Auction.

Night had fallen, and Ling Jun was sitting cross legged in his courtyard. He had now formed the habit of sitting cross legged as it was part of his cultivation technique.

Ling Jun was now inspecting the Qi gathering pills he had just received. He was fascinated with how so much Qi could be gathered in such a small pill. He thought that according to the novels, this pill would later become obsolete but even still, this was his first time seeing a pill and he was intrigued.

It would generally take four days to completely assimilate a pill, however for the more talented such as Ling Ji and Ling Su, it would take two days or less.

The pills had been handed taking into consideration how long it would take to assimilate for each person. The clan had really been generous this time.

He popped one in his mouth and began to manipulate the Qi using time. Within a couple of minutes the Qi had been assimilated and Ling Jun broke through to seventh level Qi condensation from peak sixth. He decided to save the rest of his pills as they wouldn't bring him any more significant advancement.

Ling Jun spent ten days practicing his movement technique resulting in him reaching superior completion within ten days. He could sense that it would take about a moth to reach genuine completion unless he used it in battle.

Using the techniques in battle generally sped up how fast one could reach the next level as one improved much faster in actual battle.

Ling Jun then used the excuse of practicing to see how far his brother had reached in his cultivation. Ling Ji had just broken through to fourth level Qi cultivation in only fifty days. He would've been at third if it wasn't for the pills he received.

His techniques had reached minor completion as well. Ling Jun was supposedly also at fourth level Qi condensation albeit at peak. Ling Ji was definitely strong, although Ling Jun didn't know how strong the fifteen year olds from the other clans were so he couldn't draw a comparison.

Ling Ji also hadn't realised his full potential as of yet.

The reason for this was that although the clan possessed a lightning cultivation method which could imbue techniques with lightning element to make them swifter and stronger, there was no actual martial techniques possessed of the lightning element so he was unable to utilise his full potential in his attacks. Unless he reached the Transformed level of a technique and incorporated the lightning element into it.

Of his own age group, sixteen year olds, Ling Jun was almost certain that Meng Li was the strongest. Even just talking talent wise she was extremely strong, yet back in the forest she had revealed that she had been hiding her strength. She had almost died when she was ten, after falling into a ravine far off in the forest.

She had been running away from home, and fell. While falling, she had been caught in mid air by a lizard living in a hole in the cliff face. The lizard had wrapped its tongue around her and dragged her in. Luckily she had a protective amulet from her clan master, her father.

The lizard had been killed, and within the cave had been a thorny flower growing around an old worn book. The roots of the flower were spreading through the yellowing pages and when she had touched it, the roots had abruptly burst through the pages and burrowed into her dantian. She had been in so much pain that she passed out.

When she awoke, both the flower and the book had disappeared. However they were in her body and could be taken out to be used in fights. The flower could absorb treasures and refine them before strengthening her body. The more treasures she absorbed the stronger her fleshly body.

It was partly why she came to enjoy 'borrowing' so much. She hadn't figured out the use of the book yet.

Luckily she had the sense to hide this from her clan. When she had been rescued she didn't reveal anything and because the treasure affected fleshly body power without using Qi it could be hidden without others realising.

So no one apart from Ling Jun knew the true extent of her powers. And vice versa.

Satisfied with his brothers progress, Ling Jun decided to leave him and return to his own courtyard.

No sooner had he returned, Xue Ying came to inform him about the auction that was going to take place that night.

The auction would be hosted by the Gold Sun Pavilion. This was just a branch of the trading company based in the centre of the empire. It was far more powerful than any of the powers in Xin city, so even just a small branch was treated with utmost respect by all of the clans. They also stayed impartial regarding any power struggles going on in the city.

A sudden auction had been called, although many had been expecting it. Such auctions were generally called for before major events such as the tournament. Many disciples would head to see if they could get anything that would aid themselves in the tournament.

Ling Jun decided to head over and flashed his identity badge before being led to a VIP booth by two beautiful women. The VIP booths were situated on the second floor, while the remaining seats were on the first floor. This was the hall used for small scale auctions.

Ling Jun was aware that many a main character had made enemies in the auction hall, so he decided to not bid unless he really wanted something. He figured nothing could no wrong since he wasn't even close to being the richest person present.

As a middle aged man walked onto the podium, the hubbub died down as people made their way to their seats. The middle aged man walked over to the centre and waited for everyone to stop talking before speaking.

"Hello everyone, I am your humble auctioneer Xiao Ling and I'm sure many of you would like to get to the main event so without further ado, let's get started." Xiao Ling clapped his hands and a beautiful woman appeared from behind the podium wheeling a cart right before him.

"The first item we will be auctioning today is a pair of daggers both of peak yellow grade, and they are part of a set." Xiao ling finished his explanation with a bow.

"The starting price for these daggers is sixty spirit stones. The lowest bid increment must be five spirit stones."

