28 The beginning of the auction

"She's really gorgeous," thought Yang Ming after examining her appearance, her Kitsune race and Elves were always different in terms of beauty, and despite admiring her appearance, Yang Ming wanted nothing to do with her

[ Notice: In Japanese folklore, Kitsune are foxes with paranormal abilities, one of the yōkai races ]

Yang Ming came here only for the sake of the treasure, as for the girl, she was clearly not worth the trouble considering that it was always possible to find someone beautiful, but in another place and at another time. Of course this mostly applied to Yang Ming, as he noticed the strange silence pervading in the room when he finally looked away from her lush breasts.

'Idiots!' Yang Ming's lips curled contemptuously as he saw most of the bidders unconsciously drooling at her beautiful appearance.

"Heh, gentlemen, thank you for participating in our auction. I promise you that we will not disappoint you today. Ah, yes, the first ones here my name is Gunsun Wan Er and I am the hostess of the auction, thank you for your first visit."

The way she spoke was seductive and her posture coquettish, if before the men in the room were unconsciously drooling, now you could see their hands trembling with excitement, it seems as if they were completely captivated. They were right in the grasp of her palm.

"Today our auction house has prepared over ten items that rarely appear not only in the eastern region but in any other region as well, the starting price for each of them is 200 gold coins. At this point, I declare the auction as open and I will be the auctioneer.

With these words, Gongsun Wan'er went up to the auction block, on which there was a small table with a gavel on it. There were also some young people with neat appearance who were there to help conduct the auction.

[ Notice: Gavel is the auctioneer's hammer ]

The auction finally came to a start, Gongsun Wan'er picked up a dark black box that one of her assistants handed her. When all attention was turned to the box, she flashed a bright smile and said:

"This box contains five concealment pills, as you all may have guessed it already, its purpose is not meant to just conceal your aura or your presence, but also to make a person invisible for one hour. Of course, you can be detected by a practitioner with a late stage Heavenly Ascension(3) cultivation, but for those below that cultivation level, it is impossible to see through it." - Gongsun Wan'er laughed."

Many people took it as a joke, because this level of cultivation was very rare to find in the Lower Realm. Usually the only you could find with such a cultivation base were old monsters that lived for over a thousand years, cultivating almost continuously. The people were joking , not even realizing that there was a person next to them who could kill these old monsters with ease, butchering them like a chicken.

The eyes of many glittered, it was the perfect tool for a covert operation like assassination or an emergency escape, so of course everyone wanted it except one person. If Yang Ming could have described this item, there was only one word that he could use: "useless", to Yang Ming it was just junk that he could not use. As for the concealment effect, someone like him could do it even without using such a pill, that's how worthless it was for him.

"The starting price is 200 gold pieces. These pills are pretty hard to come by, believe me, acquiring them is like acquiring a second life."

She spoke like a peddler would, luring with sweet words but she was selling such nonsense to various idiots and her plan was working as always. The price increased manifold and eventually the pill was sold to a middle-aged man for 1,000 gold coins.

The second lot was even more useless than the first one, at least to Yang Ming, it was a sword. With each new item the participants of the tournament became more and more excited, the bets that they made would have put many in shock, they were so obsessive in buying all sorts of junk.

Unlike Yang Ming, who seemed to be the only one in the room who had never once placed a bet. To him they were as insignificant as giving a sword to a spearman. And so it was finally here, the last item, the treasure he was looking for.

The auction was about to end, but the item that Yang Ming had come here for still hadn't shown up, so he assumed that it had to be the last of the lot. And his expectation seemed to have come true because what he had been waiting for all this time had appeared in front of him.

"And finally our last item for today!" - With these words, Gongsun Wan'er took out a small shabby map from the same black box that was handed to her at the very beginning. In many places one could see different lines drawn on it, the path seemed to have been completely marked by someone before, probably the owner of the map himself.

"This map was found personally by me during one of my travels, as you can see there is a route marked on it, and yet for me it became useless because the place on which this route is set is in the south area in the most dangerous place of this region, even demons will not risk to go there. If you have the courage to explore it, or if you like to adventure I suggest you buy it."

At the beginning when she described the last item, the map, many were excited. Afterall whatever was hidden there might be worth a fortune or be utterly useless, but after she spoke the last part many people's faces went sour. Many people's eyes went out in indecision as if a burnt out candle, this was especially evident among the Humans, as their race could be considered the weakest.

Travelling to the southern region was too dangerous it seemed to be a suicide. The only ones that were happy about it were demons, because the southern region could be considered their home, but when they heard the words "the most dangerous place" they immediately understood where the map leads and refused to bet for the map, considering it as just like everyone else, as a suicide.

The Elves weren't interested either, leaving only the Dragonewts and Yang Ming whose eyes glittered brightly at the story of Gunsun Wan'er.

*Ding!*

[ You received a task: Obtain the map! Reward: 2,000 points! ]

[ Do you accept the assignment? ]

'It's real... it's real' repeated Yang Ming in his mind like a madman, if before he had doubts about the reality of what Gongsun Wan'er said, now they have been completely dispelled, the system would not give a task to acquire a useless thing, it meant that it was real.

"I accept!" - Without hesitation, Yang Ming said. He could get not only the treasure but also bonus points just by buying this item.

"The starting price is 200 gold coins."

No sooner had Gongsun Wan'er finished her sentence than she was immediately interrupted.

"400 gold."

All attention immediately switched to the person who said it, at first they wanted to laugh at him, but when they saw who it was they became silent, one could see a grin on his eyes extending right to his eyes.

"This daddy likes dangerous places, the more difficult the more interesting isn't it? It doesn't matter what price I have to pay for this item." - Proudly said the dragonewt sitting there. You could see that all the dragonewts with him had lowered their heads slightly, as if to show the difference in their status.

Many thought that the map was already in his hands when suddenly a calm and composed voice resounded throughout the room.

"1,000 gold pieces."