âOur next item is exceedingly special. According to our appraiser, this item is fragments of an unknown object discovered by accident in the Soulbeast Forest. We are clueless about what the object mightâve been, but the material is very special and is like the crafting stone.â
Wu Meiâer held a giant white stone the size of a bucket in her hand. âAs everyone can see, this crafting stone is quite large. Our lord-mayor of Swallow City, Marquis Yan, came by to evaluate this object himself. In his words, Marquis Yan proclaimed that this crafting stone can be evaluated as a mid-heaven tier. It can greatly enhance the chances of success when crafting a mid-heaven tier and perhaps even help improve the chances of crafting a high-heaven tier as well. Bringing this object to the Crafting School will definitely be of a great boon to anyone.â
Her introduction of the object had been longer than many of the other items she said before.Â
âOur starting bid will begin at six-hundred-thousand low-grade primal stones and the minimum bid to increase will be ten-thousand. Please begin bidding.â
As if she had dropped a bombshell onto the audience, the entire hall began to cry aloud at the object.
âWhat a tremendous crafting stone!! Look at the size of that! Itâs ten times as large as the previous one!â
âA starting bid of six-hundred-thousand! Heavens, thatâs worth at least two low-heaven tier soul armaments! How ridiculous is the auction house to bring out such an expensive object like that now!â
âWhatâs wrong with the person who found this? Why didnât he just bring it to the Crafting School instead of here?â
âWho knows? Maybe he needs primal stones? Or maybe he realized how much it could be sold for and was too lazy to bring it to the Crafting School?â
âHey, wouldnât having this item be the same as getting a mid-heaven tier soul armament?â
âIâm afraid only Mid-stage Soul Kings and Late-stage Soul Kings would be interested in something like this. This had to be the real money-winner the house was looking for. They were probably expecting a huge bidding war, but nowâŠâ
Again, the eyes of everyone in the hall turned to stare at the room on the third floor. Everyone knew that an item as precious as this to the Crafting School would have Bai Yunfei interested. The only question was just how large his reaction would be.
  âŠâŠ
Up in the third floor, Bai Yunfei had currently a reaction that was definitely far more shocked than what people had expected.
He had at some point flew to his feet to stare at the tremendous chunk of jade with eyes filled with excited desire.
âWhatâs wrong, Yunfei?â
His reaction had alarmed Tang Xinyun. Though she too felt that the object being auctioned right now was a little special for its effects, what was there to be so excited about? She was confused by his reaction. This crafting stone was simply just something that could aid the success rate of a mid-heaven tier soul armament.Â
Even without such a stone, Bai Yunfei had managed to craft a mid-heaven tier soul armament without much difficulty, soâŠ
âThe NephriteâŠthatâs a fragment of the Nephrite Throne!â Bai Yunfei replied. âThatâs definitely a fragment of it!â
âWhat?â Tang Xinyunâs eyes widened in disbelief. âThe Nephrite Throne? Are youâŠsaying one of the Ten Great Regalia, the Nephrite Throne?! I remember you saying that it broke into several fragments in the Soulbeast Forest, didnât it? AndâŠthe fragments became a strange âGuaranteed upgrade StoneââŠ.this stone is also a fragment of the Nephrite Throne?!â
âExactly! And this has to be the biggest fragment of it! There were portions of the Nephrite Throne that fell into the river and was flushed away. I looked for hours but couldnât find some of the piecesâŠbut here it is now! And look at the size of itâŠthatâs definitely a +12 Guaranteed Upgrâno, a +13 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone!â
He was right! The item the house was currently auctioning wasnât just an ordinary âcrafting stoneâ (upgrade stone)! It was a very rare âGuaranteed Upgrade Stoneâ! A fragment of the Nephrite Throne!
The Nephrite Throne was one of the Ten Great Regalia. Itâs previous âmasterâ had been the Black Dragon King who used it back in Soulbeast Forest as bait so it could run away when it was being surrounded by its enemies. Bai Yunfei and a Soul Exalt from the Soul Refining School had found and fought over the item. The Nephrite Throne ended up shattering due to the struggle, but Bai Yunfei found out that the fragments could be used to guarantee a successful upgrade on items!
The +13 of his Fire-tipped Spear, the +11 and +12 of his Soul Sentinel Scarf, and the +11 and +12 of his Ardent Sun Glove had been entirely because of these such Guaranteed Upgrade Stones.
His insights on the Upgrade Technique had been primarily because of these stones as well.
All of his guaranteed upgrade stones were used up already despite his constant search for them. Unfortunately for Bai Yunfei, he couldnât even find normal upgrade stones, let alone the Guaranteed Upgrade Stones. According to what he knew to this point, only the fragments of the Nephrite Throne had the ability to guarantee upgrades.
