Ryoma glanced over at the little box that had appeared on the raised dais. There were several magical projections in the air above the seats farther away, displaying the same little box.

While most cultivators would not have any problem to see even the smaller detail of the items displayed rather far away, the normal people would have a hard time to see anything at all.

The Earthly Treasures Pavilion provided a simple way for even far weaker cultivators or regular people, to still see everything going on at the stage, in specific, the items that were being auctioned.

He stepped to the box and opened it. A round spirit pill was revealed, glimmering with an inner light and energy in a deep blue color, making the high quality and skill in refining obvious for every experienced alchemist with just a glance.

Low grade pills had many different shades, depending on what materials were used and what type of pill it was, but for most of them, the spiritual energy they emitted would be nowhere near the point where they would glimmer or shine on their own.

The higher quality the pill was, the higher and more concentrated the spiritual energy the pill contained as well, giving it a certain luster that was hard to replicate with regular pills.

"Our first item up for auction is an Ocean Core Pill."

"This pill will not only provide a lot of help for anyone trying to break into the Core Formation Stage, but it will also help expand the innate spirit power reserves of a cultivator, more than doubling their potential for storing spiritual power, also improving their bodies to withstand larger amounts of spiritual power."

A regular pill helping cultivators to form their core was rather common. There were many different pills on the market and while none of them were really cheap, for the powerful and wealthy, these pills were nothing special either.

With stronger kingdoms and empires, core formation pills were valuable, but well-known resources. None of their pills however provided any benefits to their breakthrough or enhanced their bodies specifically targeting the Core Formation Stage.

"What about the success rate for forming a core? What is it like?" someone asked straight away, wondering if these other benefits came with some sort of drawback. Out of all the cultivators that attempted their breakthrough, about a fourth of them would manage to reach the next stage and form their core.

As for the others? Well, most of them would just not be successful and stay at the top of the foundation stage. A few unlucky ones might even harm themselves in the process, ending up with their cultivation much weaker, crippled or with a mental trauma that would lead them down a path of madness.

The question was quickly answered by Ryoma, his voice holding absolute confidence in the skills of their alchemists.

"Our alchemists currently estimate a success chance of close to eighty percent with the help of this powerful spirit medicine."

His words caused yet another heated discussion among the guests.

"Eighty percent? Are you serious?"

"I've never heard of a pill that could give such a high chance of success with even benefiting the body on top of it!"

"What kind of miracle pill is this to achieve a success chance of more than two thirds?"

Ryoma smiled at the stunned faces and the obvious curiosity and interest in the pill.

"We will go with 500 spirit stones for the starting price." He told them after a while and the discussions changed into the start for a battle of money.

"1000 spirit stones!", "1200", "1500."

"2000 spirit stones!"

The price quickly reached beyond 2000 spirit stones before things slowed down a little bit. A pill for forming a core would mean one of their geniuses could get much higher chance to improve even further.

Having yet another core stage cultivator might not mean a lot but giving one of their promising young people an easier time reaching the core stage without issues, gave them the chance for reaching an even higher cultivation level.

Some people were still holding back, as a new and untested pill, especially from a place that was not really well established yet, did pose a certain risk.

In the end King Yura bought the pill for his daughter for close to 3000 spirit stones, confident this investment would be worth it in the future, even though Harue was not close to breaking through to the Core Stage yet.

The first few items were sold in pretty much the same way. They offered a wide variety of skillsets and professions, making it obvious that the Earthly Treasures Pavilion had access not just to rare resources, but also the skills to make the most out of these resources.

"Why do they mostly sell access to the locations and not just gather all the resources on their own?" some people wondered.

Wouldn't it be more profitable if they already had the skilled people to work with these resources?

Little did they know that all these special items for the auctions were made by Tora alone. For a while it even seemed as if she was really working and not just lazing around and taking one nap after another.

While their craftsmen improved fast, they were still far away from making items that would catch the interest of larger nations and forces.

Blades enchanted with liquid mercury cores, bows made out of rare thunder wood, strange beast eggs that could be used to raise pets. There were quite a lot of different items for sale covering a lot of areas people might be interested in.

"Do you think that will be enough to cover the basics?" Yui asked her sister after a while.

They got pretty much all, but the strongest kingdoms involved in the bidding wars and had them show interest in at least something. The empires and some of the strongest kingdoms still seemed to hold back though.

While many of the items were interesting, they were not interesting enough for them to act. All of them seemed to wait for some of the other strong factions to do something.

"I guess that should cover the basics, let's bring out some of the more interesting stuff." Tora replied, looking forward to the more interesting pieces.

A quick sign from Yui was all it took for Ryoma to understand.

"Our next item will be a protective enchantment, the Five Dragon Shield. It will show the best protection when used on a building but can also be used to defend a carriage or person and get transported around."

Some people looked up in interest when a five colored, glimmering statue with five different dragons made up of different materials appeared on the dais, but there were too many defensive enchantments out there to really cause any kind of uproar.

"When used on a building, it takes a Mid Origin Stage cultivator to ever break through the defensive enchantments, while it still retains the power to defend against all kinds of Peak Core Stage cultivators when used to defend a carriage or person."

Suddenly the room got quiet. The best defensive enchantments that were currently known to exist could hold back Foundation Stage cultivators, possibly Low Core Stage cultivators. If it was some type of sect protecting array, it might hold back Mid or even High Stage Core cultivators when all of the thousands of disciples of such a sect infused it with spirit power.

