Chapter 264: Turning Something Rotten Into Something Magical
The auctioneer was this persistent because their appraisers determined that this box once sealed an amazing ancient medicine. Unfortunately, it was not sealed correctly and had rotted away.
“We’ll begin at 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades.” At this time, the auctioneer hammered down. No one made a bid. After a second hammer, there was still no one who gave an offer.
“It has turned into useless residue; it’s definitely not worth 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades.” An alchemist shook his head and stated. Even though 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades was not a ridiculous amount to most of the present buyers, there was no sense of profit from buying a slab of mud.
“300 Royal Noble Refined Jades — going one last time.” After the last hammer, the auctioneer shouted loudly. [1. Going once, going twice, sold. This is what I know, but the raw says third time, which isn’t the regular style?]
“I’ll buy it for 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades.” Li Qiye declared at the very last second.
At this time, many people stared at Li Qiye. 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades to buy a slab of mud — this was akin to having too much money with no place to spend it. Someone shook his head and said: “This brat truly likes to gamble.”
“300 Royal Noble Refined Jades, are there any other bidders?” The auctioneer inquired with a shout, but no other buyers were especially interested towards this slab of mud. In the end, this item was obtained by Li Qiye using 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades.
After seeing Li Qiye winning this auction, Sima Longyun sneered and said with disdain: “This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Buying a slab of mud and bringing it back home will at least let people know that you have traveled and participated in a grave auction. For a poor brat like you, using 300 Royal Noble Refined Jades to buy some sense of vanity can be considered a good thing.”
Li Qiye initially wanted to store this item away after winning the bid, but Sima Longyun actually stepped on his head. He revealed a smile and looked at Sima Longyun before saying: “What would an idiot like you know about ancient medicines? Only an idiot like you would waste 10,000,000 Royal Noble Refined Jades to buy a pot of useless beans!”
After this humiliating situation was brought up again, Sima Longyun’s expression sank once more. In the end, he coldly stated: “I do not mind wasting 10,000,000 refined jades. At the very least, I still have more face than a lowly broke who wasted 300 refined jades to buy a slab of mud.”
Li Qiye leisurely looked at Sima Longyun and laughed before saying: “Only a fool would think that this is a slab of mud! I’ll let this fool see what is truly considered an ancient medicine!” Finished speaking, he pulled on the slab of mud that had become rotten, splitting it apart.
The moment this slab of mud became separated, one after another, Rotten Underworld Beans rolled out. They were quite big and inside the muddy color was a faint yellow color. As these beans rolled out, a medicinal fragrance that gave a relaxing and comfortable sensation permeated the souls of others.
“Rotten Underworld Beans…” After seeing these beans come out, many buyers were surprised. An older alchemist shockingly exclaimed: “These are finest grade Rotten Underworld Beans; they have a trace of golden shade! Each of these Rotten Underworld Beans is worth more than 10,000 Royal Nobles Refined Jades at the current market price! These are the finest within the finest!”
“Finest Rotten Underworld Beans with one million years of medicinal spirit!” At this time, even an appraiser from the pavilion could not sit still. He was completely frozen after seeing Li Qiye storing them away, completely filling a pot with Rotten Underworld Beans!
At this time, all the buyers present were astonished. One alchemist murmured: “How is this possible? At that degree of decay, even other ancient medicines would become rotten. These Rotten Underworld Beans are not only rotten, but their medicinal spirits became even more refined and pure! Could it be that this Legendary Alchemist did it on purpose when he buried them?”
“If I knew this beforehand, I would have done something. In the market, this pot filled with Rotten Underworld Beans would probably be worth millions of Royal Noble Refined Jades! These finest beans are absolutely a hot item!” Another Ancient Saint with some purchasing power couldn’t help but stomp his feet with feelings of regret.
Chi Xiaodao was ecstatic from seeing this pot filled with finest grade Rotten Underworld Beans. He needed these beans, and he didn’t expect Li Qiye to be able to easily buy so many finest beans with such a low price. This was simply unthinkable.
Chi Xiaodie also felt the same way as she stared intensely at Li Qiye. At this time, she didn’t feel that Li Qiye was lucky; rather, this little demon that she considered to be a swindler was becoming more and more unfathomable and mysterious!
“Fellow Daoist, what is the principle behind this?” At this time, an ancient medicine appraiser of the Inheritance Ancient Pavilion quickly went up to Li Qiye and bowed once. Even he felt that this matter was impossible. It was a completely rotten ancient box, yet the beans inside were of the finest quality! There must be a principle behind this, something unknown to outsiders.
“This is another common principle, but unfortunately, I cannot tell you.” Li Qiye said with a smile.
This appraiser had no choice but to gently sigh. It was understandable that he didn’t want to reveal this matter. The appraiser still respectfully bowed again and didn’t say anything else.
