552: Chapter 552 The Grand Finale: The Self-Destructing Landmine!

In the corner of Box Number One, Wang Baobao had already licked the last of the Immortal Stone crumbs clean.

She curled into a ball, hugging her knees, her large, dark eyes darting here and there like a pitiful little kitten that couldn't find any food.

Finally, her gaze locked precisely onto the hand where Su Chen wore his Storage Ring.

Su Chen felt that burning gaze but didn't even lift his eyelids.

"What are you looking at?"

"Boss, I'm hungry."

Her milky voice was filled with grievance.

"Endure it."

"But I'm really, really hungry. It feels like little bugs are crawling in my heart."

"Eat when we get back."

Wang Baobao buried her head in her knees aggrievedly, her two pigtails drooping down and covering half her face, making her look like a wilted cabbage hit by frost.

Su Chen remained silent for two seconds.

His Divine Thought swept through the Storage Ring, and he felt his heart twitch.

[The cost of raising a child is too high, especially one that munches on golden immortal artifacts like they're rice crackers.]

Helplessly, he reached into another compartment of the Storage Ring and pulled out a Medium Grade Immortal Stone of decent quality.

*Flick.*

With a soft sound, the Immortal Stone was accurately flicked in front of Wang Baobao.

Wang Baobao's eyes lit up instantly, brighter than the spiritual light on the auction stage!

"Boss, you're so generous! May your blessings be vast and your life eternal!"

She snatched up the Immortal Stone and stuffed it into her mouth.

*Crunch!*

The sound was crisp and pleasant as she bit off half of it directly.

Her small face was instantly filled with a radiant glow of satisfaction; even her eyebrows seemed to shine with happiness.

Su Chen withdrew his gaze, not bothering to look at her further.

Just then, on the auction stage.

The Auctioneer cleared his throat.

This time, he didn't shout his pitch; instead, he lowered his voice.

Low, slow, and carrying a deliberately crafted sense of mystery.

"Fellow Daoists."

The entire hall fell silent instantly, everyone's gaze drawn in by that voice.

"Next is the grand finale of this auction!"

He carefully brought out a primitive jade box from behind him with both hands.

The jade box was engraved with dense sealing inscriptions, many of which had faded, exuding an aura of ancient decay.

The Auctioneer placed the jade box flat on the table and rested his fingers on the lid, his movements as solemn as if he were opening a lost era.

"The Origin of this treasure is extremely special. It was discovered by a Senior of our guild by chance in a primordial ruin. After a century of joint appraisal by three of our guild's Golden Immortal rank appraisers—"

He paused, his gaze slowly sweeping across the room, heightening everyone's anticipation to the limit.

Then, he suddenly flipped the lid open!

*Hum—!*

A desolate, deathly ancient aura rushed out, making the Cultivators in the front rows feel as if their skin were stinging!

Inside the jade box lay a yellowed ancient scroll.

The scroll was incomplete, its edges marred by large patches of charred burn marks, as if it had once been baptized by some terrifying power.

But on the surviving portions, the dense Formation patterns remained clear.

The complexity of those Formation patterns made the heads of every Formation Master present buzz, and their Divine Souls sting!

The trajectory of every line twisted with profound Laws, layered and nested in a way that made one's scalp tingle just looking at it.

Even more astonishingly, the Formation patterns were glowing!

A faint dark-golden light seeped out from the gaps in the patterns. Intertwining with the spiritual light on the auction stage, it formed ring after ring of distorted halos, silently telling of ancient slaughters!

The sound of breathing vanished throughout the hall.

The Auctioneer didn't need to explain.

Any Cultivator present with even a bit of discernment could see that the grade of this item was ridiculously high!

The depth of the Laws contained in those Formation patterns far exceeded the scope of Heavenly Immortals or True Immortals!

This was a remnant map of an ancient grand Formation!

The Auctioneer took a deep breath, his voice suddenly jumping an octave, filled with hysterical fanaticism!

