Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit

Chapter 110 – Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a batch of good spirit minerals coming next. First up is a hundred pounds of refined high-grade spirit materials – Spirit Stout Stones!”

Chen Lian smiled and said to Lu Ping: “It’s our turn!”

Lu Ping laughed while Hu Lili asked, “Where did you get the Spirit Stout Stones?

Chen Lian said, “Brother Lu found a Spirit Stout Stone mine and brought some back, and I helped refine them. There was a lot left, so we auctioned some.”

Shi Lingling rolled her eyes at Lu Ping and said, “Why do you always have so many good things?”

Everyone in the room nodded as they felt the same way

Manager Jia introduced, “These hundred pounds of Spirit Stout Stones are refined from a thousand pounds of Spirit Stout Stone mineral ores. From the refining method, the refiner has good skill.

“As a result, these Spirit Stout Stones are very pure, making them the best materials for the high-grade earth-element defensive mystic instruments. The starting price for this item is 4,000 spirit stones, each successive bid cannot be less than 100 spirit stones. You may begin bidding now.”

The Spirit Stout Stone was a kind of spirit material often used in crafting earth-element defensive mystic instruments, able to enhance the defensive mystic instruments into high-grade. A hundred pounds of Spirit Stout Stones were enough to forge two pieces of high-grade mystic instruments.

Therefore, the unit attracted a lot of attention, and its price quickly rose from 4,000 spirit stones to about 7,000 spirit stones.

At this time, Chen Lian suddenly said, “Oh no!”

Everyone in the room was surprised and quickly asked what happened.

Chen Lian smiled bitterly and explained, “One of the cultivators bidding from the auction floor is my old man.”

Lu Ping looked at the auction floor and saw a red-faced old man who had just raised the bid to 7,200 spirit stones. Coincidentally, among the several cultivators bidding against Old Man Chen was Li Zi-Ming, who had previously used the Water Avoidance Shield to dupe Lu Ping.

Chen Lian said to Lu Ping with a bitter smile, “If my old man knew that we were the ones to earn his spirit stones, he would definitely find a way to get them back.”

The group of friends laughed, what were the odds.

Lu Ping made a gesture to calm down Chen Lian, and took out the invitation card. He said a few words to the card, and made a few hand signs to it. Then, a flash of light shone on the invitation card.

Just as his friends were wondering what Lu Ping was doing, they saw a Multi-Treasure Pavilion’s cultivator walk up to Old Man Chen’s seat and say a few words. Old Man Chen looked towards Room 19 with surprise. After that, he sat down and stopped bidding.

Shi Lingling and others were curious and asked Lu Ping what happened.

Lu Ping raised the invitation card in his hand and said, “Nothing special. Invitation cards can be used as sound transmission charms to communicate with Multi-Treasure Pavilion at any time during the auction. It’s just a little privilege as a VIP.”

Chen Lian asked, “Do you still have any Spirit Stout Stone left? I’m afraid my old man won’t let us go easily if he doesn’t get any.”

Lu Ping smiled and answered, “Don’t worry, I still have some.”

Li Zi-Ming’s offer had reached 7,500 spirit stones, and there were very few cultivators competing with him. Suddenly, Lu Ping intervened and raised the price to 7,600 hundred spirit stones.

Everyone in the room looked at Lu Ping in surprise, they realised that Lu Ping was trying to get back at Li Zi-Ming. Zheng Jie, who hadn’t said much all this while, was straightforward and said, “Karma comes back quick!”

Niu Dazhuang rubbed his head and said, “Heh, this Li guy is not good, he deserves to lose more spirit stones.”

Lu Ping smiled at Niu Dazhuang before continuing to observe Li Zi-Ming’s reaction. Li Zi-Ming was clearly very interested in these Spirit Stout Stones as he increased his offer to 8,000 spirit stones.

Chen Lian signaled Lu Ping, “8,000 spirit stones should be the limit for this 100 pounds of Spirit Stout Stones, any higher will scare him away.”

Lu Ping pondered for a moment and then stopped bidding. Suddenly, Old Man Chen called out, “8,100 spirit stones!”

Chen Lian said anxiously, “What’s going on, why is this old man suddenly bidding again? Didn’t we tell him not to bid anymore?”

Lu Ping looked at Old Man Chen with a calm face and said, “Don’t worry, your old man must have noticed something; otherwise with his experience, how could he do something that he is unsure of!”

Lu Ping’s words calmed Chen Lian down, of everyone here he knew best about his old man’s experience and knowledge. His old man wouldn’t do something irrational.

Sure enough, Li Zi-Ming, who had a calm face at first, was slightly annoyed when he heard Old Man Chen’s bid, and looked back at Old Man Chen’s direction.

But Li Zi-Ming recognized Old Man Chen. After all, Old Man Chen was one of the very few top smith masters on Di Kun Island. Li Zi-Ming knew that this old smith master’s background was also very complicated, so he could only turn his head back and increase his offer to 8,500 spirit stones.

Everyone in Room 19 cheered out loud because of the old man’s cunningness.

Lu Ping pondered for a moment and asked Chen Lian, “Your old man won’t be troubled by the Li Clan because of this matter, right?”

Chen Lian replied indifferently, “How can that be possible? Isn’t it only natural that smiths bid for smithing materials. Even if he wants to find trouble, our Chen Family is not afraid of his Li Clan!”

Lu Ping knew that standing behind the Chen family was a Zhen Ling Sect Core Forging Realm Enlightened Master. He even suspected that the Chen Family actually had a stronger influence and power than the Li Clan. Hence, his mind was put at ease.

