Chapter 40 Shock

  Half an hour later, Chu Linfeng arrived at the auction venue, a space that could accommodate about 100 people. In the center of the venue was placed an ancient and elegant cloud case, and an auctioneer who had cultivated to the sixth heaven of the human realm was enthusiastically introducing the auction items to the crowd inside.

  Chu Linfeng just wanted something new and didn't expect to buy anything at this small auction, so he sat down in a corner with interest.

  For auctions of this scale, there are two or three sessions every day, most of the time they are auctioning off some refining materials or low-end magical items. The auction has been going on for a while now, but I haven't seen them bring out anything decent yet, however the transaction rate is not low.

  After all, good things have the price of good things, ordinary items have the price of ordinary items. For most cultivators with low cultivation and wealth, such small-scale auctions are not a bad opportunity to find bargains at low prices.

  Some things are directly sold at auction floor prices, but they are much cheaper than buying them outside.

  It wasn't long before it was Chu Linfeng's turn to appraise the six ordinary treasure items.

  The auctioneer first took a "Purple Gold Bagua Shield" in his hand, briefly introduced the function of the treasure, and reported the starting price of 800 Ling Stones.

  For most cultivators in the arena, this price is just average and far from being so cheap that it's exciting, so the response is also just average.

  After all, basic-type magic treasures like the "Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Shield" have always been considered to be among the most useless magic treasures by everyone.

  But soon this situation had an earth-shaking change.

  Because the auction item is a magical artifact, the auctioneer must personally try it out, even if it's just a basic artifact like the "Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Shield", this is one of the rules of the auction.

  When the auctioneer released the true yuan force infused in his palm, the "Purple Gold Bagua Shield" appeared around him with a layer of purple light, and generally speaking, it was almost done.

  But what shocked the auctioneer was that the "Purple Gold Bagua Shield" in his palm did not maintain a purple light screen like other ordinary magic treasures he had handled.

  But was still absorbing the true yuan force continuously infused by the auctioneer, far exceeding the limit of the "Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Shield" in the auctioneer's concept.

  "What's going on? Could it be that this treasure is actually a mid-grade mortal artifact?"

  The experienced auctioneer was taken aback, and couldn't help but think to himself: "A mid-grade magical artifact like this, even if it's just a common Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Shield, has a starting price of 800 spirit stones that is really too low."

  In the Xianxia world, the rough classification of the strength and weakness of magical artifacts is indeed correct: Immortal, Extraordinary, Foolish, Precious, Superior, and Ordinary. However, each rank also has its own three-six-nine grades.

  All superior and inferior products are classified as ordinary products, with no errors. However, there is a huge difference in value and effectiveness.

  Generally speaking, when it comes to consigning treasures, the seller will explain in detail the grade of the treasure before consignment. However, Chu Linfeng, being a newcomer to this field, had not considered that treasures of the same grade can be further divided into upper, middle and lower grades.

  Such a situation is indeed rare, but this auctioneer is also an old hand, and he quickly regained his composure, continuing to infuse the true yuan force, striving to showcase the effect of the "Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Shield" in its strongest form.

  As the true yuan force poured in continuously, the purple gold eight trigrams shield in the auctioneer's hand suddenly emitted a layer of cyan mist. When the purple and cyan double-colored light screen appeared, it instantly caused the crowd of cultivators in the auction hall who were initially listless to stir slightly.

  "It's just an ordinary middle-grade treasure!"

  "Worth bidding for... Purple and blue dual colors..."

  "It seems like there's a gain this time. A mediocre magic treasure of ordinary quality, with a price below 2,000 spirit stones, is definitely worth considering."

  The emergence of a mediocre magic treasure was not enough to set the scene abuzz, but it was still better than the previous lack of interest.

  However, what made everyone present gasp in shock was that after the purple and blue light screen appeared, the Purple Gold Bagua Shield held by the auctioneer's palm actually trembled slightly, and another black awn emerged.

  Under the overlap of the three-color light curtain, it turned out to be merged into one body, completely enveloping the auctioneer in it. The purple and gold colors shone brightly around, giving people a sense of solidity that was unshakeable.

  "This is a mortal artifact... an upper-grade mortal treasure..." The auctioneer was shocked and pale, recalling the Violet Gold Eight Trigrams Shield, his eyes full of excitement.

  Although there is only one word difference between ordinary lower-grade and upper-grade magic treasures, the value inside has a heaven-and-earth difference.

  It must be mentioned that the energy consumed in refining a mortal treasure is absolutely not inferior to that of refining a high-grade lower-grade treasure, and even more so.

  After all, to refine the same rank of magic treasures into a power that far surpasses the same rank of magic treasures is no longer just a matter of luck, but also requires extremely high-level refining techniques.

  But the vast majority of the time, a master craftsman who has the ability to refine high-quality magic treasures would not bother to waste their effort on refining low-quality ones. Moreover, even if these top-notch craftsmen had the inclination to do so, they couldn't guarantee that they would definitely succeed in refining high-quality low-grade magic treasures.

  It is often the case that the number of middle-grade treasures is even rarer than that of high-grade treasures, because not everyone can refine them, and those alchemists who have the ability to refine them will not bother to do so after weighing the pros and cons.

  In this small auction that is not even up to standard, the probability of a top-grade ordinary treasure appearing is absolutely less than one in a thousand. Even for an auctioneer who has been mixed in this circle for many years, he has never handled a top-grade ordinary treasure.

  Apart from this, what shocked the auctioneer even more was that at this moment, there were five other ordinary magical artifacts placed on the cloud case, and these five magical artifacts seemed to be of the same origin as the purple gold eight trigrams shield, which belonged to the upper grade of ordinary magical artifacts.

  "The base price for all of them is 800 Lingshi, are you saying that these six items are all ordinary high-grade artifacts?"

  The auctioneer's shock didn't last long, as the cultivators participating in the auction inside were already making a huge commotion, with voices urging him to start the bidding rising and falling.

  "Any top-grade treasure, one Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Shield, base price 800 low-grade spirit stones, please bid."

  "1,500 spirit stones..."

  "Eighteen hundred..."

  "Three thousand low-grade spirit stones..."

  "Five thousand..."

  In just a few breaths, the price had skyrocketed to an astonishing level. So far, the highest bidder was a yellow-faced man who had cultivated his strength to the ninth heaven of the Human Realm, and he shouted out a high price of 8,000 low-grade spirit stones.

  "Is there a higher bid?" The auctioneer shouted symbolically, although he thought that such a rare and precious artifact was still being sold at a loss for 8,000 spirit stones, but after all, this was just a small and insignificant auction, and the cultivators present were not very wealthy either. Being able to bid up to 8,000 lower-grade spirit stones was already quite good.

  If I had known that these treasures were only ordinary goods, I would not have auctioned them off at this scale. At the very least, they should be showcased and bid on at a large auction held every seven days.

  During the Spring Festival, I had a pretty severe viral cold, didn't go see a doctor, and ended up collapsing completely two days ago. After getting IV fluids, I'm feeling a bit better now. Rushing to update my writing, I really apologize to everyone.