Chapter 625A – Stone Beads
Half a day later, Qin Yu and You Qi bid their farewells and left. He decided to enter the Sealed Stone World. But before doing so, he needed to return to the Demonic Path and make some arrangements.
He had already received a lesson from the Sea of Purgatory incident. Before he left he would need to make sufficient preparations to deal with any possible accidents.
“If you dare throw me away and vanish without a trace, I will immediately commit suicide.” You Qi’s words immediately cut off Qin Yu’s plans of convincing her to stay.
Her expression was earnest, without any joking meaning behind it. Qin Yu hesitated for some time before finally swallowing down all the words he wanted to say. He had to admit that he was a bit touched by her sentiment.
It was easy for someone to say that they would follow someone through life and death. But, how many people in this world could actually achieve that? To find someone who was truly willing to do this was one of life’s greatest fortunes!
Ten days later, the Demonic Path’s Holy Palace was sealed up. The Holy Monarch announced to the outside world that he was going into seclusion. Demonic energy billowed into the heavens.
On that day, Qin Yu spoke to the Demon Envoy with a calm expression. “I have no idea how things are going to turn out this time, but I hope that you don’t disappoint me again.”
He turned and flew away with You Qi, leaving the Demon Envoy behind with his uncertain expression.
After a long time, the Demon Envoy bowed and said, “Your Majesty, please rest assured. This subordinate will obey your orders no matter the price!”
…
The Sealed Stone World was only a name given to it by the first cultivator who found it due to half of a stone tablet.
Where did it come from? What was its background? Why did it arrive in the Land of Divinity and Demons? These were enigmas, questions that had yet to be answered.
But there was one thing that could be determined. The world within the sealed stone had an extremely potent effect of tempering a cultivator’s will.
80 million years ago, the first cultivator who emerged from the Sealed Stone World was a man named Zhou Ruyi. He rose up like a comet, sweeping through the world and establishing an unsurpassed nation, becoming a peerless great emperor who ruled over the Land of Divinity and Demons.
This Zhou Ruyi was the founding emperor of Great Zhou. He was the terrifying existence who had appeared in the Sea of Purgatory like a divine dragon.
This founding emperor’s most terrifying ability was to crush an opponent with his will. In the recorded texts, one of his greatest accomplishments was facing off against five super powerhouses of the same level and killing three of them. After this event, he was known as the number one powerhouse to exist for the last 100 million years of history!
It was because of this reason that the Sealed Stone World was taken so seriously by others. It once caused a torrential surge of people to enter into it. But, as time passed, the brutal reality of what happened was quickly revealed. People discovered that those who entered the Sealed Stone World never emerged and were trapped inside forever. After this, the waves of people quickly died down.
But the truth was that through the tens of millions of years, there remained a steady flow of people who entered the Sealed Stone World. Some had nowhere left to go, and some were trying to break free of their shackles and step onto the next level.
There were also some influences who purely desired to produce an incomparably formidable existence, thus they sent their subordinate cultivators inside.
Emperor Zhou’s existence was the inspiration that drove generations of people into the Sealed Stone World.
Of course, because Emperor Zhou was far too blinding he outshined everyone else. There were actually many people who had managed to emerge from the Sealed Stone World over the years, and each one of them possessed unparalleled strength that was capable of dominating their era!
And if one wanted to enter the Sealed Stone World, they first needed to obtain a key. This was a special type of stone bead that could only be found in one place.
Before, it was said that the seven great empires divided the endless territory of the Land of Divinity and Demons amongst themselves. But there were always some places that they couldn’t touch.
For instance, the Deep Stream region. For instance, the Deer Chasing region where Qin Yu and You Qi were now. It was located within the Han Empire. But since ancient times, it had been an autonomous state. This was because the ones who ruled here were the Sealed Stone Sect, and the Sealed Stone Sect was the only influence in the world that could take out the Sealed Stone!
Throughout the long years, there had been multiple attempts from people trying to take control of the Sealed Stone Sect or even trying to seal the method to make the stone beads.
But without exception, all attempts were defeated in the end. To say it was defeated might not be right…in some attempts, the entire Sealed Stone Sect had been captured and all of its people imprisoned. But, no one could find out the method to produce the stone beads. In fact, they couldn’t even obtain a single extra stone bead.
Killing was useless. No matter how grave the threat of death or injury was, no one within the Sealed Stone Sect blurted out any secrets. In order to prevent the stone beads from vanishing forever because of this, there were always some influences that decided to take action and interfere in order to preserve the inheritance of the Sealed Stone Sect.
After this happened several times over, no one tried to take advantage of the Sealed Stone Sect again. If they wanted to purchase a stone bead, they would have to honestly participate in an auction.
