Chapter 45: The Most Important Auction

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: The Most Important Auction

Evelyn lowered her voice conspiratorially.

"Don’t worry. This stays between us," she said.

"I won’t tell anyone. Not even my father," she promised.

Xavier stared at her for a moment. Then he almost laughed. He had never realized Evelyn possessed such an extraordinary talent for constructing elaborate theories.

Still, he wasn’t offended. If anything, this misunderstanding solved a problem he had been struggling with.

Until now, every time he sold a valuable pill, he risked people wondering where they came from. But if everyone believed he was merely acting as the representative of some mysterious master alchemist, he suddenly had a perfectly reasonable explanation. It was exactly the kind of identity he needed.

And Evelyn clearly had no intention of exposing it. She had already benefited from their previous transactions, and her relationship with him had remained friendly.

More importantly, she had twice intervened when Ethan attempted to cause trouble for him. Xavier remembered favors. He also understood the value of keeping a trustworthy trading partner.

He finally smiled.

"Fine," he said.

"You can exchange items of equivalent value for the pills," he added.

"And as for the Lesser Enlightenment Pill..." he said, pausing deliberately.

"I’ll ask my... master," he finished.

Evelyn’s eyes immediately lit up.

"Really?" she asked.

Xavier nodded.

"Just wait for my message," he said.

She clasped her hands excitedly.

"Thank you, Xavier!" she exclaimed.

Xavier smiled back. As Evelyn walked away, he couldn’t help shaking his head. He had gone out intending to trade pills.

Instead, he had accidentally acquired a fictional master alchemist. And surprisingly, that might turn out to be one of the most useful misunderstandings he’d ever benefited from.

After securing a new arrangement with Evelyn Hart, Xavier no longer had to worry about finding buyers or reliable channels for his surplus cultivation resources. The Hart family’s influence made the process considerably smoother. Whatever resources he needed could now be exchanged with far less effort than before.

Two days passed almost unnoticed.

By five thirty that afternoon, Xavier returned home carrying another batch of cultivation resources. Mira was already accustomed to this routine.

The first few times Xavier had brought her bottles of pills, she had been shocked. After receiving them day after day, however, she had reached the point where she could only stare at the growing collection in silence.

Xavier placed the latest batch in front of her.

"These are yours," he said.

Mira looked at the bottles, then at him.

"Again?" she asked, her tone carrying genuine helplessness.

Xavier chuckled.

Before either of them could say anything else, a series of system notifications rang inside his mind.

[Congratulations, Host! Your investment of a Grade 4 Spirit Gathering Pill has triggered a 3x return! You have received: one Grade 4 Awakening Pill, one Grade 4 Prosperity Pill, and one Grade 4 Explosive Power Pill!]

[Congratulations, Host! Your investment of a Grade 4 Spirit Gathering Pill has triggered a 10x return! You have received: three Grade 4 Spirit Gathering Pills, two Grade 4 Breakthrough Pills, two Grade 4 Prosperity Pills, two Grade 4 Purification Pills, and one Grade 4 Prosperity Pill!]

[Congratulations, Host! Your investment of a Grade 4 Spirit Gathering Pill has triggered a 20x return! You have received: one Grade 5 Star God Pill and one Grade 5 Saint Essence Pill!]

[Investment failed. The Grade 3 Vitality Pill generated no return.]

[Investment failed. The Grade 3 Blood Boiling Pill generated no return.]

[Investment failed. No reward generated.]

...

The notifications continued for several seconds before finally stopping.

Xavier had invested twelve pills into Mira this time, all of them Grade 3 or Grade 4. The results were fairly ordinary.

Some investments had produced impressive returns, while others had failed completely. He suspected the system’s recent failure rate had something to do with how frequently he had been investing pills of the same grades.

Still, Xavier wasn’t disappointed. He had already reached the point where Grade 3 and Grade 4 pills could no longer be considered scarce to him.

The twelve pills he had just handed Mira were only a tiny portion of his reserves. Mira already had several dozen Grade 3 and Grade 4 pills stored in her spatial ring, and Xavier had nearly two hundred more of the same grades waiting in his own storage.

