Chapter 1610: The Earth Spirit Race and the Infernal Earth Battle Carriage
Han Li felt as if he'd dodged a bullet, and he heaved an internal sigh of relief.
He was a full-blood human, so how could he be somehow related to the Human-faced Wyrm's Dao Companion? Could it be due to the true spirit bloods he'd refined?
That wasn't very plausible, either. Those true spirit bloods were indeed quite powerful, but after being refined, they'd merely hide in his body on a recessive basis. Otherwise, with all of the powerful beings he'd encountered, at least one of them would've noticed.
Han Li contemplated this matter for a while, but emerged on the other side just as confused as he was before.
Meanwhile, the foreign beings in the nearby area were all appraising him with peculiar expressions. Even the young man with the Fei surname cast a glance toward him, but he didn't say anything.
As for Body Integration Stage beings on the upper level, many of them were also appraising him with curiosity in their eyes.
Among them, Duan Tianren naturally immediately recognized Han Li, and a peculiar look also appeared on his face.
Meanwhile, Han Li was feeling quite disgruntled by the widespread attention he was suddenly receiving.
The young man withdrew his gaze before turning to the Xiao Buyi and the elderly man as he said, "Alright, seeing as this issue has been resolved, the auction can be continued. I'll be going now. Fellow Daoist Lan, make sure the four of you don't go to the Crepe Myrtle Sea ever again. Otherwise, if something were to happen to you, even I wouldn't be able to do anything."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind Senior! Thank you for stepping in to save us. Otherwise, we would've been killed for sure." The four beings were naturally filled with gratitude toward the young man.
Xiao Buyi also bade farewell to him in a respectful manner.
The young man nodded before walking down the stage in just a single step. He didn't appear to be moving very quickly, but he exited the auction hall and disappeared in a flash after just a few more steps.
Following the departure of the two Grand Ascension Stage beings, all of the Body Integration Stage beings returned to the cabins on the upper level again.
Everyone else in the hall turned their attention to the people on the stage again, and Xiao Buyi turned to the four other beings as he said, "Brother Lan, you're still carrying an injury, so you should go back to your cave abode on focus on your recovery. Mistress Kun, I'll have to trouble the three of you for a while longer. Fortunately, the auction is almost over, so I won't be delaying you for too long. On top of that, I'll be raising your payments by 20% on behalf of our four races."
The woman exchanged a glance with her two companions, and a wry smile appeared on her face as she replied, "Rest assured, Brother Xiao, we promised to stay for the duration of the auction, and we certainly plan to see it through to the end."
"Thank you!" Xiao Buyi was ecstatic to hear this.
If these three really were to insist on leaving right away, then there was nothing he could do to ask them to stay.
As for the bearded elderly man, he merely nodded in response with a thunderous expression on his face before making a grabbing motion with his remaining hand.
His dismembered arm hovered immediately hovered toward him at his behest before being carefully stowed away.
Immediately thereafter, the elderly man made a hand seal, and a low buzzing sound rang out from the blue formation on the stage, following which he disappeared amid a flash of spiritual light.
As a holy race being, the elderly man had always been respected and revered, so it was naturally extremely humiliating for him to have an arm dismembered in front of so many people.
As such, he didn't want to remain in the auction hall for even a moment longer, and nor did he want to see anyone for a long time after this.
At this moment, Xiao Buyi suddenly turned to the brocade-robed man who had retreated to the side of the stage, and smiled as he said, "Due to the unforeseen circumstances that have just unfolded, the last auction item has naturally been canceled. Fellow Daoist Lu, you may take back your spirit stones. Additionally, in order to compensate you for your loss, if you manage to successfully purchase one of the final three items, then you'll receive a discount of 10,000,000 spirit stones."
Thus, he raised a hand and tossed back the bag of spirit stone that had just been issued.
The brocade-robed man was clearly afraid that the Human-faced Wyrm would turn on him as well, so he'd been standing there in silence, hoping to blend in with the scenery.
After hearing Xiao Buyi's offer, the man shook his head and sighed, "So be it. The incident that just took place indicates that I have no affinity with this auction. As such, I won't be participating in the rest of this auction."
After catching the bag of spirit stones, the man immediately turned and exited the auction hall, quickly disappearing from view thereafter.
His departure created a slight stir among the rest of the people in the auction hall, Xiao Buyi's brows furrowed slightly before quickly smoothing out as he turned to the green-scaled woman beside him.
Following a slight nod from Xiao Buyi, the woman reached into her sleeve to pull out a black object before tossing it into the air.
All of a sudden, a string of ferocious cries erupted within the auction hall.
Immediately thereafter, gale-force winds swept forth in all directions as a black clouds materialized out of thin air. The cloud tumbled and churned violently as it expanded to over 100 feet in size, and such a phenomenon naturally drew the attention of all of the beings below the stage.
A burst of screeching rang out incessantly from within the clouds, following which several thunderclaps erupted, and the dark clouds disappeared amid flashes of white lightning.
