The Sect Leader System-Chapter 289: Going Twice...

Benton was having a simply great time. Though he’d attended many auctions before Evelyn brought down the ban hammer on him, he’d never been a major player or anything. He’d simply attended and bid on items that caught his attention with them usually going higher than he could afford.

None of his former experiences applied at the current event.

For one thing, items that he brought, that he created with his own two hands, were the primary attraction for most of the bidders. For another, he’d been given his own private viewing room, and if he so chose, he could have had servants waiting on him hand and foot.

Benton was officially, for that auction anyway, a Big Deal.

The best part, though, was that his first five swords had already brought him over three hundred seventy thousand greater spirit coins. That was a lot of coins. His best regeneration rate, obtained by using his Meditation Technique, was a bit over one hundred and one million qi per hour. Due to inefficiencies, it took him eleven thousand qi to create one greater spirit coin. That meant that, using just his regen rate, he could create ninety-two hundred greater spirit coins per hour.

The five swords had earned him over forty hours’ worth of spirit coin production.

As far as Benton was concerned, that was a fantastic trade off. For one thing, those swords were the ones he expected to sell for the least amount. Second, making spirit coins was boring. Very boring. Forging swords was much more intellectually stimulating. And third, those swords had taken him only twenty-four hours to create, and that period included breaks, earning him a profit of sixteen hours with twenty swords left to sell.

Honestly, the fourth advantage was probably the biggest one—it felt awesome to have his craftsmanship acknowledged so enthusiastically and tangibly.

Regardless, the auction had barely started, and he was already thrilled with the results. He especially appreciated that the auction manager had delayed putting up any of the qi-rich materials Benton wanted to buy until he had a chance to build up a war chest.

Being catered to in such a manner also felt really good.

He’d mostly zoned out when the pills and alchemy supplies had been on the block. The pills, quite simply, weren’t up to his standards, and none of the supplies, though rare, corresponded to any pills that he planned on making in the immediate future, if at all.

The items reminded him, though, that he’d purchased the necessary techniques from the System to make him a Master Alchemist. At the time, he’d had a vague notion of either combining all three crafts into a really valuable item for sale or of creating pills to sell at the auction. He’d ended up doing neither as he hadn’t come up with any ideas for incorporating alchemy into a sword.

And upon further reflection, he’d decided he didn’t want any of his pills on the market, either.

The main problem with creating any alchemical product, which would have surely sold for a lot, was in obtaining the ingredients, but he felt that he could have bought supplies at a low enough cost to guarantee a good profit margin. Creating pills also wasn’t the issue, nor was figuring out which ones to craft. The real issue was the fact that the most valuable alchemical creations were those that gave a permanent boost to the consumer. Since anyone could buy his products in an auction, the pills might have landed in the hands of his enemies.

He didn’t regret becoming a Master Alchemist, though. The skills allowed him to confidently produce pills with acceptable purity levels and would surely come in handy for the duration of his time as a sect leader and were already saving him beaucoup Shop Points. It was probably for the best, though, that he kept that particular master craftsman ability for his sect members and maybe allies only.

Benton returned his attention to the stage where the next item up was the first of his stat boosting weapons, the Perception Blade. He really had no idea how much it would go for, especially considering that the common element blades had done so well. Those swords, though, hadn’t been anything really unusual. They just did what normal cultivator weapons did, only they were of much better quality. The next set performed functions that Su had never even heard of.

“This lowly one hopes that the audience is not disappointed with the next set of blades,” Jia Xueqin said from the stage. “They do not, unfortunately, channel qi into an elemental attack. Instead, in addition to the normal self-repair and Sharpness arrays, the next sword up for bid absorbs a small amount of qi from each of an opponent’s attacks and uses that qi to temporarily increase the perception of the sword’s user.”

Benton frowned. He’d expected the auction manager to hype up the uniqueness of the blade or the craftsmanship or something. Instead, he’d apologized and downplayed its functions.

Oh well. Not all creations could be huge money earners. It appeared that the stat enhancing set would be a bust.

Benton’s lowered expectations were soon thwarted, though. The bidding started fast and only intensified. Five or six parties were in competition to win the blade, driving up the price. It finally settled on one hundred seventy-three thousand greater spirit coins.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Mao Biya grew angrier at each of Chao Su’s swords that sold. Her efforts to depress the selling prices had utterly failed. Instead of a measly twenty or thirty thousand greater spirit coins each, his blades were going for four, five, or even seven times higher.

She only had one option to keep him from leaving in absolute triumph.

“Teng Wuying, you surely know what Chao Su is after in this auction,” she practically screamed. “Tell me!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Tell me or our alliance is over.”

Teng Wuying paused for way too long before finally sighing. “A while back, corresponding to a visit to the city by three of Chao Su’s disciples, the Poison Claw Sect sent out inquiries to a lot of merchants about certain qi-rich materials. I don’t know exactly what he needs or what he needs them for, but I am almost positive that will be what he seeks to purchase here.”

Mao Biya fixed him with a glare.

“What?” he said. “That’s all I know. Do with it as you will.”

