69 Shatterstar (1/2)

Bai Yun stood straight up when he felt his god sense throb in warning. Luckily the book that Zhang Zi had purchased had just arrived and the attention of the other occupants of the room was on it, rather than him. Even Song Hui had woken up. Thus nobody noticed his abnormal reaction.

Bai Yun stared at the box intently, trying to find out what was inside it.

His god sense was throbbing in warning, but it wasn't the immediate kind. It was the kind that said that whatever was inside the box was extremely dangerous. It was more like an early warning system than anything else.

Once the box was opened, Bai Yun was finally able to see inside the box. Inside it was a weird mineral. It was shaped like a rising flame but was white in color. On it, small little specks of various colors could be seen. Small specks of light were slowly circling it. All of it looked extremely magical, making it look like something out of a fairy tale.

”This is the secret item of this auction.” Zhang Tianyi said. ”We have no idea what it is. It was found in the plains of enlightenment by a hunter. He sold it to the hunters union after he could not find out what it is either. All we can tell you is that even someone at the Dao step cannot see through the item, or even make a dent in it.”

Every single year, the auction would have a secret item as part of the final five treasures. The secret item is usually a box with something hidden inside. It was more like a gamble than anything else. Even the auctioneer would not know what was inside it. Someone would put ten items of various costs into ten identical boxes, and the auctioneer would randomly choose one on the day of the auction. Some years it would be something extremely valuable, and some other years it would only be worth a million gold, or even less. This was a gamble with high stakes, and all the young masters here liked to play the game to test their intuition or experience.

But sometimes the secret item would be an item that the Hunters Union came across by chance, but couldn't identify or even use. Thus they would put it up for auction, rather than waste it away inside their vault. Such items would be an even bigger gamble. As the item might be simply worthless, rather than just cheap. But sometimes it had been the case that people have bought incredibly expensive or magical items for cheap this way.

And when Bai Yun laid his eyes on the rock, he could feel a familiar feeling from it. It came from the rock itself, and not from his god sense. He must have seen it, or something similar in his past life. But with his current cultivation, it would be impossible to search through his entire memory at once and find the memory that triggered it. He could only focus on the important details, and this must not have been one of them.

”The auction begins at one million gold,” Zhang Tianyi said. ”And every increment must be at least one hundred thousand.”

For a while no one bid. It was true that the item looked magical, but no one here was stupid enough to judge a book by its cover. Even more importantly, even if the item was valuable, if even the big shots in the Hunters Union could not figure out what it was, how could they. Thus nobody was eager to try it out.

Zhang Tianyi did not push the item either. The secret items were supposed to be a test for the juniors, and not a true part of the auction. Thus they didn't care if it was sold or not.

”If no one is buying it, then I can only suck up and buy it. I bid one million gold.” A voice suddenly cut through the silence. Bai Yun was surprised to hear that the voice came from the Song clan's room.

The auction house that was silent until now started to rumble as everyone started to whisper. Many people were wondering if it was worth it or not, and whether they should also bid.

”Is anyone else going to bid?” Zhang Tianyi asked. He then waited for a while. But no one seemed too interested.

Since he did not have enough money left, Bai Yun was contemplating whether he should borrow some money from Song Hui or Zhang Zi and then bid on the item himself. The warning that the item gave him was making him unsure of what to do. It could be dangerous because it is a weapon. Or it could be dangerous because it is poisonous. In the latter case, it would be a waste to buy it.

”Waah. How pretty!” Bai Yun heard a sound from his right side, waking him up from his reverie. Song Hui had walked up to the glass by then. Both Song Hui and her maid were staring at the pretty rock. She had gotten bored with the book and had come back to check out the pretty rock.

Bai Yun turned to see that Zhang ZI was staring at the book with increased concentration, but with a frown on his face. It seems as if he could not understand what was written. That was obvious. If a ninth ranked technique was so easy to learn, Bai Yun would not have had to spend so much time on creating one.

”One million gold, going once. Going twice. Going -” Zhang Tianyi started the countdown. Just as Bai Yun finally decided to suck up and ask for a loan from Zhang Zi, he heard a shout from his right side ”Thirty million gold.”

Bai Yun turned to Song Hui with his jaw dropped. Song Hui was standing there with her hands on her hips and a proud smile on her face. He did not expect her to just shout out thirty million. And that too for a rock whose purpose was unknown. It wasn't just him, the entire auction house was stunned into silence. Zhang Zi actually looked up from his book. Zhang Tianyi, this professional auctioneer, was just staring at their room in silence. He truly did not think that someone would buy the rock. And it wasn't because she knew its purpose. Bai Yun would bet his entire life that it was simply because it looked pretty. And that she only had thirty million gold with her too.

After a moment the first sound to break the silence was from Song clan's room. ”We tried it your way. Now let's try my way.” This was a different voice from before.

And then Bai Yun's god sense screamed louder than it had ever screamed before, in both of his lives.

And his body reacted even before he even recognized what was happening. With his left hand he grabbed song Hui and her maid, with his right he grabbed Zhang Zi, and he leaped into the air with them.

Not a single one of the people in the room was able to react to it. Barely had he left the floor of the room when, with a loud crash, someone crashed into it, exploding through the glass and sending debris flying everywhere. The sofa they were seating on was crushed, along with the floor, and even the door. A terrifying shockwave nearly knocked Bai Yun over. He looked down to see someone sprawled on the ground, exactly where they were sitting just a moment before.