"Did you just say Mid Origin Stage? What fool would believe such a thing? There exists no such thing as a defensive enchantment that could defend against an origin stage cultivator."

Count Kasai, one of the representatives of Central Island Union - Yoka Empire - was wondering for a while now why they were even sent here. The building was impressive for sure, but other than that, there did not seem to be anything to catch his interest.

This southern island region place seemed weak and boring to him and none of the people around had any kind of powerful presence. In the end, he was still here to find out more about this Earthly Treasures Pavilion and not to buy some random item that he could get from any of their own auction houses.

In his opinion, as they could not catch the empires interest, they decided to scam them with false advertisement, as such a defensive enchantment was surely an exaggeration.

Lots of discussions broke out, while some people who had worked with the Earthly Treasures Pavilion were interested and believed in the potency of the enchantment, others did not.

"It seems like some of our guests are not convinced of our enchantments power." Ryoma started and the attention returned back to him.

"Yes, it might be a powerful enchantment, but it can never defend against an Origin Stage cultivator, you might want to revise your description of this item." The Yoka empire representative called out.

Instead of looking flustered, Ryoma just smiled.

"I don't think that will be necessary good sir, why don't we just test it right here if it can stand the power of a mid-stage origin cultivator?"

Count Kasai looked a bit stunned. They wanted to test it right here? How would they do such a test, call out an Origin Stage elder, interrupt their cultivation time for a thing like an auction?

It was not as if he couldn't believe that they had such a powerful cultivator. In the end, they were still calling themselves an empire and even the Grey Order, whose representative so far had not really voiced their opinion, seemed to look favorably at them for some reason.

Never would Count Kasai think of disturbing an esteemed Origin Stage elder though for such mundane things.

"How do you want to test this?" he asked cautiously.

"Really simple, there are several experienced and powerful people here at this auction after all, it should be easy enough for them to estimate the strength of a few blows and see if they are really equal to a Mid-stage Origin cultivator."

The count wanted to shout out in anger but held himself back.

'That's not the point you fool, the point is where do you think to get an Origin Stage cultivator for such a thing like an auction!?' his thoughts were soon interrupted by a young woman standing by the side.

"Mid Stage? I will try to lower my blow to that level then."

It was hard to see through this young woman and none of them could tell her real power. So far all of the guests who had come from far away had ignored her, not expecting her to have any cultivation strength, but with the comment she made people got curious.

"Who is that girl to say such a thing? It's not right to make jokes like that, it's basically an insult to any strong cultivator."

"Yeah, they should discipline their kids properly. She is old enough not to say such a thing."

Most people at the auction were not from around Sume city or Yura kingdom and didn't know Tora. Their regular customers on the other hand did, including all the rumors about the two sisters that were making their rounds around the city.

"Oh shut up would you! If miss Tora heard you, you're lucky if there are any remains left of your body. Who knows how strong she really is."

"Pff, why would I care if I anger a young waif of a girl. I'm at High Core Stage, I'd like to see what even her elders can do to me."

Tora ignored their comments and just raised her hand, pointed a finger at the item that was now activated and slowly took aim.

Buzzing with power, covering the area around Ryoma, who did not even step outside, with a force field, the item was more than ready to defend whatever was inside.

Tora's cultivation strength, which was hidden before, was now step by step released, rushing through Qi Refinement, Foundation Stage through Core Formation and then slowed down when it reached a power that only the stronger visitors had ever experienced first-hand, Origin Stage.

It still climbed a little bit more and when it reached mid Origin Stage, Tora released the power and a tightly condensed bolt of spiritual energy rushed out from her finger and hit the defensive enchantment.

The sheer power of the bolt made the visitors tremble, even though they were not its target.

Yet another bolt hit the shield again, then more and more blows were raining on the defensive enchantment.

If Tora continued for several hours, she would likely overcome the defense of the enchantment at some point, but it would still take a long time.

Done with her demonstration, she returned to the side of the auction stage and sat down next to her sister, her cultivation once more hidden.

It was hard to tell if the discussions following the demonstration were about the item displayed, or actually about the young woman who had just shown a cultivation strength of at least Mid Origin Stage and if they were taking her comment seriously, she was already holding back.

The man who had earlier talked how even the girl's elders would not be able to do anything to him had turned really pale, but it did not look like Tora even spared him a glance.

'What have I done? I've offended an Origin Stage cultivator!' he did not dare to say anything more and quietly watched as the auction was going on, doing his best to appear small and unimportant.

"The starting price for the Five Dragon Shield is set at 5.000 spirit stones, increments should be at least 500 spirit stones. I don't think there are any more doubts about its potency."

"5.000"´, "6.000"

"The Nishi Empire offers 10.000 spirit stones!"

Finally, even the visiting empires were impressed enough to join the auction. An item that could hold back a Mid Origin Stage cultivator for hours? This was a treasure that none of them had ever heard of.

"The Grey Order would also like this item, we offer 12.000 spirit stones."

All the empires fought for the item with the money they took with them. In the end, the Five Dragon Shield was sold for 27.000 spirit stones to the Tomina Empire, an empire of the Central Island Union that focused on trade and economics and was seen as the wealthiest of all the Central Island region's forces.