Even while she was on one of the last few rows of the auction hall, Ronron's excitement was nowhere near low at all. She was like a child that constantly moved around her seat, looking at everything she was witnessing for the first time with an air of innocence that was hard to come by.
Seeing her like that only improved Alex's mood and soon enough he started smiling too.
It took a while for the auction to start at which time the hall was finally fully filled. Once everyone was there, the curtains at the front opened up, allowing everyone to know that the auction had begun.
A woman in a bright red dress walked out from behind the stage and started introducing herself to the audience. Once she was done with the formalities, the first item was brought out to be auctioned off.
"How does it work? Do I tell them I want to buy it or…" Ronron asked.
"Do you not know how an auction works?" Alex asked. "You should have seen some back home, right?"
"I probably did, but I don't really remember how it all works. I've been training with my master for the past decade, so I'm a little lost on the modern life too," she said.
"I see," Alex said. "You must've lost a lot of friends too then."
"Eh, not really. I always knew there was nothing for me after high school, so I never really made any friends at all. I did have some, but none were close enough to use the word lost for them" she said.
"I see," Alex said. "Well, the auction is quite simple. In a moment, the woman up there will tell you the starting price of the item. Then everyone will start bidding on it with a number that's higher than the starting price. Each bid must be higher than the last one by a set amount of spirit stones, which the woman will tell you."
"So I can't just increase my bid by 1?" Ronron asked.
Alex shook his head. "That's not allowed. They might even kick you out for disturbing the auction if you do that," he said. "Also, you can't increase it by a random arbitrary number. While not against the rules of the auction, it's better if you keep your bid on a nice-sounding number."
"I see," Ronron said excitedly.
The first item on the auction was a simple defensive talisman that could stop a single Saint Condensation realm cultivator's attack. It was quite a good item for anyone in the True realm who was used to being in conflict with Saint realm cultivators.
Especially for people that frequently went to the Ancient Battlefield where one couldn't tell just what sort of enemy one would meet inside.
"You don't need this one right?" Alex asked.
"No, master has given me way better artifacts," Ronron said softly.
"Good, you can learn how the auction takes place then," Alex said and waited for the bidding to start.
As soon as the woman allowed for it, the people all around the hall started bidding one after another, even speaking on top of each other.
Ronron's eyes widened in surprise at the chaos that had been created in the room in just a matter of seconds. She was surprised that the cultivators weren't as orderly as they appeared beforehand.
The order came to the hall a few seconds later when the early bids died down and the bids started becoming higher and higher in amount.
"You don't have to hurry to bid. You can let others go for a bit before you put your own bid up," Alex explained to her.
"Do we just say the number? Is there no system to bid systematically?" Ronron asked.
"No, whoever has more money here places their bids and wins. That's what an auction is," Alex said.
The talisman was quickly sold and the second item was brought forth.
The second item was a pink robe made with many different frills on it, and many different glittering jewels that made it ever so fascinating.
Alex didn't even have to look at Ronron to know that she was going to bid on this thing. Given how early in the auction this was, he knew it wasn't anything good, but since his daughter wanted to bid on it, he wouldn't say anything.
"The bidding starts at 80 True Spirit stones, and each bid must be a True spirit stone or more than the last one. Begin."
Ronron joined in on the bidding despite Alex's teaching and started shouting one number after another.
Each time she heard a different number, she would shout a number that was higher than that.
Soon enough, the bidding came to around 120 and the competition lessened. Even so, there were still a few people that were bidding on it.
One by one, the bidding increased slowly but surely.
Ronron started frowning a little. "They aren't giving up at all," she said.
"Do you want to give up?" Alex asked.
"No, look how pretty that is. It's so much better than what I'm wearing," she said with a pout.
"Then show them that you mean it," Alex said.
"Huh? How?" she asked.
"Increase the bid by a large number. Instead of increasing it by 1, increase it by 5," Alex explained.
"Oh, I can do that?" Ronron was surprised.
"Quickly, if that woman up there counts to 3, you won't get to bid anymore," Alex told her.
"Oh," Ronron quickly turned around. "145."
"146," another voice shouted.
"147," another voice followed behind that."
"155," Ronron shouted.
The voices hesitated a bit. One of them bid 156, but Ronron quickly retaliated with 160. Realizing that no clothes, however pretty, could be worth that much, the voices stopped bidding, and 3 gavel hits later, Ronron became the proud owner of a pretty pink dress.
"I can't wait to see it," she said and looked around the room for someone to bring the dress to her.
Alex chuckled a little. "You won't get anything right now. You'll get it all once the auction is over and you pay them the money for everything you bought," he said.
"Oh," she said, a little disappointed. "You sure do know a lot about auctions, father. You must have been to a lot of them."
"I have," Alex said. "I especially had to go to many different ones in the Luminance Empire because I had to find a near-impossible to find ginseng so I could regrow an arm I had lost."
"Woah," Ronron was surprised. "No wonder you're so experienced about auctions. Did you learn it all from that experience?"
"No, someone had to teach me how it all worked at the start," Alex said.
"Oh? Who?" Ronron asked.
"The person you are named after," Alex said, reminiscing a bit about the past. "Ma Rong, my first master."
Ronron became silent for a bit. "Papa used to say the same when I was younger," she said.
"Of course," Alex said. "The memories I have of her are the ones your father made. Sometimes, I wonder if I should get angry that he robbed away my time with her. But then I realize that all the experiences and memories are still with me, so it's all the same regardless."
"You must miss her a lot," Ronron said.
Alex nodded. "Every time I think of a recipe or make a pill, I see her face in my mind. Outside of my own family, she is probably the one I love the most."
He quickly shook his head and smiled a little. "I got a little sentimental there, didn't I? I'm sorry," he said.
"No, no, it's alright," Ronron said. "It's actually quite good to see that you have that sort of side too."
"Haha, of course, I do," Alex said. "Did you think I was an emotionless monster or what?"
"No, no, that's not what I meant," Ronron quickly said. "It's just that master said that cultivators are used to death and pain, so a lot of them grow callous to this sort of stuff and don't feel anything anymore."
"I can't say he's wrong, but he's not right either," Alex said. "Cultivators do feel stuff when the ones in pain are their loved ones. Sure some become heartless, but that's not true for all of them."
"I see," Ronron said.
The auction continued with more and more items being auctioned off. Ronron managed to get her hands on every single one of the items she wanted the buy.
Whether it was formations, more dresses, special cultivation books, or anything. Even if she didn't need it herself, but thought someone else would like it, she bought it.
Thankfully, they were still in the first half of the auction, so nothing could be considered expensive to Alex.
Alex wasn't particularly excited about anything and waited for the second half to begin. However, just when he thought it was getting boring, the woman walked out with a tray, on top of which was a single item he immediately recognized.
"Ronron," he said softly.
"Hmm?" Ronron turned around.
He looked into her eyes and said, "You have to get this."
"Huh?" Ronron turned around to see what it was and was confused for a moment. However, the confusion quickly vanished when the woman introduced the item.
"Here we have the final item on display before we move onto Saint rank items," she said as she showed off the small ginger piece on the tray.
"This is the Blood Revitalizing Ginger."
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