Chapter 0510: Can’t Afford I
If one had a Thousand Rift Explosive Ape’s egg, then as long as the egg contained life, one could incubate it to breed the Thousand Rift Explosive Ape and let it recognise you as its master. As long as one had sufficient resources to train the Thousand Rift Explosive Ape to maturity, one could potentially gain a formidable helper in the future.
Because of all these factors, the price of the Thousand Rift Explosive Ape’s egg quickly reached 10 million Green Coins, before someone finally bought it for 17 million Green Coins. The rate did not increase to an overly ridiculous level as the Thousand Rift Explosive Ape also had a noticeable weakness; that is, it was actually quite difficult for it to break out of its shell. At the same time, it needed a massive amount of resources for its cultivation.
Some of the rich cultivators, because of this drawback, would instead purchase matured starry skies’ demonic beasts with slightly lower combat capabilities instead of spending money over the Thousand Rift Explosive Ape’s egg.
Ning Cheng naturally would not bid; he anyway did not have much money and needed to be as thrifty as possible.
“The next item for auction is a Celestial River Bead......”
When Yu Ni spoke the words ‘Celestial River Bead’, it immediately caused a burst of discussion all around. Ning Cheng felt a little depressed on seeing this, as he did not even know what Celestial River Beads were.
Fortunately, Yu Ni also gave an introduction to it, “I believe everyone already understands what Celestial River Beads represent, these are beads meant to kill and refined by Celestial River Kings. It can create a powerful domain, bind the surrounding space, and then raze everything within that space into powder. This Celestial River Bead comes from a Heaven Seated Powerhouse. The reserve price is 50 million Green Coins, and each increase must be not less than 1 million Green Coins.....”
Ning Cheng suddenly understood that this item was a generic equivalent to Soul Essence Beads. Although it might have some uses, Ning Cheng still dispelled the thought of purchasing it. However, the price of this disposable bead quickly rose to 150 million Green Coins. ‘So much money, yet a pauper.’ Ning Cheng thought to himself while giving out a dejected sigh within his heart.
......
As the auction continued, many things changed hands. However, since the moment Ning Cheng entered, he had not yet purchased anything. He had a limited amount of Green Coins; moreover, the things auctioned here often reached over hundreds of millions of Green Coins. If Ning Cheng bid on those items, although tempting, he would end up losing a lot of money.
“The next thing for auction is the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal, which is a treasure that can upgrade all kinds of natural feathered wing treasures, whether it is the Silver Star Wings or the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds or even the Hidden Thunder Wings. If you want to upgrade any of them, you will need the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal. The Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal’s base price is set at 10 million Green Coins. Each increase must not be less than 1 million Green Coins.....”
When Ning Cheng heard the words ‘Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal’, he immediately sobered up. The reason for Ning Cheng to come to this auction was primarily due to the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal.
The starry skies always had significantly marked-up prices, the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal could only help his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds upgrade to the level of three shimmering glows, yet even its reserve price was set at 10 million Green Coins.
Ning Cheng had not put in his bid when the price over the screen quickly soared and soon broke through the 30 million Green Coins before coming to a stop close to 50 million Green Coins.
Ning Cheng carefully spread out his Spiritual Consciousness. Since the price had risen this quickly, it showed that someone else also had the same thoughts as him.
Soon Ning Cheng found an acquaintance once again. It was that you woman named Ni Feng. When Ning Cheng had just advanced to the Celestial Novice Realm, he had ended up battling this woman. This woman also belonged to the Ocean Gambling’s Premier Casino; as such, he had not expected to see her in this place.
Ning Cheng became increasingly sure this woman wanted the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal, causing the unceasing increase in its price. She had a pair of Silver Star Wings, which explained her need for such a treasure to upgrade it. However, he had not expected this woman to live this long; unexpectedly, Wei Wu did not kill her.
Not to mention that Ning Cheng originally came here for the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal, even if he did not want the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal, Ning Cheng would not allow this item to fall into the hands of this woman.
