His change of expression didn't escape Yang Yan's notice. Seeing that he seemed to have lost interest in the Spirit Storing Pearl, she pressed her lips together and smiled. "The item's good, but there are restrictions on its use. Don't feel bad about it."
"Oh? What restrictions?" Yang Kai asked in surprise.
"Hmph—the item may be good, but Nephew Ren needn't hype it up so much. If there are restrictions on using this pearl, why not lay them all out?" Before Yang Yan could answer, Yang Kai heard an extremely authoritative voice thunder from one of the private rooms, booming with immense power.
It seemed Yang Yan wasn't the only one who knew about the Spirit Storing Pearl.
Ren Tianrui glanced over in that direction, smiled faintly, and cupped his fists. "So it's Senior Cheng of the Leitai Sect. Senior's insight is truly penetrating. While the Spirit Storing Pearl is indeed convenient to use, there are certain restrictions. Even without your asking, this junior was planning to explain them in full. We would never let friends who came to attend the auction purchase something in the dark—our Treasure Pavilion certainly has that much credibility."
Hearing this, the Cheng-surnamed warrior gave a light hmph, noncommittal. Whether he actually believed those words was known only to heaven.
Many quietly estimated that if no one had spoken up to question it, Ren Tianrui would never have mentioned those restrictions. At most, he would have sent someone to quietly notify the buyer after the auction ended—and even that would have been considered doing his due.
This wasn't the first time the Treasure Pavilion had pulled something like that.
"Who is that?" Yang Kai looked toward the source of the voice and asked the young woman.
Though Qing'er's cultivation wasn't high, she was born and raised on the Dark Star, so she naturally had her guesses about the speaker's identity. Hearing Yang Kai's question, a flash of surprise crossed her lovely eyes—she seemed puzzled why he would ask such a thing—and she said, "If this junior isn't mistaken, that should be Senior Cheng Pengxuan of the Leitai Sect. After all, there's only one powerhouse with that surname in the entire Leitai Sect."
Yang Kai gave a slight nod, satisfied with her answer.
At that moment, Ren Tianrui was already explaining the Spirit Storing Pearl's restrictions.
The news wasn't too disappointing. The pearl had been acquired by the Treasure Pavilion from a declining minor clan. According to the seller, it had a certain limit on the amount of Saint Origin it could store—roughly equivalent to the total Saint Origin within a Saint King, Stage Three warrior's body.
In other words, it couldn't hold energy exceeding what a Stage Three Saint King carried. Once that threshold was crossed, the excess would immediately leak out.
This restriction wasn't much of a problem. For Saint King realm warriors, this limitation made no difference whatsoever. For Return to Void realm warriors, as long as they were careful in daily use not to overfill the pearl with Saint Origin, it was perfectly usable.
It was only in moments of crisis that the Saint Origin fed back to them wouldn't be enough to restore them to their peak state.
Overall, the first restriction was hardly a dealbreaker.
But the second restriction drastically slashed the Spirit Storing Pearl's value.
It was an Artifact—likely forged by warriors of the ancient era. The pearl had already been used many times before, and according to the Treasure Pavilion's appraisers, it could withstand only three to five more uses before being completely destroyed and utterly irreparable.
At this, the fervor in many warriors' eyes immediately dimmed. While three to five uses wasn't exactly nothing, spending a fortune on something that offered zero help in improving one's strength meant they had no choice but to cool their heads.
"Besides these two restrictions, there's nothing else to worry about with this pearl." Ren Tianrui seemed entirely unconcerned about whether this auction item would fetch a high price. With a smile, he called out, "Starting price: five hundred thousand Saint Crystals! Minimum increment: ten thousand! Floor's open!"
Truthfully, such a starting price was quite modest relative to the pearl's function—it was the first item up for auction, after all, and the Treasure Pavilion wanted to kick things off on a good note.
But even this five-hundred-thousand figure instantly put ninety percent of the hall's warriors out of the running.
After all, even a high-grade Saint King realm Artifact was only worth around three hundred thousand. A starting price of five hundred thousand—even if they could afford it, they couldn't stomach paying that much.
Not everyone was in the same boat, though. Those who came to attend the auction had naturally gathered enough Saint Crystals beforehand. The moment Ren Tianrui finished speaking, someone immediately called out a price.
Then, from every corner of the hall, bids rang out one after another.
Each increment was fairly modest, but the collective frenzy couldn't be contained. In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the Spirit Storing Pearl had been driven up to eight hundred and twenty thousand.
By then, only two or three bidders in the hall were still at it.
"This old man bids one million!" From the Leitai Sect's private room came Cheng Pengxuan's voice, still booming as ever.
Standing on the raised platform, Ren Tianrui heard this and smiled faintly, showing no surprise at all. With such a fine item, it would've been strange if several major powers weren't fighting over it.
The handful of warriors from the hall who'd been bidding heard this, and their expressions darkened. They sighed. Since the Leitai Sect was now in the game, they clearly had no hope left. Each one cursed inwardly, cursing Cheng Pengxuan for not bidding sooner. If they'd known he was going to compete, they wouldn't have wasted their breath.