Ninth In the World

“12,000,000 Liberal Points.” The bid on the bidding panel changed immediately. Just because there was an Immortal Emperor expert competitor who had announced their identity, it did not mean that no one would participate in the bidding.

Di Jiu placed his hand on the bidding calligraphy Dharma Array. However, before he could write out the intended bid of 15,000,000 Liberal Points, the bid on the bidding panel had already risen to 16,000,000 Liberal Points.

Di Jiu placed a bid of 20,000,000 Liberal Points without hesitation.

He had heard that once, during an auction in this auction house, a Thearch Vine Ganoderma had been sold for 100,000,000 Liberal Points. In Di Jiu’s opinion, the Time Crystal would be of a similar caliber as the Thearch Vine Ganoderma. In a sense, the Thearch Vine Ganoderma was far inferior to the Time Crystal.

20,000,000 Liberal Points should be the equivalent of 2,000,000,000 high-grade immortal crystals. However, Di Jiu believed that the value of the Time Crystal was at least 10,000,000,000 to 20,000,000,000 high-grade immortal crystals.

The price of the Time Crystal soared to 20,000,000 Liberal Points in an instant, causing Xing Sui to yell excitedly, “It seems that many experts are well aware of the value of the Time Crystal! This implies that it possesses supernormal time abilities and time laws… The Time Crystal now costs 23,000,000 Liberal Points…”

Di Jiu discovered that his bid was completely unable to deter the competitors. On the contrary, the bids for the Time Crystal increased in speed.

Di Jiu pondered what kind of bid he needed to write down to show the rest of the competitors that he had to have this Time Crystal. Suddenly, the same hoarse voice that had bid 11,000,000 Liberal Points initially spoke once again. “I bid 30,000,000 Liberal Points. I would like to see who could offer a higher bid…”

The bid on the bidding panel remained stagnant at 30,000,000 Liberal Points and stopped increasing.

Everyone knew very well who the Immortal Emperor who had called that bid was. It was Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty Yue Wuliang, the Dao Master of the Heavenly Cloud Dao, who was also one of the Five Great Immortal Emperors of the Demonic Clothing Immortal Continent. The Heavenly Cloud Dao was also a top-notch sect of the Demonic Clothing Immortal Continent. It was said that the year he had just attained the Immortal Emperor Realm, a cultivation family had offended him and he had burned and extinguished that family.

It was because of this incident that everyone on this plane knew how powerful Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s flame was. The appearance of Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was just like his flame. He was red-faced and red-haired.

Similarly, everyone knew what Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was implying. His words did not seem threatening, yet they were evidently filled with threats.

Anyone who dared to call a higher bid would definitely become Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s sworn enemy. Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty would not let go of this grudge until the culprit was killed.

The Immortal Emperors who were on par in terms of strength with Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty did not quite dare to bid either, not because they were afraid of him, but because he was the first person to bid for this Time Crystal. According to a tacit rule of experts when it came to auctions, Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was the first person to voice out his identity. This signified that he was the first person to bid for the item, which should now be considered his possession. Anyone else who competed for it by bidding would be offending Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty without reaping any benefits.

The auction house was unable to do anything in this regard, for Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty had not violated the regulations or made any direct threats. Even a pig would know that Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was threatening everyone else. However, the regulations dictated that, so long as no direct threats were made, there was no violation.

Xing Sui sighed. She had originally felt confident about pushing the price of the Time Crystal to at least 50,000,000 Liberal Points. However, due to Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s interference, it was extremely likely that the Time Crystal would be sold for a maximum of 30,000,000 Liberal Points.

“A new bid of 30,000,000 Liberal Points has been called. Is there a higher bid? If there is not, this Time Crystal will be sold…” Xing Sui was feeling a little dispirited. She knew very well that no one would call for a higher bid, but she still wanted to give it a try.

After calling for a long time, no one bid. Thus, she had no choice but to announce, “30,000,000 Liberal Points going once…”

Di Jiu naturally understood what Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was implying. He had originally intended to place a bid of 50,000,000, yet after Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s declaration, no one would place a higher bid. There was no way he would stay courteous under the circumstances. Hence, he wrote down 31,000,000 Liberal Points on the bidding panel.

He would offend Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty whether he placed a bid of 50,000,000 or 31,000,000. In that case, he would naturally prefer not to spend the extra money.

“30,000,000 Liberal Points going twice… There is a new bid of 31,000,000 Liberal Points. It seems that there is more than one cultivator who wishes to gain insight into time supernormal abilities. The price of the Time Crystal has reached 31,000,000. Is there a higher bid?”

Xing Sui was pleasantly surprised upon seeing that Di Jiu had bid 31,000,000.

In her opinion, the price of the Time Crystal would immediately soar the moment someone increased the bid.

