Elderly Martial Saint: Sixty Times the Cultivation Speed ​​at the Start

Lin Qi's words about Jiang Zhongtian consigning items clearly attracted everyone's attention. They were all curious about what items the strongest person in the city would auction.

Behind the doors and windows of the first-floor private rooms, all the masters on the Heroes' List sat up straight, craning their necks to stare at the table, eager to know if it was an incredible opportunity.

Lin Qi didn't rush to unveil the curtain. He gestured behind him, and after receiving the signal, two maids carried an iron-gray box onto the stage.

The boxes in their hands were small, about the size of a palm, with no patterns or decorations on the surface. They were dusty and looked very shabby compared to the previous display of red silk and gold plates.

The maid placed the box in the center of the table and then stepped back to either side.

Having attracted enough attention, before the people in the private rooms on the first floor were about to start cursing, Lin Qi finally reached out and lifted the lid of the box.

Inside the mysterious box lay a thin booklet. The cover was tattered, the edges were charred, and there were several burn marks, making it appear rather incomplete.

Furthermore, the edges of the booklet were yellowed and brittle, and half of the words on the top few lines of the cover were burned off, with only the word "God" barely discernible.

To be honest, this thing doesn't look very presentable. People in the hall were already whispering about it when they saw its appearance.

"this one?"

"Is this all Lord Jiang Zhongtian is consigning?"

"It looks like scrap paper that was dug out of some dilapidated temple..."

Ignoring the murmurs below, Lin Qi carefully held the booklet in his palm, faced the entire room, and said in a deep voice:

"I learned about this technique from Lord Jiang; it's called 'Divine Bone Blood Refinement'."

"Body Refining Techniques"

"grade--"

He paused for a moment: "Beyond true skill."

The murmurs in the hall stopped abruptly.

Above true skill.

Everyone present understood the weight of those four words. For an ordinary martial artist, it would be incredibly lucky to even touch a genuine skill manual in their entire life. As for things beyond genuine skills, they were beyond the measure of money.

Lin Qi continued, "However, due to the incompleteness of the cultivation method, the three appraisers of our Rare Treasures Pavilion cannot determine the specific level that can be achieved, nor can Lord Jiang make any guarantees. Therefore, the grade is marked as—'Unknown'."

He put the booklet back in the box, stepped back, and announced:

"The starting bid for this item is 280 spirit crystals."

After saying that, he added, "Incomplete cultivation techniques come with their own risks. Distinguished guests who are interested should proceed according to their own capabilities."

These words are quite true. Even an incomplete body-refining technique beyond the true level is enough to make people flock to it. However, the word "unknown" brings down expectations—what if they get it and find they can't cultivate it? That would be the end of it, and the hundreds of spirit crystals they bid for would be wasted. The Rare Treasures Pavilion wouldn't return them.

That's why Lin Qi set the starting bid at 280, which was almost half the price of the complete divine sense technique from before.

The hall was quiet for a while.

The threshold of 280 coins was too high; those below didn't even have the courage to raise their hands.

Yi Yang sat on a soft couch in a private room on the first floor, his fingers resting on the edge of the bidding paddle.

His eyes were fixed on the charred booklet on the table, a burning desire igniting deep within his pupils.

Body-refining techniques are of a higher grade than true techniques.

When these two words collided, only one thought remained in Yi Yang's mind: "I must win this!!!"

His "Martial Dragon Elephant Body" has reached perfection. At this level, the blood in his body turns golden, and his physical body can withstand the full force of a True Qi Martial Artist. Even the conventional attacks of the Profound Realm cannot harm him.

But mastering the technique is the ceiling.

No matter how many pills you take or how much you refine yourself, this technique has no room for improvement. If you want your body to undergo another qualitative change, there is only one way—switch to a higher-grade body-refining technique.

After Yi Yang completed his cultivation, he tried to find a suitable one, but even in a place like Hengyue Town, he never found one.

I never expected it to come to me like this today.

As for the incompleteness—

Yi Yang sneered inwardly.

Others fear incompleteness, but he doesn't. The panel only recognizes the technique itself; even if only one page remains of the manual, as long as the core method isn't lost, the panel can still include it. After that, he leaves the rest to fate's enhancement, and he just trains until the end.

What's a gamble for others is a windfall for him.

We must take this.

Just then, someone spoke up from the first-floor private room:

"Two hundred and ninety."

The bidder's voice lacked confidence and carried a hint of probing.

