Chapter 587: Jubaoxuan (Part 2)

Bu faced Bu Fa and shook his head, sighing with a look of deep regret on his face.

Bu Fa, helpless, had no choice but to give up bidding.

Considering that the celestial court might target the dwarves, Shui Miao wanted to save Bu Xiang and Bu Fa. Instantly, he split his focus, and the furnace inside the Tower of Time immediately began to rotate… Shui Miao intended to forge two exceptional time-based protective artifacts for Bu Fa and Bu Xiang, so they would have treasures to defend themselves and avoid being secretly targeted by the celestial court.

The celestial official struck the gong with a hammer, and the time-based protective artifact was successfully bid on by the middle-aged man.

Immediately afterward, the celestial official began auctioning off the supreme artifact of the Ice-Sealing Domain, starting at thirty million crystals.

Such an exorbitant price was truly shocking.

“What, thirty million crystals?”

“That’s… way too outrageous! And it’s just the starting price!”

“No way I can afford it. Who could possibly afford this?”

“Ah! I bet the seller is just trying to hype it up and never intended to sell it. If they truly wanted to sell, they wouldn’t ask for such an absurd price.”

“Exactly! I’m sure that middle-aged man is in cahoots with them, pretending to bid just to fool us.”

“Ah, forget it, forget it. Let’s just treat this as watching a show…”

Many immortals present were immediately frightened by the high price and began murmuring and complaining.

“Forty million crystals.”

The middle-aged man spoke again, instantly shocking everyone. He had raised the bid by ten million crystals at once—an utterly shocking and inconceivable move.

Bu Fa’s expression darkened.

It was obvious that Bu Fa really wanted to obtain this supreme artifact.

“Forty million crystals once…”

“Forty million crystals twice…”

The celestial official began counting, and on the third call, it would be finalized.

Suddenly, Bu Fa raised his hand, “Fifty million crystals.”

This was already Bu Fa’s limit. He and Bu Xiang had brought only fifty million crystals in total for this trip. This bid was a desperate move.

“A mere little dwarf dares to compete with me?”

The middle-aged man sneered, raised his hand, and loudly declared, “One hundred million crystals.”

“…”

Hearing the price of one hundred million crystals, the venue immediately erupted into discussion. Everyone was talking at once, but the majority doubted whether the middle-aged man could actually produce such a massive amount of crystals, suspecting it was all a scam.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly, the middle-aged man felt a slight dizziness in his head…

Indeed, Shui Miao had acted. He used the Tianmo Heart Method to probe into the middle-aged man’s thoughts and learned his identity.

Because Shui Miao had cultivated two heart methods simultaneously, the cultivation of both the Mengmo and Tianmo Heart Methods advanced extremely quickly and efficiently. In an instant, he obtained some of the middle-aged man’s thoughts.

It turned out that the middle-aged man wasn’t actually a wealthy tycoon but a celestial general with only the cultivation level of a Xianweng. He had been ordered to pretend to be a rich bidder, but he had no money at all—it was all an act.

“Interesting!”

Shui Miao’s mind turned, and he wanted to disrupt the proceedings and expose this conspiracy.

“One hundred million crystals once…”

“One hundred million crystals twice…”

The celestial official began the countdown.

“I give up! I don’t want it anymore!”

Suddenly, the middle-aged man raised his hands in a daze, actually giving up the bid.

Bu Xiang and Bu Fa, who had originally felt disappointed and were preparing to leave, suddenly felt a spark of hope and became energized.

Meanwhile, the celestial official’s expression turned grim.

According to the rules, if someone suddenly withdrew from the bidding midway, they would be arrested, thrown into the celestial prison, and required to pay ten percent of the final bid as compensation.

The middle-aged man’s open disruption meant the auction had to be restarted.

In an awkward situation, the celestial official glanced at a nearby celestial general and mentally transmitted, “This is a problem now. General Qin Tian, you quickly go find someone else to bid while I try to stall for more time.”

“Sir, I feel something is off. Xiaosong was carefully arranged by me. He wouldn’t possibly give up bidding. I just tried to mentally contact him, but I found his state very dazed, as if he had been hypnotized. If there’s truly a high-level expert here, even if we find another person to fake a bid, it won’t work!” This celestial general was named Qin Tian, a powerful cultivator on the verge of reaching the Xianzun realm, with profound cultivation.