Half an hour later, the payment of 8,500 spirit stones was sent to the room. Chen Lian happily took his share of 4,000 spirit stones while Lu Ping nonchalantly took his portion. Lu Ping already had more than 100,000 spirit stones with him, so a sum of 4,000 spirit stones wasn’t that significant anymore. But the same could not be said for Chen Lian. 4,000 spirit stones were a considerable fortune for an ordinary Early Blood Condensation Realm cultivator like him.

After a few more spirit materials were auctioned off, Manager Jia brought up another spirit material and introduced:

“Ladies and gentlemen, the next top-grade spirit material on display is the Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron. This top-grade spirit material was also obtained by a lucky cultivator when exploring the separation zone.

“To be honest, ever since the sea ban was lifted, it has really become a haven for cultivators’ adventures. Even top-grade spirit materials such as this are often brought to our Multi-Treasure Pavilion for auction.

“The bid starts at 10,000 spirit stones and each increase can be no less than 500 spirit stones. I welcome your bids now.”

Chen Lian said excitedly, “Brother Lu, you have to bid for this piece of Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron. It will be of great use to your high-grade mystic instrument, Landslide.”

Lu Ping asked curiously, “This Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron has the same rank and properties as the Deep Sea Frost Iron that I already own. Why would I need this Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron?”

Chen Lian still insisted and said eagerly, “It’s not that simple, this time the Multi-Treasure Pavilion has made a mistake!”

Chen Lian waved his hands around and said, “Top-grade spirit materials are also graded. They are known as top-grade spirit materials because when used to craft mystic instruments, these spirit materials enhance a mystic instruments’ potential and increase its possibility of being upgraded to a mystic treasure. Therefore, top-grade spirit materials are graded according to the degree of possibility they provide for upgrading mystic instruments.”

Chen Lian paced around the room excitedly, and continued to explain to the group:

“Generally speaking, top-grade spirit materials can be divided into three grades. Grade 1 spirit materials are the most common. For example, Deep Sea Frost Iron, Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron and other natural minerals.

“Grade 2 spirit materials are variants of Grade 1 spirit materials. When Grade 1 spirit materials are affected by a foreign force or something similar, there is a chance that the spirit materials’ quality will sublimate or mutate into Grade 2 spirit materials.

“For example, a Thousand-year Spirit Pine Wood is a Grade 1 spirit material, but if it is struck by lightning and survives, it becomes a Grade 2 spirit material known as Thousand-year Lightning Struck Spirit Pine Wood.

“Grade 2 spirit materials, when used to craft top-grade mystic instruments, will improve the mystic instruments’ quality much higher than Grade 1 spirit materials can.”

Lu Ping’s heart was moved as he listened to Chen Lian. He thought of the Thousand-year Lightning Struck Spirit Pine Wood he obtained from the underground room in the Pavilion of Smithery on Fei Ling Island.

Lu Ping was pulled away from his thoughts as Chen Lian carried on explaining:

“Grade 3 spirit materials are even more marvelous, almost fantastical. They are heaven-and-earth spirit items that have lost their spirituality and degraded into spirit materials. In other words, they are almost as rare as heaven-and-earth spirit items.

“Grade 3 is also the highest grade for top-grade spirit materials. They are the best material to use when it comes to forging top-grade mystic instruments.”

Shi Lingling had grown impatient and said, “You’ve been blabbering on for so long, but you still haven’t mentioned what this has to do with the top-grade spirit material currently being auctioned. The bidding price has reached nearly 20,000 spirit stones and your father is among those bidding.”

Chen Lian looked at the auction stage and found that Old Man Chen was also bidding. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued to explain:

“I am saying all this because that Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron is not a Grade 1 top-grade spirit material, but rather a Grade 2 top-grade spirit material that has been sublimated by an external impact!”

Chen Lian turned to Lu Ping and said, “Originally, your Landslide’s upgrade wouldn’t differ much whether you used Deep Sea Frost Iron or Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron to upgrade it from high-grade to top-grade.”

“However, if you upgrade Landslide with this sublimated Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron, not only will Landslide become more powerful, but when you advance to the Core Forging Realm in the future, you can also upgrade it to the ranks of mystic treasures.”

Lu Ping was very moved. Old Man Chen, who was bidding below, obviously recognized that this Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron was not a Grade 1 but a Grade 2 top-grade spirit material.

However, the levelheaded old man was calm and steady in his bids. He covered his eagerness and anxiousness underneath an emotionless face.

After noticing this, Lu Ping wasn’t in a hurry either and asked, “How do you know for sure that this piece of Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron is not Grade 1 but Grade 2 instead?”

Chen Lian smiled proudly and said, “When my old man helped Enlightened Master Yan Nanfei to craft his mystic treasure, he saw this kind of sublimated Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron before. At the time, that Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron was soaked in a kind of Mystic-class heaven-and-earth spirit water for years before the sublimation into Grade 2 occurred. Enlightened Master Yan also succeeded in breaking through the Mid Core Forging Realm and entered the Fourth Layer because of that Mystic-class spirit water.”

Lu Ping knew that Enlightened Master Yan Nanfei was the person Old Man Chen saved back then. Ever since, he became the biggest backer of the Chen Family, and was also one of the Enlightened Masters residing in Di Kun Island.

At this time, the Deep Sea Silver Sunken Iron bidding price reached 30,000 spirit stones, which was already the limit for Grade 1 top-grade spirit materials.

Old Man Chen frowned when he looked at the bidding price.

Chen Lian saw his father’s expression, and said to Lu Ping, “It seems that there are others who have recognized its value. My old man only has this many spirit stones in his hands, he won’t be able to bid anymore if the price goes any higher than this.

Lu Ping nodded his head and quoted a price that once again shocked his friends and caused their jaws to drop.

“40,000 spirit stones!”.