Pursuit of the Truth

”11,000,000!”

”13,000,000!”

”15,000,000!”

Since the starting bid for the cauldron was too high, not many people in the auction hall had the ability to buy it. Only three of people were placing bids, and one of them was Second Young Master from the third room.

The other person was the elegant Tian Lan Meng. It was as if those 10,000,000 stone coins was just a number to her.

The final bidder was an old man wearing a straw hat. Only his white hair was revealed outside, his face unable to be seen clearly. His voice was hoarse, and he did not stand out as he sat among the crowd. Since the start, he had rarely placed many bets, and when he suddenly called out that high bid of 15,000,000 stone coins, he immediately attracted the attention of those around him.

Su Ming frowned and began lamenting on the amount of stone coins these people who joined the auction had. Compared to them… Su Ming shook his head. If he did not include the stone coins he obtained just now, he definitely would not have the ability to compete against these people.

‘500 golden stone coins is worth more than the white stone coins, which are worth 100 each, and it’s also worth more than the purple stone coins, which are worth 1,000 each, but now, these 5,000,000 stone coins I have aren’t even enough for the starting bid of this item…’

Su Ming knew that he had miscalculated a little. In truth, ever since the start of the auction, he already knew that the 5,000,000 stone coins which he thought was originally a large amount of money was in truth… nothing in the auction.

That was why he orchestrated the whole entire scene for him to get those 40,000,000 stone coins.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes and he stared at the 1,000 feet cauldron floating in the air above the auction hall. An excited look appeared in his eyes. No matter how he looked at it, that item was a Barren Cauldron used to create medicinal pills.

It was especially so since Su Ming could even sense a faint wave of heat that did not blend in with the illusionary sea around him. Clearly, it had been enveloped in fire for long periods of time and was very suitable to create pills.

”17,000,000.”

Tian Lan Meng spoke softly. Her gentle voice was pleasant to the ears and showed off her unique temperament, causing the people who looked at her to not be able to help but begin feeling attracted to her.

She was a woman who did not seem to belong to this world. She was graceful, composed, and even her breath smelled like orchids. When she sat there, she could make the area around her fall into tranquil silence. It was as if it did not matter which world that place she was at belonged to, it would naturally turn into her world.

The people could only watch her from afar, unable to get closer. It was not that she was acting indifferent and aloof, it was simply because there was a layer separating their world from her world.

”20,000,000!” Second Young Master stated from the third room with an air of casualness in his voice. It was different compared to the gentle quality in Tian Lan Meng’s voice, but it still gave a similar feeling to those who heard it.

It was as if the two people who placed the bids belonged to the same world.

The old man with the straw hat fell silent, as if he was hesitating on whether he should continue bidding. As he remained silent, Su Ming lifted his head.

No matter what, he was getting that Barren Cauldron. After all, he came to the auction specifically for it in the first place.

”23,000,000!”

Su Ming stood on the balcony and declared unhurriedly. Due to the large impact he left behind earlier, the moment his voice appeared, he immediately attracted a lot of attention to himself.

Tian Lan Meng lifted her head, cast a glance at Su Ming standing on the ninth room’s balcony calmly, fell into a short period of contemplative silence, and no longer placed any bids.

Within the third room, a glint appeared in Second Young Master’s eyes. He looked at the cauldron floating in the air above the auction hall, then at Su Ming standing in the ninth room, and his lips curled up in a smile.

”He wants this item…”

”Second Young Master, treasures made in the cauldron’s shape rarely appear. If you can obtain this and offer it to the Elder, perhaps we can find another use for it,” the old man named Chen from Heaven Gate said in a soft voice.

”Offer it to the Elder?” A pensive look appeared in Second Young Master’s eyes.

At that moment, due to Tian Lan Meng’s silence and Second Young Master sinking into his thoughts, the auction sank into an atmosphere that could almost be considered silent after Su Ming placed his bid.

Su Ming’s heart pounded against his chest. He still could not reach a state of mind where he was completely unbothered by anything.

He became nervous.

”30,000,000!” a hoarse voice spoke, and the moment it did, the atmosphere in the auction hall became so tense that it was almost suffocating.

Su Ming cast his gaze over in that direction and saw that the person who had placed the bid was the old man wearing the straw hat.

Su Ming gritted his teeth and said without hesitation, ”40,000,000!”

The moment the bid of 40,000,000 stone coins was placed, the crowd in the auction hall burst into an uproar.

40,000,000 was not a small sum. It was not as if that sum had not appeared before during the auctions, but in truth, it did not matter whether it was that previous bid of 100,000,000 stone coins or the spear that was eventually bought by someone from Western Sea Clan with several tens of millions of stone coins, to most of them, that sum of money was just an act.

Yet it was different now. This was a real auction. In this sort of situation, a bid of 40,000,000 stone coins was enough to make a lot of people’s breathing quicken.

”41,000,000.”

The old man with the straw hat still did not lift his head. Once Su Ming placed his bid, he immediately spoke up.

Su Ming remained silent for a moment before he placed another bid. ”45,000,000!”

Those were all his stone coins, and it was the biggest bid he could place. If the old man continued bidding, Su Ming could only use other methods to obtain the cauldron.

