Ninth In the World
Chapter 66: Three Jade Scrolls

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The price of the long sword quickly soared up to 900,000,000. In the end, it was sold for 960,000,000 alliance dollars.

The third item was an elixir made of herbs obtained from the Fairy Planet. According to Dai He, the elixir contained the best nurturing herbs of the Fairy Planet, which were able to slow down the aging process. It was sold at the final price of 197,000,000 alliance dollars.

The fourth item, which was a ticket to the Fairy Planet, was sold at 1.2 billion alliance dollars. Based on what Di Jiu knew about the market, tickets to the Fairy Planet were now sold at a significantly smaller price. At first, it had been rumored that one needed at least three to five billion alliance dollars to go to the Fairy Planet, but now a ticket had just been sold for only 1.2 billion. It seemed like Hu Qianli had been telling the truth. There was a possibility that one would be unable to leave the Fairy Square alone to search for treasure after arriving on the Fairy Planet.

The next items were a few maps and some unknown herbs from the Fairy Planet, as well as some unrecognizable pieces of treasure.

Di Jiu had no interest in any of them.

Even though the auction had started some time ago, he had yet to attempt to purchase something. He knew that if he had not gone to the Heavenly Immortal Casino and earned a small fortune, he would have been unable to purchase any quality items at the auction. The registration fee alone had cost him more than 10 billion after all.

The auction had just started, yet the highest price was already close to three billion. As the auction progressed, there would surely be more quality items, which meant that the prices would definitely increase.

“The next items are three jade slips that will be sold as a set. These jade slips were obtained from an ancient cave abode on the Fairy Planet. According to the appraisal of Lin Fu, the world’s most famous philologist, the jade slips could contain a record of the history of the rise and fall of a dynasty. However, the words recorded on them are very few. There is only a total of 16 words on the three jade slips. No one has been able to decipher the meaning of these 16 words to date.”

“Ceng Donglu, China’s most experienced Dao practitioner, director of the Fairy Planet Institute of Martial Arts and powerful connate warrior, analyzed the three jade slips and said that they contain an indescribable element of mystery. He even suspects that one could store words or images on the jade slips without using any descriptions. Director Ceng said that his ability is unfortunately limited, for he was unable to decipher the true use of the jade slips.”

As Dai He introduced the items, Di Jiu was pleasantly surprised.

If this had occurred a few days ago, he would have shown the same lack of reaction as everybody else. At best, he would have thought that the auction house simply wanted to auction off the jade slips at a good price.

Now that he possessed mental strength though, he suspected that the contents of the three jade slips had been imprinted using mental strength. His mental strength was a product of using the Major Conduit Internal Records. If he could cultivate his mental strength by using the Dao cultivation technique, then so could other people.

He had to purchase these three jade slips and experiment with them later on.

“The starting price for the three jade slips is 1.1 billion. The price will be raised in minimum increments of 10 million. The bidding may start now.” Dai He raised the jade slips in her hand again, showing them to the audience on the stage.

For the first time, the auction venue was completely silent. One had to pay 1.1 billion to purchase three jade slips that contained 16 words indecipherable by world-class experts.

The majority of the auction participants believed that, even if they purchased the three jade slips, they might not succeed where world-class experts and connate powerful warriors had failed. Even those people had not recognized or deciphered those words after all.

This was the first auction item that was met with silence since the start of the auction.

Di Jiu, who had planned on observing the attitude of the other auction participants towards the three jade slips, had not expected that no one would bid on them. In this case, he would not be courteous. He immediately wrote down 1.11 billion on the bidding slab in front of him and pressed the bidding button.

“1.11 billion! Someone has offered 1.11 billion to purchase these three mysterious jade slips…”

Dai He relentlessly promoted the jade slips on the stage. However, besides Di Jiu, no one else seemed to be moved. No one found this strange. It was normal at this stage of the auction for the three jade slips obtained from the Fairy Planet to be sold at 1.11 billion.

Just as Dai He thought that the three jade slips would only be sold at 1.11 billion and was about to make the last three calls, a bid of 1.2 billion appeared on the screen that showed the bidding prices.

