82: Chapter 82 The Appearance of the Fragmented Map and the Silent Battlefield

Madam Jinling stepped onto the high platform again. She took a deep breath, her face filled with unprecedented gravity and excitement, and her voice resounded throughout the hall:

"Fellow Daoists, what follows is the final treasure of this auction!"

As her words fell, the entire Wanbao Pavilion—whether the loose seating in the main hall or the private boxes upstairs—instantly fell silent, with all commotion and discussion ceasing; one could hear a pin drop.

Countless gazes converged into a scorching torrent, staring fixedly at the high platform.

Lin Chen leaned back on the soft couch, his pupils deep and dark beneath half-closed eyelids.

He could clearly feel that the Spiritual Qi originally floating in the air seemed to have been frozen by this heavy anticipation, and a sense of oppression, as if a mountain storm was about to break, swept in from all directions.

Two Golden Core Stage guards, dressed in black armor with auras as heavy as mountains, walked heavily onto the high platform, carrying a tray covered in thick black-gold brocade.

The tray itself was a Low Grade Magical Artifact, emitting a faint light that blocked Divine Sense probing.

Madam Jinling did not play any games; she lifted her jade hand, pinched a corner of the brocade, and ripped it back!

There was no dazzling radiance, nor any shocking phenomenon.

In the center of the tray lay a palm-sized fragment with extremely irregular edges.

It looked like leather but wasn't, like silk but wasn't, presenting an old, dull, earthy-yellow color. Its surface was covered with countless fine, spiderweb-like intersecting lines, but most were blurred, as if time had worn away all their sharp edges.

Only at a specific angle of light could one barely make out a few clearer lines, outlining the contours of mountains and rivers, but because it was so badly damaged, it was impossible to determine what it pointed to.

A vast, ancient, and even iron-blooded, murderous aura radiated silently from the fragment, enveloping the entire auction house in a strange atmosphere.

"This item..." Madam Jinling's red lips parted slightly, her voice more cautious than ever before, "Its specific origin cannot be verified. We only know it was accidentally obtained by a consultant of our Wanbao Pavilion in the ruins of an ancient battlefield deep within the 'Luanfeng Plain'."

As soon as the words 'Luanfeng Plain' were spoken, a sound of gasping echoed through the hall.

That was a famous forbidden zone in the Southern Region, where violent winds raged year-round and space rifts were dense; even Nascent Soul Cultivators dared not venture deep inside easily.

"After being jointly inspected by several of our appraisal Great Masters, it was confirmed that its material is neither gold nor jade, impervious to water and fire, and resistant to blades and swords. The patterns on it are very likely a corner of an extraterrestrial map. However, because it is too damaged and key information is lost, we cannot identify its specific direction, nor can we guarantee its value."

Madam Jinling's honesty did not disappoint the crowd; instead, it added a touch of reality and mystery.

She scanned the entire venue, her gaze lingering for a moment on several key private boxes, and finally emphasized her tone:

"Therefore, this item has no reserve price; it is valued based on its material alone. The starting bid is—"

Five thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones!

This was equivalent to five hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones!

This number hit everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

For a fragment of unknown origin, unknown use, and even questionable authenticity, the starting bid was enough to buy ten of the star meteor iron essence from just before!

In the hall, the atmosphere that had just been restless because of Madam Jinling's words was instantly extinguished by this cold price, falling into a dead silence.

Everyone felt that Wanbao Pavilion had gone mad.

Lin Chen's fingertip stopped its stroking motion on the stone ring.

His gaze was locked tightly onto that fragment of the map.

He didn't need a System prompt, nor did he need resonance from the stone ring; the moment he saw that fragment, he knew that the venomous snake lurking diagonally opposite had this as its target.

This was pure intuition, stemming from his precise pre-judgment of a competitor's mindset during countless business negotiations in his past life.

This map fragment was a chicken rib to most people, but to one specific person, it was the only key.

Just as the whole venue was silent, and even Madam Jinling thought it would be a cold reception, that hoarse, neutral voice finally came from the fourth-floor private box diagonally opposite, clear and sharp.

"Eight thousand."

Without any probing, the first bid directly added three thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones to the starting price!

This sound was like a thunderclap, waking up all the Cultivators who were still in a daze.

Immediately after, a more bizarre scene occurred.

"Eight thousand five hundred!" In the corner on the left side of the hall, a gray-robed Cultivator raised his number plate expressionlessly.

"Nine thousand!" On the other side, a middle-aged man dressed like an ordinary merchant followed up almost simultaneously.

"Ten thousand!" In the back row, a thin, small figure who had been keeping his head down shouted in a hoarse voice.

In just three breaths, three Loose Cultivators who seemed completely unrelated and had cultivation only at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment, with a near-crazy rhythm, bid against each other, instantly forcing the price from eight thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones up to twelve thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones!

This price had already caused 99% of the people in the venue, including representatives from those wealthy families, to completely lose their qualification to compete, and they could only become spectators.

Lin Chen's eyelids drooped slightly, but his Divine Sense was like an invisible giant net, capturing every subtle expression of those three bidders.

Their movements were slightly stiff, like marionettes.

Their eyes were hollow and numb, lacking the excitement, tension, or greed that should accompany bidding.

Most importantly, their pace of raising the price was too fast, with no bargaining between them; it was more like executing a pre-set program.

They were Puppets, or people whose minds were controlled by some secret technique.

Lin Chen made a judgment instantly.

The opponent was not only wealthy but also meticulous in their actions.

Using this method, they could quickly raise the price, clear out unrelated competitors, and perfectly hide themselves, making it impossible for anyone to figure out their true strength and intentions.

"Thirteen thousand." At this moment, a hoarse voice came from another silent private box on the third floor, its aura deep; it was clearly also a great power.

