The auction is now at the seventh item, the start of high quality items.
Among the audience of the first floor, one middle aged man can be heard sharing his thoughts, "now for the items we all came here for, even the guests in the second floor won't dare ignore them".
Indeed everyone in the auction house was intrigued, before them a level eight purifying pill is presented, the auction host shouting, "yes esteemed guests this is a level 8 purifying pill with 2 lines of refinement, best for helping high level cultivators purify their internal organs allowing for more blood flow and soothing the cultivation process, starting bid is twenty thousand Middle grade spirit stones", raising up the pill in its box elegantly.
Second floor room 1 guest,"thirty thousand spirit stones".
2nd floor room 2 guest, "forty thousand spirit stones".
These two guests were two well known alchemists in the city, the Gold Pill Pavilion elder and the Jade Pill Tower elder.
"You old fox you dare bet against me, you think I can't outbid a mere forty thousand?"said the pavilion Elder.
"Aha ha ha ha, pavilion Elder what do you mean? Is my jade pill tower not allowed to buy good things?" Said the tower Elder.
The other guests are regulars they dare not intervene in the conflict between these two old foxes.
As the pavilion and tower elders continued to argue, a voice shouting a bid changes the atmosphere of the house, "One Top grade !!!", said Wu Chen with all of his chest.
The guests became silent, the tower elder and pavilion elder turned to look at the boy.
The Pavilion elder address Wu Chen, "you little rascal what clan are you from?".
Wu Chen turns to face the pavilion Elder, "alchemist Wu Chen greets senior".
The pavilion Elder asked "did the Wu teach you such disrespect? who is your senior I am the Gold Pill Pavilion's elder".
Upon hearing this Wu Chen decides against being arrogant as he would soon need to be a disciple of the Gold Pill Pavilion, after swallowing his pride he responds, "apologies pavilion Elder I will learn from this lesson".
The pavilion elder seeing the sincerity in his actions responds "very good I will not bother you anymore, I don't know about the greedy ones from the Jade Pill Tower".
After laughing the tower Elder responds,"I had no issues in the first place, worry not boy you bid however you want and I won't even let anyone bully you".
After thanking the tower Elder, the auction continues with nothing of interest to Wu Chen.
The old men continued to bid against eachother until the last item was on sale.
"For the last item esteemed guests. A total of 64 teleportation talismans and 64 concealment formation talismans, all you need to do is be in range within ten thousand li and you can travel instantly between two points, as for the formation talismas they conceal an area making sure no one outside the area can detect the inside without solving the formation first, opening bid one hundred thousand middle grade spirit stones".
At this point everyone had endured enough by giving the two old alchemy Elders free reign over bidding, no more would they allow it.
"150 thousand!!", shouted a guest in the first floor.
"200 thousand", bid another guest from the first floor.
"500 thousand", shouted the pavilion Elder.
The tower elder unable to hold himself, "Keep dreaming you old bastard, 800 thousand".
Amidst the crowd the voice that invokes silence strikes again, "25 Top grade!!!".
Everyone who was standing up sat down with disappointment, the pavilion Elder could be heard choking on his wine, the tower elder shouts "you boy.. you must be a crazy fool",
understanding what the tower Elder meant Wu Chen makes a proposal,"tower Elder if I give you 5 top grade spirit stones, will you ensure I arrive home safe? this alchemist can already see only death awaits this night",
"Very good then, hey pavilion Elder accompany me later I will buy you a gourd of wine" said the tower elder.
Pavilion elder happy to accept wine responds, "with how much you getting paid I expect dinner aswell".
After paying for the items Wu Chen is accompanied by the two elders, with the pavilion Elder suggesting they all go drink with Wu Chen.
Upon all parties agreeing they set off to drink wine, with the tower Elder having been paid his five top-grade spirit stones, they made sure to drink expensive strong wine.
Three hours passed and all of them were drunk, however Wu Chen made sure to drink as little as possible to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Struggling to walk they accompany Wu Chen.
