Chapter 8
The Weight of a Saint's Grace
The silence that followed Tian's bid was not merely quiet; it was a physical pressure. Fifty million spirit stones for a tattered, moldy book that the pavilion's own experts couldn't decipher? In the common seats, the air grew cold. Every head turned toward the floating "Heaven" VIP suite, their eyes filled with awe and terror. Only the truly powerful—or the truly mad—could throw away a kingdom's wealth on a whim.
Ye Fan felt as though someone had doused him in ice water. His ring was vibrating so violently it made his finger numb. The voice of the old spirit in his head was screaming, *"Boy! You cannot lose that scripture! It is your path to the peak! Without it, your cultivation will hit a wall within three years!"*
Ye Fan's face twisted. Rage, desperation, and humiliation warred within him. He stood up, his legs shaking, and looked toward the VIP balcony. He didn't know who was behind that glass, but he had to try.
"Esteemed Young Master in the Heaven Suite!" Ye Fan shouted, his voice cracking. He tried to sound respectful, but the bitterness was evident. "This scripture is... it is worthless to most. It is a mere curiosity. But for my specific cultivation path, it might hold some small use. I am Ye Fan, a man of great potential. If you let me have this book for my original bid, I will owe you a grand favor. In the future, when I rise to the top of this continent, that favor will be worth more than any mountain of spirit stones!"
There was a long, agonizing pause. Then, a voice drifted down from the VIP room. It wasn't loud, but it carried a weight that made the weaker cultivators in the room drop to their knees. It was Tian, his voice filtered through a soul-chilling array.
"My favor?" the voice mocked, echoing through the rafters. "Little boy, the ring on your finger isn't even worth the dirt on my boots. Do you truly believe a favor from a worm like you carries value? Shut your mouth and sit down. Do not embarrass yourself further by pretending your future has any weight in my eyes."
The hall erupted. Not in anger, but in cruel, mocking laughter directed at Ye Fan.
"Did you hear that?" a sect elder from the second tier sneered. "A commoner in Sector C offering a 'favor' to a Heaven-tier VIP! Does he think he's the protagonist of some legend?"
"Look at him! He's turning redder than a spirit chili!" another laughed. "Sit down, 'Great Hero' Ye Fan, before the Young Master decides to wipe you out with a thought!"
Ye Fan sat down so hard his chair creaked. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles turned white, drawing blood from his palms. *I will remember this,* he hissed into his own mind. *Whoever you are, when I reach the Saint Realm, I will make you crawl for this humiliation.*
Inside the suite, Tian watched the tattered book being delivered by a trembling servant. He didn't even open it. He simply tossed it into his storage ring like it was a piece of scrap paper. He knew exactly what it was, but more importantly, he knew how much it hurt Ye Fan to lose it.
Rong looked at him, her eyes wide. "Tian... fifty million? Just to shut him up?"
Tian smirked, leaning back as he sipped a cup of tea that cost a thousand stones a drop. "Money is just a tool, Rong. And right now, I have a more interesting tool to play with."
He gestured for Steward Lin to enter. The steward arrived instantly, bowing so low his nose almost touched the floor.
Tian reached into his sleeve and produced a small, unassuming wooden box. When he opened it, a pillar of golden light shot toward the ceiling, carrying a fragrance that made everyone in the room feel as if their cultivation was jumping forward. Inside sat a pill, swirling with nine rings of silver mist.
"This is the **Nirvana Saint-Ascension Pill**," Tian said casually. "It is an 8th-grade medicinal pill. It allows a peak Void Realm cultivator to bypass the lightning tribulation and break through directly to the Saint Realm with a 90% success rate. Put it on the auction block."
Steward Lin's heart nearly stopped. His hands trembled so violently he almost dropped the box. His back was instantly drenched in sweat. An 8th-grade pill? Such things hadn't been seen in the Wu Empire for three hundred years.
"M-Master Tian..." Lin gasped, his voice failing him. "This... this is a treasure of the world! Are you certain?"
"Go," Tian commanded.
The steward didn't walk; he ran. He sprinted through the corridors, nearly knocking over several guards, until he reached Lady Mei behind the stage. When she saw the pill, even the unflappable Merchant Queen turned pale.
Lady Mei walked back onto the stage, but her movements were no longer playful. She looked shaken. She raised her hands, and a silencing barrier slammed down over the audience.
"Honored guests," she began, her voice trembling slightly. "The Master in the Heaven VIP suite has... he has seen fit to bestow a grace upon this auction that we did not expect. He has just submitted a final item."
She signaled the guards, and four high-level experts walked out, surrounding a reinforced jade pedestal.
"The **Nirvana Saint-Ascension Pill** Grade 8. It guarantees a breakthrough from the Void Realm to the Saint Realm."
Dead silence.
Then, the sound of chairs flipping over. Every Sect Leader, every hidden Elder, and even the representatives of the Imperial Family stood up as one. Their eyes were bloodshot. In the world of xianxia, a Saint was a god among men. One Saint could protect a sect for a thousand years.
"Check his identity!" a patriarch hissed to his shadow guard. "Find out who is in that room! But—" he grabbed the guard's throat, "—do not breathe a word of disrespect! If you offend him, our entire bloodline will be erased before sunset!"
In the **Phoenix VIP Room**, the **Sixth Princess, Wu Yan**, stood by the window. She was a woman of stunning beauty, dressed in imperial gold, but her expression was one of pure shock.
"A Saint-Ascension Pill..." she whispered. Her mind immediately flew to her elder sister, the First Princess, whose meridians had been shattered in a cold-blooded betrayal years ago. "With this, Sister's foundation could be repaired. She could reclaim her throne."
She turned to her personal eunuch. "Go. Take my imperial jade pendant. Invite the Master of the Heaven Suite to a private banquet. Be humble. If he refuses, bow and leave. Do not show a hint of imperial pride."
She looked back at the stage, her eyes burning with determination. "I don't care what it costs. That pill belongs to the Wu Family."
Lady Mei took a deep breath. "The starting bid for the Nirvana Saint-Ascension Pill is... one million **High-Grade** spirit stones."
The crowd gasped. One high-grade stone was worth ten thousand regular stones. This was a price that would bankrupt a small nation.
"Five million!" shouted the Sect Leader of the Heavenly Sword Sect, his voice cracking with desperation.
"Ten million!" a hidden elder from the northern wastes roared.
"Fifty million!"
The numbers were climbing so fast the audience couldn't keep up. This wasn't an auction anymore; it was a war. Ye Fan sat in his common seat, looking like a ghost. He realized then the true gap between himself and the man in the VIP room. While he was begging for a five-thousand-stone book, the man who insulted him was casually tossing a Saint-making pill onto the stage like it was trash.
"One hundred million high-grade spirit stones!" Wu Yan's voice rang out from the Princess's suite, her aura flaring.
The room went silent again. One hundred million.
From the Heaven Suite, Tian watched the chaos with a cold, satisfied smirk. He looked at Rong, who was staring at him as if he were a god descended to the mortal plane.
"Tian," she whispered, her voice full of awe.
"Who... what are you, really?"
Tian didn't answer. He simply watched as the price climbed even higher, knowing that every stone spent was another tether he held over the powerful figures of this continent. The face-slapping was only the beginning. The real game was just starting.
**"One hundred and fifty million!"** a voice boomed from the back—a representative of the Emperor himself had joined the fray.
Tian's eyes glinted. *Let them bleed each other dry,* he thought. *The more they covet the pill, the more they belong to me.*
**[To be continued...]**