Battle Through the Heavens - chapter-389

Xiao Yan stood at the end of the street where the human traffic was
turbulent. He lifted his head, and watched the auction house in front of
him, which was incomparably huge. His mouth could not resist releasing a
shocked sigh. Back then, when he saw the auction house headquarters of
the Primer clan in the Jia Ma Empire, he had felt somewhat shocked by its
size. It was, however, unexpected that he would realize that the Primer
Auction house was undoubtedly trivial when compared to this auction
house, which was also called ‘Black Mark’, now that he had arrived at
Black Mark City.

There were over ten indifferent-faced, black-clothed powerful men, who
carried sharp weapons on their waist, outside the Black Mark Auction
House. Their gazes, which were as sharp as eagles, repeatedly swept
across the human flow coming and going. From the faint presence that was
seeping out from the bodies of these men, five of them were actually of
the Dou Shi class, while the rest were around the peak of the Dou Zhe
level.

There were already people at the Dou Shi class among those they had
carelessly ordered to guard the entrance. It appeared that the strength
of this ‘Eight Gates’ was really strong. At the very least, the
Primer clan would be reluctant to use Dou Shi practitioners to guard the
doors.

A large black robe was tightly wrapped around Xiao Yan’s body as he
slowly lowered his head. The shadow of the Doupeng completely covered his
face. In the ‘Black-Corner Region’, this utterly chaotic place, he
did not think that carelessly exposing his appearance was a wise decision.

TL: Doupeng – a conical bamboo hat with a cloth hanging down from its
tip, covering one’s face

Xiao Yan followed the flow of humans and slowly walked into the auction
house. The vast space within it caused him to once again become
momentarily absent minded. He immediately recovered and his footsteps
ferried him to the middle of the hall.

An enormous screen was hung on the surroundings within this auction
house, scrolling through a countless number of items, which were being
sold in this auction. Xiao Yan roughly glanced over it, but did not
discover anything excessively rare. It was likely that these special
items were used as things which would dominate the auction and were not
displayed in order to maintain their secrecy. Of course, some of the
factions, which were quite strong, would naturally be able to use other
channels to inquire about the treasures which would dominate the auction.

Xiao Yan’s gaze swept across his surroundings before finally stopping
on a door leading to a room to inspect treasures. He hesitated a little
before slowly walking into it.

As Xiao Yan’s body entered the door into this so called ‘Treasure
Inspecting Room’, he was somewhat stunned to realize that this somewhat
big room was neatly divided into over a hundred smaller secret rooms. It
was likely a preventive measure designed to prevent the treasures from
being exposed.

Xiao Yan had just walked into this ‘Treasure Inspecting Room’ when a
sexily clad female servant walked forward. Her feminine voice released an
enchanting feeling, “This sir, are you here to inspect a treasure or
are you here to perform a price evaluation to facilitate the auction?”

“The latter.” Xiao Yan’s purposefully suppressed his voice until it
sounded somewhat hoarse.

“Please follow me.” The female servant smiled enchantingly and turned
around. Her water snake-like waist swayed and formed an extremely
alluring arc. If one looked at it for too long, it would actually cause a
nefarious flame to rise within one’s lower abdomen. It appeared that
the female servants here had undergone special training on how to
increase their attractiveness to its limit in men’s eyes.

Xiao Yan’s gaze dangled within the shadows of the Doupeng. He ignored
the female servant’s seductive body. In the ‘Black-Corner Region’,
which was an extremely chaotic place, even a woman who did not have the
strength to tie a chicken could also cause a person to receive a great
shock. Therefore, Xiao Yan did not dare to think of having any
interaction with the women here.

Xiao Yan followed behind the woman and walked dozens of meters before the
latter finally stopped in front of a small secret room. She respectfully
bowed to Xiao Yan and smiled as she said, “Mister, you can hand over
the things you want to auction off to the grandmaster inside to evaluate
and verify. After which, you will obtain a seat of a differing grade at
the auction fair depending on how valuable the items you are trying to
auction off are.”

Xiao Yan nodded. He gently pushed open the black-colored wooden door and
walked in. After which, he smoothly closed the door.

The light in the small room was bright. An old man, whose hair was
somewhat white, was using his sharp gaze to inspect Xiao Yan. As the
latter was entirely covered in a black robe, he had difficulty spotting
anything eye-catching.

“Please have a seat.” The old man carelessly pointed at a chair in
front of him. He finished arranging some of the tools needed to inspect
the items to be auctioned off before lowering his head and said faintly,
“Take out the things that you want to auction out.”

Xiao Yan remained silent. He did not speak as he waved his hand and three
small jade bottles appeared on the table.

“Medicinal Pills?”

The old man was a little stunned when he heard the sound of the jade
bottles colliding with the surface of the table. His gaze stopped on each
of the three small jade bottles and a bizarre glint flashed across his
eyes. He wore a pair of thin, transparent gloves and carefully picked up
a jade bottle and tipped the jade bottle until the pale-green-colored
spherical medicinal pill rolled out onto his palm. He placed it under his
nose and sniffed, while his gaze paused on the green and purple
Pill-Lines on the pill. He mused for a moment before his expression
changed slightly. With a shocked voice, he said, “This is a
‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill?”

“Ah.” Xiao Yan nodded slightly. His voice was still hoarse: “Since
you have heard of the ‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill’, I think that you
should also know of its effect. Help me estimate the listing price.”

