Chapter 403: Chapter 369: Hallucinatory Fruit
The auction hadn’t even started yet, and the Rare Items Hall was already bustling with people.
In fact, many things were directly put up for sale instead of auctioned, and those that were auctioned were truly "rare items."
So, when you walk in, there’s a row of display windows.
Unfortunately, Lin Miao hadn’t yet mastered the flat glass technique. Otherwise, he could have made a significant business deal with Heaven-Dominating Tower by using it for these display windows.
Ordinary items were clearly removed, and they were replaced with things rarely seen every day. Heaven-Dominating Tower was not about to miss this rare opportunity for monetization.
Those participating in the auction were all wealthy individuals, some of whom were ordinary people with no cultivation, but wealthy nonetheless.
Wealthy people like to search for rare things to satisfy their mental cravings, always needing a place to spend their money.
During the auction, the security in Li Hen City was at its best. Anyone who dared to mess with Heaven-Dominating Tower and disturb the guests would face serious consequences.
Physician tokens had to be assessed based on their owners and levels. Generally, regular physician tokens weren’t valuable, often appearing on display, with clear price tags.
A junior physician’s token wasn’t worth more than three hundred taels, part of which was the material value, and part was its collectible value.
For ordinary people, it was just a trinket.
Mid-level ones would double in value, depending on their condition, selling for five or six hundred taels. High-level physician tokens were expensive, starting at least two thousand taels of silver, because there were few who reached this level and the value was higher.
Then there are the junior physician’s tokens, which are more complexly crafted and naturally more valuable, typically making it to the auction stage. These start at five thousand taels of silver and above!
This is the auction price. In reality, the market purchase price is at most three to four thousand taels, depending on fame.
Fame naturally commands a premium. Without fame, those who rely on seniority are just trinkets, not worth much.
Master Sun Simiao was only a mid-level physician, stuck in a small place like Qingping Town, with virtually no fame.
So, his physician token wouldn’t be worth much, but Lin Miao is now famous, which would slightly raise its uniqueness and rarity.
So, a premium is likely, and since Lin Miao is looking for this physician’s token, it’s unlikely to be directly sold in the display window.
If there is one, it might very well make it to the Rare Items Hall’s auction.
The auction times for various categories are staggered to ensure guests don’t miss out on things they like.
If everything happened simultaneously, and one person took a liking to two items but couldn’t bid for both, it would be Heaven-Dominating Tower’s loss.
In the display window, Lin Miao indeed saw a few physician tokens, including a physician’s token with a clear price. One could pay on the spot and take it away immediately, or store it and retrieve it upon leaving.
Lin Miao was primarily there to broaden his horizons. Buying things depended on affinity—if something truly caught his fancy, spending money on it wouldn’t be a big deal.
He wasn’t short on money now. When Su Chen returned from Nanyue, he would have at least three to four million taels of silver at his disposal.
This money shouldn’t just sit around; it should be spent, whether on investments or property, to make money grow.
"Senior Sister, if something catches your eye, just tell me. Our family is not short on money now," Lin Miao whispered to Sun Youwei.
"Hmm."
Sun Youwei actually had no intention of buying anything. She felt she lacked nothing now; her food, drink, and clothing were already the best. Even the daughters of wealthy families might not live as well, and they didn’t have her freedom.
As for these trinkets, she automatically classified them as novelties.
"Young sirs, this yellow Buddha jade sculpture is the work of master jade carver Wu Zhengfeng. Bringing it home ensures household peace..."
No need. If he really needed Buddha, he could invite Fahai home. What use was a stone Buddha statue?
It couldn’t chant scriptures or anything!
"This little boy herding ox bottle is a high-quality piece from the Nanyue Official Kiln. Both the base and glaze are exquisite. Bringing it home as an ornament would immediately elevate one’s taste..."
No need. He could fire more exquisite ceramics himself. If it were a couple of taels for reference, fine, but three hundred taels of silver? Do they think I’m a fool?
"This string of South Sea pearls, each one is very full, meeting the standard of perfect roundness. Sir, buy them for your lady, it would make her more radiant..."
"Senior Sister, do you like them? If you do, let’s buy them. Tonight, everything here is authentic; apart from being a bit pricey, there are no big issues," Lin Miao whispered to Sun Youwei.
"It’s too expensive. Besides, if I buy them, I won’t wear them often; it’s a waste." Sun Youwei shook her head. She had lived through tough times and knew what she truly wanted.
Lin Miao didn’t argue. He never intended to change Sun Youwei’s ’practical’ mindset; in fact, he appreciated it.
Marrying a wise and frugal lady is a rare blessing.
They didn’t find anything they wanted and learned they had to wait an hour for the Rare Items Hall auction. So, they decided not to continue browsing.
There were several other halls as well, and they wanted to at least take a look, making sure their trip wasn’t wasted.
The next place they visited was the Secret Books Hall.
In this hall, besides martial arts manuals, there are also some rare and valuable ancient texts, but of course, the martial arts manuals displayed in the window may not be originals, so one must be cautious when buying them.
