The platform in the main hall was dead silent.

Xue Xiaoqin bent over and flashed a warm smile while her spiritual Qi burst out from her dantian. In a flash, a blood-like red light soared into the sky. The light gave off a warm feeling but was extremely striking, and it caused the temperature in the hall to rise by 7 to 8 degrees.

“It’s worthy of being one of the Five Elemental Ores and is unordinary indeed. My trip here is too worth it this time,” a rogue cultivator expressed softly while covering his eyes with his hand. He looked like he was bragging a little.

“Yes. I wonder which clan will get it.”

“Hmm? It’ll probably be the Li family or the Wang family. These 2 clans have the longest inheritances and are the strongest.”

“Indeed. Since they have Venerable Ones, how can they be compared by ordinary clans?”

This was immediately agreed upon by the rest of the crowd.

The striking light emitted by the Heavenly Fire Ore lasted for 6 breaths before it dispersed. The brocade cloth that was initially on the ore had also been burned into ashes, revealing a fist-sized ore on the tray. The ore was completely red as though blood was flowing all over it, and it was covered with closely packed tiny holes. It seemed like its internal heat would shoot out from the small holes at any time.

Everyone in the main hall instantly began to whisper to one another, which resulted in intense discussions that filled the air. A commotion was also coming from the private rooms on the upper floors.

Xue Xuanle’s eyes were incredibly lively and spirited. She covered her mouth and chuckled before she asked, “Big Brother Yu, did you come for this?”

Ou Yangming did not try to keep it a secret. He nodded and explained, “I have enough precious materials for the spear that I’m going to refine, but I’m still lacking a peculiar stone from beyond heaven. Brother Su leaked this information to me when he came to invite me for the Auction Meet, so I came to join this event.”

Xue Xuanle instantly caught the keyword from Ou Yangming’s words. He said that he would refine his spear and not get someone else to do it.

She thought, ‘I wonder how skillful Big Brother Yu is in smithing art.’ She was somewhat eager to find out.

Song Qing smiled as he stood and waited for the fiery atmosphere to reach its peak. He then waved his sleeve and chuckled. “The Heavenly Fire Ore’s fire property is exceptionally pure, so it can surely be used to refine a supreme and powerful piece of equipment.

“Alright, without further ado… This item’s starting bid is 100,000 spirit ores, and the bid increment must be at least 1,000 spirit ores.” He sounded calm but somewhat bewitching at the same time.

For some reason, the noisy main hall became unbelievably quiet at this time.

A voice was heard from above after only 3 to 4 breaths.

“130,000 spirit ores!” Given that this person rose the bid by 30,000 spirit ores right away, one could imagine how determined he was. This was his scheme to make others think that he was rich and imposing so that his competitors would be scared away.

Nevertheless, instead of frightening his competitors, he seemed to have ignited a barrel of gunpowder.

At least 10 other clans joined the bid, causing the number of spirit ores to constantly increase.

All of a sudden, a cold light flashed in the eyes of an unkempt elder in the main hall. He roared, “I—Old Haihe—am taking this Heavenly Fire Ore! 160,000 spirit ores!”

His voice was sinister and cold as if he would mercilessly kill anyone that dared to fight for the ore with him. At the same time, he burst out his cultivation base as a top-grade Spiritualist. Consequently, the elder’s thin body expanded majestically, which made him look like a proud and dazzling sun.

“Hmph, how can this spiritual item be measured with spirit ores? The Liu family offers 170,000 spirit ores!”

“Hahaha, 170,000 spirit ores? Is that a lot? The Jiang family’s willing to offer 180,000 spirit ores!”

Owing to the rising bidding price, the cultivators in the main hall were hooked and felt that this was surreal. In fact, some people secretly wondered how high the spirit ores would be if they were piled up.

Nobody knew how high the pile would be, but the bidding price was increasing faster than before; it reached 200,000 spirit ores in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, everyone knew the difference between aristocratic families and rogue cultivators. The most essential gap between them was their foundations as aristocratic families were bound to have profound and unpredictable foundations. Interestingly, neither Ou Yangming, Wang Haobin, Chen Botian, nor Li Tianyu said a word so far as if they were waiting for something.

Xue Xuanle widened her eyes in shock. “Goodness gracious! What a high price…” She stole a glance at Ou Yangming. She had always had confidence in him no matter what he did, but she was feeling nervous this time.

‘Those are several 100,000 spirit ores, after all. Even if the Xue family and the Wu family join hands, we only have so much. Does he really have so many spirit ores?’ She was feeling rather frustrated at herself as well. ‘I only have hundreds of spirit ores with me. They’re probably not up to his standard!’

On the third floor of the auction house, beside the Wang family’s private room.

Li Tianyu was fiddling with a poisonous insect. He looked frivolous on the surface but deep down he was steady.

A black-robed elder was sitting next to him with his eyes closed. The elder was surrounded by black vapors when he suddenly opened his eyes, causing black lightning arcs to flash out. He chuckled and expressed, “Young Master, Patriarch’s determined to have the Heavenly Fire Ore.”

