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The Nine Provinces Pavilion.
A private room.
Looking through the window lattice, they could see the jade platform at the center of the hall.
The auction would take place atop the platform.
Su Yi and company took their seats, one by one.
Wen Xinzhao naturally sat beside him. Qing Ya sat on his other side.
When Huo Yunsheng saw this, he felt so sour that it was as if someone had overturned a jar of vinegar in his heart. That sour feeling was hard to bear, and his expression turned rigid and overcast.
Zhang Yuntao sat in a corner. From time to time, his gaze landed on Su Yi, who sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Wen Xinzhao. Whenever this happened, his expression turned complicated.
Just two days ago, Su Yi had defeated him in two attacks. He’d yet to recover from the weight of that blow.
Regardless of how he felt about it, when he faced Su Yi now, this elder of Cloudsky Divine Palace no longer dared act as lofty and superior as he did when he first met Su Yi.
Before long, the auction began. An elder of the Nine Provinces Pavilion, the long-robed Xiang Yong, was personally hosting this event.
The very first treasure on offer threw the entire venue into uproar and drew numerous gazes.
It was a beast bone as smooth as jade. It emanated wisps of blue fire, making it both mysterious and beautiful. Furthermore, its aura was extremely imposing.
“What is that?”
“It looks like a divine bird’s natal bone!”
“What a shocking electrical aura! A treasure like that is surely rare and precious!”
Voices rang out throughout the hall, and numerous divine senses all swept toward the jade platform.
It was then that the elderly Xiang Yong smiled and said, “Everyone, this is the natal bone of a Sky-Wandering Sparrow, an ancient vicious bird. Although it’s just a fragment, it nonetheless emanates a power connected to the Dao of Fire.”
A fragment of a Sky-Wandering Sparrow’s natal bone!
The uproar intensified, and many cultivators were beside themselves with temptation.
The auction had only just begun, yet such a treasure was already up for grabs. They hadn’t left it until the end, so it obviously wasn’t the grand finale. This was undoubtedly shocking!
Even Wen Xinzhao couldn’t help but exclaim, “Who’d have thought? This year’s Spiritbend Assembly really isn’t simple!”
This treasure surprised even her.
“It’s just a fragment,” said Su Yi, not the least bit interested. “It’s incomplete, so it’s not worth much.”
The Sky-Wandering Sparrow was indeed a mighty vicious beast, and if complete, their natal bones were emblazoned with the miraculousness of the Dao of Star Fire. They were shockingly precious.
But a fragment like that? Only Origin Dao cultivators would see such a thing as a treasure.
When he heard Su Yi’s words, Huo Yunsheng almost laughed.
This was a Sky-Wandering Sparrow’s natal bone! Sure, it was incomplete, but in the Great Xia, it was still a rare treasure, the kind you could only happen upon by chance!
I really don’t know what Senior Apprentice Sister Wen sees in that braggart.
In the end, after an intense competition, one of the experts present won the natal bone fragment at a price of one hundred and thirty tier-six spirit stones.
Xiang Yong then proceeded to take out a whole series of rare treasures. There were spiritual materials, medicines, as well as spiritual weapons of unfathomable power.
Each was, under ordinary circumstances, a rarely-seen treasure. Each time, the bidding reached an almost unimaginably high price. The atmosphere of the Spiritbend Assembly soared continuously.
Even Wen Xinzhao and the other disciples of Cloudsky Divine Palace each bid on and acquired a few treasures.
Only Su Yi just slumped there the whole time, holding a gourd of wine. From time to time, he took a sip, but he looked a bit bored.
There were quite a few precious things amongst the treasures, but Su Yi could take them or leave them. None were enough to tempt him.
It was then that Huo Yunsheng suddenly smiled and said, “Fellow Daoist Su, if you take a fancy to any of the treasures, you can bid on it. Even if you don’t have enough treasure on you, I can lend you some.”
He made this seem like a grand display of generosity.
He’d been watching Su Yi all this time, and when he saw that Su Yi had yet to move, he assumed that Su Yi was ashamed of his own poverty and that he dared not participate in the bidding.
Wen Xinzhao’s painted eyebrows knit together. She thought for a moment and said, “Fellow Daoist Su, if you see anything you like, I’ll help you buy it.”
Su Yi shook his head. He was starting to lose interest. “It’s not that I don’t have enough money; it’s that as of yet, I haven’t been interested in any of the treasures for sale.”
Wen Xinzhao smiled faintly. “To the best of my knowledge, they’re saving the best of the ancient treasures for last. When the time comes, if you want to bid, I’ll be sure to lend you a hand.”
When he saw this, Huo Yunsheng’s mind went blank. Then, his expression darkened, and the flames of jealousy blazed within his heart.
He would never have guessed that his attempts to ridicule Su Yi would make Wen Xinzhao offer to help him of her own volition!
He’d effectively picked up a stone, only to slam it into his own foot!
When Ling Yunhe and Yuan Heng saw this, they couldn’t help but chuckle to themselves. This Huo Yunsheng is really making trouble for himself. It’s like he’s dead set on demeaning himself.
The auction was still ongoing when, suddenly, Su Yi spoke up. “Yuan Heng, bid for me. I want that piece of Dragonbone Rattan.”
Xiang Yong held a foot-long piece of rattan aloft on a tray. It was dusty gray and smooth as jade.
This was a rare spiritual material. It could be used to refine treasures, and it could also be added to medicines.
However, relatively speaking, it was nowhere near as enticing as the Sky-Wandering Sparrow’s bone fragment, so relatively few people were competing for it. Their bids weren’t particularly exaggerated, either.