The true martial arts secrets are never directly displayed for sale.
This place attracts many martial artists, especially loose cultivators without any particular sect, or members of small sects; what they often lack most are martial arts manuals.
Disciples of the major sects already have enough martial arts to learn from within their own sects, and they have long collected these martial arts manuals, so they don’t need to spend money to learn, and naturally, they’re not interested.
Lin Miao’s family also has quite a few martial arts manuals, which the Su Family copied from their own family’s martial arts manuals and gave to him.
These martial arts manuals are about the same as what he sees here. Mastering them thoroughly could achieve something, offering a chance to become a second-tier expert, but becoming a first-tier expert depends on luck.
Supposedly, a first-tier expert must at least progress to the Meridian Passage Realm.
For second-tier, at the very least, they must be at the Blood Fusion Realm.
The martial arts manuals here have an upper limit at the Blood Fusion Realm, so for Lin Miao, apart from some reference value, they don’t mean much.
However, he is more interested in those rare ancient texts, as the contents recorded in these books can help him gain a deeper understanding of this world.
"Wrap up this ’South Wasteland Records’ for me, I’m buying it." Lin Miao took a liking to a travelogue about the Southern Wilderness, priced at eight hundred taels of silver, and bought it without hesitation.
"Thank you, sir! Do you have a VIP card? You could get a 20% discount!" The attendant was happily surprised, thinking this book wouldn’t sell tonight, not expecting a real spendthrift to appear.
"A VIP card, is this it?" Lin Miao pulled out a yellow jade card, which was an invitation sent by the Heaven-Dominating Tower for him to attend an auction.
"This is indeed a VIP card, but it only gets a 10% discount!" The attendant respectfully accepted it, took a glance, and returned it.
"A 10% discount is fine." Lin Miao didn’t mind much, but saving eighty taels of silver was naturally a good thing.
The VIP cards of the Heaven-Dominating Tower are divided into three types. Lin Miao’s is the lowest level; above this is the green card, and then the purple card.
The discounts vary. The yellow card gets a 10% discount, the green card gets a 15% discount, and the purple card gets a 20% discount.
This discount applies directly to shopping at the Heaven-Dominating Tower, while for bidding at auctions, discounts are raised by five points.
The highest purple card VIP gets a 15% discount, excluding special auction items (some special items aren’t discounted and will be informed in advance).
As for how to upgrade, it depends on consumption at the Heaven-Dominating Tower.
Accumulate consumption of five thousand taels of silver to gain a yellow card VIP status, fifty thousand taels for a green card upgrade, and five hundred thousand taels for a purple card.
Understanding this rule, Lin Miao would buy anything he liked on the spot.
He is indeed fond of books.
In a short while, he bought seven or eight books. Sun Youwei also fancied a book about spice ratios, as she had a keen sense of smell and was quite interested in this area, so she spent money to buy it and take it back for study and exploration.
After browsing around, they headed to the Exotic Plants Hall.
This place primarily housed extremely rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures. Lin Miao encountered his cheap and sleazy martial uncle, Dongguo Sun, there.
Apparently, he’d already been here for some time, intently staring at a purple plant without blinking, clearly interested in it.
"Mr. Dongguo, what are you looking at?"
"Hmm?" Dongguo Sun turned his head to find it was Lin Miao, and surprised, he said, "Why is it you? Are you here too?"
"Can’t I come?"
"Sure, sure, have you bought anything?" Dongguo Sun casually asked, his eyes never leaving that purple plant.
"Some books." Lin Miao also looked at that plant. It was placed in the center of a box, with a simple introduction beside it: "Purple Extreme Grass."
There are countless plants in this world, and Lin Miao wouldn’t claim to know them all. Besides, even a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner can’t match a professional botanist, who specializes in such studies.
The medicinal value of plants requires human discovery; how would you know without testing it? Many medicinal herbs’ effects were discovered through trials.
"This Purple Extreme Grass is the herbal lead in the Purple Gold Spirit Elixir formula. It grows in the crevices of mountains at least five thousand meters high, absorbing the purple energy of the sun. It’s extremely rare, and herbalists risk their lives to gather it." Dongguo Sun explained.
"If you like it, just buy it," Lin Miao said.
"I don’t have any money." Dongguo Sun sheepishly replied.
"Then let me buy it for you as a gift?" Lin Miao saw the Purple Extreme Grass marked at merely a thousand taels, an amount he could easily afford.
"No need, you don’t need the Purple Gold Spirit Elixir. The Purple Extreme Grass isn’t much use to you, why waste money?" Dongguo Sun waved it off.
Tortoise Spirit Herb, Phantom Orchid Flower, Hallucinogenic Fruit (one of the ingredients of the Wuyou Elixir), Millennium Bitter Ginseng... Lin Miao also saw a chunk of Tai Sui.
Many of these exotic plants are produced in the Longchuan Canyon, making them not so rare, and thus they’re placed in window displays for direct sale.
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