"Three hundred coins," came the reply from another private room.

The two voices went back and forth, and the price slowly climbed from 280 to 320. The bidding was very slow, with only three or five coins added each time, as they were testing each other's bottom line.

Yi Yang didn't move; he was waiting.

When the 320 coins were hanging on the table, the second-floor VIP box finally stirred.

A deep male voice descended from above: "Three hundred and forty-six."

Twenty-six more were added at once.

The two voices that had been exchanging words on the first floor suddenly fell silent.

The second level has made a move, and the scale is different. With someone at the Profound Realm speaking up, it would be tactless for those at the True Qi Realm below to follow suit.

The entire room fell silent for a few moments.

No one else bid.

Lin Qi raised the jade hammer in his hand, ready to bring it down.

Just as the jade hammer hovered in mid-air, about to strike—

Yi Yang spoke, intending to make a definitive decision:

"Five hundred."

Three words, neither too loud nor too soft, came from box number seventeen on the first floor, landing steadily and clearly over the entire venue.

Five hundred pieces.

It jumped directly from 346 to 500.

The price difference of 154 coins reached everyone's ears.

A collective gasp rippled through the lobby. Quiet gasps echoed from the other private rooms on the first floor.

This kind of pricing has only one meaning—I want this item.

Lin Qi's jade hammer, which had been suspended in mid-air, stopped, and he subconsciously glanced in the direction of VIP room number seventeen.

However, just as he was about to speak to confirm...

From the second floor above, a male voice rang out simultaneously:

"Five hundred."

Exactly the same numbers.

The two "500-coin" tokens collided in mid-air, creating a brief vacuum in the venue.

Yi Yang's brow twitched.

He hadn't expected someone on the second floor to have the same price as him, ranging from 346 to 500. This price jump spoke volumes—he was telling everyone not to waste their time.

But the person on the other side felt the same way.

Yi Yang didn't give himself time to hesitate.

"Five hundred and twenty."

The response from above his head came almost right after he finished speaking: "Five hundred and forty."

Quick, decisive, and without any hesitation.

Yi Yang gritted his teeth. He quickly calculated in his mind—after deducting the 131 spirit crystals he spent on buying boots today, he still had a little over 860 spirit crystals left in his storage ring.

If you spend six or seven hundred, you'll only have less than two hundred coins left as working capital.

But so what?

Deep inside the storage ring lay five True Essence Lotus Seeds and two Darkwing Eagle Eggs. Although these items couldn't be spent on the spot, any one of them could be exchanged for several hundred spirit crystals.

He won't go broke because of this deal.

"Six hundred."

Yi Yang's voice drifted out from the private room, his speech neither too fast nor too slow, without a trace of impatience.

Six hundred.

This figure has already exceeded the transaction price of the complete Tongxuan Realm Divine Sense Technique from earlier.

The martial artists in the hall looked at each other, their faces full of confusion. Why was a booklet burned to half its original size selling for more than a complete cultivation manual? Had the person in that private room gone mad, or was there some extraordinary secret to this manual?

And all the martial artists are in private rooms on the first floor, so why is he so rich?

There was silence for three breaths.

The voice from the second floor came again:

"Six hundred and twenty."

Yi Yang's fingers clenched the bidding paddle.

The veins on his finger bones bulged, then he deliberately relaxed them.

Six hundred and twenty coins; the other side is determined.

He went through it in his mind—six hundred and eighty, or seven hundred?

Seven hundred is too risky, while six hundred and eighty leaves more room for maneuver, but it also means that there is almost no cash left.

Yi Yang closed his eyes briefly.

The image of himself standing on the stone platform of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains, smashing the head of the Black Mane Steel Pig with a single punch flashed through his mind. That feeling of pure, unadulterated pleasure from crushing everything with his bare hands.

Then he thought of when he fought against a martial artist at the second level of the Profound Realm. Although his physical body withstood the attack, he still couldn't avoid getting injured.

The "Martial Dragon Elephant Body" technique is powerful when perfected, but not powerful enough.

If Yi Yang's physical body is not enough to withstand the full force of a Dharma Body Realm expert's attack, this book, "Divine Bone Blood Refinement," will be the ladder for him to climb higher.

"Six hundred and eighty."

Yi Yang's voice came from inside the private room.

It was flat and steady, like announcing what we'd be having for dinner tonight.

The entire room fell silent.

