Chapter 2029, Rapid Increase

“Have you all taken a good look? Good, this old man might not be an Alchemist, but because the Secret Art I cultivate is Fire-Attributed, I can also bring out a bit of this Alchemy Furnace’s power. En, let this old man demonstrate the features of this thing.” Finished with his explanation, Drunkard tossed the Black Jade Furnace he had been holding up in the air and quickly formed a few seals.

Pouring his pure Source Qi into the Black Jade Furnace, it rapidly began to expand and soon became as tall as a person before falling heavily on the auction stage with a grand thump.

After the Alchemy Furnace expanded, the complex patterns on its surface became clearer.

Not only that, everyone was now able to see the inside of the Alchemy Furnace with their Divine Senses. Engraved inside were four dazzling, burning dragon heads.

“The Grandmaster who refined this furnace was definitely a genius who carved countless Spirit Arrays into it, all of which are good auxiliaries for Alchemy. As a result, as long as one understands what these Spirit Arrays are for, they would not need to portray them themselves during Alchemy, saving time and energy. Furthermore, the four dragon heads inside the Alchemy Furnace allow an Alchemist to have better control over the heat as well as providing another interesting feature.”

Saying so, Drunkard suddenly lifted his gourd and took a swig of his wine, causing his ruddy face to immediately become even redder. He then patted his chest and opened his mouth towards the Black Jade Furnace in a spitting motion.

A Fire Dragon flew out of his mouth in the next instant. One that soared forward, shaking its head and wagging its tail before crashing into the Black Jade Furnace and sinking into it like a stone falling into an ocean, disappearing from everyone’s sight.

Drunkard immediately formed another set of seals with a mysterious smile hanging on his lips.

Suddenly, a raging flame spurted out of one of the dragon heads inside the furnace. The flame seemed to be extremely hot and was blue in colour. Next, under Drunkard’s control, the flames grew more intense, then less.

A second dragon head also began spewing flames before the third, then finally the fourth.

Drunkard then withdrew his hands and stood to the side, motionless.

However, the flames inside the furnace didn’t go out, but instead continued to burn. From the looks of it, it would be some time before these flames went out.

“The Alchemy Furnace can even store flames?” A knowledgeable person quickly saw through the situation and commented.

“Precisely! Friend, you have sharp vision,” Drunkard broke into laughter, “This old man didn’t even use much strength, only about as much as a normal attack, but that was enough to provide enough energy to this furnace to burn for half a day. On top of that, once the flame intensity is set, it will absolutely not change until its energy supply is exhausted or the Alchemist alters it. Presumably, everyone understands how great an aid this would provide to an Alchemist, yes?”

Just as Drunkard’s voice fell, everyone in the hall immediately broke into a clamour.

He might not have explained clearly, but all the cultivators present understood how precious this Alchemy Furnace was.

When an Alchemist was refining pills, he would often need to add various herbs and portray different Spirit Arrays all while carefully controlling the heat by providing just the right amount of energy, making it a process that required extreme focus and precise control.

However, with this Black Jade Furnace, the situation was completely different. An Alchemist would only need to set the appropriate temperature and pour in sufficient energy to maintain it for the required period of time, allowing the Alchemy Furnace to remain in that exact state for an extended period without outside intervention.

The Alchemist could take advantage of this time to restore himself.

Many times, Alchemists would fail their refining not because of some mistake in their methods, but because of their physical or spiritual limits.

But with this Black Jade Furnace, there wasn’t any need to worry about this problem at all.

In addition to the various abilities of an ordinary Alchemy Furnace, it also had its own unique auxiliary features. On top of all that, it was of Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank, making it an extremely valuable to begin with. In the eyes of Alchemists, this Alchemy Furnace was no less valuable than an Emperor Artifact!

“Time is limited, so this old man will not show the other features of this Alchemy Furnace but this old man can guarantee that if any Alchemist can obtain it, their grade will increase by one whole rank!”

Everyone couldn’t help but gasp and marvel when they heard this.

An Alchemist’s rank was much harder to raise than a cultivator’s realm, especially when it came to Great Realms. Many Alchemists would become stuck at the Origin King Grade High-Rank, unable to make further progress for the rest of their lives, but if what Drunkard said was true, an Origin King Grade Alchemist had a chance to refine Dao Source Grade pills as long as they had the Black Jade Furnace, and the chances of success wouldn’t be low.

All these features and benefits not only made the Alchemists present on the scene unable to hold themselves back, but also made the representatives of the various Sects and families become enthusiastic.

“Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace, Black Jade Furnace, starting bid, one million Source Crystals, each subsequent bid must increase the price no less than 50,000. Everyone, please.” Drunkard shouted as he stepped aside, chuckling.

“Starting price… one million…” The corner of Yang Kai’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch upon hearing this.

After listening to Drunkard’s extravagant and colourful description, he was naturally a little tempted to bid on this Black Jade Furnace.

