Side Story: Being Careful

The Eternal Auction, as it was called, encompassed the entire massive building. The first floor consisted of several large halls with various items separated into categories. These were for mortal cultivators and there were pills, herbs, rare ores and crystals, and mountains of weapons and armor.

The floor was as crowded as always. All the items were behind glass cases under the watchful eye of the auction house employees. Each item listed its current price as well as how much time was left. When that time ran out, the item was given to the highest bidder and removed. Another item in the same category would quickly be placed in the same spot and the process would repeat.

This was exactly how Chen Wentian had gotten several goodies including the soul of the Purple Jade Hercules Beetle.

He hovered around the middle of each hall and scanned everything that was on sale. There weren't anything he was interested in so he decided to go to the second floor.

The second floor was only for immortals, disciples of immoral sects, or others with high status. There were many private rooms, either bedrooms or party rooms. The third floor contained more rooms including ones for holding high-class, exclusive auctions.

Chen Wentian was met with more orange uniformed employees who guided him to one of the largest rooms that were reserved for immortal guests.

One employee stayed behind, "Sir immortal, this servant is named Song Tangzhi. I have been instructed that your eminence wishes to sell as well as to buy."

Chen Wentian peered at the non-descript young man who had an eager-to-please smile. He grunted in assent and flipped a chunk of red spiritual crystal over. It weighed around five kilograms and fell perfectly in Song Tangzhi's hands.

"That will be my deposit. I am looking to buy three items. They can be weapons or armor, I am undecided. Nothing I saw downstairs was any good so I want to see your upcoming catalog." He said.

The catalog contained items yet to be sold. It was usually not published widely and only given to important guests. This allowed them first pickings at anything that was below the Spirit Lord Realm. The price would not cheap but there were much better items on the list.

"Yes, I shall bring it as soon as possible." Song Tangzhi bowed.

"As for the things I am selling…" Chen Wentian paused dramatically, "They are two immortal level items, they are too expensive for you so I need you to get your master."

Song Tangzhi shivered his sharp gaze. Chen Wentian's reputation as the Abominable Sword Bandit was known to those who paid attention to current events. It was nothing good. As the Beast God Sanctum described it, he was a murdering, pillaging, loose cultivator with no morals and fewer qualms about slaughtering innocent people.

Naturally, Chen Wentian could not let such slander go. The more the Beast God Sanctum made him out to be the bad guy, the more he wanted to prove them wrong. He wanted to slap them across the face, in more ways than one.

"My… My master will not return for another day, he is preparing for the immortal auction…"

"Fine, fine. Not a problem." Chen Wentian smiled and patted the nervous man's shoulder. "I will wait."

"Yes sir!"

The man was only too eager to leave Chen Wentian's presence as if staying a second longer would kill him.

Immortals were certainly people that demanded respect but they usually weren't homicidal maniacs. They didn't go around casually killing people left and right, especially in an equal Spirit Lord's territory. It was a good reason to cause a feud and feuds weren't good anything, including business. This was especially the case for the lord of Eternal Sunset City, Immortal Prosperous Lotus Xu Zhulan…

Chen Wentian did not realize this in the past but Immortal Gentle Lotus Gong Liyun was the true master of this place. Xu Zhulan was merely one of her lackeys. An immortal auction house, even one that was not the best, still brought in tons of money. Having a Spirit King backer certainly made sense as it would prevent even Spirit Lords from causing trouble.

This didn't mean that trouble didn't happen. There was plenty between human cultivators; betrayals, daylight robbery, and murder happened often. But all of this happened between mortal cultivators and disciples. The immortal masters did not get involved because once they did, the situation usually quickly got out of hand, much like the demise of Glacier Palace and Divine Blazing Mountain.

If an immortal did not follow the norms and behaved too atrociously, the Immortal Association would take care of them. Chen Wentian's sword bandit had not crossed that threshold because he had been helping Mei Qiaofeng and Tie Buqun with their blood feud. In the eyes of the association, they were reasonable in seeking revenge. It was also a nice excuse to suppress Beast God Sanctum.

Immortal Sword Bandit Lin Huzhong was what Chen Wentian decided to call his swordsman disguise. It was entertaining to put on act and it also helped draw attention away from his real self. Having a bunch of talented disciples was fine but space-attribute spiritual crystals and camouflaging sasquatch hair could not be sold haphazardly. It was too eye-catching and would cause trouble of the immortal variety.

There was a reason spatial bags were rare and prized. Those that were able to make them controlled everything from top to bottom. The crafting method, the raw materials, even the sale of the final product; the entire market was under their control, at least in the subcontinent and nearby regions.

This was what Chen Wentian found after a few weeks of research. There was no possibility of finding a method to craft spatial bags and camouflaging spatial bags through normal means. It wasn't that people weren't willing to sell, he couldn't even find anyone to ask!

Items and treasures that contained space-attribute spiritual energy also tended to disappear quickly. As soon as something popped up, it disappeared. It was impossible to find who had bought it. But the speed and ferocity at which these items were bought meant that there was certainly demand. It was just that this demand came from an unknown source.

All of this led Chen Wentian to his current situation. He was willing to let go of his two items if it meant he could find out more about this faction in the shadows. Both items were infused with powerful shadow anchors. And in the case of the hairs, he had Chen Mo hide within the bundle.

If there was any danger, it would not affect Chen Mo because he was already dead. He was most unique out of his souls, with an ability to create a real shadow body without an actual real body. It didn't matter if the shadow body died, it cost a lot of spiritual energy to create but it was only spiritual energy. His soul would return to the soul realm and a new shadow body could be made.

It never hurt to be too careful. Being careful was his motto. Playing with his disciples was fine. Playing with below-average immortals in a weak region was fine. But he knew that eventually, he would step into a much larger world of powerful immortals.

He didn't know anything about that world but his blue dragon soul did. It was a place that he promised to return to, but it was still too early. He still needed to take it step by step, no matter how eager the blue dragon soul became.

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