Chapter 1606: Strange Beast
Han Li merely chuckled coldly in his heart upon seeing this.
Even if there were beings here who had cultivated certain special secret techniques, all they'd be able to identify would be that he was in some kind of disguise.
After all, even Duan Tianren, who was at the pinnacle of the Body Integration Stage, hadn't even been able to glean his true appearance, and there was no way that the most powerful beings in this auction hall would bother to come after him for a half vial of flawed spirit liquid.
As such, after returning to his seat, Han Li merely closed his eyes as if he weren't interested in the rest of the auction.
Everything proceeded quite smoothly thereafter, and there were even two other items that were sold for a price that exceeded that of the Glazed Heavenly Flame Liquid, but they hadn't been reserved for the finale, either.
One of them was a treasure that had been passed down since ancient times, known as the Myriad Beast Conch Horn. Even though it wasn't a Divine Spirit Treasures, its whistle could make all of the low-grade spirit beasts within a certain area obedient to the user, so it was quite an extraordinary treasure.
The other auction item was the vial of Rising Dragon Pills that Han Li had refined.
After Xiao Buyi had explained the astonishing effect of the pills, the entire auction hall had burst into an elated frenzy.
These pills were greatly beneficial both for enhancing one's magic power and for breakthroughs, so it really was a case of the more the better.
Furthermore, Spatial Tempering Stage pills were extremely rare in auctions, so an intense round of bidding ensued as soon as they were unveiled.
Even the beings below the Spatial Tempering Stage in the auction hall were bidding up the price for all they were worth. They'd rather purchase the pills and use them in the future than miss out on this brilliant opportunity.
As for the Spatial Tempering Stage beings who were stuck at bottlenecks and desperately needed these pills, they were naturally unwilling to back down, either. Who knew if Spatial Tempering Stage pills would feature again in the upcoming editions of the Four Races Auction?
As such, after a bout of frenzied bidding, the vial of Rising Dragon Pills was sold for an astronomical price of 63,000,000, even higher than the price that Han Li had purchased the Glazed Heavenly Flame Liquid for.
Much to his surprise, the pills were purchased by the holy race woman who had been competing with Han Li for the Glazed Heavenly Flame Liquid earlier. This woman naturally no longer needed this pill, so she was most likely purchasing them for one of her juniors.
This was quite a disheartening outcome for all of the people on the lower and middle levels.
Han Li also heaved a forlorn internal sigh upon hearing this final price.
This wasn't because he was displeased with the price that the pills had been sold for. Instead, he was thinking back to all of the Rising Dragon Pills he'd consumed in the past two years, and calculating how many spirit stones they would've fetched him had he sold them instead. Unsurprisingly, it was an extremely staggering sum.
Furthermore, he was most likely going to have to continue consuming Rising Dragon Pills for the next few centuries; it was a massive waste!
But then again, if it weren't for the fact that he had all these pills that he could consume to assist him in his cultivation, there was no way that he'd be able to progress to the Spatial Tempering Stage from the early-Deity Transformation Stage in just a few centuries with his ordinary aptitude.
This was why the mysterious small vial was even more valuable than the profound heavenly treasure in his heart.
With the profound heavenly treasure, he could reign supreme over the entire Spirit Realm in the future, but without the mysterious small vial, he had no confidence in his ability to even make it to that point.
Just as these thoughts were running through Han Li's mind, the auction finally reached its climax.
After a blue puppet was taken away from the stage by its buyer, Xiao Buyi looked around as a serious expression appeared on his face.
"I presume many of you are already growing quite impatient, so without further ado, I'll now be presenting the final few auction items for today. Two of these items are precious treasures supplied by our four races, while the other two were supplied by other fellow Daoists."
Just as Xiao Buyi was making this announcement, a burst of light erupted from the teleportation formation on the stage, following which four humanoid figures emerged.
The four consisted of a short elderly man with a long beard, a tall and broad armored being wearing a golden mask, a woman with a gorgeous figure, yet a hideous face that was riddled with green scales, and a strange black being with two identical heads.
In the face of the widespread scrutiny they were receiving, the four beings all remained quite calm as if they were completely unfazed.
However, all of the beings in the auction hall drew a sharp breath in unison upon seeing this, and a burst of chatter rang out again.
"It's those four seniors!"
"Indeed, those are the four great guest members of our Cloud City! To think that they've been invited to this auction as well!"
At the same time as the four beings appeared on the stage, Han Li also opened his eyes and his heart stirred as he discovered that they were all mid-Body Integration Stage beings. It was no wonder that their emergence was creating such a massive stir.
Xiao Buyi turned to the four beings with a smile on his face, and cupped his fist to extend a salute as he greeted, "Thank you for coming, fellow Daoists."
