Chapter 37: Leng Qingqiu… Gone?

After the earlier commotion, the auction proceeded smoothly, though bidders whispered their offers, wary of riling the trio.
Chu Huaizhou watched the items with interest, but no more bargains appeared.
After a long wait, he saw attendants carefully carrying an ancient bronze cauldron from the back.
Finally…

“Now, our twentieth item—an extraordinary cauldron,” the auctioneer announced.
“When refining third-grade or lower pills, regardless of technique, it guarantees a 100% success rate with perfect quality.”
“Starting bid: 200 mid-grade spirit stones! Minimum increment: 1 mid-grade spirit stone!”

Chu Huaizhou opened his mouth to bid, but his divine sense suddenly prickled with intense danger.
Crack!
The ceiling’s lighting array shattered, crystal shards raining down, twisting in midair to refract eerie blood-red light.
The crowd, startled, rushed for the exit, only to find the door gone, replaced by a roiling wall of fire, its molten flames radiating unbearable heat.
Panic erupted.

Chu Huaizhou’s instincts screamed. He grabbed his disciples’ hands to flee, but noticed they weren’t alarmed—instead, they watched the chaos below with intrigue.
Oh, right. Both my disciples are Great Vehicle cultivators.

“What’s Yong’an playing at? Targeting us all? Are you mad?”
With escape routes sealed, the hall a cage, the crowd shouted accusations.
But their voices stopped dead.
The qipao-clad auctioneer began to melt.
Her skin dripped like wax, revealing molten innards.
Her face split, three writhing fire tongues hissing from the crack.
“Not… us…”
Boom!
She exploded.

Seven crimson-robed figures appeared across the hall, their molten bodies floating, each step searing fiery footprints into the air.
Their robes weren’t fabric but flowing lava, each drip forming writhing fire snakes that hissed and merged on the floor, tracing a massive, squirming array totem.
Their eerie aura defied cultivation probing.
As they appeared, flames flickered beneath the cauldron holding Emperor Xiaoyao’s soul fragment, threatening to consume it.
But a chilling force stalled the flames.

A Nascent Soul body cultivator, overcoming initial shock, roared with fury.
His muscles swelled like a mountain as he leaped to attack the figures.
But the moment his fist touched a red robe—
Splorch!
His skin turned brown, glowing red from within, as if molten liquid surged through his veins, spreading from limbs to torso.
Bang!
He burst like a magma-filled balloon.

The red-robed figure lowered its hand, its flame-forged head emitting a deep hum.
“Origin… where is it…”
The crowd, clueless and overwhelmed by the power gap, fled or begged.
Unnoticed, their body temperatures rose under the array’s influence, undergoing an irreversible change.

“Steward Wang! Get me out! This place is too dangerous!”
Ji Yifei, lucky to hide in a box, tried the escape passage every box had, only to slam into an invisible wall.
Before he could curse, a burning hand pierced through, a red-robed figure appearing.
Its molten fingers dripped, each drop sizzling on the carpet.
“Origin… where is it…”
Gurgle—Boom!
Five explosive bursts echoed behind Ji Yifei—his five guards, including the mid-Nascent Soul elder.

He dropped to his knees, mind racing.
Origin? What origin? They’re after something?
Then it hit him—Chu Huaizhou. How could a late Golden Core cultivator be so strong?
He must have a treasure—these monsters’ treasure, causing this destruction!
Yes, it’s him!
Fury, jealousy, envy, and fear swirled.
You dared look down on me? Pay the price!
Pointing through the one-way glass at Chu Huaizhou’s box, he shouted, “Great one, the origin you seek is in that room! Please spare me!”

In their box, Leng Qingqiu, her divine sense covering the hall, watched the chaos with interest until her eyes turned cold.
“The General’s Mansion… time for a new family.”
The writhing flame head glanced at Ji Yifei, then vanished.
Instantly, the six other flame figures teleported, converging on Chu Huaizhou’s box in a breath.

With only late Golden Core strength, Chu Huaizhou’s divine sense, even at full stretch, couldn’t catch other boxes’ talks.
He clung to his disciples’ thighs, shielding them, waiting for the chaos to end.
But when the seven flame figures appeared, their terrifying pressure made him shrink into his seat.
Disciples, I’m scared. Save me.

Xia Baiqian, still in her “Qi Refining” act, yelped, straddling one of Chu Huaizhou’s legs with her lace-stockinged ones, pressing close.
Leng Qingqiu snorted, hugging his other arm tightly.
With a flick of her free hand, a flame figure sneaking from a blind spot froze solid, shattering into icy fragments.
The other six, poised to strike, froze at the sight.
“Powerful… unbeatable…”
“Take them… to our master…”
“Agreed…”

Three figures erupted, their flames blasting the box’s glass and anti-snooping array to bits.
The flames merged into a massive blaze lunging at the trio.
Leng Qingqiu moved to freeze it, but the flames flickered, appearing right before them, carrying a strange force that even her Great Vehicle power couldn’t stop.
Tch.
Unable to dodge, she shoved Chu Huaizhou and Xia Baiqian aside, facing the twisted flames alone.
Buzz—
No explosion came. The searing heat vanished.
Chu Huaizhou looked up—Leng Qingqiu and the flames were gone.