9. Mysterious Man
A thin young man brought the three of them fresh cups of spirit tea, then extended a respectful bow before departing from the room.
Tyler has no mood to drink the tea, in his mind thousands of grass mud horses crazily galloped across. But Mr. Xie and Priscilla took the tea cup and tasted it.
"There wasn't a single cultivator in the world who didn't love treasures, and it was clear that this is an extraordinary treasure. Am I right senior sister?" Tyler asked while looking at the roof with a dazed expression.
"Right Right." His Senior sister just replied nonchalantly.
"At Least there should be people that are curious and should have attended the auction, right?"
"Right Right."
"You are a Buffon right?"
"Right Ri- what?"
"Hahaha nothing."
As they were bickering, Mr. Xie slowly placed the teacup down and said, "It looks like someone pulled strings from the dark."
"Yeah. But all we need is to successfully run one auction. The enemy is probably scared of competition. Junior brother, fight on!!" Priscilla replied as she encouraged him.
"The only way to get more people is...." Tyler's eyes shined as he shared his half-naked plan.
"I am not doing it," Priscilla shook her head.
"No audience, no auction, no money, no salary, no job for you," Tyler simply said.
"Alright, alright," Priscilla surrendered.
"Don't go back on your word later."
"I'm not someone who goes back on their words. Once I say something, not even a hundred horses, no, not even a thousand horses can chase me!" Priscilla staunchly said, then immediately turned bitter.
---
Near the Immortal Gathering Point is full of shops and bustling streets. Today a group of qi gathering level cultivators are walking down the alley.
Abruptly, a figure cloaked in black robes, obscuring their entire body from head to toe, strode toward them. Though they made their way, the individual intentionally collided with the cultivators. The impact was so forceful that the cultivators felt as if they had been struck by a speeding bull, causing them to tumble to the ground.
"How dare you hit me?" A strange voice came from the black robed man as he released the foundation establishment level pressure.
The Cultivators couldn't even speak because of pressure.
"Alright, I'll forgive you ants," said the black-robed figure, "but only if you tell me if you've seen a beautiful, pretty Priscilla around here." Upon hearing this, Tyler, who was hiding in the corner, nearly tripped over himself.
The Black robed person is actually Priscilla in disguise. He hadn't expected her to display such narcissistic behaviour.
Feeling embarrassed, he wished he could dig a hole and hide his entire body. Despite finding his senior sister's behaviour cringeworthy, he knew business was business. Gritting his teeth, he stepped forward to confront her according to the script.
"Stop Evil Cultivator. How dare you attack the innocents." Tyler shouted.
The Cultivators on the ground had some hope lit in their eyes before dimming down.
"First Level of Qi refining realm Ant. Mind your business" Priscilla said.
"Taste this 24 soul serving Bells." He swiped his hands 24 little bells surrounding Priscilla. The one who is actually controlling the bell is Mr.Xie who is lurking in the shadows.
The bells rang. Except for Tyler, Priscilla and Mr.Xie who already used a talisman to avoid getting injured, everyone in the street felt dizzy.
"OH NO... A Nascent level treasure! Impossible! From what I know, the new White Auction Hall is set to auction it this evening. How could you have it?" She shouted loudly before turning and running away. Her voice echoed through the alley, reaching everyone within earshot and even those on the nearby street.
Actually they skipped a lot of steps because of his senior sister's cringe worthy performance.
In the evening, amidst the chiming of bells, a multitude of items were auctioned off. Prior to the auctions, Tyler diligently made copies of each item, regardless of their perceived utility or significance.
Time is a priceless commodity; whether one is willing or not, it inexorably marches on, consuming each passing moment. Tyler had already squandered forty years of his life before delving into the world of cultivation. Even with the consumption of immortal pills, his cultivation would not easily ascend. Thus, he sought out extreme treasures, unique formations, and other rarities to aid his progression.
He resolved to build more auction houses and try his luck in the hopes of finding the treasures and artefacts needed to enhance his cultivation further.
---
Somewhere in the Southern Zi continent.
There were three Southern people making their way down a bluestone path that was overgrown with weeds in a set of severely ravaged palatial ruins, and all of them were looking quite weary.
