Chapter 1503 - Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom

Xu Lingxue sat beside Liu Wuxie and pinched him hard, clearly annoyed by whatever had been occupying his mind all day.

"How many astral crystals does it cost? We can pool in with what we have, too," Xu Lingxue said, rolling her eyes at Liu Wuxie and drawing a burst of laughter from everyone nearby.

Compared to the other private rooms, the Heavenly Dao Society's room felt unusually calm and peaceful. The few women quietly scraped together what they had, already planning to buy the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom.

"No need. Keep your astral crystals for yourselves," Liu Wuxie said. He had no intention of letting them pay when what they had barely sufficed for their own cultivation.

The auction continued, and prices rose noticeably this time. The first item was a long blade with obvious damage, yet it was comparable to the Heaven Gaze Realm at its prime.

Its Heaven Gaze Realm laws remained fairly intact, and an expert at the pinnacle of the Earth Immortal Realm bought it for 250,000 astral crystals. As items got sold, the major sects showed astonishing patience and continued waiting for the prize. During that stretch, a second-tier sect bid once but still walked away empty-handed.

About two hours later, the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom was finally put up for bidding. The four women grew tense at once, fearing it would be taken by someone else.

They had long hoped to conceive, yet it proved difficult. As Liu Wuxie said, their odds of conceiving would only drop as their cultivation increased.

"The starting bid for this Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom is at one hundred thousand astral crystals, with each increment no less than ten thousand. It can transform the body, especially for female cultivators. After refining it, it could make them even more charming," Elder Wu Hen explained, deliberately saying nothing about improving the chances of conceiving.

The female cultivators instantly went wild, especially the wives of influential figures who decided they would buy the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom no matter the cost.

"110,000!" A private room near the very end called out the first bid, and the voice sounded like it belonged to the planet lord of a second-tier planet. He had multiple wives, so he likely planned to buy it for them.

"120,000!" A woman in the common area shouted her bid. Her appearance was ordinary, and she wanted the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom to change that.

"130,000!" The private room raised the bid again.

"140,000!" This time, the bid came from the private room beside Liu Wuxie.

Liu Wuxie turned and glanced at Miao Jianying, who immediately ran to the corner to check the name on the adjacent room.

"It's the Scarlet Cloud Gate!" Miao Jianying reported.

The Scarlet Cloud Gate carried a deep foundation, ranking only after the Divine Alchemy Sect. With the Divine Alchemy Sect dropping in ranking, many people speculated that the Scarlet Cloud Gate would finally replace them and become first-ranked among the second-tier sects. Yet the Heavenly Dao Society had snatched that position instead, leaving the Scarlet Cloud Gate trapped as an eternal runner-up.

Miao Jianying swiftly gathered information on the Scarlet Cloud Gate and organized it before presenting it to Liu Wuxie.

Their sect master, Yun Yang, lived up to his name as a flamboyant figure. The Scarlet Cloud Gate's overall strength was formidable, with no obvious weaknesses, and, aside from alchemy and blacksmithing, their businesses also extended into other industries, making their operation self-sufficient.

"Wuxie, Yun Yang took in a new concubine recently, and I heard that she's a disciple of a first-tier sect with high cultivation. He's probably buying the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom for her," Miao Jianying continued.

He oversaw intelligence within the Heavenly Dao Society and had grown rapidly under Tian Xing's guidance over the years. After arriving in the astral domain, he had quickly laid down an intelligence network of his own.

Liu Wuxie gave a faint nod. By now, the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom's bid had soared to two hundred thousand, and Yun Yang still showed no sign of yielding.

The woman in the common area had already withdrawn, since two hundred thousand astral crystals lay far beyond what any rogue cultivator could afford.

Even after slaughtering so many experts at the higher levels of the Earth Immortal Realm, Liu Wuxie had only plundered about two hundred thousand astral crystals from them.

Now, only Yun Yang's private room and the one ranked last contested the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom, and the bidding pace had slowed noticeably.

Whenever the planet lord made his bid, Yun Yang immediately followed, revealing an unwavering determination to obtain it.

When Xu Lingxue and the other women saw that Liu Wuxie was still refusing to bid, they grew anxious, fearing someone else would seize the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom.

"The auction house is a test of composure, and you must never let your opponent guess your bottom line," Liu Wuxie said, using the moment to teach everyone the strategy and knowledge behind bidding.

If someone bid too quickly and acted too aggressively, they only exposed their insecurity. From that one detail alone, people could read a mindset and seize an advantage.

"230,000!" The room ranked last raised the bid by twenty thousand.

"250,000!" The Scarlet Cloud Gate snapped back instantly, refusing to give the other side even a breath of space.

"It's almost the limit now," Liu Wuxie murmured. He could hear it in their tone.

If the planet lord kept bidding, the Scarlet Cloud Gate might finally give up.

After all, the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom was worth only about 250,000 astral crystals, and anything beyond that would count as overpaying. The planet lord clearly understood it, which was why hesitation finally crept in, and his voice began to stall because raising the price further wouldn't be worth it.

That hesitation opened the perfect window for Liu Wuxie to strike.

"260,000!" Liu Wuxie finally spoke, lifting the price by ten thousand.

The instant his voice rang out, countless eyes snapped toward the Heavenly Dao Society's private room, including those from the Scarlet Cloud Gate. The Heavenly Dao Society hadn't joined the bidding from the start, so why would they suddenly appear now?