“Any influence that moves against the Sealed Stone Sect will forever lose the rights to obtain a stone bead. If some people decide to exchange in private, they will also lose the qualifications.” Qin Yu muttered to himself. He looked up at the common-looking house in front of him and said, “We’re here.”
You Qi’s eyes widened and she revealed a dazed expression. She never imagined that the legendary Sealed Stone Sect, the location where the stone beads were auctioned, was actually in such a place.
Qin Yu walked forward and knocked. After someone opened the door he handed over a jade card. The young man inspected the jade card and then nodded with a desolate expression, “Please come in.”
The outside of the house was narrow and the inside was even more cramped. But, the young cultivator walked to a wooden cabinet in the corner and placed a hand above it. The wooden cabinet immediately burst out with brilliant lights that wove together to form dazzling fluctuations.
The young cultivator gestured, “Guests, please.”
Qin Yu didn’t hesitate. He grabbed onto You Qi’s hand and stepped inside. Space darkened and swayed about them. When the surroundings lit up once more they found themselves in an extremely broad hall.
At the center of the hall was a high platform. Circles of stone chairs were arranged around it. Right now, around half of the chairs were filled with sitting cultivators.
Each person had a layer of light covering them. Their auras and appearances were covered up so they didn’t have to worry about anyone remembering them.
“Guests, please take a seat. The auction will soon begin.” A female cultivator from the Sealed Stone Sect said. Her tone was respectful but her expression was similarly cold.
Qin Yu and You Qi followed the indicated direction and soon took a seat. Not long after, an old man with a white beard stepped onto the platform and announced the beginning of the auction.
“In today’s auction, there are a total of 12 stone beads. Six are low-grade, four are medium-grade, and two are high-grade. For new fellow daoists that have arrived and do not understand the different rankings of the stone beads, please allow me to explain. All three grades of stone beads can be used to enter the Sealed Stone World. But, low-grade stone beads have no resistance strength. medium-grade stone beads can resist one destruction of the will, and high-grade stone beads can resist three times.
“What ‘destruction of the will’ here refers to is a sudden eruption of terrifying aura within the Sealed Stone World. its appearance does not follow any rules and is the greatest threat within the Sealed Stone World.
“Please be aware that this auction house only accepts bids in spirit stones…very well, let us now begin the auction. We will first start with low-grade stone beads. The first stone bead has a base price of 10 million spirit stones. There is no limit to how much the price can be increased by.”
There was a series of loud gasps within the hall. high-grade stone beads were something that could only be found, not asked for. Moreover, two of them had appeared here today.
But many people knew how terrifying the price of high-grade stone beads was. It was simply impossible for the vast majority of them to hope to compete for. If so, then they might as well seize a low-grade stone bead while everyone’s attention was focused somewhere else.
Thus, there was no awkward silence during the auction. The six low-grade stone beads were soon auctioned off and after a short bout, the four medium-grade stone beads also found their owners.
“These last two are also the only two high-grade stone beads in today’s auction. Their base price is 100 million spirit stones. There is no limit to the bidding increase amount. Let the auction for the first high-grade stone bead begin!”
Qin Yu’s eyes flashed with a sharp light. He lifted a hand, “One billion!”
The hall suddenly fell silent. As numerous people were left stunned, many gloomy eyes gathered from all around, ill intent flashing within them. It was rare for two high-grade stone beads to appear. Although everyone knew that the final price would inevitably be high, Qin Yu’s method of bidding was hard for them to accept.
“Humph! 1.1 billion!” With a cold sneer a guest suddenly bid out loud, a taunting tone in his voice. To scare away other competitors with a high bid was a good method, but it was useless here today.
As expected, several people bid one after another, slowly pushing the price to 1.5 billion. Now, the ones left competing were cultivators with considerable backgrounds. Their mission for entering the Sealed Stone World was to constantly grow stronger until one day they could leave.
But not all of them went willingly. In order to provide some sense of comfort to them, the influences behind these people would tolerate a certain degree of ‘unruliness’ from them. For instance, spending spirit stones to buy a high-grade stone bead that could maintain their life. This was something tacitly agreed to by all.
Qin Yu lifted a hand, “3 billion.”
He directly doubled the bid!
The faces of numerous cultivators changed. Although their background influences had considerable businesses and wealth, they absolutely could not afford such a terrifying amount.
While it was a matter of course for these influences to buy a life-maintaining stone bead for their subordinates, it also had to be within a certain reasonable scope.
“3.1 billion!” The first guest to join in after Qin Yu spoke up again. His tone of voice was icy cold, as chilling as the deep winter wind.
“3.2 billion!”
“3.3 billion!”
Only three contenders were left.
Qin Yu lifted his hand a third time. “5 billion!”
The hall fell silent.