Chapter 259: Cooperation
Editor: Atlas Studios
Along with the appearance of the Earth-rank artifact, the Blood King Crown, the atmosphere of the auction entered into the most explosive period.
The large forces in the first-rate VIP rooms did not show their faces, but the aura that leaked out from the rooms made countless cultivators have difficulty breathing and their faces turned red.
Several sects also dismantled the crystal glass in front of them like the Myriad Slaughter Sect.
By revealing their background, they could increase their chances of winning.
“I believe everyone present should have known long ago that this Earth-rank artifact that my Myriad Sun Building is auctioning this time is the target of many esteemed guests.”
“The Myriad Sun Building naturally won’t let down our esteemed guest’s expectations. This is the symbol of status. It’s the combination of power and authority, the Blood King Crown!”
It was a crown with twelve red tasseled pearls on each side.
The dragon and phoenix laying on the crown looked abnormally luxurious, but if one looked carefully, they could see the ambition of dominating the world and the tragedy of the flames of war.
“Esteemed guests who have some understanding of our Eastern Region’s history of seeking immortality should know that a huge cultivation dynasty had appeared in the Eastern Region a long time ago. It controlled tens of millions of miles of mountains and rivers, and its might was unparalleled.”
“It could be said to be the predecessor of the current Divine Judgment Hall.”
“The Blood King Crown was left behind by a rebel prince back then. It contains the aura of a blood flood dragon and can control tens of millions of blood soldiers!”
No one would doubt the power of an Earth-rank artifact. It would only be more exaggerated than most cultivators imagined.
“In addition, I can reveal a piece of news to everyone here.”
“This Earth-rank artifact was entrusted to be auctioned by the Tragic Death City in the Land of Blood.”
“However, when they commissioned the auction, they told us that the true master of the Blood King Crown would be acknowledged by them and gain the loyalty of the entire Tragic Death City!”
The old auctioneer lowered his voice as if he was secretly telling you, but his voice could clearly be heard!
Everyone gasped again!
Could it be that buying an Earth-rank artifact would mean giving it to the entire Tragic Death City? This was too profitable!
The Tragic Death City might sound sinister, but they were actually a famous neutral organization in the Eastern Region.
They had always been guarding the Land of Blood and no one had ever heard of their disciples appearing outside.
However, not leaving did not mean that they were weak. They were an extremely powerful force.
They had not joined the Divine Judgment Hall, but it was said that the hidden strength within was not inferior to any first-rate force of the Divine Judgment Hall. It was a force that could stand at the top of the Eastern Region of the Azure Cloud Continent.
If one could really obtain their loyalty, then even if they became a puppet, they would undoubtedly be much more impressive than Jiang Li, the Great Mountain Alliance Leader.
When the old auctioneer said this, everyone could not help but be excited and fantasize greedily.
Only a small number of people noticed that the term used was ‘true master’.
The requirements were probably not as simple as just buying and refining the artifact.
“Alright! The base price of the Earth-rank artifact, the Blood King Crown, is five million spirit stones!”
This price sounded to be very high, but for an Earth-rank artifact, this was too cheap!
Or rather, the value of this thing should not be estimated using low-grade spirit stones.
After the starting bid was announced, the large factions in the VIP room above began to make countless people dumbfounded.
6 million!
7 million!
7.5 million!
8 million!
9 million!
10 million!
12 million!
The grand attitude and boldness of spending a fortune was vividly displayed by those powers before the temptation of this Earth-rank artifact!
The rising price kept the atmosphere of the auction house tense.
Looking at the sky-high spirit stone bids that were rapidly doubling, even if many people knew that they no longer had the qualifications to have any designs on that thing, being able to personally see such a soul-stirring competition of spirit stones was already a huge eye opener for them.
Usually, they would not even have a chance to see ten million spirit stones at once.
Each increase in bid was either 500,000 or 1,000,000.
In fact, after breaking through ten million spirit stones, not only did the bidding not decrease, it even became more intense!
What did ten million low-grade spirit stones mean? It could crush a Foundation Establishment cultivator to death with sheer weight.
The rapidly rising price and continuous competition between the forces quickly rose to a staggering 20 million!
20 million low-grade spirit stones was a huge sum even in the Eastern Region of the Azure Cloud Continent. No faction could casually take it out.
At this price, some weaker forces finally started to give up.
The bidding became less intense.
As more forces were eliminated one after another, ten minutes later, the Myriad Slaughter Sect’s Wu Loulan also dropped a sky-high bid of 30 million, shocking the entire auction house to the point of silence.
This Earth-rank artifact was worth at least 30 million spirit stones!
