Chapter 224 - Mechanical Puppet Beasts

A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all. First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it. Then, we'll talk...

Chapter 224 Mechanical Puppet Beasts.

Chapter 224: Mechanical Puppet Beasts

The first item being auctioned was a rather powerful top-grade magic tool, causing Han Li to feel somewhat surprised.

This was especially because this articulate tall, thin figure had colorfully and dynamically described the magic tool as unparalleled and hard to find on the earth. Even Han Li, when he heard it, had a slight impulse of pulling out his spirit stones to buy it, not to mention other cultivators who desperately lacked top-grade magic tools.

As expected, the base price of two hundred spirit stones had just been revealed when three or four impatient individuals immediately called out bids. In the blink of an eye, this Fire Cloud Sword’s price had been raised to more than three hundred spirit stones, causing the other cultivators, who had originally also wanted to call out a price, to immediately extinguish this train of thought!

Although the fire cloud attacks of the Fire Cloud Sword weren’t too bad, it was obviously one step inferior to a top-grade magic tool of true quality! Spending three hundred spirit stones for it seemed to be somewhat in poor taste.

However, even if there were people unwilling to buy it, naturally there were others willing to be taken advantage of!

To the people who were willing to buy it, although the items that would be auctioned off later would be finer in quality, there was no way for them to obtain it. It was better and more realistic for them to buy the decent top-grade magic tool in front of them.

Thus, this Fire Cloud Sword reached a price of four hundred spirit stones due to the contentions between a few Qi Condensation cultivators; it was sold off relatively successfully.

The cultivator wearing a doll mask happily returned to his seat after turning in his spirit stones, holding the sword in his hands. It seemed like he was going to take it home and make it his family heirloom. This caused other cultivators to think that it was somewhat humorous.

The tall and skinny figure waited for the person to return to his seat, then cleared his throat and said:

“The second item this store will auction is naturally a tool-refinement master’s greatest love, a top-grade Red Sky Gathering Furnace. This furnace has been passed down through the hands of many great tool-refinement masters; it is an exquisite item that has refined many top-grade items, such as the Phantom Sound Sword, Azure Flood Dragon Banner, Black Flame Pearl, and many others. From hearsay, this furnace has the ability to grant additional properties when refining tools. However, as for whether this claim is true or not, even this store does not know! Thus, the base price is four hundred spirit stones, which is definitely not a high price.

As the man spoke, he pulled out a fire-red pill furnace from his storage pouch and placed it on the table for everyone to see

With a boom, the atmosphere in the room erupted even though none of the cultivators in the room had spoken yet. Many people were staring dead-on at the pill furnace with fiery gazes; evidently, they all fancied this item.

Han Li quietly sat in the corner, coldly watching all of that was happening. When he heard that the Azure Flood Dragon Banner in his hand also came from this furnace, he couldn’t help but feel quite shocked; however, this was only shock!

He knew nothing about refining tools, so he naturally would not know the price range for this pill furnace. He definitely would not make a move if it was an item that he didn’t know how to use! Han Li could do at least this much. In addition, although the number of spirit stones he had were not low in number, he still had to save them for crucial moments!

“Four hundred and fifty!”

“Four hundred and seventy!”

“I put forth five hundred spirit stones!”

“......”

No matter how Han Li thought, the price of this pill furnace, named the “Red Sky Gathering Furnace” skyrocketed to a frightening amount in no time!

“Seven hundred eighty stones!”

This was the bid that a fat-figured person wearing a yellow cloak on his head called out, gritting his teeth!

“Eight hundred!”

A female cultivator not too far away from the fatty, leisurely called out an even higher bid, causing the fatty to grip his hands tightly together.

Before his eyes, the prices became sky high. The others had already given up on bidding. They could only look on with unwillingness and watch the two arrogant Foundation Establishment cultivators continue to shout out increasingly large prices.

“Eight hundred and fifty pieces! If this lady can call out a bid higher by even one spirit stone, this pill furnace will be given to you!” The fatty said viciously as he raised the price again, staring at the female cultivator with an angry expression.

“Eight hundred and fifty-one!”

The fat cultivator’s words had just left his mouth when the female cultivator laughed coldly and intentionally called out a number one figure higher. This caused the fat cultivator’s big face, which was hidden inside the cloak, to appear as red as blood. But after furiously shooting a poisonous expression at the other person for a brief moment, he actually did not call out another bid.

Just like that, this Foundation Establishment female cultivator spent a very high price and bought this famous pill furnace; even so, was it worth the amount she paid?

