This series of price increases caused many people in the hall to gasp out loud. As expected of someone from a great family, they tossed spirit stones around like they were just common pebbles on the side of the road.
Wasn't this too exaggerated? The numbers kept climbing higher and higher without any sign of slowing down.
Song An had a smug look on his face the whole time. His expression was full of pure disdain, as if these spirit stones were nothing more than a tiny drop in the bucket to him. He sat there with his chest puffed out, clearly loving every second of the attention.
It was a blatant display of wealth, and the crowd could not help but feel a wave of envy wash over them.
Many of the female cultivators in the hall looked at him with eyes full of open admiration. Some even went so far as to wink at him from across the room, hoping he might notice them. He soaked it all in, enjoying the feeling completely.
Having what others did not have and showing it off right there in front of everyone — how refreshing it felt to him.
Xia Ruoqian was trembling with fear on the inside. When she quickly converted the amount in her head to low-grade spirit stones, it came to a full hundred thousand. Working as a waitress day after day, how long would it take her to save up even a fraction of that much money? The thought made her stomach tighten.
The corners of Wu Qin's mouth curled up slightly into a small smile, but he did not bid again. He simply sat back and watched the scene unfold.
Interesting, he thought to himself. This young man reminded him of someone who had eaten too many red beans — lovesick and completely delusional about his own importance.
Why bother with all this constant bidding back and forth? Could he not just take what he wanted by force if he really desired it?
Killing people and seizing their treasures was something Wu Qin was far too skilled at after all these years. He had done it more times than he could count.
However, this place sat much too close to the Lingyun Sect for any reckless moves. A Soul Transformation stage expert could arrive in the blink of an eye if trouble started, and the protective formation around the entire city added even more risk to making a direct grab. There were simply too many eyes watching.
It did not matter in the end. He had plenty of patience when it came to things like this.
His main purpose in coming here today was to get properly acquainted with Xia Ruoqian and then find a natural way to take her back with him. That was all that truly counted right now.
In his previous life, after Xia Ruoqian eventually learned about all the things he had done to Xiao Qingyue, she had hated him with every fiber of her being. She had wished she could tear into his flesh and drink his blood to make the pain stop.
But after Wu Qin helped them get their revenge against the people who had wronged them, and after they spent a long time living together under the same roof, the girl could not bring herself to kill him in the end. She never said it out loud, but deep in her heart she had long since started to regard him as a father figure.
After her aunt transformed into the bright moon and left this world forever, Xia Ruoqian chose to end her own life in the most heartbreaking way possible.
She was like a cheap daughter in the eyes of the world — no blood relation at all, yet the affection between them ran just as deep as any real family tie.
It was precisely because of this bond that Wu Qin later believed he had driven both his wife and his daughter to their deaths. The heavy guilt eventually drowned him completely.
He went mad from it all.
"Next is the grand finale of this auction — the medium-grade profound weapon known as the Spirit Snake Whip," the auctioneer announced with clear excitement in his voice. "This treasure cannot cause any harm to the physical body, but it can strike directly at a person's soul. Being lashed with it feels exactly like being bitten by ten thousand venomous snakes all at once. It was once used as a torture tool by the Demon Suppression Department when they interrogated the most heinous criminals. Even Nascent Soul stage cultivators cannot endure more than a few hits. The effect is truly extraordinary.
Due to how rare this treasure is, the starting price will be three hundred high-grade spirit stones."
The entire crowd broke into loud murmurs and gasps. No one had expected such a special item to appear at this auction.
The problem, however, was that it could not kill anyone in a single blow. Its power to break through protective aura and defensive gear was quite poor overall.
To whip a Foundation Establishment cultivator to death would require at least dozens of lashes, which made it far from useful in the heat of a real battle.
Still, it was perfect for extracting confessions under pressure, and for discipline when needed. It could whip someone until they cried out for their parents, begging for mercy while feeling pain that cut straight to the core.
Song An's eyes lit up with clear interest the moment he heard the description. It just so happened that there were a few troublesome people at home who needed some proper taming right now.
"Three hundred and thirty," he called out without hesitation.
Xia Ruoqian did not fully understand what he planned to use such a thing for, but she followed Wu Qin's earlier instructions and dutifully called out, "Four hundred."
