"Rare things are valuable. If you flood the market with medicinal herbs all at once, their prices are bound to drop," Wu Qi said.
Of course, medicinal herbs were a hard currency. Even if a large quantity was released onto the market at once, there would still be buyers willing to purchase the entire stock.
With that, Wu Qi stood up and headed backstage to complete the transaction directly with the private seller. As for the auction house's commission, it would be paid by the seller.
Once the item was in his hands, Wu Qi examined it carefully. It was a soft armor woven by hand from several kinds of high-strength metals.
Its surface had been deliberately coated with a dark finish, making it difficult to notice when worn beneath clothing.
Like all armor, however, it had one inherent flaw, it could block attacks but couldn't completely absorb the force of the impact.
This Nine-Treasure Ruyi Soft Armor had soft padding built into it, but the amount of impact it could disperse was still limited.
Even so, Wu Qi was extremely satisfied. After all, he had mastered techniques for redirecting force. As long as the armor could withstand the attack itself, the remaining impact wouldn't be fatal to him.
The Heaven-Class Auction featured a large number of items, and presenting them one by one took a great deal of time.
By midnight, the auction reached its most important stage.
Every item from this point onward was a high-value treasure that was not to be missed.
With the mental-type Spirit Bone no longer available, Dugu Bo had already lost much of his enthusiasm for the auction.
Seeing that none of the remaining items interested them, Wu Qi and the others left the auction house early.
Among the finale items were two fifty-thousand-year Spirit Bones. The bidding war for them was bound to be fierce, and the little money they had wasn't nearly enough to compete.
After returning to the academy, Ning Rongrong finally took out the deep-blue gemstone she had been carrying.
"Rongrong, did you discover something?" Wu Qi asked curiously.
The gemstone was of excellent quality. After being carefully cut and polished, it still sparkled brilliantly under the moonlight.
It also wasn't particularly expensive. Ning Rongrong had bought it for ten thousand gold spirit coins.
Frowning, Ning Rongrong said, "I keep feeling there's something unusual about it. It looks incredibly valuable, but no matter how closely I examine it, it just seems to be an ordinary gemstone."
"Oh?" Wu Qi took the gemstone and inspected it carefully under the moonlight.
All he could make out was a cut running through the middle of the gem. However, after being polished by a craftsman, the crack had become nearly invisible.
"There is another possibility," Chen Ping analyzed. "There might be something hidden inside. Because of the way the light refracts, it's impossible to see with the naked eye."
Knowing that Ning Rongrong loved collecting gemstones, Wu Qi asked for her opinion.
"If your instincts are right, there really could be something hidden inside. But we'll have to smash it open to find out."
Ning Rongrong waved her hand dismissively.
"I've got seven or eight gemstones even bigger than this one. Go ahead and smash it."
Wu Qi and the others exchanged awkward smiles.
The world of a wealthy young lady really was different from everyone else's.
Feng Xiaotian and the others hadn't returned yet. Otherwise, having Huo Wu melt it with her flames or Huo Wushuang slice it open with his claws would have been good options.
For now, the only choice was to have Chen Ping break it open with his turtle shell.
Changkong surrounded the area with iron plates to prevent whatever was inside from flying away.
Activating his martial soul, Chen Ping summoned the heavy turtle shell into his hand.
"I'm really going to smash it."
After receiving another nod of confirmation from Ning Rongrong, he swung the turtle shell down with all his strength.
A sharp crack echoed through the courtyard as the gemstone shattered into countless fragments of varying sizes.
Everyone crouched down and carefully searched through the pieces.
Meanwhile, relying on her martial soul's unique treasure-appraisal ability, Ning Rongrong immediately spotted a transparent fragment among the debris.
Wu Qi and the others smiled awkwardly and quickly gathered around.
At that moment, they finally understood why the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was so incredibly wealthy.
A martial soul with such a unique ability was practically a gift from heaven. As long as its owner traveled the continent, there was no shortage of opportunities to make a fortune.
The early disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had most likely built the sect's wealth through methods like this, allowing it to grow into the powerful organization it was today.
"What is this thing? A gemstone hidden inside another gemstone? How does that even work?" Changkong asked in confusion.
Blue, purple, and gold gemstones were the most valuable. The outer layer was a blue gemstone, while a transparent gemstone was hidden inside it. It almost looked like someone was trying to pass off a fake.
Of course, Ning Rongrong's instincts couldn't be wrong, so everyone immediately began treating the transparent gemstone with greater importance.
After a moment, Wu Qi asked, "Chen Ping, are you still planning to use your old storage soul tool?"
Now that Chen Ping had a better storage soul tool, the old one was naturally obsolete. He had originally planned to sell it.
Wu Qi smiled and said, "How about selling it to me for one thousand gold spirit coins?"
Chen Ping had no idea why Wu Qi suddenly brought it up, but there was no way he would accept any money.
"Captain, you already gave me such an expensive soul tool. If you need this one, just take it."
Wu Qi didn't argue.
He placed the soul tool on the stone floor, then took a large hammer out of his own soul tool.
Ignoring everyone's puzzled looks, he swung the hammer down with all his strength.
A faint surge of soul power spread through the room, and the soul tool shattered, exposing its core.
Soul tools with a storage capacity of one cubic meter were all built around this kind of spatial jade core. Tang San's Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges was made by combining multiple such jade cores.
As for soul tools with a capacity greater than one cubic meter, they were created using entirely different methods, techniques that had long since been lost.
Back in Soto City, Wu Qi had noticed an exposed soul tool core in one of Flender's shop displays. Now that he had finally seen one up close, he was certain that the transparent white crystal hidden inside the blue gemstone was the core of a one-cubic-meter storage soul tool.
Seeing this, everyone immediately understood what was going on.
Chen Ping exclaimed, "Damn! Who would go to so much trouble just to hide a soul tool core inside a gemstone?"
Ning Rongrong had heard stories like this before.
"When some families faced destruction, they would secretly hide their treasures and wealth in advance. This was probably one of the methods they used."
"It could be that the surviving descendants never learned the secret and sold it as an ordinary gemstone. Or perhaps the entire family was wiped out, leaving no one who knew what was hidden inside."
"But how are we supposed to get the items out?"
"Like this."
As he spoke, Wu Qi sent his soul power through his fingertips into the crystal while extending his spiritual power inside as well.
After so many years, the spiritual imprint within had become extremely weak. It shattered almost effortlessly under his spiritual power.
With a thought, he activated the storage space.
Clatter!
Countless blue, purple, and golden gemstones, along with piles of gold, silver, jewelry, and valuables, poured onto the floor.
At that moment, Feng Xiaotian and the others happened to walk into the dormitory hall. The sight before them left them speechless.
"Whoa did you guys strike it rich?"
A single golden gemstone the size of a pigeon's egg was worth at least ten thousand gold soul coins, and there were dozens of them here. As for the blue and purple gemstones, there were simply too many to count.
Following Ning Rongrong's earlier speculation, Chen Ping said excitedly,
"We just uncovered an entire family's fortune!"
The valuables piled before them were worth at least one to two million gold soul coins.
After hearing everyone's explanation, even Feng Xiaotian couldn't help but admire Ning Rongrong's incredible luck.
She had spent only ten thousand gold soul coins, yet ended up making well over a hundred times that amount.
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