72 – The Second Group Mission

No one present noticed Wang Ping’s spiritual sense scanning.

After all, the difference between the Spirit Origin Realm and the Spirit Sea Realm is too vast, and only after reaching the Spirit Sea Realm can one develop a spiritual sense.

Next, Wang Ping withdrew his spiritual sense and quietly awaited the start of the auction.

Soon, the auction began.

At the start, the items being auctioned were quite valuable, but only relative to the cultivators in the Innate Realm.

Nevertheless, these items were enough to heat up the auction’s atmosphere.

After all, though the Innate Realm might seem too weak for Wang Ping now, it still counts as a significant realm within the entire Great Xia.

Items precious to those in the Innate Realm are no longer considered ordinary.

Wang Ping watched silently, waiting for the appearance of the red jewel.

At his level, only items valued at the level of spiritual tools or fifth-degree pills could catch his attention. Even quasi-spiritual tools were just ordinary items to him.

“Next up for auction is a red jewel. This was obtained by an Innate Realm expert by accident. He found its material extremely tough; even with his full strength, he couldn’t leave a mark on it. Because of this, we invited an appraisal master and a Spirit Origin Realm expert to study it. They found that even a Spirit Origin Realm expert couldn’t leave the slightest mark on it.”

The female auctioneer spoke in an enticing tone.

“Therefore, we suspect that this red jewel has an extraordinary origin and might very well be a spiritual tool.”

‘Heh, a spiritual tool? Do they take us for fools? Who would auction off a spiritual tool?’

“It’s just a hard jewel. While somewhat special, at most it’s only useful for refining tools. Given the level of Great Xia’s refiners, creating a quasi-spiritual tool would already be a remarkable feat. A spiritual tool? Keep dreaming.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… Saying all that just to hype up the price? Don’t take us for fools.”

“Exactly, exactly.”

As soon as the female auctioneer finished speaking, the scene became noisy, with some powerful cultivators scoffing at the idea.

This made the auctioneer a bit embarrassed.

However, being the exclusive auctioneer of the largest auction house in Great Xia, she quickly adjusted her emotions, smiled charmingly, and said, “Every word I spoke is true. This jewel is indeed extraordinary. So, the starting bid is five thousand lower-grade spirit stones, with each increment not less than one hundred lower-grade spirit stones.”

“If even a Spirit Origin Realm expert can’t leave a mark on it, it is indeed rare. But if it’s just hard, it can’t be used as a weapon, and there’s not enough material here to even make a throwing knife.”

“This thing only has value for collection, but who would spend five thousand lower-grade spirit stones to collect it? For Spirit Origin Realm experts, five thousand lower-grade spirit stones is not a small number.”

The cultivators present were all discussing.

Wang Ping scanned the crowd, smiled slightly, and said, “Five thousand lower-grade spirit stones.”

Seeing Wang Ping bidding, the onlookers were somewhat surprised, recognizing the booth where Wang Ping was sitting.

After all, Wang Ping hadn’t concealed his participation in the auction.

No one expected Wang Ping to spend five thousand lower-grade spirit stones on this item.

For a moment, many people wondered if Wang Ping had discerned some extraordinary aspect of the jewel.

But in the end, they dismissed the idea.

For an alchemist, five thousand lower-grade spirit stones are negligible. If Wang Ping had a hobby of collecting rare treasures, spending five thousand lower-grade spirit stones would be understandable.

“Five thousand lower-grade spirit stones, once.”

“Five thousand lower-grade spirit stones, twice.”

“Five thousand lower-grade spirit stones, three times.”

“Congratulations to Lord Wang from Booth One for successfully bidding on the red jewel.”

Seeing no further bids, the auctioneer could only finalize the sale reluctantly.

Next, new items were brought up, beginning another round of fierce competition.

After successfully bidding on the red jewel, Wang Ping nodded satisfiedly.

However, he did not leave but continued to watch the auction, hoping to find some unexpected treasures.

After all, in the life simulation, he was only at the peak of the Spirit Origin Realm and hadn’t developed spiritual sense, so he might have missed some treasures.

Unfortunately, Wang Ping eventually realized that it was too optimistic to expect to find rare treasures at an auction on the Profound Turtle Continent.

Until the very end, Wang Ping ended up with nothing else.

The last item auctioned was the Spirit Origin Pill refined by Wang Ping, which many Spirit Origin Realm experts scrambled to acquire, fetching a price of fifty thousand lower-grade spirit stones, and was won by a

Spirit Origin Realm ninth-level cultivator.

However, given his level of cultivation, the Spirit Origin Pill would be useless. He must have bought it for his disciples or descendants.