Perhaps this time’s bidding was too fierce, and it stimulated the nerves of all of the cultivators. Just like that, the originally cold atmosphere in the room instantly heated up, and all the top-grade magic tools and precious materials were completely gobbled up by all of the enthusiastic cultivators.

But after twenty or so items had been sold off, Han Li had still yet to see items like the formation flag or formation plate for sale, causing him to grow impatient.

Han Li couldn’t help but silently think that if none of the items he needed appeared in this auction, he might actually have to make a trip to the Stardust Pavilion. Even buying a few of the most basic spell formation tools was better than having none at all!

Just as Han Li was thinking, the skinny and tall man in front listed the name of the next item being auctioned.

“Top-grade magic tool, a pair of mechanical puppet beasts! Its strength is comparable to that of a ninth layer Qi Condensation disciple. In addition, it is completely faithful and will defend its owner to the death! If you buy this item, it’s like having two personal bodyguards around you at all times. The base price is only a hundred spirit stones!”

“Mechanical puppet beasts? Isn’t my own top-grade magic tool also called a Puppet Bowman? Could they be the same kind of object?” Han Li’s heart moved, and he sat up straight. He began to watch attentively.

The skinny tall male had already brought out two shiny black doll-like objects! They were only as large as a fist, and their appearance seemed to somewhat resemble a lion or a tiger, but that similarity was limited; one did not know what kind of strange beast they were based on.

“There are many guests who have probably not heard of, or very rarely heard of, the Dao School of mechanical puppets!”

This is a kind of Dao magic that originates from refining magic tools, yet it is completely different from a magic tool. Although not many of us here know this, this magic is incredibly popular in the westernmost regions. There is even a sect called the Thousand Bamboo School that relied on this to establish their sect, and they have already developed this Dao technique to an extreme. Rumors have it that top-level mechanical puppeteers can contend with late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators! In addition, rating these mechanical beasts as top-grade magic tools was this store’s decision, when in reality, according to the official classification of mechanical magics, they should be considered grade two puppet beasts!”

Seeing the cultivators below did not seem interested in these mechanical beasts and noticing the awkward silence when no one called out a price, this man hurriedly recited the speech that he had memorized beforehand all at once, hoping to pique the cultivators’ interest.

Although the cultivators below had become somewhat curious after he had finished speaking, no one was willing to do something as silly as pay a hundred spirit stones to buy two doll-like items! In addition, what use would two bodyguards at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation be to the cultivators present?

“One hundred spirit stones!”

A noise sounded out from the corner; there was actually a person who wanted to buy this toy! Instantly, all of the cultivators’ gazes turned towards that corner.

However, this person was not Han Li; rather, it was some person with a covered face sitting in another corner. He had covered his entire head with a large grey bag, appearing to be an extremely ridiculous and strange person!

“A hundred and fifty spirit stones!”

Just as other cultivators felt that the strange person was being wastefully extravagant, the sound of another strange, stiff voice calling out a price resounded in the room.

Now, all of the cultivators in the room were stunned and couldn’t help but glance towards the person who had called out the new price.

A burly person wearing a green cloak sat in the last row of seats, his hands hugging his shoulders. The sound of a new price came from this person’s mouth. When all of the people glanced at this person, this person actually stared back at them coldly, not revealing any trace of uneasiness!

“Two hundred spirit stones!”

“I will pay three hundred pieces!”

“Four hundred!”

“Six hundred!”

……

In the blink of an eye, these two people raised the price of the puppet beasts one after another to an unbelievable price!

At this time, even if the many cultivators in the room were more stupid, they would be able to tell that something was off!

“Could this pair of puppet beasts be hiding some frightening secret?” At this time, this kind of a thought was rising up in all of the cultivators’ hearts.

All the cultivators in the room glanced at each other a few times, and their hearts began to beat loudly. There were even a few financially strong and hasty individuals who directly entered the bidding.

However, a few older cultivators were still somewhat suspicious even as their hearts stirred.

These two people couldn’t have been secretly hired by the store, could they?! Could they have purposefully raised the price of this unprofitable item to incite the rest of them to spend excessively?

The cultivators thinking of this were not few in number, and Han Li was one of the most skeptical ones. Thus, he continued to indifferently watch on, seemingly unmoved in any way.

“I will pay nine hundred spirit stones with the addition of this item!”

Seeing the number of cultivators participating in the auction increasing, the burly, strange man panicked in his heart, and he actually pulled out an item from his storage pouch. Then, he took a few large steps forward and stood before the skinny, tall man, placing it on the table. He used a rough tone of voice to say:

“This kind of an item is worth many thousands of spirit stones! It’s more than enough to exchange for these puppet beasts; quickly give them to me!”

Previous Chapter Next Chapter