Three more of Chao Su’s swords hit the block—one that temporarily boosted speed, another strength, and another that replenished the user’s store of available qi. They went for one hundred sixty-eight thousand, one hundred eighty-one thousand, and one hundred forty-four thousand greater spirit coins, respectively.

Finally, one of the qi-rich materials came up for bid—a rank twelve Nature-aspect beast core. She glanced at Teng Wuying. He nodded.

Mao Biya grinned. If Chao Su wanted it, he would have to pay out the nose for it.

The auction manager started the bidding at five thousand qi, and the value was fairly quickly met. Someone instantly bid six thousand before the manager could say a word. The manager asked for ten thousand, accepted a bid, and had it instantly raised to eleven.

The same thing happened with fifteen advancing to sixteen and twenty advancing to twenty-one.

“That’s Chao Su, right?” Mao Biya said.

“That would be my guess.” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

“How much should that core go for? Around fifty thousand?”

“A rank twelve Nature?” Teng Wuying said. “A useful element but not terribly rare. Could be a substitute for Wood for most uses. I'd say sixty to sixty-five.”

He proved to be correct. Bidding slowed as it reached sixty thousand and being instantly raised to sixty-one. There were no takers at sixty-five, so the manager had to increase by increments of one thousand. Someone finally bid it up to sixty-four, and Chao Su raised to sixty-five thousand.

“Sixty-five thousand going once…” the auction manager said. “Sixty-five thousand going twice…”

Before the man could say “Sold,” Mao Biya entered seventy thousand in the device provided by the auction house. It was, of course, instantly raised to seventy-one. As was seventy-five, eighty, eighty-five, ninety, one hundred, one ten, one twenty, one thirty, and one forty.”

“How much do you have to spend?” Teng Wuying said.

“None of your business.”

“What happens if Chao Su drops out?”

“He won’t,” she said. “He needs this core.”

“How do you know? He’s already paying more than double. These cores aren’t that rare.”

She put in a bid of one hundred fifty thousand, which was instantly raised.

Unfortunately, Teng Wuying had a point. Her sect leader might go as far as having her removed from her position if she spent so much on a relatively useless beast core. She would definitely face some form of punishment for such an action.

“Fine,” she said.

The core sold to Chao Su for one hundred fifty-one thousand greater spirit coins.

Teng Wuying smiled. “You should be happy. He way overpaid for it because of you.”

“Not like he can’t afford it,” she grumbled.

A few miscellaneous items went up for bid, followed by another sword, this one converting a portion of an opponent’s attacks into healing. If not for the source of the blade, Mao Biya would have been tempted to bid on it. The novelty of turning something your opponent intended to harm you into healing drew her interest.

She apparently wasn’t the only one so intrigued. The sword sold for an even two hundred thousand greater spirit coins.

The next item on the block was a rock that had been found at the bottom of an icy cave. It had steeped in that environment for so long that it had taken on a strong Ice aspect.

Mao Biya exchanged a glance with Teng Wuying.

He sighed. “Less that fifty. I wouldn’t want to pay more than the low forties for it.”

The auction of the Ice Stone played out the same as for the Nature Beast Core. Once the other bidders dropped out—as predicted, Chao Su was winning it for forty-three—Mao Biya again pushed it up to one fifty, making him pay one hundred fifty-one greater spirit coins for it.

“Great job!” Teng Wuying said enthusiastically. “You’ve cost him at least a couple hundred thousand greater spirit coins.”

“That would be just fantastic if he hadn’t already earned over a million at this auction.”

Chao Su would pay for his insult. Mao Biya was determined to make sure of it. He’d pay a lot, and he’d pay in as many ways as possible.

Benton frowned. On one hand, he was quite pleased. He’d already come away with two of the materials that he needed. That he’d had to way overpay for them was somewhat inconsequential considering how much he’d made so far.

On the other hand, it appeared that someone was deliberately targeting him, and the person wasn’t even being all that clever about it. If the person wanted to keep driving up prices, they really should have stopped at random amounts instead of clearly signaling their ceiling like that.

He pressed a button on his tablet, summoning an attendant. A young lady soon knocked and entered.

“How may this Attendant assist you, Esteemed Sect Leader?”

“Do you have any Fire-aspected materials up for auction today?” He hadn’t specified a need for that element since he already had two of the three in his possession and had arranged for the third to be delivered. Still, his understanding was that such materials were an auction staple, so he expected there to be some elements he didn’t need up for sale.

“Apologies, Esteemed Sect Leader, but this lowly Attendant is not aware of the list of items.” She cringed away from him as if expected to be struck or worse.

“That’s fine,” he said hurriedly. “Would it be possible for you to message the auction manager, and let him know my request that, if there are any Fire-aspected materials in the queue, I’d really appreciate it if he could move that one to the slot for the next qi-rich material that comes up in the sequence?”

Still obviously fearful, she said, “This lowly one cannot guarantee that the Esteemed Auction Manager will comply with the request, Esteemed Sect Leader, but this lowly one will send the message.”

Benton cupped his hands. “Gratitude.”