This instantly led to a commotion.

"Two peak yellow grade daggers. Most importantly they are a set!"

"Sixty five!"

"Seventy!"

The price rose to eighty spirit stones before it was bought by a female on the first floor.

After that came many items some of which resulted in fierce competition. Nothing really stood out to Ling Jun. He was about to give up when the auctioneer finally revealed a book.

"Lightning Flash sword technique. Low black rank. This was found in some old ruins and sold to us by an anonymous person. A sword technique which incorporates the speed and power of lightning. The speed of the sword is such that it can hit an opponent without them seeing it coming.

"The bidding will start at five hundred spirit stones. Increments must be of ten at minimum."

Ling Jun only had a grand total of 370 spirit stones. He had received five every month since he turned fifteen and 300 in the recent clan assembly. However, he really wanted this technique.

"If I had the spirit stones, I would definitely buy this technique no matter what." Ling Jun said ruefully, loud enough so that his voice could be heard by everyone.

Many people sighed in exasperation. They could also relate to that.

However, some people sneered in disdain. They were mainly the older disciples and those with extremely high statuses who had many spirit stones.

In actuality, Ling Jun, with his status should have been able to gather many more spirit stones yet he had kept to himself and had not been focused on by his parents, which was why he had much less than someone of his status would have.

"550 stones!" Ling Ji's voice rang out across the hall. "I must have this technique, I implore fellow cultivators to give me, Ling Ji, some face."

He had instantly raised the price by fifty spirit stones. It seemed he was determined to acquire this technique.

There was silence all around. It seemed no one wished to fight with him over the technique.

Within his booth, Ling Ji smiled contentedly. It seemed this technique was destined to be his.

"No one wishes to raise the price?...three...two...o-"

"600 stones!" A flowery and pleasant voice sounded out.

Everyone drew a sharp intake of breath. Who dared to fight with the young master of the Ling clan?

Within the booth Ling Ji frowned as a sense of unease rose up within him. He was feeling angry that someone had ignored his goodwill.

"Who dares to fight with me?! 650 stones!"

Everyone waited in anticipation. It seemed there would be a good show tonight.

Within his booth Ling Jun smiled. It seemed that Meng Li had realised his message. He had purposefully said what he had said earlier in order to get Meng Li to buy the technique with his share of money from selling the beast cores.

They had killed many ninth level beasts and the cores were worth 100 spirit stones each so he had definitely enough money to buy the technique, even if he accounted for all of his brothers wealth.

Meng Li also smiled within her booth. Hah, this fool. She had more than enough money and she wasn't afraid of Ling Ji at all.

The bidding battle continued and even Ling Su joined in. However when the price went above a thousand five hundred stones both had to leave the competition. They had managed to snag five hundred more stones on top of their thousand so they thought they would be prepared for every eventuality, but they were left disappointed.

In the Meng Li won the technique for 1550 spirit stones total. Meng Li punched the air with joy within her booth. She had gotten the technique for her sworn brother so she was quite excited.

"I wonder who was the one who bought the technique?" Ling Ji inquired in a polite tone. Anyone with that much money must definitely be of quite high status.

"Meng Li of the Meng clan." She said in a solemn voice.

"Ah, if it is Meng Li then I am thoroughly convinced of my defeat." Ling Ji had long heard of the beauty of the Meng clan and wished to get in her good graces so he replied with utmost politeness.

"Thank you, fellow cultivator." Meng Li replied casually before leaving.

Ling Jun also smiled. The auction wasn't finished yet. However nothing was as good as the Lightning Flash sword technique. However Ling Jun saw potential in an overlooked technique and quickly bought it for a sum of eighty five spirit stones.

It was called Return to Hand. A technique that could be used to return arrows or throwing knives to ones hand in order to waste less. However, the obvious drawback was that one had to be able to see the arrow on knife to return it. In cramped areas it would be hard to see.

However, Ling Jun could use spatial sense to 'see' everything for five hundred and fifty metres so he could use this even while in battle to surprise his opponents. It also was extremely easy to master. His spatial sense had increased by fifty metres upon reaching seventh level Qi condensation.

Ling Jun quickly headed over to a blacksmithing shop and brought three double bladed daggers with a hole in the middle where they were supposed to be held. He also brought a couple of shurikens. The total cost came out to forty spirit stones.

He then headed back to his courtyard, and started imbuing his new equipment with Qi in the manner introduced by the manual. He also took the time to the same thing to his arrows. For good measure, he decided to do the same thing to the bow and swords which was a lot harder as he had to adapt the technique. This took him five days.

He spent the final five days relaxing and practicing his techniques. On the sixth morning he donned his favourite hooded black robe and headed over to training hall where all the disciples had gathered.

The second elder was leading them this time. He was a widened old man with droopy white eyebrows hanging off his forehead. He waited until everyone arrived before giving a small speech and setting off.