The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

Chapter 147: First Auction

“Sold to guest number one-four-six for sixty-five red crystals!” Xiao Gao Mei, the auctioneer declared. “Going straight into the next lot, we have a technique by the name of Tracing Origin Art.”

At the wave of a hand, the book on the pedestal was swapped out for another one that was in better condition. Without giving the audience any time to change gears, she went straight into the description of the Qi art.

“This is a new technique created by a genius independent cultivator. It is able to mark your property so that you know where they are located at all times! Not only is it useful for travelers, but sects could make use of it to keep track of all their property, such as Skyrunners. It is easy to learn, being a low-tier Earth-grade technique with a rating of eight. The starting price is ten red crystals!”

This time, the reaction from the crowd was much more tame. Much of it had to do with the excitement of the event starting to die out. Another part had to do with the fact that the current offering was more meant for caretakers rather than prestigious cultivators from established clans.

There were fewer parties interested, being the deacons of various organizations and the independent cultivators.

The bidding didn’t start right away as someone in the crowd raised their hands.

“How hard is it to detect the presence of this Qi art or to erase it?”

“Thank you for asking, guest three-two-five. The Tracing Origin Art wasn’t created with the purpose of being undetectable, so one should be able to discover it with their Qi sense. However, it was made to be as difficult as possible to remove. At the same time, it would inform the practitioner of anyone trying to tamper with it!”

So it’s basically a tracker with an alarm on it. Whoever made it surely must have suffered from a string of thefts or something.

As the details were clarified, the bidding began.

“Fifteen red crystals from guest sixty-four!” the auctioneer exclaimed.

“Sixteen!”

“We have sixteen from guest two-zero-nine!”

“Twenty!”

Various people were bidding from all around Li Lang’s party. He glanced around and confirmed they were mostly independent cultivators. In fact, most people around him appeared to be of similar origin. It took a moment for him to realize there was an entire other level for participants.

On the level above, there were dozens of private booths that overlooked the stage. Some of them had curtains surrounding them, while others were open for all to see. One could tell at first glance that all the people up there were from established organizations.

“How high do you think this technique will go to?” Sima Xue muttered. “I personally don’t think it’ll pass thirty red crystals. They shouldn’t have put something with zero combat uses so early in the auction. Everyone wants to save for the better techniques later on.”

“That’s true,” Li Lang answered, directing his attention back to the stage. “I doubt they care about this lot very much, though. It’s not something the wealthy wants, so it just serves as a warmup.”

“Why don’t you get that for your Skyrunner, Li Lang? It may come in handy,” Long Yi suggested with a grin.

“We only have one Skyrunner, and we’ll be buying a space ring soon. There’s no need.”

“Hey, you can use it for other things too, apparently. Weapons like your needles or your spear could get lost. Or even your alchemy cauldron.”

Li Lang shrugged as he pondered the uses of a tracker.

A Qi tracker. It highlights the wide range of things you can do with this mysterious power, being able to even replicate the functions of various technologies. Should I look into creating my own Qi arts as well?

“Hey, Long Yi has a point,” Sima Xue interjected. “You always like to keep track of progress and everything. You can even keep track of your stuff like those weird jars with this technique.”

Li Lang gave the young princess a side-eye upon mentioning the incident with the jars of fermenting cyanide. He believed there was no point in keeping track of the jar itself. It was better to track the cyanide gas, to see if there was a leak, but then he ran into the problem of whether the Tracing Origin Art would work on gases.

Wait. Gases? Then what about…

Li Lang’s eyes opened wide as he arrived at a revelation.

“Twenty-three red crystals to guest number one-three-seven!” the auctioneer continued to announce.

Li Lang took a quick look at his own badge before raising his hand high in the air. “Thirty!” he called out.

“Thirty red crystals from guest number sixty-two!”

Upon hearing the sudden declaration from their friend, Long Yi and Sima Xue looked slightly astonished that Li Lang had actually bid on the technique. They had been jokingly teasing their friend, as they knew he had a hefty purse of over twenty orange crystals.

He had more than enough capital to compete, but they knew Li Lang wasn’t the type of person to frivolously spend on things that didn’t interest him. It made them do a second take at the Tracing Origin Art to see what about it interested Li Lang.

“Thirty red crystals. Do we have anyone willing to go higher? It’s your chance to obtain a technique from a new genius. It could be worth several times the amount in the future!”

Whispering filled the auditorium as everyone watched on in amusement. It seemed the momentum of bidding had ceased with Li Lang’s bid.

“Thirty red crystals going once! Going twice! And—”

“Forty crystals!” a voice cried out from one of the balconies above.

It caused several people to let out surprised gasps, as they didn’t expect someone who could afford a private room to bid on such a low-level technique. Unfortunately for the crowd, the blinds were closed, giving them no fuel for their gossip.

“Fifty red crystals!” Li Lang cried.

This time, the auctioneer, Xiao Gao Mei, let out an alluring smile upon hearing the new number. For auctioneers, it always felt nice when an item’s price exceeded their predictions. She looked up directly at the booth that had just been outbid, speaking directly to them.

“Fifty red crystals from guest number sixty-two! Would our esteemed guest from booth number nine like to bid higher?”

The lone figure behind the curtain remained motionless, as if he hadn’t heard anyone. It caused the audience to sigh in disappointment when that continued even after several breaths. The auctioneer easily reined in her emotions and carried out her job. She wasn’t too disappointed as the item was relatively cheap compared to what was to come. She quickly pushed the auction along toward the next lot.

“Fifty red crystals going once! Going twice…And sold to guest number sixty-two! Next up, we have…”

While she began to introduce the next item, Li Lang’s companions were swarming him for answers.

“Fifty red crystals for that? Is that really worth it? I swear that’s the price of a small space ring!” Long Yi cried out.

“Yeah, fifty red crystals could get me ten servings of tofu pudding!”

“Guys…This is not the place to talk about it. I’ll explain later.”

Long Yi and Sima Xue put on a helpless look as they knew that meant the discussion was over for now. They knew Li Lang enough to know he wouldn’t budge. What they didn’t expect was Wei Ping suddenly making a noise beside them.

“Ah, I-I see. Could it be y-you’re using it for that?”

He directed his excited gaze at Li Lang, only to receive a glare in return. He quickly realized it wasn’t something to discuss in public and nodded in apology.

That Wei Ping, he sure is perceptive. Well, we did discuss it back when I was searching for methods the last time. If what they say about the Tracing Origin Art is true, it should help us make new discoveries.

The excitement of his future experiment distracted him from paying any further attention to the auction. He believed he may have found a key to observing a phenomenon he long desired to research.

Back when he was developing the Cleansing Drug, he had looked into the possibility of expanding more spiritual roots. It was something closely tied to aptitude, and what he believed to be the key to compensating for his low natural talent.

However, the so-called roots or meridians weren’t something physical. He had no way of observing it. He only knew that his Qi didn’t flow in a straight line from point A to point B. It followed along paths or highways that he believed to be the meridians. They differed from person to person and were a complex network in the body.

Without the means to observe it directly, it was just too tedious to study hundreds of subjects for a proper analysis. He deemed it unworthy of his time back then.

Now, with the Tracing Origin Art, he just may be able to observe what he previously couldn’t.

At the very least, I should be able to map out my meridians and compare them to others.