Martial Arts Overlord - Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Blood-toad Pill Auction

Jinpeng Auction House consisted of one large auction house and four medium-sized auction houses.

Aside from when the auction summits were held once a year, the large auction house was usually closed to the public. Thus, it was a big deal to be able to open only one medium-sized auction house to auction the Blood-toad Pills. Yu Qianqian, because of her elevated status, was the only person who was influential enough to do this.

The auction house was much livelier than what Ning Xiaochuan had imagined. Numerous noble families, individuals from Marquis’ Residences and mansions, martial arts’ sects, and even geniuses and remarkable people from other sects came here to purchase Blood-toad Pills in order to break through to the next realm and participate in the examinations that the Heavenly Emperor Academy would hold in three days.

Since nobody knew the exact number of Blood-toad Pills at the auction, the price of the first Blood-toad Pill had skyrocketed to an exorbitant cost of 36 million copper coins. In the end, it was bought by the young king of King Qilin’s Residence.

“36 million copper coins still greatly exceeds my expectations.” Ning Xiaochuan was rather pleased with this price.

Although the Blood-toad Pill was considered a high quality mid-grade Pill, it was not a rare item. It would usually cost around 10 million to 15 million copper coins. Nonetheless, the price of the Blood-toad Pill had skyrocketed because of this particular timing.

Yu Qianqian happily said, “Yu Tiandi is known as an otherworldly genius from King Qilin’s Residence because his cultivation has reached the peak of Stage Two of the Divine Body Realm despite him only being eighteen years old. I’m certain that he bought the Blood-toad Pill because he wanted to quickly advance to Stage Three of the Divine Body Realm and obtain the Chieftain rank among his batch in the Heavenly Emperor Academy this time.”

“Oh, do you get a prize for being the Chieftain?” Ning Xiaochuan asked.

Yu Qianqian nodded and replied, “Anyone who ranks among the top ten in the Heavenly Emperor Academy will receive a valuable prize from the academy. The Chieftain for each round will receive an even more shocking prize. They might even be rewarded with a treasure that would make even a Martial Supreme emotional.”

The young king from King Qilin’s Residence consumed the Blood-toad Pill before a powerful burst of Blood Qi instantly erupted inside his body.

Boom!

Moments later, the Blood Qi inside the young king’s body frenziedly increased. When his strength had increased by twofold, he loudly chuckled and said, “The Blood-toad Pill didn’t disappoint me at all. I managed to break through to Stage Three of the Divine Body Realm so quickly. I can feel that my body hasn’t fully digested the Pill Qi yet, so my cultivation will probably improve before the Heavenly Emperor Academy starts recruiting new students.”

“Congratulations! The young king’s cultivation has reached Stage Three of the Divine Body Realm. He will definitely become the Chieftain this time.”

The young king led his servants away and left Jinpeng Auction House. He was getting ready to return and undergo isolated cultivation to digest his Pill Qi fully and improve his Martial Arts Cultivation to make it stronger.

Ning Xiaochuan could feel the powerful aura from the young king of King Qilin’s Residence’s body while he was sitting inside the carriage. The young king was at least ten times stronger than Cheng Lin from Great King Jinpeng’s Residence.

Yu Qianqian said, “He’s deliberately showing off his strength as a warning to everyone else. The young king purposely broke through to Stage Three of the Divine Body Realm in front of the crowd to terrorize all the genius disciples who were threats to him.”

“It’s true that he managed to terrorize many people. This is certainly the definition of ultimate strength. I’m afraid that it would be rare for anyone among the younger generation to be stronger than him,” Ning Xiaochuan said.

The young king immediately broke through to the next realm when he consumed the Blood-toad Pill. This incident greatly affected the people who had yet to buy a Blood-toad Pill and caused them to become even more frantic. The geniuses whose cultivation was previously on par with the young king were particularly anxious now because they felt even more pressured. They swore on their lives that they would purchase a Blood-toad Pill to break through to the next realm.

“Hurry up and auction off the second Blood-toad Pill!”

“That Blood-toad Pill will definitely be mine!”

…

The second Blood-toad Pill was quickly auctioned off after that, despite being more expensive than the first pill. It was sold for a price of 40 million copper coins to a genius from the Qingmu Clan.

Soon after that, the third Blood-toad Pill was auctioned off as well. The asking price had surpassed 30 million copper coins before it was finally sold for 32 million copper coins.

The fourth Blood-toad Pill was sold for the price of 26 million copper coins.

…

…

When the tenth Blood-toad Pill was being auctioned, the pill’s price did not surpass 20 million copper coins, but the price point remained above 15 million copper coins.

As most of the genius disciples were scrambling to obtain the Blood-toad Pill, the Heart-nourishing Masters who came to participate in the auction were stunned. The person who brought out so many Blood-toad Pills at one time was simply going against the norm. This incident had turned the mid-grade Pill market into a complete mess.

Meanwhile, the other two Great Heart-nourishing Halls— Empire Heart-nourishing Hall and Divine Path Heart-nourishing Hall had both sent their important figures to investigate the actual situation. They wanted to discover what kind of pill-refining divine object Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall had obtained.

The Yulan Empire’s Three Great Heart-nourishing Halls were constantly competing with each other. Since Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall managed to refine so many mid-grade Pills at one time, they would definitely be able to obtain other pills in the future. If Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall had truly grasped a way to refine a large batch of pills, the other two Great Heart-nourishing Halls would definitely suffer a great blow because of it.

Madam Yinchi was sitting inside a fancy carriage that was right next to the one that Ning Xiaochuan and Yu Qianqian were inside.

