**Chapter 22: Auction (2)**

So today is my birthday... yay, I am 22 now!!!

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the comments on my questions in the last chapter. I will likely come up with 2 to 3 questions for every chapter in the future.

1. How long do you think the average Gu Immortal at every level gets to live?

2. How many otherworldly demons do you think exist in the Gu world at any given time?

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Contrary to what one might believe, there were not many rank 1 Gu auctioned off in this public auction. Only about 20 Gu, including the one I put up myself.

This is just due to the fact that the real players in this game are the rich rank 2 Gu Masters and everyone above them. These rank 1 Gu were only used as an introduction of sorts.

"Now, dear guests, let us start with the auctioning off of the first rank 2 Gu."

"That means I still need a Defensive and Movement Gu…"

"Well, Wei, we did not get everything we were looking for, but with the Second Live Gu, we have gotten something even better than a simple Defense or Movement Gu, peace of mind."

"Yes, this was a surprise, but a welcome one."

I personally care even less about the lack of Movement and Defense Gu, as I had dozens of Gu that I was currently keeping secret, but back to the auction.

Red Steel Relic Gu – sold for 7,500 primeval stones.

"Tsk… this does not feel good after I have spent 8,000 for mine…"

Rank 2 Spider Shadow Gu – sold for 900 primeval stones.

"Pretty decent Concealment Gu for Rank 2, but nothing I cannot achieve with the poison path…"

This whole rank 2 Auction took more than 6 hours with the breaks included, and it was all in all very boring. My father only bought two Gu, this time for his refinement experiments and not for me sadly.

I say it was boring not because there were no interesting Gu, but more because they were not relevant for me right now. It might have been boring, but I was forcing myself to pay attention, as any and all information could become useful in the future.

"This was the last rank 2 Gu of this Auction, congratulations to everyone that has won their desired item."

"But if you are a rank 2 Gu Master, you should not leave yet, not quite the opposite, your blood should be boiling right now."

"All rank 2 Gu have been sold, but there are still other rank 2 Items that need to find a new owner."

"First of this Cloudflare turtle, it is a rank 2 Beast that is especially good at using Fire and Cloud type Gu."

As she was explaining this, two Gu Masters brought a small podium with a cute little turtle on it out. It was beautiful, maybe 10 centimeters in height and 20 centimeters in length. Its shell had a mesmerizing mix of red and white dots that were moving around.

"This particular turtle is special, it was caught by a small clan after they had defeated a mini beast tide. This Turtle led this mini beast tide and commanded over 100 rank 1 and 10 rank 2 Members of the same species."

"It seems to possess extraordinary talent and intelligence."

"This is the perfect companion for a rank 2 Gu Master, that can grow with you and attack for you without it taking up your primeval essence."

"The starting price is 500 primeval stones. There is no requirement for the bids."

"550 primeval stones."

"600 primeval stones."

"It is kind of cute, but to use it to its best abilities I will have to get a whole set of Gu for this…. And these would also be Gu that I would actually have to feed…"

"Maybe, but only maybe if it were poison path… perhaps that is only my love for turtles speaking through me..."

…

"Sold for 1,180 primeval stones. Congratulations to the winner."

"A reasonable price for such a special rank 2 Beast, to be honest… higher than a normal rank 2 Gu, but the people that would buy this are definitely not poor, as this turtle will need a rank 2 Gu set to be at its maximum strength."

After this cute little turtle was sold, they seemed to have gotten a taste for selling living beings, as this went on for the next hour or so.

Pack of 25 Water Dogs, sold for 7,000 primeval stones.

While the rank 2 Gu were auctioned off, I had found a hobby. Seeing the things that were auctioned off, I would try to guess the type of person that bought it and why they did. It is good to keep the mind active.

"The buyer is likely an Elder that has no other money-making skills, he will probably try to breed these Water Dogs..."

Next was someone we had already met…

"This is a female Gu Master whose clan was exterminated. As you can see, she is an extreme beauty, with an extraordinary talent of 93% and a rank 2 peak stage cultivation."

"The starting price is 30,000 primeval stones, and each increase must be at least 1,000 primeval stones higher than the last bid."

"Are they getting sick of not selling her for 50,000? Or is it just that their clientele is here, but not on the second layer of the Auction?"

"35,000 primeval stones."

"40,000 primeval stones."

"47,000 primeval stones."

"Yup, these people just did not see this woman over the past week…"

"52,000 primeval stones."

"55,000 primeval stones."

…

"Sold for 55,000 primeval stones."

"Interesting… could have bought her for 50,000 all week, but with the competition at the auction, it even exceeded that price… I will have to keep that in mind."

As I looked onto the stage, I see the female Gu Master cry, she also knew that in the best case she would be forced to bear an Elder's children until she could not do so anymore.