“Ha ha… I am indeed getting old. I have been inactive for way too long. Some weaklings do not even recognize me now.” Yue Wuliang’s hoarse voice rang out.

Despite what he said, he did not continue to bid. Everyone knew that Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty had already locked onto the cultivator who was competing for the Time Crystal with him.

Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s words were challenging the auction house’s authority a little. However, the auction house must have let this go to show their respect for him.

Di Jiu had originally intended to earn reticent profit, but Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s words had displeased him greatly. With a similarly coarse voice, he said, “I do not know who you think you are, but you are acting pompously when you actually have no money. You should just go back. You seem to be afraid of people not knowing that you are a lowly Immortal Emperor, so you are constantly accentuating your identity. I attained the late-stage Immortal Emperor Realm 1,360,000 years ago, yet I did not show off my cultivation. If you reach my cultivation realm in the future, will you wear a tag around your neck to inform everyone of your cultivation? You are such a disgraceful being.”

Everyone in the hall was alarmed momentarily upon hearing Di Jiu’s words. Then, they realized that the person competing for the Time Crystal with Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was, in fact, an Immortal Emperor himself.

After all, who would dare to compete for the Time Crystal with Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty if they were not an Immortal Emperor themselves?

The few Immortal Emperors who were preparing to continue bidding as a result of Di Jiu’s interference all stopped. If they made any bids now, they would offend Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty as well as this nameless Immortal Emperor of unknown origin.

Moreover, the probability of gaining insight into time laws through the Time Crystal was extremely minuscule. Therefore, there was no reason they would want to spend a few dozens of millions of Liberal Points at the cost of offending some experts.

Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was so furious that his face turned purple. However, he kept his mouth shut. He would not let this matter go, regardless of whether the fella who seized the Time Crystal was truly an Immortal Emperor or not. He immediately issued an order to have Di Jiu’s background investigated.

Experts from some other powers did the same. Almost everyone gave the order to investigate Di Jiu’s origin and Di Jiu’s place of residence.

Xing Sui waited for an extremely long time, but the greatest bid increment was 1,000,000. Dispirited, now that she knew that Di Jiu could also be an Immortal Emperor, she realized that it would be unrealistic to expect that other people could be encouraged to increase the bid. The Time Crystal was indeed valuable. However, the probability of gaining insight into time laws through the Time Crystal was truly extremely minuscule. Left with no choice, she called for a bid for the last three times before sealing the deal by announcing the winning bid of the Time Crystal: 31,000,000 Liberal Points.

By the time Di Jiu paid the 31,000,000 Liberal Points and stored the Time Crystal in his ring, the various experts and powers had already received information about him.

He was called Zimo, but his age and cultivation level were unknown. He was usually on the sea and the aura of bloodlust lingered around him, which meant that he had to be an extremely ruthless cultivator. This cultivator was staying at the Azure Immortal Inn, and his auction room was Unit E-307, which was located on the second floor. Before purchasing the Time Crystal, he had already bought a supreme-grade flying immortal weapon for 600,000 Liberal Points.

Had Di Jiu not disguised himself before going to the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City to gather a batch of Heavenly Purple Lattice, this information would have been exhibited to these people. However, discovering this information still did not require a long investigation. After all, although Di Jiu had put on a disguise, he had used the same card for his purchases.

“Congratulations on obtaining the Time Crystal. The next item that is up for auction is the Zenith Divine Metal, which is a top-notch blacksmith treasure. I believe that any and every blacksmith would covet the Zenith Divine Metal. It’s said that a blacksmith used the Zenith Divine Metal to refine a divine weapon. Regardless of whether this rumor is true or not, it still shows how valuable the Zenith Divine Metal is.”

Xing Sui lifted a pitch-black material half the size of a millstone. “The piece of Zenith Divine Metal I’m holding might not be able to refine divine weapons, but it will be sufficient to refine a few supreme-grade immortal weapons. The starting bid for the Zenith Divine Metal is 1,000,000 Liberal Points. Each incremental bid should be higher than 100,000 Liberal Points…”

“10,000,000 Liberal Points!” Di Jiu’s hoarse voice rang out. “That weakling’s strategy did not seem bad. I will use it as well.”

The entire hall fell silent. Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s actions had reminded this nameless Immortal Emperor that he should announce his identity first before placing a bid.

Furthermore, by increasing the bid from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 Liberal Points, he showed off his wealth.

The Zenith Divine Metal was indeed valuable, but it definitely was not worth 10,000,000. It was no wonder that this Immortal Emperor would call Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty a weakling, given his wealth.

Di Jiu sighed inwardly, as the only thing he wanted to do was take his leave as soon as possible. The reason he had placed such a high bid was to speed up the progress of the auction. He had realized what he had neglected to take note of. He should not have used the name ‘Zimo’ to purchase the Heavenly Purple Lattice. Many Immortal Emperors who were wary of him would no longer be once this matter was investigated.