Cultivation Pet Shop

After a deliberate pause, Shuang Dong brought the microphone to her mouth to say, "Ladies and gentleman, it's the moment that you have all been waiting for."

Then with a wave of her hand, there was a staff member that came out with a pillow in their hands with a cloth over it.

That staff member walked over to center stage where Shuang Dong was standing and with a single neat motion, she pulled off the cloth to reveal the token that was hidden underneath.

As she removed it, she also said, "We will now be starting the auction of the Ancient Era Ruin tokens."

After that moment of flourish, she dropped the cloth in the hand of the staff member before turning to the crowd to say, "Before we start, I will explain the rules of this auction to everyone."

She gave another deliberate pause before saying, "The tokens will be sold individually and they will be sold in batches of five before other items will be auctioned in between them. The price for each token will be five hundred thousand low grade spirit stones and each bid increment must be at least ten thousand low grade spirit stones. There will only be ten seconds after a bid is made before the item is sold, so please be sure to bid as soon as you can."

Everyone fell deep into thought when they heard this.

Each one of these rules had a deeper meaning, but in the end, it was all done to make more money for the Thunder Sect and the True Spirit Sect.

The first rule, the rule about the tokens being sold in batches of five, the main reason for that was to give people time in between the token auctions to prepare more funds. As more tokens were sold, the price would naturally increase and people would need more funds.

This break would give the people participating enough time to gather more funds, but the key thing was that they didn't state an approximate time for this break. Without knowing how long they had, some people might even get desperate when the amount of tokens decreased.

Some might even sell off their businesses at a lower price than what it was worth just to get that extra infusion of cash.

But this was also what some of the smaller families wanted to see.

After all, for the smaller families, even if they got the token, they wouldn't be able to do anything with them since their geniuses weren't strong enough to use them. For these smaller families, the most they could do with the token was sell it to a stronger family for a higher price when the time to enter the Ancient Era Ruins came.

For them, being able to buy these businesses at a low price was something that was very good for them.

There was no doubt that the entire economy of Harmony City would change today…

But that was all to help the Thunder Sect and True Spirit Sect fleece more spirit stones out of them.

The second rule was to make sure that no one pulled the same trick as before, increasing the price by only a single spirit stone since that would be nothing more than a stall tactic, which was the last thing the organizers wanted to do as seen by the third rule.

The most important thing about the second rule was that the minimum bid increase was ten thousand low grade spirits stones which wasn't a small amount. Each increase would definitely push the price more and more out of the range of the normal bidders.

But that didn't matter to the Thunder Sect and the True Spirit Sect since that meant they would make more spirit stones.

Then there was the third rule which was that the bid would only last ten seconds before it was sold. This was very simply a time limit that would put pressure on the people that would bid, making them think irrationally and make them bid impulsively.

All of these rules were just ways for the auctioneer to force the bidders to bid higher.

Still, there was nothing they could do since they were the ones that wanted the token.

Shuang Dong had paused again just to build tension and to let the rules sink in, but once she saw everyone's expression change, she continued to say, "We'll now be auctioning off the first token, so everyone please get ready and don't regret anything."

After she said that, she went on to start the auction.

As soon as the auction for the first token began, the price began flying up.

The base price was set at five hundred thousand, but it didn't take long before it was already at a million and that was with increments of ten thousand each time. After all, no one wanted to increase it too much since they wanted to win it as cheaply as possible.

Even after the price had reached a million, it still didn't stop climbing.

It climbed at the same rate until it reached two million. It was only then that the bids started slowing down, but that didn't mean that all bids had stopped.

There were a few families that were quite adamant about getting this first token and it had devolved into a bidding war between them. However, they were picked off one by one as they ran out of funds until there were only two people bidding.

Just with the two of them, they were able to push the price all the way up to three million.

Once it reached that three million price range, one of the two family heads started to hesitate and he was bidding at the very last second each time.

When it was raised by another two hundred thousand, the one that was hesitating finally couldn't take it anymore and had no choice but to give up.

It was just like that that the first token was sold for 3.2 million. Or it would have been if someone didn't snipe it at the very last second.

"3.5 million."

The family head who had thought that he had won was already bragging, but he stopped in the middle of his words the moment that he heard this. He quickly turned to look in the direction that the voice came from and he saw a cloaked figure that was sitting in the middle of the hall.

That family head wanted to say something, but remembering that this was the territory of the Thunder Sect and the True Spirit Sect, he swallowed his words.

After a few seconds of gritting his teeth and hesitating on whether to bid or not, he finally made his decision as he said, "Three million five hundred and ten thou…"

Before he could even finish, the cloaked figure cut right in and said, "Four million."

The family head had a look of shock and hidden grievance on his face as he looked at the cloaked figure, but the cloaked figure didn't pay him any attention at all. The cloaked figure was just staring at Shuang Dong who was also staring at him with a surprised look.

She didn't know where this cloaked figure came from, but someone who could throw down this kind of money was definitely suspicious. There were only two explanations for this.

One was that he was someone hired by the Thunder Sect and the True Spirit Sect to deliberately raise the price and two, he was someone who was here to cause trouble.

It couldn't be the first explanation since she hadn't been told about this by the people who hired her, so that meant that it could only be the second option.

However, there wasn't anything being said in her earpiece, so she really didn't know what to do.

But then there was a voice that said, "It's fine, continue with the auction."

The moment that she heard this, Shuang Dong immediately said, "Four million going once!"

Everyone had thought that Shuang Dong would have this cloaked figure escorted out or at least have someone investigate him, but they never expected her to continue with the auction right away.

Many people even became suspicious that they were working together.

The count only lasted ten seconds and no one else made a bid, so Shuang Dong declared that the cloaked figure was the winner. However, there wasn't a willing face in the audience.

Everyone doubted that the cloaked figure even had the ability to pay this amount and that they had all been scammed by the Thunder Sect and the True Spirit Sect.

Shuang Dong as a professional could naturally see this, but she acted like nothing was wrong as she was about to start the second auction.

However, before she could, the family head that had just lost the auction couldn't take it as he shouted, "Wait, I want to raise a complaint!"

Shuang Dong had just taken a breath and was about to speak, but hearing what this family head said, she swallowed those words and quickly changed them up by saying, "This sir, what do you want to complain about?"

The family head pointed at the cloaked figure without any politeness and said, "I want you to investigate if this person can even afford to pay this much! If not, then this auction is nothing more than a sham!"

Shuang Dong's face turned dark as she looked at the family head and said, "Are you doubting our credibility?"

The family head immediately reined himself back as he realized how rude he had been and where he was, so he quickly said, "Miss Shuang, I'm just worried that this brat is someone sent here to cause trouble for you all."

Shuang Dong gave a cold snort, but she didn't bother arguing with him as she looked at the cloaked figure, silently agreeing with his argument.