Song An turned around sharply and looked toward the private box once more. Who in the world dared to keep going against him like this?
"Four hundred and twenty," he shot back immediately.
"Five hundred," Xia Ruoqian replied on Wu Qin's behalf.
Seeing the way Song An's teeth were now gritted in clear frustration, Xia Ruoqian could not help but lean over and remind Wu Qin in a soft voice, "Senior, why don't we forget it? The Song Family is quite powerful here in Lingshan City. His mother is a long-renowned Golden Core expert known as Fairy Fengling, and their family also has a Nascent Soul old ancestor watching over everything."
She worried that Wu Qin was at most a Golden Core cultivator himself. If he continued to provoke the other party like this, he might not be able to leave the city alive afterward.
She had heard many stories about how Madam Song was extremely indulgent toward her only son, Song An. The woman was fiercely protective and would stop at nothing to shield him.
In the six months Xia Ruoqian had worked at the pavilion, Song An had harassed her many times. She always felt angry on the inside, yet she never dared to speak out against him.
In fact, she did not even dare to let her anger show on her face. She could only force a polite smile every single time and hope he would lose interest.
Fortunately, the manager of the Treasure Pavilion was a decent person who stepped in when needed. Otherwise, Xia Ruoqian would have had to find a way to leave and work somewhere else entirely.
She simply could not afford to provoke people like the Song Family, so she had no choice but to hide and stay out of their way as much as possible.
That was how life worked when you had no power or influence behind you. You eked out an existence day by day, bowing your head and making compromises just to survive another week.
She had grown used to it over the years. Her only real hope now was to succeed in reaching Foundation Establishment soon so things might change.
But resources were always the biggest problem standing in her way. A single Foundation Establishment pill carried an astronomical price for someone in her position. She had no idea how she could ever afford one on her own.
The gap between people in this world truly felt immense sometimes.
Wu Qin gave a small nod after listening to her warning. "Fine, I'll listen to you this time."
Xia Ruoqian breathed a deep sigh of relief and could not stop a gentle smile from spreading across her face.
This senior really did have such a good personality. He actually listened to advice and seemed like a gentle and humble gentleman through and through.
The auction finally came to an end not long after that, and the crowd began to depart one after another, filling the halls with the sound of footsteps and quiet conversations.
Song An wasted no time. He found one of the stewards and asked directly who was sitting in Private Box Number One.
"Young Master Song, we cannot disclose customer privacy," the steward replied politely but firmly.
"Fine," Song An said with a cold smile. "When I get back home, I'll simply tell my mother that you deliberately arranged for someone to drive up the prices against me on purpose."
The steward stood there speechless for a moment. Wasn't this just pure bullying? Yet he knew the young man was more than capable of following through on the threat.
Madam Song not only possessed real strength, but she was also the City Lord's cousin. She regarded her son as a precious treasure, the absolute apple of her eye.
She feared he might be held too tightly and break, yet she also feared he would melt away if kept too safe in her mouth. Her love bordered on obsession.
The steward lowered his voice and whispered quickly, "It was a young man wearing a black robe. He hid his cultivation level and had an unfamiliar face."
"Hmph, hiding away like that — clearly a demonic cultivator," Song An muttered under his breath. He felt certain the man was at most at the early stage of the Golden Core.
His own mother stood at the late stage of the Golden Core, after all. She had once exchanged ten full blows with a Nascent Soul cultivator and walked away without any defeat.
He sent several of his servants to keep a close eye on the exits and report back immediately if they spotted anything.
At the same time.
Wu Qin was preparing to take Xia Ruoqian out for a grand meal to celebrate the day. Just as he stepped out of the trading house into the open street, he sensed several pairs of eyes watching him from different directions.
Interesting, he thought again with a quiet inner smile.
Wuji Palace.
"The devil has been gone for eight full days now. I truly hope he died out there somewhere far away," Xiao Qingyue whispered to herself.
Her expression grew determined as she stared toward the entrance of the great hall. She could almost taste the flavor of freedom on the tip of her tongue if she let herself imagine it.
"If I don't find a way to escape soon… I'll be tortured to death by him sooner or later," she thought, her chest tightening at the idea.
