Pursuit of the Truth

”This stone doesn’t look too bad. Look at the pattern. This is a horizontal pattern. I’m certain that there is an Enchanted Vessel in this stone. I did an analysis about this before. Vertical patterns are mostly medicinal herbs. Enchanted Vessels will only appear in those with horizontal patterns!”

”The light shining from this Crimson Stone is the strongest. From my years of experience, there is a seven out of ten chance that this stone isn’t empty!”

As Su Ming walked past the people in the air, sounds of discussion fell into his ears. His gaze continuously swept past the Crimson Stones, and when it moved forward, he would also get closer to those stones. However, even after he had walked past a hundred something of the Crimson Stones, he did not smell a single hint of any medicinal fragrance. There was also not a single hint of change in the small black humanoid in his storage bag.

With a calm expression, Su Ming continued walking forward. Time passed by, and when he had walked past five hundred something Crimson Stones, he still had not smelled any medicinal fragrance. The small black humanoid was also as it was originally.

‘Could it be that the small black humanoid only notices Dragon Leaf Grass?’ Su Ming frowned. He continued walking forward, and when he walked past another hundred something Crimson Stones, he came to a sudden halt. He might not have detected any medicinal fragrance, but the small black humanoid in his storage bag had started trembling furiously.

As it trembled, a picture started flashing rapidly at the center of his brows.

Su Ming focused his gaze on a Crimson Stone that was slightly taller than a person. Besides its size, the stone was no different from the other ones. Su Ming got closer to it, and when came close to that Crimson Stone, the small black humanoid in his storage bag started trembling even more furiously. Soon after, the flashing picture at the center of his brows gathered together and manifested itself.

It was a black flower, and it only had three petals. Each of the petals wore the ferocious looking face of a ghost. However, the three petals looked rather withered, though there was still some life remaining at its roots.

A barely noticeable glint flashed past Su Ming’s eyes, and he remembered the stone’s number - 697.

He did not linger around that Crimson Stone, and without batting an eyelid, he walked to the next stone. When he had seen every single one of the Crimson Stones, a bitter smile appeared on Su Ming’s lips, which was hidden under the mask.

‘Looks like the small black humanoid is only sensitive towards medicinal herbs, or else why would all three of the stones that made excited it consist of only herbs?

‘But this is good as well. Among the three of them, there is one that actually has a purple venomous wasp in it…’

Su Ming focused his gaze on the stone numbered 949. That stone was not big and was only about half the height of a normal person. The medicinal herb in it had completely withered away and was fossilized, however, Su Ming saw a purple poisonous wasp at its stamen!

The poisonous wasp looked as if it was deep in sleep and remained still. However, while its life was faint and weak, there was still a hint of it, which meant that it wasn’t yet dead!

When Su Ming returned from midair, he waited for a little while longer. More people came back, and all of them harbored their own thoughts in their hearts as they looked at the Crimson Stones in the sky.

”Time’s up. Everyone, please move back. We will first auction off a hundred Crimson Stones, and once we finish cutting them, we will continue with the auction!”

The indistinct old man sitting in one of the halls belonging to the God of Shamans Temple spoke slowly. His voice was like thunder rumbling that shook the air, causing the few remaining people who were still lingering around the Crimson Stones to move back to the ground reluctantly with various changes in their expressions.

”Crimson Stone No.1. Based on its size, the starting bid is one hundred thousand Shaman Crystals. The minimum increase in bid is twenty thousand. You may begin!” the old man with the indistinct figure stated calmly.

The Crimson Stones continued floating in the sky, but all the people who had examined them, they were already incredibly familiar with the numbers on them.

Crimson Stone No.1 was a gigantic rock that was thirty feet tall. There was nothing strange about its appearance, besides the slight difference that its patterns were horizontal, not vertical.

Once the old man finished speaking, someone from the crowd immediately shouted, ”120,000!”

There might be plenty of people joining the treasure gambling event hosted by the God of Shamans Temple, but seldom would there be people who would place their bids carelessly. If they did not have the power to buy, then they would end up having made a fool of the God of Shamans Temple and made a fool of all the Shamans in the place. This sort of person would not be able to walk out of the World of Nine Yin alive!

”180,000!”

”260,000!”

”320,000!”

”400,000!”

The voices that called for the bids rose continuously, and it was clear that there were quite a lot of people who had noticed the uniqueness of this Crimson Stone. Su Ming sat there and looked at Crimson Stone No.1. He only knew that there should not be any medicinal herbs in that stone, as to whether there was anything else, he could only guess.

”This is a horizontal pattern. Horizontal patterns are rare, and I remember that during the few times they appeared, most of them contained items inside…” Nan Gong Hen mumbled in his seat, and a glint appeared in his eyes.

”500,000!”

Once he shouted that bid, Su Ming smiled wryly and shook his head. He only had about a hundred thousand Shaman Crystals on his person at this moment. Compared to these people, he was really low on funds.

However, since he already chose to come here, he had naturally made some preparations for this event. To prevent incidents where the people did not have enough Shaman Crystals, they could exchange their items for Shaman Crystals, and the God of Shamans Temple were not the only people who would buy them. There were also quite a lot of people who would use the chance to buy them.

Once Nan Gong Hen shouted his bid, while the people around them continued talking among themselves, no one continued placing any bids. The old man who was now sitting at the roof of the hall in the sky swept a glance towards Nan Gong Hen, and without even announcing to whom that stone belonged to, he started the auction for Crimson Stone No.2 leisurely.

