The hall buzzed with voices, some unfamiliar with the Yuan Spirit Pool Secret Realm, while others offered explanations.
“The Yuan Spirit Pool Secret Realm is located northwest of the Cao family, in the central area among the three great families. It’s surrounded by powerful restrictions and opens only once every five years. Only Martial Venerables and youths under thirty years of bone age can enter.”
“Within the secret realm, when the time comes, the Yuan Pool and Spirit Pool appear. The Yuan Pool, also called the Lord Foundation Yuan Pool, allows Martial Venerable disciples to build a foundation for becoming a Martial Lord. Over the years, every disciple who refined the Yuan Pool has successfully broken through to the Martial Lord realm. This is why the three great families have so many Martial Lords.”
“Moreover, the Yuan Pool can help break through cultivation levels, offering immense benefits to Martial Venerable disciples.”
“Not everyone can refine the Yuan Pool, and the amount refined varies. The quantity one refines determines their future achievements.”
“As for the Spirit Pool, it’s specifically for refining the mind and is only useful for spirit controllers. The requirement is lower, needing only a Fourth-Grade Junior Spirit Controller realm to enter. However, in this region, Fourth-Grade Junior Spirit Controllers are so rare that often few, if any, can enter the Spirit Pool.”
“Of course, competition for spirit controllers is much lower. In contrast, the Yuan Pool is fiercely contested, with not only young Martial Venerable geniuses from various factions but also all the top geniuses from the three great families entering.”
Amid the murmurs and explanations, Lin Xiao caught the useful information, his eyes lighting up as he heard about the Yuan Spirit Pool Secret Realm.
With both a Yuan Pool and a Spirit Pool, wasn’t this perfect for his refinement?
He had lingered at the Second-Tier Martial Venerable realm for some time. Refining the Yuan Pool might allow him to break through a tier.
As for the Martial Lord foundation, he had already built a Martial Emperor foundation, so he wasn’t too eager, though adding a Martial Lord foundation would still be beneficial.
His spirit power had long stagnated at the Fourth-Grade Senior level. With the Spirit Pool, he might break through a level.
By then, his strength would see another significant leap.
“This armor can withstand attacks from Sixth-Tier Martial Venerables and mid-level Fifth-Tier spirit beasts, and even endure a few strikes from Seventh-Tier Martial Venerables. It’s highly valuable and could save your life multiple times.”
Shi Jindou’s persuasive voice rang out, “Thus, the starting bid for this armor is three thousand Martial King essence pills.”
Lin Xiao was slightly surprised. It seemed the Southeast Region used Martial King essence pills as common currency, which explained why he found over a hundred in Xu Hao’s storage ring.
Martial King essence pills were meant for Martial King cultivation, but for Martial Venerables, they were less efficient, requiring hundreds for a low-tier Martial Venerable breakthrough and thousands for mid- or high-tier ones.
For Martial Venerable cultivation, there were higher-grade pills: Martial Venerable essence pills.
However, these were harder to refine, requiring one Fifth-Tier Junior spirit beast core, ten Fourth-Tier Senior cores, or fifty Fourth-Tier Mid-level cores, plus a large amount of Sky-Spinning Stone ore.
By the standard ratio of one-to-five within tiers and one-to-ten across tiers, a Martial Venerable essence pill required cores equivalent to two hundred fifty Martial King essence pills.
Beyond cores, it needed even more Sky-Spinning Stone ore and a Fifth-Grade Spirit Controller to refine, raising the pill’s grade, efficacy, and value significantly.
Thus, the ratio of Martial Venerable essence pills to Martial King essence pills was one to five hundred.
Even in the Southeast Region, Fifth-Grade Spirit Controllers and high-tier spirit beasts were rare.
Hence, Martial King essence pills dominated circulation, unless an area had many high-tier spirit controllers, where Martial Venerable or even higher-grade pills might circulate.
Lin Xiao realized how poor he was. A single armor defending against Sixth-Tier Martial Venerable attacks started at three thousand Martial King essence pills.
He had used the Xu Sky Phoenix Wings several times, nearly depleting his looted Martial King essence pills…
Of course, the situation had demanded it, and he had no choice.
Still, Lin Xiao felt impoverished, unable to afford even a “useless” armor defending against Sixth-Tier Martial Venerables.
If others knew his thoughts, they’d want to slap him for calling such armor useless.
How many in the region reached mid-tier Martial Venerable? Only top geniuses from great families achieved it under twenty, and those between twenty-five and thirty were few.
Owning armor defending against Sixth-Tier Martial Venerables meant near-invincibility in the Yuan Spirit Pool Secret Realm against most attacks.
Normally, this armor wouldn’t fetch a high price, but now, countless people would scramble for it.
For Lin Xiao, though, the armor was weaker than his physical body, truly a piece of junk.
Feeling depressed about being too poor to buy “junk,” he was understandably glum.
“I hope those two techniques sell for a good price,” Lin Xiao thought, recalling their base price, and his “poor” gloom vanished.
Azure spirit stones, rarer than Martial Venerable essence pills, were worth fifty of them each. Selling the techniques would make him rich.
“Three thousand five hundred,” a young voice called out as Shi Jindou finished.
“Four thousand one hundred,” another youth shouted.
“Four thousand five hundred,”…
Bids rose rapidly, leaving Lin Xiao stunned.
Were these people insanely rich? Spending so many Martial King essence pills on mere armor?
They were either loaded or had brought their entire fortunes to this auction.
To Lin Xiao’s shock, the armor’s final price reached twenty thousand Martial King essence pills, claimed by VIP Box No. 4.
“No wonder it’s the Southeast Region, far beyond the southeast corner. Compared to this, the southeast corner is a barren land,” Lin Xiao sighed inwardly, understanding why the southeast corner’s overall strength was so weak.
“Next, we’ll auction something extraordinary: the Heavy Mountain Strange Rock,” Shi Jindou’s voice rang out after the armor’s sale.