“A new bid of 1.2 billion has been placed on the mysterious jade slips! It seems like there are still people able to recognize treasure. Is there a higher bid? If there isn’t, the three jade slips, which hold undiscovered amounts of value, have already found their rightful owner…”

Although Di Jiu had not expected that anyone would compete with him, he did not hesitate to write down 1.21 billion on the slab.

Almost as soon as he did, the bid on the screen was changed to two billion.

It appeared that, not only was that person competing with Di Jiu in terms of bidding, but they also had an unyielding attitude.

The atmosphere of the auction had finally become lively. It took only two rounds of bidding for the price of the three unsuspecting jade slips to reach two billion, even though there were only two people bidding on them.

Some of the auction participants, who had not been aware of the value of the jade slips, began to consider joining in the bidding. Most people, however, maintained the status quo and just kept watching. No one could be certain that this was not a trick of the auction house after all.

“2.1 billion!” Di Jiu said, raising the price without hesitation.

“The price has reached three billion…” Dai He said before her sentence was cut short by Di Jiu’s next bid.

This time, Di Jiu did not raise the bid by 10,000,000 or 100,000,000 dollars. Instead, he raised the bid directly to six billion.

That small change was all he had at the moment.

This raise could be considered the biggest one since the start of the auction. However, before Dai He could excitedly announce the result, the bid on the screen soared to 10 billion.

This raise was higher than Di Jiu’s by a significant amount. The other bidder’s unyielding attitude was painfully obvious.

Di Jiu frowned a little. Could the fella competing with him also be obsessed with mental strength?

“12 billion!” The bid on the screen jumped up once again. Di Jiu knew that this bid had not been placed by him or his competitor. It was a bid placed by a third party.

The atmosphere suddenly became even more lively. Everyone had guessed that the three jade slips would most likely be real treasures. Even if this was a trick of the auction house, a third party would rarely ever spoil it.

Di Jiu did not raise the bid. After the 12-billion bid, his initial competitor placed a bid of 15 billion and a new spoilsport raised the bid to 17 billion.

The bid soon soared, reaching 20 billion in under a minute.

Two bidders who had just joined in stepped out of the competition. 20 billion was not an amount the average person could afford, especially when the items in question were three jade slips of dubious usefulness.

The person who had bid 20 billion was Di Jiu’s initial competitor, who had been raising the bid unyieldingly. Dai He shouted excitedly on the stage, “This guy bid 20 billion! If possible, I would really like to invite this distinguished guest on the stage and explain the use of the three jade slips. Of course, only according to my imagination…”

As Dai He kept entertaining the audience, Di Jiu resolutely raised the bid, effectively cutting off her performance.

“30 billion alliance dollars!” Di Jiu, who did not want to keep this up any longer, became more decisive and unyielding in his bidding.

Once his bid appeared, the entire venue became even noisier. Despite the fact that Dai He had asked everyone not to make too much noise earlier, she was incapable of stopping this kind of uproar, which occurred during the bidding itself.

One had to be crazy to pay 30 billion for three jade slips of unknown use.

As expected, when Di Jiu resolutely increased the bid to 30 billion, the fella competing with him fell silent.

“The price has reached 30 billion alliance dollars. Heavens, do these jade slips contain the biggest secret of the Fairy Planet? A distinguished guest actually bid 30 billion alliance dollars…”

“Shut up!” a voice shouted angrily from one of the private theater boxes. The voice stunned Dai He and the rest of the people participating in the auction.

This had to be the first time someone had made the auctioneer shut up at the Fairy Planet Auction House.

Di Jiu was astonished. No matter how unhappy he was, he would never tell Dai He to shut up. However, what had surprised him more was not the person’s fiery temper, but his strength. The fact that everyone had heard clearly the few words he had said proved his strength.

Still, Dai He would not listen to him. Instead, she continued to unrelentlessly promote the three jade slips, even though the auction house did not take any action against that man.

“35 billion!” After falling silent for 30 seconds, the person raised the bid by five billion. Di Jiu’s decisive increment had caused his opponent’s bids to become significantly weaker.

“50 billion!” By this point, Di Jiu was certain that the other party either was aware of the origin of the three jade slips or knew how they were used. Hence, he did not hesitate in increasing the bid by 15 billion. He wanted everyone to know that he was even more unyielding.

Di Jiu suspected that, after this bid, his opponent would be completely defeated.