As the auction concluded, people orderly left the venue, while the items and the spirit stones earned from the auction of the Spirit Origin Pill were respectfully presented to Wang Ping by a woman dressed in embroidered clothes waiting outside.

In response, after Wang Ping received these items, he directly left the auction and headed toward Black Wind Forest.

Deep within Black Wind Forest, when Wang Ping returned, the people of Chi Village were delighted and welcomed him back.

“Village Chief, this is your Chi Clan’s Red Flame Technique.”

Wang Ping handed over the copied Red Flame Technique to the Village Chief and said with a smile.

The Red Flame Technique was originally a skill of the Chi Clan. Since he had already obtained the complete Red Flame Technique, it was only right to give a copy to Chi Village.

“The Red Flame Technique, it’s all here?”

The Village Chief took the Red Flame Technique, looking a bit dazed.

The Red Flame Technique had been lost for years. He had thought it would never see the light of day again, but unexpectedly, not long after Wang Ping went out, he had gathered both the upper and middle volumes. It was truly astonishing.

“It seems the Red Flame Technique is fated with you… Or perhaps, you are someone with great fortune.”

The Village Chief looked at Wang Ping in amazement.

“Hehe…” Wang Ping chuckled softly, not saying much more.

All that talk about fate and great fortune was meaningless.

Without the Life Simulator, he wouldn’t have been able to gather the Red Flame Technique at all.

Even with the Life Simulator, it had taken an immense amount of time to barely piece it together.

However, some things were best kept to oneself and didn’t need to be shared.

“Village Chief, the Red Flame Technique contains the secret method to awaken the spiritual body of the Chi Clan. You can let Chi Feng try it out.”

After some thought, Wang Ping reminded.

“I know.” The Village Chief nodded, looking a bit expectant.

Of course, he was also very aware that it was highly likely to fail.

After all, there had always been a vague rumor among the Chi Clan.

The so-called bloodline curse wasn’t that simple.

The origin of the Chi Clan wasn’t anything related to a spirit race.

But the rumor was so old that they themselves didn’t know whether it was their ancestors boasting or something factual.

For the next three months, Wang Ping stayed in Chi Village to train, occasionally amusing the Fire Pattern Demon Tiger and riding him to hunt, while seeking rare medicinal herbs in the deepest parts of Black Wind Forest in preparation for future pill refining.

As for the Crimson Pearl, knowing its purpose, Wang Ping had no intention of using the ancient jade to extract its essence blood.

Perhaps this item had some other significant use… Given that he was already at the Spirit Sea Realm, using the essence blood for training seemed wasteful.

One could say, it could enhance cultivation, but only within the Life Simulator.

Using it in reality would mean it wouldn’t be available in the Life Simulator, which felt like a loss.

“Is it still not working?”

Noticing that Chi Feng was making good progress with the Red Flame Technique but still didn’t show any signs of a spiritual body, Wang Ping shook his head, unsurprised.

The bloodline curse of the Chi Clan was too terrifying. The cultivator who imposed this curse was likely beyond the Great Transcendence Realm.

Thinking that a top-tier ground-level skill would break the curse was wishful thinking.

If it were so easy, the Chi Clan wouldn’t have fallen from grace and become so desolate.

Subsequently, Wang Ping stopped paying attention to Chi Feng’s matters and opened the chat group.

Lately, Wang Ping had been busy cultivating, trying to master his own strength, and searching for medicinal herbs in the depths of Black Wind Forest, so he hadn’t been active in the chat group… He only occasionally glanced at it to make sure he didn’t miss any important information.

Therefore, he was still aware of some situations in the group.

For example, among the three newcomers, Ye Xiaofan had successfully joined an immortal sect. His world was also one of cultivation.

The sect he joined was called Bingyun Cave Heaven, one of the top ten immortal sects in a country, with a Golden Core stage cultivator overseeing it.

Upon discovering that Ye Xiaofan had a Sage Body, they were ecstatic and immediately started grooming him as the future leader, hoping he would one day lead Bingyun Cave Heaven to become a sacred ground, attracting tributes from countless nations.

It must be said, Ye Xiaofan was truly a luck-bearer. His Sage Body attribute was ice, perfectly matching Bingyun Cave Heaven.

Otherwise, even if Bingyun Cave Heaven knew Ye Xiaofan had a Sage Body, they wouldn’t know how to train him and would waste his potential.

As for Qin Tian, this guy’s luck was even better than Ye Xiaofan’s.

Although he never mentioned what his golden finger was, being accepted as a personal disciple by a big shot in a sacred land demonstrated that his golden finger was definitely extraordinary.

At the same time, this guy had also investigated some information about the Leiyu Sacred Land he was in…
His master is a high-level cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage and an inner elder of the Thunder Realm Sanctuary.

