Chapter 11 - The Special Event

After several items were auctioned Falven’s interest was finally picked “Now let’s begin the bidding for the Heavenly Meridian Silver. This silver substance is capable of merging with your meridians and upgrade them of a whole grade. Unfortunately it’s only possible to upgrade meridians up to the captain stage, it would still be useful in ulteriorly refining higher ranked chi circuits though, depending on their grade”.

“What’s the likelihood of the upgrade to be successful?” an expert in the middle seats asked. “Wise question, esteemed one. It has more than 90% chance to upgrade a Soldier Chi circuit to Knight chi circuit, and 60/70% to upgrade a Knight chi circuit to a Captain one. This probability may vary depending on the specific situation and the cultivation arts used”.

The young geniuses in the room were not much impressed because they all had amazing talents, besides some sectmasters and generals were quite motivated. Although using many resources on cultivators with low grade talents was a waste, it may happen that a cultivator would have two high talents and a low third one. In this case the use of such an item would be miraculous.

“The starting price for the Heavenly Meridian Silver is 50 Commander Crystals!” Fatal Moon enticed the audience and soon many rising bids were called. The Royal Lord called a very high bid “100 Commander crystals!”. After some seconds a middle aged man rised the bid again “105 commander crystals”. Ruuko recognised that character and readily informed his young seer “He’s the sect master of the Heavenly Edict Clan, a fourth rate sect in the west jurisdiction of the Unbroken Country. Some years ago there was a gossip regarding the poor talents of his only child. Even though he has a Captain Constitution, which is not bad, he’s got a Knight Mind Eye and a Soldier Chi circuit. This kind of talents won’t allow him to succeed his father nor to reach a nearly similar success”.

Ruuko’s information gathering skills were truly accurate, no wonder how this mercenary force could end up being the most valid ally of the country beside the big sects, having only Unbroken Fang as a powerful expert.

The bids kept increasing, until only the Heavenly Edict Sect and the elder of the Desolate Tribulation Sect were still fighting for the auctioned item. “300 commander crystals!” the elder stated. “Sigh, it seems it’s not his fate” the sectmaster murmured.

“350 commander crystals” a calm statement came from the balcony of the Master Dao Imprinter. The elder took some time to reflect before claiming “It is getting expensive for me to further increase my bid, but I can indeed bid a bit more for the sake of my disciple. But, given that Master Dao Imprinter believes in karmic ties, I’ll start a positive karma from now on, giving up on the Heavenly Meridian Silver. I do not demand anything in change, my only hope for the future is that if the situation comes, Master Dao Imprinter will have a positive attitude towards us”.

Such courteous words, spoken from an elder of a second rate sect, held great meaning and astonished many of the presents. “I sincerely thank you, Senior. If in the future the situation comes, I’ll remember the events of today” Falven answered, while smiling for the gain. After that many items were auctioned, until the special event arrived.

“Esteemed guests, embrace yourself for the special event of this year. Three items will be auctioned, they have been commissioned by someone who wants to remain anonymous. Bring the items in!” Fatal Moon commanded and three miniature wooden boats appeared on the stage.

“You can see it for yourselves, no perceptual sense can penetrate these little wooden boats. Reading ancient records our Venerable Estimator has confirmed that in one of these three boats a treasure is hidden. Here you are the rules of the special event: in order to assess one wooden boat yourselves you need to pay a fee of 3 commander crystals, going up to 9 commander crystals to assess all of them. After anyone has finished evaluating the wooden boxes, the actual biddings start for one at a time. I repeat, no matter what, the perceptual sense of your Mind Eyes cannot penetrate the wood, at least the Mind Eye of our Venerable Estimator couldn’t, so you can only base yourselves on your own judgement and perception of the laws. Finally, the last important rule of the event, you can only choose a wooden boat to bet on. Let the event start!”.

Many experts joined the fray and payed the 9 commander crystals, including Falven. It was not only an attempt to get a treasure, but also a way for allowing renowned experts to compete with each other in terms of comprehension and perception.

The wooden boats were passed from one expert to another and finally his turn arrived. Falven started focusing on one per per time, feeling the laws, activating at the maximum the martial intent he developed thanks to his God Mind Eye talent.

A martial intent is a specific attitude, skill or method cultivators may develop, it’s not considered an art and it’s not teachable to others, it’s given by their personal development, talents and intuition. Falven’s martial talent, which had naturally manifested itself back in the days while he was perceiving the laws, fosters his capability to comprehend what’s around him. Once activated the Dao resonates with him, its laws and and patterns circulate around the youth as if he was the eye of the storm. Their secrets would then slowly reveal themselves, being suctioned in the centre by the youth. This way he could communicate with the Dao, basking in the secrets of the world. Probably this was a consequence of his reflective attitude joined to the God Mind Eye.

In the end he had clear insights about these wooden boats. The first was permeated by a strange flame vitality, but the vitality that once was inside is now no more, only leaving flaming laws imprinted in the wood. The second wooden boat had several types of laws around its wooden parts, it seemed the wood was generating them. The most likely scenario was that in the past a talisman or another object emitting strong law fluctuations had been stored inside and once it had been taken out the wood started copying the laws which had drench it. Finally, the last wooden box. The youth couldn’t perceive anything at all. It felt like a dark room in which an ancient beast was sleeping, hiding his presence. Falven was sure this was the right box to go for.

When the wooden boats assessment phase ended, the actual bidding started. The younger generation was the most exited by this kind of competition, willing to prove their insights and their confidence in their abilities. Among the experts bidding for the first wooden box the Crimson Sky Prince was the higher bidder “200 commander crystals!”. He was sure that a flame was inside, he could feel fire laws useful to him.

The second box was won by the Sharp Leaves General, she invested 200 commander crystals too, she couldn’t bet any less than the prince.

Finally the time for the last box came.