over looking thoroughly pleased. The moment he saw their expressions, he became wary. “What are you thinking?”
Du Yan felt several people poking him from behind and helplessly asked, “They want to know how much you sold the Soul-Entangling Seaweed for.”
“That?” Xia Yunzhao narrowed his eyes in satisfaction, held up a number with his fingers, then added quietly, “Spirit stones.”
It was not as though everyone had never seen money before, but the number still shocked them. “Eighteen thousand? Low-grade spirit stones? Didn’t you say your bottom line was six thousand spirit stones?”
Xia Yunzhao said calmly, “Obviously, their bottom line was higher than ours.”
Everyone fell silent… Three times higher? What kind of black market was this? These were practically good Samaritans!
Du Yan understood why the other side had shoved an invitation at him. “Looks like that purchasing ship and the auction belong to the same people. They probably want to empty your pockets.”
Xia Yunzhao raised an eyebrow. “Then they’re going to be disappointed. The auction doesn’t start until tonight. Come on, let’s look around first.”
Xia Yunzhao would not dare claim he was especially knowledgeable in every field, but when it came to alchemy and artifact refining, his eye was no worse than that of some old fellows who had lived for centuries. He could not say he would never be fooled, only that fooling him would take some effort.
The group made another circuit of the Drifting-Boat Market. Along the way, they witnessed two fights and one case of black-market predators turning on each other, with five people dead in total. The sea beasts nearby had it pretty good. They were definitely eating their fill today.
On a small boat without a flag, Xia Yunzhao made a major discovery: the owner was actually selling Cold-Jade Mystic-Water Clams.
The vivid blue shells were very easy to recognize. Xia Yunzhao spotted them from far away and initially thought he might have been mistaken, but once he walked closer and saw the patterns on the shells, he knew he had not been.
The little boat was not very high-level, only high-tier Level Two and still some distance from Level Three. Its owner wore a conical hat that concealed both cultivation and face. The absence of a flag meant the boat did not belong to one of the Drifting-Boat Market’s internal factions and was only borrowing the place to set up a stall.
Xia Yunzhao swept his gaze over the rest of the wares. The selection was surprisingly complete. Aside from more than ten Cold-Jade Mystic-Water Clams, there was an entire piece of Sea-Moon Stone, several Star-Splitting Sea Urchins, a large bundle of Azure-Wave Algae, one Frostmoon Cod, and two Flowing-Light Shuttlefish. There was also a broken bamboo basket containing a number of shells and crabs that were probably not worth much.
Seeing the whole group staring, the boat owner asked, “Is there anything you fellow Daoists would like?” Even the voice had been disguised.
Xia Yunzhao nodded and swept a finger across the wares. “I’ll take all of these. Name your price, Fellow Daoist.”
Strictly speaking, only the Cold-Jade Mystic-Water Clams and Sea-Moon Stone were valuable in his eyes. But no one else knew the value of those clams, and buying only them would be too conspicuous. This was the Drifting-Boat Market. Better to be cautious.
The others did not know what he was thinking, but none of them spoke.
The boat owner considered briefly. “Package price, one hundred fifty thousand spirit pearls.”
Xia Yunzhao shook his head slightly and pointed at the basket. “Everything in there is worthless junk. This is Wangjin Sea. Shells and crabs are everywhere. If you’re charging for that basket too, then I don’t want it. I’ll take everything else. One price: one hundred thousand spirit pearls. How about it?”
The boat owner thought for another moment, then slowly nodded. “Deal.”
Xia Yunzhao relaxed. There were thirteen Cold-Jade Mystic-Water Clams here. Added to the ones already in his possession, that made sixteen. With the Sea-Moon Stone as well, he could refine at least four portions of Water-Jade Mystic Paste!
They exchanged money and goods. Since Xia paid so readily, the boat owner ended up handing over the basket too. Xia Yunzhao had not been wrong. The half-basket of things truly was not worth much, so it could count as a free gift.
The group left the boat. After walking a few steps, they looked back and found that it had already disappeared. Whether the owner had left because everything had been sold or had stored the boat and entered the Drifting-Boat Market, no one knew.
They looked around a little longer and bought a few other things. By then, it was almost time for the auction, so they headed toward the center.
At the very heart of the Drifting-Boat Market was a three-story tower ship, extravagantly luxurious, brilliantly lit, and magnificent.
As they crossed from ship to ship and drew closer, the pressure they felt grew stronger. Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze exchanged a glance. A Level-Five treasure ship.
