Chapter 395: Chapter 60: Tong Hou’s Promotion and the Auction
"I am your auctioneer for today, Wu Haidong! On behalf of the Huayue United Auction, I’d like to welcome you all."
The auctioneer was a very young man, at least in appearance.
However, the ancient wisdom in his eyes and his Tai Chi Peak cultivation suggested he was not young at all.
His words were met with a wave of applause from the audience.
"I imagine that after the preliminary events, many of you have been eagerly anticipating this auction for quite some time.
So, without further ado, I declare the Huayue United Auction officially open.
Now, let’s have our first auction item."
As Wu Haidong spoke, a young female disciple walked onstage carrying a tray.
On the tray was a palm-sized pouch that resembled a sachet.
Wu Haidong picked up the pouch and began, "I’m sure many of you have already guessed what this is just by looking at it.
That’s right, it’s a Storage Pouch. However, this one is a little different.
This Storage Pouch was personally crafted by Huayue City’s only Three-Star Refiner, the ancestor of our Wu Family, Wu Bairen.
While it is still classified as a Two-Star Magical Artifact, and its Storage Space doesn’t exceed the ten-cubic-meter limit for Two-Star items...
...due to its materials and refining method, this item possesses two features of a Three-Star Storage Pouch: Sealing and locking.
As many of you know, while a Two-Star Storage Pouch can’t be probed by ordinary means, it can still be accessed through certain special methods.
The Sealing feature blocks the vast majority of these special probes, granting you excellent privacy.
As for the locking feature, that hardly needs an explanation. Once you lock this Storage Pouch, it’s nearly impossible for an outsider to open it without destroying it, unless they have the specific method you set.
But I’ve said enough. I’m sure all of you are very familiar with an item like this.
The starting bid is five hundred Spirit Stones, with a minimum increment of fifty."
"Six hundred!"
"Six hundred fifty!"
"Eight hundred!"
"..."
Zhang Deming watched the first item on the block, his expression shifting slightly. ’Before, I might not have cared, but after what happened with that little white mouse, I think these features are necessary.’
While he hesitated, the price soared to eleven hundred Spirit Stones. For an ordinary Two-Star Storage Pouch, that was already getting a bit expensive.
Zhang Deming tapped the Light Screen directly and placed a bid.
"Fifteen hundred!"
Zhang Deming’s sudden four-hundred-stone jump instantly cooled the heated bidding.
"Bidder 121 offers fifteen hundred! Do I have any higher? This is practically a quasi-Three-Star Storage Pouch!"
No one from the audience responded. An ordinary Two-Star Storage Pouch sold for nine hundred to a thousand Spirit Stones at most; this price was already in the range of a decent Three-Star Artifact.
Someone might have competed for another hundred or two, but this price was simply too high. The auction had just begun, and no one was swept up in the heat of the moment yet.
"Fifteen hundred, going once!"
"Fifteen hundred, going twice!"
"Sold! Congratulations to our distinguished guest in Suite 121 for winning the first item of the auction. And now for our second item..."
A moment later, a chime sounded from the Array in his room. Zhang Deming waved his hand to activate it.
"Senior, here is your auction item," the Female Cultivator waiting at the door said.
Zhang Deming nodded, taking the item. "Mm."
"Is there anything else I can do for you, Senior?" she asked.
Zhang Deming glanced at her and shook his head indifferently. The Female Cultivator departed.
After she left, Zhang Deming picked up the palm-sized cloth pouch.
Since it was made by the Wu Family, it came with a surprisingly detailed description that was almost like an instruction manual.
After looking it over for a moment, he had to admit, ’This thing really is more convenient than my first one.’
Besides having a few more cubic meters of space, the pouch had the Wishing Size ability. At its largest, it could match the size of its internal space, and at its smallest, it could shrink to the size of a thumb.
The surface was even decorated with special Three-Star Materials and controlled by a dedicated appearance Array, allowing for twenty built-in designs.
The Wu Family had already pre-set ten of them, leaving the rest for Zhang Deming to customize himself. Moreover, all the settings were modifiable.
’As expected of an item refined by a Three-Star Refiner,’ he thought. ’The attention to these small details makes it remarkably pleasant and likable.’
Zhang Deming played with the new Storage Pouch for a long time, as if it were a new toy.
He now had three Storage Pouches on him. Since two of them had the Wishing Size ability, he could carry all of them.
’A total of twenty-four cubic meters. That should be enough. After all, when you’re out and about, you can’t carry all your worldly possessions with you at all times. Even with Spatial Artifacts, that’s just not feasible.’
’If something happened, you’d be completely screwed. Just like with that mouse earlier—if I had been carrying everything I owned back then, I probably would have coughed up blood from sheer frustration.’
Once Zhang Deming had familiarized himself with the new Storage Pouch, he moved some of his more valuable items into it.
The original one, made from a beast’s stomach, still hung from his waist. He shrank the two new Storage Pouches to the size of his thumb and, after a bit of arranging, fashioned them into a small pendant on his belt.
With the stomach-pouch serving as a decoy, the two new pendants were completely inconspicuous.
Meanwhile, the original stomach-pouch, while outwardly a decoy, could be used internally as a prop for borrowing space when Casting Sleeve Qiankun.
After he finished his arrangements, Zhang Deming looked them over and nodded with satisfaction.
’Uh... does this mean I’m now one of those guys who hides his treasures in his pants?’
As the items outside were auctioned off one by one, Zhang Deming’s mind began to wander.
"The efficacy and rarity of the Spirit Nurturing Bead need no further introduction. It is arguably the most sought-after item in the Hongmeng Realm today.
Next up is a set of Glove Beads—an Inheritance Bead Set. To be more precise, it’s a peak Mastery Level Inheritance Bead Set.
This Inheritance Set is composed of five sets of Magic Beads, with five beads per Skill, for a total of twenty-five beads.
Perhaps some of you are wondering why there are only five beads per Skill. Did Huayue secretly hold some back? Or are Spirit Nurturing Masters cutting corners more and more these days?
No!
On the contrary, this set of Glove Beads is exceptionally generous.
In fact, if you’re lucky, a user might even be able to treat it as two sets and train two separate Disciples with it.
This is because the provider of this set did not follow the traditional market practice of mixing quantities. All twenty-five of these Spirit Nurturing Beads are of Mastery grade, without a single lesser bead among them."
At this, Wu Haidong reached out and whipped the cloth cover off the tray held by the female disciple behind him.
Inside an exquisite glass box lay twenty-five beads, set in five rows of five. The magnificent image instantly appeared on the Light Screen at every seat.
