Desolate Era

After a long pause, during which the black-haired woman carefully looked at both Immortal Eastclown and Youngflame Xiushui, the woman called out loudly, “Done! 2.5 million kilograms. The peacock plumes go to fellow Daoist Ji Ning!” And with this declaration, the ownership of the peacock plumes was settled.

Youngflame Xiushui let out a single, long sigh.

Just now, he had been hesitating and considering to bid again, but in the end, his reason won out and held him back. The nearby Adept Woodpass gave him a glance, then picked up his goblet of wine and took a sip.

“Father, why didn’t you buy it?” Youngflame Jun couldn’t help but ask, “The peacock plumes would be of great service to you during your tribulation… and that Ji Ning was insisting on bidding straight against us. Whether for the sake of giving vent to our anger or for your tribulation, Father, you should’ve continued.”

“What do you know? 2.5 million kilograms? Do you even know how much that is?” Youngflame Xiushui stared at his son.

Youngflame Jun was stunned. His status in the clan could not be compared to Youngflame Nong’s; any amount of liquefied elemental essence above a million kilograms was already a vast, astronomical sum to him.

“With that much, I could just go ahead and buy an excellent Immortal-ranked magic treasure!” Youngflame Xiushui said, “There are many types of Immortal-ranked magic treasures that can be used for the tribulation; why should I completely focus my attentions on those peacock plumes? Paying more than 2.5 million kilograms isn’t worth it. That’s a sum of money that would have a major impact on my Immortal path; I can’t possibly make random, stupid bids just because I’m angry and want to give vent.”

Youngflame Jun nodded obediently.

“And this Ji Ning is an idiot as well.” Youngflame Xiushui turned to give him a cold look. “Even though he has the peacock plumes, he’s just a Wanxiang Adept. What’s the point of having them?”

“If we kill Ji Ning, then the peacock plumes will be ours,” Youngflame Jun said, a hint of desire in his eyes.

“And who would go do the killing?” Youngflame Xiushui shook his head. “This isn’t something for you to concern yourself over.”

……

“2.5 million kilograms.” Immortal Eastclown shook his head as well. “This young Wanxiang Adept is really quite crazy.”

……

“2.5 million kilograms. My little brother really is… formidable.” Princess Xiyue stared at the distant Ning, a smile on her face.

……

“Hmph. Acquiring the peacock plumes won’t do a damn thing for your power. After you leave the Heavenly Treasures Mountain, you die.” Immortal Floatcloud quietly drank his wine, watching from afar.

……

Ning, however, was extraordinarily excited. Success! He had acquired the peacock plumes! Immortal-ranked magic treasures? Curios? Those were all less than a dog’s fart in comparison. His Primaltwin only needed a large amount of flying swords, while his main body, as a Fiendgod Body Refiner, mainly needed divine abilities!

“With this thing, I won’t have to trouble myself at all regarding the completion of the second and third Cycles for my [Starseizing Hand].” Ning was absolutely delighted.

Time continued to flow on.

Because there were more than a thousand magic treasures up for sale, the entire Treasure Auction took up an entire day. Still, Ning left roughly six hours later, because during the sixth hour of the Treasure Auction, the Azuresilk Godfire Lamp came out for bidding.

Azuresilk Godfire Lamp, an Immortal-ranked magic treasure. This was a completed treasure!

It instantly aroused a storm of bidding. The Azuresilk Godfire Lamp was different from the peacock plumes; very few people needed the latter, but quite a few had a use for the Azuresilk Godfire Lamp. This was because it could nurture ‘skyfire’ to the first grade! Although each usage of the lamp consumed a large amount of resources that took a long period of time to replenish, after the replenishment, it could be used again.

This was an item that could be used over and over!

However, because the Azuresilk Godfire Lamp needed time to absorb elemental energy from the natural world and replenish its own energy, none of the major tribes would ever be worried about having ‘too many’ of the lamps on hand.

The reserve price was 1.5 million kilograms, but the price quickly skyrocketed! It rose all the way up to a price of 2.45 million kilograms before the bidding came to an end.

