The start of the auction was rather explosive and the bidding began almost instantly.
It was almost as if the 500 Mid Grade Immortal Stone cost of the Bitter burrow Root was almost nothing to the people here. Which was true since the value of the herbs wasn't just because of the its properties.
Rather it was because it could save one's life in times of pinch.
After all, even immortals could be killed by poisons and the pill toxins were something that even they could not resist. Anyone who used them would end up accumulating them, and the Bitter Burrow root could help resolve that.
There was no lack of people who were stuck at bottleneck simply because they had accumulated too many Pill Toxins. The Bitter Burrow Root could help them breakthrough by clearing that out.
Thus no matter what angle one looked at it from, the bitter Burrow Root turned out to be a hit.
"550 Mid Grade Immortal Stones!" A person at the front shouted.
"600 Mid Grade Immortal Stones!" A woman at the very back shouted.
680!
750!
900!
1070!
1200!
The bidding war ensued and the cost of the Bitter Burrow Root had clearly more than doubled its initial cost.
The woman from the Cong Clan was pleased and a smile could be seen on her face. Lin Mu also sensed a lot of excitement from her and understood that she had come here just for this.
'Was she sent here officially on business, or was all of this just her?' Lin Mu questioned, but didn't mind it that much.
No matter what the answer was, as long as his interests were not damaged he would be fine.
"Still, for it to reach this price this quick… it won't be long till it reaches its buyout value too…" Lin Mu realized.
He checked the buyout value, finding it to be about 5000 Mid Grade Immortal stones. While it was not a big amount to Lin Mu right now, it was still quite a lot to most people.
Once the value reached this level, it would be a lot more smarter to just give up on the item or buy it outright. But for that to happen, the right people needed the right amount of funds.
Most were trying to conserve their funds in the first place after all. The less they spent the better chances of them being able to buy other goods. They weren't here for just one item after all.
The bidding war continued for about two minutes before finally, the Buyout price had been reached.
"5000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones!" Someone sitting in the middle row shouted with great pressure.
"Ah! The buyout price has now been reached. Will anyone else dare to bid higher?" The host questioned while looking around the hall.
The number of people willing to bid had dwindled to just a handful and even they were quite disinterested since the cost had reached 5000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones!
"Bah! Paying 5000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones for a Bitter Burrow Root is too much."
"They simply can't stand it, can't they? We got price gougers here."
The people were now starting to complain.
"Any takers? 3… 2… 1… SOLD!" The host declared.
And with that declaration, the first item of the auction was finally sold. The person who had brought this item seemed to be quite pleased too and were almost flying in happiness.
"5000… it really reached 5000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones…" The woman from the Cong clan muttered in excitement.
To her this was the best opportunity that had been offered to her in a long time. As one of the many younger members of her clan, Cong Shui was a ambitious. She had long since wanted to prove herself useful to the clan, but had never been given the opportunity.
Her Cong clan was actually a relatively decent clan of the Dao Wind Empire and had a lot of reputation and powers that sold Immortal herbs. Their clan had special methods to grow them as well as the exclusive rights to some herbs.
They also knew how to find rare Immortal herbs that could not be found otherwise. The Bitter burrow root was also one of the immortal herbs that could not be cultivated.
It could only be found, and one needed to employ a large tract of an area to house it. Then there was always the chance that the Bitter Burrow Root might disappear or not grow much.
This was the reason why the herbs was so hard to find and whenever it was, it would be sold almost immediately.
"Miss Cong, please come with me. I'll take you to the VIP area, for your continual viewing." One of the people called out to her.
"When will the payment be given?" Cong Shui asked anxiously.
To her the 5000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones were a large amount. After all, as the one to present this to the Black Candle Pavilion and successful selling it, she would be getting a large share too.
Out of the 5000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones, she would get to keep about 3000 Mid Grade Immortal Stones for herself. That was a large amount for her who had an allowance of just 100 Mid Grade Immortal Stones.
With this, she would be able to get a lot more items and perhaps sell them for an even more profit. With all this in mind she couldn't help to get her hands them.
"The payment will be given to you after the auction ends, but you can still use it as a credit if you wish to buy something." The clerk replied.
"That's fine then, I'll just wait in the VIP section." Cong Shui said not wanting to spend the amount.
'Though it might be good to wait and watch too. Who knows what else might turn up in the auction?' Cong Shui thought to herself.
She followed the man to a VIP Suit that was co-incidentally next to the one that Lin Mu was in.
"Oh? This is the VIP section for the Indigo World Hegemony?" Cong Shui was surprised seeing the light on the door glowing.
This glowing light showed that it was current occupied and one should watch out when entering one. Of course, for rooms like these, there were always precautions to prevent others from entering, but it was still a bit rude to barge in even in a locked room.
It would become the same as banging on a door after all and could be quite offensive.
She had not seen Lin Mu arrive and neither had she seen him being brought to the suit, thus it was surprising for her to see the VIP suit active.
"Yes, a respected member of the Indigo World Hegemony is currently in our presence. He was even brought to his suit by the manager of our Black Candle Pavilion.' The worker explained.
Hearing this the woman couldn't help but feel amazed.
She knew that in this city, the strongest people were none other than the floor manager of the Black Candle Pavilion, thus he bringing a guest to their room was considered very respectful.
Cong Shui had heard about the Indigo World Hegemony before and knew that they were an even greater existence than the Black Candle Pavilion. Their reach was in the entire Immortal realm and was even said to extend beyond that into distant worlds.
Meeting one of their members could be a great fortune as well as bad luck. After all there was no telling what kind of a person they would be like. There were always people with a short temper.
Those kinds of people were hard to handle and Cong Shui with her current cultivation base could certainly not handle them.
"May I know who they are?" Cong Shui asked carefully.
"Even we do not know and we did not ask. But if you wait till the end of the auction there is a chance that you might get to meet them." The worker suggested.
"Alright." Cong Shui was now even more interested in waiting till the end.
~CREAK~
The door of her suit opened and she went inside.
Lin Mu in the other suit had no idea that someone had gained an interest in him and were now waiting for him.
He was simply focused on the auction as more and more items were sold off. Other than the first item that took a while to be sold due to the constant bidding, the others were sold rather quickly.
This was especially for those that were in the VIP suits as they had access to the catalog. It was a privilege that was not offered to the common guests and only VIP had it.
It made the others not being able to predict and save for the better items later.
This allowed the Black Candle Pavilion to make some extra profit which was always welcome.
Time passed and it was finally the turn of the Spiral Flake Crystal.
