Chapter 289 Puppet Host
"Loss of contact in the Northern Desert... Can Fellow Taoist Di Yue tell you in detail?" Yuan Ming heard this and asked.
"About a year ago, the life tablets of three foundation-building disciples in our sect were shattered at the same time. The sect immediately sent out personnel to investigate. However, the clues found were complicated, and in the end we only came to a relatively clear conclusion, that is, they were all in Xiaohu City has appeared. At this time, the Tianxiang auction is about to be held, so the sect sent an Elder Jiedan to come here with my disciples to continue the investigation.
"For foundation-building disciples, I think this matter has little to do with Pu Zhengqing. Since you only learned that they appeared in Xiaohu City, why did you go to the Northern Desert to investigate?" Yuan Ming subconsciously thought of Sha Hao, but immediately he thought Denied.
"After our in-depth investigation, the three disciples only stayed in Xiaohu City for a few days before heading to Zhao State. And judging from some other clues we found, they should have all gone to the Northern Desert in the end. I think Taoist Fellow Hagong It's very suitable. Can you help us investigate this matter? I won't treat fellow Taoists badly after the matter is completed." Di Yue said.
"Since your sect has sent Elder Jiedan to lead a team to handle this matter, why do you want to recruit people to participate in the next foundation building period?" Yuan Ming tilted his head and thought for a while, then asked noncommittally.
"I'm afraid there will be a lot of variables during the trip to the Northern Desert. There are many people who are not as valuable as others. Taoist fellow Hagong can defeat Pu Zhengqing. He is one of the few opponents among his peers. If he can get help from fellow Taoists, he will be even more powerful." Di Yue said.
"To be honest, I don't have time to spare for the time being, so I'm afraid I won't be able to help fellow Taoist Di Yue." Yuan Ming pondered for a moment and shook his head.
Di Yue looked disappointed, but her attitude towards Yuan Ming remained unchanged: "It doesn't matter, I will improve this armor in the next few days. Please leave your contact information, and I will send someone to you at that time." Someone will send it to you.”
"Then please ask fellow Taoist to send it to Qingmu Tower and say it is temporarily stored by Ha Gong." Yuan Ming nodded and mentioned the location.
Ha Gong's identity is very popular now, so in order to avoid trouble, it's better not to have anything to do with Xuanhua Lingxiang Shop.
Di Yue didn't care after hearing this. She only said that Yuan Ming could retrieve the armor in seven days at most.
Afterwards, Yuan Ming said a few more polite words before turning and leaving.
Originally, after he heard that the Fire Bird Sect was good at refining weapons, he had the idea of asking them to help refine the best magic weapons. However, Song Huitong had already agreed to introduce them to him, and secondly, he rejected Di Yue. Invitation, the other party has promised to optimize the heavy armor for him, and he doesn't want to owe any more favors.
…
After Yuan Ming left the Huoquemen booth, he continued to wander around the building.
Soon, time flew by, and a clear bell suddenly sounded in the building.
Immediately afterwards, there was another powerful voice, echoing in the tall building.
"The time has come and the Tianxiang auction is about to begin. Please take the spiritual ladder to the main venue of the auction."
After hearing this, Yuan Ming quickly walked towards the spiritual ladder with the flow of people, and not long after, he was sent to an empty hall.
In the hall, several city lord's personal guards were guarding the exit of the spiritual staircase. Whenever they saw a monk coming, they would politely ask for an invitation.
Yuan Ming handed the invitation to a guard. He glanced at it briefly for a moment, then took a token and handed it to Yuan Ming.
"This token is a quotation that will be used later. Fellow Taoist, please keep it and remember to return it when you leave. Next, I would like to ask fellow Taoist to go north, and then take the spiritual ladder there to the venue."
Yuan Ming put away the token, followed the guidance of his personal guards, and climbed up a spiritual ladder again.
As the spiritual ladder ascended, after an unknown amount of time, stars suddenly appeared in front of Yuan Ming's eyes.
Immediately afterwards, a giant dome hall suddenly appeared in front of him.
The ground of the main hall is not flat. It looks like a large bowl with towering sides and a sunken middle.
At this time, Yuan Ming was standing at the very edge of the hall, which was also the highest position. In front of him was a long staircase that led to the lowest point in the center of the hall.
And over there, there is another high platform, but now it is empty, with nothing on it.
On both sides of the walkway, wooden seats with richly carved patterns are arranged in steps from top to bottom. They are not close to each other, but are separated by a certain distance.
Yuan Ming glanced around and randomly picked a seat with a good view to sit down.
As soon as he sat down, Yuan Ming looked up inadvertently and suddenly discovered that there were actually many independent platforms above the many seats. Not only were there seats on them, but there was even a small table with fruits on them. There are also maids wearing elegant long skirts and holding tea cups to serve. The treatment is several times better than that of the seats below.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, it would be great if one day I could sit there."
When Yuan Ming heard the voice, he turned around and saw a fat monk with a fat body, as if he had no neck, sitting on the seat next to him.
When the fat monk saw Yuan Ming looking at him, he immediately raised his hand to Yuan Ming cheerfully: "I am Wang Chongshan, the leader of the alliance that has come over the mountain. I don't know what I call my friend?"
