It was clear that this Grand Ascension Stage being was unaware that he was competing with a mere Spatial Tempering Stage junior in the bidding.
The blood soul's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, and she cast a hesitant gaze toward Han Li.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged as he said, "Rest assured, this is an auction, so the highest bidder wins. If you really need this item, you can secure it without any qualms."
"Thank you, Senior! Your words are greatly reassuring to me," the blood soul said in a grateful manner.
She then tapped the round disk a few more times before calling out a price of 45,000,000.
The price was raised by 3,000,000 in a single bid, and many of the auction attendees' hearts jolted upon hearing this.
The other Grand Ascension Stage bidder had also fallen silent, and after three calls of confirmation from Hu Yushuang, the new owner of the Golden Lightning Lion marrow was announced.
The blood soul was naturally ecstatic, and shortly thereafter, a servant of the trade guild was sent to deliver the item to her, upon which she promptly issued the required spirit stones.
"I didn't think you were this wealthy, Sister Blood Spirit; you pulled out such a large sum of spirit stones without even batting an eyelid," Zhu Guo'er said with a hint of envy in her eyes following the servant's departure.
At her age and cultivation base, she naturally didn't have anywhere near this number of spirit stones.
"These spirit stones were accumulated over a span of many years by my true body. I didn't think that something as rare as Golden Lightning Lion marrow would appear from the get-go. Otherwise, I would've definitely waited a bit longer. Now that I've purchased this item, I won't be able to purchase anything else during this auction," the blood soul sighed before stowing the small vial away amid a flash of spiritual light.
"I think you made a wise decision, Sister Blood Spirit. There will definitely be more precious auction items than this Golden Lightning Lion marrow, but the price will definitely be far higher as well. I'm sure many of the attendees were also quite hesitant as the auction has only just begun. Otherwise, the price for this item would've most likely been bid up even further," Zhu Guo'er said with a smile.
"It's a good thing that Senior Han is here with me. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have dared to bid against a Grand Ascension Stage being. Even if that Grand Ascension Stage being hadn't attended this auction, other people most likely wouldn't be willing to let this marrow slip through their grasp so easily, either," the blood soul said as she cast a grateful glance toward Han Li.
"I had thought that you would need to borrow some spirit stones from me, but it's naturally a good thing that you were able to afford this item on your own," Han Li replied with a faint smile, then cast his gaze toward the center of the plaza again.
Even Han Li had been rather surprised that something as rare as Golden Lightning Lion marrow had been presented as the first auction item, and he was beginning to look forward to the rest of the auction items.
On the stone platform, Hu Yushuang had already drawn the second slightly longer wooden box into her grasp, and as soon as she opened the box, a loud dragon's roar immediately rang out.
A streak of azure light shot out of the box, then transformed into an azure wyrm that was over 100 feet in length in a flash before rising up into the air as if it were attempting to escape.
"Hmph, get back down there."
A cold harrumph rang out from within the five-colored cloud up above, following which several bursts of golden light erupted out of the nearby clouds before striking the azure wyrm with unerring accuracy.
The wyrm let loose an anguished cry before shuddering as it plummeted out of the mid-air.
At this moment, Hu Yushuang chanted something before pointing a finger toward the azure wyrm, and the light around its body faded, upon which it reverted back into an azure sword before slowly descending toward her.
Hu Yushuang drew the sword into her own grasp before rubbing it gently between her hands, and the azure light shimmering on its surface immediately subsided, as did the dragon's roar.
Faint blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes, and he was immediately able to identify the sword to be quite antiquated in design and was no more than a foot in length.
What was quite interesting was that hilt took up half of the entire sword's length, thus resulting in a very short blade.
The blade of the sword was riddled with scale-shaped spirit patterns, while the hilt had been crafted in the form of an azure wyrm's head with a crescent-shaped crystal locked within its mouth.
"This Azure Wyrm Crescent Sword is one of the three spirit swords owned by Old Man Crescent, who was an extremely renowned figure on the Tian Yuan Continent 100,000 years ago. During the swords refinement process, it was soaked in the blood essence of over 10 powerful azure wyrms, and once it took shape, Old Man Crescent worked for several centuries to guide and inject the essential power of the moon into the sword, so it's spiritual nature and power are both of an extremely high standard; those who are interested can come and examine the sword for yourselves," Hu Yushuang introduced with a smile.
