Desolate Era

by RWX

  “The treasure auction is beginning.” Daolord Thousand Shadows glanced downwards.

  ……

  Ji Ning, Su Youji, and Wilddog peered out through their giant window towards the great hall below them. The hall didn’t look that large from the outside, but it was actually ten kilometers in size. Tens of thousands of cultivators were seated around the central auctioning platform. Most of the people present were World Gods and Chaos Immortals, with a few Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals present.

  Even the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals who were allowed in had to have at least ten cubes of chaos nectar in wealth. The chairs were all seated a fair distance from each other as there was ten kilometers worth of space here. But of course, all of them had such perfect vision that they could see ants crawling on the ground from ten kilometers away with absolute clarity.

  “Master, it has begun.” Su Youji hurriedly pointed downwards.

  “Right.” Ning looked as well.

  Three female Chaos Immortals dressed in marvelous floral robes walked out to the central auction platform. Their leader was a woman whose skin looked like it had been carved out of ice, and her eyes were a steely silver color. This silver-eyed woman stood there in the center, the other two standing by her side.

  “Welcome, distinguished cultivators and guests from many different territories. I shall be the one in charge of this treasure auction.” The silver-eyed woman had a smile on her face. “I imagine all of you are tired of waiting, so I won’t waste any time. Let the auction begin! The rules to the auction are quite simple. Every single treasure will have a reserve price, and every bid has to be at least one cube of chaos nectar higher than the previous bid.”

  “Alright. Let the first item be brought out.”

  The silver-eyed woman waved her crystalline, frozen arm. Instantly, a dried yellow wooden slip appeared in her hands, then levitated into the air. It rose to a height of roughly thirty meters, so as to allow all of the cultivators a clear line of sight to it.

  “This is a piece of Soulguide Wood.” The silver-eyed woman smiled. “Soulguide Wood. Once it is lit, it will completely ignite and transform into a certain type of smoke. If you completely inhale all of the smoke, you’ll enter a deep slumber for a thousand years. Any cultivators whose hearts have been cast into shadow due to some event will find the shadow to be dramatically weakened and no longer pose a threat to them.”

  “Soulguide Wood has a reserve price of twelve cubes of chaos nectar. Let the auction begin!”

  “Fifteen cubes! The first bidder was an Elder God whose eyes were filled with desire.”

  “Sixteen cubes.” A gray-robed Chaos Immortal called out calmly from a different part of the hall. The Elder God immediately gritted his teeth helplessly. The reason why he had immediately increased the bid to fifteen cubes was because he wanted to scare off any bidders…but alas, everyone knew just how valuable Soulguide Wood was. How many Elder Gods could possibly win a bidding war against World-level figures?

  “Seventeen cubes.”

  “Eighteen cubes.”

  Ning watched as the bidding proceeded, rather surprised. “Soulguide Wood? I didn’t expect the first treasure to be such a valuable one.”

  When cultivators encountered certain types of setbacks, every so often a shadow would be cast over their heart. Sometimes, the shadow would be as strong as a demonheart curse. This would constantly disturb and nag at the cultivator, worrying away at him. Even if he was able to suppress it, he wouldn’t be able to be truly at peace when meditating on the Dao, making it much more difficult for him to grow more powerful. However, Soulguide Wood would send the cultivator into a thousand-year slumber. Upon awakening, the cultivator would feel as though the shadow cast over his heart was something that had happened long, long ago. He would barely be able to remember it.

  This was quite a marvelous treasure. Although it was comparable in value to most Dao weapons, it was incredibly rare. Normally, if a person wished to purchase this item within the Palace Opulentia, the Palace Opulentia would charge an extortionate price to help them even locate the item. The price would start off at fifty cubes at least! Sometimes, even organizations like the Badlands Court would find it difficult to acquire, making it truly expensive to purchase.

  However, the prices offered at these treasure auctions were much lower.

  This was the reason why even Daolords would come and take a look. They wanted to see if they could pick up something cheap.

