In a large auction hall, in one of the private rooms sat an old man. He was quite large and had an extremely sharp expression. He had a sword-like aura that seemed to define him, sharp and dangerous. This old man was wearing a long white robe. He had a few attendants with him, all dressed simply, just like he was.
"My Lord, it would seem that there is something worth buying today." said the attendant closest to the old man.
"Bah! You're wasting your breath. There is nothing in this tiny city that I, the Great General Moto, could possibly want. Lang, I really can't understand why you would bring me to such a boring event." said the old man in a somewhat annoyed tone.
"I assure you my Lord there is something. Rumor has it that there are two high quality slaves being auctioned."
The old man immediately turned to look towards his attendant. Seeing that his master was paying attention, the attendant, whose name was Lang, was feeling pleased with himself and so, he continued on.
"Apparently two children were being auctioned. One was a twelve year old girl, who is a cultivator with incredible talent."
The general was pleased with this information. He never thought that he would find such a gem in such a tiny city. "Humph, whether or not she is talented, will be up to me to decide. Nevertheless, you did well Lang. It seems this trip won't be as boring after all." The general picked up a glass of wine from the table in front of them and started drinking. He only drank wine if he was in a good mood.
Lang saw that he had his master right where he wants him.
"Ha-ha my Lord, that's nothing, the other slave is far more interesting. Apparently it's a former noble, a twelve year old boy from the Southern Grasslands, with purple hair!"
The general immediately spat out the wine he was drinking, and he started coughing, patting his chest so he could clear his throat. Lang and his other companions laughed when they saw this. Although they were only his attendants, their Master was very kind and didn't mind this sort of thing. He was a rather unique character in the region.
...
After some time, a very attractive and scantily dressed young woman walked up to the stage. She was very calm, and appeared to be used to this sort of thing. Many men in the room stared at her greedily, like how a beggar would stare at gold. She merely smiled at this, and began the auction.
Many objects were sold in the auction, some magical, some ornamental and some with very strange functions. General Moto and his crew were inactive throughout. They merely looked on as if nothing of note was happening.
"Now honored guests, it is time for the slave auction!"
As soon as the general and his crew heard this, their expressions grew solemn. The air in the entire auction hall seemed to have changed somehow. It felt like the atmosphere before a cataclysmic event, like there was about to be a war.
Slaves were always the main attraction in auctions that occurred in the Western Desserts. Many high class slaves were sold. Some were very beautiful young women, others, very robust looking men. The most valuable of course were slaves that had cultivation. These were very expensive.
On the Sovereign Continent, they only used one currency. Coins. A hundred copper coins were equal to one silver coin. A hundred silver coins were equal to one gold coin. A hundred gold coins were equal to one platinum coin, and a hundred platinum coins were equal to one obsidian coin.
A loaf of bread cost about one copper coin. Anything below that value was usually sold using barter trade. The value of an average mature slave, without any defects, was about 2 silver coins give or take. The value of an average mature cultivation slave, was about 10 silver coins give or take. Thus in such auctions silver coins were the main currency used.
"Now ladies and gentlemen it is time for the main event."
As soon as the girl said this the entire hall quieted down. They knew what was coming. Up to this point the most valuable slave had been a 16 year old girl, who was a mage with decent talent. She was bought for 50 silver coins. This had set a new record in the auction house, since the house gets ten percent from all auctions, they were extremely happy with today's results.
"We are about to show you, are without a doubt, the most valuable slaves in the Great Desert of Shandelar! It is a pair of children. One is a warrior with the cultivation of an upper Student! She is only twelve years old and is in perfect condition. She is untouched and docile."
The entire hall went into an uproar as soon as they heard this. They had known that the auction was selling valuable slaves but they never thought it would be this serious! A twelve year old upper student! This was practically unheard off!
From 6 years old children learnt to sense World Energy, but they can only start to take it into their bodies when they become ten years old. Otherwise their bodies would not be able to handle the strain.
Cultivation was a slow and arduous process. On average it took almost ten years to become a middle Student. Yet this girl had become an upper Student in only two. This was undoubtedly a prodigy!
After letting the noise settle down, the auctioneer continued speaking.
"The other is a twelve year old noble from the Southern Grasslands. He has no cultivation but is well educated and is undoubtedly the most valuable."
The crowd started making noise again.
Valuable? Sure he was but more so than the girl? When he doesn't even have any cultivation?
To the audience this was absurd. That was until they saw Bastian and V walk on to the stage.