But nobody really cared, as she was promptly taken off stage, and presumably delivered to the buyer.

"Onto the last slave before the rank 3 seniors are going to get to have some fun…"

"This one does not need introduction, starting price is 50,000 primeval stones, every new bid must be 1,000 primeval stones higher."

My eyes widened in shock, and I could see that my father's did as well.

Hairy Men, 5 of them, one rank 2 and 4 rank 1.

"100,000 primeval stones."

"My little game of guessing who this was was just too easy with this one. Obviously Juo Guo, the Refinement Hall Elder. As our clan leader is very young, he was easily the richest Gu Master in the whole clan."

"And he did not seem to want to give even a chance to anyone else when it was about his refinement interests."

"It makes sense that he does not want anyone to surpass his influence when it regards his core profession, which is also his source of income."

This little interlude with the slaves was very interesting, from there on it was back to the old boring auction for Gu. This time all of it was rank 3 and 4 Gu, they kind of mixed them up.

There were only two events that were of interest to me, one was that my father bought a rank 3 Phantom Refinement Gu. This was a Gu that could replace any one material in a Gu Refinement.

It cost him 12,500 primeval stones, but if he used it well, and replaced a Material or Gu that was more expensive, or impossible to get, it could be more than worth it.

"To be honest, I was kind of wondering how that worked… but I was sure of one thing, this was a rare Gu that did not have an immortal version. Just because the whole concept would not work with Dao Marks involved."

The second interesting event was this:

"Now for our next item, a White Silver Relic Gu, starting price is 30,000 primeval stones."

"The Auction starts now."

"33,000 primeval stones."

"37,000 primeval stones."

I look over and see my father looking at me with a worried look.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want that Gu?"

"Yes, but it will be expensive, as in it will eat up most of my primeval stone reserve."

"It's your money after all, you will also be able to earn more once you reach the rank 3 middle stage. I have most of what I need for rank 1 anyway, and I only expect to advance to rank 2 in the next 6 to 8 months."

"Thank you, I will try to get it, but I will not force it…"

"Hmmm…"

A relieved look on his face, he picked up the Gu used for bidding again. In the meantime, the latest bid for the Relic Gu had reached 44,700 primeval stones.

"46,000 primeval stones."

"This must have been my father's bid."

"47,500 primeval stones." The next higher bid did not let us wait for long.

My father gritted his teeth, seemed to do something with the Gu used for bidding and said:

"Well, it is this or nothing…"

As he put the Gu back onto the pedestal, the female Gu Master on the stage called out:

"49,000 primeval stones."

After about 30 seconds of no other bids coming in, she started to announce.

"49,000 primeval stones, going once."

"49,000 primeval stones going twice."

"50,000 primeval stones."

"Hmmpf… I guess it was not meant to be…."

It is not like my father could not bid a higher sum, but it would impact his ability to spend on other things. And with that, I mean mainly me and his advancement in refinement Path.

For things like this, you have to set yourself some mental limits, and if you say the maximum you will bid is 49,000, it should not be 1 primeval stone more. If you do not do this, well, all I can say is, it is a slippery slope.

"This was the last Gu that will be sold here tonight, but there is one additional special surprise that we will sell today."

This time it was a whole desk that was pushed out in front of the anticipating audience. The piece of cloth got pulled off of it and revealed 4 decent sized books, all of them laid out in a square, with the distance between them exactly the same.

Each book had a different color: blue, white, red, and yellow.

"Dear guests, this is an inheritance of 4 Gu Masters that have been very famous about 35 years ago."

"Some of you may still remember the Elemental Demons, all of them Rank 4 demonic Gu Masters that have terrorized the eastern sea for years."

"Each book is the inheritance of one of them, entailing Gu recipes, killer moves, their insight on the use of Gu as well as a diary of sorts, that describes their story from mortals to the terror of the eastern sea."

"All of them had extraordinary combat strength."

"Are the Gu included in the inheritance?" called out a brave member of the audience.

"The clan that has found and sold us the inheritance kept the Gu that were included in it."

"But I can assure you that this inheritance is very real and includes all Gu recipes up to rank 4."

"Hohoho, that is interesting… these will go for a lot of money…."

"It will be a competition between the rank 4 Elders, as well as some of the rank 3 Peak Stage Elders that have ambitions to make their families into another Rank 4 Faction."

"Each of these inheritances will be auctioned off separately, all of them will start at 100,000 primeval stones. There is no limit as to how much each bid has to be higher than the last."

"That is a genius move, to split it up… they will get way more this way."

"This is the last item up for auction, so do not hold back or you might regret it for the rest of your life."

"You got it chief, I will make sure to bid all 2,324 primeval stones I have to my name…"

1992 words