Following her introduction, there really were some people on the plaza who stood up and strode onto the stone platform one after another to examine the sword. These people all displayed different reactions, and close to 30 people had made their way onto the platform in succession in a short time.
After the final person had departed, Hu Yushuang raised the sword high above up into the air with both hands, and declared, "The base price for this Azure Wyrm Crescent Sword will be 7,000,000 spirit stones, also to be issued in top-grade spirit stones. Let the bidding begin!"
The base price of this item was lower than that of the Golden Lightning Lion marrow, but in comparison, there were clearly more people interested in it.
As soon as Hu Yushuang's voice trailed off, a bid of 7,500,000 was made.
"8,000,000!"
"9,000,000!"
An image of the sword had already appeared on the light screen, and the number beside it was changing extremely quickly due to the frequency of the bids.
However, once the price reached 26,000,000, the bidding abruptly stopped.
It was clear that all of the attendees were of the opinion that it was no longer worth bidding up the price further.
As for the Grand Ascension Stage beings in the silver cabins, they had no interest in treasures of this caliber, so none of them had even bothered to place a bid.
Thus, the Azure Wyrm Crescent Sword was sold for 26,000,000.
Hu Yushuang then opened the third wooden box to reveal a fist-sized piece of crimson ore; this was a piece of Blood Astral Iron that was produced only on the Blood Sky Continent.
It was a material required for refining some special treasures, so it was quickly purchased at a price of 17,000,000.
Thus, the auction commenced on a good note.
One auction item after another was presented and sold by Hu Yushuang, but there weren't many items that caught the attention of the Grand Ascension Stage beings in the flying cabins.
In fact, close to 100 auction items had already been presented, but only a few had been purchased by Grand Ascension Stage attendees.
Han Li naturally had no interest in those items, either, and he didn't make so much as a single bid.
The blood soul was quite tempted by a few of those auction items, but she could only give up on them after hearing their prices.
Having already spent the majority of her wealth, she was essentially relegated to being just a spectator for the rest of the auction.
The He Lian Trade Guild seemed to have predicted that these items wouldn't be enough to tempt the Grand Ascension Stage attendees, so once the auction progressed to the halfway mark, five or six items that were even more precious than the Golden Lightning Lion marrow were presented.
These items were all related to resisting or delaying heavenly tribulations, and the Grand Ascension Stage beings in the flying cabins finally began to display some interest.
As a result, all of the items were sold for well over 100,000,000 spirit stones.
There was even a special material required to refine a tribulation resistance treasure that was sold for the astronomical sum of 400,000,000.
The Body Integration and Spatial Tempering Stage beings on the plaza were finally made aware of just how incredibly wealthy these Grand Ascension Stage old monsters were.
Han Li had also displayed some interest in that special material, but he had given up on the bidding after the price had exceeded 200,000,000.
Those auction items had finally drawn some interest from the Grand Ascension Stage attendees, and even though the auction items that came after were of a clearly lower standard, many of them were still purchased by those Grand Ascension Stage beings.
Time slowly passed by, and after the auction had been progressing for almost an entire day, it was finally nearing its conclusion.
Thankfully, all of the people present were high-grade cultivators; not only were they not tired, all of them were paying extra attention to the auction items to come.
"All of you have been kept waiting a long time for this, so I waste too much time with words. Next, I'll be presenting the top three auction items; I'm sure they'll satisfy everyone," Hu Yushuang said with a mysterious smile, then gently clapped her hands together.
A burst of rumbling rang out from up above, and the five-colored cloud suddenly parted to reveal a shimmering golden palace.
Heavenly music then began to play within the palace, and three stunning beauties in five-colored palatial dresses emerged, each of which was holding a silver platter that was enshrouded under a golden light barrier.
Following the three women came four elderly men in different attire, all of whom were Grand Ascension Stage beings.
Once the seven of them landed on the stone platform, Hu Yushuang immediately extended a respectful bow toward the four elderly men.
"Hu Yushuang pays her respects to the four elders. I had intended to pay you a visit as soon as I arrived on the Tian Yuan Continent, but you were all in seclusion at the same time; please forgive me for my transgression."
"Hehe, you're the direct lineal descendant of Old Man Hu, right? As expected, you really do possess exceptional aptitude. Don't worry about those formalities; we've never taken such trivial matters to heart. The four of us have been cultivating an ability together recently, and if Ming Zun hadn't strongly requested that we appear to ensure the safety of the most important auction items, we'd most likely still be in seclusion right now," a thin elderly man in a coarse cloth garment replied with a smile.