Her skin was snow-white and smooth while her eyelashes were long and curled, and it seemed as though her long hair was soaked in milk. Madam Yinchi looked like an enchanting and extraordinarily beautiful woman. She stared at the lively auction house below and said, “Did you manage to find out who refined those Blood-toad Pills? Do you know how they managed to refine them?”

Madam Yinchi had bought a Blood-toad Pill from the auction, and it was currently floating above her palm. Once she had examined the Blood-toad Pill, she discovered that it was actually an extremely rare item.

However, 32 of these Blood-toad Pills of the same quality had already been auctioned off.

An old woman kneeled down behind Madam Yinchi and said, “Everyone first heard of the Blood-toad Pill through Princess Qianqian. As for the identity of the Heart-nourishing Master who refined the Blood-toad Pill, nobody knows the answer because Princess Qianqian has never revealed that.”

“Yu Qianqian may have incredible innate talents, but she couldn’t have refined so many Blood-toad Pills in such a short amount of time.” Madam Yinchi’s lips faintly curled upward as she exposed an alluring arc.

“Could it be that Skilled Master Guo managed to discover a certain method to refine a large batch of mid-grade Pills?” the old woman asked.

“We need to investigate this matter properly because we must find the person who refined these Blood-toad Pills. A person like that will definitely destroy the balance between the Three Great Pill-nourishing Halls. If we can convince him to join us, then we shall do that. However, if we fail to win him over, we must… Kill him.” Madam Yinchi gingerly played with the Blood-toad Pill in her hand and spun it around. A blood-red colored Pill Light shrouded her smooth pale fingers like a twinkling Spirit Bead.

When Madam Yinchi was illuminated by the crimson Pill Light, she resembled a fox spirit that was licking blood!

All 40 Blood-toad Pills were auctioned off for a total sum of 870 million copper coins.

Once he had deducted 3% of his earnings to pay Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall as a fee to hold the auction, Ning Xiaochuan was eventually left with about 850 million copper coins.

Yu Qianqian passed a little green-colored cloth bag to Ning Xiaochuan. The cloth bag was illuminated by a flickering Qi Halo layer that made it resemble a treasure that was burning brightly.

When Ning Xiaochuan took the cloth bag from her, he sounded surprised as he said, “Is this a Heaven and Earth Pouch?”

Yu Qianqian gently nodded before she raised her snow-white chin and said, “I’ve placed 8500 silver plates inside it for you, but you should count it for yourself.” She paused before she continued, “You can open the pouch by filling it with your Qi.”

Ning Xiaochuan did not count the coins. Instead, he smiled and said, “This Heaven and Earth Pouch is definitely expensive! I’ll borrow it for now, but I’ll surely return it to you later.”

“I was planning to give this Heaven and Earth Pouch to you,” Yu Qianqian softly replied.

This generous gift would definitely cost more than one hundred million copper coins.

Ning Xiaochuan did not decline her gift because he was not a quarrelsome person. However, he reminded himself that he definitely needed to repay her kind gesture in the future. Yu Qianqian had greatly assisted him in auctioning the Blood-toad Pills.

When Ning Xiaochuan carefully observed the Heaven and Earth Pouch and noticed the patterns there, his eyes widened before he said, “Why are there two ducks embroidered here?”

“Is that so? I didn’t know. I wonder who had so much free time to embroider ducks on a Heaven and Earth Pouch. That’s terrible!” Yu Qianqian gently turned around before she lifted her gaze and stared at the moon in the sky.

The moon was seemingly hanging off the tip of a branch while the sky grew darker.

Ning Xiaochuan and Yu Qianqian went their separate ways before the former left in a carriage with Murong Wushuang.

“This isn’t the way back to Begonia Manor,” Murong Wushuang said.

Ning Xiaochuan nodded before he smiled and replied, “This road is taking us to Guanyu Tower!”

…

…

While the Blood-toad Pills were being sold at Jinpeng Auction House, a shocking incident was happening in the Imperial Palace. Numerous influential and high ranking officials felt the winds of change blowing and realized that their lives were on the line now.

The root of this earth-shattering news was Ning Qiancheng. He had recently made great contributions to his country—the Yulan Empire.

When Ning Qiancheng had returned to the Imperial City, the civil and military officials went to greet him. After that, all of them went back to the Imperial Palace together.

“Ning Qiancheng from Marquis Jiange’s Residence led two million troops and defeated the Grade Four Tianji Dynasty. He has made a heroic contribution to the Yulan Empire. Today, I will reward Ning Qiancheng by giving him the title of the Tianji Dynasty’s National Divine Protector. He shall rule over the Tianji Dynasty with Queen Tianjie. Meanwhile, the troops will move back and set up their camp at the mountain range. From now on, they will be bestowed the title of the Emperor’s army,” the eunuch read out the imperial decree while he was standing at the top of the palace.

Boom!

The entire imperial court was shaken.

The last sentence of the decree declared that the troops would be “bestowed the title of the Emperor’s army”. On the surface, it seemed like the army was receiving the highest honor when they were bestowed with this title. In reality, the Great Emperor Yulan was actually claiming the two million troops from Marquis Jiange’s Residence as his own army.

Those two million troops were the private army of Marquis Jiange’s Residence, but they were now sealed off as the Emperor’s army instead.

The Great Emperor Yulan was beginning to snatch the Nobles’ military power!

This was a dangerous sign. An ominous feeling stirred inside the Nobles’ hearts while they were in the palace while their gazes shifted toward the Old Marquis one after another.