“What now? I spent 300 refined jades to buy this slab of mud in contrast to you spending 10,000,000 to buy useless beans.” Li Qiye looked at Sima Longyun and idly spoke.
If other people dared to step on his head, then he certainly would not hesitate from giving them a good slap without leaving them half a trace of face.
Sima Longyun was absolutely livid as an ugly-to-the-extreme expression was revealed. Today, he failed twice. The first was when he bought the useless beans with a sky-high price, the second was to sarcastically mock Li Qiye for buying a slab of mud. He didn’t expect to be violently counter-slapped by Li Qiye!
“Okay, next is a jar of ancient medicine. Since it is difficult to appraise, we’ll start at 700 Enlightened Being Refined Jades.” At this point, the auctioneer presented an ancient medicine that the pavilion had trouble identifying.
This jar of ancient medicine — for unknown reasons — had turned into a medicinal contraption, and one couldn’t tell what the medicinal contraption was. [1. Medicinal contraption here is the refined part of the actual ancient medicine once placed in a cauldron flame; at least, within Emperor’s Domination.]
“I’ll bid 1,000.” An old alchemist immediately declared after the auctioneer finished his introduction.
“I’ll go with 1,500.” A different Ancient Saint hurriedly bidded right after.
“I’ll do 2,000.” Suddenly, many people bidded and were even competing just to bid.
***
They followed in Li Qiye’s footsteps, someone who managed to grab a great deal with the lowest price. Three hundred refine jades to buy finest grade Rotten Underworld Beans that was worth more than one million refined jades — this caused many people to become extremely interested in ancient medicines that were not able to be appraised by the pavilion. They all wanted to be like Li Qiye who greatly profited.
Ultimately, all of the unidentified ancient medicines were sold with fairly good prices. Unfortunately, these buyers who wanted to test their fortune had far worse insight than Li Qiye, so they didn’t have much of a harvest. Regarding this result, these buyers had nothing to say for they understood the risk.
“Open the coffin; quickly, open the coffin. Let’s see if there are any finest ancient medicines inside or not!” After everything in the tomb was auctioned off, the buyers present became impatient and all loudly shouted.
One of them excitedly said: “That's right, hurry up and open it. As a Legendary Alchemist’s tomb, we still haven’t found any Monarch Medicines or even Seven Transformations Soul Grass — this is a bit unacceptable.”
Medicines and grasses older than three million years were referred to as Monarch Medicines. Of course, Monarch Medicines were extremely rare. Countless alchemists spent their whole life searching only to never be able to see a true Monarch Medicine.
“Good, open the coffin!” In the end, after the pressure from the excited mob of buyers, the pavilion decided to open the coffin.
All eyes were glued on it as everyone held their breath in eager anticipation for the items inside.
Keep in mind that any grand character — before dying — would bury the most precious and valuable item of their life next to them!
At this point, everyone wanted to see what items this Legendary Alchemist buried with him. Heavenly Cauldrons, Immortal Dan, ancient medicines, or a manual regarding the alchemy dao?
With a cracking sound, the coffin was finally opened. There was a small trace of remains inside. Its owner seemed to be an old man when he was alive, and the bones appeared to be bent like those that belonged to a hunchback. It was as if he was curling his body when he died; it didn’t feel like a spectacular nor formal type of funeral.
The thing that was more shiver-inducing was that this body was completely black. It was as if he died from being poisoned. Outside of the black and tiny corpse, there was another item that was more than three feet long. It appeared to be a measuring stick.
With an inky color and distinctive outlines, this measuring stick seemed to be made out of wood. No one could really tell the specific type of wood it was made of. The corpse inside the coffin gripped this stick really tightly as if it was extremely important.
However, once the buyers saw the small, black corpse, they couldn’t help but become disappointed. Seeing that the thing buried with him was only a measuring stick, their disappointment increased even more.
“It seems like this Legendary Alchemist had left all of his treasures behind to his descendants and didn’t bury anything amazing with him.” A disappointed person remarked after seeing the inside of the coffin.
“This alchemist might have died in an accident ah.” Another older alchemist speculated after seeing the black corpse: “His entire body is jet-black; there is a chance that he died during a pill refinement session. It could have been an ominous medicine and he died from suffering the medicinal spirit’s backlash.”
An Ancient Saint carefully examined this corpse and also nodded in agreement: “That is plausible. There is no divinity in this corpse even though he is a Legendary Alchemist. Outside of an abnormal death, there is no better explanation.”
Only experts would have corpses with divinity. Normally, they would have to be at the Heavenly Sovereign or Heavenly King level to have divinity. For example, after a Heavenly King passed away, it wouldn’t matter if his body had decayed, there would always be a part that will not be rotten, like a finger, or the bone between the eyebrows, or an eye. This meant that this part was his most powerful aspect when he was alive!
The remains with divinity could be sold at a high price. For example, a finger bone of a Heavenly King could have an absolute power to be reckoned with once refined into a treasure.