The people nearby were all making their selections in silence, and since it wasn’t appropriate for Li Yan to ask further, he lowered his head to search for the items he needed.
What he was looking for were the Twelve Zodiac Coins, emblematic of the zodiac sign money. Once he found them, a jolt surged through Li Yan’s heart.
Indeed, these Twelve Zodiac Coins were unique items, not even display samples were put out, just a na written down.
Several bamboo tokens had already been deposited in the bamboo tube ahead.
Considering the previously ntioned primary mountain copper essence, he wondered if he would have enough silver to compete in the bidding...
Though he was worried, the matter had reached this point, and Li Yan had no choice but to drop in the bamboo token, and then proceeded to select items for Wang Daoxuan.
Wang Daoxuan required a considerable quantity, comprising of Spirit-subduing Demon-destroying Money, Evil Exorcism and Blessing Money, and also Midday Money of the Fifth Day.
The Spirit-subduing Demon-destroying Money belonged to talismanic money, which Li Yan quickly found.
On the obverse side of this coin, one side bore the Mountain Ghost Talisman, the other side the Thunder Talisman, and in the middle was inscribed a incantation: "Lightning and thunder, slay demons and subdue spirits, cut down demons and ward off evil, eternally maintain divine clarity, by order of the great mystery, let it be as swift and imperative as the law, commanded."
On the reverse side were the Eight Trigrams of Fuxi, with the Qian position to the due north.
The price for one was a hundred taels of silver.
The Evil Exorcism and Blessing Money, however, was of a unique sort, the obverse depicted an immortal brandishing a magic artifact, while the reverse bore five poisons but different from the typical ones, respectively representing tiger, toad, snake, gecko, and spider.
It also had the inscription "Evil Exorcism and Blessing" carved on it.
The Midday Money of the Fifth Day as well belonged to Evil Exorcism and Blessing Money, with "Midday of the Fifth Day" inscribed on the obverse.
The Midday of the Fifth Day was Dragon Boat Festival, a ti for dispelling evil and eradicating epidemics. These coins were all created during this period, and the reverse also had five poisons, but the spider was replaced with a scorpion.
This money had an intense Yang energy, perfectly suited for breaking through Yin entities.
These spending coins were relatively more nurous in quantity.
Following Wang Daoxuan’s requirent, Li Yan completed the purchase.
All tallied up, the total ca to over ten thousand taels.
By this point, he began to feel as if money was no object.
After also purchasing the required Praying Money for Manager Wan, he started to wander around.
The important items had all been found, and the rest were optional—if he saw sothing good, he could afford to buy it.
After several circuits around the place, Li Yan’s eyes were opened wide with wonder.
The spiritual materials section, needless to say, was mostly various tals.
As for magic artifacts, there was a certain delicacy to consider.
First and foremost were the disposable magic artifacts such as incense sticks, fortuitous paper, mugwort, and red rope.
Even though his divine skills were suppressed at the mont, he knew that these objects, worshiped in a Grotto Heaven Blessed Land for a century, were far beyond anything found in the City God Temple.
No wonder he was so discriminating—these objects were clearly ticulous in their crafting.
To speak of just the incense, there were varieties like Subduing True Incense, Faithful Spirit Incense, Lily Incense, Heavenly Fragrance, Soul Summoning Incense, Calming Incense, each one intricately made, so even as thick as a finger, adorned with cinnabar inscriptions...
Li Yan glanced at them and saw that so incense sticks were worth a hundred taels of silver each.
Using such items for rituals was like burning cash.
He pondered under what circumstances they would be used...
Beyond that were the altar magic artifacts.
One was called the Ten Treasures of the Altar, comprising a Dou, lamp, sword, mirror, token, wooden fish, Hu Ban, ruler, seal, and Ruyi.
Obviously, there were also so large altar magic artifacts, like magic flags, daises, Tortoise-Crane Furnaces, Boshan Stoves, and quite a few musical instrunts used for rituals.
Unfortunately, after seeing the prices, Li Yan abandoned the idea.
If bought carelessly, he wouldn’t have enough money for the two items he intended to bid on at the auction.
Of course, since he was in a treasure land, he couldn’t leave empty-handed.
After so thought, he still decided to buy so talisman paper.
In the area for brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, he also bought a box of fine talisman pens and cinnabar for the team to use.
Just these expenses alone amounted to another five thousand plus taels of silver spent.
Looking around at the other people, who remained unfazed, conducting their purchases by the set, it seed as if the price was of no consequence to them.
In that mont, Li Yan fully understood the disparity.
The Proper Xuan Sect had a long history and abundant foundations.
rely by considering that Taibai Mountain Doumu Palace was able to build an observatory, and the horror-inducing magic artifact telescope, he knew that even if they were to deplete their reserves of silver, their wealth was imnse.
Furthermore, like this wine cellar opening, Chunyang Palace’s inco had skyrocketed, but the other orthodox sects that occupied Grotto Heaven Blessed Lands had their own storages as well.
Opening them once could recover the entire cost.
Put plainly, it was as though the money simply circulated among these people, while those without a solid foundation, like him, would be drained clean.
This whole thing was indeed a kind of trap!
The more Li Yan thought about it, the more he felt short-changed. As a result, he curbed his greed and stopped buying indiscriminately, while also listening in on the conversations around him.
He had originally wanted to hear so news, to analyze what materials were needed to create new-style firearms.
Yet, he inadvertently eavesdropped on many intriguing stories:
"The Yellow River is flooded, a Fish Demon is causing trouble, as big as a sailboat, with a black head and horns, nearly digging open the embanknt and causing disaster. The Capital has already summoned nurous demon hunters to deal with it..."
"In the land of Bashu, a Ghost King has appeared, likely related to the ’Five Streams Barbarians’ and ’Central Qian Barbarians’, and many of those who follow the lineage of exploring mysteries have headed there. It’s said they even caused zombies to slaughter a village..."
"Near Dongting Lake in Ezhou, a rainbow appeared during dayti, masses of people have been suffering from continual fever, delirious and disoriented. After a Daoist summoned their souls back, the awakened villagers all claid they saw a dragon..."
Of course, there was also an important piece of news about overseas.
Divine State was rich in goods and treasures, but the history of the Mystical Sect was too extensive; after so many years of excavations by Xuann Practitioners, the Heavenly Spirit Earth Treasures were becoming increasingly scarce and needed ti to replenish.
So cultivators had already organized fleets to search for spiritual mountains overseas, even clashing with the barbarian mystical sects on a few occasions...
All these ssages left Li Yan wide-eyed and astounded.
It seed the world of the Mystical Sect was far more vast than he had imagined.
Of course, he also heard so useful information.
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