Chapter 35

Liuli sat down by the edge of the cage and tried to reach a hand through the gap in the bars to lift the curtain.

But the moment her hand touched the cage bars, a barrier suddenly appeared, repelling her back.

After a moment’s thought, Liuli poked the iron chain on her wrist outwards—this time it passed through the cage smoothly. It seemed the cage only restricted people.

With effort, she used the small section of chain she had pushed out to lift the bottom edge of the curtain. Bright light streamed in through the gap. Liuli squinted and saw the corner of another cloth-covered cage outside.

The chain wasn’t long enough to reach the opposite cage, so she had to tap quietly on her own bars. “Hey, anyone there? Little Meng? Zhenzhen?”

She called out a few times in a hushed tone. No one answered. Just as Liuli was about to give up, footsteps approached. The curtain covering her cage was suddenly ripped away.

Liuli slowly looked up, squinting at the middle-aged cultivator with a goatee standing in front of her.

Goatee sneered.

Liuli closed her eyes, let her head loll to the side, and fake-snored, “Zzzzzz…”

“Enough, stop pretending.” Goatee kicked the iron cage hard. Liuli shuddered, “waking up” and fearfully scooting backwards.

“Who are you? Where is this? What do you want with me?!”

Goatee: “…”

Damn, why does this feel so unsatisfying.

Bang! Goatee kicked the iron cage fiercely again.

Liuli let out a high-pitched shriek, “Oh! Ooh! Oww! Ah—” Her voice was so sharp it echoed through the entire room.

From the nearby iron cages, signs of movement started to be heard.

Goatee: “Shut up!”

Liuli stopped screaming. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Well, well, you’re quite calm for a prisoner, little girl.” Goatee laughed sleazily, crouching down in front of the cage to look at this beauty who seemed a bit unhinged.

Liuli asked, “Those kids who set us up—are they with you?”

“What? Holding a grudge?” Goatee refused to answer directly. “Hahahaha, I know little beauties like you have high pride and can’t stand being betrayed. But don’t worry, if one day you manage to please your master, maybe you can get revenge, hahahaha…”

“What master?” Liuli frowned.

Goatee’s smile was vulgar as he looked Liuli up and down.

Liuli was silent for a moment. Suddenly, she opened her mouth, raised a hand to cover it, and put on a pitifully delicate expression. “Oh heavens, could it be… No, don’t say it! I’m not listening, not listening!”

Goatee: “Hahahaha, the more you don’t want to hear it, the more I’ll tell you!”

“No, don’t say it—”

“Listen up! You’re no longer the high-and-mighty cultivator you once were. Very soon, you’ll be sold off as someone’s cauldron, hahahahaha…”

Liuli’s expression changed drastically. “Could it be… this place is…”

“That’s right! This is the Ghost Market Auction of Mulberry City!”

Now Liuli understood. The cages in this room were all full of merchandise—including herself.

Goatee was merely a Qi Condensation cultivator. After thoroughly showing off in front of Liuli, he strutted around smugly with his hands behind his back, inspecting the “goods.” Every time he lifted a curtain from a cage, he would turn his head to watch Liuli’s reaction.

Liuli: So shocked! So scared! I’m not looking!

Thrilling, it was just too thrilling! Lording his power over a beauty who had fallen from the clouds, watching her panic in fear—it couldn’t be more satisfying! Goatee felt this was the absolute peak of his life, right here!

Liuli successfully located Ye Zhenzhen and Lin Mengxian. They were locked in other cages, their eyes closed, still unconscious.

Besides the three of them, there were several other iron cages holding people—all female cultivators. Others were wooden crates containing different treasures.

Having had his fill of fun, Goatee threatened Liuli, “Make another sound, and I’ll cut your tongue out!” Then he left the room.

The cages holding people were all clustered in one corner. Ye Zhenzhen and Lin Mengxian were in the neighboring cage. Liuli called out softly, “Zhenzhen, Little Meng, wake up!”

Lin Mengxian slowly opened her eyes, but her expression was extremely pained. “Liuli…”

She had actually been briefly woken by Liuli’s screaming earlier, but was quickly dragged back into a deep, heavy sleep.

Now, besides Liuli and Lin Mengxian, no third person in the room was awake.

Seeing that she couldn’t wake Zhenzhen, Liuli stopped trying. She quickly filled Lin Mengxian in on the information Goatee had let slip.

Lin Mengxian leaned against the cage, rubbing her head with a bitter smile. “To think this is how we’d enter the Ghost Market Auction.”

Liuli moved closer to her. “How do you feel?”

