Chapter Eighteen: A Perfectly Average Auction

The area that they walked to was a medium sized building, not endowed with anything special, but only two attendants outside of it. The two were both late stage Qi-Condensation cultivators, and the guests that went in, including me, were at least of Grand Completion or near it. 

As the guests poured in, I saw that there were a few people separated from the rest and I decided this may be what I was looking for. 

There were three people at the counter, two middle aged men and one middle aged female. They were not wearing anything too excessive, but one could see that their cultivation was also at the level of grand completion. 

Yanqing soon walked up to them as he also saw others walking up while taking out some of their treasures, which ranged from weird looking plants to skin of demonic beasts. 

"Fellow Daoist, is this an auction house?" Yanqing spoke in a polite and friendly manner like always, not intrusive but also not too indirect. 

"Hmph? Yes, this is an auction house hosted by the Xin family! It occurs every year in the middle of summer. Do you wish to participate? If so, there's a handling fee of 10% of your total profit from auctioning here." The second middle aged man spoke with a polite attitude towards me while he scanned each inch of my body. 

Using spiritual senses to determine one's cultivation was not rude in these areas as it was quite expected to prevent… any Demonic Dao cultivators from coming in. It was not that they were not accepted in Longxin city, but rather because they had a separate auction place from here. 

Although cultivators were crazy or eccentric, most still had common sense to determine what they can and cannot do. Though it seems that being more mad is the way to power as most of the Core Formation or Nascent Soul Cultivators were eccentric in one way or another. 

So even the most demonic and evil cultivator of the demonic dao would have some common sense as this was a city guarded and defended by Core Formation Elders and the Patriarch of a Nascent Soul level. 

"Indeed, these are the items I wish to sell or auction off at least. Also, could I buy a list of upcoming auctions or is there not one?" Yanqing swiftly replied.

As Yanqing brought out two demonic cores and the corpses of several beasts of the first, second, and several fourth stage beasts, the middle aged man's eyes shone as if he was a mortal that found a gold mine. 

"Yes, yes, would you like to sell all of this? The corpses of the demonic corpses will be worth around… 2913 spirit stones. I cannot make a proper estimate on these demonic cores, do you wish to auction them?" The man spoke with a smile as he calmed down while looking at Yanqing with a much higher disposition. 

'My bonus is going to be great this year. Customer truly is king.' The man thought as he knew he was definitely going to save enough for his foundational pill in the upcoming years. He had a chance to become an outer elder for the family!

While Yanqing agreed to the transaction, he swore that he saw dollar signs in the eyes of the man. 'I have some money to spend again… Let's see if there's any more swords– I mean foundational pills.' 

"These demonic cores will be auctioned this evening in roughly two hours. Here are your plaques for your auctioned item, but do not bid on your own item as it is against the rules of the house. Also please do not damage anyone inside the city or threaten them as this would mean immediate death, trust me it's not worth it."

 Yanqing listened on intently as the man told him all the rules he had to follow for the auction before thanking him and heading to the waiting room. 

The other two auctioneers were jealous as they saw a yearly bonus walk away, maybe they should've taken the opportunity to speak to that young teenager instead. 

Then the middle aged man who secured the deal smiled smugly at the other two with his eyebrows tilting upwards. 

'What a lucky bastard', the other two simultaneously thought as their friend won the jackpot. 'Now he has the lead in becoming a Foundational Establishment Cultivator… tch'

After walking into the auction waiting room, Yanqing soon saw twenty other cultivators in the room, looking the exact same through the [Masked] technique. 

It was the most generic face one could think of, with a tint of darker skin to make themselves look as average as possible without being ugly. One could even imagine that they were a farmer's boy before becoming a cultivator.

'Did they all see this one person's face before swiftly changing into it? I feel bad for this poor guy, at least he has an advantage in the world in being unidentifiable.' 

Yanqing soon used the technique to do the same, as he was given an item by the staff to hide his aura. He swiftly went to another room to change to a white robe like the other cultivators.

'Another one joins the party. Hooray for our lord average.'

'Just another average male, like us.' 

'What an average male'

'...'

