Chapter 179 | The Underground Auction

The Pattern Mask Glyphs settled over their faces like a second skin.

Lin Tian’s features shifted into those of a plain, middle-aged merchant with a slightly weathered look. Lady Yun’s cold beauty softened into the appearance of a quiet, elegant consort in dark travelling robes. Even their auras were altered—his suppressed to a weak Foundation fluctuation, hers completely hidden.

No one in the narrow, torch-lit corridor leading into the Underground Ghost Market gave them a second glance.

They entered the Grand Auction House through a side passage reserved for higher-paying guests. A silent attendant in grey robes led them up a private stairway and into a sealed VIP box. The moment the heavy door closed, the noise of the main hall became a distant, muffled roar.

One-way spiritual glass stretched across the front of the box. From inside, the brightly lit auction stage and the densely packed crowd below were perfectly clear. From outside, the box appeared only as a dark, reflective surface.

Lin Tian sat down in the wide chair at the center. Lady Yun moved without being told, settling gracefully across his lap, her back resting lightly against his chest. The disguise made her look softer, but the familiar weight and scent of her body remained unchanged.

Below, the auctioneer—a thin man with a sharp voice—lifted a jade box.

“Next item. Three stalks of thousand-year Frost Ginseng. Starting price: eight thousand spirit stones.”

Bids rose quickly. Lin Tian ignored them. His attention remained on the printed list of upcoming lots that had been placed on the small table beside him.

Lady Yun shifted slightly on his lap, her voice a low whisper against his ear.

“Void-Steel is listed as lot seventeen. Two mid-grade pieces. Estimated starting price is high.”

Lin Tian’s hand rested casually on her waist beneath the folds of her robe. His thumb moved in a slow, absent circle.

“We take both.”

The early lots passed. Spirit herbs, low-grade artifacts, and a few bottles of pills changed hands amid rising shouts from the floor. Inside the VIP box the atmosphere remained quiet, broken only by the soft sound of Lady Yun’s breathing and the distant roar of the crowd.

A servant entered briefly to refill the spirit tea on the side table, then left without raising his eyes. Lin Tian did not acknowledge him. His gaze stayed on the stage, calm and distant, as if the fortunes being spent below had nothing to do with him.

Lady Yun watched his expression from the corner of her eye. Even after all this time, the way he treated mountain-high piles of spirit stones as nothing more than numbers still sent a quiet thrill through her.

When lot seventeen finally appeared, the noise below intensified.

Two dark-grey metal ingots floated above the stage, held by a containment formation. Even through the spiritual glass their surface seemed to drink in the light. The auctioneer’s voice carried clear excitement.

“Void-Steel. Mid-grade. Extremely rare in this region. Capable of enduring the full force of a Peak Foundation strike without deformation. Starting price: forty-five thousand spirit stones.”

A deep voice immediately rang out from another VIP box on the opposite side of the hall.

“Fifty thousand.”

Lin Tian’s expression did not change. He raised one finger slightly. A soft light flashed on the bidding disk embedded in the arm of his chair.

“Sixty thousand.”

The opposite box responded at once.

“Seventy.”

“Eighty-five.”

“One hundred thousand.”

The main floor had gone silent. Even the ordinary cultivators understood that two heavy powers were colliding above their heads.

Lady Yun felt the tension in the air and pressed herself a little closer to Lin Tian. His hand slid higher along her side, fingers tracing the curve of her body through the thin fabric in slow, deliberate motions.

He leaned down until his lips nearly touched her ear.

“Look at them fighting for scraps… while the Queen of the underworld sits in my lap.”

A faint tremor ran through Lady Yun. Her Dark Yin energy stirred restlessly under his touch and the quiet dominance in his voice. She kept her eyes on the stage, but her breathing had grown softer.

The rival bidder’s voice turned sharper.

“One hundred and thirty thousand.”

Lin Tian tapped the disk again without hurry.

“One hundred and sixty.”

A long pause followed. Inside the opposite VIP box, someone cursed loudly enough for the spiritual glass to carry a muffled echo.

“One hundred and eighty thousand!”

Lin Tian’s reply came at once.

“Two hundred and twenty thousand.”

Silence.

The auctioneer waited the required three counts, then struck the jade gavel.

“Sold to VIP Box Seven for two hundred and twenty thousand spirit stones.”

Below, the crowd erupted in astonished discussion. Two mid-grade pieces of Void-Steel had just been taken at a price that could buy a small mountain of ordinary artifacts.

Lin Tian leaned back in the chair, still holding Lady Yun against him. His expression remained calm, almost bored.

Inside the opposite box, a young man in expensive gold-trimmed robes slammed his palm against the table. His face was dark with humiliation.

“Find out who is in Box Seven,” he ordered the guards standing behind him. “The moment they leave the auction house, do not let them escape. I want them alive if possible… but I will not mind if they are not.”

The guards bowed and slipped out through a private exit.

Lin Tian gave the sealed storage box containing the Void-Steel a brief glance when the attendant delivered it, then stored it away without opening it. He poured himself a fresh cup of spirit tea and drank it slowly, as if the entire bidding war had been nothing more than a mild interruption to his evening.

Lady Yun remained on his lap, her fingers lightly resting against his chest. The disguise hid her true face, yet the quiet satisfaction in her posture was clear.

“He will not let this go,” she said softly.

“I know.”

—

A short time later, Lin Tian and Lady Yun left through the same side passage they had entered. The Pattern Mask Glyphs still held. To any observer they were only a quiet merchant and his consort carrying a sealed storage box.

The dark alleys of the Ghost Market twisted like a maze between low buildings and flickering torches. The air smelled of cheap spirit wine, blood, and damp stone.

They walked without hurry. Lin Tian kept one hand resting lightly against the small of Lady Yun’s back, guiding her through the narrower turns. The further they moved from the main auction house, the fewer honest cultivators remained. Most of the figures lingering in the shadows were the kind who made their living after the formal bids ended.

They had walked less than two hundred steps when Lady Yun’s body tensed slightly against his side.

“Master,” she said in a voice only he could hear. “We are being followed. Four… no, five. They are trying to stay outside the range of ordinary divine sense.”

Lin Tian did not look back. A faint, cold smile touched his lips beneath the disguise.

“Let them come.”

He adjusted the storage ring on his finger where the Void-Steel now rested and continued walking at the same unhurried pace, leading them deeper into the narrow, poorly lit alleys where the real business of the Ghost Market was often settled.

Behind them, five figures moved with practiced silence, closing the distance step by step.