Chapter 503 - 474: Secret Realm Core

Chapter 503: Chapter 474: Secret Realm Core

The auction entered its latter half, and the quality of the items on stage suddenly surged.

The presiding elder was replaced by a late-stage Golden Core elder who took the stage himself. He was followed by four late-stage Foundation Establishment guards, each carrying a tightly sealed jade box.

"The upcoming items are the grand finale of this auction."

The elder’s voice was steady as his gaze swept across the hall. "Fellow Cultivators who intend to bid, I advise you to act within your means."

The first jade box was opened.

A palm-sized bronze mirror levitated within the Array’s light screen. Its surface was exceptionally smooth, but it wasn’t an ordinary reflective face. Instead, it displayed a deep, ink-green hue, like a solidified, bottomless pool. The mirror’s edge was engraved with dense, miniature Array Patterns, each line flowing with Spiritual Light at an incredibly slow pace.

"The All-Seeing Mirror. An ancient relic. Its function is to record, play back, and trace specific images and subtle Spiritual Power fluctuations within a certain range. It provides immense assistance for analyzing Array structures, reviewing combat, and gathering intelligence. The starting bid is two thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones."

Li Yuan’s gaze fell upon the bronze mirror.

In the preview hall, he had sensed this item radiating the light of a purple attribute within a three-foot radius.

’A starting bid of two thousand means the final price will at least double.’

Sure enough, bids rang out almost instantly.

"Twenty-five hundred."

"Three thousand."

"Thirty-two hundred."

Several late-stage Golden Core Cultivators in the private boxes were the first to contend for it. The item’s auxiliary function was simply too useful. Both Array Masters and combat-oriented Cultivators could gain enormous benefits from it.

The price climbed all the way to four thousand.

Li Yuan placed his bid at forty-two hundred.

The box opposite him fell silent for several breaths before calling out forty-five hundred.

Li Yuan didn’t hesitate. "Five thousand."

The bid of five thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones silenced the entire hall for a moment. This price was already approaching the market value of a peak Tier Three Magical Artifact. For an auxiliary item, it was an astronomical price.

In the end, the opposing box did not continue bidding.

Sold for five thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

The All-Seeing Mirror was delivered to his box.

Li Yuan reached out and took it. The instant his fingertips touched the mirror’s frame, a panel appeared before him.

[Detected Equippable Item: All-Seeing Mirror (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: All-Seeing Rewind (Purple)]

[Effect: Divine Soul strength increased by 50%. Divine Soul Condensation increased by 30%. Divine Sense can analyze more information.]

[Condition for Permanence: Record and successfully analyze three battles at or above the Nascent Soul Level.]

’A purple attribute.’

’The Spirit Stone expenditure was enormous. Five thousand, on top of the two thousand-plus from before... my reserves are nearly depleted after just one auction.’

Two more items with purple-grade attributes were brought to the stage.

One was an ancient sword that radiated with lightning, and the other was a peculiar Pill Furnace said to aid in Alchemy. The bidding was ferocious, with the final prices reaching six thousand and seven thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones, respectively.

Li Yuan didn’t participate. ’I don’t have enough Spirit Stones, and neither of these items aligns with my current needs.’

After the climax of several purple-attribute items, the atmosphere in the hall was suddenly pushed to its absolute peak.

The presiding late-stage Golden Core elder walked to the center of the high stage and solemnly placed the final jade box in the middle of the display stand.

It was the very same rustic jade box from the preview hall, the one sealed shut by a dark gold Talisman.

"The final item."

The elder raised his hand, pouring Spiritual Power into the Talisman.

The dark gold seal peeled away layer by layer, and the lid of the jade box slowly levitated upward.

An incredibly ancient aura surged from the box, instantly pervading the entire auction hall. The aura was rich and pure, carrying a sense of profound antiquity that was impossible to describe, as if it came from a world that had vanished for millennia.

’An aura of space.’

’But it isn’t purely spatial energy. It’s mixed with incredibly vibrant Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, and a pulsation akin to life force.’

