The auction in the inner sect was very orderly. They had prepared a detailed list of the items that were going to be auctioned. This gave the people in the inner sect a rough idea of the items that were going to be auctioned off. The auction was very carefully worked out.

Sun Qingxue had no intentions of leaving now that she had come back. This was her room, her compound anyway. She looked at Yang Chen eagerly and he started using his spiritual awareness to investigate the jade slip.

Yang Chen had no objectives in the auction initially. But after sweeping through the jade slip, he realised there was an item that he desired among the items that were going to be auctioned.

The auction actually had the Real Terrestrial Pole Fire, the Real Terrestrial Pole Fire! This was a fifth grade flame just like the Real Sun Fire, the Real Moon Fire and the Nanming Fire. Yang Chen already had the Real Sun Fire and the Nanming Fire, both are fifth grade third fire spirit powers. In addition to the Real Terrestrial Pole Fire, this fifth grade fourth fire spirit power would complement each other.

If he was in his previous life, Yang Chen would surely not wish for more after having the Real Sun Fire. However, things were different now. Since he wanted the Yin and Yang Heaven Burning Flame, that meant that he needed a substantial amount of flames. It was difficult to obtain a flame that was fifth grade and above. Now that he had coincidentally stumbled across it, he must have it one way or the other.

The other items did not intrigue him much except for a soul spring. The fountain would collect clear water. Its water was great for cooling things down when concocting pills or refining tools. However, he was not thinking of using the water to concoct any pills or to refine any tools. If the quality was good enough, it could be used to brew the wine.

If people had known his motives, they would have beaten him down to the ground. Then they would step on him ferociously and rebuked him right in his face. Although the soul spring was not uncommon, but it would still be very wasteful to use it to brew wine.

Of course, the people could not imagine the massive amount of water that would be needed to dilute the substantial amount of yeast. Even the stream of soul spring would not be enough to dilute it.

The two items alone were enough to make him spend money. The other ingredients and magical herbs did not spark Yang Chen’s interest the slightest bit. There were actually a few techniques that seemed quite interesting. But if he were to buy them in the Clear Sky Sect’s auction, it would not seem appropriate. Hence, he gave up on that thought.

“Brother Yang Chen, is there anything you need?” asked Sun Qingxue after seeing him put the jade slip down before awaiting his reply.

“Yes, there is!” he said, nodding. It seemed that his luck was quite good after all. He could even come across such a good item like the Real Terrestrial Pole Fire. It seemed that his luck had turned at the right moment.

Nevertheless, the Clear Sky Sect was willing to auction the fifth-grade flame off, instead of trading it for contribution to the sect. This meant that the sect was too rich and arrogant. Otherwise, it could only mean that the owner of the flame lacked spirit stones. If he had handed the flame to higher authorities, he would gain some contribution to the sect but he wouldn’t make any spirit stones.

Nonetheless, since Yang Chen had seen it, then he would not need to compete with the others anymore.

“What do you want? I’ll buy it and give it to you!” Sun Qingxue was delighted to hear that he had something in mind. She then cheered loudly, shouting that she would help him buy it.

“You?” He looked at her from head to toe and questioned, “How many spirit stones do you have? Is it enough?”

“I can borrow some spirit stones from my master first.” She looked at him in a diffident manner. Her master was an elder of the Dacheng stage but as a disciple at the foundation building stage, she did not have much savings. She still couldn’t afford something from the auction by her own merit after all.

“Forget about it, I am a wealthy man.” Yang Chen extended his arms and stroked her head intimately. She was enjoying it and did not shy away from him.

“So what do you actually want?” asked Sun Qingxue again as she was still curious.

“You know that I want to brew some wine, right?” Yang Chen said smilingly, “There happens to be a soul spring in the auction. Using it to brew wine isn’t such a bad idea after all. You can buy it for me after I check whether the quality of the water is good.”

Although it was written down on the jade slip, he could only verify the quality of the actual item once he had seen it. Some of the qualities of the water were suited to refining tools while others might be used for concocting pills. But most of them could be used as drinking water. Of course there were some exceptions to this and Yang Chen was worried about just that.

“Sure, sure.” Sun Qingxue was hoping that there was something that Yang Chen would need from the sect. Whether the item was expensive or not was another issue. Anyway, a pill-concocting master of Yang Chen’s level would have spirit stones in abundance. It was painfully apparent from how he treated the Dark Coral Liquid of the Four Seas like a normal beverage.

