Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

After nightfall, there is no true darkness in Ironfeather City.

The glowing stones embedded in the city walls bathed the entire city in a layer of bluish-white cold light, making the streets as bright as day. However, the texture of the light was wrong—it was too hard, so hard that the shadows cast on the ground had no blurred edges, only clear, knife-cut outlines.

The three-story black building of the Black Scale Merchant Guild appeared even darker than during the day under the glowing stone, like the only object in the entire city that refused to emit light.

The underground auction hall was located thirty feet directly below the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce, and was a circular hall built entirely of black iron rock.

The dome is hemispherical, with a diameter of over fifty feet, and is densely covered with restrictive runes—suppression restrictions, soundproof restrictions, defensive restrictions, and trigger-based killing arrays, layered upon each other to create an impregnable fortress that even a full-force attack from a peak Life and Death Realm expert could not shake.

The auction house had only one entrance, a passageway sloping downwards from the ground. Every three steps along both sides of the passageway stood a steward from the Black Scale Merchant Guild, the lowest of whom was at the peak of the Yin-Yang Realm.

Master Mo personally guarded the gate at the end of the passageway, his dark robe gleaming with a faint blue halo in the light of the restrictive runes.

"Young Master Dongfang".

When he saw Dongfang Weiwo walking into the passageway with a bamboo cane, he nodded slightly and gestured for the steward behind him to push open the heavy black iron gate.

"Your seating is in the Heavenly Suite No. 7 on the third floor. Bai Wuchen from the Valley of Life and Death and Ya Jiu from the Hall of Reincarnation have already arrived and are in the Heavenly Suite No. 8 next door. Also—"

He lowered his voice and gently hooked his index finger inside his sleeve, silently enveloping the two of them in a soundproof barrier.

"Grandma Blood Infant is in Room 1 on the second floor, and Wanqifeng, the young master of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, is in Room 2 opposite her."

The two private rooms had more than forty attendants in total, all of whom were experts at the peak of the Yin-Yang Realm or above.

Blood Infant Granny brought in three spare skeletons, wrapped in black cloth, and placed in the corner of the private room—my men smelled the fresh bones, not dead bones, but the kind taken from a living person.

In addition, the bounty notice at the city gate has taken effect. At least sixty rogue cultivators will be watching your private room tonight, ready to make their move as soon as you leave the city.

They won't dare cause trouble on Blackscale Merchant Guild territory during the auction, but you'd better think carefully about how you're going to leave Ironfeather City.

Dongfang Weiwo leaned his bamboo cane on the bluestone ground of the passageway, the end of the cane making a soft sound as it struck the stone.

"Thank you, Third Master Mo. I'll exit through the south gate after the auction."

Master Mo glanced at him silently, neither asking why it was the South Gate nor how he planned to get to the South Gate from the pincer attack of Blood Infant Granny and Wanqifeng.

He had been doing business in this city for twenty years, and had seen too many dead people and too many living people emerge from seemingly hopeless situations.

Experience told him that this young man with the bamboo cane was neither the type to die nor the type to survive easily.

The existence of such contradictions is often the most worthwhile to bet on.

"The young lady from the Lin family is brewing medicine in the backyard. I've assigned two female stewards to guard her courtyard."

Master Mo removed the soundproofing and personally pushed open the door. "She asked me to give you a message—'The new bone-protecting ointment is in the medicine pouch; don't use it sparingly.'"

Dongfang Weiwo stepped across the threshold, and the circular hall of the underground auction house unfolded before him.

The restrictive runes on the dome covered the entire hemisphere like stars, each rune flashing slowly and rhythmically, controlling the light to a just-right brightness that was neither dazzling nor too dim, yet still illuminated every corner.

In the center of the hall is a display stand about ten feet in diameter, carved from a single piece of white glass, with a set of trigger-activated defensive restrictions sealed inside.

If anyone tries to snatch an item during the auction, the restriction will sink the display stand and the item into the ground within three breaths, simultaneously triggering the twelve killing arrays in the hidden compartments at the four corners of the hall.

The circular grandstand is divided into three levels. The first level is for general seating, which is filled with independent cultivators and representatives of small sects.

The second floor consists of private rooms, divided into three levels: Heaven, Earth, and Human, corresponding to different levels of power.