"The Remnant Primordial Doutian Killing Formation Map!"

"According to the appraisal of our guild's three Golden Immortal rank appraisers—if this Formation is properly deployed, it can trap and kill a Profound Immortal!"

The words "trap and kill a Profound Immortal" were not loud, yet they exploded in everyone's minds!

The temperature in the hall plummeted.

It wasn't cold.

It was the blood of everyone rushing to their heads. Extreme greed and desire made their breathing incredibly heavy.

Trap and kill a Profound Immortal!

A Profound Immortal!

In the Immortal Realm, that was an existence most Cultivators could never even hope to look up to in their entire lives!

A Formation that could trap and kill a Profound Immortal, even if incomplete, was a strategic-level treasure sufficient to change the fate of a small Sect!

"Starting price!"

The Auctioneer's voice reached its peak, screaming at the top of his lungs!

"Ten million high-grade immortal stones!"

"Each bid increment must be no less than five hundred thousand!"

After the dead silence came a volcanic eruption!

"Ten million?! It's even more expensive than that immortal body marrow core from earlier?"

"Nonsense! This is something that can kill a Profound Immortal! It's a strategic weapon! Ten million is practically a bargain!"

"But it's a remnant. If it can't be completed, isn't it just waste paper?"

"Idiot! Even if it can't be used, the primordial Formation patterns recorded on it alone are priceless! Buy it back to study, and the Sect's Formation level could jump several tiers!"

Opinions were divided, but everyone's eyes were bloodshot as they stared fixedly at that ancient scroll.

Box Number One.

Su Chen's eyes finally opened.

His gaze passed through the window and landed on the yellowed ancient scroll.

Then, his pupils constricted slightly.

It wasn't excitement; it was extreme alertness.

Great Sacrifice Technique!

This Divine Ability granted him a special perception to see through the Origin of all things.

In his vision, the energy flow trajectory of this Formation map was as clear as the lines on a palm.

The material was indeed primordial-level.

But—

His gaze focused on the core hub of the Formation map.

There, the immortal essence path that should have flowed smoothly and exploded outward with world-shattering power had been forcefully twisted.

Several key Law lines were cross-connected in reverse at an extremely bizarre angle.

This caused all the channeled immortal essence to not explode outward upon reaching the core, but instead collapse and implode inward at a hundred times the speed!

Ultimately, it would form a Law black hole at the Formation eye that could swallow everything!

[Good grief.]

The internal monologue in Su Chen's mind scrolled quietly.

[This isn't a grenade at all; at least grenades explode outward.]

[This is a dirty bomb with the detonator wired backward. Once the pin is pulled, the first one to be blown to bits isn't the enemy, but the unlucky bastard holding it.]

[If anyone tries to set up a Formation according to this map, the moment immortal essence is poured in, they'll be detonated from the inside by primordial-level Law power. A Profound Immortal would be blown half to death with their dao foundation shattered. As for a True Immortal... they wouldn't even get a chance to reincarnate.]

[What the hell are the Golden Immortal appraisers of the Lingbao Trading Firm doing? They couldn't see such a fatal flaw?]

[Or... are they deliberately not saying anything?]

Su Chen's gaze moved away from that "self-destructing landmine" and swept across the fanatical and greedy faces in the hall.

Then, his gaze crossed the room and landed on Private Room Number Seven diagonally across, where the curtains were tightly drawn.

He could almost imagine the expressions of the people behind those curtains right now.

A Formation map that could "trap and kill a Profound Immortal."

For a bunch of desperate criminals who had just been swindled out of thirty million and were intent on murder and robbery, what did this Formation map represent?

It represented the final insurance.

It was the ultimate guarantee that "in case that guy named Su has some trump card we don't know about, we can use this Formation to completely wipe him out."

It meant that no matter what, they would get their hands on it at any cost.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth slowly, very slowly, curled upward.

The curve was tiny, yet it was filled with a chillingly wicked sense of humor.

In his mind, a new plan was rapidly taking shape.