It was not long before an old man stepped out from behind the stage.

"This old one is Xie Zhang. Tonight's auction will be presided over by me, and it is my honor to meet you all. For this occasion, Heavenly Treasure Auction House has spent a full month in preparation, gathering a great many treasures. I trust everyone is greatly looking forward to tonight's proceedings.

No more idle words. The auction begins now!"

Xie Zhang wasted no further breath. After his brief opening, he set the auction in motion.

"The first item up for bid is the Three-Leaf Blood-Activating Grass. This medicinal herb promotes blood flow and dissolves stasis, expels toxins, brightens the complexion, and prolongs life. If you wish for your beloved to bloom like a flower and keep her youth, you may take it and gift it to her.

Of course, it carries many other restorative virtues, which I shall not list one by one.

The opening price is one thousand taels of silver, and each raise must be no less than one hundred taels!"

"One thousand two hundred taels!" The words had scarcely left Xie Zhang's mouth before the first bid rang out.

"One thousand five hundred taels!"

"Two thousand taels!"

Bids rose and fell on every side, while Tang Yan stared at the herb in a daze.

The whole plant bore but a single stem, and upon it grew three rather thick leaves, glossy and green and brimming with life.

As an Alchemist, the moment his keen instinct settled on the herb, he caught a faint, fresh thread of Spiritual Qi drifting from it.

This was the Three-Leaf Blood-Activating Grass! And the opening price was only one thousand taels of silver?

Tang Yan wanted to shout aloud to vent the excitement churning inside him. The people of this world did not even know the herb's true worth?

Its chief virtue was not promoting blood flow or beautifying the complexion at all, but strengthening one's spiritual power!

Within every body dwelt essence, Qi, and spirit. Of these, Qi could be gained through cultivation. The paths of essence and spirit, however, were brutally hard to refine. And for an alchemist, a powerful spirit was all the more essential.

The Three-Leaf Blood-Activating Grass's greatest virtue was precisely the tempering of the spirit!

That was why, among alchemists, it bore another name: Spirit-Refining Grass, a thing so rare that ten thousand in gold often could not buy it.

"Eight thousand taels of silver. Will no one raise the bid?"

"Eight thousand taels, going twice!" Xie Zhang called from the stage.

As the opening offering, most regarded it as a thing of little use. Reaching eight thousand taels was already a fine result, and Xie Zhang held no real quarrel with the price. Just as he judged that no one would bid again and made to bring down the hammer, Tang Yan finally shook free of his shock.

"Fifty thousand taels!" Tang Yan blurted out.

Xie Zhang was struck dumb.

Zi Yun beside him was struck dumb.

Every soul in the hall was struck dumb.

Had this fellow lost his mind? He sat through the early bidding, then chose the final breath to leap in. No one had even pressed past eight thousand taels. Raise it to ten thousand and who would still have the heart to compete? Yet he had multiplied it sixfold in a single stroke!

The crowd turned to Tang Yan with tangled expressions. So the Tang Family's eldest young master, the one stirring up such a storm in Yun City of late, was still a first-class fool after all.

"Young Master Tang, this is Heavenly Treasure Auction House. A price once spoken is water already poured out." Xie Zhang had long heard of the young profligate's old reputation, and now he frowned as he offered his "reminder."

Tang Yan knew well his bid had run high, yet weighed against the herb's true value, fifty thousand taels was a steal. He drew a fifty-thousand-tael note from his robes, slapped it onto the table, and spoke with the swagger of a man drowning in coin. "This young master has silver to spare. The more I spend, the better it feels!"

At his words, the corners of every mouth in the hall twitched. By tomorrow, Tang Yan's name as Yun City's foremost spendthrift would surely come roaring back.

Xie Zhang himself no longer knew whether to laugh or weep. This wasteful display had cemented his own standing as a master auctioneer for the ages. An item worth less than ten thousand taels had been driven to fifty thousand in his hands!

"Fifty thousand taels, going once!"

"Fifty thousand taels, going twice!"

"Going three times. Sold!" Xie Zhang let the hammer fall, and his heart finally settled. In truth, fifty thousand taels was nothing to the Heavenly Treasure Auction House, but a sale fetching several times its worth was a rare sight indeed.

"Are you sick?" Zi Yun glanced at Tang Yan with faint distaste.

"Heh heh, what would a woman understand?" Tang Yan crossed his legs, smug as could be.

Seeing his shameless, dead-pig-fears-no-boiling-water air, Zi Yun could not be bothered to spare him another word.

"Next for auction, the second item: one Purple Heart Jade Pendant. Drawn from jade at the floor of the South Sea and carefully worked by a master carver, it calms the mind and nourishes the spirit. Worn year-round, it brings great benefit to the cultivation of Qi and helps one slip more easily into a cultivating state. The opening price is three thousand taels of silver, each raise no less than one hundred taels!"

As Xie Zhang's voice fell, the second round of bidding began.

Tang Yan curled his lip. The Purple Heart Jade was hardly so marvelous as Xie Zhang made it sound, nothing more than a trick of the mind. Legs still crossed, he settled back to wait for what came next.

As the items were brought out one after another, Tang Yan won three more spiritual herbs over the course of the night.

Zi Yun had been born in Purple Bamboo City, the honored Third Miss of the Purple Bamboo line, and had seen treasures of every kind. None of this caught her eye, and she never once raised a bid.

As the hours wore on, the auction drew toward its close.

"The next item is tonight's crowning treasure. I am certain every one of you will find it of interest." Here Xie Zhang fell silent.

"Master Xie, what is it?" someone below pressed at once, unable to wait.

Seeing that he had hooked their curiosity, Xie Zhang went on. "This is a martial skill, known as the Thousand Mountains Fist. Upon appraisal, it has been found to be an incomplete method."

At that, some faces fell a little. A martial skill was the dream of every martial artist, yet an incomplete one not only lost much of its power but might prove impossible to cultivate at all.

Seeing the crowd's ardor sink, Xie Zhang smiled and explained, "Incomplete it may be, but fortunately. This skill is its opening portion, and can be practiced in full!"

At this, the spark of expectation rose once more in the eyes of those who had soured.

Tang Yan's heart itched unbearably. Was this not the very reason he had come, to see whether any worthy martial skill might appear?

"Master Xie, what grade is this method?"

"The final crowning skill, surely it reaches Yellow Rank at the least?"

Seeing the talk below boil over, Xie Zhang kept them in suspense no longer and declared in a ringing voice, "The Thousand Mountains Fist is exceedingly suited to battle, its power immense. Yet because the method itself is incomplete, it holds only the moves of the first two fists.

Even so, it still reaches the level of Yellow Rank Middle Grade!"

"Yellow Rank Middle Grade!" At Xie Zhang's words, the breathing of all present grew heavy.

In all of Yun City, even the four great families held but a handful of Yellow Rank martial skills. As for the smaller and middling clans, even High Grade Origin Rank methods were scarce as morning stars.

This bidding would surely be a savage contest.

"The Thousand Mountains Fist. Opening price, one hundred thousand taels of silver. Each raise no less than one thousand taels! Bidding begins!" Xie Zhang cried out.

"Two hundred thousand taels!" From the very start, the price doubled outright.