Chapter 77

Pingshuan City, after all, is just a second-tier city, and one with a relatively small population at that. Therefore, the location of the City Lord's Information Bureau is not ideal. It is a three-story building with fewer than a hundred staff members, a mid-level differential machine center, and dozens of communication lines. Its primary function is to receive information from the Imperial Capital, the five secondary capitals, and the nine first-tier cities. As for information from other cities, it occasionally receives some.

The Pingshuan City Lord's Information Bureau can be considered a place for retirement, with basically nothing to do. The differential machine automatically receives information from various places, categorizes and organizes it, and finally archives it—this is its entire function.

As for selling information to outsiders, this occasionally happens but is very rare. The information available in the Information Bureau is usually public, and who would be willing to spend money here to buy information?

The Flying Tiger Team's badge was quite useful, especially in the units under the Pingshuan City Lord's jurisdiction. With just a swipe of the identity card, Du Qian entered the information center without any hindrance.

"Director Du, what kind of information are you looking for?" The person receiving Du Qian was an elderly man, which was quite normal. The average age in the Information Bureau was sixty, and you might not see a young person even after walking around for a long time. It was a place for retirement, after all.

The title of Director of the Flying Tiger Team was quite prestigious. As for Du Qian's true position in the Flying Tiger Team, the old man had no idea at all.

It was truly laughable that, as the most well-informed place in Pingshuan City, he did not know who Du Qian was.

"Is there any information about the Sky Auction?" Du Qian asked.

"Yes, of course there is." The old man sighed in relief. He had thought something had happened. He was wondering why the Information Bureau, which had a good reputation, was not really well-informed. The Flying Tiger Team had its own information department, and its intelligence work was far better than the Information Bureau.

"Can I view it?" Du Qian also said a few polite words. If it weren't for his title as Director of the Flying Tiger Team, no one would have paid him any attention.

"Of course." There was a lot of information about the Sky Auction, and it was all public, requiring no confidentiality level. Besides, the confidentiality level of a Director of the Flying Tiger Team couldn't be low.

Sitting in the information room, looking at the differential machine screen, Du Qian felt a sense of joy. Most of the information in the Information Bureau was useless, but the information about the Sky Auction was quite comprehensive and well-organized, which greatly helped Du Qian.

The Sky Auction in the Imperial Capital originated 95 years ago, ten years after the last national war. It was launched simultaneously with the Zhenhai Precious Auction and the Butian Cloud Auction, known as the three major auctions in the world. It is the most comprehensive and largest auction, held twelve times a year, starting on the 15th of each month.

On the 1st of each month, the auction catalog for the month is released, with each catalog costing ten yuan.

"Damn, they really know how to make money." Seeing this, Du Qian cursed. Just a catalog could be sold for ten yuan, which was almost like robbing. But you couldn't complain; the Sky Auction was not intended for ordinary people. Anyone interested in the Sky Auction wouldn't care about ten yuan.

The location of the Sky Auction is in the Snowfall Building on Second Street in the Imperial Capital of Zhou Mountain Empire. The slogan of the Sky Auction is: "Snow falls from the sky, auctioning the world."

So the Sky Auction comes from this slogan, Du Qian nodded. The slogan was quite grand: "Auctioning the world."

To enter the Sky Auction, you need to be a fourth-level citizen, or have 100 Star-Raising or Spirit-Chasing Talismans, or 20 Spirit-Enhancing Talismans.

The auction does not use Zhou Mountain currency as the trading currency but uses Star-Raising, Spirit-Chasing, and Spirit-Enhancing Talismans as the basic currency, with a ratio of 1:1:5.

Seeing this, Du Qian cursed. This damn Sky Auction was too much. It didn't even accept Zhou Mountain currency. Didn't they know he had just become rich? He had 1.6 million Zhou Mountain currency from the bald guy, and he thought he had a chance. But they didn't accept Zhou Mountain currency, which was a problem.

Du Qian had a talisman book, but he had only read a little. He had never even heard of these three types of talismans, let alone where to get them.

If they were counted in dozens or hundreds, were they still talismans?

There was a lot of information about the Sky Auction, but for Du Qian, only this was truly useful. As for what new and rare items appeared in which year and month, it had nothing to do with him.

After buying the latest auction catalog and reading it from beginning to end, Du Qian was greatly disappointed. The Sky Auction had a lot of items, over 98 types and thousands of items, and most of them were rare. There were many talismans, but none of the ones he needed.

After carefully reading the catalog, Du Qian had to admit that the ten yuan for the catalog was not overpriced. Reading the catalog and studying the item descriptions was truly enlightening. Eighty percent of the items were things Du Qian had never heard of, and the remaining twenty percent were things he had only heard of in passing, without knowing their actual uses.