Bai Yunfei asked Xiao Fang once before on the specifics behind the Nephrite Throne. He wanted to know what kind of material the throne was made from, but his answer had been a disappointing one. Xiao Fang had said that Tianhun had once found a meteorite with a jadeite material at its center. The man took that material and forged the Nephrite Throne from it, but there had been no leftover material. Even if Bai Yunfei looked for it, there would probably be nothing like it in the world.
It wasnât like Bai Yunfei wasnât willing to go back to the Soulbeast Forest to look for the fragments, but he knew his chances were as slim as finding a needle in the ocean.
He just never expected that a fragment of the Nephrite Throne would appear here of all places!!
This fragment was even larger than the +12 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone he used before, but also marginally smaller than the +13. Without being able to touch it, Bai Yunfei couldnât guarantee which one it was, but he was interested in the item nonetheless.
Even more importantly, Bai Yunfei knew that if he used this to upgrade an item, the âPlanar Lawsâ would be attracted to him. Heâd be able to take another step in figuring out the mystery behind that power! This fragment of the throne was necessary for him to understand another layer of the Upgrade Technique!
  âŠâŠ
His stupor had put him into a silence nobody outside the room expected. His âsilenceâ was stunning to everyone, and people began to gesticulate to themselvesâperhaps Bai Yunfei wasnât interested in it? Or was he perhaps running out of soul armaments and couldnât muster up enough heaven-tier soul armaments for this crafting stone?
âSix hundred and fifty-thousand low-grade primal stones!â
At last, someone other than Bai Yunfei made the first bid for the very first time.
âSix hundred and eighty-thousand low-grade primal stones!â
The floodgates had been opened. If Bai Yunfei wasnât going to bid, then the audience certainly would.
Five bidders had already made opening bids moments after they realized Bai Yunfei wasnât bidding. All of them were people from the second and third floor, and all of them were Soul Kings.
The price was quickly reaching nine hundred-thousand low-grade primal stones, and there were only two bidders left now. The rest had long since given up, having balked at the price the item had fetched so far. The last two bidders were men of extraordinary power. Both of them were Mid-stage Soul Kings.
âThree low-heaven tier soul armaments!!â
A third voice boomed out from the third floor. Bai Yunfei had finally joined in on the bid!
âHeâsâŠheâs joined in! Bai Yunfei has finally put a bid in! Iâve said it before, how could he give up on an item like this!?â
âOf course heâll bid, but the problemâs why now? Had he simply said two low-heaven tier soul armaments from the very beginning, I doubt thereâd be no one to bid against him. Was he intentionally f*cking with the other Soul Kings by waiting so long?â
âThree low-heaven tier soul armamentsâŠthree of them!! For the love of Heaven, how many heaven-tier soul armaments does this guy have on him!?â
âButâŠeven three low-heaven tier soul armaments might not be enough to beat the current bid of nine hundred-thousand low-grade primal stones if theyâre just average onesâŠweâll have to wait for the appraiser.â
ââŠâŠâ
Everyone was watching anxiously now as an employee came out from Bai Yunfeiâs room with three sparkling soul armaments to the back of the podium where the appraiser was.
A verdict came rushing out to Wu Meiâer to announce shortly afterward.
The three soul armaments Bai Yunfei bidded with were worth a total of a million low-grade primal stones!
âA million! Dear heavens, theyâre worth a f*cking million!! Those soul armaments are probably close to being mid-heaven tier soul armaments!â
âBut thatâs just the auction houseâs pricing for them now. Theyâd definitely be worth more if Bai Yunfei offered up those soul armaments after the auction!â
There was a brief round of bewilderment at the staggering costs of the three soul armaments, but no one rose up to challenge Bai Yunfei afterward.
Thus, Wu Meiâer declared Bai Yunfei the winner of that round.
  âŠâŠ
Up in his room, Bai Yunfei was now holding onto the upgrade stone he had won in the last round with glee.
<table>\nUnique EquipmentEquipment Grade: Low HeavenElemental Affinity: NoneSpecial Effect 1: Increase the chance of success when upgrading tenfold.Effect cannot be stacked with other similar effects.Special Effect 2: Increase the chance of success when crafting sevenfold.Effect cannot be stacked with other similar effects.Cannot be upgraded.
</tbody>
</table>
This was the highest-grade upgrade stone Bai Yunfei had seen to date with its ability to increase the chance of upgrading and crafting tenfold and sevenfold respectively. He was already happy about the upgrade stone, but his eyes were drilling holes anxiously onto the door to wait for the Guaranteed Upgrade Stone.
And then the fragment of the Nephrite Throne was soon brought up to himâŠÂ