  “Thirty-two cubes. Any higher bids?” The silver-eyed woman glanced at the surrounding cultivators. “Since there are no higher bids…” As she spoke, the Soulguide Wood slowly began to float downwards. When it landed in her hand, it represented this particular bidding cycle as having been completed.

  The Soulguide Wood landed in her hands.

  “Very well then. The Soulguide Wood is sold at thirty-two cubes,” the silver-eyed woman said. The woman behind her immediately walked forward, accepting the Soulguide Wood and then taking it off the auction platform. She walked to the Elder God who had placed the final bid of thirty-two cubes.

  Soulguide Wood was something which many Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were desperately in need of.

  Generally speaking, the higher one’s level of insight into the Dao was, the more powerful their hearts were. It was very rare for World-level experts to have their hearts troubled by the demonheart, and even if they were the problem wouldn’t be resolvable through usage of Soulguide Wood. If they truly did wish to buy Soulguide Wood, they could just spend fifty cubes to buy it at a later point in time. It was slightly cheaper now, which was why the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals present were desperate to buy it.

  Many of the World-level experts had merely watched. It wasn’t yet time for them to make bids.

  As for Ning, he also just watched from the third floor as well. He had sold off quite a few treasures for the sake of this treasure auction, precisely because he was waiting for rare, powerful items he needed to show up!

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 16 - Wings

  Thanks to the time he had spent in the Badlands Court, Ji Ning understood that each treasure auction would have many treasures for sale. Treasures of every single type would be sold, and so Ning sold off the vast majority of the treasures he had acquired in the Windsource Ruins. He had been planning on keeping the Eversnow Banner and the Rainbow Cloud World, but he ended up selling them as well.

  The Eversnow Banner was quite useful. It had several sinfiends within it and could be used to trap enemies or test out dangerous regions. However, Ning deeply disliked sin treasures. He had planned on temporarily using it since he had a deficit of good treasures, but now that an abundance of treasures was coming towards him he was naturally going to sell it off to buy things he actually liked.

  Although the Rainbow Cloud World was a domain-type artifact, Ning had no insights into the Dao of Mist at all. There was no way for Ning to even bind the layers of seals held within the Dao weapon and so he was only able to unleash a tiny fraction of its true power. He naturally chose to sell it as well.

  The Eversnow Banner alone had been sold off for more than 150 cubes.

  In short…Ning had sold off almost all of the treasures of those three World-level experts, save for the Mirrorsnow Painting and Rocky the stone titan. He had sold these treasures off to the Badlands Court, and since he was their respected guest they didn’t try to make much money off of him. Ning was able to earn a total of 1580 cubes of chaos nectar. This was an enormous sum of money! However, it wouldn’t be that impressive in the context of the treasure auction, and so he had to be very careful in how he spent his wealth.

  “Violetjewel and the Mirrorsnow Painting are worth incredible amounts of chaos nectar, but they are very important to me.” Ning continued to stare through the window towards the great hall below him.

  The great hall was still filled with tens of thousands of seated cultivators.

  The silver-eyed woman took ou
t one treasure after another, arousing waves of excited discussions.

  In the blink of an eye, six hours had gone past. This was nothing more than the start, as every single treasure auction would go on for nearly ten days. Between the explanation phase and the bidding phase, every single treasure would take quite a bit of time. Even after a full day of auctioning, only a few hundred treasures had been sold off.

  “This treasure.” The silver-eyed woman waved her hand, causing a white pair of wings to appear in her palms. The tiny, delicate little wings quickly flew into the air and began to expand in size. When it reached a height of thirty meters, it was roughly as tall as a normal human. It emanated waves of strange ripples as it constantly phased in and out of existence.

  “This is a high-grade Dao treasure known as the Voidsea Wings. It is filled with many divine runes that embody the profound mysteries of space and is suitable for cultivators who cultivate the Dao of Spacetime.” The silver-eyed woman continued, “With this set of wings, you’ll be able to fly incredibly fast. When engaged in close combat, you’ll be able to move much more agilely.”

