Chapter 3609: A Small Bidding War |
The male staff looked at Alex with a slight hesitation in his stance. "Um... are you sure you wish to purchase all of this? I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I should warn you that this is going to cost a lot."
"That’s fine. I can pay," Alex said. "Also, I don’t exactly want to buy everything within the talisman. If you wouldn’t mind looking through it again, you’ll see that some of the ingredients I need are dependent on whether the first ingredient exists or not. For example, if the Fire Spider Nestle leaves are available for purchase, I will not need the Flamefall Egg plant, the Rogue Hornet Flower, or the Saint Pumice Wildflower."
The staff looked through the ingredients list again, this time recognizing the choices that Alex had placed onto the list itself. Because Alex wasn’t certain that he would find everything he wanted in this place, he had made sure to list out the alternatives he could buy instead.
He had the skills to replace a single ingredient or two in his pill recipe with something else to reach the same result, so he would never have to be stuck with the same requirements.
After going through the list, the male staff gave a subtle nod. "I shall go check what we have in stock. Please excuse me for a few minutes."
Alex gestured for the man to leave, and he did. With him gone, Alex looked around the room. Jade shelves hung from each wall in the room, showcasing their best products up for sale in crystalline boxes.
Men and women walked around with bright looks on their faces, while many engaged in trade itself with the alchemy hall.
Alex looked toward a massive set of staircases at the end of the hall that led to the floor above. Since the floor above was to purchase pills or hire alchemists, he wanted to go check it out later.
For now, he had to wait around for the staff to return.
Alex narrowed his eyes, looking past the group to see into the crystalline box that held the item. "Oh, that’s a Fain-Immortal Peach Lily. I didn’t expect to see one here."
"A what?" Ronron asked, turning around and looking back at the ingredient on the shelf. She had never heard of it at all. She looked closer, now reading its title.
"Miracle Ascendance Lily?"
She turned back toward Alex. "Did you just get an ingredient’s name wrong?"
Alex chuckled slightly. "No, they got the name wrong. Or rather, the name has been lost to time, so it’s changed. They call it that, but I call it something else."
"Hmm... it must be a great flower for people to crowd around it so much. What does it do?" Ronron asked.
"Anyone within the Immortal Ascendant realm who holds the flower during their cultivation session immediately breaks through within the week."
Ronron’s eyes widened. "What?"
She too was in the Immortal Ascendant realm at the moment, having barely managed to break through twice in the past few decades. Unlike her grandmother and grandaunt, who were close to reaching the Immortal Origin realm by now, she had lagged behind a lot.
"Should we go take a look at it?"
Alex wasn’t against it. The two walked over to where the crowd was, and Ronron got a closer look at the flower. Her eyes shined brightly with a want for the flower. However, there was no price mentioned anywhere around the shelf, unlike the many other items. .
"Huh? What does it cost then?" Ronron asked.
Alex looked around and saw someone at the front quietly writing something down with a quill and paper. He heard some prices being thrown around, which the staff member wrote down almost immediately.
"Huh! Looks like they are bidding on it," Alex said. "Like an auction house."
"Should we get it?" Ronron asked, her eyes sparkling with glee.
Alex couldn’t bring himself to tell her that he already had a recipe for a set of pills that could do the exact same thing as well. And because he could just use the Blank Canvas Pill for it, he didn’t even need to get any ingredients at all.
However, given Ronron’s enthusiasm, he let her pursue it. How expensive could it even really get?
"Let me go make a bid then," Alex told her and moved to the front. The crowd hardly made way for anyone else, so Alex had to push his way through them. The crowd grumbled, but no one could stop him.
Arriving at the front, he heard the bids being made much more clearly. The current bid for the flower had reached over 400 thousand Immortal spirit stones. For something that basically allowed a person to skip a cultivation realm, Alex supposed this was understandable.
Some more bids were made by the time Alex could finally make his, so when he reached the front, he immediately upped the bid to 500 thousand. A lot of discontent voices silently cursed at him, but no one could truly tell him off for bidding.
After all, the alchemy store was in charge of everything.
Someone came after Alex, increasing the bid slightly, while another person arrived afterward and increased the bid even more. This time, someone cursed out loud.
"Please keep your voice down," the staff behind the counter quickly spoke up. "If you cause any trouble within the store, we will be forced to ask you to leave."
The crowd got silent for a while after the staff said as much, but slowly, as the bids grew again, the noise grew as well. Alex moved away for a while, watching with Ronron before deciding to increase it once again. The number had already reached high, and the jumps were getting big as well.
So, this time around, he directly pushed it from 850 thousand Immortal spirit stones to directly a million Immortal spirit stones.
The crowd was not happy after that.