The next day, Li Yan spent another half a day wandering around the city. Finding nothing else suitable, he simply sat cross-legged in his room and began to meditate in the afternoon.
On the morning of the third day, in the inn room, Li Yan was slowly performing one strange movement after another. It was early winter, yet he was bare-chested, a layer of dense sweat beads on his dark skin. A "peng peng" sound came from the bones and tendons inside his body. It was the Qiongqi Purgatory Art that he practiced daily. In the midst of his cultivation, Li Yan's expression suddenly stirred, but he continued with the next movement without looking away. It was not until more than half an hour later that he slowly came to a stop. Without wiping the sweat from his forehead, Li Yan reached out to his side, and a small token appeared in his palm, flashing with an earthy yellow light. Li Yan's eyes narrowed. "Is the auction about to begin?"
At the entrance of the "Chant-Garment Assembly," Li Yan stood across the street, watching the endless stream of people without immediately going forward to enter. He noticed that those holding the "Chant-Garment Assembly" tokens, whether in groups or alone, included monks and laypeople, humans and demons, a motley crew. After their tokens were checked and taken by the guards at the door, they would be allowed to enter the main gate without any extra procedures.
Li Yan watched for a short while, then also smiled and walked towards the main gate. The reason he did this was that he had never attended an auction before, though he had heard about them from Lin Daqiao. There were many rules at auctions. Some passages were only for honored guests to walk through, and some even required a special person to guide them. To avoid going to the wrong place and causing unnecessary trouble after entering, he had decided to stop and observe for a bit first. He was now within the territory of the Jingtu Sect and did not want to interact with people too much, only wanting to get his business done quietly.
When Li Yan took out his token and handed it to a guard, the man checked it carefully, then directly took the token and said to Li Yan with a smile, "Senior, you may go in!"
Li Yan nodded and strode towards the main gate. But as he approached the gate, his expression changed. In his Divine Sense, he felt waves of Spirit Power repeatedly descending from above the gate, as if probing for something. So Li Yan slowed his pace slightly, letting the person beside him go ahead. The entrance to the "Chant-Garment Assembly" was quite wide, enough for five or six people to walk side by side, so Li Yan's imperceptible slowing of his pace had already allowed someone to pass him.
Li Yan saw the few people beside him step in without any hesitation. In his Divine Sense, the Spirit Power from the top of the gate simply fell on their bodies, and the entering cultivators disappeared from sight. He couldn't feel any particularly strong spiritual energy fluctuations.
After squinting his eyes, Li Yan walked towards the main gate again and also stepped in. The moment he entered the gate, he only felt his vision darken, and then he appeared in a passage. At this time, the cultivators who had entered earlier were all walking forward along the passage. Everything was very normal. What surprised Li Yan was that he found he was now wearing a black veil over his face and a black robe. What was even stranger was that everyone he could see was exactly the same as him. And all the cultivators who had entered the gate before, regardless of height or build, were now all the same height and wore the same clothes. It was impossible to tell who was who, male or female. It was as if many identical twins had suddenly appeared in the passage.
Li Yan walked slowly, his expression unchanging. His Divine Sense first swept over himself, wanting to see his current appearance, but he found that his Divine Sense could no longer leave his body. This shocked him greatly. For a cultivator's Divine Sense to be suddenly confined within their body was an extremely dangerous situation. Not only could they not be forewarned, but many magical arts also became unusable.
Uneasy, Li Yan tried his Spirit Power and found that there was nothing abnormal with the Spirit Power in his body, and it could also leave his body easily. This relieved him slightly. He felt that his black robe covered his body tightly, and his height seemed to be a little shorter than his real height. The black robe also seemed a little wider than his body. This was exactly the same as the few people in front of him. When Li Yan's gaze swept over his own sleeve, he found a golden plum blossom pattern on the long black sleeve, which was very conspicuous. And among the few people he could see beside him, their cuffs were all different. Some had white lilies, or red plum blossoms, and so on. Li Yan looked for a few moments and already had a guess.
The main gate entrance just now should be said to be a formation entrance. This was definitely a high-level formation set up by a formation grandmaster. After everyone entered, they would trigger the formation's restriction, which would transform them into an appearance completely identical to others. This was actually normal in an auction, as it could protect everyone's privacy to the greatest extent. It was just that Li Yan did not yet know if the voices were also the same. For the time being, no one here was talking.
'Chant-Garment Assembly... just from the name, I know it's an ancient and established power. Their methods are truly extraordinary.'
As Li Yan was thinking, his vision suddenly brightened. The passage had come to an end. What appeared before his eyes was a circular hall. In the middle of the hall was a high platform, surrounded by rows of chairs, about thirty rows in total. Each row could seat about twenty people, and each pair of seats was separated by at least five or six feet, so no one was sitting next to anyone.
On the walls around the hall, there were also private boxes, just above the first dozen rows of seats below, like a dark cloud pressing down from mid-air. There were about fourteen or fifteen boxes, dividing the circular hall into what looked like two levels.
By this calculation, the main hall alone would hold at least six hundred people.
