“Shidi, why did you buy such expensive crafting materials?” Meng Hu looked at the pitch-black iron lumps in Mo Tianliao’s hands. He didn’t get it at all.
The material required for crafting something of a special weapon grade or above, Resplendent Stone, was not very expensive, but Xuanyuan iron was different. It was rumoured that Xuanyuan iron was used when crafting the ancient divine weapon, the Xuanyuan Sword. This ore was sold by the catty and its price was comparable to that of premium crystal. Mo Tianliao had bought a thousand catties of Xuanyuan iron as if it were nothing.
“A fist-sized piece of Xuanyuan ore can only produce this little bit of iron.” Mo Tianliao indicated the size of his fingernail. “Crafting a tool requires at least one thousand catties.” And this was only if there was very little waste, if the craftsman was not very good, a thousand catties was only enough to make a dagger.
Meng Hu opened his mouth. He didn’t want to hear this!
Mo Tianliao patiently explained the crafting process, he was in a good mood, otherwise he rarely bothered with such talk. Yet, in the end da-shixiong didn’t seem to understand much. He shook his head resignedly and headed to the auction house.
It was called Liuhe Auction House and it was the largest auction house of the Righteous Path. It was jointly administered by the three major sects; the prices were reasonable and it was safe and reliable. Because it was a large auction house, its goods were, of course, carefully selected, treasures of insufficient value would not be accepted. Therefore, unlike smaller auction houses which opened every two days, the Liuhe Auction House only opened once every seven days.
It was located in the middle of Tongtian City, enclosed within a night-rose granite wall more than ten zhang high, towering into the sky. The grand gate was made up of two dragon arches carved out of black jade, exquisite and vivid. Up close, the scales on the dragons formed a complicated array.
“The auction will be held tomorrow; sir can check to see if there is anything of interest.” The attendant standing by the door smiled and pointed to the curtain wall next to Mo Tianliao.
On the jet-black wall to the right of the gate was some writing in gold sand. This kind of sand was sticky and could be erased and rewritten later.
Everything was listed there except for the three final pièces de résistance. High-level spiritual weapons, high-level medicine, thousand-year-old spiritual grass, rare materials, etc., enough to make anyone very excited. The only problem was, there was no Starfall Stone.
“Is there any crafting material among the final three?” Mo Tianliao asked the attendant.
“I don’t know the details, but we did receive a very rare crafting material a few days ago. I don’t know whether it’ll interest you.” The attendant covered his mouth and said mysteriously, but his voice was not low and all the people around him listened with perked ears, their appetites whetted.
Mo Tianliao nodded and led da-shixiong out of the crowd.
“Shidi, why don’t we go to the cultivators’ booths over there and have a look?” Meng Hu saw that his shidi had not found what he wanted, so he made a suggestion.
“There’s even less of a chance to find it there. The auction is tomorrow, we’ll try our luck there.” Mo Tianliao ignored the suggestion and went straight into a restaurant. Since there was a rare crafting material, he would have a look, even if it was not a Starfall Stone, it might be something of equivalent use.
The restaurant was practically deserted, there were only a few people artfully drinking tea. Most Righteous cultivators who were Foundation Establishment or above preferred to eat Bigu pills, which could save time better used for practice, of course, it was even better to just not eat at all.
According to the Righteous Path, cultivation required restraint. The five colours blinded the eyes, the five tones deafened the ears and the five flavours dulled the mouth. One should cleanse one’s heart and limit one’s desires, and not indulge in mere worldly possessions.
The Demonic Path, on the other hand, was different. It centred on following one’s inclinations. To supress the five desires, which were part of human nature, could only bring madness. To speak countless words was worthless. It was not as good as keeping the balance within. One should hold true to one’s own will, this was the way to success.
On this point, Mo Tianliao really appreciated the Demonic Path. To seek immortality, was to fight against one’s own destiny, why would one need restraint? To overcome the difficulties and obstacles on the way to immortality required a belief several times stronger than that of ordinary people, this belief itself was a kind of desire. The hypocrites of the Righteous Path bemoaned the state of the universe and pitied the fate of mankind, but secretly they were no less dirty than those of the Demonic Path.
Mo Tianliao ordered a whole table of delicious food. “Waiter, do you have cold spring fish?”
“Is sir talking about the kind of fish that lives in the purest of cold springs?” Many people frequented this restaurant all the year round, the waiter was naturally very knowledgeable. “If that’s the case, this shop doesn’t have it, but there is a kind of ice lake fish unique to the area. Would you like to try it?”
Mo Tianliao nodded and paid; he also asked the store to roast a whole mountain sheep. Several people at the nearby tables looked at the extravagant array of dishes and gestured with disdain at such a disgraceful behaviour.
“How vulgar.” A young cultivator dressed in a white brocade robe sneered.