Immortal-ranked magic treasures of this level were, in the end, still fairly common. Thus, the price would settle down at a certain point. There was a limit to how much it could rise during an auction.

……

“He left?” Immortal Floatcloud immediately noticed when Ning began to prepare to leave. Frowning, he too began to leave.

Soon, Immortal Floatcloud arrived at the streets outside the Heavenly Treasures Mountain headquarters. It was early morning now. The Golden Crow had just risen into the skies, casting its light upon the world.

“Senior.” Immortal Floatcloud’s emergence caused the members of the Youngflame clan who were waiting outside to immediately move towards him.

“Ji Ning should be coming out soon. Go inside the Heavenly Treasures Mountain and keep an eye on him. Be ready to report as soon as he does.” Immortal Floatcloud gave them an order, then began to wait outside silently. He was waiting for the final battle he would experience in his life! In this battle, he would use all of the power available to him to kill a supremely talented Wanxiang Adept within the imperial capital of the Grand Xia.

……

“He’s leaving?” Princess Xiyue, upon seeing Ning prepare to leave, immediately rose to her feet. A hint of panic was in her eyes. She could feel her heartrate quickening, and she immediately said to the nearby Fairy Azurewillow, “Azurewillow, help me make some arrangements. I want to meet privately with Ji Ning.”

“Ji Ning?” Fairy Azurewillow was startled, but then she nodded. “I’ll go make the arrangements right now.”

“Thank you.” Earlier, when Princess Xiyue had been watching Ji Ning, she hadn’t felt that nervous. Now, however, as she thought about how they were about to meet, she immediately became incomparably nervous.

“Whew.” Princess Xiyue let out a long sigh, then said quietly to herself, “Little brother, we’re going to meet soon.”

Princess Xiyue began to withdraw from the event as well.

Actually, since the Treasure Auction would go on for a full day, over the course of it, quite a few people would withdraw.

Ning, after handing over his liquefied elemental essence, acquired his formation diagram and the peacock plumes.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning, in the future, if you have any more magic treasures you don’t want, you can deliver them here to the Heavenly Treasures Mountain. It doesn’t matter if you decide to sell them to us or if you sell them at the Treasure Auction.” The white-robed woman, Soledust, laughed.

“Treasures don’t just fall out of nowhere from the sky,” Ning sighed. “I even had to hand over my Azuresilk Godfire Lamp to you.”

Soledust laughed, then withdrew.

Ning, the Whitewater Hound, and Little Qing glanced towards the nearby violet-robed Yu Qi.

“Fellow Daoist Yu Qi, I wish to purchase some flying swords,” Ning said.

“Flying swords?” Yu Qi was instantly delighted. He knew very well that Ning had more than a million kilograms of liquefied elemental essence on him. This was a major customer! He immediately said, “What sort of flying swords? Just tell me what you need. We have plenty of precious flying swords manufactured by Celestial Immortal Patriarchs, and in fact we even have flying swords with powerful formations within them.”

Ning shook his head. “I only require large-scale manufactured flying swords.”

“Large-scale manufactured…” Yu Qi’s face stiffened. The profit on those was incredibly low; after all, Ning could buy them at a 40% discount.

“I need a total of 720 high-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords,” Ning said.

Yu Qi’s facial muscles spasmed. Good heavens; Heaven-ranked flying swords? 720 of them? Was this a joke? It must be understood that even many Loose Immortals would generally use Heaven-ranked magic treasures; many of them would just use several particularly powerful ones. Even those who focused on victory through superior numbers would at most have a few dozen Heaven-ranked magic treasures, which was already quite incredible.

720 Heaven-ranked magic treasures? The number alone would terrify quite a few people! But in turn, the price was quite high as well.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning, are you certain you want 720? Are you able to afford them?” Yu Qi couldn’t help but add, “High-grade Heaven-ranked magic treasures are generally around 5000 kilograms per sword. If you want more than 700 of them, then you’d need to pay over 3.5 million kilograms.”

Ning frowned. Ugh! Earlier, he had felt that he was quite wealthy, but when he thought about the price of seven hundred Heaven-ranked magic treasures, he suddenly felt his heart ache with unbearable pain.

