The girl in charge of the presenting the items, sweetly smiled, they get paid a commission which is a percentage of each item sold, so for them selling the items at a good price is a blessing, though if Camila's guessing was right, then she would probably not be as happy.
"Ahem, thanks for the honored guest of the number 1 skybox, for his purchase", said the girl as she put the ore away.
Aster saw a spirit formation appearing on the table in front of the couch, according to the manual book that was left next to the amenities, for those who bought something, they had to pay right away, if they wanted to continue participating in the auction.
It was a way to caught those who only came to brag and lacked the funds to pay for the items, of course it had its benefits as well, since the item was delivered as soon as the payment was sent through the formation, the bidder could immediately tell if he made a good purchase or not.
It has it's pros and cons, since some would get swayed away if they got lucky and pay more, and others who lost would aim to continue and try to make up for it, there were few who resigned and left with just one loss, all had a purpose though, the sect was rich beyond one's imagination.
Although from the shadows, they had the support of people from people of the four ruling families of the four known Heavenly Quadrants, they only had to prove to be worthy or receiving them, and that was it, since for those tycoon-like young ladies, this was nothing.
Aster also aimed at that, since his godmothers prepared such a nice gift, how could he not enjoy it, while also helping Camila train, and if the ancestor from the Blacksmith peak suffered some losses, then it was three birds with one stone, he had nothing to lose.
Aster looked into his ring and directly transferred the payment, which didn't take him more than a couple of seconds, he didn't even need to take his eyes away from the stage, thanks to the ability of parallel thinking, his soul cultivation granted him.
Also he didn't let Camila take a look at the ore and directly sent him to his spatial ring, since he wanted to evaluate all the purchases altogether, which of course made her pout, as he was clearly teasing her, but at this point she resigned and accepted Aster's challenge.
The auction then continued, the girl in charge brough the next item out, it was a spirit herb this time, a small pink-colored leaf, which immediately caused an uproar in the spectators, making the auctioneer smile.
"As you can all probably guess, next we have a Blessed Cherry Blossom Leaf, which is the main ingredient for a Cosmetic Pill, those who aim to court a beautiful lady, know how expensive this ingredient is, the bet will start at ten thousand middle ranked spirit jades, each pull must be of at least five hundred jades".
Despite the high price, no one doubted to start biding for it, while it is true that appearances aren't everything, and that the strong rule in the cultivation world, what do you gift to a female cultivator who is strong enough to get the resources she needs, and has the backing of the sect, one of the best answers would be beauty.
The male cultivators of the sect who had successfully courted a fellow disciple, is miserably low, mostly because they often leave the sect after not getting the results they wanted, or simply because they don't feel appreciated enough.
One of the few successful cases and probably the most known, is related to the pill mentioned, a certain newly accepted disciple, fell in love at first sight with a core disciple, and after professing his love, he fought and trained until he became an inner disciple, in one of his many adventures, found a small pink leaf which he asked an alchemist to refine, into a pill that could improve the skin, hair and yin.
After getting that pill, he once again went to where his beloved lived and offered her the pill, the girl accepted his feelings and the pill… just to never use it and keep it with her all the time as a memory of how much her partner worked to court her, despite remaining as an inner disciple, and being unable to reach a better status in the sect, they both left the set and up to this day live happily together, it's a famous story among the female disciples.
Of course there is a more realistic side of the story, saying that the guy never stopped getting along with the female disciple, so naturally after being friends for years they developed feelings for each other, and the pill was just a gift for the occasion, but what's important for outsiders is that said pill is highly demanded, and the main ingredient is stupidly hard to find, despite it only being a middle Stellar grade one.
As the tree that gives birth to it, only exists in the Treasure Planet, also only one leaf turns pink every one thousand years and it happens in a both random but organized way, if a tree has had it before, it will never give bloom to it again, at the same time, it only can appear in one tree in the whole planet, could be one of the known or could be one of he samples that haven't been discovered, since the 90% of the planet has yet to be explored.
And soon the pull was risen op to thirty thousand jades, it was then when Aster proposed himself to make his bet, but Camila stopped him from doing so.