As they conversed about various topics, a green jade flying carriage suddenly streaked across the sky, circling around before coming to a stop above them. Perched on the carriage was a tall, refined middle-aged man, gracefully playing a white jade flute.
Behind him stood two men dressed in golden armour, their wooden expressions and lifeless auras indicating that they were nothing more than a pair of puppets.
The three Southerners cast a wary glance at the man on the flying carriage, a hint of apprehension flashing in their eyes. However, upon sensing that the man's cultivation was merely at the Golden Core Realm, they felt somewhat reassured.
"Greetings, fellow daoists. Have any of you seen this Guy ?" the middle-aged man asked with a friendly smile on his face. He showed a picture of a young man.
"No," the thin elderly man replied.
"I'll be on my way then," the middle-aged man said, then flew away atop his flying carriage.
As he flew away into the distance, the burly man turned to the elderly man and asked, "What now?"
"I wasn't able to notice anything amiss with my spirit eye ability, so he should be a genuine Late stage Golden core cultivator," the elderly man mused as he habitually stroked his own goatee.
"If I'm not mistaken, that flying carriage he's using is quite a fine treasure," the dark-skinned woman suddenly said.
A hint of a smile appeared on the faces of both of the two men upon hearing this.
"Setting aside his storage tools, I want that piece of jade that he was holding," the burly man chuckled.
"I'm taking that robe of his," the thin elderly man declared.
Ultimately, the three of them were unable to suppress their greed, and they were planning to use their numbers advantage to hunt down the middle-aged man and take all of his treasures.
The world of cultivation was indeed a cruel one.
Due to their extraordinary power, it was difficult for these formidable cultivators to be bound by the laws of the mortal world.
The only things that could restrain a cultivator were the virtues, morals and humanity he held in his heart. Once these morals and ethics were shattered and self-control was lost, then the cultivator could stoop to doing anything.
Genocide, violence, oppression – viewing human lives as straws of grass, to be ravaged at his whims and fancy… So on and so forth. This pretty much summed up the viciousness and cruelty of the cultivator's world.
The flying carriage continued to fly through the sky at a leisurely pace several dozen kilometres away, and the smile on the middle-aged man's face remained unchanged as he murmured to himself, "Throwing your lives away over a moment of greed... How unfortunate..."
As soon as his voice trailed off, three streaks of light appeared in front of his flying carriage in a flash.
"Could it be that you've recalled the whereabouts of this man, fellow daoists? If you could point me in the right direction, I would be extremely grateful," the middle-aged man said with a smile.
For some reason, a sense of foreboding welled up in the elderly man's heart at the sight of the smile on the middle-aged man's face, and he immediately decided that he would abandon his two companions and run away should things go awry.
Meanwhile, the burly man and the dark-skinned woman exchanged a glance, and the two of them quickly summoned a black stone axe and a silver longsword, respectively.
As for the thin elderly man, he summoned a seven-story golden pagoda that released a golden light barrier, which instantly swelled to countless times its original size to encompass himself, his two companions, and the middle-aged man.
"You think something that can't even count as a pseudo domain can trap me?"
A cold look suddenly appeared on the middle-aged man's face as he tightened his grip around the flute and blew it towards them. A Beam of light flew towards them.
The trio of Southerns faltered slightly upon seeing this, yet before they had a chance to do anything, a burst of tremendous power suddenly converged toward them from all directions, instantly destroying everything.
Immediately thereafter, their bodies were completely pulverised by this burst of power.
Their heads remained completely unscathed, but their bodies had already been crushed into mangled masses of flesh, blood, and bones.
All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye!
The middle-aged man made a casual grabbing motion upon seeing this, and an enormous semi-transparent hand appeared out of thin air, causing the entire space around it to crease and fold as it grabbed onto the trio of nascent souls.
"Please spare us, Senior! It's not worth dirtying your hands putting an end to our pathetic lives!" the nascent soul of the elderly man pleaded.
The middle-aged man ignored their desperate pleas as he cast his gaze toward the trio of nascent souls with a peculiar gleam in his eyes.
After a brief moment of observation, he crushed the three nascent souls into nothingness as he mused to himself, "It looks like they weren't lying, they really don't know where this guy is."
He said as he looked at the picture. It is a picture of Young Tyler.