It stung to watch the Bone Mantis get sold off to someone else, but it was just too expensive for the use Sage could get out of it. He leaned over to refill his grapeflower wine, watching as Jin Shih started bidding on something. As he’d thought it was another little fluffy animal that Cui Shufen thought looked cute. Jin Shih got into a frantic bidding war with an old man in the Leaf seats.

“My granddaughter HAS to have this Pink Mallow Marmot!”

Jin Shih didn’t say anything, but he had a little sneer on his lips and entered an even higher number. The bid was already up to a half million, ten times the starting number. At this point, Sage was glad that at least Jin Shih wasn’t openly hostile with him. He was willing to pay so much for a useless pet just to try and get Cui Shufen’s favor, the both of these Personal Disciples must be terribly wealthy. A few minutes later, Jin Shih finally won the pink gopher that looked like it was made out of cotton candy. Sage gave his congratulations while Cui Shufen was still staring at the Mallow Marmot with adoration.

The auction flew by after that. No longer at odds with VIP booth eight, Sage could focus on the items up for auction. There were a few that caught his eye and he bid conservatively, winning a pair Demonic Beasts: a Blade-tailed Viper, and a mating pair of Devil Bearded Catfish. He kept his spending low and still had over 900,000 after the two purchases. At least until he saw something he couldn’t pass up and got into a bidding war with an Alchemist down in the leaf seats who was yelling, “Two hundred thousand!”

Sage didn’t have to raise his voice, just using the controls in the booth to up the bid to 250,000. The Alchemist didn’t give up, but Sage was not going to stop. He just kept on pushing the price higher until the Alchemist finally gave up. Now, with 291,000 less Spirit Stones to spend, Sage hoped he hadn’t wasted too much on his win: the Spirit Animal Fire Bellied Cobra. It certainly didn’t sound like much, especially since it was only a Spirit Animal and not a Demonic Beast. It was actually prized for a single special ability it had.

The Fire Bellied Cobra had mottled brown and black scales everywhere except its belly which was a bright fire red. When it rose up and expanded its hood, it made for quite the terrifying visual. Just an intimidating look wouldn’t mean anything, for its main ability is what made it so prized. The Fire Bellied Cobra could consume any type of poison without harm. It didn’t have a venom sac like most other poisonous creatures, instead it had a second set of meridians that carried a special poison Qi. When it consumed poisons, they got mixed into these meridians and the poison Qi it carried transformed.

Alchemists, Doctors, and Poisoners loved the Fire Bellied Cobra. They would use them as living ingredient combiners. By feeding it a specific set of ingredients in the correct doses, the cobra could then be ‘milked’ of its venom on a regular basis. In this manner, they could get a never ending supply of a special poison mixture or more usually medicine and mixtures of herbal extracts. Many medicines at the wrong doses were poisonous and many poisons could cure at the right doses. Sage, on the other hand, had a far more important use for a Fire Bellied Cobra.

Unfortunately, after the Fire Bellied Cobra came a lot of large mammals and then a string of flying mounts. Sage wasn’t really interested. Then, just like the materials auction, they reached the part of the auction with unidentified creatures. Most of them were probably just mutations of other beasts that hadn’t been seen before, but at least a few of them had to be completely unique and unknown. It was a good thing Sage could control the emotions he displayed on his face or Jin Shih would have been laughing at him. These unknown beasts caught Sage’s interest and he wished he had enough to buy them all. Sadly, each of them were getting sold for a price in the low 7 digits to other VIP booths and a few in the leaf seats.

Without knowing what they can do, there’s no way I’d spend over a million on a mystery. At least not yet…

He could only daydream about being as rich as the real VIPs in the other booths. The unknown beasts were quickly sold off and the final sets of creatures came up for sale. Just like before they were the most rare, the most expensive, and the most powerful. Most of Xin Er’s specially bred beasts were in this category. The curtains at the back of the stage slid over to the sides and a dozen attendants rolled out a ten foot tall polished copper mirror mounted on a rolling stand. One of them brought out a three foot tall lantern consisting of a candle covered in glittering dust formed into the shape of dozens of array symbols. Half of the attendants poured out Fire Qi in great quantity before finally the candle was ignited and a huge flame rose into the air. The lantern itself was little more than a tray to hold the candle and a large disc shaped mirror to reflect the light from the candle towards the ten foot tall copper mirror.

When the light from the lantern fell upon the huge mirror there was a strange reaction. Some of the other attendants seemed to be struggling to keep the huge mirror in place as an image flew out the back of the mirror and was projected onto a huge white panel that was mounted on the trunk of the huge willow tree. The light from the candle seemed to pass through the mirror and was transformed into an image as it hit the screen mounted on the tree.

“We’ve now reached the finale of our living creatures auction, and these next beasts are so large or powerful that we can’t even bring them up onto the stage. This Magic Mirror will allow you to view them with all your senses just as if they were here.”

The image, which was just a bunch of glowing symbols, suddenly resolved into what seemed to be a feed from somewhere else. Unlike Sage’s movie projector, this Magic Mirror could project more than just light and sound. The image panned over a huge cavern the size of a sports arena till it revealed an immense monster. It looked like an eagle the size of an apartment complex with a serrated metallic beak. Its feathers looked like the fins of a radiator or computer heat sink. Those were just the superficial details. The real showstopper was the neon green light bleeding out of it. Its bones were glowing so very brightly they were visible through its organs, flesh, skin, and feathers. If the terrifying might of its aura wasn’t washing over the whole auction house, it would have looked like something cooked up for an unusual haunted house.

“As you can see the Spectral Terror Roc is a true powerhouse. The corrupting energy it releases is so powerful that Cultivators who haven’t reached the Sea Forming stage will be corrupted in just a few seconds if they approach closer than a mile away. Only those who have formed their Core can get close enough to ride it without suffering corruption.”

Sage could only marvel as even he would be ‘corrupted’ by that monster. While he hasn’t personally encountered it, from what he’d read in books, ‘corruption’ was quite similar to radioactive mutations as they were depicted in comic books. It could cause spontaneous mutation, mind alteration, the combination of two different creatures into one, or even all the terrible effects of regular radiation. Cancer, tumors, growths, liquified organs, hair loss, and plenty of other terrible ways to die. Overall, corruption seemed pretty terrifying and chaotic.

The bidding soon started and Sage was once again amazed by how wealthy the VIPs were. Eventually, the Spectral Terror Roc sold for 54 million Spirit Stones and Sage wondered just what a monster like that would be used for. Surely, these people were responsible enough to not use it as a terror weapon, right?

After the first of the terrifying beasts, one might think others would not be as impressive or terrifying, but they would be wrong. Each and every one of the beasts that followed would have given the Earthling Sage nightmares. Mostly because of their auras. They radiated a sense of terror. Somehow their auras didn’t just convey how powerful they were, but also suggested the many ways such a monster could kill him. It was like they were making him imagine hundreds of different of deadly scenarios at the same time, each and every one showing how helpless he was.

Well, at least I got to see how terrifying things over level 60 are… I should be happy about this, and not terrified, right?