The Middle Strata (3)
“A hundred and fifty-five thousand!”
“A hundred and fifty-eight thousand.”
“A hundred and sixty thousand...!”
The bidding on spirit stones kept climbing. When the opening price had been set at a hundred and thirty thousand, everyone had scoffed — yet before anyone realized it, the bid had passed a hundred and sixty thousand.
The reason was simple: the cultivator in the fox mask and the one in the tiger mask had kept dueling back and forth without pause.
“A hundred and seventy thousand.”
“......!”
The moment Cheon Woo-jin drove the price up to a hundred and seventy thousand, the cultivator in the tiger mask shot to his feet. But he said nothing to Cheon Woo-jin, and simply sat back down.
A wise choice.
Starting a pointless exchange of words here would only draw the other participants' attention. A new rival might enter the fray and drive the hammer price even higher.
The current bidders were watching the duel between the fox mask and the tiger mask with gleaming, entertained eyes — but not one of them had actually jumped in yet. There really might be a hidden power sealed inside that intermediate-grade dharma artifact, but without knowing what it was, no one was willing to pour close to two hundred thousand spirit stones into it.
Besides, they also had to consider the possibility that the bidder was a shill planted by the auction's organizers.
“A hundred and seventy-three thousand...!”
The tiger-masked cultivator ground his teeth and raised the bid. It was creeping close to the point where it would strain whatever stones he carried on him today.
Thinking this, Cheon Woo-jin slowly opened his mouth.
“A hundred and eighty thousand.”
“......!”
BANG!
The tiger-masked cultivator slammed his fist against the armrest of his seat.
“We have a hundred and eighty thousand! Are there any further bids?”
The auctioneer asked, reading the room. The tiger-masked cultivator squeezed the words out through his throat.
“A hundred and eighty... two thousand.”
“A hundred and eighty-two thousand! Then, if we have any further—”
Before the auctioneer could even finish,
Cheon Woo-jin spoke again.
“A hundred and ninety-five thousand.”
“......!”
The bid had just leapt by thirteen thousand in one stroke. The tiger-masked cultivator rose from his seat once more, glaring at Cheon Woo-jin with naked killing intent in his eyes.
But Cheon Woo-jin did not waver in the slightest. He merely gave the auctioneer a glance that said, get on with it.
“A hundred and ninety-five thousand! Are there any further bids?”
“Ggh...!”
The tiger-masked cultivator let out a pained groan and sank back into his chair. The sight of him hanging his head low made it plain to anyone that he had given up the auction.
“The dharma artifact, the Black Net Sword, is sold for one hundred and ninety-five thousand spirit stones! Thank you all! After a short break of about one incense stick's time, we will begin the pill auction!”
With Part One — the dharma artifact auction — concluded, a brief rest was granted before the Part Two pill auction began.
Cheon Woo-jin rose from his seat and asked one of the attendants where the latrine was. The attendant told him there was one along the entrance passage to the auction hall, and Cheon Woo-jin headed there with his mask still on.
But the moment he stepped inside and shut the door, a cold presence made itself known.
“Hey.”
Clatter.
The door was forced open, and a man strode in. It was the tiger-masked cultivator who had competed against Cheon Woo-jin earlier.
“Let's have a little chat.”
“A chat, in a latrine?”
When Cheon Woo-jin asked in a frosty voice, the tiger-masked cultivator reached out to seize his shoulder.
But it was a feint.
Prick.
A needle lay hidden in the man's grip — and no ordinary needle at that, but a poisoned dart coated in venom.
“My apologies. I'll be taking that dharma artifact for myself.”
Whispering in a low voice, the tiger-masked cultivator peered up into Cheon Woo-jin's face.
And immediately, both his eyes flew wide open.
Cheon Woo-jin's expression was as composed as ever.
The next instant —
Brain energy erupted from Cheon Woo-jin's grip and was sucked into the tiger-masked cultivator's chest.
“Gyaaagh!”
