Han Li transmitted his voice to the blood soul and the others as he was exiting the secret chamber, and by the time he emerged from the front gate, they were already waiting respectfully for him.
Han Li instructed Patriarch Hua Shi and the 12 fragrant maidens to stay behind, taking only the blood soul and Zhu Guo'er with him as they flew toward the center of the town.
Shortly thereafter, other people also began to emerge from the nearby clusters of buildings, as well as the other guest pavilions elsewhere in the town, and all of them converged toward the same place.
By the time Han Li arrived above the pagoda, many people had already entered the building.
Han Li took a glance at the armored guards standing outside the pagoda, then descended in front of the entrance with the blood soul and Zhu Guo'er.
Right at this moment, Fei Yun emerged from within the pagoda in an elegant manner, then extended a curtsey toward Han Li.
"Welcome to our auction, Senior Han. If you don't mind, please allow me to guide you into the venue."
She seemed to have been waiting here in advance.
Han Li wasn't surprised by this at all, and he nodded with a faint smile in response. "Please lead the way, Fairy Fei Yun."
Fei Yun immediately waved a hand toward the guards, and Han Li's group was granted entry into the pagoda without any examination required.
As soon as he strode into the pagoda, Han Li immediately detected a burst of peculiar energy fluctuations, and the surrounding scenery quickly faded.
It seemed that he had only taken one step, but he had appeared directly in front of the staircase on the first floor of the pagoda.
There were two pale-skinned foreign beings on the staircase ahead of him, and they completely vanished into thin air amid a flash of light, leaving only traces of residual spatial fluctuations in their wake.
"So this is the true entrance to the auction venue?" Han Li asked.
"That's right, this staircase will take you directly into the space where the auction is being held," Fei Yun replied with a smile.
Han Li nodded in response, then stepped onto the staircase, upon which he and the others immediately began to warp amid a burst of spatial power…
A short while later, Han Li and the others were situated in an elegant booth that was over 100 feet in size.
There was a near-transparent light barrier directly up ahead, and through it, a giant plaza was visible down below.
Around the plaza were countless people and stone chairs, while around 50 to 60 silver stone cabins were hovering just over 100 feet in the air over the edge of the plaza.
Each stone cabin had golden runes all over their surfaces, and it was impossible for those outside to glean what the people in the cabins were up to.
Han Li was situated in one of these cabins with Fei Yun standing beside him with a smile on her face.
This setup didn't appear to be any different from that of a normal auction, but Han Li currently had his gaze fixed on something over 10,000 feet in the air above the plaza.
This was a five-colored cloud with countless black-armored guards hidden within it, releasing all types of restriction fluctuations that spread across the entire sky and encompassed the entire platform.
Even higher above the five-colored cloud was a resplendent palace that was rather blurry and unclear, and strains of heavenly music could be heard from the palace, striking one with a sense of relaxation.
"In addition to holding the auction in this separate space, I can see that many precautionary measures have been prepared; your trade guild sure is well-prepared," Han Li suddenly said with a smile.
"The treasures that'll appear during this auction are far more valuable than those of the previous auctions, so these precautionary measures are very much necessary. There are even two or three items that can delay one's great heavenly tribulation, so we have to be careful in case some people are harboring sinister motives," Fei Yun replied.
"No one would dare to try anything once they witness everything that's been set up in here," Han Li said with a meaningful smile.
"I certainly hope so. The auction is about to begin, and I still have some things that I need to do, so I'll be taking my leave now, Senior Han," Fei Yuan said with a smile as she cast her gaze toward the plaza outside the light barrier.
"Go ahead, there's no need to keep me company," Han Li replied with a casual wave of his hand.
Thus, Fei Yun extended a parting bow before departing from the stone cabin, leaving only Han Li's trio in the room.
"It's no wonder the He Lian Trade Guild is taking so many precautionary measures when there are tribulation delaying treasures among the auction items," the blood soul said.
"Indeed, those are the only treasures that'll tempt Grand Ascension Stage beings into taking nefarious actions," Han Li replied.