Ning Cheng did not hesitate anymore and bid 50 million Green Coins. After the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal reached this price level, very few people chose to continue bid for it. This was already the upper limit of the price for the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal; as such, everyone understood that anyone proceeding with the auction was no longer someone with simple needs.
Ni Feng frowned, she was much more cautious with her actions compared to Ning Cheng. After placing a bid of 60 million, she did not use her Spiritual Consciousness to scan the surroundings. In this place, randomly sweeping out with one’s Spiritual Consciousness would only end up offending many people. If she ended up annoying a powerhouse, she might even die the moment she stepped out of the city.
Soon after, Ning Cheng placed a bid of 70 million; seeing that, Ni Feng finally gave up.
With the deduction of 70 million Green Coins, the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal also appeared in front of Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng quickly put away the Amethyst Heaven Mysterious Crystal feeling very satisfied in his heart. In any case, he had already accomplished his first goal for today.
“The next thing for auction is a Celestial River Class Void Battleship from a real technological celestial river, the Cinnabar Rice Celestial River. Although it is a basic-rank Celestial River Battleship, it comes equipped with Radium Light Arrows and a Flowing Sky Cannon attachment. Moreover, a True Cultivation Powerhouse has also re-equipped this Celestial River Battleship with a Grade 4 Celestial River Defensive Array Formation. The base price of this basic-rank Celestial River Battleship is set at 7 billion Green Coins, the price increase must not be less than 100 million Green Coins.....”
The words from the female cultivator immediately doused Ning Cheng’s happy mood, akin to throwing water over a fire. The Celestial Coins in his possession was not even at the level of the base price.
Someone quickly bought the Celestial River Battleship for 10 billion. Ning Cheng only had 6 billion Green Coins on him and as such could not even place a bid despite wanting to.
Knowing that the money in his possession could not help him in purchasing any of the other Celestial River Class Void Battleships, Ning Cheng started getting ready to leave the auction hall. Although Ning Cheng was a rich man compared to Jing Wuming and the others; however, at this auction, he was a downright pauper.
However, the following words from the female cultivator stopped Ning Cheng from leaving, “... I believe that many people here are about to participate in the Man Lun Starry Skies Celestial Scryer Realm Genius Try-outs. The item we now have on auction happens to be something related to this time’s try-outs....”
Not only did Ning Cheng feel drawn over by this sentence, almost everyone inside the hall immediately focussed his or her attention forward. This female cultivator did not speak wrong, most of the cultivators present here were going to participate in the Man Lun Starry Skies Celestial Scryer Realm Genius Try-outs.
“It is just a rough orientation map; however, I can tell you with certainty that this orientation map is of the Man Lun Starry Skies’ Premier Mystical Place, the Time Wilderness. As long as you can enter the Time Wilderness, this orientation map will prove extremely useful; perhaps you might even earn a hundred times more with this orientation map. The base price of this map is set at 100 million Green Coins, and the bid increase must be not less than 10 million.”
Ning Cheng thought that such a map would definitely incite many people into a fight to buy it; however, even after waiting for a long time, no one bid on it.
This definitely was something unusual, even if it were a rubbish item. With so many people in place bidding for other things, did they suddenly think that the price of 100 million Green Coins was too outrageous?
The face of the female cultivator, presiding over the auction, also looked slightly gloomy. She once again spoke up, “This map was something put together by a highly skilled person, if not for this highly skilled person.....”
The female cultivator suddenly changed her words and spoke out in a happy voice, “So someone did bid on it. 110 million Green Coins, are there any higher bids? 110 million Green Coins going once......”
The one who bid 110 million was none other than Ning Cheng; without any competition, he quickly bought the map.
After completing the transaction, Ning Cheng vaguely felt that something did not add up. He turned his head to the person sitting next to him and whispered, “Friend, why didn’t anyone bid on that map? Isn’t the Time Wilderness controlled by the Man Lun Starry Skies, is it not?”