“I need to examine it first.” The old man shook his head. He then
took out those strange and unique tools and began fiddling with the
medicinal pill. After continuing like this for a long while, he finally
stopped. His gaze had an additional bizarreness when he lifted his head
back up to look at Xiao Yan. With a deeper meaning in his words, he said,
“This is indeed a ‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill. Moreover, its quality
is quite high. Even an ordinary tier four alchemist would have difficulty
creating a pill with this kind of quality.”

“According to the method the ‘Black-Corner Region’ uses to
estimate, the base price for this ‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill’
should be around three hundred thousand gold. If you take it out to
auction and meet some rich and powerful factions competing with each
other, it would not be difficult for you to auction it off for over five
hundred thousand gold.”

“Then take a look at this.” Xiao Yan nodded slightly. This price was
already higher than what he had estimated. Immediately, he pushed over
the bottle which contained the ‘Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill’.

“Oh?” The old man was slightly startled. He took the bottle and
allowed the emerald-like spherical medicinal pill within to roll out.
However, when his gaze swept across the three circular Pill-Lines on the
pill’s body, a seriousness finally appeared on his calm face. The
difference between a ‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill’ and a
‘Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill’ may merely be only one line, but
their prices were like two different worlds.

A ‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill’ may have the effect of helping a Dou
Shi break through the final barrier and advance, but it could only help
one’s strength increase by one or two stars. Moreover, the chances of
receiving backlash was quite great. On the other hand, once one
successfully consumed a ‘Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill’, not only
could one break through the barrier, but one could also have one’s
strength suddenly rise by three stars. Of course, this was with the
exception that the person taking the pill had purposely not been
restricted their strength from rising. Back then, when Xiao Yan had
consumed the ‘Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill’, he purposefully
deposited the medicinal effect within his body because his was afraid
that his strength would rise too quickly, which would result in him
losing precise control over his body. When the medicinal strength was
activated later on, it once again caused his strength to soar. From this,
one could see the clear difference between the ‘Three-Lined’ and
‘Two-Lined’ pills!

On this point, the old man who had seen countless treasures knew it very
well. Thus, his face held an extra trace of curiosity and seriousness.

“Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill?” The old man scrupulously examined
the emerald medicinal pill as he spoke in a stunned soft voice.

“Yes.” Xiao Yan nodded his head faintly.

“Excellent stuff.” The old man smacked his mouth. Even though he was
used to seeing treasures, he also gave such an evaluation. He hesitated a
little before saying: “The base auction price of this ‘Three-Lined
Green Spirit Pill’ can be set at around seven hundred thousand. After
undergoing competing bids, I think that it can be sold for about nine
hundred thousand or so.”

Xiao Yan quietly nodded his head. In his heart, he could not resist
heaving a long sigh of relief. The sum of the values of these three
‘Green Spirit Pills’ would be nearly two million. This amount of
money had really come in a frightening manner. No wonder being an
alchemist was an occupation which did not lack money to spend. This kind
of lucrative thing would really cause the other occupations to collapse
from envy.

Of course, Xiao Yan also clearly knew that this kind of lucrative trade
was built upon having sufficiently high chances of success. After all,
when most alchemists refined medicinal pills, they would sometimes only
succeed once every ten attempts. The ingredients needed to refine the
‘Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill’ would add up to nearly sixty or
seventy thousand gold coins. When that time came, even if they were
successful once out of ten times, it was likely they would only manage to
break even. After all, not all the alchemists in this world had the help
of an extremely experienced Yao Lao, as well as a ‘Heavenly Flame’,
both of which were extremely great helps.

“Two ‘Two-Lined Green Spirit Pill’ and one ‘Three-Lined Green
Spirit Pill’. Mister, the value of the things you want to sell in our
auction has already reached a second class VIP grade of our ‘Black Mark
Auction House’. This is your seat number. The auction fair will
officially open this afternoon. When that time comes, please sit in your
designated seat.” The old man carefully put the medicinal pills away
and took out a card which was made of green-colored emerald from the
counter, which he then handed over to Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan nodded his head as he received the emerald card. He inquired,
“Can I leave now?”

“Ke ke, mister, please do as you wish.” The old man smiled as he
replied after he had carefully returned the three ‘Green Spirit
Pill’. Perhaps it was because of these pills, but his current attitude
toward Xiao Yan was a little better.

Xiao Yan did not say any more nonsense after hearing this. He stood up
and slowly walked toward the door, opened it, and walked out.

The old man eyed the door, which was slowly closing, and heard the
footsteps gradually becoming distant. His finger gently knocked on the
surface of the table. A long while later, he lowered his head, and eyed
the three ‘Green Spirit Pills’, which had been stored properly. A
strange expression flashed across his muddled old eyes.

“I have not seen this person before. To be able to take out three
‘Green Spirit Pill’ so easily, it is likely that he should be an
alchemist. Moreover, his tier should not be low…” His hand tapped at
a certain part of the table, and the wall of the secret room was suddenly
and slowly pulled open, revealing a small, dark hole. The old man picked
up the three ‘Green Spirit Pills’, turned around and walked into the
hole. His soft voice muttering words that resounded quietly within the
secret room.

“An alchemist who can refine a medicinal pill of a tier like the
‘Three-Lined Green Spirit Pill’ is also not commonly seen in the
‘Black-Corner Region’. I think that the Leader will be interested in
such a person.”