Lu Yin was led along by an attendant to a compartment that only had a single window that faced the illuminated platform.
There was plenty of food and drinks arranged within the compartment, and there was also a woman chained to a corner. She was clad in revealing clothing, but her eyes were blank. She was beautiful, and there was an innocence to her that would captivate almost any man.
Lu Yin frowned. There was a great deal of darkness in the universe, but almost everyone believed that life was better than death, and it was clear that this woman felt the same way, given her situation.
Lu Yin asked the attendant to remove the woman before quietly taking a seat.
The shop owner stood beside Lu Yin, but he was casually told, “Sit down.”
The shop owner trembled as he lowered himself into a seat.
“What’s your name?” Lu Yin asked, as he still did not know the man’s name.
The shop owner answered in a respectful tone, “This lowly one is named Chang Wu. You are welcome to just call me Little Wu.”
“You’re even aware of something like this secret auction, so you seem to be doing quite well for yourself,” Lu Yin said.
Chang Wu bitterly answered, “It’s not that this lowly one wanted to know, as it truly was nothing more than a coincidence. I was once being chased and beaten, and I stumbled into that dark alley and entered the corridor by accident. I thought I was being robbed when they demanded to verify my assets, and it was also the last thing that I remember hearing before I was driven away.”
Lu Yin nodded and stopped asking any questions. He instead focused on the tall platform.
After waiting a long time, a man in a mask appeared on the high platform. It was impossible to see the man’s face, but he was an Enlighter. Although Lu Yin could not see the man’s face, there was no way that the Enlighter’s runes could be hidden from Lu Yin.
“Everyone should already know the rules of this venue. This place only provides a space and conducts the auction itself. We hold no responsibility for the items being auctioned off, though if you have anything that you wish to sell, you can reach out to this business. Now, I’m happy to bring out the first item for sale. There are sixteen bottles that were produced by Poisonous Old Man before his death. There is no starting price.”
The void twisted after the auctioneer spoke, and a tray appeared. Atop it were sixteen bottles of varying sizes.
“50,000 star essence.” The moment the bottles appeared, someone instantly made a bid. It was clear that the voice had been processed in some manner, and it sounded extremely stiff.
“60,000 star essence.”
“80,000.”
“90,000.”
…
Lu Yin was curious, “Poisonous Old Man?”
Chang Wu bowed his head and said, “Poisonous Old Man was a powerful Enlighter who lived in the Divine Venom Dynasty. He was very cruel, and once, he slaughtered an entire planet’s inhabitants with poison before he was finally killed by the emperor. Any poison left behind by him is extremely powerful and invaluable for research.”
Lu Yin did not have any particular interest in poison, as he only wanted a few of them to upgrade and improve. He did not really think about using poisons in his fights, and neither did he expect the Allied Forces to utilize poison. While there were many different methods of cultivating, poison was something that felt evil to most people, and the Great Eastern Alliance did not want such stigma attached to them.
In the end, Poisonous Old Man’s sixteen bottles of poison were bought for 200,000 star essence.
The next items that appeared were mostly more poisons, which was disappointing to Lu Yin. No matter how potent the poisons might be, they were still far from measuring up to Samaritan’s Tears or Transience, which were the Divine Venom Dynasty’s best poisons.
After watching for a while, Lu Yin started to get quite bored, which Chang Wu noticed. “Young Master, the truth is that poisons and jincans are the two most in demand products in the Divine Venom Dynasty. If you don’t have any interest in either of these products, then there likely won’t be anything here that will interest you at all. My Divine Venom Dynasty is isolated from the outside world, so you likely will not find anything that you need here.”
Lu Yin was also able to see that the people in this place were not interested in natural treasures like what cultivators in other places wanted. In the Divine Venom Dynasty, poisons and jincans were the equivalent of natural treasures.
“Aren’t there any battle techniques here?” Lu Yin felt stubborn.
Chang Wu gave a wry smile. “The battle techniques and cultivation arts here also use poisons and jincans. After all, this is Venom Flowzone, and since ancient times, people have always known that only poisons and jincans can be found in this place, making Venom Flowzone a dangerous place that no one wants to visit.”
Lu Yin felt the situation was a true pity as he watched the items appear and be auctioned off one by one.
…
“The starting price is 50 million star essence.”
Lu Yin’s eyes snapped back to the platform—50 million star essence?
Lu Yin was not the only one to react in this way the moment the price was announced. Everyone was staring at the platform. 50 million star essence? That was insane! What could possibly be worth that price?
No one was informed of the items to be sold before the auction started, and that included even the auction house itself. Only those who needed to know the items and prices would be informed, as the auction house had to adhere to the prices required by the seller.
Lu Yin could also sell things if he wanted to, and he would be the one to set the starting price. He could set it as high or as low as he wanted, and the auction house had absolutely no say in this matter.
At this moment, even the auctioneer on the stage was clearly startled by the price of this item. He had been the auctioneer for many years, and he had never once come across an item with such a high starting price. The most important detail was that what was being sold was not even a physical item, but rather information.
“What could be so expensive? Why don’t you show us?” Someone asked. This was not because the person was interested in buying this item, but rather born from pure curiosity. This was something that almost no one could possibly afford.
“Show us quickly! This young master wants to find out what’s so expensive!”
“Show us quickly.”
…
Chang Wu was also staring at the platform with powerful curiosity. Such a high starting price had to be something left for the record books.
Lu Yin narrowed his eyes. 50 million was a lot even by his standards.
Up on the platform, the masked auctioneer stepped forward and held up a hand. “Everyone, this next item is not a physical object, but rather a piece of information.”
“Information worth 50 million star essence? Could this be news about His Majesty’s illegitimate child?” someone teased, clearly unafraid of being discovered by Qing Shaohuang. The secret auction was a powerful business, and all of the customers also kept their identities hidden.