Cheon Woo-jin did not stop there. He stretched his hand toward the writhing man's head and injected another pulse of brain energy straight into his skull.
“Ghhhh...”
At last the man collapsed inside the latrine, weeping tears of blood. Cheon Woo-jin caught him by the hem of his robe so he wouldn't tumble into the latrine pit.
Then, before the man's life ran out, he checked the status window one more time.
NAME:Gang Gyun
RACE:Human
AGE:182 years
REALM:Foundation Establishment, Late Stage
CONSTITUTION:Wood-Earth Spiritual Root, Poison Spirit Body
ALIGNMENT:Black Gate
AFFILIATION:Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect
DESTINY (CHEONMYEONG):Slaughter
Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect — a sect specializing in poison arts that operated in the middle strata of Ghost Head City. They were also well-versed in assassination techniques that employed venom, much like the one the man had just attempted on Cheon Woo-jin.
Ever since he had first glimpsed the man's status window, Cheon Woo-jin had anticipated he might try something like this. If he lost the auction to Cheon Woo-jin, he would try to claim the Black Net Sword by simply killing him. In the game, too, the Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect had always operated exactly that way.
So Cheon Woo-jin had preemptively taken an antidote brewed from the venom of the Dark Net Great King Ogong. Against poison wielded by a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect, the venom of a Core Formation yokai like Ogong could neutralize poison with poison.
And then, deliberately, he had asked the attendant where the latrine was — right where the man could see him do it. The result: the fool had followed him into the latrine and tried to kill him.
He acted like a fool, never realizing he'd walked into a trap.
Cheon Woo-jin pulled the storage pouch from the man's corpse. It was packed with every manner of toxic substance, but he didn't touch any of it. He still had plenty of the Dark Net Great King Ogong's venom left besides; the poisons of a Foundation Establishment cultivator were of no particular use to him.
What Cheon Woo-jin was after lay elsewhere — the spirit stones the man had brought for today's auction.
A hundred and ninety thousand... no, around a hundred and eighty-nine thousand, then.
Cheon Woo-jin had dropped out at the hundred-and-ninety-five-thousand mark for one simple reason: he truly had nothing left to bid with.
So I only had a hundred and ninety-five thousand myself — we were about even.
That was right. Cheon Woo-jin had been in a state where every spirit stone he possessed was already on the table. Pour all a hundred and ninety-five thousand into the Black Net Sword, and he would have nothing left to win the pill with.
But he had judged there would be no real problem. He had expected that if this man attacked him, he could simply take the man's stones.
Pay for the Black Net Sword with the stones he'd carried in. Pay for the pill with the stones robbed from this man. That way, Cheon Woo-jin would win everything he needed.
If you hadn't come hunting my life, none of this would have happened. So don't complain.
After transferring the hundred and eighty-nine thousand spirit stones into his own storage pouch, Cheon Woo-jin straightened his clothes.
“Customer? Are you quite well?”
Just then, a voice called from outside. A clerk had noticed the commotion and come to investigate.
“Fetch cultivator Hoyeon.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I was attacked by another auction participant. I wish to prove my self-defense, so please bring me cultivator Hoyeon.”
“......!”
Before long, Hoyeon Rin appeared at the latrine. Cheon Woo-jin showed her the wound from the poisoned dart and explained the situation.
“This really is the Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect's venom, all right...”
Hoyeon Rin groaned as she examined the venom smeared on his wound.
“But how are you standing there perfectly fine after being stung by a poison dart?”
“I can't go into the details, but poisons don't work on me.”
“Poor bastard had no luck at all, then... But if you killed him here, how were you planning to clean it up?”
“Take a look at this.”
Cheon Woo-jin fished a pouch of powdered drug out of the corpse's breast.
“Melting-Flow Powder. It has no effect on a living cultivator, but sprinkle it on a corpse and it dissolves the body in moments.”
“......!”
Ordinarily, sects destroyed evidence by burning corpses away with fire arts. But there were sects that disposed of bodies with drugs like this instead.