“That centipede was venomous. My whole body is numb right now, I can’t use any magic.”

Liuli looked at Lin Mengxian, who seemed exceptionally weak, deep in thought. She had felt terrible when she first woke up too, but was much better now. Since they were all bitten by centipedes, why did Liuli wake up first with the mildest reaction, Lin Mengxian second, while Ye Zhenzhen remained unconscious the whole time?

As for the others, Liuli couldn’t judge if they had been bitten by centipedes too.

Liuli said, “Rest for a bit first.”

Lin Mengxian nodded painfully and closed her eyes.

Liuli sat down cross-legged. The spiritual energy inside the cage was exceptionally thin, likely related to the formation on it. She had been awake for a little while now, and the numbness in her body was slowly receding. Circulating the spiritual energy within her was difficult, but no longer as sluggish as it had been when she first woke.

She reached out and touched the little finger of her left hand. The storage ring, invisible and untouchable to outsiders, was still there.

As a Sect Leader’s daughter, she possessed many high-grade magic treasures. This storage ring was one of them. Calling it a ring wasn’t quite accurate, as it was more like a circular tattoo wrapped around the base of her little finger. Besides Liuli herself, ordinary people could neither see it nor take it off.

Worried there might be monitoring treasures in the room, Liuli hid her hand in the folds of her skirt and secretly retrieved a bottle of antidote pills. She quickly ate one herself, then woke Lin Mengxian and rolled one over to her.

After Lin Mengxian took the pill, she recovered rapidly.

Liuli whispered, “I was thinking: it’s probably because we all ate that flower from your world, so our reactions to the poison are milder.”

And because Liuli’s physique and cultivation were higher than Lin Mengxian’s, her reaction was even milder.

Lin Mengxian leaned toward her. “What do we do now?”

“If it were just us escaping, that would be simpler. But the others here are probably innocent people who were captured, too—we can’t just leave them to die, can we?”

Although the cage had defenses, Liuli wasn’t afraid of it. She had ways to break it open. The problem was figuring out how to bring the other unconscious women along with them.

Lin Mengxian began, “Liuli…”

“Shh… someone’s coming.”

The two quickly moved apart. Lin Mengxian pretended to be unconscious again, while Liuli sat leaning against one corner of the cage.

This time, it wasn’t just Goatee who entered. Two other cultivators came with him. Their cultivations weren’t high, hovering between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment.

Goatee gave Liuli a smug smile.

Liuli flipped him a middle finger.

“What are you doing?”

She had already gotten all the information she could out of him, so Liuli dropped the act of sorrow and fear. She let out a chuckle. “Expressing my respect for you.”

Respect? Goatee wasn’t that stupid. He knew Liuli was definitely cursing him in her heart; “respect” was clearly a lie.

Goatee’s beard twitched as he huffed coldly, flicked his sleeve, and left with the other two, carrying out the crates of treasures.

Before he left, he said, “The auction has already started. You can’t escape. Behave yourself and perform well!”

“…” How was she supposed to “perform well”? Liuli was speechless.

Very soon, Liuli found out what “performing well” meant.

A little over half a day later, the auction finally reached its final phase—the selling of cauldrons.

The seven iron cages containing the female cultivators were covered with curtains again. However, because Liuli had especially pleased Goatee, she had the “fortune” of having her curtain removed to watch the spectacle firsthand while being transported to the auction backstage.

Goatee: “Hahaha, watch carefully!”

He uncovered the cages one by one, starting with the most beautiful. By waving a small bottle with a pungent smell under a female cultivator’s nose, the woman would wake up painfully.

Once she realized her surroundings, she would try to attack the cage in panic, only to find she couldn’t use any magic at all.

The cage was tall enough for a person, but she was too weak to stand.

The curtain would be pulled back down, and the cage pushed onto the front stage. Liuli was also pushed to an excellent viewing spot backstage, where she could see both the female cultivator on the auction stage and the bidders sitting in the front rows below.

This Goatee really had a nasty sense of humor…

And no brains. He was definitely a relative of some big shot behind the auction who got this job through connections!

In fact, Liuli had guessed correctly…

Goatee stood beside her, smugly stroking his beard. Liuli frowned deeply as she watched the auctioneer introduce the caged cultivator’s cultivation and spiritual roots in a mocking, lewd tone. He then whisked off the curtain and began to toy with the female cultivator.

Liuli could barely stand to watch. Amidst the female cultivator’s cries, the auction’s atmosphere grew more and more heated, until she was finally sold for a high price.