On the surface, the Thunder Realm Sanctuary has an elder in the Divine Transformation stage.

Hmm… On the surface…
It’s hard to imagine what kind of monsters lurk behind the scenes.

Additionally, it is rumored that the Thunder Realm Sanctuary once had an immortal ascend to the Immortal Realm.

One can say that the power he is associated with is absolutely formidable.

In terms of background, Qin Tian is almost invincible in the group.

As for Wang Shuqing, this newcomer, out of the three who survived, he is the most miserable one, as he crossed into the wild. If he hadn’t prepared food beforehand and drawn a powerful golden finger ability for defense, he would have become food for wild beasts.

Now, a month has passed, and he still hasn’t left the forest.

However, from this, it’s clear that the world he crossed into shouldn’t be any terribly dangerous transcendent world, otherwise he would have died already.

Of course, this is just the group’s current speculation; the actual situation can only be determined once he interacts with intelligent life in that world.

Besides this, the other group members have their own experiences. But apart from Chen Yao almost being killed by a demon and Zhang Jun nearly getting skinned alive by a mutated zombie, the others are relatively safe.

As Wang Ping just opened the chat group, the system’s prompt suddenly sounded, leaving Wang Ping stunned.

‘Ding, detecting anomaly in group member Chen Yao’s world, a group task is issued: eliminate the anomaly. This task is mandatory, requiring five participants. Group proxy leader, please promptly select five group members for the task. If no selection is made within ten minutes, the system will randomly draw five members to participate and teleport them to Chen Yao’s world.’

‘Another group task…’

Wang Ping’s expression grew serious.

The chat group had been silent for three months and finally, a group task appeared again.

This interval is still a bit short.

Once again, it’s about eliminating an anomaly…
Could it be that the purpose of the chat group making them cross worlds is really to eliminate these anomalies?
As various thoughts flashed through Wang Ping’s mind, the chat group exploded.

Cai Yonglong (1): ‘Damn, a group task again? It’s only been a bit over three months, how can there be another task? I’m feeling numb.’

Wu Jun (20): ‘The timing is too tight, I’m a bit nervous.’

Fang Yun (3): ‘Sigh, it seems the chat group is more dangerous than we imagined. However, this time only five members are needed… and we can select them, which is a good thing. If it were another mandatory all-member participation task, it would be terrifying.’

Zhang Hu (5): ‘The proxy leader… is Wang Ping going to choose? Wang Ping, I want to participate in the group task, please make sure to pick me.’

Zhang Jun (70): ‘Are you so eager this time? Not afraid of death?’

Zhang Hu (5): ‘Of course I’m afraid. But I have no choice. If I don’t become stronger quickly, the chances of dying will only increase. This time, I managed to get some magic scrolls from my mentor; they should help me stay alive.’

Cai Yonglong (1): ‘That makes sense. I’ll participate too. After three months of cultivation and some opportunities, I’ve successfully broken through to the Spirit Origin Realm. If I can contribute in the task and earn more points, I can quickly amass enough points to buy a resurrection talisman or optimize my golden finger ability.’

Ye Xiaofan (75): ‘A group task, really makes my heart race. I wonder how strong I would be after optimizing my Sacred Body. However, considering that I’ve just started cultivating and am only at the Qi Refining stage, I’d better not participate. I hope Wang Ping doesn’t choose me.’

Qin Tian (77): ‘Ahem, just like Ye Xiaofan, my future prospects are bright, but I’m still a future warrior, not suited for group tasks. Without breaking into the Foundation Establishment stage, I don’t feel confident.’

Ye Xiaofan (75): ‘Exactly, exactly, at least the Foundation Establishment stage.’

To be honest, Ye Xiaofan and Qin Tian are a bit scared.

With such a good start, they don’t want to risk participating in the group task; it’s not worth it for those points.

In such a good cultivation environment, it’s best to develop slowly.

Wang Ping (66): ‘Tsk tsk tsk, weren’t you two pretty flamboyant before? Showing off in the group several times.’

Fang Yun (3): ‘Hehe, these two guys are finally scared. Recently, I almost got internal injuries from their showing off.’

Liu Mei (15): ‘…’

Ye Xiaofan (75): ‘Shivering, never daring to show off again.’

Qin Tian (77): ‘Big boss, please spare us.’

They really didn’t dare to get angry at Wang Ping’s mocking.

They never expected that Wang Ping would be the one to choose the participants for the group task.

Now they wouldn’t dare offend Wang Ping in any way.

If Wang Ping were to assign them to the task, it would indeed be dangerous.

If Wang Ping sabotaged them a bit during the task, it would definitely end badly.

They didn’t want to die before growing stronger.