Thinking of the Tidal Formation around this place, both of them guessed that whoever stood behind the Drifting-Boat Market might be a Soul Transformation expert.
The invitation from the mustached man allowed guests to bring companions, so Xia Yunzhao took everyone inside. Following the guidance, they entered the cabin, went up to the second floor, and were shown into a private room.
Before long, plates of spirit fruit and pastries were delivered one after another, together with several pots of spirit wine.
Du Yan laughed. “Looks like that mustached fellow has high hopes for you. This invitation must be fairly high-level.”
Xia Yunzhao chuckled. “That only means he has good judgment! You all sit here. The two of us are going to discuss something about the auction.”
Everyone knew perfectly well that whether Xia Yunzhao would spend money tonight was uncertain, but he was definitely going to make quite a bit.
They ate spirit fruit and drank wine while watching Xia Yunzhao pull Shang Shuangze out of the room. For some reason, they had the strange feeling of finally managing to shake the two of them off…
Zhong Yundu hesitated. “They aren’t sneaking off to flirt behind our backs, are they?”
“Probably not.” Su Meng thought for a moment, then nodded firmly. “The City Lord and Senior Shang flirt even when they aren’t hiding from us.”
Zhong Yundu: …That made sense.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze, for their part, felt no embarrassment at all. Everyone knew each other this well already, and the two of them were not having some secret affair. Was there anything wrong with being clingy? Not in the slightest!
They casually found someone to lead the way and soon located the person in charge of the auction, explaining that they wanted to add some lots.
At a proper auction, adding lots at the last minute might not succeed. But this auction was being held at the Drifting-Boat Market. Even if it was respectable, there was a limit to how respectable it could possibly be.
The moment the person in charge heard there were new lots, his eyes lit up and he immediately agreed. “How many items would Fellow Daoist like to add? What levels are they?”
Xia Yunzhao considered. He certainly could not bear to sell anything truly good, so he could only part with things they had little use for, the sort that were rather dispensable. With that in mind, he took out the water-attribute treasure fan and gauzy magical robe he had refined earlier.
Then he produced four Flameheart Glazed Pendants, one Bright-Flame Lamp, and one Warm-Jade Smoke-Rising Brazier. All three types had been refined from Flowing-Flame Crystal Clams.
Back on the seabed, they had collected eighty-eight Flowing-Flame Crystal Clams. Xia Yunzhao had studied them thoroughly and tried all sorts of artifact-refining methods, yet had not produced anything especially useful. Well, it was not that the results were useless. It was simply that, for him personally, he already had better alternatives.
The person in charge was delighted. “I’ll appraise them for Fellow Daoist right away…”
He had not even finished speaking when Xia Yunzhao thought for another moment and started taking out more things: two Dream-Weaving Pillows, one Phantom-Sea Pearl, one pair of Rosy-Glow Strands…
Only after the counter was covered with magical artifacts did Xia Yunzhao nod. “That’s about it. Record them.”
Person in charge: …Why did he say that as though he had just dumped out a pile of melons and fruit?
He wiped his face. “Yes, yes. This junior will report them immediately. Forgive the poor reception.”
Xia Yunzhao did not care. He leaned against Shang Shuangze and began to wait.
Shang Shuangze quietly shifted so Xia could lean more comfortably. “You’re not keeping the Rosy-Glow Strands?”
Xia Yunzhao made a questioning sound. “You want them?”
The Rosy-Glow Strands had been refined from Rosy-Glow Shell Pearls and were another product of Xia Yunzhao’s artifact-refining experiments. The artifact consisted of two strands. If two people wore them at the same time, each could vaguely sense the other’s location. The strands also had a slight beautifying effect.
Xia Yunzhao personally found them a little useless, but if Shang Shuangze wanted the two of them to wear the pair together, he did not mind.
Shang Shuangze smiled and shook his head. “Not really. I just thought you would keep them.”
For a while, Xia Yunzhao had been obsessed with paired magical artifacts like this and would always try them together with Shang Shuangze.
Xia Yunzhao immediately understood and laughed. “Then we should at least find a good pair. The Rosy-Glow Strands are only Level Two. That’s too low. And…” He lowered his voice. “They’re a little ugly. If I refine an artifact for you, it has to be both beautiful and useful.”
Shang Shuangze only smiled without speaking. By now, aside from Mingyun, almost every magical artifact he wore had been refined by Xia Yunzhao. It had been that way since the Hundred-Compartment Pouch. They really were both beautiful and useful.