“Or could it be about some sort of research into a production method for a poison that surpasses even my Venom Flowzone’s Samaritan’s Tears?”
“It doesn’t have to be something related to Venom Flowzone, then couldn’t it be connected to the outside world?”
“That’s possible—maybe it’s something about Lu Yin. They say that the leader of the Great Eastern Alliance is in Venom King City right now, so could this secret be related to his cultivation?”
“That’s worth more than 50 million star essence. That’d be worth around 500 million!”
“500 million is something you’ll never be able to afford, hahahaha.”
…
Many people were talking about the next item to be auctioned, but everyone remained focused on the platform. There were also some whose eyes darted about, as they were wondering which person was selling this information. That person was absolutely in one of the compartments in this room.
Lu Yin listened in silence. Chang Wu had an odd expression on his face, as the person that these people were all gossiping about was actually in the same room as them. If they knew the truth, it was possible that these people would be scared to death. While some of them might be important enough that even the imperial family had to tread lightly around them, Chang Wu had watched Lu Yin slap Attendant Yi right in the face.
“Cough. You all already know that something big has recently happened in the Outerverse. The Neohuman Alliance slaughtered many people from the Sixth Mainland, and it was because the matters in the Horned Galaxy had something to do with the Neohuman Alliance. They started their insane slaughter because they were searching for something, and that thing is related to the black crystals that were found in the galaxy afterwards,” the masked man said. The room fell completely silent.
Lu Yin’s eyes grew solemn. Was this information connected to the Neohuman Alliance and the black crystals? This was Venom Flowzone, so what possible connection could there be?
When it came to the Neohuman Alliance, no one would dare to underestimate them.
“Alright, 50 million star essence. The bidding may begin,” the masked man stated.
However, not a single bid was placed. The events in the Outerverse had happened quite recently. Even though the Neohuman Alliance’s slaughter had died down a bit, it still had not stopped. The Neohuman Alliance was one of the Three Dark Hands and also the Hall of Honor’s greatest enemy. The enemy of humanity was not something that these people could stand up to.
The people who were able to attend this secret auction were not ordinary people. They had access to far more information, and they were naturally warier as a result.
The masked man called out a few more times, yet there were still no bids. In the end, the information could only be skipped over in the auction.
In his compartment, Lu Yin grew thoughtful. He had left the Outerverse and purposely and openly traveled to Venom Flowzone in order to avoid getting caught up in the Neohuman Alliance’s search. It was impossible for him to bid on this information, as it would be very easy for him to be discovered.
Still, not being able to make a bid in the secret auction was one thing; getting the information was something else entirely. He absolutely had to know what this information was.
Lu Yin released his domain that had reached the spirit manifestation realm and swept through the auction house. Unless there was an Enlighter or Envoy present who was also skilled at domains, no one would be able to sense Lu Yin’s actions at all.
In fact, there were three Enlighters in the building, which was not something that most forces could match.
In addition to the three Enlighters, there were also all kinds of poisons present to prevent anyone from spying on others. There were even poisons in each compartment, and Lu Yin was almost discovered because of these poisons.
Fortunately, Lu Yin’s mastery of his domain allowed him to avoid detection and also keep an eye on the masked auctioneer.
The auctioneer was speaking to an attendant backstage, but he was entirely ignorant that Lu Yin was observing him.
Once, twice, three times. Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, and he suddenly focused on a compartment across the room. While the auctioneer had been speaking, he had glanced at that particular compartment three times. Either someone extremely important was sitting in that compartment, or it was the person who was selling the information. Lu Yin was inclined to believe that it was the latter.
Lu Yin pushed through to look into the compartment and see who was inside it. He found an old man with a rather sluggish expression. The man was not quite at the Hunter realm, and his breathing was a bit unstable. It was immediately clear that he was injured.
After learning the identity of the seller, Lu Yin was no longer in any rush. It would be easy for anything he did to be noticed. After all, the Divine Venom Dynasty’s poisons were quite odd. Lu Yin was not able to hide his location on the Divine Venom Continent from Qing Shaohuang, and it was quite possible that it would be just as difficult to hide anything from the master of the secret auction house.
While Lu Yin was not concerned about the people behind the auction house, he was very worried about drawing the Neohuman Alliance’s attention.
The auction lasted for half a day before it finally finished. Lu Yin watched as the old man left his compartment. All of the clients left the auction house at different times and took different routes to prevent them from meeting with each other.
Lu Yin constantly kept an eye on the old man through his domain. After Lu Yin exited a different dark alley than the one he had arrived at, he sent Chang Wu back to his shop to wait for him before starting to follow after the old man.
Chang Wu was nervous, and he did not dare to actually return to his store. Before knowing that he was safe, he did not want to go home. He felt like he had just entered the darkest time of his entire life.
Lu Yin did not follow the old man for very long, as the man suddenly died. He watched as the old man fell to the ground and was reduced to a puddle of blood. Lu Yin shot forward to try to save the man, but it was already too late.
Lu Yin looked back towards the secret auction house. Judging from the old man’s expression when he had left the auction house, he should have sold his information. Since it had not been sold during the auction, the only other option was that the auction house itself had bought the old man’s information.
After thinking things through this far, Lu Yin turned back, only to discover that the secret auction house had collapsed and that a raging fire had filled the sky. There was a crowd of people standing around to watch the entertainment, and the city guards had sealed off the nearby area.
That fast? From the time the old man had left and died to when Lu Yin had returned, it had been less than the time needed to brew a cup of tea, and yet someone had already killed people to silence them and burned down the entire building in order to hide all traces. Still, there were flaws.
Lu Yin shot a subtle glance towards a certain man in the crowd. He was the masked auctioneer.