Inside the jade box, a crystal the size of a baby’s fist levitated silently. The crystal was completely transparent, and within it, countless microscopic points of light revolved slowly, like a miniature cosmos.

"A Secret Realm core." The elder’s voice echoed throughout the hall. "A complete Secret Realm core, preserved from an ancient seal. Its function: It can be used to create an independent Secret Realm, where one can cultivate Spiritual Materials, accumulate Spiritual Qi, and even raise Spirit Beasts. The scale and quality of the Secret Realm will depend on the total amount of Spiritual Qi invested and the cultivator’s own Cultivation."

"The starting bid is ten thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones."

The entire hall erupted in an uproar.

A starting bid of ten thousand. This figure surpassed the entire net worth of most of the Golden Core Cultivators present.

But immediately after, a succession of bids rang out from the various private boxes.

"Twelve thousand."

"Fifteen thousand."

"Eighteen thousand."

The bidders were all representatives of major powers, not Loose Cultivators. The Coral Palace, the Dragon Abyss Pavilion, the Abyss Sect represented by Dark Slaughter Zhenren, and several other offshore factions Li Yuan couldn’t name all joined the fray.

The price broke through twenty thousand in a remarkably short time.

Li Yuan leaned back in his chair, quietly observing the Secret Realm core on the stage.

’A purple attribute.’

’I already confirmed its grade in the preview hall. It’s an ancient, sealed Secret Realm core with an extremely powerful function, but its attribute is only purple grade.’

’To the major powers, even a small or medium-sized independent Secret Realm is an incredibly valuable strategic resource, worth fighting for at any cost.’

’But for me, the cost-to-benefit ratio of this core is too low. Besides, I don’t have the Spirit Stones for it.’

In the end, after a fierce bidding war between the Coral Palace and the Dragon Abyss Pavilion, the Secret Realm core was won by the Coral Palace for the astronomical price of thirty-two thousand Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

The Sword Cultivator from the Dragon Abyss Pavilion gave up at the last moment, his stern face betraying no emotion.

The auction ended.

Cultivators from the various factions began to depart. Li Yuan didn’t rush to leave. He sat in his private box for a while, waiting for the crowd to thin out before rising and exiting the core auction area.

After leaving the auction hall, Li Yuan did not return to the Spirit Platform Palace. Instead, he changed direction and walked toward the Teleportation Array plaza at the center of the main island.

The ultra-long-range Teleportation Array, constructed under the direction of the Celestial Peak Sect, stood in the very center of the plaza.

During the day, the plaza was bustling with people. Disciples from the Celestial Peak Sect stood guard around the Teleportation Array, and occasionally, Cultivators would line up to await transport.

Li Yuan didn’t approach the Teleportation Array itself. He stopped on a raised platform at the edge of the plaza, observing from a distance.

His Omni-Array Vision activated automatically.

The complete structure of the Teleportation Array rapidly formed in his perception. Hundreds of Jade Pillars inscribed with Space Runes were arranged in a precise matrix. The Array Base’s circuits stretched deep underground, connecting to the island’s own Earth Vein.

The quality of the core Array was exceptionally high, undoubtedly the work of a top Array Master from the Celestial Peak Sect. The efficiency of its Spiritual Power circulation and the stability of its spatial anchors had both reached a terrifyingly high standard.

But the auxiliary Arrays on the periphery were far inferior.

Li Yuan’s gaze swept over the secondary and tertiary auxiliary circuits laid out around the core Array. Due to the rushed construction schedule and the expansion required by shifts in the seabed, the outer Array nodes showed numerous signs of temporary patchwork. The connection points for Spiritual Power conduction were not smooth, and the load on some nodes was already nearing its limit.

The core of the Teleportation Array was sound, but the periphery was still rather flawed.

In its current state, it was stable enough for short-range teleportation, but if it were to handle large-scale, long-distance transport, the weak points in the outer Arrays would almost certainly become a bottleneck.

’It still needs a great deal of repair and reinforcement.’

Li Yuan retracted his gaze and turned to leave the plaza.