Shameless Immortal: Emperor of Ten Thousand Beauties

The old auctioneer swept his arms wide, and the stage behind him erupted into a brilliant cascade of golden spiritual light.

Ten pure white jade pedestals rose in a perfect, flawless semi-circle from the floorboards.

Atop each pedestal rested a crystal vial holding exactly ten gleaming, emerald-green pills.

The medicine radiated a dense, fog-like herbal mist that rapidly drifted over the front rows, forcing several old cultivators to gasp as their stagnant meridians violently throbbed with a sudden injection of pure vitality.

"The perfected, flawless Tier 3 Iron-Cleansing Hearth Pill!" the old man roared, his voice trembling with an ecstatic, theatrical pride.

"Every single pill displayed on this stage has been certified by our Alchemy Council to possess a mind-boggling purity of ninety-three percent! Total impurity elimination! Zero core-poison accumulation! A divine blessing for any master seeking to temper their core or break through to the late stages of cultivation without scarring their foundations!"

The entire grand hall exploded into a chaotic uproar.

Cultivators practically leaped out of their seats, their eyes turning completely bloodshot with raw, unadulterated greed as they stared down at the gleaming medicine.

The Iron-Cleansing Hearth Pill was nothing less than a lifeline for anyone who dared to navigate the treacherous, underground veins of the Crimson Iron Mountain Range.

The mines were a meat grinder; toxic earth-toxins and volatile spiritual gases saturated the air.

To survive, a miner either had to continuously exhaust their own Qi to filter the air, a completely impossible feat over long hours, or constantly consume specialized purging medicines.

Up until today, only Tier 0 to Tier 2 variants of this pill existed, heavily utilized by workers ranging from the Body Refining realm to Foundation Establishment realm.

Because of those limitations, every cultivator faced a hard, dangerous ceiling on how deep they could venture before the toxic sludge permanently corroded their meridians.

The higher your cultivation, the deeper you could push while popping low-tier pills, but the absolute abyssal depths of the range remained completely locked away.

But now, a Tier 3 version had finally appeared.

With a ninety-three percent purity rating, late-stage Foundation Establishment experts and Golden Core masters could finally plunge into the untouched, deepest chasms of the mountain.

It meant unlocking rare ore veins that had been sealed for centuries, paving the way for astronomical breakthroughs and staggering profits.

Sensing the temperature in the room reaching a boiling point, the old auctioneer slammed his wooden gavel hard against the podium.

The heavy, resonant thud instantly cut through the explosive noise, bringing a tense silence over the rabid crowd.

"Silence! Order! Due to the immense difficulty of refining such legendary quality, the union will only be selling a total of ten batches today! Each batch consists of exactly ten pills! We open the bidding for the very first batch at a base price of fifty low-grade spirit stones!"

"Sixty spirit stones!" a clan leader in heavy crimson robes screamed out instantly from the front rows, violently raising his wooden bidding plaque.

"Sixty-five!" an old rogue master countered from the opposite corner, his voice cracking with desperation.

"Seventy!"

"Eighty spirit stones!"

The bids flew across the massive hall like a hail of arrows, the price skyrocketing by five to ten stones with every passing second.

The local clan elders and wealthy merchant chiefs were fighting like rabid dogs, fully aware that a ninety-three percent purity pill was a life-saving treasure that could guarantee their disciples a safe breakthrough.

Up on the private viewing balcony, Bai Ruolan let out a proud, bubbling giggle, her childishly sweet energy returning in full force.

She happily bounced on her toes, her large breasts shifting beneath her loose white silk robe as she clapped her hands in pure delight.

"Look at them go, Senior Brother Mo!" she cheered, her bright blue eyes shining beneath her deep black hood.

"Eighty-five stones already! At this rate, just the first three batches will bring in more wealth than our logistics department makes in an entire month! The Cao Clan is probably coughing up blood right now!"

Shen Yu leaned loosely against the stone railing, his playful, thoroughly wicked smirk widening beneath the shadow of his hood as he watched the frantic bidding below hit ninety spirit stones.

"Let them bleed each other dry, Little Alchemist," Shen Yu murmured.

"The true beauty of this play isn’t just the wealth the union is raking in. It’s the fact that every stone spent in the hall today is a stone that will never enter the Cao Clan’s pockets."

The frantic storm of bidding didn’t slow down for a single breath.

The ten batches of the ninety-three percent purity Tier 3 Iron-Cleansing Hearth Pills were fought over like pieces of divine flesh.

Clan elders shouted until their voices turned hoarse, wealthy merchants aggressively threw down their family fortunes, and rogue cultivators nearly came to blows in the aisles.

By the time the final, tenth batch was hammered down, it had reached a staggering record high of one hundred and twenty four spirit stones.

The atmosphere inside the grand hall was completely suffocating, thick with the heavy scent of sweat, spiritual aura, and the lingering fragrance of the emerald-green medicines that had just vanished into the storage rings of the city’s elite.

As the final buyer triumphantly collected their jade container, the old auctioneer stepped back to the center of the illuminated stage.

He didn’t clear the pedestals. Instead, his wrinkled face broke into a thoroughly sharp, enigmatic smile.

He slammed his wooden gavel hard against the podium three times. Crack! Crack! Crack!

"Esteemed path-seekers, calm your spirits!" the old man’s voice boomed, amplified to a thunderous roar by the sonic talismans.

"The auction for our physical treasures is officially over. However, on behalf of the High Council of the Golden Cauldron Merchant Union, I have one final, major announcement to make before we open our doors!"

-x-

A/N:

A/N: Hey everyone! I have released my second novel! Please head over, check it out, and add it to your library to support it.