Yang Fan’s words attracted Lin Yun's attention. This was somewhat interesting as he had never heard of an auction that wasn’t based on the highest bidder winning.

“This auction actually goes by another name,” said Yang Fan. “It’s called the death auction.”

“Death Auction?” Lin Yun’s interest was piqued by those words.

Yang Fan smiled when he saw Lin Yun’s expression. As he explained, Lin Yun finally understood what was going on. He had to admit that the auction was indeed, somewhat interesting. Anyone who entered, even spectators, were required to sign the Life-Death Agreement.

The so-called Life-Death Agreement was made because the auction items have a limit to the bid. If there were two people whose bid reached the limit, then they would determine the winner based on their strength. Furthermore, there is no restriction to the fight, so the participants can use all means available to them, including poison, hidden weapons, and cosmic artifacts.

Once two people reached the limit, the bid would be determined by life and death. This was why everyone was required to sign the Life-Death Agreement. Most importantly, no one was exempt. Since many people died while competing for the treasures, it got the name Death Auction.

The name might sound terrifying, but not many people had died in the past years. After all, one could surrender if they lost the battle. However, they wouldn’t be able to fight anymore the moment they surrendered. Otherwise, the Skymound City’s auction could revoke the loser’s qualification to bid.

Then again, it was a little weird. After all, if someone only met the limit, then wouldn’t the auction house lose out from making maximum profit on their auction items? But it was something they had already considered.

Firstly, the limit was already high. In fact, it was at least ten times the actual value of the item. Secondly, if you choose to break the limit, you would have to pay the limit price regardless if you won or lost. This means that the auction house will also receive an additional portion of money from the loser.

A popular auction item could easily break the limit, which was a lot higher than an ordinary auction. This high harvest was attractive to many people and the reason why every auction was a success. Throughout the years, the rules were also gradually being perfected.

For example, they would limit the age of those who chose to break the limit to thirty years old. Otherwise, there would be nothing attractive about this auction if the gap between the two parties’ strengths were too great.

Then again, this didn’t mean that one couldn’t bid if their age was too high. They could always get someone to fight on their behalf. In general, the auction was no longer a simple auction, but a grand event of the Skymound City.

So one could expect that the auction would be busy and that many young geniuses would be gathered. After all, this was an opportunity for them to rise to fame.

Yang Fan smiled, “You must be interested now. Even if there’s nothing you want, going there can broaden your experience. After all, the gathering there is a lot larger than today’s gathering.”

“Let’s meet at the auction in seven days,” said Lin Yun. He was truly interested in the auction now.

The Skymound City was well-lit even at night. In the courtyard that Lin Yun rented, he sat down to finish refining the Profound Lightning Bead.

Before him was a lake, clear like a mirror as it reflected the moon. There was also a fog above the lake that was filled with dense spiritual energy. This lake was a genuine spiritual lake.

Although it couldn’t be compared to the Heavenly Province Academy’s Profound Yin Lake, it was still extremely attractive to Lin Yun. Lin Yun was still somewhat shocked that he could rent a courtyard with a spiritual lake. After all, if the Great Qin Empire had such a spiritual lake, it would give birth to power clans.

But it wasn’t rare in Skymound City. There were plenty of courtyards with spiritual lakes. If you had enough wealth, you could even rent a spiritual mountain without any issues. With the deep foundations of the Thunder Prefecture, it truly deserved the title as the strongest prefecture in the Ancient Southern Domain.

Lin Yun might seem calm, but lightning was rumbling within his body. As the azure dragon energy coursed through his body, he was slowly absorbing the lightning energy from the Profound Lightning Bead, gradually improving his Azure Dragon Enneaform.

He had felt great pressure from Xiang Tianhe at the gathering. Xiang Tianhe might be a genius on the lower end of the inner ranking, but Lin Yun knew that he still had many trump cards. If he really fought with Xiang Tianhe, he only had 40% odds of winning. But even if he couldn’t defeat Xiang Tianhe, he was confident that he could get away.

The moment geniuses reached the Yin-Yang stage, they would have far exceeded the experts of the older generation. But the pressure coming from Qing Ruoyou was immense. If Xiang Tianhe was a ball of blazing flame, then Qing Ruoyou was like a moon, deep and unfathomable. Even without seeing Qing Ruoyou attacking, he could imagine how terrifying she was.

If he participated in the Draconic Banquet half a year from now, Lin Yun knew that it would be difficult for him to even get into the top thirty.