Thus, an inky-black flying carriage was instantly revealed. The carriage was around 50 to 60 feet in length antiquated patterns carved all over its surface, and an ancient aura was emanating from it.
The carriage was being drawn by four black horned pegasi, and not only did they each have a pair of black wings, most of their bodies were covered by a layer of black armor.
Atop each of these pegasi was a black armored being that was around as tall as an average human. They were all armed to the teeth with swords and bows strapped to their backs, and all of the pegasi, as well as their riders, were hovering completely motionlessly in mid-air, indicating that they were all puppets!
The same cold light was emanating from the carriage and the four pegasus riders, and that suggested that they had been refined from the same material.
Many people below the stage were quite intrigued by the sight of this carriage and the pegasus riders.
"Hehe, this is the second auction item that has been reserved for our finale, the Infernal Earth Battle Carriage. I won't make an in-depth introduction of this carriage, but I'm sure most of you will have heard about its place of origin. I trust that many of you still recall the Earth Spirit Race that was completely eradicated hundreds of thousands of years ago. Back then, they were renowned as the race on the Thunder Continent that was most proficient in puppetry. This Infernal Earth Battle Carriage was made by none other than the Earth Spirit Race, and it was found at a set of ruins left behind by said race. As for its specific abilities, I won't display them here. All I can tell you is that each of these rider puppets possesses mid-Spatial Tempering Stage power, and when all four of them combine their powers, they can unleash a secret technique that has been lost for a long time, and that secret technique is capable of withstanding an attack from an early-holy race being. As for the carriage itself, it has countless transformations, and that will have to be explored by the fellow Daoist who ends up purchasing it," Xiao Buyi chuckled.
Many people were already quite temped upon hearing that this carriage had been forged by the Earth Spirit Race, and after learning that the four puppet riders could even keep an early-holy race being at bay, all of them were ecstatic. There were even some people who swept their spiritual sense toward the carriage for a closer inspection, only to be given a massive fright before hurriedly withdrawing their spiritual sense.
As it turned out, as soon as their spiritual sense came into contact with the flying carriage, a strange burst of suction force suddenly erupted from it that forcibly sucked their spiritual sense into the carriage.
This was naturally quite a startling development.
Perhaps it was due to the fact that the carriage still had no owner as of yet, but all of them were able to withdraw their spiritual sense without any impediment. Otherwise, they really would've been in a rather sticky situation.
As such, it was verified that this carriage did indeed possess some extraordinary abilities, and it drew even more interest from prospective bidders.
Han Li was among the beings who had swept his spiritual sense toward the carriage, and he had also developed a sense of curiosity toward it. However, He then immediately heaved a forlorn internal sigh.
The starting price of the carriage hadn't yet been announced, but it was surely going to be very high, seeing as this was a treasure capable of keeping even an early-holy race being at bay. As such, he would simply have to act as a spectator while others bid of the carriage.
However, the Golden Lightning Bamboo still hadn't appeared yet, which meant that in the eyes of the auction house, it was even more important than this carriage and that spirit beast from earlier.
Just as these thoughts were running through Han Li's mind, Xiao Buyi finally announced the starting prices for this carriage. "The starting price for this Infernal Earth Battle Carriage will be 120,000,000 spirit stones!"
Han Li knew that the starting price was going to be quite a staggering one, but he was still taken aback by this massive sum.
As expected, bidding for this Infernal Earth Battle Carriage was extremely intense, and the price was quickly bid up to over 200,000,000 spirit stones. Even so, there were many people who were unwilling to give up.
However, on this occasion, there weren't many holy race beings from the upper level who participated in the bidding. A few of them placed a bid here and there, but all of them gave up on the carriage after the price exceeded 200,000,000.
In the end, the carriage was secured by a graceful woman with a veil over her face for the price of 220,000,000 spirit stones.
This drew a sense of bewilderment from many of the beings present as this woman appeared to only be at the mid-Deity Transformation Stage, so it was quite incredible that she'd be in possession of such a huge sum of spirit stones.
Han Li was also rather surprised to see this, but he quickly cast these thoughts aside as the next auction item was a section of green bamboo.
It was none other than the Golden Lightning Bamboo that he'd offered to the auction house!
"This is a section of Golden Lightning Bamboo, the source of the paramount wood-attribute divine lightning! The starting price is 70,000,000!" Xiao Buyi's introduction was quite concise on this occasion, and he picked up the section of bamboo as he spoke before waving it toward the people below the stage.
A loud thunderclap rang out as countless arcs of golden lightning erupted from the section of bamboo at once, instantly forming a large golden net of lightning.
"Golden Lightning Bamboo!"
"Divine Devilbane Lightning!"
"Paramount wood-attribute divine lightning!"
...
Cries of surprise and elation immediately rang out, and some of them had even come directly from the upper level.
Many people's expressions changed drastically at the sight of the golden lightning net, and a massive stir ran through the entire auction hall!