“Go ahead and give me a book on the types of mass-produced Heaven-ranked flying swords,” Ji Ning said.

“Alright. This way, please,” Yu Qi said hurriedly. The Heavenly Treasures Mountain both bought and sold mass-produced magic items to Ji Ning at a price of 60% the list price. On the surface, it would seem as though they didn’t earn any money at all. In reality, however, the mass-produced magic treasures which the Heavenly Treasures Mountain sold were all mass-produced by the mighty imperial clan of the Grand Xia, which stood behind them.

In truth, the cost for the imperial clan to mass-produce these magic items wasn’t really as high as 60% of the list price; at most, 30% to 40%. The reason they told the outside world that they were willing to both buy and sell these items at 60% was just to encourage more people to come shopping. After all, after an Immortal cultivator purchased a life-saving treasure, it was quite rare for them to later sell it off.

Thus, Yu Qi would earn quite a bit from this deal for 700+ Heaven-ranked flying swords, even if they were only mass-produced artifacts.

……

Ning was seated before a gazebo, staring at the rising sun and in quite a good mood. He had no idea that right now, on the streets outside, a Loose Immortal named Immortal Floatcloud was waiting for him impatiently.

“Here’s the report regarding the mass-produced Heaven-ranked flying swords.” Yu Qi handed Ning a thick, fur-clad book. Ning flipped it open, taking a look. By his side, the Whitewater Hound and Little Qing helped scan through it as well.

Mass-produced flying swords were rather cheap, because mass-produced flying swords mainly required only that the swords were sharp and hard to break. In other aspects, they were quite poor.

“Low-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords are 500 kilograms each? At a discounted price of 60%, that’s just 300 kilograms.” Ning mumbled to himself while reading. “Middle-grade is a bit more expensive; 1500 kilograms each.”

There were nearly a hundred types of low-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords.

There were nearly two hundred types of middle-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords.

There were far fewer high-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords; just eighteen.

As for top-grade Heaven ranked flying swords? There was no such thing as a mass-produced ‘top-grade’ flying sword. High grade was already the limit for Heaven-ranked mass-produced flying swords.

“High-grade, Heaven-ranked flying swords are all roughly 5000 kilograms each.” Ning frowned. “What should I do?”

He was going to purchase them for his Primaltwin to train in. The [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] was a technique where the more and the better flying swords he had, the more powerful it would be! However, controlling so many flying swords was incredibly taxing on the soul. Still, during his year of training in the underwater estate, Ning’s soul had improved dramatically, especially with the support of the Nuwa visualization technique and the fact that his Primaltwin’s soul was being nourished.

Ning was currently able to control all 720 Earth-ranked flying swords. But if they were to be changed into Heaven-ranked flying swords? Most likely, for at least a period of time, it would be hard for him to control that many.

“I’ll take 198 of these Redsol swords!” Ning pointed towards the book. “And these Netherblue swords, I’ll take 198 of them as well!”

“The Redsol swords were 5500 kilograms each, while the Netherblue swords are 3500 each,” the nearby Yu Qi said with a laugh. “All together, this comes out to be a price of 1,945,000 kilograms of liquefied elemental essence. At the discounted price of 60%, that comes out to be 1,185,300 million.

Ning felt resigned. After factoring in the money he had spent… the 2.3 million kilograms he had remaining had been almost completely used up, leaving just a bit behind. In addition, his Primaltwin actually needed elemental essence as well.

“Here!” Ning waved his hand, and instantly, the black dragon carriage appeared on the ground next to them. “I’ll sell this carriage to your Heavenly Treasures Mountain,” Ning said majestically.

……

The black dragon construct had the combat power of a Primal Daoist. Youngflame Nong had often ridden it about the various locations of the imperial capital of the Grand Xia; naturally, its price was extraordinary. In the end, Ning acquired not only his 396 Heaven-ranked flying swords, but also 60,000 kilograms of liquefied elemental essence.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning, there’s one more thing.” Yu Qi, after concluding their deal, suddenly winked and laughed, “Princess Xiyue wishes to meet with you.”

“A princess wants to see me?” Ning was startled.

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