Then, one after another, the process repeated…

The third from last was Lin Mengxian. She had woken up long ago and was smart enough to remain completely silent, becoming an unremarkable piece of merchandise. Because she was so quiet, the bidding for her was much more subdued.

After her was Ye Zhenzhen.

The moment Ye Zhenzhen was awakened, she flew into a burning rage. She didn’t cry on stage, but spat out a fierce threat: “The humiliation I suffer today, I will repay in the future! Just you wait!”

“…”

The audience below fell silent for a second before erupting into an even more frenzied excitement.

What a fiery little vixen!

Bidders raised their paddles one after another. In no time, her price was bid up to double the price of the previous female cultivators.

Ye Zhenzhen was simmering with absolute fury.

Finally, it was Liuli’s turn.

The auctioneer hyped up the crowd: “Now coming up is the finale piece of our auction! A peerless beauty whose cultivation is just one step away from Golden Core! Buy her, tame her well, and she will surely become your most favored cauldron!”

Goatee cackled strangely, pulled the curtain back over Liuli, and pushed her onto the stage.

“Starting bid is one thousand high-grade spirit stones! Bidding starts now!”

When the curtain was whisked off, Liuli stood inside the cage with her hands clasped behind her back, tilting her head at a forty-five-degree angle to gaze at the ceiling.

Soft light shone down from the top of the auction stage, illuminating Liuli’s flower-like, jade-beautiful face. Her eyelashes trembled gently, her eyes were moist and held a trace of innocence, her pink lips were alluring, and her aura was noble. For a moment, she looked exactly like a banished immortal descending to the mortal world.

As long as Liuli kept her mouth shut, she could conquer the world with her looks alone.

Liuli didn’t even have to do anything. Just her appearance on stage caused the auction’s atmosphere to heat up wildly.

The bidding price climbed rapidly, soon reaching ten thousand high-grade spirit stones. At this point, the pace of the bidding slowly began to stall.

Liuli lowered her chin, which was tired from looking up. She smiled calmly at the crowd. “Do you all know who I am?”

“Little beauty, who you were before doesn’t matter. What matters is who you’ll belong to from now on,” teased a masked man, the most enthusiastic bidder.

Liuli gave a cold laugh. “Perhaps you’ve heard of the Black Lotus Sect?”

The Black Lotus Sect?

The people participating in this auction weren’t exactly upright characters. Many had ties to evil paths and devil sects, and quite a few were devil cultivators themselves.

Most of them knew something about the Black Lotus Sect, or had at least heard of it.

Because the Black Lotus Sect was one of the very few sects that had been jointly eradicated by both righteous and evil forces.

The Black Lotus Sect was simply too sinister. Its members seemed as if they couldn’t die. Not only that, they possessed all sorts of evil, insidious methods for seizing others’ bodies, devouring their souls, and controlling their minds.

The most terrifying thing was that regardless of their innate talent, Black Lotus Sect disciples cultivated at an extremely fast speed. Even a five-spiritual-roots individual could reach Foundation Establishment within ten years! This terrifying cultivation speed, along with their insidious methods, had raised alarm across every sect on the entire continent the moment the Black Lotus Sect gained some notoriety. Thus, under an unspoken mutual understanding, righteous and evil joined forces to encircle and annihilate the Black Lotus Sect.

Now, after a century of silence, this sect—which had once thrown the entire True Martial Continent into fear a hundred years ago—was showing signs of resurgence once more.

Upon hearing those three words, the expressions of quite a few people in the venue darkened.

The crowd at the auction broke into hushed discussions.

“I heard that last month, someone found traces of the Black Lotus Sect nearby.”

“I heard that too. Thought it was just a rumor…”

“You guys don’t know the half of it. News of the Black Lotus Sect’s revival has been around for several years, mostly in the south. It’s only reached this area in recent months.”

“Could it be that she’s really…?”

The auctioneer asked in a strange tone, “What is your relationship with the Black Lotus Sect?”

“If you know people from the Black Lotus Sect, then you should know my identity,” Liuli replied.

The man who had teased Liuli earlier spoke again: “You want to say you’re a Black Lotus Sect disciple? Do you have proof?”

Liuli gave a contemptuous smile. “How naive. My identity would scare you to death if I said it!”

“Oh? Then tell us, go on.”

“Hmph, I’ll just say it plainly then.” Liuli raised both hands, swept the stray hairs from her temples upward in a dramatic gesture, and declared proudly, “I, Tang Shishi, am the little sister of the Black Lotus Hierarch!”

She didn’t know why, but amidst the noisy commotion of the audience below, a particularly soft, exceptionally alluring, and seductive hum of laughter reached Liuli’s ears with absolute clarity.