Buying a fragmented cultivation technique for 680 spirit crystals is a price that ranks among the highest in the entire trading history of Hengyue Town.

With his eyes closed, Yi Yang's consciousness passed through the ceiling and locked onto the private room on the second floor.

He sensed that aura fluctuating. It wasn't the kind of fluctuation associated with anger; it was one of calculation, struggle, and weighing repeatedly whether or not to pursue.

Five breaths.

Eight breaths.

Ten breaths.

No more sounds came from that private room.

The jade hammer in Lin Qi's hand fell with a crisp sound.

"Six hundred and eighty spirit crystals, sold!"

"Congratulations to our distinguished guests in the first-floor private room!"

The maid carried the iron-gray box and walked into VIP room number seventeen through the private passage.

Yi Yang took the tattered booklet.

I ran my fingertips over the charred cover; the paper was rough, and some of the carbonized edges crumbled at the slightest touch.

He turned to the first page, and an ancient and desolate aura emanated from the yellowed paper. It was a feeling that was hard to describe, as if something across hundreds of years had glanced at him from the depths of the pages.

Yi Yang closed his eyes and focused his consciousness on the panel that only he could see.

A line of text appeared.

[Divine Bone Blood Refinement (Uncultivated): 0/0]

The panel of destiny accepted it; whether the cultivation technique was incomplete or not was irrelevant to him.

Yi Yang closed the booklet and put it into his storage ring, the smile on his lips almost imperceptible.

Six hundred and eighty spiritual crystals.

value.

He picked up the cooled teacup on the table, took a sip, leaned back on the soft couch, and sat cross-legged to practice his internal energy.

On the panel, the progress of "Yi Mu Zhen Yang Jing" jumped again.

600.

at the same time.

The second-floor private room was the one where Yi Yang had just bid against.

The doors and windows were tightly closed, and as soon as the maid left, the air in the room smelled different.

Seated on the soft couch was a burly man with a bronze-like face. His sideburns were shaved clean, and a thick braid was tied at the back of his head. His dark red martial arts uniform was tightly stretched over his bulging muscles, making him look like a Luohan cast from cast iron.

He was the one who had previously competed with Yi Yang; his name was Helian Zhu.

Known in the martial arts world as "Rock-Forged Golden Body," he was a powerful figure who had manifested at the second stage of the Profound Realm. At this moment, his fists were clenched on his knees, his knuckles pressing against each other, producing a series of soft cracking sounds.

Helian Zhu's chest heaved, his lips were pressed into a line, and the muscles in his cheeks bulged.

The maid's footsteps faded at the end of the corridor.

The moment the door closed, Helian Zhu slammed his fist on the mahogany table.

The corner of the table shattered with a crack, sending wood chips flying.

A string of low, obscure words burst from his mouth. They were not in the official language of Dayu. The syllables were rough and harsh, carrying a certain primitive ferocity. If any Wu Kingdom people were present, they would recognize that it was the local language of one of the nine tribes in the Southern Frontier.

He cursed in that language for a long time before his breathing gradually calmed down.

Helian Zhu switched back to the Dayu dialect and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth:

"I never expected that one of the six great body-refining inheritances would slip through my fingers like this."

He leaned back in his chair, his bronze-like face darkening.

Six hundred and eighty spirit crystals is a sum even a martial artist like him couldn't afford; it's an enormous amount. His last bid had cost him his entire fortune, and because Lin Qi was present, he couldn't threaten him.

So Helian Zhu tolerated it.

But enduring it doesn't mean you can swallow it down.

Helian Zhu raised his head, his gaze passing through the crystal window and landing on the location of VIP room number seventeen on the floor below. He couldn't see anything through the barrier, but he remembered the direction.

"Box number seventeen."

He read the number aloud, his voice very soft.

Then he pushed the mahogany table with the broken corner to the side and sat up straight again.

The rage on his face gradually subsided.

Instead, there is something deep, profound, and patient.

"When that big event takes place..."

Helian Zhu tapped his fingers lightly twice on his knee: "The person in box number seventeen will be the first to die."

He sat in the chair, his bronze-cast face showing no emotion in the lamplight.

But what was hidden in those eyes was far more dangerous than the rage he displayed when he smashed the corner of the table with his fist.

Lin Qi's voice rang out again from the auction stage downstairs.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the third to last item in the auction—"

All eyes in the room were once again drawn to the table.

~~~~~

I'm making it up to everyone late tonight; I'm really limited in my abilities and can't do it perfectly.