"I can't feel the properties that such an ingredient such have on that leaf, it's not that is fake, but is an ingredient used for poison, which should be worth around one thousand middle ranked spirit jades", she said.
Her constitution feels different kinds of levels of "attraction" to treasures and resources, normally they would also react the same way, but her natal treasure has sealed that ability since she can't control it, that being said poisonous or not, a natural resource is a resource, it might have different uses, but it's still valuable.
This was a harder decision for her, since the ingredient was of the same grade as the real one, it's just that the demand of it was way lower, so the price reflected that fact as well.
"Oh, are you sure, you know Rigel's flames are the bane of any poison, but I don't see any poison even when I inject them in my eyes", said Aster, as he showed Camila his eyes which were glowing in blue light, instead of the classic golden color of his spirit energy.
Camila proudly smiled before saying.
"That's because it's a Pink Snake Leaf, which's function is to enhance a small variety of low ranked poisons, but its effect is only shown when added, so it's harmless if consumed alone, in fact it does enhance one's yin circulation for about an hour!".
Aster smiled, she looked cute being all fired up like that, he shrugged and then leaned back on the couch, of course he knew that was the case, his body is a huge source of yang, he could resonate with yin sources, if he wanted to, it's something he learned thanks to Aria.
"Oh, I see, I'll believe in you, let's leave it for some fool then", said Aster.
The leaf was then sold by the huge amount of forty thousand middle ranked jades, by one of the people in the other skyboxes, the auction then continued, the auctioneer took out a small bottle with a single drop of liquid inside of it.
"Next we have a drop of refined water essence formed at the bottom of a millenary lake, if taken care and nurtured for a few generations it has a chance to become a spirit water, so don't miss the chance to get a future family inheritance, the starting price is fifty thousand middle ranked spirit jades, each pull must be of one thousand jades~".
The room was now divided in two types of people, the ones who really wanted the item and were going crazy, as an item like this has never showed before, and the ones who didn't believe that such a thing as nurturing a spirit water was possible and didn't have enough funds to begin with.
The bids actually came only from the skyboxes at this point, since they have gone past the 80 thousand middle ranked jades.
Aster inwardly raised an eyebrow, he was interested in the current item, of course all the thing regarding nurturing a spirit water out of the drop in that bottle was… bullshit, according to Esmeralda, they can only be born under really special circumstances and the help of the natural laws, but the liquid in that bottle was still an incredibly valuable thing.
He turned around to see his "Lucky Charm" to see what she had to say about it, only to see her mumbling and trying really hard to make memory, before sighing.
"I don't know what is that, but!... but it's a treasure on level with some of the things Lilia showed me she had in her ring, so you can use high ranked jades to scare others and buy it!", she said with a confident voice.
Aster truly wanted to smile from ear to ear and spoil her, but he refrained from doing so and just nodded, or things wouldn't be as fun later on, he then made his bet.
The auctioneer saw the number reflected from the number 1 skybox and her eyes widened, the times an item gets to be paid in high ranked jades are really scarce, as most of the time clients use hundreds of thousands of middle ranked.
"T-The honored guest of the number 1 skybox, has offered fifty high ranked spirit jades… from this point onwards those who wish to increase the price must do so in high ranked spirit jades".
As expected, the result of Aster suddenly going from middle to high ranked jades, cut the wings to a lot of people, even among the 50 skyboxes, the reason as to why Aster only offered fifty high ranked jades which are normally worth fifty thousand middle ones, is because that price is the ideal… in a high ranked Stellar System.
As the law of the offer and demand states, the higher the demand and lower the offer, the higher the price, and because of that, here in a middle ranked Stellar System, the standard price is double as normal.
It's worth mentioning that people coming from high ranked systems can't exploit that flaw, as it is prohibited by the ruler families, since it would ruin the economy, and those who try to do so will be given harsh punishments, including death penalty, depending on the situation.
In any case, out of the people that were pulling for the item earlier, only two remained, besides Aster, and after he raised it to 60 high ranked jades, while they just added one or two, they gave up.
Whether they could nurture a spirit water or not was unknown, and since everyone here were technically disciples, though with the backing of their factions or families, they weren't willing to dump such good resources that were used for Law Integration cultivators to advance, for a bet.