As for Grade 2 pills, he had long since gotten rid of them through Evelyn. There was little reason to waste storage space on resources he could easily replace.

The real problem was the higher grades. Grade 5 pills were still extremely difficult to obtain.

Even the Hart family’s connections had been unable to secure another one in only a couple of days. Ordinarily, a sufficiently large amount of money could solve almost any problem.

But the appearance of the Hunting Ground had changed everything. Martial artists across Valemont were preparing for the newly emerged secret realm, and cultivation resources were being consumed at an astonishing rate.

Naturally, the supply of high grade pills had become even tighter.

Mira picked up one of the bottles and let out a helpless sigh.

"Honey, you’ve given me too much. I really can’t use all of this," she said.

She almost found the situation amusing. There had been a time when she would have been thrilled to obtain several Grade 3 pills in a month.

A Grade 4 pill had been something she could only hope to acquire occasionally. That had been the reality even when she stood at the peak of her cultivation six months ago.

Now, dozens of bottles were sitting inside the spatial ring Xavier had given her, and she was still struggling to get used to it.

Xavier smiled.

"Then stop worrying about how many there are. Just focus on cultivating," he said.

"Try to reach the fourth star of the Foundation Establishment Realm tonight. I know you can do it," he added.

Mira nodded.

Since Lydia’s consciousness had stopped interfering with her body, her cultivation had begun advancing at an astonishing speed.

The enormous supply of pills and spirit stones Xavier continued providing only accelerated the process.

She had already recovered to the third star of the Foundation Establishment Realm yesterday morning.

Returning to the fourth star she had possessed six months ago was now only a matter of time. Once she reached that point, however, her progress would naturally slow.

Xavier’s own advancement was much less dramatic. He had only recently reached the middle stage of the first star of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

If everything went smoothly, he estimated that he would need roughly another week to reach the second star. His slower progress wasn’t difficult to explain.

The Chaos Body gave him tremendous potential, but he still lacked a cultivation technique specifically suited to it.

And unlike Mira, Xavier wasn’t exactly the most diligent cultivator. Over the past two days, he had discovered just how terrifyingly disciplined his wife could be.

Aside from eating, sleeping, and dealing with other basic necessities, Mira spent almost every waking moment cultivating. If cultivation depended purely on diligence, Xavier knew he would never be able to compete with her.

Fortunately, he had the Investment System. For him, turning resources into strength through the system was far more efficient.

Xavier glanced at the time.

"Honey, I need to go out for a while. You stay here and continue cultivating," he said.

"And don’t worry about conserving your pills or spirit stones. Use whatever you need," he added.

Mira looked up.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I’ll bring you something good when I return," Xavier replied with a smile.

"And don’t worry about your foundation becoming unstable because you’re advancing too quickly. I’ll find a Saint Essence Pill within the next few days," he promised.

The Grade 5 Saint Essence Pill was particularly valuable for someone in Mira’s situation.

It could reinforce a martial artist’s foundation, stabilize a rapidly advancing realm, repair hidden injuries, and help eliminate the internal problems that could arise when cultivation increased too quickly.

Xavier had just obtained another one through the system, which gave him another thought. If he could acquire a second Saint Essence Pill through other means, he could invest it into Mira and potentially receive another valuable return.

If he failed to find one, however, it wasn’t a serious problem. He could simply give the Saint Essence Pill he already possessed to Mira. At worst, he would lose one potential system investment.

"Alright. I’ll listen to you," Mira said, smiling.

Xavier nodded and left. He had somewhere important to be.

The Skywater Pavilion Auction House would begin its auction at seven that evening, and there was one particular item he intended to obtain. The Creation Pill.

At present, four Grade 5 pills were stored inside his spatial ring.

Two Saint Essence Pills.

One Star God Pill.

And one Lesser Enlightenment Pill.

Yet none of them could replace the Creation Pill. Its ability to directly raise a martial artist’s cultivation without the usual consequences associated with rapid advancement made it exceptionally valuable.

More importantly, Xavier already had a use for it in mind.

He was going to get that pill. No matter what.