Shen Hao was feeling relaxed; he wasn’t planning to buy anything, just enjoying the spectacle. While Chen Tianwen studied the auction items, Shen Hao looked around and spotted some interesting things.

For example, almost everyone sitting in the hall was a Loose Cultivator, while the people in the surrounding private boxes were all from Noble Families.

It’s not that Loose Cultivators are poor and can’t afford the private box fee of one thousand taels, but there’s an obvious difference in spending philosophy. One side spends when necessary and saves when they can; the other side either really does have a mine at home and spends lavishly without care, or they’re just putting on airs to appear dignified.

On the other hand, Noble Families are indeed generally wealthier than Loose Cultivators. After all, there are fewer Noble Families attending the auction than Loose Cultivators, probably because many Noble Families look down on auctions arranged by merchants, knowing there won’t be anything good.

Also, Noble Families and Loose Cultivators seem to be naturally opposed; you almost never see them interacting, they just ignore each other.

Soon, a burly man in a bright red long robe walked to the center of the auction venue and loudly announced the opening.

"It’s starting."

The first three items were all Low-grade Magical Artifacts, brought here mainly because they’re rare types. For example: a short saber. This belongs to the "odd weapon" category, and not many Cultivators use them, so production is low.

Chen Tianwen raised his paddle when the short saber went up for bid. It went smoothly—few people present needed a short saber artifact, and it was only low-grade, so Chen Tianwen won it easily.

The fierce bidding showed up when that Middle-Grade Soft Armor appeared. It seemed like many people had come specifically for it.

Soft Armor is already a scarce artifact; Middle-Grade ones are even more rare. Usually, people keep them for their own use and rarely sell them. So the price quickly soared beyond Chen Tianwen’s reach.

People weren’t using silver coins anymore—they started bidding directly in Spirit Stones, fifty Lower-grade Spirit Stones.

Spirit Stones can be exchanged for silver coins; the common rate is one Lower-grade Spirit Stone for ten thousand taels, but Shen Hao had never actually seen anyone trade Spirit Stones for cash.

Of course, sometimes Spirit Stones can be substituted with Elixir, depending on context.

So as soon as Spirit Stones were mentioned, Chen Tianwen just gave up; he didn’t even bring up wanting to borrow money from Shen Hao. Without Spirit Stones, you’re out of luck no matter how much silver you have.

Shen Hao rubbed his nose and realized that, in this auction, he was at the very bottom of the wealth ladder. Because he didn’t even have a single Spirit Stone to his name.

In the end, the Middle-Grade Soft Armor was auctioned off to a Noble Family youth from one of the private boxes, at a price of sixty-five Lower-grade Spirit Stones.

After the Middle-Grade Soft Armor auction ended, people started trickling out of the venue—mostly those from the private boxes. Once again, it proved that Noble Families had much deeper reserves than Loose Cultivators; the lower-tier resources didn’t really interest them. Loose Cultivators might have money, but their resources can’t compare to the accumulation of Noble Families, so most of those who stayed were Loose Cultivators and small Noble Families.

Shen Hao had originally planned to leave too; he’d learned something new, and since he wasn’t buying anything, what was the point of staying? But Chen Tianwen asked him to stick around a bit longer—since they’d have to report to the Upper Emissary anyway, why not soak up the excitement while they could?

So Chen Zongqi was treating this assignment like a vacation?

Shen Hao chuckled. He felt Chen Tianwen’s rare lazy behavior seemed familiar, so he stopped thinking about leaving and leaned back to keep watching the auction show.

After the Middle-Grade Soft Armor, there were still over a dozen more items—mostly Middle Grade, with one Top-grade Magical Artifact. But none of them drew the same frantic bidding as the Soft Armor earlier.

"Next is a piece of Yin Jade, about the size of a palm, with top-tier quality and crystal-clear texture—a truly excellent material. Starting bid: twenty thousand silver coins!" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Yin Jade is a kind of Artifact Refining Material, very niche, mainly used to forge the Sky Splitting Array.

A Void Splitting Array Disc is worth about as much as a Top-grade Magical Artifact, but the materials aren’t that expensive. This one is a bit lower than middle-grade pricing, plus it’s niche, so not many people bid.

"It’s a nice piece, but unfortunately, buying it would be useless." Chen Tianwen had a basic knowledge of the market and murmured this, only to notice Shen Hao beside him showing no reaction. He turned his head and saw that Shen Hao was wide-eyed like he’d just seen a treasure.

Chen Tianwen quickly advised, "Hey, what are you doing? You’re not seriously planning to buy this, are you? Let me tell you now—the guys in our Garrison’s Arsenal definitely can’t make a Sky Splitting Array, and one piece of Yin Jade isn’t enough anyway; the other materials are hard to find and not cheap."

But Shen Hao didn’t say a word, just raised his paddle. Each bid increased the price by two thousand taels.

"Whoa, you really want to buy it?" Chen Tianwen was curious, but he didn’t try to persuade him again. He just felt Shen Hao seemed a bit odd—this was the first time he’d ever seen him so anxious.

The bidding continued. Even though few were involved, nobody gave up easily, and the price slowly pushed above fifty thousand taels.

When it passed eighty thousand, no one wanted to compete with Shen Hao for it anymore. After all, it was just a material—if you wanted to convert it into cash, you’d need to invest more, and it just wasn’t worth it if the price got too high. Eighty thousand was already a bit above the actual value of this Yin Jade.

"You know you overpaid, right?"

"Mm, it doesn’t matter." Shen Hao’s eyes were a little red, seeming both excited and urgent.

After paying the silver notes and getting the Yin Jade, Shen Hao immediately got up and left, with Chen Tianwen totally baffled. He couldn’t understand what was wrong with Shen Hao—it was just an Artifact Refining Material; why was he acting like it was an emergency?

...

Shen Hao hurried all the way back to the outpost outside the city, entered his own tent, and instructed not to be disturbed.

"Pain!"

Shen Hao quickly sat cross-legged. Right now, his eyes hurt fiercely; rubbing them with his hands left traces of blood, as if a needle was stabbing outwards from inside his eyes, nonstop.

No need to guess—Shen Hao knew for sure this was the work of his chest’s Black Beast Tattoo. He could clearly feel a surge of energy from the acupoints in his chest rushing straight to his face.

The pain in his eyes gradually faded after quite a while.

Shen Hao let out a long breath and took out the palm-sized Yin Jade from his chest. He hadn’t really wanted to buy this thing—it wasn’t up to him.

Just like when he encountered "food" before, when Shen Hao saw the Yin Jade at the auction, that familiar urge from the Black Beast Tattoo came on again. Only, this time it wasn’t about eating—it was an instinctive compulsion to get the Yin Jade.

Get it for what? Why did he need it? Shen Hao hadn’t a clue. After getting it, that urgent instinct subsided, but then his eyes started hurting; to keep Chen Tianwen from noticing, he rushed straight back to camp.

Now that the pain was gone, Shen Hao was surprised to discover there was something hidden in the Yin Jade—or rather, now he could see something on the jade he couldn’t see before.

It was an image, like a map, but not complete. There was a route marked out with a red line, also incomplete.

"This is... a Maze Map?"