All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 55

“30% increase in pill yield, higher quality?” All families with fourth-grade alchemists were restless. The Qi Replenishing Pill was a very useful pill, greatly beneficial for prolonged battles. Whether for family members’ use or for sale, it was a good choice. Even Profound Beings could use this, and many experts who had just entered the Profound Realm were tempted. Even if they couldn’t refine pills themselves, this would definitely please alchemists.

The items presented by the three major associations couldn’t possibly be fake, so everyone bid boldly.

Below, the two Bai Family Profound Beings tracking Baizhi, White Five and White Six, exchanged glances, both somewhat tempted. “Buying this back would be a great achievement, after all, fourth-grade pills are the main market for everyone’s consumption. Higher-grade pills are a bit too expensive.”

Seeing Baizhi trembling even more violently, Zhanyue couldn’t help but put his hand on her shoulder to steady her.

“Don’t get excited. Is this what you put up for auction?” Zhanyue asked curiously.

Baizhi nodded, “That’s right. I don’t know how much it can sell for. It’s crucial to whether I can buy that thing in the end.”

“Tsk tsk, improving a fourth-grade pill formula, how are you so amazing, girl?” Zhanyue couldn’t help but praise. With his current alchemy level, he couldn’t even refine fourth-grade pills, let alone improve the formula.

“Three million purple crystal coins!”

“Four million purple crystal coins!”

“Eight million five hundred thousand purple crystal coins!”

In the end, the formula was sold for 8.5 million purple crystal coins.

The formula was ultimately bought by an alchemy family, but Baizhi frowned. This item didn’t reach her ideal price.

“After all, it’s just an improved formula, and they’re also worried about the formula leaking, causing it to lose value. So 8.5 million is not a small amount,” Zhanyue comforted. The value of such things depended on whether someone recognized its commercial value.

Next, Bing Qianqiu took out a soul jade and introduced to everyone: “Everyone, this is a one-time use soul jade, destroyed after reading. So we don’t know its contents either. You don’t need to worry about its uniqueness; our association guarantees its authenticity and effectiveness. Next to be auctioned is a brand new fourth-grade pill, with the formula in this soul jade. The seller has also taken a heavenly oath, guaranteeing this formula won’t be sold to others. You can rest assured. In other words, this new formula is the only one in the world. After buying it, you’ll have exclusive rights to this fourth-grade pill, with no market competition.”

“Come, let’s see this never-before-seen pill, the fourth-grade Flesh and Bone Pill!” Bing Qianqiu called a servant. “Sorry for the trouble, your bonus won’t be small this time.”

With that said, under everyone’s breathless gaze, a knife directly cut the person’s arm, deep enough to see bone. Everyone drew in a sharp breath.

Then Bing Qianqiu took out a small bottle and poured a few sesame-sized red pills into the person’s wound. Soon, the pills merged with the blood, and the wound began to heal. Not long after, the knife wound had automatically healed. Everyone was excited; this was a new type of externally applied pill.

“How long has it been since a new pill formula appeared? Which eighth-grade alchemist’s work is this?” The crowd was in an uproar.

“It might not be newly developed. It could be an ancient formula resurfacing,” another person speculated.

“I still believe it’s a newly developed fourth-grade pill. After all, most ancient formulas were for internal use pills. Externally applied ones are extremely rare. The rise of externally applied pills only happened in the past thousand years. Even now, the highest quality externally applied pills are only seventh-grade,” someone else said.

The poison pill Baizhi used against enemies earlier, the fourth-grade Blood Mist Pill, was also an externally applied pill, just with the opposite effect. That poison pill formula was the reward she had promised Zhanyue.

“Full ownership of the Flesh and Bone Pill formula, starting price 3 million purple crystal coins, each bid must be no less than 100,000 purple crystal coins,” Bing Qianqiu’s voice fell, but there was silence.

Many people knew they couldn’t afford it, and those who could were evaluating its commercial value.

“Quickly send someone to contact the master. An externally applied healing pill, a miracle drug with such fast effects, who wouldn’t want to keep some? Let the master decide, hopefully it’s not too late,” someone immediately arranged to contact their superiors. Bing Qianqiu naturally wouldn’t stop this.

For such an item, Bing Qianqiu wasn’t in a hurry to hammer it down, letting them prepare well. However, many VIPs had actually received wind of this in advance and came prepared.

“Is this Flesh and Bone Pill also developed by you?” Zhanyue looked at Baizhi as if seeing a ghost.

Baizhi silently nodded, acknowledging it.

“What’s wrong with the Bai Family? Shouldn’t they worship someone like this as an ancestor? How dare they let her run away feeling wronged? What arranged marriage or forced marriage? With such talent, who needs marriage! They should want her to stay in the Bai Family forever,” Zhanyue was very confused.

