ISWI Chapter 772-773

Chapter 772: Ye Chen Finally Wraps It Up!

The auctioneer sensed something amiss and realized the War God Clan had overplayed their hand. She tried every trick in the book to revive the atmosphere, stringing together eloquent pitches that extolled the water and earth attributes of the Black Tortoise Realm-Protecting Armor and its vital role in nurturing the foundation of a cave heaven. All in a desperate bid to lure Ye Chen into bidding again.

Yet no matter how flowery her words or how relentlessly she spoke, the box occupied by Ye Chen remained as silent as a grave. Not a single sound emerged.

No one knew what that esteemed guest was busy with inside. But the auction could not drag on indefinitely. With a helpless sway of her tail, the auctioneer began the countdown.

Finally, under the stunned, bewildered, incredulous, and heartbroken gazes of the three War God Clan semi-saints, she brought down the gavel.

"Congratulations to the guest in VIP box eighteen! The Black Tortoise Realm-Protecting Armor is yours for three hundred million top-grade spirit stones!"

The moment her words landed, a sharp crack echoed from the War God Clan's box—the unmistakable sound of a cup shattering.

The three semi-saints' faces darkened until they looked ready to drip water, utterly thunderous.

"Why didn't Ye Chen raise the bid? Doesn't he want it?"

"He can obviously afford it—why pass?"

"Three hundred million top-grade spirit stones! We don't have to pay the principal, but the thirty million auction fee is unavoidable. That's more than the armor itself is worth!"

"The Heavenly Emperor's heir is so filthy rich—why grudge us a little extra profit? What a bastard. We'll blow him to pieces the next chance we get!"

The trio nearly spat blood in frustration. Losing thirty million out of pocket was a disaster they could never explain back home. Their hatred for Ye Chen sprouted like wild grass, growing unchecked in their hearts.

The onlookers outside were no fools. From this incident, they all discerned the Heavenly Emperor heir's stance. He accepted a tenfold premium. But if they grew greedy and pushed beyond that, they could keep the item and play with it themselves.

Realization dawned, and the Peacock Clan patriarch felt a wave of relief. Thank goodness he hadn't been greedy earlier. Otherwise, he would have earned no profit and lost millions in fees instead. Who could stomach that?

The War God Clan's loss, however, delighted everyone. They silently thanked the clan for sacrificing itself to probe Ye Chen's attitude and bottom line.

After all, ten times the price was no small windfall. The resources gained could greatly nurture their own prodigies and bolster their strength. And whatever Ye Chen bought, they could always seize back later. A risk-free, massively profitable deal—what was there to complain about?

...

Thus, after the War God Clan ended up stuck with the Black Tortoise Realm-Protecting Armor, the rest of the auction flowed smoothly. Gone were the absurd million-by-million increments.

Instead, the moment an item appeared, Ye Chen immediately called ten times the base price. The hostess would dutifully canvass the room once. Upon confirming no challengers, the item was delivered straight to his box. She was a veteran of auctions, steeped in the trade for centuries.

Occasionally, after a sale, she would spend a few days "exchanging feelings" with high bidders. Yet even she had never presided over an auction this ridiculously streamlined. If every buyer acted like the Heavenly Emperor's heir, she might as well be out of a job. They could simply slap an extra zero on the price tag and sell outright.

The cultivators in attendance twitched involuntarily. They had always known the heir was wealthy. But this wealthy? Watching him squander spirit stones so freely hurt them more than it hurt him.

Among them were numerous saints and saint kings—true heavyweights. Yet even they felt a pang of bitterness as they watched Ye Chen spend like water, claiming treasure after treasure. They had cultivated to sainthood and still scrambled for resources. Some still wielded only low-grade Extreme Dao weapons.

Then there was the Heavenly Emperor's heir. Truly, some people started life at the finish line. As for his peers of the same generation, their envy, jealousy, and hatred had long since ignited. They were all heavenly prodigies of this era. Why did he alone get to be so obscenely rich?

Seeing him throw money around like this pained them more than death. But it also fanned their killing intent higher. Next time, they would absolutely slaughter the Heavenly Emperor's heir. Every last treasure in his vaults—they would explode them all out of him.

...

The most shocked of all was undoubtedly the auction manager. He discovered that the Heavenly Emperor's heir refused to even open his door. Treasures were delivered right to the threshold, where Ye Chen retrieved them from afar.

After confirming they were genuine, he sent out the auction fees the same way—across the empty air. By rights, this violated protocol and invited risks like substitution or tampering. But faced with a super-VIP whose transactions had nearly reached a billion in mere hours, rules no longer mattered. As long as His Excellency the Heavenly Emperor's heir was satisfied...