The celestial official felt gloomy, “What else can I do if I don’t do this? You can’t capture that expert either. I must follow the rules, or else the authority of our military department will be ruined. If word spreads that our department is deceiving people, who will bear the responsibility?”

“Don’t worry, let me handle it…”

After this exchange, General Qin Tian stood up.

Qin Tian had no choice but to step forward. He bore the main responsibility for today’s incident. If the supreme artifact were sold, he would face serious consequences—even risking his life.

Therefore, he preferred to sacrifice the department’s reputation rather than re-auction the artifact.

“Everyone, please calm down.”

Qin Tian coldly scanned the crowd, who immediately quieted down. He walked toward the middle-aged man, Xiaosong, and after looking into his eyes, suddenly shouted, “This friend has been hypnotized.”

“Go to hell! Your whole family’s been hypnotized! What if I don’t bid? You gonna bite me?” Xiaosong spat at Qin Tian fiercely, his aggressive demeanor clearly indicating that he was not under hypnosis.

This was definitely not Xiaosong’s usual behavior, making Qin Tian even more convinced that Xiaosong had been hypnotized. He quickly grabbed Xiaosong’s collar and began channeling his power to dispel the strange influence on him.

However, Xiaosong suddenly slapped Qin Tian across the face, causing a dizziness to strike Qin Tian’s head!

This time, the Tianmo and Mengmo Heart Methods were activated through two artifact spirits inside Shui Miao’s supreme artifact. These spirits possessed the cultivation level of Xian Di. With their combined efforts, even ordinary Xian Di experts could be affected, let alone a celestial general like Qin Tian, who hadn’t even reached the Xian Di realm.

“Take him away and lock him up!”

Still dazed, Qin Tian stopped channeling his power, pushed Xiaosong away, and ordered his subordinates to take Xiaosong away.

Then he returned to the stage and loudly announced that the auction would restart.

Seeing this, the celestial official was stunned and quickly sent another mental transmission to Qin Tian, “Qin Tian, what exactly are you doing? Didn’t I tell you to find someone to bid?”

This time, all of the celestial official’s mental transmissions were intercepted by Shui Miao.

Just as expected!

Shui Miao’s mind stirred, and he controlled Qin Tian to go out once, quickly returning with several people, then nodded at the celestial official.

In reality, those people were just coincidentally passing by and came to watch the auction.

The celestial official relaxed, thinking there was no problem, and began the auction again.

After two price increases, the time-based protective artifact was finally purchased by Bu Xiang for three million crystals.

How did it come to this?

The celestial official reluctantly struck the gong to signal the successful sale. He looked at Qin Tian, but Qin Tian stood motionless like a statue.

He tried to mentally contact Qin Tian, but there was no response.

Instantly alarmed, the celestial official naturally suspected that a high-level expert was secretly controlling Qin Tian.

Bu Xiang, carrying three million crystals, excitedly went up to receive the artifact.

But suddenly, the celestial official stepped forward to block him, shouting frantically, “No! You cannot take the artifact. There’s something wrong here! Someone, quickly protect the artifact!” The celestial official was in a panic, unable to figure out a solution to this unexpected situation.

At the auction, the organizer was breaking their promise and acting like a rogue!

Everyone immediately became agitated, shouting and surrounding the celestial official, demanding an explanation!

The celestial official, with low rank and little authority, dared not reveal the truth. Helplessly, he shouted that someone had disrupted the auction and hypnotized the bidders.

That statement was actually the truth.

But in the current situation, no one believed him.

The crowd grew more and more agitated, the chaos escalating to the point where some immortals and celestial soldiers even began shoving each other.

“Second Senior, what should we do?”

“Keep the chaos going, but keep a close eye on the artifact. If things get really out of hand, we’ll take it ourselves!”

Bu Xiang and Bu Fa exchanged thoughts and actually began considering stealing the artifact amidst the chaos!

Indeed, these two artifacts were too tempting.

Meanwhile, Shui Miao suddenly had a thought. Logically, an auction of such supreme artifacts should at least have a Xian Di expert present. Yet today, not even a Xian Zun was present. Could there be another hidden conspiracy? Was there a Xian Di expert hiding among the crowd?

This realization shocked Shui Miao greatly.

He quickly withdrew his technique, carefully guarded himself, and subtly began observing those around him.

“Uh! Something’s wrong…”

Suddenly, Shui Miao felt a tremor in his spirit and sensed that a supreme expert was using divine perception to gauge his cultivation level!

Indeed, there was a hidden Xian Di expert!