Li Tianyu responded softly, “I know. The Wang family wants to get it without any effort, but how could that be? They’ve been taking too many things these years but now that they’re slowly declining, they should give back some of what they took. As long as the Wang family disperses, when the wind blows, the Li family will dominate Huixun City.”

A ruthless look flickered in his eyes as he crushed the poisonous insect in his hand.

The black-robed elder was glad.

Clear breezes blew past the platform, where mists were released. Song Qing watched everything with a smile and thought, ‘This time, the final price will probably create a miracle in the Su family’s Auction Meet.’ He was looking forward to what might happen.

After an intense round of bidding, those with poor economical power had been disqualified. With that, the top-notch aristocratic families in Huixun City began to bid.

“290,000 spirit ores!” Li Tianyu uttered rather playfully.

“300,000 spirit ores!” Wang Haobin joined in as he did not want to show a weak impression.

After a few rounds, the Wang family, the Chen family, and the Li family were the only ones left fighting for the ore, and the bidding price skyrocketed to 390,000 spirit ores. Chen Botian began to bid slower than before, by which he had to consider a long time before he bid each time. It was evident that the price had reached the Chen family’s limit.

When another round passed, Chen Botian looked at the platform from his private room and fell silent for some time, which was rare to see. He then smiled bitterly and stated, “Brother Wang, Brother Li, please go on. I won’t be fighting with you this time.”

Li Tianyu scoffed coldly. “Hmph, given the Chen family’s capability, do you think that you can continue to fight even if you wanted to?” His scornful voice was heard coming from his private room.

Chen Botian was not resigned to the outcome. He flapped his sleeve and shouted, “It’s fine if the Chen family can’t continue to fight; as long as Brother Wang succeeds.” Everyone knew the Chen family and the Wang family had become allies, thus it would not be embarrassing for him to say that.

Li Tianyu did not reply to him anymore. He turned to look at the Wang family’s private room.

Chen Botian no longer said a word. He simply inhaled some cold air and closed his eyes to recuperate.

“400,000 spirit ores!” Wang Haobin shook his head and continued to bid for the ore.

As soon as he spoke, a rogue cultivator’s eyes reddened, and he looked slightly mad. “Damn it, what a lunatic! That’s 400,000 spirit ores! An ordinary rogue cultivator might not even be able to spend all of them even if one has 10 lives.”

“I agree, but they’re one of the top aristocratic families in Huixun City. As expected, they have a profound foundation. In any case, it looks like our prediction is right; the aristocratic family that’ll bag the Heavenly Fire Ore is surely going to be the Li family or the Wang family.”

“Of course. The Chen family has already given up, and the other aristocratic families aren’t capable enough to fight. As for rogue cultivators like us… Heh!”

Before his voice was gone, a plain voice was suddenly heard coming from the Dongju Room.

“500,000 spirit ores!” The person’s voice was not loud and subtle, but it sounded like a sudden clap of muffled thunder to everyone present. His voice rumbled in everyone’s head and caused the whole world to shake.

Everyone in the main hall wondered, ‘Who was that? How could he have such economical power?’

Whether it was the rogue cultivators or the disciples from aristocratic families, everyone was taken aback and even quivered.

Someone came back to his senses after 3 breaths and remarked, “He increased the bidding price by 100,000 spirit ores just like that. It’s truly terrifying.”

At last, someone exclaimed, “It sounded like it came from the Dongju Room!” Everyone instantly looked up in shock.

The Wu family was not a top-notch clan in Huixun City but could be considered a second-class clan. Wu Xiaohuang tensed up a little and asked probingly, “Why does that sound like Brother Tianrui?”

Xue Yan pondered for a brief moment and nodded in agreement. “It’s quite similar indeed but that’s impossible. It’s true that Brother Tianrui has an unpredictable inheritance, but how could he have so many spirit ores with him? That’s probably a cultivator who sounds like him.”

Wu Xiaohuang dared not be so sure. He uttered dubiously, “Of course!”

Su Tianqian and Bai Qian were standing together as they looked down at the platform. The former commented softly, “Is it getting harder to see through him? I really wonder which force brought up such a freak like him. He created a sensation below the Water Suspension Tablet, and he’s shaking up the whole world with simple words.”

Bai Qian’s white clothes fluttered in the air, which made him look like an immortal. He stroked his beard and was very intrigued as well. The elder made gestures with his fingers and mumbled something, but he could not see anything.

On the other hand, Xue Xuanle stole a glance at Ou Yangming with a bitter look on her face. She panicked and thought, ‘That many spirit ores? Even if the Xue family’s sold, we don’t have that many!’

As for Wang Haobin, he was stunned at first, then he looked deeply at the private room that Ou Yangming was in. He furrowed his eyebrows and said, “The situation’s becoming more complicated now because of this unexpected trouble.”

Wang Weiniang’s face darkened. He noted in a deep voice, “The Heavenly Fire Ore’s too precious, so we must spare no effort in getting it.”

“I know!” Wang Haobin nodded but felt rather uneasy. Ou Yangming’s face appeared in his mind as he thought, ‘Is it him?”

A strange look could be seen on Li Tianyu’s face as he chuckled and said, “Interesting, interesting!”

In a way, Ou Yangming’s words were truly earth-shattering.