Zhang Yiyi's deduction was very accurate.

Indeed, this time, there was no more commotion coming from the No. 10 VIP room, as if they had tacitly given up. Until the main auctioneer shouted with a hint of regret, "Ten plants of five-thousand-year-old spirit herbs, third call," there was still not a single response.

Many onlookers seemed somewhat disappointed. After all, they were all waiting for the mysterious tycoon in the No. 10 VIP room to showcase their power once again and broaden their horizons, only to find out that they were not coming back.

However, this so-called disappointment quickly subsided. In the end, no matter how wealthy someone is, it has nothing to do with them. Whether to continue bidding was entirely up to the tycoon. Although the No. 10 VIP room had already successfully bid on quite a few items today, it was not guaranteed that every offer made would result in a purchase.

Moreover, the bid from the No. 2 VIP room was indeed impressive. Willing to trade ten plants of five-thousand-year-old spirit herbs showed a level of wealth that was not inferior to that of No. 10.

Of course, the ones who most regretted the rivalry between the No. 2 and No. 10 VIP rooms were the auctioneers. After all, if they could raise the price again, who knows what astronomical price this stone could fetch? Unfortunately, the people in the No. 10 room had clearly given up, and it was even more unlikely that anyone else would step in at such a high price.

As the final "Sold" echoed, the so-called special stone, brought from the third battlefield's pit, was officially purchased by Zhang Yiyi. After the auction ended, the two parties could conduct the transaction in person.

Of course, if they didn't want to continue participating in the auction and planned to leave, they could complete the transaction immediately.

Just like now, after the ownership of the stone had been transferred to her, Zhang Yiyi called over the attendants outside the VIP room to arrange for a quick transaction.

"Linlin, aren't you going to stay and watch the last auction process for the cave space before leaving?"

Zheng He did not expect that Zhang Yiyi would prepare to leave right after purchasing the stone, even skipping the main highlight of the auction—the cave space.

"No, it doesn't matter how good that thing is; I won't have the chance to bid on it anyway. It's the same whether I watch it or not."

Zhang Yiyi said directly, "Of course, mainly I suddenly remembered I have some urgent matters at home and need to hurry back. So once the transaction is complete, I'll head straight back home from Jiagu Guan City."

That's right; she didn't plan to return to Liuzi's place either. Before she left today, she had already informed Liuzi that she would leave directly after the auction, and unless there was something important in the short term, she would not be coming back.

Now, she was just slightly advancing her departure time to before the auction ended.

In any case, now that her pockets were empty, even if something better appeared, she could only watch helplessly. That feeling was simply too unpleasant, so it was better to leave earlier and not see it.

Moreover, she felt that the stone was likely not ordinary, and the people in the No. 10 VIP room were clearly very interested in it. To prevent any unnecessary trouble, it was prudent for her to leave first.

Zhang Yiyi's words instantly surprised Zheng He and the others.

Although they all knew that this girl was not from here and would eventually leave, they didn't expect that day to come so soon.

Especially Zheng He, who felt that he hadn't had the chance to show Zhang Yiyi around more, only to find out that they were about to part ways. After she left, it was hard to tell when they would meet again.

For cultivators, the passage of time and the coming and going of people were all too normal. Aside from a sense of reluctance, they had no reason to persuade her to stay, nor would they interfere.

"Since you have urgent matters, we certainly can't delay you. But Sister Han, the next time you pass through Jiagu Guan City, you must come to see us," Zhu Qing was the first to respond, smiling as he spoke. "It's a pity you're leaving in such a hurry; otherwise, we would definitely have to hold a farewell feast for you!"

"Thank you for your kindness, Brother Zhu. Let's skip the farewell feast, but I will definitely come back to see you all when I have the chance," Zhang Yiyi replied sincerely.

Jiagu GuanCity was not too far from the Yunxian Sect. With a teleportation array directly leading there, it was just a matter of spending some spirit stones.

Zheng He and the others were her longest friends outside the sect. Although the cultivation world was filled with people busy training, making personal connections was often quite thin. Nonetheless, whenever the opportunity arose in the future, she would return to visit; it was just the timing that was uncertain.

"Linlin, you..."

Zheng He wanted to ask Zhang Yiyi where her home was so that if she couldn't come looking for them in the future, he could still go to visit her if given the chance.

However, this question clearly exceeded the boundaries of their current relationship. Especially knowing that this girl was deliberately concealing her true origins, it would seem inappropriate for him to ask further.

So he shifted the topic and awkwardly turned to her, "Is your home far from here? Will the communication talisman you gave me still be able to reach you later?"

After hearing this, Zhang Yiyi quickly estimated and then took out a special communication talisman from her storage ring. "Use this. It will definitely reach. But I have very few of these specially made talismans, so I can only leave one for you. Unless it's an emergency, please don't waste it."

This was specially prepared for her by her meticulous senior brother, but special long-distance communication talismans were obviously quite rare, so she only had three in total and couldn't give one to each of Zhu Qing and the others.

In any case, the few of them were in contact with each other, so leaving one talisman for emergencies was already sufficient.

Zheng He didn't expect that a casual question would lead to an unexpected gain, so he happily accepted the specially made long-distance communication talisman from Zhang Yiyi and carefully stored it away.

With this, they naturally wouldn't lose contact with Zhang Yiyi completely.

It seemed that he would have to prepare some of these long-distance communication talismans for himself in the future, as they were indeed very useful in critical moments.

