Under the fiery gazes of the crowd, a few pretty women walked up the auction stage. The one who led them was a fat middle-aged man wearing an embroidered gown, who was all smiles as he clasped his hands together respectfully towards the surrounding guests.

"Welcome all guests to our Thousand Gold Auction House's auction. I hope that everyone will be able to return home satisfied today."

That fatty beamed at the crowd as he gave his opening address. Yet, when he saw the somewhat impatient expressions of the crowd, he coughed out a few laughs and without further ado, he straightaway proceeded to the main part of the auction.

"Everyone, the first item in our auction today is provided by the head of our Thousand Gold Association, a 4th Seal Symbol Master, Grandmaster Ruo's work, the Autumn Scale Sword."

Behind the fatty, a servant girl presented a silver plate. On top of the silver plate was a light-yellow long sword that was approximately two feet in length. The sword gleamed as if it was covered in numerous scales and on its surface, rows of symbols were faintly discernible. A peculiar chill faintly pulsed from the sword.

"I shall not give a pointless introduction of Grandmaster Ruo, I'm sure that everyone knows of this legendary figure. This Autumn Scale Sword was personally inscribed by Grandmaster Ruo and can be rated as an extremely sharp and powerful sword. Even an expert using Yuan Power to protect his body, would find it exceedingly hard to defend against it, an extremely deadly weapon."

"The bid for this sword will start at five hundred Yang Yuan Stones. If anyone is interested, feel free to begin." After finishing his explanations, the fatty grinned as he clasped his hands towards the surrounding crowd.

"Five hundred Yang Yuan Stones is equivalent to fifty Yang Yuan Pills..."

When Lin Dong heard this price, his lips involuntarily trembled. He could tell that this so-called "Autumn Scale Sword" was indeed a fine weapon. However, it was clearly not worth that price. The reason why it was so expensive, was likely due to the fact that it's creator was extremely renowned.

"Grandmaster Ruo? It mostly likely due to that Grandmaster Ruo. To think that he was actually a 4th Seal Symbol Master, truly a master..." While he lamented at the expensive price, Lin Dong mumbled to himself.

Currently, there were already quite a few people scrambling to bid for the "Autumn Scale Sword". Looks like Grandmaster Ruo's name was practically a gold lettered signboard.

Lin Dong did not hold much interest towards this "Autumn Scale Sword". After all, he was no adept with swords. Thus, even if he bought it, he would not find much use for it. This reason allowed him to calmly observe, as the price straightaway rocketed to eight hundred Yang Yuan Stones while he constantly sighed.

This first auction item finally stopped at eight hundred and fifty Yang Yuan Stones. That fatty was evidently quite satisfied with such a price. After smiling and congratulating the winner, he quickly moved on to the next auction article.

The second auction article was a type of Level 3 Martial Arts which could not be considered as a top-tier item. Thus, the starting bid was set at one hundred Yang Yuan Stones. The number of bidders this time was clearly a fraction of before and in the end, second item was sold for only one hundred and fifty Yang Yuan Stones.

After experiencing the first few auctions, Lin Dong, who had yet to see any decent items began to feel the novelty of the auction fade. He leaned back on his chair and once again closed his eyes to rest as he waited for the appearance of the things that he needed.

The atmosphere of the auction continued to be pretty lively, after all, quite a crowd was here and after about ten more items were auctioned off, the resting Lin Ding finally came upon the item he needed.

Void Spirit Grass, a Grade 5 Elixir with Mental Energy nourishing properties. Starting bid: two hundred Yang Yuan Stones.

This simple introduction caused Lin Dong's tightly shut eyes to open wide as his fervently stared at the jade box on the auction stage which contained the Elixir.

An Elixir like this would definitely be in great demand. Especially this kind of high Grade Elixir. Lin Dong had never seen a Grade 5 Elixir before in Qingyang Town, therefore, when this item was taken out, it drew many bids from the crowd. In less than a minute, the bid had already risen to three hundred Yang Yuan Stones.

With regards to the bidders that were raising the price, Lin Dong's eyebrows slightly furrowed, but he did not immediately join in and instead calmly observed the situation.

The price of the Void Spirit Grass continued rise, yet the speed of this rise had clearly started to slow down. A while later, only two people were left in the bidding competition, however, the price had yet to break past the five hundred Yang Yuan Stone mark.

"Six hundred Yang Yuan Stones."

A voice abruptly sounded about the auction, causing many to be stunned for a while. Their gazes followed the voice and they found a figure wearing straw hat before quickly shifting away, not bothering too much with this new competitor.

The one who had made the final bid was naturally Lin Dong. When they saw that the price had been raised by a hundred Yang Yuan Stones, the other two bidders could only resentfully seat themselves down. From Lin Dong's appearance, he was evidently rich and overbearing. It would probably be fruitless to continue to fight it out with him.

After the two gave up, the fatty inquired three times before concluding the transaction. And the "Void Spirit Grass" would have considered to have ended up in Lin Dong's bag.

"Phew..."

Upon the successful end to that auction, Lin Dong softly sighed. Regardless, it seems like he had finally gotten something out of the auction today.

After successfully obtaining a Mental Energy nourishing Grade 5 Elixir, Lin Dong once again chose to quietly observe. Later on, he once again extravagantly made his move and used three thousand and five hundred Yang Yuan Stones to successively purchase four Grade 5 Elixirs. Overall, quite a bountiful harvest indeed.