“These things were all created after I left the Bai Family. They don’t know,” Baizhi seemed to see Zhanyue’s confusion and added, “Even if they knew, they still wouldn’t change their minds.”

“Ten million purple crystal coins!”

“Fifteen million purple crystal coins!”

People kept bidding, only slowing down when it reached 20 million purple crystal coins.

“Thirty million purple crystal coins!”

In the end, the exclusive rights to the Flesh and Bone Pill formula were taken by the Lan family from the Thousand Charms Empire. That person’s face was full of smiles; they had come prepared specifically for this item.

“Welcome everyone to patronize our Lan family’s business in the future. We won’t price this Flesh and Bone Pill too high, ensuring everyone can afford it,” that person stood up and said to those around.

“Of the four great families – White, Lan, Zhu, and Huang – the Lan family is the richest, one of the wealthiest families in the Thousand Charms Empire. Seeing it today, it’s indeed so, truly extravagant. However, no matter how powerful the Flesh and Bone Pill is, it’s still only a fourth-grade pill. It can’t heal all wounds, and there are other pills that can substitute for it. Thirty million purple crystal coins is about the limit,” someone commented.

Indeed, 30 million purple crystal coins wasn’t a huge sum for these great families, but this formula was still just for a fourth-grade pill.

“Sigh, it’s a pity I haven’t entered the Profound Realm and can’t refine fifth-grade pills, nor can I improve or develop fifth-grade pill formulas,” Baizhi said with some regret. Her realm was limiting her ideas. An original fifth-grade pill formula might sell for billions, completely different from the 30 million for a fourth-grade formula. Fourth-grade pills were still too small a help for Profound Beings, and most of the world’s wealth was controlled by Profound Beings, so the gap between fifth-grade and fourth-grade pills was enormous.

“Fifth-grade alchemist? I’m still far from fourth-grade,” Zhanyue sighed.

The gap from third to fourth grade was huge, the dividing line between genius and mediocrity. Countless alchemists were stuck at third grade for life. The difference between fourth and fifth grade was more about soul power. Refining fifth-grade pills required Profound Realm level soul power. Without entering the Profound Realm, it was impossible to refine them. So this threshold wasn’t about alchemy skill but realm. No matter how good one’s alchemy talent was, without entering the Profound Realm, there wasn’t enough soul power to support refining fifth-grade pills. And because fifth-grade pills were extremely helpful to Profound Beings, their value naturally couldn’t be compared to fourth-grade pills. Moreover, among fifth-grade pills were things like the Profound Entering Pill. The status of fifth-grade alchemists was evident; they held steward-level positions in the three major associations.

“Thirty million, basically the top price. I hope it’s enough,” Baizhi was still very nervous.

“Everyone, the next item is quite interesting. This is a token. Legend has it that holding this token allows one to ascend Black Whale Island and stay there for a year. I don’t know more than that, after all, I’ve never been to Black Whale Island. But I believe some among you must know the value of this item. Starting price, 5 million purple crystal coins!” Bing Qianqiu said.

Looking at that blood-colored token, Zhanyue’s heart shook. He had an identical token on him. When he had blasted that Moon Profound Realm assassin earlier, this item hadn’t been destroyed after the assassin’s death. But Zhanyue knew this token couldn’t be the assassin’s identity token; who would carry identification while assassinating? But he didn’t know what this item was for. Now, an identical token appeared at the auction.

“What kind of token is this? What’s it for? Do you know?” Below, many people looked at each other in bewilderment. Some Profound Beings among them also didn’t know what this 5 million token was for.

“I’ve been to Black Whale Island. Couldn’t you stay as long as you wanted? Since when did you need a token? And 5 million, isn’t this a scam?” someone asked puzzled.

“Hmph, a bunch of ignorant fools,” the old man in the VIP room had obtained a blood-colored token in his youth. He knew the token’s secret, but he was somewhat confused about its value. “If not for those two items later, I’d buy this token for my grandson to broaden his horizons. What a pity, those two items are more important. I won’t compete for this. It’s just an entrance ticket, a dream.”

“Seven million!”

“Eight million!”

“Fifteen million!”

The price gradually reached over 20 million, but not many people were bidding. Firstly, many people had no idea what this thing was for. Secondly, quite a few people knew, but they were more concerned about the last two auction items and didn’t dare spend too much money on this.

“What kind of thing is this, so expensive?” Zhanyue was very puzzled. He also had one of these tokens; the higher the price, the happier he was.

Suddenly, Baizhi’s hoarse disguised voice sounded by Zhanyue’s ear, “Thirty million!”

“Hm? This girl came for this token? Opening with 30 million, what a rich lady,” Zhanyue’s eyes widened.