His fellow cultivators had different thoughts, but were similar to one another. Except for one particular individual who felt his life was flashing before his eyes.

He had to use all his will power to now cry on the spot. He was just a perfectly average man after all. There was no shame in admitting that… but why did everyone use his face?

As time went on, the population of average men increased, going from twenty average males to thirty-four average males. It was from this point onward that the average man really wanted to walk out in despair. 

'This poor guy.' Yanqing thought to himself while he too, an average male, saw more average males join the party. He wanted to console the poor average man, but he did not know which one was the original. 

Time went on until the auction finally began as every average male, and also average females now, walked into the large auditorium prepared for this auction. 

Seeing the countless faces that seemed the exact same, the female auctioneer cringed and had to try her hardest now to smile or laugh. Though she could see that her male colleague in the background was laughing and using his Qi barrier to prevent any noise from leaking out.

'Lucky bastard' she thought to herself. It was pure torture to not laugh at this scene. 

Everyone settled down as the first item was auctioned.

"Thank you for coming to our Xin Family auction this year, and like always there will be a certain item being auctioned like every year!" The lady yelled with suspicious enthusiasm as she managed to let go of some of the pent up laughter in her system.

There was even an urge from within her to turn into one of the average females. Though she had to quickly put that urge away as the auction was starting. She could do this in her free time after all. 

"The first item today will be this Treasure Blue Flute, and as everyone has guessed it's a magical item used to deal sound wave attacks. These attacks are incredibly vicious towards most demonic beasts and anyone could use it properly! It's most effective when a tone-deaf person uses this item!" 

"The starting bid will be 50 spiritual stones with an increase of at least 8!" 

"58 Spiritual Stones" Spoken by a man with a perfectly average voice, which was soon replicated by everyone else. 

There was a silence for a while as everyone changed their voice to match his, as there was no voice as average as that. It was simply the perfect disguise. 

"68 Spiritual Stones" Spoken by another man, with the same appearance and voice. The first man began to have tears drip down his face as his voice was also copied now. 

The first auction eventually ended at 84 Spiritual stones purchased… by an average male. 

There were several other items being auctioned off, but there wasn't much demand as everyone here was waiting for the last few items.

"And here, we have TWO fourth grade demonic beast cores! As everyone knows, this corresponds to the late foundational stage! The auction will begin at a price of 4000 Spiritual Stones each, with an increase of no less than 200!" 

Eyes zoomed in as some of the aura was finally let out, only to reveal several late stage Foundational Establishment Cultivators within the average male population. Surprise filled them as this was only an event that they had attended for fun. 

They had matched their Qi to be the same as a Grand Perfection Qi cultivator, as it was incredibly fun watching their juniors mess around and bid as if there was no tomorrow, but now it was their turn. 

Demonic cores are the best materials for pills nowadays as the spiritual plants that were originally used were going extinct as the spiritual energy concentration lowered. 

"4400" An average male spoke out, but this time a late stage foundational establishment aura flowed out. 

'Even seniors are using my appearance… Should I be happy or should I be sad?' An average man cried from deep within.

"4700"

"4900"

…

The bid went on and on as they outbid one another non-stop, while Yanqing was staring blankly at how fast the price was rising. 'At this rate I can just buy the Foundational pill materials with the amount of money I will have.' 

The price soon skyrocketed to a grand total of 8,332 spiritual stones for the first core and 8,584 for the second pill. 

'They really fought tooth and nail for this… Thank you seniors'

The middle aged man from the auctioneer area earlier celebrated as he danced on his coworkers. There were almost 17,000 spiritual stones! From the 10%, the auction house would take 5% while the auctioneer responsible would take the other 5%! 

'Muahahahahah' He was rich! He now had around 800 more spiritual stones, close to the average wealth of a Grand Completion Qi Cultivator! Though… It was around 5,000 to buy a foundational pill. He was at least half way there now at least!

…

Current wealth:

18,221 spiritual stones (The auction house rounds up to the customer so they would come back to auction more items at a later date). 

23 Spiritual Swords (Magical items)

Inheritance of a Formation Master

A bunch of poorly made talismans

2 Demonic Cores