She took a slow, deep breath to steady herself and, feigning complete composure, slowly walked out of the hall with measured steps.
No one was waiting there to stop her.
Her expression brightened with real excitement, and her heart rate quickened noticeably. But just as hope began to rise, she suddenly saw a red figure flying straight toward her from the distance.
She was so frightened that she hurried backward several steps without thinking.
More than two years of repeated lashings had caused her fear of Devil Wu to sink deep into her marrow and soul. It lived there now like a permanent scar.
But along with that fear burned the same intense hatred that had never faded.
She wished with every part of her being that she could tear the Devil Wu apart while he was still alive.
It was just that the difference in their strength remained far too vast. She could not do it — not yet, and maybe never.
Red Plum looked at her with a calm and steady gaze before bowing respectfully. "Mistress, the Sovereign allows you to move freely anywhere on the mountain. He will return in a few days, and he mentioned he will have a surprise waiting for you."
Heh, more like another shock waiting to crush her spirit again.
Xiao Qingyue kept her face completely expressionless on the outside, but inside her heart she constantly cursed him to be struck dead by lightning or to die at the hands of the heroes from the Righteous Path.
She remembered clearly what had happened two years ago, when she had first been imprisoned here by him. He had also left for a few days back then.
He had said there would be a surprise waiting when he returned.
The result was that he brought back terrible treasures like the Yellow Springs State Whip, the Bone-Piercing Spikes, and the Phantom Sound Bells — all meant to torture her without mercy.
No, they were not treasures at all. They were nothing but instruments of pure torture.
It had been an absolute nightmare from the very first moment.
She remembered how Wu Qin had demanded that she kneel before him that day.
She refused outright, her eyes burning with open resentment and defiance.
Wu Qin gave her a cruel smile and swung the whip without another word.
A dark red blood mark started from her shoulder blade and slashed diagonally all the way down to her waist. The wound looked extremely hideous and terrifying even at first glance.
She immediately doubled over like a shrimp pulled from the water, her whole body shaking violently. A creaking whimper, like that of a wounded beast, escaped from deep in her throat.
The pain — it was too much to bear.
Her very soul felt like it was shuddering inside her body.
She convulsed wildly on the cold ground, unable to control herself.
"Kneel," that voice came again, completely devoid of any emotion, sounding exactly like a malevolent ghost rising from the depths of hell.
"In your dreams! Wu Qin, you will die a miserable death. I would rather die than submit to a devil like you!" Her expression stayed extremely stubborn, refusing to break.
However, in the very next moment the whip fell upon her again, forcing her to roll across the ground in fresh agony.
"Aaaaaah…!"
Her irrepressible screams, carrying an intense sense of raw terror, echoed through the great hall once more.
Her graceful body, along with her soul, shook violently from the strike. Bursts of golden light suddenly exploded inside her mind, and her whole person began to twitch uncontrollably, as if she had lost control and gone completely mad. Her eyes turned vacant and unfocused.
Her lips turned a pale purple, her body trembled without stopping, and pained whimpers kept slipping from her mouth no matter how hard she tried to hold them back.
She nearly crushed her own silver teeth from the effort.
But the devil said nothing more. He simply continued to swing the whip in steady, measured strokes.
He repeated it tirelessly, never pausing for even a second.
Just like that, the punishment went on and on.
At first she wanted to hold out and stay strong, but every time she woke from unconsciousness and felt that tearing sensation deep within her divine soul, her stubbornness faded away a little more.
The devil's strikes were perfectly calculated. They caused her unbearable pain but never quite enough to kill her.
And she could not help wondering in those dark moments how much longer she could possibly endure this state.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she could take it no longer. She cried out with great difficulty, her voice broken and hoarse, "No… enough!!! I can't… I submit…"
"Kneel!" The devil swung the whip one final time.
"Ah!" She wailed loudly and hastily dropped to her knees on the floor. "Please… please stop!"
Tears streamed freely from her eyes, mixing with the blood on her face.
Everything that had happened that day remained burned into her memory like a nightmare she could never wake from.
She would feel fresh terror rush through her body whenever she recalled even the smallest detail of it…