Chapter 4223 Chapter 4223 – Senior Brother Guo Translator: Silavin & Tia Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys The jade was the finale item. The old man on the stage gave a polite speech on the stage, thanking everybody who participated in the once more. Only then did he announce the successful conclusion of the auction. Many of the cultivators in the hall stood up and left. However, the Proprietress remained motionless. She simply sat there calmly, as if waiting for something. Yang Kai was puzzled but did not ask any questions; instead, he began to take stock of what he had obtained from this auction. He had bid for quite a few things. Aside from the Sixth-Order Scarlet Yin Sand and the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill, he purchased many Fourth-Order materials. He also, of course, won the auction for the jade at the end of the auction. While he was researching the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill, Yue He had made a move several times to bid for several Sixth-Order resources. The auction house had delivered those items a long time ago. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 All in all, he had spent around a 150 million Open Heaven Pills. These expenses were not a small sum to other people, but it was within an acceptable range for Yang Kai. Be that as it may, no High-Rank resources had appeared even in such a high-end auction, so he couldn’t help feeling a slight sense of disappointment. Even the Sixth-Order materials were not many. It could be seen that his hopes of finding the High-Rank resources he needed in places like various auction houses were not very realistic. Yang Kai soon finished taking stock of his newly-acquired items and then returned to working on the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill. He had already finished studying the pill recipe. Be it in terms of the materials or the refining process, the technique was not very difficult for him. There should be no problem as long as he practiced diligently and overcame a few failures to accumulate experience. At present, he was studying the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill itself. In the eyes of others, a Spirit Pill was nothing more than a Spirit Pill that could be consumed and used for different purposes depending on the medicinal efficacies it contained. However, for an Alchemist, a finished Spirit Pill contained an extensive amount of information. An accomplished Alchemist could even deduce the pill recipe for refining a particular Spirit Pill just from studying a finished Spirit Pill. They might not be able to decipher everything, but it was not difficult to deduce an almost complete pill recipe. Although Yang Kai was devoted to the Martial Dao, he also had deep attainments in the Alchemic Dao. Now that he had the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill and its pill recipe in hand, he could learn many things from these two items. He placed the bit of Pill Powder that he scraped off from the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill earlier into his mouth and savoured the taste carefully. His expression changed continuously. From time to time, he would suddenly frown or show a look of epiphany. His mind was racing like crazy, creating sparks from the collision of his thoughts. An hour later, he finally pulled his mind back to the present with a much greater confidence in his ability to refine the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pill. At this moment, the door opened all of a sudden. The old man with a stiff expression who presided over the auction just now pushed open the door but did not enter the room. He simply stood at the entrance of the room while stretching his hand out in a polite gesture, “Madam Lan, please come this way.” The Proprietress was not surprised and simply nodded lightly before standing up. Afterward, the old man turned around and led the way. Yang Kai followed behind the Proprietress and asked curiously, “Where are we going?” The Proprietress didn’t even turn around as she sent a Divine Sense transmission to him, “Didn’t you want to find some High-Rank materials? We’re going to try our luck. But, I can’t guarantee whether any High-Rank materials will appear or whether you can obtain them even if they do.” He was stunned, “What do you mean?” She said, “So many Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters came today. Did you really think they came here just for that auction?” Upon hearing those words, Yang Kai immediately realised that the situation earlier was strange indeed. Some good stuff had appeared in the auction, enough that they could even cause the Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters to compete for those resources. Even so, most of the people in the private rooms had not made any bids from beginning to the end. Aside from the second to last round when they bid for the map of the Blood Monster Cave Heaven, they mostly remained as nothing more than spectators throughout the entire auction. Most of the Open Heaven Realm Masters in those private rooms came from various far-flung Great Territories with some being trillions of kilometres away. There was no need for them to put so much effort into coming here just to end up as a spectator, right? “If they’re not here for the auction, then what are they here for?” He wondered. The Proprietress replied, “They only joined the auction to take part in the excitement since they were already here. They are actually here for the exchange meeting after the auction!” “An exchange meeting!” Yang Kai raised his brow at those words, gaining a vague understanding of the situation. “There are many who obtain treasures but do not have a use for them, nor do they wish to put them up for auction. Even if they obtained Open Heaven Pills, they would still need to go out and search for the items that they really need after all. As such, they prefer to exchange items with each other in private. For example, if I need a Sixth-Order Earth Element treasure but only have a Sixth-Order Fire Element treasure, I can trade with somebody else during this exchange meeting. Since both items are Sixth-Order materials, their prices are pretty similar. In this way, the exchange can be carried out and everybody is happy with the exchange.” “I got it.” Yang Kai nodded. “But, you should not get your hopes up. High-Rank materials are hard to find. Even if they appear, you might not get your hands on them.” Yang Kai