The old man with the straw hat fell into a moment of pensive silence before he spoke once again.

”50,000,000!”

Su Ming closed his eyes. When he reopened them, calmness appeared within. He did not look at the old man with the straw hat but at the floating cauldron. That cauldron shone with a light that spoke of age, as if there was an infinite amount of time resting within it.

Once the old man with the straw hat made that 50,000,000 bid, the auction hall was silent besides the audience’s labored breathing. That amount of money was not something that could possibly be owned by a normal person. Even Clan Elder Hai from the eighth room could only amass a fortune that was only slightly greater than that amount after numerous years with his power and status.

When Su Ming fell silent and the crowd in the auction hall waited for Su Ming to possibly place another bid, someone knocked on the ninth room’s door lightly.

Su Ming did not turn back. Zi Che walked over to the door calmly, and there outside the door stood a man in black robes with a white mask over his face. He wrapped his fist around his palm to Su Ming before he placed a white storage bag on the ground and left.

Right till the end, the man did not say anything.

Zi Che frowned, then picked up the storage bag before he returned to Su Ming’s side. However, when he saw the letters ‘Meng’ embroidered on the storage bag, understanding dawned on him and he handed it to Su Ming.

Once Su Ming took it and saw the letters ‘Meng’ sewn on the storage bag, he fell silent for a moment before he scanned the storage bag with his divine sense.

The moment Su Ming lifted his divine sense from that bag, he shouted his bid to the auction hall!

”60,000,000!”

The moment the bid was placed, it immediately incited an uproar that caused the entire auction hall to be filled with buzzing sounds. 60,000,000 stone coins was an amount most people would never be able to obtain in their lives.

The old man with the straw hat shuddered and slowly lifted his head to cast a glance at Su Ming standing on the ninth room’s balcony before he lowered his head and fell silent.

Everyone waited for a little while longer before the blue-haired old man’s voice reverberated throughout the entire auction hall.

”60,000,000, sold to the person in the ninth room! This is the end of today’s auction. We will continue tomorrow morning, and I will now reveal something to all of you beforehand. During tomorrow’s auction, we will be bringing out even rarer treasures!”

As the blue-haired old man spoke, he waved his right hand and the sea dragons beside him immediately roared. Ripples spread out swiftly in all directions, and as they swept through the auction hall, the illusionary deep sea gradually disappeared to reveal the dark sky along with the bright moon above them along with the falling snow.

As the illusionary deep sea disappeared from the auction hall, a refreshing cold breeze swept in. The people gradually got up and left, returning to their lodgings to wait for the next day.

Su Ming also left. Zi Che followed behind him, and the both of them left the ninth room to return to their lodgings at the edge of the tribe.

Soon after they returned, the disciples from Western Sea Clan arrived to deliver the giant Barren Cauldron to Su Ming. They also left with the promised amount of stone coins.

The cauldron was 1,000 feet in size and was placed outside Su Ming’s tent. Su Ming stood beside the cauldron while Zi Che stood further in the distance to protect him. However, there were still quite a number of people coming out of their tents to look over in their direction. Most of their gazes were filled with hostility.

The cauldron was too big. Su Ming tried multiple times to put it in his storage bag, but he did not succeed.

Western Sea Clan would naturally not be bothered by how Su Ming took that cauldron away. In fact, the dozen or so people who had brought that cauldron over were also watching from not too far off. If Su Ming could not bring that cauldron with him and placed it outside for a night, then he would turn out to have made a huge fool of himself.

Su Ming stood beside the giant cauldron. At such close proximity, he could feel the incredible feeling of age coming from the cauldron. This item was like an old man that had gone through multiple shifts through different periods of time, perhaps it had even changed multiple owners before.

Su Ming lifted his hand and pressed it on the giant cauldron. He closed his eyes and his divine sense spread into the cauldron through his hand. The moment his divine sense fused with the cauldron, Su Ming shuddered.

An incredibly powerful force shot out from within and charged towards Su Ming’s divine sense as if it wanted to destroy him, lunging forth towards him like a tidal wave that wanted to drown his divine sense. All of this happened too quickly. That rebound charged towards him in an instant, but the moment it was about to touch Su Ming’s invisible divine sense—

”Zhan… Yin… Chui…” These few syllables rolled off his tongue awkwardly, though no one heard his voice, because he only said them in a whisper, barely forming his mouth in the shape of those syllables. Those words had been lying in his head since the first time he went into the strange dimension and obtained the method to create his first medicinal pill, and they had appeared in his head once he looked at the picture with the cauldron, telling him how to control the Barren Cauldron.

This was the first time he used them ever since he obtained those words. They were three simple words, but the power contained within them was something Su Ming could not understand. The moment he uttered the first word, he clearly felt his flesh and blood shuddering, as if they were sucked out by the power contained in that one word, and his blood surged into the giant cauldron through his right hand.

Once he said the second word, Su Ming’s bones started rubbing against each other. Perhaps more accurately speaking, they were not rubbing against each other, but it was more like a feeling as if all his bones were trembling. As they trembled, the noise that was produced by his body due to the tremors was that sound of the word.

Yin...