1229 Greed

"Wait… isn't this one that papa and mama need?" Ronron asked seriously.

"Yes, this is it," Alex said. "If you can't get it now, I won't have to wait a year to find it when I return to the Southern Continent."

"I'll do my best, father," Ronron said with a resolute look.

The woman explained a few more things about the item in front of her to explain what it did so more people would be interested in the item.

The amount of Blood Revitalizing Ginger there was on the tray was enough to make at least 5 different pills and could improve 5 different True realm cultivator's lives by a couple of hundred years.

Once the woman was done explaining, she started the bidding.

Immediately, many people threw out numbers that quickly reached double the base price of the item in the auction. The auction hall wanted them to pay 300 True spirit stones for the item because of how rare and valuable it was, and it crossed 600 in less than a minute.

During all this time, Ronron waited without betting as she let the others bring the price high first.

After it all slowed down a bit, she bid her own amount. 820 True spirit stones.

Immediately, her call was outbid by someone else, who was then outbid a second later. Ronron looked in the direction of the voices with a stern look.

"Father, should we explain to them why we want it? They might let it go for us," she said to Alex.

"Hmm… I don't know," Alex said. "Threats are not allowed at all in the auction house, but maybe trying to persuade them could be allowed."

"Are you not sure?" Ronron asked.

"Each auction house has its own rule, and I haven't been to this one in over 30 years, so I'm not really sure," Alex said.

"Oh, then I won't say anything," Ronron said and went on bidding.

The bids slowed down around 1000 true spirit stones and came to a staggering halt at around 1200 true spirit stones.

However, there was someone in the VIP room who kept bidding against Ronron no matter how much she bid. She even used the tactic Alex taught her, to increase her bid by a large amount, but that didn't help at all.

The bidding continued for nearly 2 more minutes as the bid reached over 1500 True spirit stones, over 5 times the base price.

"Young lady," a voice came from the VIP rooms. "Would you please consider backing down from this bid? I would love to buy this."

Ronron was surprised to hear someone speak, and someone old at that. Her heart faltered for a bit, wondering what she did.

Bidding for the item was good, but if it was very important to someone else then…

"Do you care about a random person more or your parents?" Alex asked.

"Of course, I care about my parents," Ronron said quickly. "But… that person…"

"This is what it means to be callous and heartless in the cultivation world. You are out for yourself. You help others when you can and that's fine, but when you have to choose between them and yourself, you always choose yourself."

"After all, the main driving factor for a cultivator is his greed. A greed to live all the years you can, greed to own everything, greed to become stronger than everyone. If you want to become a cultivator, show some greed," Alex said.

Ronron was a little shocked to hear the words, but she quickly nodded. "Greed, huh? I'll be greedy then."

"1600 True spirit stones," he announced her bid.

Alex smiled.

"Young girl, are you really not going to let this old man have what he wants?" the man in the VIP room spoke again.

"Sir," Ronron spoke. "You are in the VIP room, so you must be rich, right?"

"Somewhat, yes," the old man's voice came.

"Then please stop wasting both of our time and just bid. This is an auction, the one with more money wins here," she told the man.

The man remained silent for a moment and finally spoke.

"1700 True spirit stones."

Ronron's eyes widened a bit. She turned to her father with a panicked look. After all, the man had just increased the price by an entire 100 True Spirit stones.

Alex nodded slightly, telling her to not back down.

"1800 True spirit stones."

The crowd gasped a little in surprise, mostly because by now they had checked who it was that was making the bid and had realized that it was a girl who had only recently stepped in the True realms.

And somehow she was making bids that involved hundreds and hundreds of True Spirit stones at once.

"1900 True spirit stones."

"2000 True spirit stones."

The bid went back and forth for a bit.

"3500 True Spirit stones," Ronron said after a few bids, directly jumping way high with the price of the ingredients.

Alex shook his head internally, but he didn't let Ronron notice anything. 3500 for a True rank ingredient was stupid by any imagination of the word.

People would laugh at someone if they heard the person had done such a thing. However, since it was his own daughter and since the ingredient was something they needed, he didn't stop her.

The man in the VIP room did stop, however, since he realized how much of a waste this would be if he kept going.

In the end, the ginger was won over by Ronron who cheered excitedly.

"Now, we'll be moving on to the 2nd half of our auction," the woman said and left the stage.

Once she left, quite a few people in the hall started leaving the auction too. Ronron looked around half-curious and half-worried.

"What's happening?" she asked Alex.

"We're moving onto Saint-ranked items," Alex said.

"So?" Ronron asked.

"So, it's going to get very, very expensive now," he said. "The auction before this was simply child's play to what's coming in terms of price. Most of these people won't be able to buy any of it, so they are leaving instead."

"Oh…" Ronron thought. "I see."

A much more beautiful woman came from behind the stage with a clear Saint realm cultivation base erupting from her. She started introducing herself and restarted the auction once again.

She explained whatever was needed as the first item was slowly brought out.

"This is it," Alex said. "They should have quite the items on this half, so you should bid more frequently."

"Really? That woman said everything is going to cost over 10,000 True spirit stones though," Ronron said.

Alex chuckled and shook his head. "I told you it's going to get expensive. I'll let you know if I'm running out of money. Just bid on what you like, except for pills. You don't need to bid on pills," he said.

"Of course," Ronron said. "I'm not stupid."

The woman introduced the first item of the second half of the auction.

"Here we have a skill book for our first item," she said. "It's a skill called Golden Spears of Heaven, which allows a person to create 4 illusory spears with metal energy and control it as they see fit."

Alex didn't even hesitate as he leaned over and whispered, "buy it."