  “The Voidsea Wings have a reserve price of thirty cubes of chaos nectar. Let the bidding begin!” The silver-eyed woman called out.

  “Thirty cubes.”

  “Thirty-one cubes.”

  “Thirty-five cubes.”

  Instantly, quite a few cultivators began to fight over the treasure. Treasures that could increase one’s agility in combat were actually very important, especially since they could also be vital when fleeing from danger.

  These wings could allow one to fly much faster and also made one much more agile. Although it was merely a high-grade Dao treasure, it was even more rare and valuable than most top-grade Dao weapons.

  The third floor.

  “Master, don’t you need treasures like this?” Su Youji asked.

  “Let’s wait for a bit longer. I imagine there will be even better treasures later.” Ning frowned. He did want a set of wings, because his path was the path of close combat, but his greatest skill lay in the Dao of the Sword. Although he did have some insights into lightning, water, and space, they were significantly weaker than his insights into the Dao of the Sword.

  Strictly speaking, his most powerful Dao was the Dao of the Sword, the second was the Dao of Lightning, the third was the Dao of Water, and the last one was the Dao of Space…

  The divine runes that had been imprinted into those Voidsea Wings were undoubtedly quite abstruse and profound. Given his limited skill in the Dao of Space, he probably would only be able to unleash a fraction of the full power of that set of wings.

  “Sixty-nine cubes. Any higher bids?” The silver-eyed woman glanced at the surrounding people as the pair of wings in the air began to slowly descend from its height of thirty meters, shrinking as it did so. Finally, it landed in her palms. “The auction is complete. The Voidsea Wings have been sold for sixty-nine cubes.”

  One of the female Immortals behind her immediately took the wings and delivered them to the winning bidder.

  Ning continued to watch. He had yet to make a single bid, because there was nothing that had truly excited him thus far. There was no need for him to buy a treasure that wasn’t a perfect fit for him. With enough chaos nectar on hand, he would have plenty of other chances to purchase what he needed.

  “If push comes to shove, I’ll buy a boat-type treasure that’s meant for fleeing,” Ning mused to himself. “Even if I’m not as agile as I would be with those wings, my sword-arts will ensure that I have nothing to fear.”

  This was his backup plan.

  The treasure auction continued for another two hours.

  “This is the fifth set of wings to appear in this treasure auction. This is also a pair of high-grade Dao wings, and it is known as the Thunderlight Wings.” The silver-eyed woman waved her hand as her voice echoed within the great hall.

  “Thunderlight?”

  Ning’s ears twitched.

  For the sake of mastering a Ninehorn Lightning Serpent, Ning had transformed his body to give it an even higher affinity for lightning than Exalted Celestial Thundergod. His improvement in the Dao of Lightning was quite fast, on the same level as his improvement in the element of water. It was second only to the Dao of the Sword.

  “Is that…” Ning stared from afar as a set of azure wings appeared in the silver-eyed woman’s hands. The wings appeared to spark and hum with electric light.

  “Thunderlight Wings are powered by lightning and use sword-light to tear through all obstacles, allowing the wielder to move at tremendous speeds. It is highly suited for both close combat and evasive techniques. It is a perfect fit for cultivators who are skilled in both the Dao of the Sword and the Dao of Lightning,” the silver-eyed woman said.

  Ning shot up, his eyes gleaming as he stared through the window. “That’s the one!”

  The Thunderlight Wings were actually even tougher to use than the Voidsea Wings. There were quite a few cultivators who were skilled in the Dao of Space, the Dao of Lightning, and the Dao of the Sword, but fairly few who were skilled in both the sword and in lightning.

  However, a treasure which was able to join together two different Daos would generally be even more astonishingly powerful than ‘normal’ treasures of that type.

  “The Thunderlight Wings have a reserve price of thirty-six cubes of chaos nectar. Let the bidding begin,” the silver-eyed woman said.

  “Thirty-eight cubes.”