...

During this auction, only about a dozen items were truly useful for cave heavens, or at least tangentially related. Yet some cultivators present, watching Ye Chen throw money around like dirt, could no longer resist. They pulled cave heaven-related treasures from their own storage rings and handed them to the auction house for consignment.

The auction house naturally raised no objections. The more items sold, the more they earned. In the end, Ye Chen claimed a full seventeen treasures connected to cave heavens. Every single one sold at a tenfold premium—an astronomical price.

"Spiritual Jade Source-Gathering Pearl—eighty million top-grade spirit stones. Let us congratulate..."

"Sands of Time, capable of enhancing control over time flow within a cave heaven. Of immense value to fourth-realm semi-saints, it can also deepen a cave heaven's foundation..."

"Two hundred million! Sold!"

"Spiritual Star Cave Heaven Mirror: a supreme Extreme Dao weapon. Once refined, it fuses with the cave heaven, allowing its surface to reflect everything within at any moment. It detects the slightest changes and greatly aids mastery over the cave heaven..."

"Cave Heaven Cauldron: a low-grade Extreme Dao weapon. Heavenly materials and earthly treasures placed within can be transformed into spiritual liquid perfectly suited for cave heaven absorption, enriching its spiritual charm and deepening its foundation. It can also stabilize the cave heaven, rendering it unshakable by any dao or law..."

"Purple Flame Cave Heaven Furnace: a supreme Extreme Dao pill furnace. Drawing upon cave heaven power during refinement dramatically increases both success rate and pill quality. Each successful batch releases special pill vapors that nourish the cave heaven. The effect is minuscule per use, but over time it accumulates into a staggering total..."

"Divine Rune Seal: a cave heaven suppression artifact. It can anchor one's own cave heaven. Against external enemies, it can be driven by cave heaven power to suppress them outright. The larger the cave heaven, the larger the seal becomes. This seal also possesses refinement capabilities, converting suppressed enemies into the purest essence..."

The hostess continued her introductions without pause.

The cultivators in the hall listened with wide eyes; some items they had never even heard of. Yet the moment each appeared, Ye Chen claimed it outright. For a time, only his bids and the hostess's voice echoed through the venue.

When the final cave heaven spiritual artifact—the Divine Rune Seal—fell to Ye Chen at yet another tenfold premium, silence finally descended.

The myriad races who had profited grinned from ear to ear. The remaining bidders breathed sighs of relief. The outrageous Heavenly Emperor's heir had at last concluded his spree.

Now ordinary cultivators like them could bid normally. Even the hostess on stage felt a strange sense of loss. In all her years of auctioneering, she had never experienced one this effortless. What a pity Ye Chen finished so quickly.

No—it wasn't that Ye Chen was too fast. It was that the myriad races possessed too few treasures tied to cave heaven origins. The upcoming items had no connection to cave heaven sources. Thus, even if the Heavenly Emperor's heir desired them, he would never again pay ten times the price.

Chapter 773: The Heavenly Emperor's heir Keeps Shopping!

Once the cave heaven specialty segment—tailor-made for Ye Chen—finally concluded, most cultivators breathed a collective sigh of relief. At last, the auction could proceed normally. They no longer had to endure the terrifying resource dominance of the Heavenly Emperor's heir.

The myriad races' powerhouses who had hoped to fleece him, however, felt a twinge of regret. They could only lament that their clans possessed too few cave heaven treasures. Everything that had just happened clearly hadn't pushed the heir to his limit. Failing to glimpse his true ceiling was truly a pity.

...

"Ethereal Jade Marrow Essence: a top-tier refining divine material with unimaginable affinity for spiritual qi. Whether used as primary or auxiliary material for Extreme Dao weapons, it is nothing short of perfect..."

"Starting bid: five million top-grade spirit stones..."

On the auction stage, the hostess's voice rang out once more. Yet even she sounded somewhat hollow, feeling that the joyful times had been far too brief. Without the Heavenly Emperor heir's generous support, she would have to work for the rest of the sales herself.

However, the moment her words faded, that unmistakable voice echoed again from his private box: "Twenty million top-grade spirit stones!"

The heir was still bidding?

In an instant, the lively atmosphere that had just returned was swept away by a cold gust, plunging the hall back into silence. Everyone's lips twitched as they turned toward his box.

The Ethereal Jade Marrow Essence was undeniably precious, but among rare materials, it hardly ranked among the absolute rarest or most elite. Its fragile nature made it better suited as a spellcasting medium; it held little advantage in direct combat.

The piece on stage was also modest in size. Based on past transactions and market rates, its final price would typically hover around ten million at most. Who could have predicted that the Heavenly Emperor's heir would open with twenty million?

