Chapter 13 Auction

Chapter 13 Auction
"You cannot enter with empty pockets."
A guard blocked the iron door. The Ghost Market was incredibly loud and totally chaotic behind Ye Chen. Drunken mercenaries and masked thieves shouted constantly over the crackling fires of the street stalls.
​Ye Chen completely ignored the noise. He stared directly at the heavily armored man guarding the VIP Black Meeting entrance.
​"I have currency," Ye Chen stated coldly.
​He reached deeply into his torn robes. He pulled out the fist sized crystalline core he had extracted from the corrupted Wind Blade Wolf in the forest.
​He tossed the glowing blue beast core directly to the guard.
​The guard caught it. His eyes widened behind his iron visor. He immediately recognized the concentrated elemental Qi radiating from the crystal.
​"Wait here," the guard commanded nervously.
​The guard disappeared behind the heavy iron door. He returned a moment later with a thin man wearing a silk merchant cap. The auctioneer examined the glowing core with a jeweler monocle.
​"A Grade 2 Wind attribute beast core," the auctioneer whispered greedily. "These are incredibly rare in the Capital. The major righteous sects hoard every single one they find to power themselves."
​The auctioneer looked up at Ye Chen's blank white porcelain mask. He judged the shredded clothes and the lack of a proper entourage.
​"I will give you fifty thousand talents for it right now," the auctioneer offered smoothly. "It is a very generous price for a nameless rogue."
​"Make it one hundred thousand," Ye Chen replied. His voice was completely flat and totally distorted by the ceramic mask. "You and I both know you will sell it to a desperate noble for double that price tomorrow morning."
​The auctioneer frowned deeply. He weighed the heavy glowing core in his sweaty palm.
​"Seventy five thousand," the auctioneer countered nervously. "The market is volatile. I take on all the financial risk by fencing sect goods."
​"One hundred thousand talents," Ye Chen repeated coldly. "Or I will take my business to the Golden Pavilion across the street and let them reap the massive profit."
​The auctioneer gritted his teeth. "Fine. One hundred thousand talents. But you are robbing me completely blind."
​The thin man snapped his fingers. The guard handed Ye Chen a heavy leather pouch filled completely with high denomination bank notes.
​"Now show me your invitation," the auctioneer demanded.
​Ye Chen reached into his pocket. He pulled out the thick black jade sigil Lin Xi had given him.
​The auctioneer saw the Azure Cloud Sect crest carved into the stone. His greedy demeanor vanished instantly. He bowed completely at the waist.
​"Forgive my rudeness honored guest," the auctioneer said perfectly smoothly. "Right this way."
​The heavy iron door swung open. Ye Chen stepped past the bowing men.
​He descended a long spiral staircase carved directly into the bedrock of the Capital. The air grew incredibly damp and cold the deeper he went.
​He finally emerged into a massive subterranean karst cave. The ceiling was covered in thousands of sharp limestone stalactites.
​The cavern was designed strictly for absolute anonymity. Thick velvet curtains draped the rocky walls to deaden any stray echoes. The lighting was kept intentionally poor.
​There were only about a dozen people scattered widely across the front rows of plush leather seats. Every single person wore a heavy cloak and a mask to hide their sect affiliations.
​Ye Chen did not walk toward the front. He moved silently along the damp cavern wall.
​He took a seat in the absolute back corner of the room. The deep shadows hid his shredded servant robes completely. He rested his right hand deliberately near the hilt of his wrapped rusted sword.
​Ye Chen narrowed his eyes behind his porcelain mask. He needed to know exactly who he was dealing with tonight.
​"System," Ye Chen commanded silently. "Maximize my Perception."
​His vision sharpened incredibly. He scanned the scattered buyers in the front rows.
​He spotted a massive man wearing spiked iron shoulder plates. The man radiated an intense and heavy martial Qi. He was clearly a veteran mercenary who survived entirely on brute force and absolute violence.
​Three seats away sat a slender figure completely swallowed by a dark gray cloak. Ye Chen noticed the physical air distorting slightly around the gray cloak. The figure was actively and violently suppressing a terrifying Spirit Condensation cultivation base.
​The heavy wooden doors at the back of the cavern suddenly swung wide open.
​A woman walked confidently into the dimly lit room. She wore a sheer crimson dress that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. A hulking armored bodyguard walked closely behind her like a loyal dog.