"Aren't you interested in treasures like this, Senior? Even if you have no need for such treasures now, they'll most likely still be very useful to you in the future," the blood soul couldn't help but ask.
"Hehe, I'll worry about those matters then the time comes. Even if I want a treasure like this, I won't search for it during this auction. There are several tens of other Grand Ascension Stage beings present; if I try to take the treasure by force, it most likely won't end well for me. As such, I'll focus my attention on our main target, which are the intercontinental teleportation spots," Han Li replied with a smile, seemingly truly uninterested in those tribulation delaying treasures.
Meanwhile, Zhu Guo'er was looking at all of the foreign beings outside the light barrier with an excited look on her face.
Around an hour later, the entire plaza was finally filled with tens of thousands of foreign beings at or above the Spatial Tempering Stage.
Right at this moment, a rumbling boom rang out at the center of the empty plaza, and a stone platform began to rise up from its surface.
Immediately thereafter, a light formation appeared on the plaza, following which Ming Zun emerged.
He wasn't particularly tall or imposing, but in the instant that he arrived, a heavy aura instantly settled over the entire auction venue.
Some of the chatting foreign beings immediately fell silent and cast their eyes toward the stone platform.
"I am Ming Zun, the manager of the He Lian Trade Guild on this continent. Hehe, I'm sure I don't require much introduction, so I'm not going to bore all of you with one. The rules of this auction are similar to those of other auctions, and all those who break the rules will be made to leave by me. Alright, with that out of the way, I hereby announce the commencement of this auction."The commencement of the auction was declared in a concise manner, immediately following which MIng Zun rose up into the air as a streak of silver light, vanishing into the five-colored cloud up above after just a few flashes.
At the same time, a gorgeous voluptuous woman with a smile on her face appeared on the stone platform amid a flash of spiritual light.
The woman had a pair of large watery eyes that were filled with boundless seduction, and the mere sight of her gaze was making the blood of the foreign beings close to the platform boil in their veins.
What was quite noteworthy was that the woman had three furry pink tails that were swishing gently from side to side, adding further to her seductive appeal.
"That's a Three-tailed Charming Fox! I didn't think such a being actually existed in our Spirit Realm!"
"I wonder where the He Lian Trade Guild found her from."
……
The plaza immediately erupted into chatter once again, and many of the male foreign beings present were staring intently at the three-tailed woman with undisguised lust in their eyes.
The woman was completely unfazed by this, and she said in a mellow voice, "I am Hu Yushuang, and I was entrusted by Senior Ming with the duty of hosting this auction. Rest assured, I've hosted many similar auctions in the past, so I'll be sure to do a good job here."
"You've hosted many auctions? How could that possibly be true? If someone like you had appeared during other auctions, we would've definitely heard of you already," an accusatory voice suddenly rang out, and many other people also became rather suspicious upon hearing this.
"If you're referring to this continent alone, then this is indeed the first time I've hosted an auction here," Hu Yushuang replied in an unflustered manner.
"Does that mean you're not from this continent?" someone exclaimed.
"I've always resided on the Blood Sky Continent and only arrived on the Tian Yuan Continent around a year ago, which is why none of you have seen or heard of me," Hu Yushuang explained.
"Hehe, it's a pity that you're not from our Tian Yuan Continent, Fairy Hu. If I had known that someone as stunning as you existed, I wouldn't have refrained from taking a dao companion for so long." A coarse male voice with a joking tone suddenly rang out in a certain corner of the plaza.
"Hehe, what a coincidence! My last dao companion passed away recently, so I wouldn't be opposed to giving you an opportunity. Who was the one that had just said that? How about you show yourself and repeat those words to my face?" Hu Yushuang giggled, and a hint of light flashed through her eyes as she spoke, upon which her seductive aura instantly became three to four times more potent.
A clean-shaven middle-aged man that was seated not far away from the platform rose to his feet in a slightly slack-jawed manner and a rather unnatural flush on his face, then declared loudly, "Fine… I'll satisfy your request… If I had known that someone as stunning as you existed, I wouldn't have…"
