220: Chapter 220 The Power of Natural Allure

"Fifty thousand."

It was just as Li Qing had expected.

The bidding for the foundation establishment pill was rising rapidly.

Once the bid of fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones was announced, more than half the audience below fell silent instantly.

Those Loose Cultivators and low-level Cultivators who were still gritting their teeth to keep up turned pale, their lips trembling, and they dared not make another sound.

Everyone present knew clearly that fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones was by no means a small sum.

Ordinary Loose Cultivators would toil away entering the mountains to hunt for treasures, slay Yao Beasts, or take on miscellaneous tasks for Sects, saving every penny for eight or ten years, yet they might still not be able to save up that amount.

Many small Families could empty out their entire treasury, and at most, they would only have thirty or forty thousand Spirit Stones.

At this price point, ordinary Cultivators were completely out of the running, and the remaining contest was entirely the playing field of the various major Families and small-to-medium Sects.

The bids echoing from the private boxes never stopped, skyrocketing all the way up with a terrifying momentum.

"Fifty-three thousand!"

"Fifty-eight thousand!"

"Sixty thousand!"

The price jumped rapidly; every increase was real, hard currency, without a shred of padding.

The Cultivators in the ordinary seats below watched with trepidation, unable to help but sigh in low voices.

"They're crazy, these aristocratic Families are truly crazy! It's just one foundation establishment pill, is it worth throwing away so many Spirit Stones?"

"You don't know jack! Is that just an ordinary Medicinal Pill? That's a foundation establishment pill! It's something that can change one's fate!"

"The ceiling for a Qi Refining Family is Qi Refining Perfection for their entire lifetime. As long as one Foundation Establishment Cultivator emerges within the clan, the entire Family can directly change their fate, transforming from the bottom rung into an awe-inspiring cultivation Family!"

"Exactly! Territory, resources, connections, face—everything changes! Never mind fifty or sixty thousand, even if they throw away decades of savings, it's a huge profit, not a loss!"

Everyone could see it clearly: a Qi Refining Family and a Foundation Establishment Family might seem to be only one Realm apart, but in reality, they were separated by a chasm.

There were countless small Families at the bottom of the Yunling Mountain Range, trapped in the Qi Refining Realm their whole lives, unable to lift their heads due to the pressure from major Sects and Families, left to be manipulated and bullied at will.

But as long as a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was born within the Family, the entire Family's status would instantly turn upside down.

They would no longer have to live by reading others' expressions, and could even absorb smaller forces to attach themselves to them, prospering for generations.

In this cultivation world where strength is respected, if Spirit Stones are gone, they can be earned again, but the opportunity to Breakthrough a Realm, if missed, is gone for a lifetime!

Many Clan Chiefs who had originally gritted their teeth and planned to give up sat in their seats, faces flushed, breathing heavily, their inner obsessions completely stirred up.

At first, they were weighing the pros and cons, pained by the Family assets accumulated over many years, reluctant to empty them all at once.

But the more they listened to the discussion around them, and the more they gazed at the foundation establishment pill shimmering with spiritual light on the stage, the last bit of hesitation in their hearts vanished completely.

"Fight! Must fight!"

"Isn't it just Spirit Stones?"

If the Family assets are gone, they can be slowly saved up again, but the opportunity for the Family to rise—this might be the only one in a lifetime!

As long as they could win this foundation establishment pill and let a Genius descendant of the clan achieve a Foundation Establishment Breakthrough, the future earnings, resources, and status of the entire Family could be earned back tenfold or a hundredfold!

In an instant, several rough voices calling out bids suddenly burst forth from the previously silent ordinary seats.

"Sixty-five thousand Spirit Stones!"

"Sixty-eight thousand! The Yu Family of Blackwater Workshop bids seventy thousand! Nobody fight me for it!"

"Seventy-two thousand! The Lin Family of Greenshan Workshop is determined to win!"

The sudden emergence of these various Family bigwigs pushed the bidding atmosphere to a white-hot state.

They didn't care about the inflated price, nor did they care about short-term losses; they only had eyes for that one Heaven-Defying foundation establishment pill, their eyes red as they crazily increased their bids, the scene completely out of control.