The Alchemy Furnace currently had was the Purple Origin Furnace he obtained in the Emperor Garden many years ago. As an Origin King Grade High-Rank furnace, it’s grade wasn’t low, and had served him well over the years, but it wasn’t on the same level as the Black Jade Furnace here.

However, a starting price of a million Source Crystals made Yang Kai smile wryly.

The Source Crystals he had on hand totalled just about one million, which was barely enough to match the starting bid…

“Is this Black Jade Furnace really so marvellous?” The nearby Kang Si Ran also seemed surprised.

Although he was able to obtain some information in advance by relying on his connections with the City Lord’s Mansion, he obviously didn’t know the details of this Black Jade Furnace beforehand, so when he heard Drunkard’s introduction, his expression couldn’t help but become solemn.

If he could obtain this Alchemy Furnace, the pill output of his Spirit Pill Plaza would definitely increase significantly, which would in turn increase his value as a Shopkeeper. Perhaps he could even be rewarded with a promotion from the chamber of commerce.

However, when he thought about the Dao Source Fruit at the finale… Kang Si Ran hesitated.

He turned to glance at Yang Kai, and when he saw the wry smile on his face, he asked curiously, “Alchemist Yang, are you not going to bid?”

“No! I’ll just watch the excitement,” Yang Kai shook his head.

Kang Si Ran immediately understood and nodded in acknowledgement, remaining silent.

The auction had already begun as the two were speaking, but strangely, no one called a bid. The hall was completely silent as, obviously, everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move.

For a while, the atmosphere in the auction house became tense.

If someone else had been hosting this auction, they would not show any signs of anxiety and would instead just wait confidently; after all, such a good treasure would naturally sell for a high price. However, this time, Drunkard was hosting the auction.

After waiting for only a brief time and seeing no one bid, Drunkard couldn’t help grinning and calling out, “It seems this will be the first item today to not be auctioned off. Good, since that’s the case…”

“Wait, Sir Vice City Lord, aren’t you being too impatient?” A man shouted out from one of the private rooms.

“Nobody’s bidding though? If no one bids, this old man will simply buy it himself. En, maybe he can sell it later and make a big profit!” Drunkard looked toward the speaker, smiling.

Hearing him say this, many people couldn’t help but roll their eyes at him.

The host of the auction actually wanted to participate in the auction, it was completely unheard of. Only someone like Drunkard could act so brazen.

“Well, since all my friends are being so reserved, then this one will offer a million to get the ball rolling,” the man in the private room helplessly said.

“One million is far too low, my Du Family bids 1.5 million for this Black Jade Furnace.”

“You dare think 1.5 million is enough? Ridiculous! My Jiang Family bids 1.8 million!”

After the first bid, another rapidly came in, then another, and another. Moreover, each of these bidders represented some powerful family or Sect, but that made sense as only such forces could afford to spend so many Source Crystals.

All of a sudden, the private rooms all began enthusiastically participating in the bidding, causing Drunkard to grin meaningfully at the sight while lifting his gourd to drink from it complacently.

The big families inside Maplewood City naturally had friction between them, and now that this Black Jade Furnace had appeared and was clearly capable of improving their respective strength, none of them wanted to let it go.

In just thirty breaths, the price of the Black Jade Furnace had reached 2.7 million and was rapidly increasing with no one willing to give up.

After another half a cup of tea’s time, the Black Jade Furnace’s reached 4 million and only then did several of the families stop bidding. Obviously, the current price had exceeded their limits.

Although this Black Jade Furnace was a good treasure, the Dao Source Fruit which could help a cultivator reach the Dao Source Realm directly was more valuable, so many people could only reluctantly give up in light of this.

At this moment, Yang Kai had completely become a spectator. The Black Jade Furnace had soared past the price he could afford so he had long ago given up.

“My Jiang Family needs this Black Jade Furnace, please give us some face. 4.1 million!” An angry voice suddenly reverberated from the Jiang Family’s private room.

Others truly fell silent as many didn’t dare to continue to compete with the Jiang Family; after all, the Jiang Family was one of the strongest in Maplewood City so it was unwise to offend them while also having to pay out a huge amount of Source Crystals.

Seeing this, the speaker from the Jiang Family called out in an overjoyed voice, “Sir Vice City Lord, if you could…”

But before he could finish, a coquettish voice suddenly sounded, “Uncle Jiang, don’t be so anxious, Little Sister still hasn’t called her bid. I offer 4.2 million.”

As soon as these words rang out, a man with thick eyebrows and sharp eyes inside the Jiang Family private room turned to the source of the sound and snapped, “Shopkeeper Zhuo?”

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At this moment, Kang Si Ran also let out a cold snort, “Zhuo Ning Si! That slut really couldn’t help herself.”

As rivals, Kang Si Ran naturally knew that the owner of this sultry voice was the shopkeeper of the Pill Pavilion, Zhuo Ning Si, who had recently poached all his Alchemists from him.