This was something that sparked Su Ming’s curiosity. He had attended Western Sea Clan’s auction outside Freezing Sky Clan before, and in terms of extravagance, Western Sea Clan’s auction was incredibly gorgeous. But if placed in comparison with the Shaman Tribe’s auction, the Shamans’ auction was more straightforward, and was also larger!

In fact, even the auctioneers’ attitudes were completely different. The auctioneer from Western Sea Clan would mostly introduce the items to buyers, doing so with the idea of tempting them to buy those things. However, the Shaman Tribe was clearly holding onto an attitude that said they did not care whether these people bought these stones or not.

However, the more they acted this way, the better the results were. In fact, Su Ming could even feel most of the Shamans around him fighting over the stones...

But soon, he thought of Wu Duo’s words and remembered that the God of Shamans Temple was clearly forced into this and was resigned to it, which was why they hosted this treasure gambling event. With that in mind, the people’s attitude right then was understandable.

The auction went on quickly. Besides Nan Gong Hen buying Crimson Stone No.1 for 500,000, most of the other Crimson Stones numbered 1 to 100 were sold for 100,000 something Shaman Crystals, or several hundreds of thousands of Shaman Crystals.

When the first one hundred were auctioned off, Su Ming paid attention to the people cutting the stones. He wanted to see just how they would cut those Crimson Stones open.

Nan Gong Hen flew up nervously, and the other ninety-nine people joined him, moving to those Enchanted light rings in midair. The first one hundred Crimson Stones descended automatically from the sky and charged towards the hundred people, and by some unknown method, they flew straight to their respective buyers.

Su Ming gave them a few more scrutinizing looks and understood a little about what was going on. The stones went to their respective buyers because the Enchanted Vessels also had numbers on them, and Nan Gong Hen was naturally standing right before the ring numbered one, which meant that Crimson Stone No.1 was not flying towards him, but that Enchanted Vessel No.1.

As the people stood beside the Enchanted Vessels and the Crimson Stones descended on them, their expressions became different: most of them looked rather nervous, but they were also expectant.

Compared to them, the crowd of Shamans underneath were even more excited. All of them looked towards them, and the sounds of their discussions continuously rose into the air.

Su Ming turned his attention towards the people in the sky. The buzzing sounds rang incessantly by his ears. He saw Nan Gong Hen taking a deep breath, then lifting his right hand to seize the Crimson Stone in the air. The Crimson Stone immediately floated towards him slowly, and when it got closer to the light ring, the Enchanted Vessel immediately let out a buzzing noise and grew larger in an instant. Once it enveloped the Crimson Stone within, it started spinning about rapidly.

As it spun, a large amount of chips fell from midair. Su Ming’s eyes sparkled as he stared at those Enchanted Vessels. This Enchanted Vessel was spinning incredibly quickly, which was how it could make that Crimson Stone become smaller slowly.

‘These Enchanted Vessels are used specifically to cut Crimson Stones…’

As Su Ming watched, he saw Nan Gong Hen lifting his right hand rapidly and pointing towards the Enchanted Vessel. At that instant, sizzling sounds spread out, and the Enchanted Vessel that was spinning at high speed slowly stopped. Most of the Crimson Stone was already chipped away by then. Nan Gong Hen walked over in his anxiety and looked at it for a long moment before pointing at the Enchanted Vessel again.

Immediately, as the Enchanted Vessel shone, a sharp needle appeared. That needle charged towards the Crimson Stone, and as it hummed in the air, it shot straight through the stone!

This repeated many times, and eventually, Nan Gong Hen sighed. As the people saw this, sounds of discussions rose into the air once again.

”He bought it for 500,000, but it looks like there’s nothing in there…”

”That’s right. There wasn’t any unusual light shining just now when he was chipping it away, so it’s clear that this Crimson Stone isn’t pure…”

”Even if there’s any unusual light, it’s still useless. There has been plenty of stones that shone with those lights before, but all of them only contained fossilized objects. The ones that are truly useful are rare and in-between.”

”Oh well, just break it! It’s just a worthless stone!”

Nan Gong Hen was rather unwilling to give up. He glared at the stone, then with gritted teeth, he lifted his right hand and pointed at the Enchanted Vessel once again. Immediately, that Enchanted Vessel shot through the Crimson Stone in multiple places in succession. Suddenly, when the needle shot through the Crimson Stone one final time, a powerful red light shone through a small hole violently. When that light appeared, cries of surprise immediately erupted from the people underneath.

Su Ming, too, immediately focused his attention on that light. Cries of surprise and shock rose all around him and rang in his ears.

”It’s the unusual light! That light has appeared!”

”This is the light that will only appear when there is indeed something contained within a Crimson Stone!”

Nan Gong Hen’s face was filled with excitement. Just as he was about to continue, a voice suddenly came from one of the eight halls around him.

”Nan Gong Hen, sell that stone to me! I’ll buy it for 800,000 Shaman Crystals!”

Nan Gong Hen hesitated for a moment. His eyes were a little bloodshot as he stared at the unusual light coming from the Crimson Stone. Without another word, he lifted his right hand once again and pointed forward. Immediately, the light ring started spinning rapidly. The Crimson Stone grew smaller, and eventually, when the light ring stopped, what appeared before Nan Gong Hen was a transparent stone that was the size of a fist!

There was nothing in the stone… However, one of its corners was cracked, and there was a sign that it had been pierced through.

Nan Gong Hen was momentarily stunned, then his expression started changing, eventually settling on a bitter smile.

”There was indeed an item contained within the stone, but as time passed by, and because you did not cut through the stone correctly, the item has dissolved into wind. It’s a pity, a true pity!” the old man sitting cross-legged on the hall remarked slowly.