Xia Yunzhao tilted his face up toward him again. “You’re still missing a hair crown. I want to make you a silver coiled-dragon crown, but I still haven’t found the right material…”
It was only through slowly learning that Xia Yunzhao had gradually realized artifact refining and alchemy really were different. Up to now, he had never tried creating an original pill recipe, though he had modified recipes many times already. Creating one entirely from scratch was probably only a matter of time.
He had, however, already tried creating his own artifact designs several times. Artifact refining depended less heavily on fixed designs than alchemy did on pill recipes. The treasure fan and gauzy robe from earlier, for example, had both been refined according to the properties of the materials themselves, without any artifact blueprint.
The two were still talking quietly when the person in charge returned, a jade slip in hand and a delighted expression on his face. “The appraisal results have been engraved into the jade slip. Senior, please take a look.”
Xia Yunzhao raised an eyebrow and sent his divine sense into it, then glanced at the man in charge. Every listed price was ten to twenty percent higher than Xia’s own estimate.
The man smiled mysteriously. “Please forgive us, Senior. This is one of the Drifting-Boat Market auction’s special features.”
Special feature? Its special feature was cheating people, was that it?
The two returned to the private room. The auction was about to begin.
The Drifting-Boat Market ran a mixed auction, meaning goods of every level and type were thrown together: Level-One through Level-Four spirit items, pills, magical artifacts, spirit plants, spirit beasts… As long as someone dared to sell it, the Drifting-Boat Market dared to auction it. Absolutely fearless.
The moment the two entered, everyone took one look at their faces and knew the consignment had gone smoothly, so there was no need to ask.
Not long after they sat down, the auction began.
The auctioneer was a tall male cultivator with a refined manner of speaking. “Thank you all for your support…”
Xia Yunzhao could not be bothered listening to the long string of courtesies. He casually grabbed a fruit and started eating while he waited for the actual auction to begin.
They auctioned Level-One spirit items first, followed by Level Two, Level Three, and finally Level Four.
The person behind the market was probably at Soul Transformation, so Level Four was likely the highest level of goods this auction could handle.
This was Su Meng and Su Ying’s first time at an event like this, and both were excited. They leaned over the window and watched intently. “City Lord, someone bought a spirit sword! That spirit sword can even fly!”
Xia Yunzhao followed the direction of the pointing finger. “Huh. A trick this crude can make it into an auction?”
The others looked over too. Xiang Moyue laughed. “It has been quite a while since I’ve seen such a crude deception.”
Su Meng asked in confusion, “Is the spirit sword fake?”
Xia Yunzhao explained, “The sword is real. The flying is fake. For a magical artifact to fly on its own, it has to be at least Level Three. If your sword-control technique is good enough, Level Two can work too. Shang Shuangze, for example, could already control Mingyun to fly by itself when he was at Foundation Establishment. But Level One is impossible. Completely impossible.”
Su Meng looked at Shang Shuangze and quickly nodded. “So someone tampered with that spirit sword?”
Shang Shuangze explained for him, “They only need to attach a talisman to the spirit sword. Someone behind the scenes controls the talisman, making the sword fly and creating the illusion.”
Su Meng and Su Ying nodded together. Now they understood. Su Ying said, “That person paid four thousand spirit pearls for it.”
“That’s how black markets are,” Xia Yunzhao said. “What you can buy depends entirely on your own judgment. This is a place without rules. If you don’t trust your own eye, don’t come in.”
The two hurriedly nodded. “We only came in because we’re following the City Lord!”
Everyone laughed. The two really did trail Xia Yunzhao every day like a pair of little shadows. They were lucky Shang Shuangze had such a good temper and still had not thrown them out.
Xia Yunzhao laughed too and looked down. The buyer of the spirit sword was a young male cultivator wearing a fairly high-level magical robe, with someone who looked like a guard beside him. Judging by how excited he was after winning the sword, he was probably some clan’s young master traveling outside for experience. No wonder he had fallen for such a simple trick.
The Level-One items sold quickly. In less than an hour, that portion ended and the auction moved on to Level Two.
Xia Yunzhao soon heard the name of a familiar magical artifact. The auctioneer announced with tremendous enthusiasm, “Our next lot is a Level-Two magical treasure, the Flameheart Glazed Pendants! There are two pairs in total. Opening bid for the first pair: ten thousand spirit pearls. Each increase must be at least one thousand!”