A slightly smaller spirit stone mine might not even be able to produce so many spirit stones before it was emptied.
The silent and lonely auction house finally gradually recovered after a few minutes. 30 million spirit stones was not like mortal gold and silver.
Even if they had spirit stone mines, it was unknown how many years they would need to dig to accumulate such a huge amount.
Over the years, the Myriad Slaughter Sect had really accumulated a large amount of wealth of spirit stones in order to spend 30 million here.
The Dragon Transformation Island, the Mu Family of the Peach Forest, the Thousand Crane Tower, and the Extreme Earth Castle also gave up after thinking for a long time.
Although this Earth-rank artifact was good, its bloody aura was obviously very dense, and it could basically be classified as a demonic artifact.
This did not match the nature of the faction behind them. Even if they obtained it, it would not be as useful as they imagined. There was no need to spend too much for this artifact.
After they withdrew from the competition, no one could compete with the Myriad Slaughter Sect anymore. In the end, this artifact still landed in their hands.
Holding the box containing the Blood King Crown in his arms, Jiang Li noticed that Wu Loulan heaved a sigh of relief before disappearing from the private room with his people. He had directly left the venue in advance.
With such a precious treasure, it seemed that even they were afraid of robbery.
It was true that the Myriad Slaughter Sect was famous, but many cultivators had long been unhappy with them.
As a result, after Wu Loulan and the others left, some cultivators below also got up without a trace and walked out.
The Myriad Slaughter Sect would definitely have reinforcements and preparations outside. If they went, they would most likely not have a good ending.
This was not the end.
A dignified Earth-rank artifact could only be ranked third in this auction, so what would the last two items be?
However, this time, the Myriad Sun Building no longer planned to satisfy the curiosity of ordinary cultivators.
This was because they were not the targets of these two items. Only by displaying sufficient wealth and influence could they have the qualifications to bid.
Moreover, the method was also to secretly bid. It was that the buyers only had one chance to bid, and they did not know each other’s offers.
In the end, the highest bidder would win.
Although this method was not as intense as the open auction, it could probe the bottom line of the various large factions and obtain the greatest benefits for the auction house.
To Jiang Li and the others, as well as the many cultivators below, this was already the end of their experience.
…
After the auction ended, Jiang Li and the others did not leave immediately. Instead, they entered a huge side hall under the lead of the staff of the Myriad Sun Building.
All cultivators could undergo a free transaction opportunity hosted by the Myriad Sun Building here.
This kind of opportunity for buyers and sellers to directly transact or even exchange what they needed could prevent middlemen from earning a difference in price. Many cultivators were happy about it.
It could be said that every cultivator who came here could obtain benefits regardless of whether they were big or small.
Jiang Li brought the higher-ups of the Great Mountain Alliance here.
On the one hand, they came to participate in this auction to see if there were any precious treasures they could get.
For example, Jiang Li had bid for a few items that were quite suitable for him. The other elders also had their gains and did not come for nothing.
On the other hand, it was also for the sake of taking this opportunity to allow the Great Mountain Alliance’s name to be spread among the various forces in the Eastern Region.
After all, they were second-rate guests. The Myriad Sun Building arranged a stall for them to set up items to trade with other cultivators.
After hanging up the name of the Great Mountain Alliance, the few elders began to move. They placed a large number of high-grade and aged medicinal herbs produced by the Medicine Garden Mystic Realm and began to participate in the exchange.
There were also many cultivators present who took out their precious spiritual materials and began to exchange them.
However, as soon as the stall of the Great Mountain Alliance appeared, the medicinal fragrance that spread out easily covered them.
The dense and charming smell immediately attracted the gazes of many cultivators, especially some alchemists who could not move their feet when they smelled it.
When they saw the trading table of the Great Mountain Alliance, their eyes widened.
“Gasp! They actually used 300-year-old Purple Root Grass to make a table! This… this… this is such a waste!”
“Wait, such a huge Moonlight Lingzhi! That must be at least 500 years old!”
“There are also Aurora Maple Leaves! Oh goodness! Ginseng King! It’s even in human form!”
The surrounding alchemists were shocked.
This was only the relatively ordinary portion of spiritual materials that Jiang Li and the others had taken out. If they took out the best spiritual materials in the Medicine Garden Mystic Realm, then he was afraid that trouble would come again before the reputation of the Great Mountain Alliance was spread.
“Friend, how do you want to sell these spiritual materials? I have a bottle of Five Heart Pills here. Can I exchange them for two, no, just one Ginseng King?”
“That’s right, I want them too. I’ll pay a high price if you sell all these spiritual materials to me!”