  “Forty cubes.”

  “Forty-five cubes.”

  Quite a few World Gods began to make their bids, the price rising much faster than the price for the Voidsea Wings had. Although fewer cultivators were able to use these Thunderlight Wings, there were so many World Gods present that there were multiple figures here who were skilled in both lightning and the sword. Under normal circumstances, Waveshift City didn’t have many Dao treasures for sale. Wing-type Dao treasures were even rarer, and dual-affinity ones such as this almost never showed up.

  “The bidding war is pretty fierce.” Ning frowned slightly, then spoke out and made his first bid. “Fifty cubes!”

  His voice rang out from the third floor, causing quite a few cultivators to turn their heads in his direction.

  “That’s the third floor.”

  “He must be a disciple of the Badlands Court.”

  “So what if he is? Fifty-two cubes!”

  “Fifty-five cubes.”

  “Sixty cubes.”

  “Sixty-five cubes.”

  The bidding war grew increasingly intense.

  “Seventy-two cubes.” Ning raised the price, making his second bid. This pair of wings were extremely hard to design and quite complicated to forge. They rarely showed up in the marketplace. If he used them, his ability and his speed would both increase dramatically. Ning would not accept no for an answer!

  “Seventy-three cubes.”

  “Seventy-four cubes.”

  The bidding speed began to slow down. There was a limit to how much anyone would pay for a high-grade Dao treasure; in the end, they could try to find and buy one during the next treasure auction. Waveshift City would hold ten of them each chaos cycle, after all.

  “Seventy-six cubes.”

  Ning frowned slightly, then spoke out for a third time. “Eighty cubes!”

  The entire hall fell silent. No further bids came. Eighty cubes appeared to be the ceiling. It must be understood that the stone titan Ning had acquired was itself worth merely a hundred cubes.

  “Eighty cubes. Any higher bids?” The set of azure Thunderlight Wings continued to hover above the silver-eyed woman, but a moment later it began to slowly descend. Finally, it landed in her hands. “Bidding is now closed. The Thunderlight Wings have been sold for eighty cubes.”

  On the third floor, Ning let out a sigh of a relief and revealed a hint of a smile. The highest possible price he was willing to pay was actually a hundred cubes of chaos nectar. Other cultivators and World-level experts
had been around for a long time and were willing to wait; there were ten of these auctions each chaos cycle, after all. They wouldn’t be willing to pay too high a price. Ning, however, wasn’t willing to wait. By the time the next treasure auction came around, he would probably be a World-level expert himself!

  “Eighty cubes for a set of wings that are a perfect fit for me. I’m satisfied.” Ning secretly celebrated.

  “Congratulations, Master.” Elder God Wilddog hurriedly congratulated Ning.

  “Congratulations, Master. You were silent for so long, but when you found something you liked you stopped at nothing to take it.” The Flamefairy smiled as well.

  “We are just getting started. This was just a warmup.” Ning grinned. This set of wings had only cost him eighty cubes of chaos nectar. He had prepared more than a thousand cubes for this auction, and the best treasures had yet to appear! Supposedly, there were some treasures that would cause even Samsara Daolords to grow intrigued.

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 17 - Aquaflect

  One treasure after another was sold off. Of course, there was also the occasional treasure which had no bidders at all.

  Three days of bidding passed in the blink of an eye, with the cultivators in the hall growing increasingly excited. Increasingly unique treasures were beginning to come out, as many of the best treasures had been saved for last.

  “This next treasure is a suit of armor.” The silver-eyed female Immortal smiled, her voice echoing within the ears of the tens of thousands of cultivators present. “This is the most unique set of armor we have for sale in this treasure auction.”

  “Oh?” The eyes of quite a few people lit up as they began to listen carefully.

  Ji Ning listened carefully as well.

  “The most unique set of armor?” The Daolords seated at the top floor also glanced downwards towards the great hall.

  “Little sister Thousand Shadows, what’s so unique about this armor?” Waterwind asked curiously.