"This doesn't seem much different from a regular auction. Why did Fellow Daoist Xu specifically bring us here? Will we really see anything special?" Among the group of richly dressed men, a woman surnamed Liu was asking Xu Yun with some confusion.
"Rest assured! Though auctions here are frequent—held every few days or half a month—there are several special items that appear every time. They might not be the most expensive things at auction, but they're genuinely hard to find in the Inner Star Sea." Xu Yun said with a hint of mystery, then noticed Han Li approaching and gave him a friendly smile.
Han Li nodded casually, then suddenly asked a question that caught the other off guard.
"Fellow Daoist Xu, how many cultivators does Black Stone City have? It doesn't seem like there are very many."
"Brother Qu has a sharp eye indeed! Besides a few inns that provide temporary lodging, Black Stone City doesn't really have any outside cultivators in permanent residence. High-level cultivators all have their own cave abodes on other islands. The low-level ones cluster into small villages or towns to live alongside mortals. The cultivators here in Black Stone City are all here to buy and sell things, and the lower the cultivation level, the more frequently they come." Xu Yun admitted frankly.
"But I heard only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or above can survive out here in the open sea? How can there be so many mortals and Qi Condensation stage cultivators?" After a moment of silence, the man in fine robes asked the question that had also been puzzling Han Li.
"Brother Yi has hit on the crux of the matter. This is the biggest difference between Qiyuan Island and the other monster beast islands."
"On the other monster beast islands, cultivators are sent specifically by higher-level powers to hunt monster beasts. Generally, once they've accumulated enough returns, they return to the Inner Star Sea. But on Qiyuan Island, some years after the Sea Abyss was discovered, those powers found several spirit stone mines on nearby islands and established other resource production sites needed for cultivation. They became basically self-sufficient. As a result, some cultivators brought their families over. Mortals without spirit roots and low-level cultivators naturally appeared. I've even heard that the powers managing Black Stone City are slowly transferring their main personnel from the Inner Star Sea here. Give it another tens of thousands of years, and this might become the second Inner Star Sea. However, apart from this Black Stone City, the mortal and cultivator settlements on the other islands aren't exactly safe. Small villages are frequently wiped out by high-level monster beasts that suddenly appear. We're just following the old path our ancestors took when they first arrived in the Inner Star Sea." Xu Yun said calmly.
His words left the others stunned.
"Doesn't the Star Palace or any of the other major powers intervene here?" The man in fine robes exhaled softly and asked in a deep voice.
"It's still a long way from becoming as prosperous as the Inner Star Sea. Besides, the Inner Star Sea itself is vast enough to keep them busy—who has time to mind this place? They'd be happy if these powers focused their main manpower and efforts on Qiyuan Island. Otherwise, the current Inner Star Sea would probably be even more chaotic." Xu Yun gave a cold snort, clearly still upset about the Star Palace suddenly closing the teleportation arrays.
Hearing this, the small group of cultivators found it quite reasonable. They exchanged glances and didn't bring up the topic again.
As low-level cultivators themselves, it was better to ask fewer questions about the affairs of these powerful factions, lest they attract trouble.
After a few more magical artifacts and materials were sold off, a middle-aged man in blue robes appeared behind the elderly auctioneer, holding a red brocade box. Inside rested a white-with-purple-tinged, fist-sized sphere.
Seeing this, Xu Yun's spirit visibly lifted.
"Fellow Daoists, please pay attention. Next up is one of the main auction items of Qiyuan Island: monster beast eggs. Among them, there are some true rarities. These things would command a sky-high price in spirit stones back in the Inner Star Sea, but here on Qiyuan Island, they're much cheaper. Because except for a few special eggs, most monster beast eggs cannot survive passing through a teleportation array. If someone tries to take them through, the eggs simply end up dead. That's why whenever rare monster beast eggs appear, some high-level cultivators who know the real situation in Qiyuan Island will specifically teleport to Black Stone City to compete for spirit beasts. After incubating them, they spend time raising them to the stage where they can be teleported, and only then return to the Inner Star Sea."
"Monster beast eggs!" The man in fine robes' eyes suddenly lit up. Raising a high-level monster beast had long been a dream of his.
The others also showed looks of pleasant surprise.
If this was true, then wouldn't they also have a chance to own their own spirit beasts someday? Finding a good spirit beast in the Inner Star Sea was incredibly difficult!
"The egg of a monster beast: the Purple Cloud Eagle. Upon maturity, it's a Fourth Grade earth-attribute monster beast, covered in steel-hard feathers. Although it only knows a simple shield spell, its flight speed is extremely fast, comparable to high-grade flying artifacts. Its sharp claws can easily tear through the protective barriers of Foundation Establishment cultivators. This is considered a rare monster beast variety. Absolutely the best choice for Fellow Daoists at the Foundation Establishment stage. Starting price: two thousand spirit stones. Bidding increments of one hundred. Bidding begins!" The elder seemed quite confident in this beast egg, offering only a brief introduction before starting the auction without hesitation.
The cultivators below indeed had their eyes on it. No sooner had the elder finished speaking than bids started coming in.
Although a Fourth Grade monster beast was nothing to a Core Formation cultivator, for these Foundation Establishment cultivators, it was perfectly suitable.