“No, that Moonlight Lingzhi is mine! Whatever you want, be it spirit stones or artifacts, I can make an offer!”
This kind of high-grade spiritual material was always very popular. It was naturally not strange for it to cause alchemists to fight to purchase it.
However, someone in the crowd suddenly recognized Jiang Li.
His eyes darted around, and he immediately crawled out from the crowd and approached Jiang Li.
“Eh? Isn’t this Mr. Jiang Li? It’s me! Do you still remember me?”
Jiang Li looked over and recognized it at a glance. It was the Medicine King Pavilion’s Shopkeeper Jiang.
“Shopkeeper Jiang, what a coincidence. We meet again.”
Jiang Li also walked out from behind the table filled with spiritual materials and greeted Shopkeeper Jiang.
“So Mr. Jiang Li is… a… disciple of the Great Mountain Alliance. I’ve long heard of you!”
Shopkeeper Jiang glanced at the signboard on the medicine table again. In his mind, he thought that he had never seen this name before, but he still habitually said, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Little did he know that this Great Mountain Alliance had only been established for a short period of time. How could he have heard of it?
He saw that Jiang Li was still young, so he naturally thought that Jiang Li was a junior disciple of the Great Mountain Alliance.
Unfortunately, the situation of the Great Mountain Alliance was special. His guess was completely wrong.
“This is not a brilliant disciple. He’s the Alliance Leader of our Great Mountain Alliance!”
Before Jiang Li could speak, an elder came over to raise Jiang Li’s reputation.
Shopkeeper Jiang was first stunned when he saw a Soul Formation cultivator address Jiang Li as the Alliance Leader. Then, his professional instincts as a businessman made him quickly manage his expression.
In fact, many factions still used the hereditary system of inheritance. Perhaps it was because the previous generation of the Great Mountain Alliance had suddenly died that this Foundation Establishment junior was given an exception to inherit the position.
“Cough cough, so it’s Alliance Leader Jiang. My apologies for the disrespect!”
“No wonder Alliance Leader Jiang is confident in cultivating carefree grass. It turns out that your alliance’s spiritual plantation methods are actually so shocking! My Medicine King Pavilion is ashamed of our inferiority.”
“Wait, could it be that the spider lily is also…?”
The Medicine King Pavilion’s shopkeeper came to look for Jiang Li naturally because he wanted to make a deal with the Great Mountain Alliance.
However, after he habitually praised them a little, when combined with Jiang Li’s words and these high-grade spiritual materials, a possibility naturally arose in his mind. Could it be that the spider lily at the auction earlier was also the work of the Great Mountain Alliance?
Jiang Li put his finger in front of his mouth and made a gesture to keep quiet. He smiled and continued.
“Shopkeeper Jiang, you’re too polite. The Alliance Leader position is just a favor from the elders. Don’t think much about it.”
“However, our Great Mountain Alliance does have some knowledge in spiritual plants. I wonder if Shopkeeper Jiang is interested in cooperating with us?”
Jiang Li did not beat around the bush and directly pointed it out.
They had their own needs to begin with, so the other party was naturally overjoyed. How could he refuse?
If they could obtain such a high quality spiritual medicine supply in the long term, their Medicine King Pavilion would definitely be stronger.
The straightforwardness of the Great Mountain Alliance and the integrity of the Medicine King Pavilion made both sides very satisfied.
Thus, the two sides quickly reached an agreement.
The Great Mountain Alliance was in charge of providing high-quality spiritual materials. The Medicine King Pavilion would purchase them at 85% of the market price. However, 30% of the finished pills had to be bought by the Great Mountain Alliance at the cost price.
In this way, the Medicine King Hall could seize a larger market for high-quality medicinal pills refined from high-grade spiritual materials and make a huge profit.
The Great Mountain Alliance could first obtain an ally who could help share the pressure. They could also make a more specialized sect replace the Hundred Tempering Mountain and refine a large number of high-quality medicinal pills to strengthen the native strength of the Great Mountain Region.
This way, if both sides could achieve their goal, cooperation would lead to a win-win situation.
Shopkeeper Jiang took out a bottle of precious spirit wine. After the two of them clinked glasses, this matter was settled.
Jiang Li downed the spirit wine in his cup, and a buff called [Medicine King’s Slight Drunkenness] appeared on his interface. It was not very useful, but it could produce a large amount of alcohol vapor for the Liquor Fire Sword Song. It could be considered a decent status.
After putting down the cup, Jiang Li suddenly asked a question to the new partner of the Great Mountain Alliance.
“Shopkeeper Jiang, I want to ask you something. Do you know a way to contact the Ink Sect?”