grinned, “The only thing I fear is that they won’t appear. If they do appear, then I will get my hands on them even if I have to use money to beat them into submission.” The theoretical price of a Seventh-Order material was around a 150 million Open Heaven Pills. Naturally, that was just in theory. If one were to include a premium for its rarity, it was acceptable for its price to range from 170 to 180 million. Would those people refuse to sell if Yang Kai threw out 200 or 300 million Open Heaven Pills at them? In any case, those were Open Heaven Pills he won through gambling. It was not heart-breaking to spend them. Thus, Yang Kai was secretly looking forward to the exchange meeting. Under the old man’s guidance, the group of four passed through several corridors and came to a secret room. There were quite a few people already waiting inside and they were clearly the Open Heaven Realm Masters who sat in the private rooms during the auction earlier. When those people saw the Proprietress, many of them nodded at her lightly. Inside the secret room, everybody was randomly seated. There was a large table in front of them and several platters of Spirit Fruits were placed there to enjoy. The seating arrangements formed a circle with a one-metre-high platform placed right in the middle. The platform was completely made of flawless white jade. “Madam Lan, please make yourself comfortable!” The old man spoke briefly before turning around to leave. He was probably going to invite others to this place. The Proprietress led Yang Kai and the others over to an empty spot and sat down before taking a look around. There were already quite a few Open Heaven Realm Masters inside the secret room. Some of them were alone while some of them arrived with several people in tow, just like the Proprietress. Yang Kai also saw many Emperor Realm cultivators like himself, looking around curiously just like him. These Emperor Realm cultivators were probably the Juniors or Disciples of the Open Heaven Realm Masters. They were probably using this opportunity to learn more about the outside world. While he was looking around his surroundings, Yang Kai saw two familiar figures. It was a man and a woman, one young and one old. They were none other than Old Zhou and Yu Luo Sha of Asura Heaven. Thinking about it again, it was not strange. Red Clouds Auction House and Asura Arena both had establishments in Thousand Birds Territory’s Star City. It was only natural that they were invited to participate in an auction here. In Thousand Birds Territory’s Star City, these two were not the only businesses belonging to First-Class great forces. Wind and Cloud Auction House was an industry of Wind and Cloud Paradise, Gathering Virtue Emporium was an asset of Nine Stars Paradise, and even Hundred Refining’s Hall was supported by one of the Paradises. At this moment, the representatives of these First-Class great forces gathered inside this secret room. Old Zhou of the Asura Arena smiled and nodded at Yang Kai. Yang Kai returned the greeting with a bow. Yu Luo Sha was looking at Yang Kai with a complicated expression, but she also nodded in greeting. There was no hostility in her demeanour; rather, her fighting spirit was burning. Thus, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a sense of respect for this woman. He believed that she would definitely achieve great things in the future. The previous battle had not affected her Martial Heart negatively in any way; instead, it became the driving force for her to strive to become even stronger. There was no sign of Pei Bu Wan anywhere as he probably lost everything the other day, so he did not have the money to participate in this exchange meeting. During this waiting period, countless people kept entering the secret room, found seats, and sat down. All of a sudden, a middle-aged man with a golden crown on his head appeared at the entrance. He was dressed in luxurious robes and the aura around him was extremely powerful. A tall girl with picturesque features followed behind him. Her cultivation was not high. Like Yang Kai, she was only in the Emperor Realm. Her intelligent eyes studied her surroundings with great curiosity, giving her an ethereal feeling. Many young Juniors couldn’t help glancing in her direction with a look of admiration and adoration on their faces. Likewise, Yang Kai glanced over in that direction just in time to see the middle-aged man leading the tall and slender girl in their direction. The middle-aged man arrived not far from him within a few steps. The Proprietress stood up and gave an elegant bow, “Senior Brother Guo!” Old Bai also respectfully greeted the middle-aged man, “Greetings, Senior Guo!” Surprised, Yang Kai and Yue He hurriedly got to their feet. Judging from the tone of the Proprietress and Bai Qi’s voices, they seemed to be familiar with this middle-aged man surnamed Guo. Their relationship also seemed to be rather intertwined; otherwise, the Proprietress would never address the man with the title ‘Senior Brother’. It had to be said that most Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters were the ones to greet the Proprietress first when they encountered her. After all, the order of etiquette also served to represent the level of their respective statuses. In other words, this man surnamed Guo was more powerful than the Proprietress. Yang Kai was secretly speechless. Judging by the way the Proprietress addressed this man, could it be that they had a Senior Brother-Junior Sister relationship with each other? Senior Brother Guo smiled slightly, “Junior Sister Lan, there is no need to be so polite. Please take a seat.” After saying that, he took the lead and sat down. Only then did the Proprietress return to her seat. ... He then said, “It has been several dozen years since we last saw each other. You have a noble bearing as usual, Junior Sister Lan. It is truly gratifying.” She replied with a slight smile, “Many thanks, Senior Brother Guo. You are as handsome as usual.” He laughed, “I’ve gotten old. I can’t compare with the younger generation anymore.” All of a sudden, he turned to look at Yang Kai with a measuring gaze. Then, he narrowed his eyes and asked, “Isn’t this the boy who defeated Yu Luo Sha in the Asura Arena?” Yang Kai suddenly had the illusion that he was being stared at by the ancient Ominous Beast under that measuring gaze. For a moment, he felt as though he was being crushed under the pressure of a dozen mountains and could barely breathe as a result.