Su Ming’s three acts during the three day auction had instead caught a lot more attention.
The conflict that arose due to that Soul in Stone also stirred up many different thoughts among the people. If what the person from Enlightenment Gathering Tribe said was true, then that item would be priceless.
Even if it was fake, judging by how agitated he was at that time, that item was surely a fantastical treasure. However, its true use would then be a mystery.
However, there were plenty of people who were curious about it. The person from Enlightenment Gathering Tribe was controlled by Western Sea Clan and could not leave alone, having to return to Enlightenment Gathering Tribe along with the gruff looking man who originally owned that mountain rock as well as someone from Western Sea Clan to see whether what he said was true.
But before that happened, there were still quite a number of people who left at night to Enlightenment Gathering Tribe. They were going to use their own methods to investigate the truth about this matter.
After all, before they acquired accurate information, most of the people did not want to offend Freezing Sky Clan. The rumors circulating about the ninth summit were also a cause for these people to act so carefully.
Once Su Ming returned to his tent, he fell into deep thought for a moment before he asked Zi Che to pack up. He had two valuable treasures on his person, and he had already brought attention to himself. For him, leaving before anyone else was better than staying here.
However, he did not want to leave alone. Tian Lan Meng had helped him during the auction, causing the both of them to have arrived at an agreement without either of them saying anything.
Besides, Su Ming did not dislike Tian Lan Meng.
‘Perhaps working together with her during Sky Mist Shaman Hunt isn’t really impossible.’
When Zi Che was putting away the tent, Su Ming stood on the snow and nodded his head as he mulled over his thoughts.
Perhaps they really had a form of mutual understanding between them in terms of their souls, or perhaps it was because of his previous associations with Tian Lan Meng through art, which had allowed them to form a faint connection between them in terms of Picture Creation.
As Su Ming was immersed in his thoughts while he stood on the snow, before him, as snow floated down from the sky, a woman in white with her hair falling down her shoulders walked slowly towards him. She treaded lightly on the snow, causing crunching sounds to ring in the air.
That woman was incredibly beautiful. Her eyes were bright and her teeth pearly white. There was a certain gracefulness and an indescribable charm about her as she walked through the snow. She looked like a drawing.
Two people followed behind her. One of them was the girl Su Ming had seen before, and the other was the man in the white mask who had given Su Ming the stone coins previously.
The man had his head lowered and not a hint of power could be felt from him. He seemed like a normal person, but when Su Ming looked at him, he sensed the same depressing feeling he had when he stood on Sky Mist Barrier in the past and looked at the land of the Shamans.
"I was wondering whether you would want to leave." When Tian Lan Meng got closer, her gentle voice floated through the wind and snow and drifted into his ears.
"When are you leaving?"
Su Ming turned around and looked at the woman walking towards him. The snow added another charm to the woman’s beauty. It was as if her existence caused the snow and wind in the area to go towards her and surround her, making her look breathtakingly beautiful.
"I’ve spent several tens of millions of stone coins on you, so it’s only natural that I have to always follow you around. If something happens to you, my stone coins will all be wasted."
Tian Lan Meng’s lips curled up in a smile, and that smile looked like a flower that had bloomed, causing the people who saw it to be unable to help but be attracted to her.
A rare awkward look appeared on Su Ming’s face. He was incredibly unused to this sort of conversation, especially when he had to talk to his creditor.
"We’re not in a hurry to leave. The auction this time hasn’t ended yet. The real auction is about to start soon… Don’t you want to go see it?" Tian Lan Meng winked at him. She found Su Ming’s expression to be very interesting.
"Even if I see it, I won’t be able to buy anything…" Su Ming laughed wryly.
"It’s fine, I have money. You already owe me quite a lot of stone coins. I don’t mind if you owe me more. Besides, being a creditor is quite fun." A hint of smugness that was rarely seen on Tian Lan Meng appeared in her smile.
However, the girl standing behind her was looking at Su Ming with disdain and scorn in her eyes. She rolled her eyes at him before she looked somewhere else.
"I’m not invited, though."
Su Ming hesitated for a moment. He had heard about the auction that would only be attended by the powerful Berserkers. Compared to the auction that lasted for three days, this small scale auction was another important part of the exchange between the two clans that only occurred once every century.
As he was hesitating, Su Ming’s expression suddenly changed and he lifted his head to look into the distance. Almost at the exact same moment he lifted his head, Tian Lan Meng also looked towards that direction.
A man with an aloof face, dressed in black, was walking over from that direction. Not a single footprint was left on the ground he stepped on, but his feet were indeed stepping on the snow.
The man in black stopped one hundred feet away from Su Ming and cast a cold look at him. A powerful might seeped out of his eyes, and it was the might that belonged to those in the Bone Sacrifice Realm.
In the presence of that might, the snow around them was immediately thrown into the air as if it was swept by a huge gust of wind, covering their gazes and preventing them from seeing each other.
"An invitation by my master."
The man in black only said five words, his voice as cold as the freezing wind. As he spoke, he brought out a wooden plate from his bosom, threw it at Su Ming, then turned around and left.
Su Ming caught the wooden plate and found that there was not a hint of force added to the throw. He caught it as it floated into his hand, but the moment he did so, a rebounding force spread out from the plate and surged into Su Ming’s body, causing six muffled booms to appear in succession beneath his feet, snow flowing into the air once again.
Su Ming cast a glance at the wooden plate calmly.
