Chapter 451: Spirit Stick Auction

He and Shen Xiaomao, and Ruan Qingzhu, had all left their marks on each other. After all, they had signed the Heavenly Secret Pact, making them trustworthy allies in an offensive and defensive alliance.

He stayed at the Trade Union until night, when the Spirit Token auction began.

Unlike the auction Lu Ye had envisioned, every participating cultivator received a small object of unknown material from the Heavenly Secret Trade Union. It was about finger-length and resembled a jade finger.

After the Trade Union's steward explained how to use it, Lu Ye gripped the jade finger in his assigned private room and immersed his consciousness within it.

Instantly, the scene shifted, somewhat similar to his experiences each time he entered the Heavenly Secret Treasury. His consciousness suddenly appeared in a sealed small room.

There was nothing else in the small room, only Spirit Tokens suspended in mid-air. There were the most white ones, numbering around a hundred, followed by over ten green ones, a few blue ones, and a single, unique purple one in the center.

He didn't know which lucky person had acquired this purple Spirit Token and was now auctioning it off instead of using it.

It was understandable; after all, cultivators' practices consumed a vast amount of resources, and many cultivators lived frugally. This situation didn't change even as a cultivator's cultivation level increased.

Each Spirit Token had a number beside it, and as Lu Ye watched, these numbers were constantly changing and increasing.

After a moment of observation, Lu Ye understood that the changing numbers next to the Spirit Tokens represented their prices.

At this very moment, many cultivators must be like him, with their consciousnesses immersed in this small space, participating in the auction.

This method was quite novel because all bidders would not meet face-to-face. This way, no one would know who was bidding, and even if someone successfully bid on the best purple Spirit Token, they wouldn't have to worry about being targeted by malicious individuals.

Lu Ye vaguely guessed that this auction method was related to using merit points as currency. For cultivators, the only place to use merit points was the Heavenly Secret Treasury.

This auction must involve the Heavenly Secret; otherwise, merit points couldn't be used.

The value of the Spirit Tokens was a question.

After a moment of thought, Lu Ye sent a message to Shen Xiaomao to inquire.

"You're at the Heavenly Secret Trade Union?" Shen Xiaomao realized. "For Spirit Tokens, white ones are generally worth around 200 merit points. It's not worth it if they go over 220. You can calculate the value of other Spirit Tokens proportionally."

Lu Ye thanked her.

If white Spirit Tokens were around 200 merit points, then green ones would be 600 points, blue ones 1,800 points, and purple ones 5,400 merit points. As for the golden ones Lu Ye had never seen, each would be worth 16,200 points.

According to Shen Xiaomao, it wasn't worth it if the price increased by more than ten percent.

With a standard for measurement in mind, Lu Ye looked at the Spirit Tokens again and found that it was indeed as Shen Xiaomao had said.

The price of each white Spirit Token fluctuated around 200, green ones around 600, blue ones around 1,800 points. As for the single purple one, its price had already reached 5,500 points.

Lu Ye naturally targeted the purple one. He raised his hand and tapped the purple Spirit Token, which immediately emitted a faint light, and its price changed to 5,550 points.

Seeing this, Lu Ye had a vague guess. He then tapped a white Spirit Token; its price changed, and it also emitted a faint light.

It was as he suspected. Spirit Tokens emitting light represented ones he had bid on and was currently the highest bidder for. Those without light meant he had lost the bidding qualification or hadn't bid at all.

Having understood this, Lu Ye began participating in the auction.

In a short while, a large number of Spirit Tokens emitted light, but soon, those glowing tokens dimmed one by one. This undoubtedly meant someone had outbid him.

With over 70,000 merit points in hand, Lu Ye was not afraid of anyone and continued to bid!

Time flowed, and Spirit Tokens occasionally disappeared into thin air, indicating they had been successfully bid on.

Lu Ye acquired over a dozen white Spirit Tokens, all priced below 220, which was acceptable.

A moment later, he acquired several green ones and two blue ones.

Spirit Tokens disappeared one after another until only the purple Spirit Token remained in the room.

At this moment, the price of this purple Spirit Token had already reached 5,900 points.

According to the experience shared by Shen Xiaomao, if this purple Spirit Token exceeded 6,000 points, it wouldn't be worth it.

But Lu Ye's only desire at the moment was to quickly improve his cultivation, so spending a bit more merit points was actually acceptable.

The purple Spirit Token, which had been emitting a faint light, suddenly dimmed, its price changing to 5,950 points. This undoubtedly meant someone else's bid had surpassed Lu Ye's.

Lu Ye immediately raised the bid again.

In a back-and-forth exchange, he competed with the unknown rival for several rounds until the price finally stabilized at 6,200 points.

The other party stopped bidding, either because it was beyond their means or their psychological expectation.

After waiting for a moment, the purple Spirit Token flickered unsteadily three times before glowing brightly.

This was how it happened every time he successfully bid on a Spirit Token, so Lu Ye immediately understood that this Spirit Token was now his.

He reached out and retrieved the purple Spirit Token, placing it into his storage space.

The auction ended, and Lu Ye's consciousness withdrew from the small room.