Of course, this kind of harvest had been paid for with quite a substantial sum. Five Grade 5 Elixirs had cost Lin Dong over four thousand Yang Yuan Stones which was essentially four hundred Yang Yuan Pills. If it were not for the fact that he had used the Stone Talisman to refine Yang Yuan Pills for himself, with just the one hundred Yang Yuan Pills that Lin Zhentian had passed to Lin Dong before his departure, Lin Dong could probably do nothing here but watch helplessly...

"Yan City is indeed incomparable to Qingyang Town..."

In this short half an hour's time, Lin Dong had outright thrown away four hundred Yang Yuan Pills, even he felt a heartache at this amount. It was only here did he finally come to know what a money squandering establishment truly was.

However, as long as he was able to advance to 2nd Seal Symbol Master in two months, it would be worth it no matter how large the price!

"I am currently left with six hundred Yang Yuan Pills, looks like I'll have to use them more sparingly..." Lin Dong counted the Yang Yuan Pills he had left which had shrunk to almost half its initial amount and involuntarily licked his lips.

"Hehe, the next auction item is an Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill. I'm sure that some Symbol Masters would be very interested in it. The initial bid shall start at one thousand Yang Yuan Stones."

Just as Lin Dong was deciding whether it was time to leave, the voice from the auction stage caused his body which was about to rise to suddenly turn stiff.

"Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill..."

Under the straw hat, Lin Dong lightly licked his lips. As expected of the extremely famous auction house of Yan City. To think that an Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill would actually make an appearance at this auction. Even the late Gu Ying did not possess such an item.

What the current Lin Dong lacked the most was this kind of offensive Mental Energy skill!

"One thousand one hundred Yang Yuan Stones!"

"One thousand two hundred!"

"......"

As he gazed at the scene which had practically caught fire in that moment, Lin Dong's eyes slightly narrowed. Looks like there were quite a few people here who were interested in this Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill.

While everyone fought over that Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill in the auction, a few gazes were also watching from a VIP booth to one side.

"I did not expect that there was actually someone who would auction off an Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill." The grey robed Grandmaster Ruo was a little astonished as he glanced at the auction while smiling.

"Hehe, if Grandmaster Ruo is interested, Xuan Su will send someone to purchase it." Seated to one side in a red dress was a rather graceful woman who wore a sweet smile on her face as she said.

"It's fine. Though an Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill is not bad, to this old man, it's not a must-have item." Grandmaster Ruo chuckled as he shook his head.

"True, given Grandmaster Ruo's current strength, an Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill does not have much appeal." The lady in a red dress had a small smile on her lips as she replied.

Grandmaster Ruo laughed in response, just as he was about to speak again, he suddenly let out a soft gasp of surprise. His gazed towards a corner of the auction area and remarked: "This person is really wealthy, to think that he actually spent two thousand five hundred Yang Yuan Stones to purchase this Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill. From what I saw of the Elixirs he had bought before, they all possess Mental Energy nourishing properties. Looks like this person should also be a Symbol Master."

Upon hearing these words, the lady in red and the younger lady in green also cast their gazes towards the same corner of the auction area. That spot was exactly the one where Lin Dong was seated.

"Hmmm, this person's Mental Energy seems to be slightly familiar..."

Grandmaster Ruo watched that figure attentively as his eyebrow raised slightly. Soon after, with a nudge of his mind, a strand of Mental Energy swiftly flowed out and shortly approached Lin Dong's body.

In the instance when his Mental Energy spread to Lin Dong's body, Lin Dong, who was rather happy with the fact that he had just managed to successfully procure the Essence Level Secret Spirit Skill, suddenly sensed Mental Energy scan his body as his expression abruptly changed.

In that same instance, a trace of Mental Energy gushed out of Lin Dong's Niwan Palace as if it were a conditioned reflex before hastily wrapping around his body. However, when his Mental Energy gushed out, he already knew that he was a split second late. Now, his appearance was likely known to the owner of that strand of Mental Energy.

While Lin Dong furrowed his eyebrows, in the VIP booth, the originally smiling Grandmaster Ruo suddenly stood up, shock thick in his eyes. That appearance of his caused the two women beside to be startled for a while.

"To think that it was him?!"

TL: In a somewhat recent chapter (not sure which one)

The ranks of the Secret Spirit Skills were revealed.

After some thought about it, we've decided to change our translation of the skill ranks to the following:

'normal' > stays as 'normal'

– eg. '化神針' – 'Materialized Spirit Needle' which appeared in chapter 96

精 – Vitality > Essence

氣 – Qi > stays as 'Qi'

神 – Spirit > Soul

'extremely sharp and powerful' might not be the most accurate translation here, but we try xS

the actual raws are written '吹毛斷發，削鐵入泥'

which directly translates as 'blowing a hair across the blade and it will be cut, cutting other high quality swords would be equivalent to cutting through the soil - > usually used to describe an exceedingly powerful weapon

Here is another interesting phrase, '金字招牌' which we directly translated as gold-lettered signboard

from what we know, shops would showcase gold-lettered signboards as an indication that

- their goods are a cut above the rest or superior in quality

- it could also mean that they have a greater reputation or fame than others