“Yes, sir!” Yuan Heng instantly perked up and started participating in the bidding war.
In the end, he smoothly won the piece of Dragonbone Rattan at a price of thirty tier-six spirit stones.
When a servant delivered it to their private room, Wen Xinzhao couldn’t help but feel curious. “Fellow Daoist, what do you plan to use that for?”
Su Yi said casually, “Dragonbone Rattan Thread can be used to refurbish my chair, making it warm in the winter and cool in the summer, invulnerable to water and flame, and dust-proof. This will also give it a calming effect, making it more comfortable to sit in.”
“.....”
None of them knew quite what to say to that.
He spent thirty tier-six spirit stones just to fix a chair? They looked at each other, a bit flabbergasted.
Su Yi ignored them, pressed his fingers into a blade, and, in a few blinks of the eye, cut the Dragonbone Rattan into strips of lustrous gray thread.
He then flipped his hand, took his ever-present wicker chair out of the Snow Beetle Jade Pendant, and got to work using the Dragonbone Rattan Threads to enhance it.
He was so focused that, even when the auction continued, he ignored it.
He
 He really is using the Dragonbone Rattan to improve his chair!? Huo Yunsheng stared.
He was born into the Baqiao Huo Family. They were enormously wealthy, but even they wouldn’t be so extravagant as to spend thirty tier-six spirit stones just to make a wicker chair more comfortable to sit in

It wasn’t just Huo Yunsheng. Even Qian Tianlong, Sun Feng, and Ren Youyou looked at Su Yi in bewilderment. This guy
 Just what kind of person is he!?
Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
Thirty tier-six spirit stones was a massive amount to any Spirit Dao cultivator. Who could bear to spend such a lavish sum on a wicker chair?
Wen Xinzhao found it immensely amusing. Others participated in the auction to vie for treasures, yet Su Yi seemed to have no interest in that.
Rather, he was only interested in things he cared about.
Before long, Su Yi finished improving his chair, put it back where he’d been sitting earlier, and sprawled out in it.
Indeed, it was significantly more comfortable than before!
Su Yi narrowed his eyes in contentment.
Thirty tier-six spirit stones, that was all. He hadn’t spent them in vain.
Meanwhile, back on the jade platform, Xiang Yong announced that they were about to start auctioning off some ancient treasures. This threw the entire venue into uproar and drew the crowd’s attention.
The first ancient treasure was a beast-skin scroll.
It was covered in densely-packed, carved ancient glyphs. According to Xiang Yong, it was an ancient body-refining art called the “Flying Serpent Hundred Refinements Incantation,” and it was subtle and miraculous beyond compare.
Although the beast pelt only recorded the incantations up to the Spiritual Manifestation Realm, it was still shockingly valuable.
After all, this was an incomplete Spirit Dao legacy!
When they realized what this was, the entire venue boiled over, and countless people exclaimed.
In the current Great Xia, Spirit Dao cultivators were peak-level experts! There were only a tiny handful of them out there.
Under such circumstances, a Spirit Dao legacy was enough to drive the world’s cultivators mad, even if it was incomplete!
At first, Su Yi thought nothing of this treasure. He’d taught Wen Lingxue, Cha Jin, Qing Wan, Huang Qianjun, Ning Sihua, and several others cultivation techniques. Any random one was far superior to the incomplete Flying Serpent Hundred Refinements Incantation.
However, when he looked more closely, his eyebrows shot up, and his eyes shone with a strange light. The beast skin
 There’s something strange about it!
“How much is it? Even if I go bankrupt, I’m going to fight for it!” someone shouted.
“Hmph, with your pitiful reserves, you’re foolish enough to think you can seize this legacy? The way I see it, you’d be better off not seeking out your own humiliation!” someone else laughed coldly.
The venue boiled over with voices. Even the prominent figures in attendance couldn’t stay calm, and they were all clamoring to start the bidding.
Even Zhang Yuntao, Huo Yunsheng, and the other Cloudsky Divine Palace members were tempted. When the bidding began, they planned to participate.
Up on the jade platform, Xiang Yong coughed dryly and waved, gesturing for the crowd to calm down. “Everyone, the owner of this beast skin scroll only wants one thing: a method to repair a weapon spirit.”
The entire venue quieted down as the earlier uproar instantly transformed into utter silence.
The crowd was champing at the bit just moments ago, yet now, no one said anything.
A weapon spirit could only arise in a select few extremely powerful Spirit Dao treasures. Such treasures possessed a degree of intelligence and spirituality. They were incomparably rare, less than one in ten thousand, and all had miraculous power.
The vast majority of cultivators had never even seen a treasure of that level. They certainly didn’t know how to fix such a treasure’s soul body.
“Repairing a weapon spirit? Don’t tell me the mysterious person auctioning these things off has a damaged Spirit Dao treasure?” In another private room, Gu Cangning couldn’t help but ask, “Granny, do you know a way of repairing a damaged weapon spirit?”
The old woman shook her head. “Typically, only grandmaster refiners of ancient orthodoxies have mastered such secret arts. Even thirty thousand years ago, they were extremely rare.”
“Oh,” said Gu Cangning. “Oh well. It’s just an incomplete Spirit Dao legacy. It doesn’t really matter whether I win it or not.”
The venue was silent. A long time passed with no response.
It was obvious that those present had no hope of satisfying this request.
Only Su Yi’s lips curled into a faint, nigh-imperceptible smile.
He was initially hesitant about whether or not to participate in the bidding and acquire the beast-skin scroll.
Now, it seemed he could avoid all that trouble altogether.