Xia Yunzhao choked on his tea. Ten thousand spirit pearls!
Even though they were his own things, he still wanted to shout: Why don’t you just rob someone?!
And since when had the Flameheart Glazed Pendants become Level-Two magical treasures? Those four pendants had been practice pieces from his artifact-refining experiments. Two were mid-tier Level One, one was high-tier Level One, and only one was early-tier Level Two. How had all four suddenly become Level-Two magical treasures?
He quickly craned his neck to look. Once he did, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. Those four pendants really had all become Level Two!
Du Yan was curious too. “Little Xia, did the levels of these four pendants increase again?”
Aside from the magical artifacts he refined specifically for Shang Shuangze, Xia Yunzhao would show everyone else the things he made after finishing them. As a result, everyone recognized his creations.
Xia Yunzhao said with a helpless laugh, “What level increase? The Drifting-Boat Market people tempered the pendants once with spirit fire, temporarily forcing them up to Level Two. That spiritual energy can’t stay in them. It’ll dissipate in three days at most, and then they’ll go right back to whatever levels they originally were.”
He shook his head speechlessly. This auction was one enormous fraud scene. He had assumed only the sellers would tamper with their goods while the auction house merely turned a blind eye. He had not expected the auction itself to be dirty too.
If he had known, he would never have consigned his things here. Auctions were everywhere. There was no need for him to earn this kind of dirty money.
Then again, every sort of person gathered at the Drifting-Boat Market, and those sitting below were not necessarily good people either. At the very least, the power of Xia Yunzhao’s artifacts was genuine.
In only a short while, the bidding below had already reached twenty thousand spirit pearls and was still climbing toward thirty thousand.
Jing Ruyun asked, “What do these pendants do again? Didn’t the auctioneer just say they were top-grade defensive magical artifacts? Why did you sell them, then?”
Xia Yunzhao said speechlessly, “Fellow Daoist Jing, you actually believed him? The pendants are refined from Flowing-Flame Crystal Clams. Their main function is keeping the wearer warm and warding off cold. As for defense… I can’t say they have none, only that what they have is better than nothing.”
Jing Ruyun stared. “Then what the auctioneer just said…”
Xia Yunzhao spread his hands. “Exactly. This auctioneer lies without blinking.”
Jing Ruyun did not know whether to laugh or cry. She was an experienced hand herself, but even she had never seen an auction like this.
In the end, that first pair of rather useless pendants was won by a cultivator whose face could not be seen for thirty-six thousand spirit pearls. The second pair sold slightly cheaper, for thirty-two thousand.
Among the artifacts Xia Yunzhao had supplied, quite a few were Level Two. The Bright-Flame Lamp, Warm-Jade Smoke-Rising Brazier, and Dream-Weaving Pillows were auctioned one after another afterward, all at high prices. One Dream-Weaving Pillow even sold for more than eighty thousand spirit pearls!
The Dream-Weaving Pillow had been refined from a Dream-Weaving Jellyfish, and its only function was calming the mind and creating dreams. Xia Yunzhao could not understand why anyone would spend eighty thousand spirit pearls on it. If you wanted to dream, couldn’t you just dream on your own?!
At first, everyone had not understood the style of this auction. By now, they did. Seeing Xia Yunzhao’s expression, they all held back laughter. This was probably Little City Lord Xia’s first time making money like this.
Du Yan counted for him. “You still have those two water-attribute artifacts, one Phantom-Sea Pearl, and the pair of Rosy-Glow Strands left, right?”
Xia Yunzhao nodded, frowning. “The two water-attribute artifacts are Level Three, so they’ll definitely go into the Level-Three auction. As for the Phantom-Sea Pearl and Rosy-Glow Strands, they’re both Level Two, so normally they wouldn’t…”
He had not even finished when the shameless auctioneer’s voice rang out again from below. “Next is the Level-Three magical treasure auction! Everyone, please look at our first lot: the Rosy-Glow Strands!”
Xia Yunzhao: …
He! Knew! It!
Zhong Yundu and the others all struggled not to laugh as they crowded around the window to see how the auctioneer would embellish the Rosy-Glow Strands. Then they heard phrases like, “…a token of love… unwavering devotion… sense your partner’s whereabouts even from ten thousand li away…”
Everyone listened with their mouths hanging open. You could exaggerate them like that?