"Ah, damn it, again the guy from the first skybox, it must be a new disciple who's got deep pockets".
"Tsk, I wanted that, maybe I could have convinced that person to make me an elixir or pill, using it as a tribute".
And other similar comments were said from within the skyboxes, of course those outside of them couldn't hear such things.
Aster immediately paid and suppressing the urge to check on what he bought, he sent it into his spatial ring.
The auctioneer was all smiles, though she will get paid I middle ranked jades, it was still a good day for her.
"Thanks to the honored guest in the number 1 skybox for his support, the next item might be up to your liking as well, so please look at it!", enthusiastically said the girl as she presented it.
This time it was a large jade case, which contained a exquisitely designed weapon, a spear to be more accurate.
"Made out of the tusk of a Black Hell Elephant and found in a secret realm, by a member of the sect, who unfortunately isn't a spear user… it's a peak Stellar grade spirit weapon, and so the price will start at fifty high ranked spirit jades, each pull must be of five jades!".
From within his skybox Aster inwardly smirked.
'This godmother of mine surely likes to trick others', he thought, still right now what was important was Camila's training so he turned to see her expecting what her answer will be.
Camila was in a predicament right now, her lineage is incomplete just as Aster stated, and her ability isn't almighty, there is a flaw on it, when it comes to manmade things, the quality of the result might be high due to the materials used, but the treasure itself might be trash.
A glass cannon could be good metaphorical example, while strong, it could be fragile, without properly inspecting a weapon, its flaws were hard to tell, there could be cracks inside of it, or the materials could be poorly processed, but beautifully decorated on the outside and the aura exuded by it would trick those who weren't skilled in blacksmithing.
It didn't help her, that Aster also teased her from time to time.
"So what do you think, if you want I can buy it for you, so you can try dual wielding", he said with a bright smile on his face.
'Uhhh, I can't decide!', she screamed in her heart.
Aster was doing his best not to laugh at her, she was so easy to tease, that it was amusing to do so, of course he didn't do it with ill intentions, but her indecisive yet thoughtful expression was rather cute.
Camila knew it was now or never, the price had already reached 100 high ranked spirit jades, and if it was truly a peak ranked Stellar grade weapon, then it could go up to double that, so the best way to get a good deal was to increase the price in a single bid, 150 jades would scare all the others away, making them believe Aster had enough money to waste, which wasn't exactly a lie though.
Ultimately Camila bit her lips and without her noticing, the previously copperish colored light flowing in her eyes, changed to a silver one, as she said.
"The materials are good, but the manufacture is so poor is a joke, you can break it using a peak Sky graded weapon created by you!".
Aster saw Camila's flushed expression, which was caused not because she was teased by him, but because how much effort she put into her answer and he nodded.
"Okay, I won't bid for it then, what a shame it looked like a good gift for you".
Camila pouted.
"The tension is killing me and you can't even give me a hint", she cutely complained.
Aster laughed in response.
"What would be the fun in doing that, besides I get to see you finally acting like my friend, instead of a stiff "stranger", that's a win in my book".
Camila giggled, without realizing and though she was a nervous mess, she was actually having a lot of fun, she couldn't even remember the last time she could act as a girl her age, instead of the one responsible for the Wolfstein lineage survival and rebirth.
She might be in her forties-fifties but for a cultivator in her realm, that's nothing, she should be acting like Eris or Mylene, as she hasn't even had let alone children, but a lover.
To Camila's relief the first part of the auction actually ended with that spear, which the person in the number 2 skybox won by paying 120 high ranked spirit jades.
But Aster's playful voice then made her feel the urge to cry.
"I hope you don't believe that's the end, the real event is starting now, and even easier way to waste tons of money and an even harder bet, with the highest risks and rewards".
Camila whose eyes were teary, looked at the stage in which a spirit formation illuminated, before a series of different sized pillars, stones and other things made out of different colored minerals came out of the formation.
"And now the event that everyone has been waiting for, the "Monolith of prosperity", is here!", shouted the auctioneer.
'What now!', shouted Camila in her mind.
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