On the high platform in the center of this circular hall, there was only an empty table, with no one on it. When Li Yan looked at the rows of seats in the circular hall, he couldn't help but smile. The first floor of the hall was already filled with many people. After they sat down, it was as if a row of himself was sitting there, with no difference in height or build, all neat and uniform. And on the back of each seat was a different flower pattern, either different in color or in type of flower. Li Yan looked up, and above the private boxes hanging over his head, there was also a flower pattern faintly glowing.
Li Yan confirmed that his guess was correct. There was no need for a guide here like at the auctions Lin Daqiao had talked about. One just needed to find their seat according to the pattern on their sleeve. The boxes above were, of course, the same.
Speaking of the boxes here, Li Yan had heard a simple introduction when he came to inquire the day before. The boxes here were only for those who had a significant relationship with the "Chant-Garment Assembly" to be eligible to enter. Otherwise, even if you wanted to spend a large amount of Spirit Stones, you couldn't get in. But all this had little to do with Li Yan; he was just learning about it.
After many people in the circular hall had taken their seats, some were using voice transmission to talk to the people next to them. The reason Li Yan guessed they were using voice transmission was that he saw many people either turning their heads or facing someone, clearly not wanting to speak loudly over a distance of five or six feet. They actually couldn't tell who was who, but they could know who was next to them when they entered the main gate and then confirm the mark on the other's sleeve.
Finding one's seat here still took some time. After all, one couldn't use Divine Sense to scan and could only search row by row. Li Yan guessed that he had come relatively late. When he registered and paid the Spirit Stones, there were only a dozen or so spots left, so his seat would definitely be towards the back. In the end, he did indeed find his golden plum blossom mark in a slightly off-center position in the last row.
In this strange hall, Li Yan couldn't tell the difference between any two people. At a glance, it was either a walking version of himself or a sitting version of himself. After looking for a long time, he felt quite tired. And besides the sound of walking, it was very quiet.
'That Ouyang Jinfei must be among these people, but I don't know which one is him,' Li Yan thought, and slowly closed his eyes to rest.
But fortunately, it wasn't a very long time before the hall was filled with neat rows of black-robed figures. After another half an incense stick's time, just as Li Yan was about to fall asleep with his eyes closed, he suddenly heard a voice full of authority, "Welcome, fellow Daoists, to the 'Chant-Garment Assembly.' I will be the one conducting this session's proceedings."
Li Yan slowly opened his eyes and saw that on the high platform in the center of the circular hall, a middle-aged man in a gray shirt now stood behind the empty table. This man had a ruddy complexion, small eyes, and a square face, but his expression was serious. Waves of pressure emanated from his body. He was, impressively, an initial-stage Golden Core cultivator.
Li Yan saw that this man was not veiled in black or cloaked in a black robe, appearing so distinct. What Li Yan didn't expect was that an auction here would be conducted by a Golden Core cultivator. What a grand gesture.
"This person is the Third Deacon of the 'Chant-Garment Assembly,' Wang Wuzhong. I didn't expect them to send out the Third Deacon for this session."
"That means the 'Chant-Garment Assembly' must have good things for this session, possibly more than what was announced. Usually, at most, only the Fifth Deacon comes out."
"..."
With the appearance of this person, discussions finally began to rise around Li Yan. He was stunned to find that everyone's voice was exactly the same. When so many people spoke at once, if the distance was a bit far, Li Yan was dumbfounded to find that he couldn't tell where the voices were coming from.
Wang Wuzhong stood on the high platform, quietly listening to the discussions below. A moment later, he spoke faintly again, "It seems quite a few people recognize me. This is truly my honor. I believe everyone is clear about the reputation of the 'Chant-Garment Assembly.' Every item chanted here has been personally identified by our pavilion's grandmasters. If there is any inferior or fake item, our pavilion will be responsible for a compensation of ten times the final chanted price. Now, let's begin the chanting for the first item." After speaking, he clapped his hands lightly. A person dressed in the same colored clothes as the guards at the main gate walked briskly to the high platform from a corner of the circular hall, holding a light-yellow jade box. He then gently placed the light-yellow jade box on the table in front of Wang Wuzhong and then silently retreated again.
Seeing an item being brought out, Li Yan was about to probe with his Divine Sense, but he helplessly found that his Divine Sense was still blocked within his body, unable to leave even a fraction.
'The "Chant-Garment Assembly" is indeed well-protected. Divine Sense cannot detect anything at all. Even if a hostile force has a cultivator who specializes in Divine Sense techniques and wants to destroy the items here, they cannot cause any damage to the auction items through Divine Sense attacks. At the same time, besides the people from the "Chant-Garment Assembly," all other participants' voices are the same. Even if you want to know who ultimately obtained which treasure, you won't even know if they are male or female, old or young.'
"Fellow Daoists, the first item is a refining material, Heaven's Gate Sand. It is a high-grade material for refining earth-attribute magical treasures. The total weight of the Heaven's Gate Sand for this chant is twenty-four zhu, enough for the refining of one earth-attribute Magical Treasure."
On the stage, Wang Wuzhong spoke faintly and had already reached out to open the light-yellow jade box in front of him. Golden light then emanated from the jade box. He pointed his finger, and dozens of sand grains flew out of the jade box. Each grain was the size of a rice grain, emitting a rich earth-attribute power.