​She glided smoothly down the aisle toward the front row. A strange and incredibly sweet floral scent drifted quickly through the stagnant cave air.
​Ye Chen inhaled a tiny fraction of the perfume.
​\[Warning. Lethal toxin detected.\]
​The blue system interface flashed violently in his vision. The warning color was a bright glaring yellow.
​\[Substance identified. Target is utilizing a high-tier mind-altering incense.\]
​\[Effect. Designed specifically to violently enslave the conscious minds of male cultivators. Overrides free will and logical thought completely.\]
​Ye Chen felt a sudden and intense spike of raw temptation burn in his blood. His compromised mind urged him to stand up and follow the woman in the crimson dress blindly.
​He bit down incredibly hard on the inside of his cheek. The sharp pain shattered the unnatural lust instantly.
​He circulated his Chaos Body Tempering Art aggressively. The heavy golden Qi incinerated the floral poison immediately inside his lungs.
​He looked at the woman taking her seat in the front row. This underground auction was filled completely with absolute monsters. They were just as dangerous and manipulative as Su Rou.
​A masked man stepped confidently onto the raised wooden stage at the front of the cave. He was the chief auctioneer of the Black Meeting.
​"Welcome honored guests," the auctioneer projected his voice perfectly across the silent cavern. "We will bypass the usual boring pleasantries tonight. Let us begin the blood trade."
​Two masked guards carried a heavy wooden stand onto the stage. A dark metallic chest plate rested securely on the stand. It was forged entirely from overlapping gray scales.
​"The Iron Horned Basilisk Armor," the auctioneer announced proudly. "Looted directly from the corpse of a fourth tier beast deep in the forbidden southern dead zones."
​The auctioneer drew a standard steel broadsword from his hip. He swung the sharp blade violently at the dark gray armor.
​The heavy steel sword shattered completely upon impact. Sharp shards of metal rained down loudly onto the wooden stage. The thick basilisk scales did not even have a single scratch.
​Ye Chen leaned forward slightly in his dark corner.
​He was highly tempted to bid on the armor. His body was incredibly fragile. The basilisk scales would protect his weak bones from the lethal backlash of his own overwhelming Qi.
​"Starting bid is one thousand Talents," the auctioneer declared loudly.
​"Two thousand," the scarred mercenary shouted immediately.
​"Five thousand," the woman in the crimson dress countered smoothly.
​Ye Chen slumped back against his leather seat. He gritted his teeth behind his porcelain mask.
​The bidding had skyrocketed instantly far beyond his absolute reach. His one hundred thousand talents were completely worthless against the vast wealth of rogue cultivators spending that much.
​He forced himself to remain totally silent. He could not waste his stolen funds on external armor anyway. He desperately needed a permanent internal hardware fix.
​The auctioneer sold several more illegal items over the next hour. Ye Chen watched the monsters in the front rows casually spend massive fortunes on stolen sect relics and blood soaked weapons.
​The stage was finally cleared completely of all previous merchandise.
​The auctioneer stepped back to the wooden podium. He reached into his dark robes and pulled out a pair of thick lead lined gloves. He pulled them onto his hands slowly and deliberately.
​The entire cavern went absolutely dead silent. The veteran buyers knew exactly what the lead gloves meant.
​Two masked guards rolled a heavy lead lockbox onto the center of the stage. The dense metal box was covered entirely in glowing red suppression seals.
​"This is the item you have all been waiting for," the auctioneer said quietly. His voice carried a distinct edge of genuine physical fear.
​The auctioneer carefully broke the glowing red seals. He flipped the heavy lead latches and opened the box wide.
​A massive and suffocating wave of pure Demonic malice instantly flooded the subterranean cave.
​The ambient temperature in the room dropped ten degrees in a single second. The orange torches flickering on the walls instantly burned a sickly dark purple.
​Ye Chen felt the heavy malice wash over his body. It was completely vile and suffocating. It felt exactly like the toxic abyss where he had found his rusted iron sword.
​Inside the lead box rested a thick ancient book. The yellowed pages were bound entirely in pale human skin.
​"An ancient Outer force manual," the auctioneer announced loudly. He stepped far away from the open lead box. "It is heavily corrupted by centuries of absolute demonic exposure."