"You're welcomed. We were paid to be here, so we certainly weren't going to not show up," the bearded elderly man chuckled in response.
In contrast, the other three were rather cold and aloof toward Xiao Buyi, and they merely extended customary salutes in return, but remained silent.
Xiao Buyi was clearly already accustomed to this, and he merely nodded before turning around as he continued, "There are only four items that have been reserved for the finale, but they include all types of items like spirit beasts, materials, and spirit treasures, so you surely won't be disappointed."
After that, Xiao Buyi turned to the elderly man, and said, "Brother Lan, please reveal your auction item first."
The man nodded before rustling his sleeve, and a strange cry rang out, following which an object flew out from within.
It was a palm-sized black leather pouch that was completely mundane and nondescript in appearance.
However, the old man was treating the pouch with great care as he began to chant something while carefully pointing his finger a few times at the leather pouch.
Black light swirled around the surface of the pouch, following which bursts of black mist suddenly erupted from within. Immediately thereafter, the mist began to swell, then converged to form a black cage that was around 10 feet tall in the blink of an eye.
Within the cage was a small purple beast that was huddled up into a ball, and its entire body was bound tightly by a series of thin golden and silver chains. Due to the fact that its head and limbs were all burrowed into its body, it appeared to be like a large furball from afar, making it impossible to glean its true form.
At this moment, everyone below the stage, including Han Li, was staring intently at the small purple beast.
It had been reserved for the finale, so they knew that this was definitely no ordinary spirit beast. After all, there was a fourth-tier upper race sentient puppet that had been sold earlier, and even that hadn't been reserved for the finale; could it be that this spirit beast possessed holy-grade power?
The same thought flashed through everyone's minds, and hints of scorching yearning appeared in their eyes.
However, the faint black light emanating from the cage managed to keep out all of their prying spiritual sense, thereby thwarting their attempts to glean the small beast's true appearance.
"Hehe, looks like all of you are growing rather impatient. Brother Lan, I'll let you introduce this beast to everyone," Xiao Buyi chuckled.
"Sure thing. There are not too many people who are aware of this beast's origins, but I'm sure many of you know about the eight mystical beasts of our Spirit Realm, which are only ranked below the almighty true spirits," the old man said with a stroke of his beard.
"What? The eight mystical beasts? Could this be one of them?"
The entire auction hall instantly erupted into a frenzy, and there were even many astonishing auras that erupted uncontrollably from within the stone cabins on the upper level.
"That's not the case, Fellow Daoists. The eight mystical beasts are all extremely powerful creatures, and even though they aren't comparable to true spirit beings, they're definitely not creatures that can be capture by holy race beings. The spirit beast in the cage is actually a mixed-blood descendant of one of the eight mystical beasts, the Human-faced Wyrm. Even though it's only a mixed-blood creature, it possesses an extremely large amount of the Human-faced Wyrm's bloodline, and if carefully nurtured, it's not impossible for it to become just as a powerful as a true Human-faced Wyrm in the future. According to the results of our examination, this beast should be less than 100 years old, but the spiritual Qi fluctuations emanating from its body are already comparable to upper race beings of the lower tiers. Most importantly, this beast has already displayed several powerful endowed abilities of the Human-faced Wyrm. Even for holy race beings like me, it would've been impossible to capture it alive had it not been for the fact that several of us joined forces to do so. By the way, this beast was captured by none other than the four of us," the elderly man chuckled as he made a grabbing motion toward the black cage.
The golden and silver chains around the small beast's body split apart of their own accord amid a dull thump, and all of then flew into the elderly man's hand as a thin streak of golden and silver light.
The entire hall immediately fell completely silent.
Everyone wanted to see the true appearance of a spirit beast that had inherited most of a Human-faced Wyrm's bloodline.
As soon as the chains were removed, the small beast shuddered, but it still didn't immediately rise to its feet, choosing instead to continuing lying motionlessly in the corner.
Many people began to exchange glances with one another upon seeing this.
However, in the next instant, a ball of scintillating purple light suddenly erupted from the small beast's body.
All of the people staring at the cage closed their eyes involuntarily, yet Han Li managed to keep his eyes open as a burst of blue light flashed through his pupils.
"Argh!"
"Impossible!"
"Where did the spirit beast go?"
After everyone finally re-opened their eyes, many of them were shocked to find that the small beast had disappeared without a trace from within the black cage.
However, the expressions of the beings on the stage remained unchanged, and the elderly man harrumphed coldly, "You still dare to play these little tricks even now; looks like we didn't discipline you enough on the way here."
The elderly man raised a hand as he spoke before flicking a finger toward the black cage from afar.