The cultivator on hearing Ning Cheng’s words, laughed before giving a reply, “The Revolving Jade City would always try to sell this map during every auction. Only a cultivator without any brains would buy that map from this place. To tell you the truth, you can find these kinds of maps everywhere within the main city of Man Lun Starry Skies. It would only cost 100 Green Coins, unlike the price here. I don’t know which fool was it, but he ended up buying a map worth only a few thousand for 110 million Green Coins, ha-ha.....”
Ning Cheng touched his face while giving out a deep sigh; he really had bad luck.
He stood up and was not willing to stay in this place for even an extra moment. What he wanted to purchase, he could not buy; however, what Ning Cheng did not need, he ended up cheated over it.
......
After Ning Cheng left the auction, he did not return to the Bright Gist Resting Pen. He decided to head to the Revolving Jade City’s arenas.
This was something that he had planned; moreover, Jing Wuming and Lan Ya had also encountered those two Celestial Shatterer Cultivators in this place. Now that both Jing Wuming and Lan Ya cannot leave the Bright Gist Resting Pen, Ning Cheng naturally could take a shot at obtaining revenge, if possible. At the same time, Ning Cheng also agreed with Jing Wuming; that is, if one wanted to grow stronger, then one had to fight all kinds of opponents.
The Man Lun Starry Skies had many geniuses, while Ning Cheng was still a tiny Celestial Novice Cultivator; even with a Sea of Consciousness many times stronger compared to average, he was still at a disadvantage. Moreover, there was also no way of improving his cultivation during this short period. As such, he had no choice but to hone his combat effectiveness through actual combat.
Ning Cheng had not been to the Ocean Gambling City’s arenas; however, he found the Revolving Jade City’s Arenas packed with a sea of people. Even with the auction still underway, it could not hurt the popularity of such places. Of course, the most popular attraction was the ever-popular Battle Rings; one could always find all kinds of spectators around these battle rings.
In addition to paying attention to the skills of the opponents fighting over the stage, one could even experience the one of a kind murderous aura. Of course, there were also cultivators who would come here with preparation to make money.
There were various levels of challenges in this place. As long as one was not afraid of death, as long as one felt willing enough to take up the risk, one could fight with any person, as long as they also felt ready enough to compete.
Ning Cheng took out the two Celestial Shatterer Cultivators’ images, the ones who ambushed Jing Wuming and Lan Ya and asked the person guarding the entrance to the Celestial Forest Arena, “I want to visit their Battle Rings. Can you point me to them, please?”
Since that Miao Pu found these two Celestial Shatterer Cultivators to cause trouble in the arena, it meant that these two people were, at the very least, regular customers of this place.
“Oh, those are Gongxi Kui and Kirk from the 19th Battle Ring. Viewing ticket for 19th Battle Ring is 1000 Blue Coins, and a Challenge Ticket is 10,000 Blue Coins.” The person in charge of reception came out and replied; there was no point in keeping such information private anyway.
Trying to find someone as famous as them in the arena just would not do them any good for concealing such information. As for the difference between the Viewing Ticket and the Challenge Ticket, one could only watch the fights with the Viewing Tickets; while with the Challenge Ticket, one could choose to either spectate or could even take the stage to issue challenges. If one could manage to beat the long-time ringmaster, one could claim 20% of the proceeds from that Battle Ring.
Ning Cheng took the Challenge Ticket and arrived at the 19th Battle Ring; he found a corner and sat down. Since Gongxi Kui and Kirk were the defending champions of the 19th Battle Ring, he definitely would see the two people. He first wanted to look at the two people’s means before deciding to take the stage.
Ning Cheng had just sat down when whispers of the conversation between the two people entered his ears.
“Senior Apprentice Sister Lan Ya, we came out secretly, if Ning Cheng came to know about it, wouldn’t he turn angry?” This definitely was Shi Yulan’s voice; even if they were under disguise, Ning Cheng still could recognise her.
On the side of Shi Yulan, Lan Ya’s hate-filled voice sounded out, “If I don’t kill those two bastards, I can’t sleep peacefully.”