Checking his gains, he had fifteen white Spirit Tokens, six green ones, two blue ones, and one purple one. He had spent roughly 16,800 merit points, leaving him with a little over 57,000 of his original 70,000-plus.

It was a great harvest, and Lu Ye was undoubtedly very satisfied. With so many Spirit Tokens, he would only need to seclude himself for a few days at the Spirit Land, and reaching the second stage of the Cloud River Realm would be within reach. The third stage of the Cloud River Realm was probably out of reach, but he could still save a lot of arduous cultivation time.

Leaving the Heavenly Secret Trade Union, he found the moon bright and the stars sparse.

For a Cloud River Realm cultivator with low cultivation like Lu Ye, traveling at night was not very suitable. Staying overnight at the Heavenly Secret Trade Union would have been the best option.

But considering he wasn't at the Spirit Land and its defensive power was greatly reduced, Lu Ye had no choice but to depart immediately.

Moonlight cascaded down as the spiritual boat flew swiftly, and Amber, perched on Lu Ye's shoulder, was full of energy.

Ever since learning the moonlight-breathing cultivation method from Ju Jia, Amber was happiest in such weather. Perched on Lu Ye's shoulder, visible moonlight was absorbed into its body with each breath.

They sped along.

As he was flying, Lu Ye suddenly saw a streak of light rapidly approaching him from the side at an astonishing speed.

Judging by its posture, it was clearly heading straight for him.

Lu Ye's expression darkened, inwardly thinking how unlucky he was. Although he didn't know the other party's intentions, he knew from their stance that they meant trouble.

Judging by the other party's speed and faint spiritual energy fluctuations, the person must have at least a seventh or eighth-stage Cloud River Realm cultivation.

After encountering several Cloud River Realm cultivators, Lu Ye had developed his own criteria for judging others' cultivation levels. He couldn't say it was entirely accurate, but the margin of error was minimal.

He was no match!

Lu Ye immediately changed direction, activated Wind Walk, and hastily fled.

The person behind him pursued relentlessly.

The power gap was too great. Even with the Wind Walk Spirit Mark active, the distance between them was slowly closing. Just as Lu Ye was considering whether to activate his Flying Wings, Yiyi's voice suddenly rang out: "Lu Ye, that person seems off; they look like they're falling."

Lu Ye looked back and saw that the streak of light chasing him had become extremely dim. Within the dim light, a figure was awkwardly plummeting downwards. Though they tried hard to stabilize themselves, they couldn't.

This guy... was injured?

Lu Ye stopped, watching the other person fall awkwardly to the ground. If they hadn't forcibly stabilized their body just before hitting the ground, they might have truly died from the fall.

If the other party had been uninjured, Lu Ye would naturally have gone as far as possible. But if they were severely injured, there was no need to be so wary.

Thinking about it now, perhaps the other party hadn't approached him with malicious intent, but rather wanted him to save them?

After a brief moment of contemplation, Lu Ye flew towards where the person had fallen.

A moment later, he saw a figure covered in blood, leaning against a large tree. The other person was indeed severely injured, with a fist-sized hole in their chest, through which internal organs could vaguely be seen wriggling. Their entire body was covered in wounds, indicating they had clearly endured a brutal battle.

Such injuries... he wouldn't survive!

Lu Ye himself was often injured, so he could tell the severity of injuries at a glance.

Leaning against the large tree, the person was breathing faintly. Faintly aware of Lu Ye's presence, they opened their eyes and met his gaze.

He gripped the blood-stained longsword in his hand, gave Lu Ye a tragic smile, and said in an extremely weak voice, "Fellow Daoist, you sure run fast!"

"Why were you chasing me?" Lu Ye asked, puzzled. This guy looked like he was about to die; why would he still chase him? It made Lu Ye think the other party meant harm and caused him to worry unnecessarily.

The other party spoke: "I won't make it. I finally ran into someone, and I want to entrust Fellow Daoist with something."

"What is it?"

"Help me deliver this sword to the Divine Swift Sect." The person raised the blood-stained longsword in their hand.

"Divine Swift Sect... a sect of the Myriad Devil Ridge?" Lu Ye's heart stirred. If he remembered correctly, he had collected 'peace money' from this sect in the Spirit Stream Battlefield.

In other words, this sect was ranked above third-grade and had its own stronghold in the core area of the Spirit Stream Battlefield.

"Is Fellow Daoist from the Haotian Alliance?" The person vaguely discerned some information from Lu Ye's tone.

Lu Ye remained silent.

"It doesn't matter. If it's just delivering a sword, you can entrust it to the Heavenly Secret Trade Union. There's no need for Fellow Daoist to make the trip personally. If Fellow Daoist agrees, all my belongings, except for this sword, will be yours. To be honest, I'm quite wealthy."

"Alright," Lu Ye nodded.

Just delivering a sword and entrusting it to the Heavenly Secret Trade Union for delivery was not difficult at all.

"That's good then." The person relaxed and gave a bitter laugh, "After all this cultivation, in the end, it's all for naught."

Lu Ye remained silent. Not having fallen to such a state himself, he couldn't truly understand the other person's feelings. But the cultivation world had always been like this: a cycle of life and death.