Sun Qingxue had treated him like he was one of theirs and was no longer being modest with him. If she could afford it, then she would buy it. If she could not, then Yang Chen would purchase it himself. There was no difference.

The auction was held on the second day and she had dragged Yang Chen to the venue early in the morning. To tell the truth, Sun Qingxue had only come to this kind of auction with her master for a few times. She wasn’t qualified enough to participate. It was not because of her status, but rather her financial background.

It seemed that the auction was very well-received. By the time they arrived, many people were already there. There were a few disciples standing guard at the entrance of the auction, verifying the identity of each visitor. There was no other way. The sect was big and there were thousands of disciples there. They could not possibly recognise each and everyone of them. Hence, they could only rely on the visitors’ identifications for verification.

Unexpectedly, Yang Chen and Sun Qingxue were barred from entering by the two young disciples who were on duty. “I’m sorry, fellow dao disciples. Those who are not involved in the auction shan’t be allowed entrance.”

The two guards then ignored them. Sun Qingxue took her sect identification out swiftly and displayed it to the two guards.

“Junior apprentice sister, this is a high level auction. Disciples at the foundation-building stage are not allowed to enter.” The guard took a glance at her identification and knew who she was immediately. However, he still forbade her from entering.

“What?!” Sun Qingxue was shocked. When did the auction change to a high level auction? And since when did the auction restrict people from entering? She then thought of an idea and tugged at Yang Chen’s arms, “He is an honoured guest of the sect and is qualified to enter the auction. I am just following him inside to observe the auction, is that fine?”

From the moment they had arrived here, Yang Chen had sensed that the atmosphere was out of the ordinary. As soon as Sun Qingxue tugged at his arms, he could feel the unfriendly gaze from the other people’s eyes towards him. It looked like the main problem was not due to some high level auction, but was because of her intimacy towards him.

“The sect’s honoured guest?” The guard was still smiling politely. Nevertheless, he insisted on carrying out his duty and instructed, “Please show the token that has been given by the sect, the one that proves his status as an honoured guest of the sect.”

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The sect would often give some of their honoured guests and guests who were serving in the court an identification token. The Clear Sky Sect was just too big. The people in the sect could not recognise each other well, not to mention foreigners. Thus, there was a reason behind the token for the honoured guests.

However, Yang Chen was immediately in an awkward situation. When he was negotiating with the sect masters of the Clear Sky Sect regarding the conditions, he had forgotten about this. They had only grant him the qualifications to enter the auction orally but he had nothing to show for it. They had not given him the token for honoured guests before this.

Yang Chen did visit the sect once more, but that time, Elder Hua Wanting had come to welcome him personally. Hence, he did not have the chance to take a token for honoured guests. At that moment, the guard stretched his hands out but Yang Chen had nothing to present to him.

“I think I have forgotten to bring it along with me.” Of course he could not tell him that the sect master did not give it to him. Therefore, he just simply gave the guard that excuse to put him off. Nevertheless, everybody there was a cultivator. Almost all of them would safekeep their possessions in their qiankun pouches. His excuse was just too terrible. Even Yang Chen himself felt embarrassed using that as an excuse.

Looking at Yang Chen’s awkward manner, the guards sneered at him as if their evil scheme had prevailed. At the same time, the people around him burst into laughter. A voice then cried out, “You cannot show your token? You’re just pretending to be an honoured guest, aren’t you?”

After hearing that, the crowd cackled once again.The crowd was getting rowdier and some people were adding fuel into the fire.

The look on Sun Qingxue’s face began to change. There were a few familiar voices among the cheering. They were clearly the ones who had nothing better to do with their free time and would just be chumming up with her. She had treated them coldly and never thought that they would cause trouble for her at this moment.

Creating such a big commotion especially in front of Yang Chen had made her so panicked that she was on the verge of tearing up. They were not surrounding them to see what was going on. They just wanted to seize the opportunity to humiliate Yang Chen. And the source of the problem was herself.

The reasons the guards gave were actually appropriate. Only people at the Jindan stage or above were allowed to enter the high level auction. Nobody was escorting Sun Qingxue, hence she could not enter the auction. For Yang Chen on the other hand, the proclaimed honoured guest had no token as identification. They had denied their entry justifiably. Even if the sect master were to come by, he could not reprimand them.

It was unclear to who the culprit was that revealed Yang Chen had no token as identification. But it was obvious that the arrangement was flawless. Furthermore, this happened right in front of so many people. Surely Sun Qingxue and Yang Chen were very humiliated.