"Fourteen thousand." Another unfamiliar private box joined the battle.

The "Puppets" controlled by the shadow immediately followed: "Fourteen thousand five hundred."

When the price broke the barrier of fifteen thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones, the only ones left competing on the field were the shadow private box on the fourth floor and those two deep-aura, unknown private boxes.

And those three "Puppets," after the price reached a certain threshold, all stopped simultaneously and returned to their head-down posture, as if everything just now had nothing to do with them.

Lin Chen calculated quickly in his mind.

Fifteen thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones was already far beyond the sum of the star meteor iron essence and the Yunshen Pill Formula.

And it looked like the competition had just entered a white-hot stage.

More importantly, the determination shown by the shadow and its bizarre means of controlling the scene made the risk of a direct head-on confrontation extremely high.

Even if he could win in the end, the price paid would inevitably be astronomical, and he would be completely exposed to the opponent's view, leaving endless future troubles.

Lin Chen's gaze moved from the map fragment on the high platform to Qin Ruowei's face beside him.

She was looking at him quietly, her clear eyes showing no trace of tension, only complete trust, as if waiting for his final command.

Lin Chen's head shook almost imperceptibly.

Qin Ruowei understood instantly.

Her slender hands, which had been elegantly holding a teacup or toying with the number plate, now picked up the jade token representing the private box's identity and then gently, yet clearly, placed it face down on the rosewood table in front of her.

"Clack."

A crisp sound.

This sound was not loud, but at this moment, it was highly symbolic.

It silently declared—Private Box Yi-7 was withdrawing from the bidding.

Almost at the same time Qin Ruowei made her move, Lin Chen's hand, which had been stroking the stone ring, was already holding a small Jade Slip used for short-range encrypted sound transmission.

His lips did not move, but a Divine Sense had already been imprinted into it and sent out.

The instruction was extremely brief: "Target Jia-3. At the time of handover, Yi-7 position."

In the auxiliary private box next door, Liu Yuan had been standing by the window like a statue, his gaze locked on the servant passage below.

The moment he received the order, his expression did not change in the slightest, but his right hand, which had been resting on the window sill, gently tapped on a Formation pattern smaller than a grain of rice that he had previously scratched into the inside of the windowsill with his fingernail.

A trace of extremely faint Spiritual Qi was injected along the Formation pattern, silently.

The bidding on the auction platform had entered the final madness.

"Twenty thousand!"

"Twenty thousand five hundred!"

Finally, when the price was pushed to twenty-one thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones, an astronomical price that would make even a Nascent Soul Old Ancestor feel pained, the other two private boxes finally chose silence.

"Twenty-one thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones! Sold!"

The jade hammer in Madam Jinling's hand fell heavily, sealing the deal.

"Congratulations to the honored guest in Private Box Jia-3!"

Soon, a manager personally accompanied two Golden Core guards, holding the jade box containing the map fragment, and walked quickly toward Private Box Jia-3 on the fourth floor.

It was Wanbao Pavilion's rule that such precious items must be handed over in person, with payment and goods exchanged on the spot.

Lin Chen's body looked relaxed as he leaned back, but all his focus had condensed into a single line, locked tightly onto the door that was about to be opened.

The private box door was pushed open a crack, the manager and guards slipped in, and then the door closed immediately.

Just between the opening and closing of the door, in that gap of less than half a breath.

The micro-Formation activated by Liu Yuan produced a trace of extremely faint spatial ripples that could hardly be captured by Divine Sense.

These ripples were like a speck of dust thrown into a calm lake, precisely crossing the distance of several tens of zhang and rippling in front of Private Box Jia-3.

At the same time, in Private Box Yi-7, a wisp of colorless and odorless powder shot out from Qin Ruowei's fingertips like light smoke, instantly dissipating into the air.

That was the "Tasteless Soul-Chasing Powder" refined by Su Qingyao after being in seclusion for many days, using three obscure poisonous herbs with clashing attributes that were cleverly neutralized.

This powder itself had no Spiritual Qi fluctuations; its only characteristic was that it would be attracted to and adhere to specific spatial ripples.

Guided by the spatial ripples, the powder, as if it had eyes, precisely passed through the door crack and attached itself to the edge of the map fragment that had just been picked up by a black-gloved hand and had not yet been put into a Storage Ring.

The whole process was smooth as flowing water, fast to the extreme, and also secretive to the extreme.

After finishing all this, Qin Ruowei picked up her teacup again as if nothing had happened, as if she had just brushed dust off her sleeves.

Inside Private Box Jia-3, the shadow put away the map fragment, cutting off all probing.

Almost the instant the map fragment disappeared into the Storage Ring.

The rough stone ring on Lin Chen's right thumb suddenly became ice-cold!

This time, the feeling was no longer faint or brief, but a clear, intense coldness that lasted for a full half-breath!

It felt as if his finger bone had been frozen in an instant.

At the same time, the System interface in front of him automatically refreshed a line of golden text he had never seen before:

"[Unknown high-level spatial coordinate residue fluctuation detected, characteristics recorded (File Number: Xuan-Wu-Qi). Energy level: Extremely high (damaged state). Correlation possibility: Low (more samples needed).]"

Lin Chen slowly withdrew his finger, clenching his fist unconsciously under his wide sleeves.

His palm was already covered in a thin layer of cold sweat.

The lights in the auction house were still bright, Madam Jinling was delivering the final words of thanks, and the crowd began to stir, preparing to leave.

The noise, congratulations, and sighs were mixed together.

But Lin Chen clearly felt that all this clamor had faded away.

A silent pursuit had just begun.

He cast his gaze toward the opposite side for the last time.

The door to Private Box Jia-3, which had spent over twenty thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones to buy the most mysterious treasure in the house, had remained tightly closed ever since the handover and never opened again.