Chapter One Hundred And Seventy Two - Surprise! I succeeded!

"5 silver!" A voice yelled out in agreement.

"10 silver!" Came a counter attack a second or so. When they had first arrived at the Grand Auction and taken their seats, Leon had been a bit nervous and a bit excited. He'd never been to an auction before and hadn't known what to expect. When the first lot had come out on stage, he'd watched fascinated as people yelled out the currency they were willing to spend upon the item and slowly the price had increased.

"12 silver!" However, monotony is a bit boring and none of the early auctions had caused much excitement, so although the items on sale had changed, the tempo of the bidding had remained much the same as before.

"15 silver!" Even when the first weapons came out, despite his initial thought that people would be excited by these as the nature of the world was much about fighting and being stronger than one's neighbour, little changed. Glancing at Jin Li's sneer, he'd realised that this was in part due to the fact that the weapons were just not interesting enough.

"20 silver!" Leon still recalled how Jin Li was attracted to the magical weapons within Blacksmith Mars' shop. Clearly, none of the swords on sale here had reached that degree of quality yet.

"23 silver!"

"Are these people crazy?" A man muttered behind the small alchemist's entourage. "These are just Pills for stage one Cultivators!"

"Who knows what goes through the head of wealthy people," muttered his neighbour.

"23 silver going once!" The auctioneer shouted. "23 silver going twice!..."

"25 silver!" Came a last minute bid from a new voice. Heads turned towards the V.I.P box automatically.

"Any more bids?" The auctioneer asked as silence descended after that person spoke. No one raised their hands or voices. "Then sold! For 25 silver!"

Leon was quietly excited once more, the boredom of a watching an unexceptional Auction having faded as his own items were claimed. 25 silver was not a great deal of money for a Cultivator, but at the same time, it was a decent addition to Leon's currently sparse purse. Admittedly, he still had to visit the old town and sell Pharmacist Clawse the healing pills yet...

The lots moved on to other things, however there was now a fever in the air as each lot was brought out. A scroll for the Soaring Crane technique, a jade talisman of fortune carved by a well known individual, a peak quality Root Origin Pill...

"Next is this Gold gilded Light Cauldron," The auctioneer announced, stirring Leon's interest. He'd only ever used the plain, iron cauldrons supplied by the school and couldn't help his curiosity. The Cauldron was bigger than those small pots, with about three times the capacity and glimmered in the light of the bright mage globes scattered around the hall.

"What's the d-d-difference b-between a Light C-cauldron and a n-normal one?" Leon asked Ursam with a whisper, recalling that the man had once been an alchemist in the distant past.

"Easier to lift," Ursam said, dismissively, causing Leon to feel like he'd asked a pointless question. "That cauldron is just a decorative item, yeah there will be foolish, inept alchemists bidding for it like its some sort of treasure, but I'd rather use a basic cauldron that rely on that thing." His words splashed cold water over Leon, but he still watched as a fierce bidding war ensued and the gilded cauldron was eventually sold for two jade coins.

Leon's jaw dropped. A jade coin was worth a thousand silver, it seemed a ridiculous amount of money to him who usually had today alone earned enough money to feed a commoner family for almost a year.

After that came a few more useless, but highly sought over items; a set of jewellery made of pale pink pearls and pink diamonds set in filagree silver that had several women screeching for as bids soared into the sky followed by a set of jade ornaments, five well crafted dragons that collectors coolly bid for as if they really weren't that interested. Both sold for more than a couple of had coins.

And then two more small jade bottles were brought out on a tray and Ursam, beside Leon, grinned brightly as the auctioneer declared; "In each of these bottles are one single pill, produced by the same enlightened alchemist from early. If you thought that the Smouldering Energy Pills and the Bursting Energy Pills were beneath your attention, then perhaps these two will be of more interest to you.

"In the first bottle, we have one Smouldering Blood Pill!" Voices raised were as intense as when the auctioneer announced Leon's first Pills, before their enthusiasm waned. A standard Burning Blood Pill was used for those of secondary and tertiary cultivators, which were numerous as the bottle neck to quaternary cultivation prevented many from proceeding onwards. Thus pills that those of these levels could use were far more greatly sought. "As with its weaker version, the Smouldering Blood Pill temporarily increases ability to mimic that of one at the peak of their level. It lasts much longer than a Burning Blood Pill's boost and the after effects are much weaker in comparison, thus it can be considered an excellent addition to those requiring a longer term increase of their strength.

"And if we have this, then naturally we have obtained its counterpart; the Bursting Blood Pill, capable of aiding one to completely exceed ones own limits for a short period of time. Though it's effects may only last a little more than two handfuls of seconds, such can resolve a life and death situation where once only death could be expected! Please be aware that the greater the effect, the greater the after effects and if using this pill, use it wisely.

"Now, how shall we start the bidding?"