This was psychological warfare, with both the Scarlet Cloud Gate and the planet lord's private room already pushed to their limit. If either side forced another bid, there was a strong chance the other party would immediately give up.

That was exactly why Liu Wuxie stepped in at the precise moment when neither side truly wanted to bid anymore.

People carried an impulsive urge to buy, and once that urge cooled, even the best item would lose its appeal. That was why Liu Wuxie waited until their desire for the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom dulled before placing his bid; this was the essence of psychological warfare.

Just as Liu Wuxie had predicted, the planet lord's private room made no further bid the moment Liu Wuxie spoke, and everyone turned to stare at the Scarlet Cloud Gate instead.

"A bravo play from the Heavenly Dao Society, joining at the perfect moment." Those seated in the common area didn't hail from first-tier sects, but none of them were foolish.

In fact, surviving as a third-tier sect often proved even harder than surviving as a first-tier sect, because they lived wedged between giants. People like them had to study human nature at every moment to avoid provoking someone they couldn't afford to offend.

"The scarier part isn't the Heavenly Dao Society, but Liu Wuxie. I heard that he paid a visit to the Nine Dragon Palace and successfully cut the Divine Alchemy Sect's supply of spiritual herbs. He even handed the distribution rights of the Golden Cicada Pill to them. This means that the Nine Dragon Palace and the Heavenly Dao Society are now partners," someone said.

News of the alliance between the Heavenly Dao Society and the Nine Dragon Palace had already spread far and wide. Liu Wuxie had secured it through a carrot-and-stick approach, leveraging the Golden Cicada Pills’ distribution rights to tie the Nine Dragon Palace firmly to his cause.

More importantly, Liu Wuxie had offered a deal the Nine Dragon Palace couldn't refuse. If they acted as the distributor for the Golden Cicada Pills, they would earn an enormous amount of resources.

The hall buzzed with discussion while Elder Wu Hen began announcing the final result, sealing the deal when the third hammer struck. He called three times in a row, and the Scarlet Cloud Gate still didn't bid, meaning Liu Wuxie had successfully purchased the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom for 260,000 astral crystals.

"I don't get it. Didn't the Heavenly Dao Society come to buy treasures? The Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom might be precious, but it can't increase cultivation. And Liu Wuxie's wives are all stunning beauties. Why would they need it to transform their bodies?" Many people couldn't understand why Liu Wuxie had spent so many astral crystals on the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom.

"The Heavenly Dao Society's development might be fast, but they have only managed to earn about one million astral crystals at best. The treasures that might appear later can easily reach over one million, and there's no way the Heavenly Dao Society can buy them," someone said, and that remark instantly woke everyone up.

The Heavenly Dao Society must have chosen to buy the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom because their resources were limited.

The discussions matched exactly what Liu Wuxie wanted. He meant to ensure no one learned he carried an enormous amount of astral crystals so that he could catch his opponents off guard later.

This auction was another kind of battlefield between the various sects, because a heaven-defying treasure could change an entire sect's fate.

Liu Wuxie didn't bid on any of the following items and instead let the other sects fight over them. Half a day slipped by, and the first 20 items were sold out, with the auction now moving on to the next ten items.

As each batch of treasures grew more valuable, fierce competition erupted among the second-tier sects. As before, a fifteen-minute break arrived before the next round of auctions.

When the private room door opened, a breathtaking beauty stepped in, carrying a jade-white plate, and she presented it directly to Liu Wuxie.

"Young Master Liu, this is the Heart-Seated Lotus Blossom that you bought," the woman said. She looked young, no older than twenty-six or twenty-seven, with a tall, ample figure as she offered the plate to Liu Wuxie. Before she even approached, a delicate fragrance wafted toward him.

"Here are 260,000 astral crystals," Liu Wuxie said, producing an interspatial ring that held the astral crystals inside.

"My name is Xiao Xi. Do let me know if you need anything," she said as she accepted the interspatial ring, winking at Liu Wuxie and gesturing toward his four wives.

Strength ruled the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain, and experts having multiple wives was nothing unusual. For a young prodigy like Liu Wuxie, he was the dream husband of countless women, and if they could bear him a child, their status would naturally rise throughout the astral domain.

"You have delivered the item, and you can leave now," Jian Xing'er said coldly.

"I'll take my leave then. I wish Young Master Liu a pleasant auctioning experience," Xiao Xi said, and she turned and left the private room.

"How shameless!" Chen Ruoyan said, sticking her tongue out. The women nurtured by the Skybrim Pavilion all carried charm in their bones, and it was hard for men to resist them.

"They have cultivated the charming art, and it's already carved into their bones. They can't change it anymore," Liu Wuxie explained.

Those women weren't ordinary at all, because anyone who cultivated the charming art had to absorb pure yang energy from men. Who knew how many male cultivators those hundred women had already drained?

Fifteen minutes later, ten more items arrived. Just like before, the women lifted the cloth and displayed the ten items to everyone. Among them stood one item that rose three meters tall and loomed like a giant.

The instant the cloth came off, exclamations erupted from every corner of the hall. Even Liu Wuxie sprang to his feet abruptly, shocking everyone in the private room as they all turned to look toward the auction platform.