This jade tablet was the final item at the auction. The old man on stage exchanged a few courteous remarks, once again thanking everyone who had come to attend the auction, before officially declaring it concluded.
Numerous warriors in the hall rose to their feet and began filing out.
The proprietress, however, remained seated with perfect composure, as though waiting for something.
Yang Kai was puzzled but didn't ask. Instead, he tallied up his gains from the auction.
He had bid on quite a few items himself. Beyond the sixth-grade Crimson Yin Sand and the Heavenly Origin Stabilization Pill, he had acquired many fourth-grade resources, and had ultimately won the jade tablet as well.
While he had been studying the Heavenly Origin Stabilization Pill, Yue He had also placed several bids, winning a number of sixth-grade resources that the auction house had already delivered well in advance.
All told, this round of spending had come to roughly one hundred and fifty million Opening Heaven Pills. For anyone else, that would have been a staggering sum, but for him it remained within an acceptable range.
That said, even at such a high-end auction, no superior-grade resources had appeared, which was a pity. There had been precious few sixth-grade ones as well. It was clear that finding the superior-grade resources he needed at places like auctions was probably unrealistic.
Having quickly finished cataloguing his haul, Yang Kai turned his attention back to studying the Heavenly Origin Stabilization Pill.
He had already reviewed the pill recipe. Both the ingredients and the refinement steps and techniques posed no particular difficulty for him—so long as he practiced diligently and failed a few more times to accumulate experience, there should be no problem.
What he was studying now was the Heavenly Origin Stabilization Pill itself. To an ordinary person, a finished spirit pill was simply something to be consumed, its uses varying depending on the pill's medicinal effects.
But for an alchemist, the information contained within a finished spirit pill was immense. A seasoned alchemist could even reverse-engineer the recipe from a single finished pill—perhaps not the entire formula, but at least seventy or eighty percent of it.
Though Yang Kai had devoted himself primarily to the martial path, he also possessed profound attainments in alchemy. Now, with the Heavenly Origin Stabilization Pill in hand and its recipe to boot, there was much he could deduce.
He placed the layer of pill powder he had previously scraped off into his mouth, savoring it carefully. His expression shifted—frowning at one moment, struck by realization the next—as thoughts collided like lightning in his mind, sending sparks flying.
Half an hour later, Yang Kai collected his mind and felt his confidence in refining the Heavenly Origin Stabilization Pill increase by another measure.
Just then, the room door was suddenly opened. The same stiff-faced old man who had presided over the auction pushed the door open but didn't step inside. He stood at the threshold and gestured with his hand. "Mrs. Lan, this way please!"
The proprietress showed no surprise. She nodded gently and rose gracefully.
The old man turned and led the way.
Yang Kai followed behind the proprietress and asked curiously, "Where are we going?"
Without turning her head, the proprietress transmitted her voice: "Weren't you looking for superior-grade resources? We're going to try our luck—but whether anything will appear, and whether you can get your hands on it if it does, I can't guarantee."
Yang Kai's spirits lifted. "What do you mean?"
The proprietress replied, "So many mid-grade Opening Heaven cultivators came to this auction. Did you really think they were all here for the auction itself?"
Hearing this, Yang Kai suddenly realized something was off. While the auction had indeed featured some good items that had even sparked frantic bidding among certain mid-grade Opening Heaven cultivators, it seemed that the vast majority of the private boxes had remained quiet from start to finish—except for a single bid during the map of the Blood Demon Grotto-heaven, they had basically been spectators the entire time.
The Opening Heaven realm powerhouses in those private boxes had mostly traveled from other great domains, crossing millions of miles to get here. If they were merely going to watch, there was no need to make such an arduous journey.
"If they didn't come for the auction, then what for?" Yang Kai asked, curious.
The proprietress answered, "The auction was just something to attend in passing, for the spectacle. They came for the trading session held after the auction!"
"A trading session!" Yang Kai's brow rose as he vaguely understood.
"Many people who obtained good items wouldn't put them up for auction. After all, even if they got Opening Heaven Pills, they still needed to buy things they actually wanted—and the round-trip conversion would mean significant losses. People would rather exchange privately. For instance, I need a sixth-grade earth-attribute resource, but all I have is a sixth-grade fire-attribute one. At the trading session, I can swap with someone else. Since both are sixth-grade, the price difference is minimal, and the swap can proceed. Everyone prefers this kind of mutual exchange."
"I see." Yang Kai nodded.
There were many ways for Opening Heaven realm cultivators to advance. Besides refining and absorbing Opening Heaven Pills—the most common method—there was also the refinement of various attribute-based cultivation resources.
Setting aside the refinement of Opening Heaven Pills for the moment, refining attribute-based resources required balancing the Yin-Yang and Five Elements forces within one's small universe. It could not be done carelessly—if the Yin-Yang and Five Elements fell out of balance, it would destabilize the small universe.
If an Opening Heaven realm cultivator refined only one type of attribute resource, the inevitable result was that particular attribute becoming more concentrated than the others, causing the small universe to become volatile and unsettled.
This was why, much of the time, an Opening Heaven realm powerhouse needed a specific type of attribute resource.
"But don't get your hopes up. Superior-grade resources are hard to find. Even if one appears, you might not be able to get it."
Yang Kai grinned. "I'm only afraid it won't appear. If it does, I'll throw money at it until it's mine."