By his side, Tian Lan Meng’s eyes grew bright. She looked at the snow beneath Su Ming’s feet and her smile grew more brilliant.
"Nine Forces Through One Breath. That is one of the Arts in the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky that won’t be taught to outsiders. That person came from the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky. He’s one of the followers of their Elder’s second son." The person who spoke was the man with the white mask standing behind Tian Lan Meng.
That person’s voice sounded old. Judging by his voice, he was an old man.
"The person in the third room was Second Young Master of the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky. You’re invited to the auction now. Let’s go." Tian Lan Meng chuckled lightly, and her voice was very pleasant to the ears.
Su Ming’s eyes sparkled, and he nodded.
As Tian Lan Meng continued smiling, the two of them walked into the deeper parts of the tribe with the wind and snow blowing in their faces. Over there, they saw a golden tent located at the center of the tribe.
Zi Che and the girl followed behind them. That girl found Su Ming an eyesore, and Zi Che was also disliked in association. With a prideful look, she strutted before him and insisted on walking in front of him.
As for the person with the white mask and the old voice, he walked at the very end. Most of the time he would look at Tian Lan Meng fondly, and sometimes, his eyes would shift to Su Ming, and his gaze would turn into one of scrutiny.
"By the way, where’s that little stalker of yours? I remember she came with you." As Tian Lan Meng walked with Su Ming, she looked at him with a smile, and her voice was like the lingering notes of a song echoing in the air after it finished.
"Little stalker?" Su Ming was momentarily stunned before the memory of Bai Su’s ashen face when she left appeared in his mind.
Su Ming remained silent for a moment before he answered unhurriedly, "She left."
The smile on Tian Lan Meng’s face fell away and she whispered softly, "It’s better that she left. Her heart lies with Si Ma Xin. Putting her beside you must have been a form of torture for her… but it might also be a way for her to find her true self,"
Su Ming cast a glance at Tian Lan Meng and said nothing.
"Are you wondering why I know about it? Si Ma Xin can only come up with these sort of methods with his petty tricks. A person’s Dao differs according to his or her own heart. Those with a great Dao can perceive the sky and earth, but those with a small Dao can only perceive others and themselves.," Tian Lan Meng stated calmly, twirling a few locks of her hair gently.
"You’ve gained a clearer understanding since the last time we met." Su Ming walked on the snow and listened to the crunching sounds of his feet walking on the snow.
He loved this sound.
"That is all thanks to you giving up on the grass woven crane. I can tell that it looked at you when it was flying in the air." Tian Lan Meng smiled. There was some snow stuck on her petite, smiling face, causing her soft and fair skin to look as if it was made of sparkling ice.
As the both of them continued speaking to each other, they arrived before the golden tent at the center of the tribe. The moment they stepped into the tent, an invisible wave swept past them. When it touched the wooden plate in Su Ming’s hand, ripples appeared in that wave and Su Ming’s vision blurred. When he could see clearly again, he was already in a dark room that was about several hundred feet in size.
There were quite a number of tables set on either side of the room. There were already around a dozen people sitting behind those tables. Their faces could not be seen clearly and everything appeared as a blur, a clear sign that their identities were intentionally hidden.
These people did not talk to each other. All of them sat silently behind the tables. When Su Ming and Tian Lan Meng arrived, their gazes traveled towards them.
Su Ming’s heart thumped against his chest. All the gazes looking towards them pressured him grealy. That sort of pressure was not something a normal Berserker in the Bone Sacrifice Realm could bring on him. In fact, some of the gazes that swept towards him even made Su Ming feel shocked to the core. That sort of gaze… only belonged to those in the Berserker Soul Realm!
However, there were also some gazes that were quite ordinary when they turned towards them.
"How we see them is the same as how they see us. Unless we reveal our power on purpose, then they will not be able to tell our true level of cultivation." A gentle voice suddenly spoke in Su Ming’s mind. That voice belonged to Tian Lan Meng. She stood beside him, and her face too, was blurred out.
Su Ming stayed silent. He cast a glance at Tian Lan Meng, then the both of them sat in the chairs placed beside each other on the right side of the room and waited for other people to arrive.
Before long, more people came. Most of them were familiar with the rules and moved to the empty seats. An hour later, when all the seats were filled and there were about twenty people in the room, Tian Lan Meng’s voice once again spoke in Su Ming’s mind.
"It’s starting."
Almost the moment that voice turned to echoes in Su Ming’s mind, loud, hearty laughter came from within the dark room.
When the laughter started, a young boy walked through the wall at the very front of the room!
That boy looked like he was only about seven or eight years old, but his voice was as loud as a tidal wave, and it was dripping with experience and ruthlessness.
"Most of us here are old friends. There are some of us here who are new, but since you’re here, you must know the rules. I won’t take up your time with idle chatter, so we’ll just do things as we did. Let’s start with something not so valuable!
"The first thing I’ll be bringing out is a living thing!" As the boy spoke, he lifted his right hand and waved it in the air before him. Immediately, a black chain charged out, and at the other end of it was a bound living creature.
Its speed was exceptionally quick, and the moment it appeared, it instantly started running as if it wanted to escape, but the chains were tightly fastened around its neck. When it dashed quite close to Su Ming, the chain was stretched taut and strangled its throat, causing it to let out pained shrieks.
The moment Su Ming saw that living creature, he felt as if hundreds upon thousands of lightning had just struck him. A bang went off in his head, and in the blink of an eye, everything before him except that living thing vanished!