The moment the audiences saw Bastian, they went into an even bigger uproar than before. Some people couldn't help but stand up. Others rubbed their eyes, to make sure that they were seeing correctly. This however, made no difference. For what they saw was indeed true. It was purple hair!
Now they understood why the auctioneer had said the boy was more valuable. He had purple hair! The vast majority of the most powerful cultivators from the Southern Grasslands had purple hair, this signified their powerful bloodline.
Not only was there a young slave with purple hair before them, it was male! That meant it could produce a lot of offspring, further increasing its value.
As the crowd was buzzing, Bastian looked around for Ben's presence. Due to being Ben's Meister, this was easy. Sure enough he found him, sitting amongst the audience wearing black robes.
Ben looked very confident which relieved Bastian. This meant he had found the treasure and was carrying it on him. With Ben's intelligence, his confidence wouldn't be for naught.
"There is however a catch, this young boy made an oath to the heavens that if he was ever separated from this little girl, who he loves, he would commit suicide. Thus, they have to be sold as a pair regretfully."
As she said this the auctioneer looked very sad, and rightfully so. For if they had sold them separately, they would more likely, make more money. Alas fate was cruel, so they had to sell both a once.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will start the bidding, at 10 gold coins!"
The hall once more became silent, painfully so, the silence made such a powerful and forceful imposition that some felt it would be rude to make any sudden movements. 10 gold; was a lot of money, for some in the hall it was what they made in a year!
Those who could afford such an astronomical sum were very few. Thus the dreamers had to give up. One of people in the room however was very pleased. It was Ben. After arriving at the place were Bastian had been found, he had spent nearly two weeks digging, looking for anything left over from Bastian's entourage. After two weeks he finally found Bastian's carriage, and a lot of dead bodies.
All in all, he got just over a 50 gold coins! He was incredibly happy. He knew that in Baltize, no one could afford to compete with him, since he carried such a huge sum.
Ben was about to shout out his bid, when a powerful male voice rang out.
"80 gold coins!"
Silence...
Absolute silence...
Even Bastian was stumped. He had estimated that the money Ben had on him would be at most 60 gold coins.
So when he heard this voice, his face became extremely ugly.
This voice was deep and overbearing. As if it was stating that it allowed no room for discussion. Everyone, including Bastian and Ben tried to look for the source of the voice. They could only see that it was from one of the private rooms on the second floor. It was covered by a dark colored glass, so one could see who was inside.
Due to his distress, Bastian almost lost control of his body, and he accidentally activated his e-vision. Then he saw something ridiculous. The majority of the flakes in the entire hall were hovering around the room where the voice had come from!
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They sat on the cold, hard dungeon floor, neither one spoke a word. Struck by the gripping disdain of a failed plan, the just allowed the silence to prevail. V was annoyed. Although the situation was dire, she was only annoyed by the turn of events.Due to her upbringing, she had a very strong mentality, so she still had a good head on her shoulders. Bastian was thinking, trying to come up with a plan, he had no idea what they should do, but he didn't let that faze him.Bastian was a scientist in his previous life. He was used to constantly trying to solve problems. Added to that is the fact that he had already accepted death in his previous life. As a result, his mind had the fortitude of two souls. It was not strange at all that he was calm.He wasn't afraid of death, nor was he afraid of capture. He simply wanted to enjoy his new life as much as possible.During his moments of thinking about cultivation, Bastian had an idea."I can control the flakes around me; can't I do the same
Chapter 11- Freaks of NatureThey sat on the cold, hard dungeon floor, neither one spoke a word. Struck by the gripping disdain of a failed plan, the just allowed the silence to prevail. V was annoyed. Although the situation was dire, she was only annoyed by the turn of events.Due to her upbringing, she had a very strong mentality, so she still had a good head on her shoulders. Bastian was thinking, trying to come up with a plan, he had no idea what they should do, but he didn't let that faze him.Bastian was a scientist in his previous life. He was used to constantly trying to solve problems. Added to that is the fact that he had already accepted death in his previous life. As a result, his mind had the fortitude of two souls. It was not strange at all that he was calm.He wasn't afraid of death, nor was he afraid of capture. He simply wanted to enjoy his new life as much as possible.During his moments of thinking about cultivation, Bastian had an idea."I can control the flakes ar