“And in a latrine, the disposal would have been all the easier.”
“Ugh... that's a grisly thought.”
Hoyeon Rin made a face of open disgust.
“You're certain there's no personal grudge between you?”
“We were both wearing masks — neither of us had any idea who the other was. As far as I can tell, his only thought was to kill me and seize my winnings.”
“So he was trying to exploit the rule that if the top bidder fails to pay, the lot passes to the next bidder...”
Having investigated the scene and heard the accounts of the others, Hoyeon Rin acknowledged that Cheon Woo-jin bore no fault.
“It's also been confirmed that this cultivator followed you when you went to the latrine. There's no doubt he was the one who attacked first.”
“I had no intention of causing trouble here either. It's regrettable that this happened.”
Had the man not ambushed Cheon Woo-jin and simply walked away — or had he carried more than a hundred and ninety-five thousand stones and won the Black Net Sword outright — not a single drop of blood would have been spilled.
“May I return to the auction hall? I'd like to take part in the pill auction as well.”
“Mm, fine. Leave the cleanup to us and go.”
Hoyeon Rin no longer seemed to regard Cheon Woo-jin with any suspicion. Then again, that trust surely rested on the fact that he was someone Seo Seol-ryeong had personally vouched for. Had he entered Cheonryong Pavilion without her letter of introduction, they would likely have locked him in the basement first and started their investigation from there.
I should buy Seo Seol-ryeong some expensive sweets.
With that thought, Cheon Woo-jin made his way back to the auction hall.
At the pill auction, Cheon Woo-jin won a high-grade elixir called the Azure Spirit Pill. Since it could greatly amplify one's spiritual power, it would prove a considerable aid.
When every auction had concluded, he paid out the greater part of the spirit stones he carried and received both the Black Net Sword and the Azure Spirit Pill. On his way out, he thought to bid farewell to Hoyeon Rin, but she was occupied with something else — her face was nowhere to be found on the first floor.
I'll be seeing her again before long, I expect.
Cheon Woo-jin left Cheonryong Pavilion behind and started across the fourth stratum. The Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror had an entrance on the fourth stratum as well. His plan was to return there first and give today's winnings another careful inspection.
But... a presence kept pressing in from behind him.
“......”
Cheon Woo-jin deliberately moved toward a sparsely populated stretch. At that, the ones who had been tailing him finally showed themselves.
“You're the fox mask who won that Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace legacy earlier, aren't you?”
A glance at their status windows told him they were the loose cultivators who had been seated together at the back of the auction hall. There were three of them, all at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.
It was those lot after all.
While a mask was worn, it concealed not only the face but the clothing as well. And because each winner exited the hall and removed their mask separately, one at a time, no one could learn who had taken which lot.
But when Hoyeon Rin had spread her dharma arts to conduct her investigation, the masks' concealment effect had flickered off for an instant. The ones peeking at that moment had memorized Cheon Woo-jin and followed him out.
“Just what kind of power is hidden in that dharma artifact that you'd burn through nearly two hundred thousand spirit stones — and even start killing each other over it? I'm dying to know, so out with the answer, and quick.”
The Foundation Establishment loose cultivators closed in around Cheon Woo-jin, wearing oily smiles. Answer or not, it made no difference — they intended to kill him and take the Black Net Sword regardless.
The poison artist of the Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect who had ambushed him earlier had at least intended to pay his winning bid. These men, by contrast, meant to pay nothing at all and simply rob the winner of his prize outright.
“Curious about what power is hidden in this artifact, are you?”
Cheon Woo-jin drew out the Black Net Sword and held it in his hand.
Why had the poison artist of the Myriad Poisons Six Fiends Sect wanted this artifact so badly? Why did its name carry the character for net?
The answer lay right here.
“See for yourself, with your own eyes.”
With a low, grinding rasp, the Black Net Sword unfurled.
The Black Net Sword spreads wide, dark silk-unfurling links spiraling out into the air — the hidden power sealed within the intermediate dharma artifact awakens at last.