The only reason Yang Chen wanted to enter the auction was to buy some of the items. But if he could only enter the auction but could not purchase anything in it, what was the use of him entering then? He had thought that this was a golden opportunity. But who would have known that he would stumble across such a situation. It seemed that he could only return empty-handedly.

“If those are the rules, we won’t be entering anymore then.” Yang Chen looked on the bright side of things. It was just a Real Terrestrial Pole Fire flame. It was not worth for him to submit to them. If they did not allow him to enter, so be it. This was Sun Qingxue’s master’s sect. Furthermore, the Pure Yang Palace and the Clear Sky Sect had been cooperating closely recently. He did not want to cross the line.

Sun Qingxue was so furious that her eyes were wide open and she was biting her lips. If internal strifes were not forbidden, she would have beaten them up already. She noticed that Yang Chen was trying to settle the manner. She then hung her head and said to him, “Let’s go, Brother Yang Chen. My master will surely bring us in.”

Immediately, a Jindan cultivator who had the qualifications to enter the auction walked towards them. He said to the both of them smilingly, “Junior apprentice sister Sun, there is no need to trouble Elder Hua. What if I bring you into the auction? Your friend can also enter and have a look. However, you cannot simply buy the items.”

“I think it will be better if we do not trouble you,” Yang Chen rejected his offer and did not want to cause a scene.

“Please hold for a moment!” The Jindan cultivator did not expect Yang Chen to have such a reaction. He had initially thought Yang Chen was desperate to enter the auction. But now, he just turned around was going to leave. If so, there would not be much else to see anymore.

“Is there anything else, fellow dao disciple?” Yang Chen was trying to keep his composure. But he was getting furious on the inside. He had given Clear Sky Sct their dignity yet the cultivator still did not want to let him go. If he insisted on being overboard, Yang Chen would not treat him politely anymore.

“Are you a disciple from the Pure Yang Palace?” The first thing he asked was the origin of Yang Chen. But he quickly followed up with another question, not giving Yang Chen the chance to answer the previous question, “There are no such high level auctions like this in Pure Yang Palace. Are you sure you don’t want to go in and expand your horizon?”

When the cultivator had said this, the crowd laughed again. At the same time, the laughter was mixed with clamours and hoots.

“This is a golden opportunity. You better come in and have a look.”

“This kind of eye-opening opportunity doesn’t come by often. Fellow dao disciple, you mustn’t miss this chance!”

……

It got more noisy by the moment, mostly laughter from the Jindan cultivators and some cultivators at the foundation building stage among the crowd. The disciples who were guarding the entrance on the other hand seemed to be thrilled by the commotion and were smiling faintly. They were staring towards Yang Chen’s direction but they made no comment.

“Eye-opening? Are you looking down upon my Pure Yang Palace?” Yang Chen was carrying a slightly angry tone in his voice. This was no longer a provocation against him. It was plain mockery towards the Pure Yang Palace. Yang Chen stared into the cultivator’s eyes and suddenly asked, “Is this what your personal opinion or that of the whole of Clear Sky Sect?”

Yang Chen’s question silenced everyone. If the question was not answered carefully, it would stir up trouble. Though the Pure Yang Palace was a second-rate sect, it was now cooperating with the Clear Sky Sect and the Green Jade Immortal Islands. It was one thing to disrespect their alliance, but even if they did not have the alliance, the Pure Yang Palace would not take that slight to their reputation quietly.

“There really isn’t any auction on a scale such as this in the Pure Yang Palace.” The Jindan cultivator smiled but he did not want to admit that he was wrong. He then said, “I hope you don’t misunderstand my good intentions. If you don’t wish to come, then please go back to whence you came.”

“If that is so, then I must see your sect’s auction for myself.” The cultivator had advised Yang Chen to go back, yet Yang Chen did not plan to leave anymore.

“Oh, are you planning to follow me to go inside?” he quickly asked Yang Chen smilingly. Actually, he was taken aback but wasn’t this the situation he had wanted?

“I won’t trouble you.” Yang Chen sneered at him and said, “I have my own ways.”

“Cheh, you are only depending on Elder Hua’s status isn’t it?” voiced someone their doubts. It was soon followed by more laughter.

“Sect Master Lu, do you intend to keep your earlier promise?” Yang Chen raised his voice and shouted out. His stern voice traveled far and wide, though he stood exactly where he was before.