Alex looked at the item that was hauled out into the spotlight and saw the image of it floating in front of him.
Seeing that, he frowned a little. "Is this what you wanted me to wait for? A cauldron?" he asked Elder Yao.
"It is not a cauldron," the old woman said.
"A furnace then?" he asked curiously. "That's still not that—"
"It's not a furnace either. Please, just wait for the cloth to come off," the Elder said, looking back.
"Okay," Alex said, waiting for himself.
"I will not waste any more time as all of you will have been waiting for this," the auctioneer said. "Please, take a look."
The cloth finally lifted and everyone could see what was hidden under it.
Underneath the cloth was a large metal cauldron. Alex was about to comment on it when he noticed that it wasn't really a cauldron at all. It looked like one on a cursory glance, but when given more than just a glance, once recognized that it was just too tall to be a cauldron.
And too narrow as well.
Instead of being wide like a cauldron, it was instead more like a long cylindrical tube. He couldn't tell what that was at all.
The surface of the large object seemed to have a simple design of a golden color with some silver rims. There was a little bulge toward the middle of the metal tube, but other than that, there wasn't much design to the whole thing.
He tried to look inside, and that too had nothing at all.
He wanted to see things like Qi lines or Formation, but the picture didn't show it at all. The inside of it was empty as well, confusing him quite a bit.
"This is neither a cauldron, nor a furnace, but I do believe you have to put something in here… but what?" he wondered. The fact that it was coming at the end of the auction meant that it was no ordinary item for certain. But…
He moved his eyes from the image in front of him and looked at the image of the woman on the screen.
The object they had unveiled had actually been larger than the woman herself. "What exactly could this be?" he couldn't help but ask.
The others around him knew and were busy relishing the moment of his confusion before the item was finally revealed.
"The seller of this item is the Mountain Crushing sect," she spoke and waited for a few seconds.
Alex recognized the pause as an instant for the others to talk about the matter and got curious.
"Mountain Crushing sect? Can you tell me what importance that sect holds?" Alex asked the woman standing by the door.
The woman came forward and a little and spoke. "The Mountain Crushing sect used to be a large sect in the past that could be considered one of the strongest sects to ever exist in the Eastern Continent."
"However, during these days, they are nothing more than a memory. While they do exist, they are no longer considered the powerhouse they used to be," she said.
Alex thought for a bit and nodded. "So kind of like the Snow Immortal sect," he said softly.
The woman didn't understand what he meant and didn't reply. The other woman on the screen began speaking again.
"Yes, this is one of the items from the Mountain Crushing sect," she said. "And most importantly, this is the artifact that gave them the name that they hold today."
"This is the Mountain Crusher," the woman said and waited for everyone to take in this information. "Of course, that is not its original name. The original name it held had been lost to time as this artifact predates every single existence in this world."
"Even the Royal Family did not exist when it existed. It has existed for over a hundred thousand years," she said. "That's correct, this is an artifact that has lasted that long. The Mountain Crushing sect had merely acquired it."
This was new information for many, so the woman slowed down for them all to process. When it was time, she dropped the other news.
"And today, we will reveal for the first time what it truly is," she said. "This, the Mountain Crushing Artifact, is an Immortal artifact that was brought down from the heavens."
Alex perked up when he heard that. "Immortal artifact?" he couldn't help but ask. It wasn't every day that one got to see an Immortal artifact. As far as he could remember, he had only seen a handful of them at all.
He had a few Immortal techniques, but no artifacts. The only one that he had was the Blood God's Manual. There was a high chance that the sword he once had and had lost, the one which he couldn't use the Qi with, the one that Godslayer had come in was one as well.
But since it didn't accept Qi, he really didn't want to count it as once. Not to mention that he had lost it as well. It was probably somewhere around his Soul Space right now.
There was also the Playground, otherwise known as the Sundering Sanctum, but he had yet to make it his own. It would take some time after all.
"Immortal," he said softly and sighed. "That complicates things. How many people will want it will depend on how useful it is for anyone."
"It is useful for anyone willing to use it," Yao Ning said. "Anyone can use it. They wrote what it did in the , just now what it was."
"Anyone can use it?" Alex asked curiously.
"Anyone," the elder said.
Hearing the words, he felt a little strange. He looked at the item once again and turned around to the woman.
"The Mountain Crushing sect. What were they known for?" Alex asked.
The woman was about to answer when the auctioneer started speaking as if answering his question.
"As you all may or may not know, the Mountain Crushing sect was a sect that was known for their fighting strength where they could always defeat someone in their own realm with ease."
"Many of you may also know why that was," she said. "It was because they were not just normal cultivators at all. On top of being a Qi cultivator, they were also body cultivators."
"As such…"
Alex quickly zoned out the rest of what the woman said as soon as he heard the two words. Body Cultivators.
"That's… that's an artifact for body cultivation?" he couldn't help but ask.
"It is," the elder said.
"How does it work?" he asked.
The elder shook her head. "It wasn't explained," she said.
Alex frowned a little and turned toward the woman who was still by his side. "How did the Mountain Crushing sect fail?" he asked. "How did something so amazing lose its grace?"
"I… am not certain, your Majesty," she said. "All I know is that over time, fewer and fewer people from the sect came out as strong as the previous ones, and in time, they could no longer sustain a large sect. Anything that might have been the cause for that is beyond me."
"And now they're desperate enough to sell an Immortal artifact?" he thought. "Very well, I shall buy it then."