"Hagon." Yuan Ming nodded as a return gift.
Wang Chongshan's eyes suddenly lit up: "It turns out to be Taoist Brother Hagong. I have admired him for a long time. As a Taoist friend, he should be qualified to sit in the box. How come he is sitting here?"
"This is my first time attending the Tianxiang auction, and I don't know how to get into the box." Yuan Ming said frankly.
"Oh, I understand. Fellow Daoist Hagong has not joined the Disbanded Alliance yet? Except for the seats reserved for a few major sects, the box seats at the Tianxiang Auction are all allocated to well-known leaders of the Disbanded Alliance and others. As a Taoist cultivator, I thought that due to the strength of my Taoist friends, I had been recruited by some loose alliance. This time, I would definitely accompany the leader of the alliance to the box, but I didn’t expect that the Taoist friends were still free." Wang Chongshan. Suddenly said.
"I don't like to be restrained, so I don't think about joining any force." Yuan Ming replied.
"I have to say a few words about this. I am afraid that fellow Taoists have misunderstood the Sanmeng. There is a big difference between the Sanmeng and the sects and other immortal cultivating forces! Although he is a force, he has no regard for the members inside. Constraints, they will only be called when a task is required. After the task is completed and the rewards have been distributed, members can leave on their own. They can come and go with extraordinary freedom. You can even join several disbanded alliances at the same time." Wang Chongshan. said.
"Since it is so loose, what is the significance of the establishment of the disbanded alliance?" Yuan Ming asked.
"Haha, fellow Daoist Hagong, I'm thinking about this. A group of people who don't know each other get together to do tasks. They don't cooperate with each other, and you have to be careful about someone stabbing you in the dark. But it's different when you break up an alliance. The longer it's established, the more inside it will become. The members of the alliance will become more familiar with each other. Not only can they cooperate easily, but they will also be fair in resource allocation and rewards and punishments. The most important thing is that the scattered alliance has credibility and will not take the deposit and do nothing, so most monks and sects When looking for people to do tasks, they will go directly to reliable alliance members. Only tasks with relatively low pay or that do not require too many people will be posted." Wang Chongshan explained.
"There is also a situation where the Disbanded Alliance accepts a task, but there are not enough manpower to mobilize at the same time. Then he will also post the task and recruit other casual cultivators. However, the rewards for this part of the task are determined by the Disbanded Alliance themselves. It will generally be lower than what the alliance received at the beginning," Wang Chongshan added.
Although Yuan Ming had a general understanding of this when he was in southern Xinjiang, this time he found out through the words of monks from the Central Plains that the two regions had basically the same understanding of the disunion alliance, so he bowed his hand to Wang Chongshan to express his gratitude.
While he was talking with Wang Chongshan, other monks also entered the venue one after another. The seats were gradually filled, and many people even sat in the several boxes above.
Soon, a melodious string sound suddenly sounded, and the noisy venue gradually became quiet.
Under the gaze of many monks, a beautiful young woman with fair skin wearing a goose-yellow gown rose up from the high platform in the center of the venue.
Yuan Ming couldn't help but widen his eyes when he saw the woman, not because he recognized the person's identity, but because the woman's joints had extremely obvious traces of splicing.
Although her appearance was lifelike and she looked like a real person, all the monks present could see that she was just a puppet powered by spiritual stones.
"First of all, I would like to thank all the seniors for attending this Tianxiang auction. My name is Puppet Jiu, and I am the host of this auction. As you can see, I am a spirit stone puppet. I will host the entire auction process. There will be no mistakes, this is guaranteed by City Lord Lu personally, and there is absolutely no falsehood.”
Puppet Jiu said, bowing to everyone in the venue, her words were clear and reasonable. If you didn't look at her joints, no one would have thought that such a vivid woman was just a puppet driven by spiritual stones.
Puppet Jiu on the high platform continued to introduce the rules of the auction.
"This auction will adopt a secret bidding method. If you, Taoist friends, like a certain item, you can make a bid through the token issued to you when you enter. I will inform you of the highest bid after receiving the message. Folks, if someone bids the same, I will explain it separately, so without further ado, please take a look at the first lot.”
As soon as Puppet Jiu finished speaking, another stone platform slowly rose behind her.
She took down a square box of nanmu from the stone platform covered with golden goose down cloth. After opening it, she showed everyone the jade slips inside.
"This jade slip records the "Red Fire Heart Technique", the core skill of Huoyuan Sect of Zhao State. You should know that Huoyuan Sect and Wulei Sect were once known as the two major sects of Zhao State. It is a pity that the founder of this sect passed away. After that, no one was promoted to Nascent Soul, so they withdrew from the first-class sect. However, the value of "Red Fire Heart Technique" as the main skill of the ancestor of the sect will not be weakened because of this, and this item in our store The auction item is the entire "Red Fire Heart Technique". The content is not missing a word. It even includes the cultivation methods of the alchemy stage. Such a method is enough to reshape a small sect and make it possible for people with fire skills to be reborn. Disciples of Linggen will avoid detours for at least fifty years, saving a lot of time and resources in cultivation. The starting price is only 20,000 spirit stones, so all fellow Taoists are welcome to bid as much as you want."