‘Moonlight Condensed Dew, as a third-tier spirit liquid, has a market price of fifty Low-Grade spirit stones per jin. To cultivate Bright Moon Shines on My Heart to Initiation requires roughly one thousand jin, Minor Achievement ten thousand jin, Major Achievement one hundred thousand jin, and Mastery one million jin.’

Yun Hanshuang calculated that to cultivate Bright Moon Shines on My Heart to its ultimate level would require at least fifty-five million five hundred and fifty-five thousand Low-Grade spirit stones. After arriving at this figure, Yun Hanshuang gazed speechlessly at the sky. Earlier, he had been smugly congratulating himself over his current wealth, but now he had to worry about spirit stones.

‘The spirit stones on me are enough to cultivate Bright Moon Shines on My Heart to Major Achievement, but to reach Mastery, I'm still far short. I have to find a way to earn spirit stones. Sigh!’

Yun Hanshuang sighed and put away the paper, then took out the two third-tier defensive spirit artifacts Lin Yu had taken him to buy and began refining them.

Because Yun Hanshuang's cultivation was too low, refining third-tier spirit artifacts was rather difficult. It took him eight days to successfully refine the two spirit artifacts.

‘It's time to set out for Fire Refining City.’

After finishing refining the two spirit artifacts, Yun Hanshuang calculated the time and realized that, including one gender transformation during the refinement process, there was only one day left until the auction in Fire Refining City. So Yun Hanshuang checked out of his room and headed toward the plaza in Luo Tian City where the teleportation array was built.

Arriving at the teleportation plaza of Luo Tian City, Yun Hanshuang paid one hundred Low-Grade spirit stones and was smoothly teleported to Fire Refining City. Upon arriving, Yun Hanshuang did not wander around but walked straight into a spirit tea house that was doing very brisk business. The moment he sat down, he heard all sorts of discussions about this auction.

"Have you heard? This auction is being jointly held by the Forging God Pavilion and the Wanbao Merchant Guild."

"Your news is outdated. Everyone knew that two days ago. I have even more explosive news. Do you want to hear it or not?"

"Don't keep us in suspense, just say it!"

"It's that the final auction item this time is rumored to be a heart."

...

Just as Yun Hanshuang was listening with great interest, a chubby young man around his age, dressed very flamboyantly, lightly tapped on his table and said, "Fellow Daoist, right now the tea house only has your table with a single person. So I'd like to share a table with you, if that's alright?"

"That's fine. Do as you like." Yun Hanshuang glanced at this garishly dressed fatty and made a gesture inviting him to sit.

After sitting down, the chubby young man very naturally introduced himself. "I'm called Cheng Yu, from the Heavenly Phoenix Sect. And how might you be addressed, Fellow Daoist?"

Hearing Cheng Yu say he was from the Heavenly Phoenix Sect, Yun Hanshuang looked at him with some surprise. The other was nearly twenty, yet his cultivation was still stuck at the Early Qi Refining stage. If he were a rogue cultivator, no one would care or comment. But Cheng Yu happened to be born into the Heavenly Phoenix Sect, which ranked first in Phoenix Fall Province, and his grandfather was the current sect master. Thus, he was known as the Number One Waste of Phoenix Fall Province.

Yun Hanshuang looked at Cheng Yu, recalling the information about him, and even inadvertently voiced it aloud.

"The Heavenly Phoenix Sect, ranked first in Phoenix Fall Province? Cheng Yu? You wouldn't happen to be that Number One Waste of Phoenix Fall Province, would you?"

Cheng Yu hadn't expected Yun Hanshuang to be so direct. He scratched his head, somewhat awkwardly. Yun Hanshuang also felt embarrassed by his own words, so he lifted the teapot and poured Cheng Yu a cup of tea to ease the awkward atmosphere between them.

"Ah, my apologies. I'm called Yun Hanshuang, currently a rogue cultivator."

"No worries. Is Fellow Daoist Yun here to attend the auction?" Cheng Yu waved his hand dismissively, picking up the tea Yun Hanshuang had poured for him and taking a sip, indicating he didn't mind.

"I heard that one of the auction items at this auction is Moonlight Condensed Dew, so I wanted to try my luck and see if I could win the bid."

"This Moonlight Condensed Dew, though a third-tier spirit liquid, doesn't have many uses, so the competition won't be very fierce. The final transaction price will at most be one or two spirit stones per jin above market price. If you prepare ten or twenty thousand spirit stones, you can easily win the bid."

After hearing Cheng Yu's words, Yun Hanshuang's face showed a bitter smile.

"For a rogue cultivator like me, ten or twenty thousand spirit stones might as well be asking for my life."

Cheng Yu said nothing upon hearing this. Although his talent was utterly abysmal, his eye for things was excellent, so he didn't believe a word of Yun Hanshuang's claim of being poor.

"Fellow Daoist Cheng must be quite familiar with this auction. Earlier, I heard people discussing that the final auction item is a heart. Might you know anything about this heart?" Yun Hanshuang had heard the people in the tea house all discussing the final auction item, yet no one could say anything about the origin of this heart, so he looked at Cheng Yu and inquired.

"An alien heart. That's my target this time." Cheng Yu didn't elaborate further. After finishing the spirit tea in his hand, he stood up, said farewell to Yun Hanshuang, and left.

Yun Hanshuang remained in the spirit tea house for another three hours before leaving. He found a random inn to stay the night.

* * *

The next day, Yun Hanshuang arrived early at the venue where the auction was being held, spent fifty Low-Grade spirit stones to purchase a spot allowing entry into the auction hall. The auction hall was enormous, easily accommodating a hundred thousand people at once. On the second and third levels, there were over a thousand private booths. At the front of the hall was a raised platform, which Yun Hanshuang guessed was for displaying the auction items and for the host.

Entering the hall, Yun Hanshuang chose a corner seat and sat down, quietly awaiting the start of the auction. Roughly half an hour later, the seats in the hall were filled by those attending the auction. At the same time, on the high platform, a beam of white light shot down from the ceiling, and an alluringly beautiful woman in a red dress slowly descended onto the platform. This scene drew the gaze of everyone present.

Meeting the eyes of all, the red-clad beauty spoke loudly in a voice full of temptation, "Welcome, honored guests, to this auction. I, Hong Luan, am responsible for the narration of this auction. Enough with the idle talk. Please welcome the first auction item to be displayed."

As soon as Hong Luan finished speaking, two brawny men carried a dark red great blade onto the display platform for everyone in the hall to see.

"The first auction item: Shadow Edge Heavy Blade, a fourth-tier dark-attribute spirit artifact. Special property: devours the enemy's spiritual power. Weight: eight hundred forty-nine jin. Starting bid: twenty thousand Low-Grade spirit stones. Each increment must not be less than five hundred Low-Grade spirit stones."

"Twenty-three thousand Low-Grade spirit stones." As soon as Hong Luan finished the introduction, someone in the hall immediately placed a bid.

"Twenty-four thousand." "Twenty-six thousand." ...

In the end, the Shadow Edge Heavy Blade was sold for thirty-nine thousand Low-Grade spirit stones. If this blade hadn't been dark-attributed but of a common attribute, the final price could have multiplied several times over. Because dark-attribute cultivators were far too few, and cultivators of other attributes couldn't bring out its full power, the competition was sparse and the price couldn't be driven up.

After the first auction item was finalized, Hong Luan immediately had attendants bring up the second item for display. Yun Hanshuang sat in the corner, watching item after item successfully auctioned off. During this time, there were items that caught his interest, but whenever he thought of the spirit stones required to cultivate Bright Moon Shines on My Heart, he lost all interest.