Four years had passed, so god only knew how powerful everyone had gotten. There were many variables, especially with the ones that were only sixteen and had made it into the inner ranking. If he had four years, Lin Yun was confident that he wouldn’t be afraid of the three kings and seven elites.

But having pressure was a good thing. After all, if the geniuses on the inner ranking were too weak, then the Draconic Banquet would be too boring.

In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed. Lin Yun opened his eyes with a light flickering in his pupils and a flash of lightning streaked past the surface of the lake.

Ripples started to spread on the calm lake with lightning crackling, which was a sign that his attainments in lightning had reached a new height. Lin Yun spread his arms apart as cracks began to spread out on the Profound Lightning Bead. It was a sign that the lightning energy in the Profound Lightning Bead was about to be fully exhausted.

Looking at this scene, Lin Yun couldn’t help sighing inwardly. The Azure Dragon Enneaform was so powerful that his powerful physique had completely drained the power in the Profound Lightning Bead.

If it was someone ordinary like Feng Wuhen, they wouldn’t be able to refine one-third of it in half a year. But for the Azure Dragon Enneaform, it wasn’t even brought to the pinnacle third stage.

“Looks like I have to pay the Death Auction a visit,” said Lin Yun as he crushed the Profound Lightning Bead.

The Skymound Plaza was situated at the center of Skymound City. It was a flat ground made of pearly white jade. Looking down from the sky, it looked like a flawless jade and gave the bustling city a wisp of serenity.

The plaza was massive and there were countless people gathered. Before the auction started, there were tens of thousands of people that had arrived, but even this wasn’t too crowded.

After signing the Life-Death Agreement, everyone began to take their seats on the mats. If someone didn’t know of the situation, they would have thought that a powerhouse was speaking on the Dao.

At the center, there was a pavilion with many people drinking and chatting among themselves. They were, without a doubt, the geniuses of the various clans in Skymound Cit and each of them had a terrifying background. Any one of them could be considered the guest of honor, so it wasn’t easy for ordinary geniuses to stand out here.

How busy… Lin Yun casually sat down on a mat after signing the Life-Death Agreement.

When he glanced at the pavilion, he could detect many powerful auras. Some of them weren’t even in the Yin-Yang stage. Yang Fan mentioned that this gathering wasn’t what Xiang Tianhe’s gathering could be compared to.

The two people seated beside Lin Yun were discussing who would be the one to break the limit of this Death Auction. After all, the first to break the limit would definitely suffer a loss, like the one guarding the arena because you wouldn’t know how many people would break the limit.

If there were a lot of people, then it would be a series of battles. If they had the same strength, then it would be tough to win. But there was no doubt that the first person who broke the limit would become the center of attention.

If they could obtain the final item and guard the stage successfully, then they would definitely be the most dazzling person.

Lin Yun locked his brows together as it would be troublesome if he wanted anything from the auction. After all, he had over ten thousand fourth grade spiritual jades, which was comparable to the foundation of a quasi-overlord force.

If it was an ordinary auction, then no one here could compete with him, not even those geniuses of the various clans. But it would be troublesome if he broke the limit. Then again, Lin Yun also felt interested just by thinking about it. He wanted to see how strong the geniuses of Skymound City were.

He still wasn’t satisfied from the gathering seven days ago as it couldn’t even be considered an appetizer.

“Her Highness, Qing Ruoyou is here!” A loud boom sounded out that instantly caused an uproar among the crowd.

Xiang Tianhe walked in with Qing Ruoyou by his side. They kept a low profile as they didn’t bring any followers along, but their appearance instantly caused an uproar as many people directed their gazes over.

Even those geniuses from the various clans had directed their gazes over. Qing Ruoyou was the little princess of the Indigomoon Elysium and her beauty was too dazzling. She had perfect and flawless features, which instantly made her the focus of attention when paired with her aloof temperament.

Her temperament put up an invisible wall between her and everyone here. But the more she did that, the more it attracted everyone’s interest.

She was so dazzling that it made people neglect Xiang Tianhe who was right beside her. A genius on the inner ranking was a dazzling existence even in the Skymound City. But it was a pity that all the attention that should be his had gone to Qing Ruoyou instead.

But Xiang Tianhe didn’t seem bothered by it. On the contrary, he looked rather pleased. After all, not everyone could stand next to Qing Ruoyou. The jealous gazes from the surroundings instantly fed his ego.

“That woman is also here…” Lin Yun retracted his gaze. He had to admit that Qing Ruoyou did have the capital to be proud of. It didn’t matter if it was her origin or beauty, she had left countless women feeling ashamed of themselves.