After the beautiful auctioneer finished her announcement, the auction hall erupted in commotion. In Room Bing-13, Qian Tong hastily cupped his fists toward Yang Kai. "Don't rush off after this auction, nephew. This old man has something to discuss with you. But right now I need to go grab this Void Condensing Pill, so I'll take my leave first."
Yang Kai didn't try to stop him. "Please, go ahead, Elder Qian."
Qian Tong dashed off. The auctioneer raised a hand, gently pressing down, and only after the crowd's murmurings subsided did she continue. "Everyone knows what the Void Condensing Pill does — it increases the probability of a Saint King Stage Three warrior breaking through to the Return Void Realm. Our Youan Star is starved for cultivation resources, with no Void King Realm powerhouses to guard us. The Return Void Realm represents our greatest asset, yet the number of new Return Void experts produced each year is pitifully few. The main reason is that very few can refine Void Condensing Pills. This pill is a superior-grade Saint King pill, but the difficulty of its refinement is no less than that of a Void-grade pill. The success rate doesn't exceed twenty to thirty percent. Our Gathering Treasures Hall went through considerable effort to procure even this one. Now — the bidding begins! Starting price: one hundred thousand Saint Crystals! Minimum increase: two thousand!"
Her words left Yang Kai dumbfounded.
That Void Condensing Pill was something he'd brought to auction himself — one of two! When had the Gathering Treasures Hall ever "gone through effort" to procure it? This woman was lying through her teeth. But in the entire auction hall, apart from a handful who knew the truth, nobody else had any idea where the pill had come from. Her words were clearly meant to drive up its price.
A single Void Condensing Pill was equivalent to one Return Void Realm powerhouse. Every faction present would want one.
But Yang Kai had clearly delivered two pills, and now the Gathering Treasures Hall was putting up only one — obviously planning to build up the bidding on the second. This first pill was merely a warm-up. Even if someone fought for it, the competition wouldn't be too fierce.
A warrior's advancement didn't depend solely on pills. Pills were merely supplementary aids.
Yang Kai's conjecture was correct — the competition for the Void Condensing Pill was fierce. However, those private rooms that had been so tense actually restrained themselves from bidding. Instead, the warriors seated in the main hall competed against each other, and in a short time the price soared from the starting hundred thousand to two hundred and eighty thousand.
The forces backing those warriors didn't have the deep pockets of the private room factions, and they had precious few Return Void experts to speak of. A single Void Condensing Pill might not mean much to a great faction — it could only produce one Return Void cultivator, after all — but for smaller factions, it was a different story. One additional Return Void expert could elevate a sect or clan's standing considerably.
Take the Haike family, or the Xu family — both had over a dozen Saint King Stage Three warriors, yet not a single Return Void powerhouse. If given a Void Condensing Pill, they could break free from the constraints of peripheral forces and enter the Shadow Moon Hall's inner circle, enjoying entirely different treatment.
That was exactly why they scrambled for this single pill.
Once the price hit two hundred and eighty thousand, the bidding voices in the hall gradually faded. Two hundred and eighty thousand Saint Crystals had probably reached these people's spending limits — no matter how badly they wanted the pill, they couldn't pay more.
"Bidder number 321 bids two hundred and eighty thousand! Any higher?" The auctioneer called out again with a cunning gleam, her luminous eyes sweeping the hall.
The warrior who'd bid two hundred and eighty thousand shot to his feet, looking frantically left and right, his face taut with anxiety and eagerness, terrified that someone would outbid him now. He even blurted at the auctioneer, "Hurry and call it! Nobody else is bidding — hurry up!"
The auctioneer seemed quite understanding. Smiling faintly at his words, she called out clearly, "Two hundred and eighty thousand, going once—"
"Three hundred thousand!" A deep voice suddenly rang out from one of the private rooms, cutting her off.
The auctioneer paused, turning toward the voice. A flicker of understanding crossed her beautiful eyes, and she waited in silence.
The warrior who'd been moments from winning immediately slumped back into his seat the instant he realized the three-hundred-thousand bid had come from a Jia-zi room. He sat there, crestfallen, for a good long while.
Setting aside the higher bid itself, the mere status of whoever occupied that Jia-zi room was far beyond what someone like him could afford to offend. That person hadn't bothered bidding until now — they clearly hadn't wanted to compete with the rabble in the main hall, preferring to swoop in at the critical moment and seal the deal.
You could say the tactic was quite effective — first giving the hall warriors a chance to bid, then striking hard to demonstrate their financial dominance.
Sure enough, no one else in the hall bid after that.
The auctioneer parted her lips, preparing to call the count once more. In her mind, while a Void Condensing Pill was precious and rare, three hundred thousand was already a fair price.
But before she could open her mouth, someone actually bid again — and the increase was outrageous.
"Four hundred thousand!" After calling out the price, the bidder let out a chuckle. "For something as precious as a Void Condensing Pill, the increases should be exciting. What's the fun in tacking on ten or twenty thousand at a time?"
The remark seemed to mock the Jia-zi room bidder who'd offered three hundred thousand, but nobody found it problematic — because this new bidder was also from a Jia-zi room, and their status was clearly no lower than the previous one.