This...

Compared to his earlier frenzied tenfold premiums, this seemed somewhat restrained. But it was still outrageous. Were his spirit stones blown in by the wind?

For a moment, the cultivators who had shown mild interest in the essence fell completely silent. At twice the price, they could buy superior divine materials instead.

The owner of this particular piece happened to be the War God Clan. Inside their box, the three semi-saints' eyes lit up the instant they heard Ye Chen's bid.

The heir was interested in the Ethereal Jade Marrow Essence too? Did that mean they could push it to ten times again?

They had misjudged earlier and bled thirty million dry. This time, they had to recoup it.

Without hesitation, the three semi-saints raised by ten million, barely containing their glee. "Thirty million top-grade spirit stones!"

Yet once their call settled, silence returned from Ye Chen's box. A bad feeling immediately crept into their hearts. The heir wouldn't back out again, would he? It was only double the price.

You're quitting at double? Bid, damn it—you have mountains of spirit stones—bid! Even a single spirit stone more would do. We swear we won't raise it again!

To their despair, however, the silence persisted until the hostess brought down the gavel. Moments later, the three semi-saints stared at the Ethereal Jade Marrow Essence delivered back to their box, hearts aching so fiercely they could barely breathe.

They hadn't recovered the thirty million loss. Now they were out another three million top-grade spirit stones. Heavenly Emperor's heir—you inhuman bastard.

We suspect you're targeting the War God Clan on purpose!

Hatred surged within them, killing intent boiling over. They itched to charge over right then and there and blast the heir to pieces.

...

The War God Clan had suffered yet another loss. The onlookers, however, gained fresh insight.

Clearly, for items unrelated to cave heavens, the Heavenly Emperor's heir still had need, but his eagerness paled in comparison to cave heaven treasures. He would only raise the bid to roughly double the item's true value.

The moment it crossed that threshold, he abandoned it without hesitation. Once this pattern became clear, the crowd silently thanked the War God Clan once more for sacrificing itself to reveal the heir's stance and test his limits.

As predicted, the subsequent auction unfolded exactly along those lines. The instant any item appeared on stage, the Heavenly Emperor's heir immediately offered double its market worth. If no one contested him, the piece smoothly entered his possession. If someone did speak up, he refused to counter—clean, decisive, and absolute.

It left everyone speechless. This display only heightened the excitement among the myriad races' forces, who had been eagerly plotting to harvest Ye Chen before his eventual fall.

True, the tenfold windfalls were gone. But a modest double was still utterly adorable, wasn't it? They could seize everything back later anyway.

Without delay, they dispatched messengers racing back to their clans to fetch more treasures and divine materials in frantic haste.

A fool this generous was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They had to capitalize on it. Otherwise, after ambushing and killing the heir outside the city, who knew how many factions would divide the spoils—and how little each would receive? Securing profit early was by far the safest course.

The auction house executives and the hostess herself were practically blooming with joy. With a lavish spender like the Heavenly Emperor's heir present, every lot gained an automatic insurance policy that guaranteed at least a doubling of price. Higher final bids meant fatter profits for the house.

The hostess's commissions soared, granting her far more resources for future cultivation. Thus, with Ye Chen's enthusiastic patronage, her tail wagged even faster...

...

The auction continued in orderly fashion. Absurdly, though the pace was blisteringly quick, the queue of items awaiting sale grew like a rolling snowball—ever larger.

Evidently, beyond the great clans eager to fleece Ye Chen, many individual cultivators also sought to cash in while he was present, consigning their own treasures for premium prices.

Ye Chen, for his part, welcomed all comers. For ordinary lots with no special requirements, he casually tossed in a handful of spiritual plants to settle the fee. Even for those demanding rare materials, he fulfilled them effortlessly.

His cave heaven had truly become a boundless treasury, containing every wonder imaginable. His resources piled like mountains, divided into only two categories: those he could gift away and those he could not. He left the giftable untouched and spent the rest without restraint.

Spirit stones flowed from him like water. Those consigning items reaped bowls overflowing with profit, their faces radiant with uncontainable delight. Only the bidders who possessed nothing to sell and lacked the means to buy their coveted pieces now wore expressions dark enough to drip water. How were they supposed to compete?

The moment the Heavenly Emperor's heir spoke, the final price instantly doubled. True, if they raised by even a single top-grade spirit stone, Ye Chen would not follow. But they would still hemorrhage value. Resentment toward him sprouted wildly in many hearts, growing unchecked like weeds.

In one private box, Thunderbolt Great Saint Wen Tailai—who had earlier flown into a rage—sat with a face as gloomy as storm clouds.