“They are probably from a small sect and it’s their first time out in the real world,” another cultivator in blue whispered.
The people being talked about were an old Demonic Lord and a Beast cultivator with very sharp senses, they could, of course, hear everything very clearly. However, Mo Tianliao had always been very shameless, he didn’t care at all if he was being slandered. When the ice lake fish arrived to the table, he concentrated on picking out the fish bones and putting it in a small cold jade bowl for his cat. Smelling the aroma of fish, the little white head poked out from his clothes. The kitten sniffed, jumped onto the table and stretched gracefully, then pulled the jade bowl in front of him and ate leisurely.
Mo Tianliao reached out, squeezed the kitten’s left paw and turned the blue bracelet. The other day, he remembered that he had carved a hidden presence array on this bracelet. It could hide the fact that Mo Xiaozhao was a Demonic Beast. As long as divine sense wasn’t used to examine him, others would think he was an ordinary kitten.
He had spent many years as an arrogant Demonic Lord, unafraid of someone stealing his Demonic Beast, so he had forgotten this array.
Meng Hu turned to stare at the group of gossiping people, his Golden Core cultivator aura swept past, exerting pressure. The cultivators who were merely Foundation Establishment immediately became well-mannered. They had just noticed what had seemed to be a couple of bumpkins, they hadn’t expected their cultivation to be so high that they couldn’t afford to offend them. The tremendous pressure persisted for a long time and several people broke out in a sweat. They had no choice but to stand up and prepare to go apologize to this senior.
Just then, the roasted mountain sheep was set on the table, overflowing with fragrance and the pressure on everyone disappeared immediately. The senior Golden Core cultivator hugged the roast sheep and started gorging himself, ecstatic.
“…” The cultivators who had risen shrank back, left some lingshi to settle the bill, turned around and left. If they stayed any longer, they were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to resist the need to say something rude again.
All day long, one man and two animals ate, drank and were merry in Liuhe Market, waiting for the auction house to open the next day.
Liuhe Auction House arranged its seating according to the cultivation of the guests. No matter how rich a Foundation stage cultivator was, they could only buy red wooden plaques for sitting in the hall. The plaques for Golden Core cultivators were yellow, and their seating was on the second floor. For Nascent Soul cultivators, the plaques were blue, and their seating was on the third floor, and so on.
The plaques were not expensive and they were all the same price. But no matter how rich you were, if your cultivation base wasn’t sufficient, don’t even think about sitting in a private room.
A man slowly approached the jam-packed crowd, his snow-white robe was made of the finest mermaid silk, his long inky hair hung loose except for a glittering and translucent Liuli hairpin placed at the top of his head, light gauze covered his face, concealing most of his appearance, only a pair of cold eyes remained exposed. A breath-taking beauty.
The beauty raised his eyes, instantly exuding a powerful aura.
The people lining up hurriedly dispersed and the attendant in front of the door handed over the tray full of plaques. The man swept his slender fingers over it and the white plaque for Half-Immortals lit up and jumped into his hands. He had turned out to be a Half-Immortal cultivator!
The people gasped, frightened, and dared not look any more. The attendants respectfully invited him into the private room on the fourth floor, and those behind him breathed a sigh of relief. The beauty walked slowly, followed by two tall servants, Mo Tianliao and Meng Hu.
The materials to be auctioned were too valuable, it would be very conspicuous for the Foundation stage Mo Tianliao to buy them, so he had asked Master to come.
There were only three private rooms on the fourth floor, they were very spacious.
The soft roomy couch was placed in the centre, and on the low crystal table there were exquisite spiritual fruits and tea. There was a transparent ball beside the couch, shimmering from time to time.
“When Zhenren sees something that interests him, just place one hand on the crystal ball and make a bid with your mind,” the attendant smiled and explained how to bid. Qingtong waved impatiently and drove the man away.
When the attendant left, the beauty took off his veil and leaned lazily on the couch. Meng Hu made a circle around the room, there was no other seating place except for the couch, so he approached Master, wanting to steal a corner to sit on. He was immediately slapped to the ground and turned into a big tiger. He sat on his haunches feeling extremely grieved.
Mo Tianliao looked sympathetically at the beaten da-shixiong, went over and sat back on his legs, matter-of-factly leaning against the furry tiger.
“Liuhe’s Fantastic Tales March Edition”
Title Page: Unparalleled Beauty in Liuhe Market *Pictured with light veil*
Special Article: Liuhe Auction House Fortune Making Secrets— The Bigger the Gimmick, the Better the Sale
Street Photography: Two People and One Cat, Eating Vulgarly. Worry about the Current Direction of Small Sects
Carpenter: This kind of country magazine, its quality is really poor
Master: So true *plays with magazine shreds*
Unedited, please point out any mistakes