For the next creature, what looked like a very wide flat red pig, Sage started out by bidding thirty thousand, triple the starting value. The other VIP booth immediately broke in and bid sixty thousand.

Perfect.

Sage didn’t make another bid. The pig was probably only worth thirty to forty and now the rival booth had to pay sixty for it. Sage did exactly the same thing on the next item, sticking the other VIP booth with a bill for a hundred thousand. The third time, the other booth didn’t bid quite so high and they were saved by other bidders taking over to push the price higher. The next item Sage didn’t bid immediately, he let others in the auction bid the price up. When the bidding started to slow down, then Sage stepped in and doubled the current price. That rival booth jumped in and outbid him, thinking he actually wanted this item.

Sage didn’t bid again. He just smiled over at Jin Shih, “Just teaching that guy a lesson. He has it out for you, right?”

Jin Shih gave him a strange look and then waved his hand, “It’s no big deal. I’ll take care of him someday, you don’t need to concern yourself.”

I’m concerned because he was messing with me too, you dummy.

“Oh, it’s no problem. We’re all from the same Sect, we should support each other.”

Sage didn’t bid on the next item, letting a few pass by before he bid again. The other VIP booth didn’t back down and Sage cost them another pile of Spirit Stones by immediately dropping out of the bidding. Sage waited a couple more items and bid again, this time the other booth didn’t bid and Sage counted it as a win even though he had to waste fifty thousand on an ugly beast that looked like a furry yellow gremlin. About the size of a dog, it had course yellow fur, two arms with clawed fingers, and a large wide mouth filled with sharp fangs.

Sage didn’t even bother learning the name of the little beast, but he was glad to have finally got the other VIP booth to stop annoying them. Which was good, because he’d missed a dozen auction items now, caring only about the rival booth. With that hindrance reduced, if not removed, he could focus on the beasts again. A few more beasts went up for auction, one of them was even one of the items from the Beast Den. The quality of that Thunder Ox was quite apparent, it looked far stronger and healthier than any of its kind that Sage had seen or heard described.

The Thunder Ox had cloudy blue hides and metallic silver horns that crackled with lightning. Small dark clouds would form around their ankles and when they stomped their feet it created a loud boom that sounded like thunder. The Thunder Ox that came from the Beast Den had horns twice the size of a normal Thunder Ox, it’s black hooves looked like obsidian, far different than the coal like hooves of a normal Thunder Ox, and its hide had a sort of iridescent effect, shifting from light blue to dark blue from different angles. It also stood tall and proud, straining the harness and chains that held it in its cage. It had none of the defeated and obedient looks that other Thunder Oxen had.

Sage was impressed and convinced to try and build a relationship with the Tamer Xin Er. Of course, that was only a dream, since everyone wanted a good relationship with him and Sage was even a member of a rival Sect. Sage contemplated on different ways that he might get on Xin Er’s good side through the next couple auction items.

“Brother Lang, look!”

Cui Shufen’s voice broke him from his thoughts and directed his gaze away from his cup and down to the stage. Sage sat up straight and leaned forward, only catching the end of the auctioneers description.

“...the rare Demonic Insect, Bone Mantis! Bidding will begin at one hundred thousand Spirit Stones, with a minimum bid of ten thousand.”

He cursed inwardly for being distracted and started to examine the creature up on the stage and also check his memory for their capabilities. The creature on the stage was quite small, about triple the size of a normal Praying Mantis from back on Earth. Only about a foot long, it was nothing like the massive insects he’d been raising. It was placed in a cage with a black velvet lining and backing so that the Bone Mantis would stand out. Like many species of insect, its body had a strange shape to allow it to camouflage itself.

The unusual part was that the Bone Mantis was disguised to look like a piece of discarded or broken bone. The large round eyes that were characteristic of Mantids were even larger than normal and looked similar to the bulbous ends of a femur, tibula, or humerus. By placing its arms and legs in different positions it would look like different sorts of fractures or cracks, or it could pull them all in and look like a complete bone. The same went for its waist, the most common mantis hunting positions, standing as if in prayer, looked like a bone that had splintered, half of it poking up into the air. More commonly though, it would rest its lower half among a pile of bones, looking just like a large bone jutting upwards.

Sage was excited as he hadn’t had the chance to get his hands on a Demonic Insect yet. Every species he had so far were all Spirit Insects, and just like the difference between Demonic Beasts and Spirit Animals, the Demonic Insects were a higher level of existence. The true ‘Mature’ technique of the Insect Immortal Index essentially allowed him to upgrade a Spirit Insect into a pseudo Demonic Insect, it wasn’t quite as powerful. True Demonic Insects would have transformed and evolved over thousands if not millions of years. They would be far more powerful than normal Spirit Insects.

On the other hand, he wouldn’t be able to link to a Demonic Insect as they were actually intelligent in comparison to normal Spirit Insects. Such a fact didn’t damper his desire, as he could still use it for breeding purposes. Infusing the bloodlines of Demonic Insects into his Spirit Insects. He might even be able to pass on their special ability. The famed trait of the Bone Mantis: feeding upon death aura. The Bone Mantis didn’t even have a mouth, and it was actually quite similar to an undead creature. It gained sustenance by consuming death energy, or death aura. A corruption of the normal energy of the world that gathered around corpses or other rotting lifeforms. The Bone Mantis only killed things in order to increase the death aura in their immediate area.

As Sage examined the Bone Mantis, the current bid had already rose to half a million. He looked over to Cui Shufen who smiled politely, “The Bone Mantis is an important material for a few types of high rank purification pills and corruption cleansing artifacts.”

Nodding, Sage understood now. Without a matched pair, they couldn’t breed more Bone Mantids, so they chose to sell it instead. As for why it wasn’t just the body being sold, some obscure uses of different materials involved souls, minds, or extracting of parts while the creature was still living. It was always worth more to have a living creature for sale instead of a corpse, even if anyone would only want it dead.

Sage checked how many Spirit Stones he had and frowned. The Bone Mantis had increased to such a high price he didn’t know what to do. Putting his hand onto the yellow seed, he entered a single bid.

I’ll just leave it up to fate.

“Booth Six bids 650,000! Any other takers?”

Sage’s heart rate quickened, the second call came, and Xiao Mei Mei opened her mouth to call out a third and final time when the eighth booth, the one that housed Jin Shih’s rival, posted a higher number.

“Booth Eight bids 675,000!”

Sage leaned back and downed the rest of his drink. After his previous purchases his finances had dropped to 180,000. Then he’d sold some beasts and a set of Formation Swords to bring him up to 420,000. The Roots of the Resolute set sold for the most yet, 180,000; to bring him up to six hundred large. His bid was already digging into the presale funds for the Airships. He’d already sent a Red Crane Message back to Wan Ling carrying the contract he’d negotiated. The Lu Clan ordered a full one hundred of the basic model airships. At 8,000 each, and half paid up front, it put the total number of Spirit Stones he carried up to a full million.

Since he already decided to bid only once, Sage just sat back and let Jin Shih’s rival take the Bone Mantis away. At the moment he couldn’t tell if that person in Booth Eight really wanted the Bone Mantis or if they’d just guessed correctly that it was something they cared about.

I also can’t forget there’s a chance that booth is actually Jin Shih’s hired stooge.