After reading the catalog and descriptions, Du Qian felt enlightened and his eyes lit up. There were so many amazing things in the world.

Actually, not only Du Qian felt this way. Many wealthy people subscribed to the Sky Auction catalog every month, and some even subscribed to the catalogs of the Precious Auction and the Cloud Auction. After all, they were just text and image information, which could be transmitted directly through the differential machine network.

These people didn't want to buy anything; they just wanted to see what new things were available and what they were used for. The most valuable part of the three major auction catalogs was the descriptions of the items.

Many people bought the catalogs, and sometimes the revenue from selling the catalogs even exceeded the profits from the auctions themselves. After all, the auctions only earned handling fees, and the main profits went to the owners of the items.

The auction held a catalog compilation for the year and a ten-year anniversary edition every ten years, but the content was similar.

Even so, they sold very well. Any family with the means would buy a copy, considering it an extracurricular book for their children, which was very helpful for broadening their horizons.

The ten yuan for the catalog was not overpriced; it was worth it.

The differential machine on the table was quite useful. Du Qian roughly understood what the Sky Auction was about and began searching for information on Star-Raising, Spirit-Chasing, and Spirit-Enhancing Talismans.

The mid-level differential machine center of the Information Bureau was quite powerful. This was mainly because the information Du Qian was looking for had a low confidentiality level. As a fourth-level citizen, Du Qian could find the relevant information even if he wasn't here.

Star-Raising, Spirit-Chasing, and Spirit-Enhancing Talismans are the three most demanded talismans for martial cultivators, and they are basic talismans. Any beginner talisman master can make them.

Star-Raising Talismans are used to increase the star level of spirit weapons, up to nine stars. Each increase in star level enhances the combat power of the spirit weapon.

Spirit-Chasing Talismans are used to add combat power to spirit weapons, with a maximum of seven talismans.

Spirit-Enhancing Talismans can improve the quality of spirit weapons, and the combat power of different quality spirit weapons can vary greatly.

After reading about the functions of the three talismans, Du Qian sighed. There were so many details, and he had learned them all in the orphanage school.

Du Qian was overthinking. The education goals of the orphanage school were different. Graduates from the war orphanage school just needed to be able to live, whether they joined the military or entered society, without being a burden to the empire. That was the purpose of the war orphanage school.

From the day the war orphanage school was established, it never aimed to produce elite talents. Even the knowledge needed by ordinary martial cultivators was rarely taught in the orphanage school.

Just look at Du Qian's graduating class. Apart from the three beauties, how many could reach the level of martial cultivators at graduation?

The other graduates, throughout their lives, might not even reach the level of martial cultivators, so why waste time and resources teaching them knowledge they would never use?

These three talismans are also known as basic talismans, and their functions are quite significant. Whether or not basic talismans have been used can instantly create a gap between martial cultivators of similar levels.

Basic talismans are good, but they have a characteristic that frustrates all martial cultivators: no matter how good the talisman master who makes the basic talismans is, there is a success rate, and this success rate decreases the more talismans you use.

For example, the first Spirit-Chasing Talisman has a 50% success rate, and the second one has a 40% success rate. If the second one fails, the combat power gained from the first one also disappears.

This characteristic is quite frustrating. Imagine that the maximum number of Spirit-Chasing Talismans you can use is seven. If you fail at the sixth one after much effort, all your previous efforts are wasted.

Each Spirit-Chasing Talisman is quite valuable, and sometimes you can't even buy them even if you have the money. This frustrating characteristic makes many people hesitant to use basic talismans; they can't afford to lose.

Basic talismans are frustrating, but there are always rich people who will do anything to buy them, dreaming of one day enhancing their spirit weapons to the highest quality and integrating the most talismans.

Basic talismans can be bought in any city. If you want to buy them, there's no problem, but you have to queue.

Du Qian quickly found the relevant information on basic talismans. In Pingshuan City, there are many places that publicly sell basic talismans, such as the Snowfall, Leimo, and Buzhou commercial firms, as well as many smaller firms. Regardless of which firm, the orders are already queued for several years. It's almost impossible to get them in stock.

Not only do you need to queue, but there are also limits. Each person can only buy three basic talismans at a time, one of each type. You need the identity card of a martial cultivator to queue; ordinary people don't even have the qualification to queue.

"Uncle, I want to buy some basic talismans. Do you have any connections?" After leaving the information room, Du Qian found the old man who had received him and asked politely. Unfortunately, he had nothing on hand and no cash.

"You have a quota in the Flying Tiger Team." The old man looked at Du Qian in surprise. It couldn't be fake, right? The possibility was almost zero. Pirates could easily enter the city, but it was impossible to have a Flying Tiger Team identity card, even if they killed a Flying Tiger Team member and took their identity card, it wouldn't work.

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