The third floor has only eight private rooms, which are VIP seats prepared for the top thirty forces in the Tianwu Continent. Only three rooms are open tonight - Tianzi No. 7, No. 8 and No. 9.

When Dongfang Weiwo pushed open the door to the No. 7 VIP room, the door to the No. 8 VIP room next door opened almost simultaneously.

Bai Wuchen stood at the door, his white robes as white as snow, the long sword at his waist already unfastened and held horizontally in his arm, the smile on his face more sincere than three days ago.

Behind him stood two young people, a man and a woman, both dressed in the white robes of the Valley of Life and Death. The man held a jade box, while the woman carried a glass lamp with a cluster of green flames burning in its wick.

Ya Jiu emerged silently from the darkness, draped in a black robe with his hood pulled low, revealing only his interlaced fingers resting in front of him.

His appearance was as bizarre as ever—he didn't walk out of the room, but slid out from a cloud of black mist that seemed to have formed out of thin air, as if he didn't exist anywhere at all, but appeared simply because someone "thought" about him.

"Young Master Dongfang, the spirit stones from the Valley of Life and Death have arrived."

Bai Wuchen pointed to the jade box in the hand of the male disciple behind him, "Ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones, converted into the starting price for the auction, can be bid on for one hundred rounds."

If that's not enough, I also have a token from the Valley of Life and Death, which can be temporarily exchanged for three thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

"Brother Ya Jiu, where is your Samsara Palace?"

Ya Jiu extended a hand from under his black robe, his palm open to reveal a jet-black bone ring.

The patterns on the bone ring were identical to the ancient runes on the architecture of the Samsara Palace, gleaming with a faint green light under the glowing stone.

The spirit stones of the Reincarnation Palace are in the bone ring, totaling twelve thousand. The Palace Master added an extra two thousand as a token of gratitude to Demon God Lü for bringing back the Reincarnation Seal back then.

His voice was dry, like the rubbing of withered leaves, but there was a rare hint of warmth in his tone.

"It's not for you, it's for Demon God Lü. You helped him lock the door, and the Samsara Palace acknowledges this favor."

Dongfang Weiwo accepted the bone ring and jade box, and put them into his bosom.

He didn't say thank you, but paused before turning to walk into the private room, and said something with his back to the two of them:

"Once I get the map, I will mark the locations of the Resurrection Grass and the Flower of Life and Death for you."

"If the Samsara Seal is still intact, I will not keep it."

Bai Wuchen and Ya Jiu both fell silent for a moment.

They had seen too many people who formed alliances for mutual benefit on the Tianwu Continent, and they had also seen too many people who turned against each other for the same reason.

But this young man, who had fallen from the heavens, was leaning on a bamboo cane, and whose cultivation was only at the mid-stage of the Yin-Yang Realm, made a promise that was more decisive and straightforward than any Supreme Realm expert they had ever seen.

It wasn't because he was generous, but because he knew very well what he needed and what he didn't need.

This kind of pure greed is the most trustworthy.

The auction officially began in about 15 minutes.

The auction was presided over by the chief auctioneer of the Iron Feather City branch of the Blackscale Merchant Guild, a woman around forty years old, wearing a neatly tailored dark-colored long dress, her hair pulled up high, revealing her slender neck and a pair of jade earrings.

She stood in front of the white glass display stand, the auction hammer in her hand not made of wood.

Instead, it was a piece of jet-black meteorite iron. When it struck the edge of the display stand, the sound was deep and penetrating, instantly silencing all the whispers in the room.

"The rules of the Blackscale Merchant Guild are well known to our old friends."

The rules are the same tonight—the highest bidder wins, and the deal is finalized with a hammer.

Bidding is based on medium-grade spirit stones; barter and credit are not accepted.

Any attempt to interfere with the bidding process by force will trigger the dome's killing array.

She glanced around the room, her gaze lingering for a moment on the two private rooms on the second floor, her voice neither hurried nor slow.

"Iron Feather City has its own rules, and the Black Scale Merchant Guild has its own rules."

Everyone here, whether you're in the Life and Death Realm or the Yin-Yang Realm, once you enter this door, you're all buyers.

The buyer's dignity is determined by the spirit stone, not by their fists.