At the end, the auctioneer practically screamed himself hoarse. “Even if you don’t give them to your Dao companion, you can give them to your enemy! Then you’ll be able to track their whereabouts at all times!”
The instant those words fell, everyone in the private room could clearly see the expressions of many people below change. Good grief. So this was what it meant to say hatred was stronger than love!
These were outlaws. Tell them to buy something for a lover and they would begrudge the money. Tell them to buy something for an enemy and they would dig out their very last spirit pearl.
The auctioneer really had seen straight through human weakness.
Only Xia Yunzhao sat there like this: …
City Lord Xia: If I’d known, I would’ve let those Rosy-Glow Shell Pearls rot on the seabed!
Incredibly, the pair of Rosy-Glow Strands ultimately sold for the astronomical price of one hundred eighty-eight thousand spirit pearls.
Under the profit split they had agreed on earlier, Xia Yunzhao himself would earn more than one hundred sixty thousand spirit pearls from that single sale.
Zhong Yundu clicked his tongue. “How much hatred does that take? Spending one hundred eighty-eight thousand just to know where your enemy is?”
Before anyone else could answer, Su Ying said quietly, “Actually, the most important part isn’t knowing where the enemy is. It’s knowing where the enemy is while the enemy doesn’t know you know.”
Everyone paused. Zhong Yundu rubbed his chin. “Go on.”
Su Ying rarely spoke much. Seeing everyone look at him, he instinctively shrank a little before continuing softly, “The Rosy-Glow Strands look rather festive. If you give them to someone, they’ll misunderstand and think you have feelings for them. So if you pretend they’re a gift, you can not only know where the other person is, you can also mislead them.”
Everyone understood at once. “Right!”
Exactly. If you only wanted a tracking artifact, there were plenty of those in the world. The Rosy-Glow Strands were too conspicuous to secretly plant on someone. But if you gave them as a gift, that was different. The recipient might even wonder whether the giver liked them, never imagining that the other person actually wanted them dead.
They all looked downstairs. From the second floor, they had a clear view of everything below. The cultivator who had won the Rosy-Glow Strands looked to be in his early thirties. No one knew whether his face had been altered, but his eyes were frighteningly sinister. He held the strands and stared at them for a while before revealing a dark, unsettling smile.
Everyone clicked their tongues. As expected of the Drifting-Boat Market. There were hardly any good people either onstage or off.
Several more lots came and went. None of these had been supplied by Xia Yunzhao. He had no idea exactly how they had been falsified, but there was definitely something fishy about them.
There were fewer Level-Three magical treasures than Level-Two ones, so they soon reached the final lot. To Xia Yunzhao’s surprise, the closing artifacts were the treasure fan and gauzy robe he had supplied.
The fan and robe were genuine Level-Three magical artifacts. Given the Drifting-Boat Market’s skill at faking things, letting these two close the Level-Three auction was almost deserved. There might not even have been more than a few genuinely Level-Three spirit items in the entire Level-Three portion.
The auctioneer opened with the same cheerful smile as always. “Next are the final two Level-Three lots: the Azure-Sky Tide-Sound Fan and Flowing-Light Water-Weave Robe! Both were crafted by a master of Shuixi Pavilion. Their quality is extraordinary and their power boundless…”
Xia Yunzhao: …
Cheerful laughter filled the private room. “And just like that, he became a master of Shuixi Pavilion.”
“What is Shuixi Pavilion?”
“A power on par with Qianyuan Sect. Every disciple there cultivates a water-attribute method…”
Xia Yunzhao slowly drank his tea. Forget it. Just forget it…
Suddenly, his ears twitched. Was he imagining things? He had heard a young cry, and the sound was somewhat familiar, as though he had heard it not long ago.
He looked up and met Shang Shuangze’s gaze. Shang Shuangze nodded to him. Xia had not misheard it. Shang had heard it too.
Xia Yunzhao frowned slightly and opened the window on the other side by a crack.
Their private room had two windows. One faced the auction stage and the hall below, while the other looked toward the side of the stage, where the items waiting to be auctioned were being kept.
Xia Yunzhao peered through the crack and looked down. Inside a transparent water tank lay a sky-blue juvenile whale as thick around as a person and about two people long.
Whether it was frightened or simply too lazy to struggle, the little whale floated belly-up, looking weak and listless as it occasionally let out a cry.
Xia Yunzhao: …
Wasn’t that the juvenile Cloud-Swallowing Whale?! How long had it even been since its mother took it away? How had it gotten caught again?!