In a hotel Room in the city, Bastian sat cross legged on a lavish bed, wearing simple linen clothes. V was sleeping on a sofa near the bed. Ben stood at attention, next to Bastian's bed, with a worried look on his face.This was quite the change, considering their previous predicament....After the General saw Bastian make his oath to the heavens, he was astonished.Bastian's actions were completely unexpected."General you only have five minutes, if I were you, I would use them wisely."The General woke up after Bastian spoke.This brat! It was a trap!Yes, it was a trap. The General did in fact have enemies. One could even say he had more enemies than he should, due to his honorable nature. He would often speak out against anything or anyone who he deemed dishonorable, and in the Western Deserts, such people were as common as a grain of sand.The General wasn't really being forced to do anything; he could just not ide
Bastian had requested to the General that they stay at the inn for a few days longer. Although the General was at war, so far there had only been minor skirmishes. The real battles had yet to come.Bastian had told Ben to leave on the next day. He wanted Ben to go the enemy's headquarters and find out as much as he could. This was Ben's specialty, so he was happy to be of use. He immediately left on horseback.Ben was not a member of the Flaming Winds Army, nor was he well known, so his travels were likely to go unhindered. He then left the majority of the coins he had with Bastian. Bastian gave those coins to V for safe keeping. She could also use them as she wished. This amount of money was not really anything to the two.....Inside their room, Bastian was sitting cross legged on the floor. His eyes were closed. Beads of sweat had covered his face, his expression showed deep concentration. V was standing next to him, her arms crossed, looking down on h
"How is a drawing supposed to help you achieve Harmonization? Plus, what the heck is yin and yang?"Although the drawing had a certain charm emitting from it, at the end of the day, it was merely a drawing. This whole darkness and light thing did not really change anything either. V needed answers."It's not necessarily the drawing itself but what it represents. Listen carefully.Yin and Yang: Two halves that together complete wholeness. Yin and yang are also the starting point for change. When something is whole, by definition it is unchanging and complete. So when you split something into two halves it becomes yin and yang, it upsets the equilibrium of wholeness. This forces both halves to chase after each other as they seek a new balance with each other.The word Yin basically means 'shady side' and Yang 'sunny side'.Yin Yang is the concept of duality forming a whole. We encounter examples of Yin and Yang every day. Here are some more examples:
Bastian ran over to the quivering V, she looked like she had just had her worst nightmare. This sight was one Bastian never expected to see in his lifetime. The Inkume were trained to fear nothing, even death. Yet here before Bastian, was one scared out of its wits.As soon as Bastian got closer, he crouched next to her and started soothing her, or rather he tried.I am not good at this sort of thing. Wait, is my voice slightly different?Bastian was not used to comforting others, so he was rather lost. He also detected that his voice sounded different. It sounded more... coarse. Due to the current circumstances, he had to put this thought at the back of his mind.After spending five very difficult minutes getting her to calm down, he asked her what had happened.V sighed in resignation. She did not want to recall what had happened but she knew that Bastian needed to know."I was standing over you whilst you were cultivating. I expected you
To be more precise, what Bastian could see was the heel of the footprint.Mother-F.....of my future children! What the heck is this?!Bastian had reached the maximum height he could, so he started to fall. As he fell, he felt very comfortable. He never did have a fear of heights, and in this situation, he knew V would catch him, or do something, so he was relaxed.The image of the giant footprint only lingered in his mind for a little bit, before it was replaced by a feeling of Deja vu. Bastian had never free fallen before in his previous life, nor had he done anything similar to this one.Yet, there was something about the wind brushing against his skin, the incredible force of air resistance, and the bird's eye view that felt so familiar to him. This sense of familiarity brought Bastian into a trance like state. He was semi-conscious of his actions, but he let the feeling take over him, because it felt good. Because it felt right!Time seemed to
Bloodline Awakening, one of the least understood phenomenon on the path to cultivation. There are many theories explaining what it is or how it came to be. Some theories suggest that humans are the descendants of gods or powerful beings, and that part of their divine power could be awakened, giving one, extraordinary strength. This was the most accepted theory. Others state that it was a random mutation that gave one a boost in strength.Despite the different theories, everyone still came to the same conclusion. If one had awakened a bloodline, then one's strength would increase by leaps and bounds! It also provided many benefits, depending on what bloodline one has aroused.One person has the potential to awaken lots of bloodlines, as procreation is the combination and fusion of multiple gene pools, but once you have awakened a bloodline, you can't awaken another. Most awaken relatively weak bloodlines, some awaken stronger ones. The strength of your bloodline is roug