Su Hongyi, on the high stage, watched the intensifying scramble below, a perfect, gentle smile always hanging on the corner of her lips.

She didn't urge the bidding or fan the flames; she merely spoke in a soft, gentle, and delicate voice, and with a few words, she completely maxed out everyone's desires.

"Fellow Daoists must surely be aware."

"An ordinary foundation establishment pill has a Breakthrough success rate of barely sixty percent."

"But what we are auctioning today is a foundation establishment pill refined personally by a Second-Tier High Grade alchemist; the pill patterns are perfect, the medicinal power is pure, without a single trace of Impurities."

"After consumption, the Breakthrough success rate approaches eighty percent."

"One foundation establishment pill is enough to support a small Family's prosperity for a hundred years; this deal is never a loss, no matter how you calculate it."

With just these few short, plain explanations, she carried a strange infectious power.

Her words drifted lightly into everyone's ears, as if carrying an invisible magic, drilling directly into the deepest obsessions in their hearts.

Those who were originally still hesitant and planning to stop in moderation suddenly felt their heads heat up after listening, unable to hold back any longer, raising their hands to continue bidding.

Li Qing, sitting quietly in the private box, his eyes shifted slightly, and he sighed inwardly.

This Su Hongyi is truly not simple.

His cultivation is profound, and his Divine Soul is far more condensed than the vast majority of Cultivators present; he saw things more clearly than anyone else.

Between Su Hongyi's words, it wasn't simply a matter of good eloquence; there was a kind of natural charm in her voice.

This feeling was completely natural; those who had not cultivated Divine Soul secret arts would only subconsciously feel that what she said was right and reasonable, willingly taking out money to increase their bids.

Only Cultivators with a sufficiently strong Divine Soul could catch this subtle anomaly.

Any Cultivator present with a weaker Divine Soul or ordinary Heart-Nature simply could not withstand this subtle influence; it was very easy for their inner greed and obsessions to be stirred up, making them lose their heads and crazily raise the price.

This woman's ability to manipulate human hearts is simply masterful!

At this moment, the bidding on the floor had completely lost any sense of rationality.

The price skyrocketed all the way—eighty thousand, one hundred thousand, one hundred and twenty thousand!

In just a dozen breaths, the price of the first foundation establishment pill broke through the barrier of one hundred and fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones!

"One hundred and fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones! This Fellow Daoist bids one hundred and fifty thousand!"

Su Hongyi's clear voice, carrying just the right amount of surprise, spread throughout the entire Secret Realm space, the smile in her eyes becoming even more vivid.

"One hundred and fifty thousand Spirit Stones, are there any other Fellow Daoists willing to compete for one more round?"

She was neither anxious nor impatient; with a single follow-up question, she once again plucked at the heartstrings of everyone in the venue.

The price of one hundred and fifty thousand made those hot-headed Cultivators suddenly calm down a little.

"Don't rush, don't rush, there are still nine more remaining."

"I don't believe I can't snatch even one foundation establishment pill."

One hundred and fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones—this price had completely hit the ceiling. Never mind small and medium-sized Families, even many external forces of major Sects felt that the gains did not justify the costs, and there was no need to continue competing.

Seeing this, Su Hongyi slowly raised the red jade hammer in her hand, her voice resonant and pleasant:

"One hundred and fifty thousand, going once!"

"One hundred and fifty thousand, going twice!"

"One hundred and fifty thousand, going three times! Sold!"

"Congratulations to this Fellow Daoist for securing the first foundation establishment pill of the day! Wishing your Family's descendant a perfect Foundation Establishment and a smooth path on the Dao!"

The crisp sound of the hammer falling rang out, and the first foundation establishment pill was successfully sold!

The sky-high price of one hundred and fifty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones instantly ignited the atmosphere of the entire venue, and everyone could not help but sigh in amazement.

The very first auction item of the opening had sold for such a high price, directly giving this decennial grand auction an extremely explosive start!

No one felt it was not worth it; everyone knew clearly that in the scarce atmosphere of the decennial grand auction, this price was completely reasonable.