Chapter 56 - The Eldest Apprentice Brother

Chapter 56: Chapter 54: The Eldest Apprentice Brother"Let us welcome the next auction item."

A tall and beautiful woman carried a box onto the stage and the moment she opened it, Ye Qiu distinctly felt the temperature in the private room drop.

Inside the box was a stone the size of a human head, silver-white in color, with cold air evidently emanating from it.

"Wow!"

"So cold!"

"Trendy Trading Company is getting more and more impressive, being able to procure such items."

The auctioneer, satisfied with the exclamations from below, smiled and said: "This is Deep Sea Secret Silver, starting bid ten thousand low-grade spirit stones."

"Fifteen thousand."

"Twenty thousand."

"Thirty thousand."

The closing price kept rising, and the smile on the auctioneer’s face grew bigger.

"Three thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones." A deep male voice came from one of the private rooms, causing a collective gasp; three thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones were equivalent to sixty thousand low-grade spirit stones, and usually, no one would exchange high-grade spirit stones for lower ones.

"Three thousand five hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones." The female cultivator in another private room clearly intended to win.

"Five thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones." The man chuckled lightly, raising the price significantly, startling the crowd outside the box.

"Tsk... those from the Artifact Sect really are wealthy," Shun Hua couldn’t help but exclaim.

However, it wasn’t long until Ye Qiu opened his eyes wider; hearing a voice not too loud yet clear: "Two hundred top-grade spiritual stones."

"Hiss..."

"That’s an extremely high bid."

"Is that someone from the Sword Sect? Is another Sword Cultivator going to practice swordsmanship?"

The man and woman in another private room hesitated upon hearing this price. Although the Mithril was excellent, two hundred top-grade spiritual stones were already overpriced, and increasing their bid would not be worthwhile, so they withdrew from the competition.

"Two hundred top-grade spiritual stones once."

"Two hundred top-grade spiritual stones twice."

"Two hundred top-grade spiritual stones thrice... Congratulations to guest in box number five for winning the Deep Sea Secret Silver," the auctioneer’s face bloomed like a flower.

"Two hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones just for a stone, that’s truly a Major Sect, wealthy and imposing."

"What do you know?" the companion couldn’t help but retort, "That is a Sword Cultivator from the Sword Pavilion; each of them is willing to go bankrupt for their swords."

Thinking of those who fought like madmen, the man shuddered and stopped talking.

"The Sect Leader’s disciple really is wealthy!" Qingling, who witnessed it all, praised openly, envying them but in her heart, she quietly scoffed at these people’s lack of insight—mere spirit stones had them all agitated? Her Immortal Mansion had countless Immortal Spirit Stones!

Regrettably, she couldn’t openly use them now; how was she to bid for the Green Copper? She couldn’t help but glance at Shun Hua; as a Sect Leader’s son, he must be quite wealthy!

"Let us present our final auction item," said the auctioneer excitedly, then personally opened the curtain. In a box made of spirit wood was laid a snow-white brocade, and on the brocade, lay a piece of Green Copper the size of a fingernail.

Its color was grey with tinges of green and it didn’t have any magical fluctuations, just like an ordinary piece of rusted copper, disappointing those attracted by the Green Copper.

Rumors have it that the large cauldron made from copper green by Ancient Great Power can communicate with the Laws of Heaven and Earth, and is an extremely contrarian Divine Artifact. However, the appearance of this piece of green copper clearly doesn’t exhibit the miraculousness described in the legends, making everyone doubt if it’s merely a deception by Meteor Trading House.

After all, green copper is a divine item from ancient times, having disappeared for many years, and no one has truly seen what it looks like.

Actually, even the people from Meteor Trading House weren’t sure; this small piece of green copper was obtained from a very peculiar lake. There was an explosion at that time, and everything shattered, but only this piece of green copper remained peacefully there, unaffected by any disturbance.

After the trading house staff brought it back, they experimented on it; whether they roasted it with fire, froze it with ice, or smashed it with sharp tools, they couldn’t harm it in the slightest. Since they couldn’t figure out its history and it wasn’t of any use to them, they decided to auction it off under the name of green copper.

However, they were confident that, even if this item was not green copper, it definitely wasn’t a mere mortal item.

When the auctioneer lifted the curtain, a residual soul from Qingling Immortal Mansion became excited and kept emphasizing in her mind: "You must bid for it, this is real green copper, peeled off from a green cauldron, I can smell the essence of Laws, it can’t be wrong."

A Divine Artifact! Such objects can’t even be seen in the Immortal Realm. With this piece of green copper, one could sense the positions of other fragments and even if not able to collect them all, it could still be used to refine Magic Treasures.

On hearing the residual soul talk about this green copper, Qingling was thrilled, but then faced a problem. To others’ eyes, she was just a newly-initiated small cultivator, how could she possibly produce a large quantity of spiritual stones?

Turning her eyes round and round, she looked longingly at Shun Hua: "Senior brother, this thing looks pretty nice, could you lend me some spiritual stones? I will pay you back later."

Uh... This greyish-green, what is nice about it? Shun Hua sighed, looking sympathetically at Qingling, so young yet so blind?

However, borrowing money? He had no spiritual stones!

Shun Hua gave an awkward smile: "Junior sister, senior brother, I have no spiritual stones left."

He wasn’t joking. Being a Wood Spiritual Root Sword Cultivator, the materials required to forge his Lifebound Spirit Sword were more troublesome than other spiritual roots, and ores were hard to find. Other Sword Cultivators usually begin forging at Core Formation stage, but he had reached Nascent Soul stage and had almost spent all his possessions just to barely gather the materials.

"Oh! I see!" Qingling looked extremely disappointed, and her perception of Shun Hua worsened significantly. As the son of the Sect Leader of the largest sect, how could he have no spiritual stones?

"Then, eldest senior brother, could you lend me some spiritual stones? I really want this item." Qingling looked eagerly, appearing very pitiful.

"I’m sorry, I also want to bid for this item." Ye Qiu coldly refused, but thought to himself that this green copper might really be genuine!

Chen Qingchi scoffed lightly at Qingling’s incredulous look. The spiritual stones needed to win this bid were not small. Although she was a Sect Leader’s disciple, she had just entered the Qi Cultivation Level as an orphan; how could she repay?

The auctioneer then demonstrated the extraordinary properties of this piece of green copper, causing some disturbance among the crowd, though some people didn’t pay much attention.

"I declare the starting bid for this piece of copper green to be eight thousand low-grade spiritual stones."

"It doesn’t even meet the starting bid for Mithril, it seems it isn’t genuine after all."

"Sizzle... Is Trendy Trading Company going under? Always staging such stunts!"

"Ten thousand low-grade spiritual stones." The man who had just been bidding against Ye Qiu for Mithril spoke out.

"Fifteen thousand low-grade spiritual stones." Another woman from a separate booth also seemed somewhat interested.

More people gradually joined the bidding. Though the price wasn’t high, the auctioneer’s face didn’t look as embarrassed now.

"One hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones." Ye Qiu spoke up indifferently, causing other participants to hesitate, but the man and the woman still decided to take a risk.

"One hundred and twenty Mid-grade Spirit Stones."

"One hundred and fifty Mid-grade Spirit Stones."

"Two hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones." Ye Qiu’s tone was steady, making it unclear what his intentions were, but spending several hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones for an unknown greyish-green copper block seemed not worthwhile.

After several more rounds of bidding, Ye Qiu ultimately won the green copper for three hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

Qingling watched enviously, her eyes turning red.