Seeing as it was night and the elders had accompanied him half the journey till he reaches the Moon's Embrace, in addition to having no one else around beside them in the street, Wu Chen thanked the elders and asked them to turn back as he could travel alone.
After bidding their farewells, with their back turned Wu Chen threw a concealment formation talisman at the two of them, it covered all three of them swiftly that even the elders didn't notice that they were within a concealed area, Wu Chen shouted at the wine loving elder, "pavilion Elder this is what I was taught by the Wu".
With the concealed area's height being 100 feet high and wide, Wu Chen floated up 20 feet high with his palms aligned vertically he shouted
"Soul Devouring Technique: first stage".
Immediately upon saying that, a spiritual avatar appeared, a demon like figure wielding two swords at a height of 40 feet with a radiant dark green qi spiritual cloak.
The elders looked up to him, they were still drunk but they were aware of what was happening, but they could'nt seem to move, they were instead in a slight state of shock, instinctively concerned about fleeing but held back by the fear that even taking one step could cause them death, so instead they tried to bargain
"Fellow alchemist, No!! actually brother Wu, calm down", said the tower Elder with his voice trembling.
Seeing no reaction from Wu Chen the tower Elder is began to ponder on his own thoughts,"what is this thing, my skin is unsettled and iam getting cold all over my body even this boy doesn't feel human right now, it's as if iam passing by hell's gates lifeless and cold".
The pavilion Elder who remembered the insult he made at the auction house began to plead his case "brother Wu, there must be some misunderstanding, at that time when I..."
"Devour", said Wu Chen pointing at the elders.
The Spiritual avatar immediately went after the immobile elders and stabbed them both in the centre of the chest.
However the elders did not feel pain and no blood or wound was present, just as they were about to have some kind of hope they suddenly felt their internal energy dissipating, as if their life essence was being sucked away,
They tried to struggle but they could swing their legs through their sword pierced spiritual bodies but even that too slowly failed as their soul was directly being attacked, with the spirit and body not functioning they can only silently wait in despair.
After devouring the two elders' souls, each of their cultivation would be divided by half and given to Wu Chen, however the more he refines devoured souls the less cultivation he will get.
"I need to refine this two souls, I was worried the technique would shatter the concealed area but maybe it's because it is only at the first stage", said Wu Chen getting into the lotus position.
While refining the souls he struggles to maintain his qi rotation as well as keep a stable breath, but slowly and slowly the refining process progresses.
"Even though there's progress this is too slow, I have been refining for 30 minutes already", Said Wu Chen.
But he remembered that his grandfather gave him pills, "perhaps there something that could help in the storage ring" said Wu Chen.
After looking in his storage ring he remembered he bought the perfect pill to help with his problem, the Level 8 purifying pill.
With cultivation going smoothly he began to gather momentum, dark black clouds formed in the skies above the concealed area, even though he was undetectable,you cannot hide divine practices from the eyes of heaven.
Feeling as if he is loosing consciousness, his breathing became unstable and his qi was scattering.
He felt an internal pain throughout the whole body.
His spirit was clashing with the two foreign souls while his soul was pushing back.
He was persistent but the more he continued the more intense the pain got, and more damage was taken by the spirit.
In pain barely conscious Wu Chen tries to motivate himself " just have to keep hanging in there for longer...rest the mind on the breath and the breath on the mind".
He would find stability in this breathing rotation and after a few stable breaths, stronger momentum was created, the dark black clouds had been increased along with bringing strong winds.
The dark clouds began to become more violent with roaring thunder.
Wu Chen's pain had become more unbearable and the qi around him was violent and loosing its form.
after 3 hours of enduring more torment, the refinement was a success, the dark clouds released their energy and the discarded qi within the concealed area bursted together with the dark clouds destroying the formation without solving it.
"Even though my cultivation was barely touched, I have now reached stage 3 of the Soul Devouring Technique, unfortunately two souls won't give me this much gains next time" breathing heavily as he made his way home.