Roan couldn't help but ask sometime later, "Do they have a way of hiding everyone's bids? After all, I don't think it's a good idea for Saint Realm cultivators like us to bid high prices in front of everyone."
Hurio nodded before passing a badge to Rean and Roan, explaining, "These are the auction house badges. All you need to do is send your Divine Sense inside with the bid you want to give. No one will be able to tell who put the bid out there. As for the host, they would keep announcing the prices according to what appears in the auction house's formation that receives everyone's bids."
That made a lot more sense in Roan's mind. With that, he asked another question. "How about getting the item you won?"
"That's very simple," Hurio answered straight away. "You just need to give your bid and win the item. After the auction is over, you can head to those barracks over there. They're protected by formations, so no one will be able to see what you obtained."
Roan understood after that. "There will be a lot of cheap and expensive items in the auction. Even if someone sees me head there to retrieve an item, they will think I won some of the cheap ones, so it wouldn't be worth going out of their way to attack me. Well, at least no one far above our level would do so. Only those who thought the items we obtained were useful for them would try anything. It's just that you'll need to protect yourself if that happens."
Hurio confirmed Roan's words. "True."
Rean still had a doubt, though. "What if they don't have the Divine Stones to pay in the end? Will they put the item back in the auction?"
Hurio shook his head, saying, "No. However, the person who gave a fake bid would probably wish they were dead. After all, this is an auction promoted by the Lanqueas Sect, so I doubt anyone would try something that foolish." Indeed, the twins thought it wouldn't be a good idea to offend such a power.
Rean pondered in silence for a bit if he should put one of his equipment for auction as well. After all, his Element Gathering weapons would definitely fetch a huge price in this place. However, Roan told him to hold back, reminding him that the Element Gathering equipment would catch too much attention, especially the attention of the auction's organizer, the Lanqueas Sect. 'You do remember how the Huring Sacred Land treated your weapons and armors, right? The Lanqueas Sect won't be any different.'
Rean sighed and nodded in the end. 'In any case, during the time we were cultivating in the Dimensional Realm, I had quite a lot of materials remaining that wouldn't be good enough for Element Gathering equipment. I'm going to sell them and a few pieces of Golden Initial-level equipment. We have a lot of Divine Stones, but they're mostly Rank Two. This is a good opportunity to get a few Rank One Divine Stones for some normal expenses.'
Roan had no problem with that. 'Go ahead, then.'
Rean then looked at Hurio and asked, "Where can I put my things for auction? They don't only accept things found in the Lost Star Realm, right?"
"Of course not!" Hurio shook his head before pointing at a blue barrack that seemed much bigger than the others. There was also quite a large queue leading to the building. "You can have your items appraised there. If they deem it worthy, they will put it up for auction. Just remember that they put a 20% fee over the final bid."
Rean had no issues with that. "Great! I'll be right back in a few."
With that, Rean waited in the queue, but it didn't take too long for his turn to arrive. That's because quite a few appraisers were working at the auction today, knowing that it would be quite busy. Eventually, he was brought into the barracks before he was asked about the items he wanted to sell.
Surprisingly, Rean's weapons were not the only things he put out for auction. Roan also had many pills he had refined during that year and a half of cultivation. Not to mention that the pills he made while training his alchemy back in Huring Sacred Land. One must remember that he had a herbal garden with quite a few rare herbs, which were taken care of by none other than Celis and his saplings. With his concoction method that involved the infusion of Dark and Light Element into neutral pills, all his products turned out into very high-level items. Their main attractiveness was the fact that any Elemental Affinity cultivator could use them.
Because many cultivators were attended to in different parts of the barrack simultaneously, the speed of the queue didn't go down. With that said, no one noticed that Rean was one of the cultivators that took their time in that place.
Rean returned around an hour later with a smile on his face. "Phew… it turned out better than I expected. We should be able to make a few thousand Rank One Divine Stones after that." In fact, the appraisers asked if Rean didn't want to put a few of his items and pills for auction in exchange for Rank Two Divine Stones. That's just how good they were. However, Rank Two Divine Stones were the ones he and Roan didn't lack at the moment.
The twins then waited in the distance for the auction to start as Hurio called them when it was close to starting. Sure enough, a few hours later, a beautiful woman ascended to the stage and smiled at all the cultivators below. "Hello, everyone. I'm Cailin Tia, your host for today's auction. Our yearly Lost Realm Auction will now begin. Please make sure you have your badges with you. Otherwise, you will have to shout out your bids for everyone to hear. Then again, some of you might not care whether you're heard or not, so do as you please. All we ask is that you uphold your bid. Otherwise… hehe!"
Two cultivators from the Lanqueas Sect then brought out a cart on the stage, covered by a golden mantle. Seeing that, Cailin smiled and took the mantle off before saying, "Our first item is the Lost Star Apple. It can only be found in the Lost Star Realm and is usually used in concoctions of cultivation pills.. The initial price is 200 Rank One Divine Stones."