Just as he finished storing Zhang Yiyi's talisman, the main auction house was already ready to deliver the items that Zhang Yiyi had bid on.

Ten spirit herbs with a 5,000-year age for a special stone. The two parties verified the goods on the spot and completed the transaction smoothly after confirming there were no issues.

For safety reasons, Zheng He didn't let Zhang Yiyi handle the handover; instead, he did it himself.

This way, the main auction house naturally assumed that the person who had paid a hefty price for the stone was him, the already wealthy young city lord, rather than a mere Foundation Establishment female cultivator.

"Thank you!"

After the auction house personnel left, Zhang Yiyi sincerely thanked Zheng He while holding the stone that he had returned to her.

If others were to find out that she, with her identity, could take out so many 5,000-year-old spirit herbs at once, she would undoubtedly be viewed as a prime target for exploitation.

So in a sense, Zheng He was actively taking her troubles upon himself.

"No need to be polite; you're my little sister!"

Zheng He was quite pleased to take this responsibility for Zhang Yiyi. He recalled the awkward moments of teasing her at the tea house, as if it had just happened yesterday.

Now that they were about to part ways, he could only hope that this girl would have a good memory and not forget about them as soon as she returned home.

"Brother Zheng, this is for you."

Zhang Yiyi handed Zheng He a three-spirit flower wrapped in a jade box, treating it as repayment for the spirit herbs he had lent her.

The three-spirit flower's primary function was to repair and nourish the spiritual consciousness. No matter how severely a cultivator's spiritual consciousness was damaged, as long as they had this item, they wouldn't need to worry.

In terms of the general value assigned to rare materials outside, the three-spirit flower in Zhang Yiyi's bag was not the least valuable.

However, due to the bronze mirror and the direct benefits she received from the spirit liquid of the Soul Stone in Luoxian River, the rare materials related to spiritual consciousness were not her most pressing need at the moment.

Of course, she still had another three-spirit flower of an even higher quality on hand just in case, so using this one to repay Zheng He was her best choice.

"What's this? A thank-you gift for me?"

Zheng He hadn't expected Zhang Yiyi would directly give him a three-spirit flower of rare material quality and hadn't even thought about asking her to repay him for the spirit herbs.

So when he opened the jade box and saw what was inside, his expression immediately changed. He looked up at Zhang Yiyi and asked, "Did you take the wrong item? Is this thank-you gift too extravagant?"

Seeing this, Zhu Qing, Zhou Ren, and Zhou Yi were naturally curious and quickly craned their necks to look into the jade box.

It was a surprise that took them aback when they saw inside.

They were all from prominent families in Jiagu Guan City, so they had a keen eye and immediately recognized that the jade box contained a very well-preserved three-spirit flower.

"Haha, what good fortune do you think this is? This isn't a thank-you gift; it's repayment for the spirit herbs you lent me earlier," Zhang Yiyi explained, realizing that Zheng He was completely unaware he had lent her spirit herbs.

She wasn't sure whether to think of him as wealthy and willful or just a good friend to her.

However, the more he was like this, the more Zhang Yiyi felt that giving him this three-spirit flower was worth it, and the slight reluctance she had felt earlier vanished completely.

"Ah... that's too much."

Zheng He came back to his senses and suddenly remembered that he had indeed replenished a few spirit herbs for Zhang Yiyi to make up a total of ten to bid on the stone.

But a spirit herb, even one with a 5,000-year age, was still merely a spirit herb, not comparable to a rare material like a three-spirit flower.

Let alone just a few herbs; even dozens more wouldn't equal the value of this single three-spirit flower. He didn't know what to say.

He had long known that Zhang Yiyi was definitely not an ordinary rouge cultivator, but he hadn't expected her background to be so astonishing, casually taking out something of such high value as repayment.

This girl's generosity was definitely far beyond his own. He would never be willing to use a rare material to settle such a small debt.

"It's fine; the more, the better as interest. Moreover, ever since coming to Jiagu Guan City, Brother Zheng has taken care of me quite a bit. A three-spirit flower isn't worth mentioning compared to our friendship," Zhang Yiyi waved her hand. "Since we're parting today, who knows when we'll meet again? I don't have anything else valuable on me, and you surely wouldn't want me to always feel uneasy about owing you this debt, right?"

Cultivators were most averse to incurring debts and causation, so with Zhang Yiyi putting it this way, Zheng He naturally had no reason to refuse.

Seeing Zheng He accept the item, Zhang Yiyi felt she had settled the last matter and then stood up to take her leave without lingering.

The others wanted to see her off, but Zhang Yiyi graciously declined, as there were still auction items that Zheng He and the others were interested in, and making a big deal out of it would draw too much attention.

Although Zheng He felt quite reluctant, he still followed Zhang Yiyi's arrangements and watched as her figure quietly left the VIP room.

"Boss, let me take another look at that three-spirit flower!"

After Zhang Yiyi left, Zhu Qing immediately said to Zheng He with great excitement, "That's a rare material! I only caught a glimpse of it earlier and didn't see it clearly at all."

"What are you looking at? You know it's a rare material, so keep your mouth shut! Once we leave this door today, pretend you didn't see anything. If any word gets out, I won't let you off easily!"

Zheng He glared at Zhu Qing, and his warning was clear.

If people found out that Zhang Yiyi casually took a three-spirit flower, who knows how many would start coveting her.

Although this girl had deliberately concealed her background, if someone really wanted to dig deeper, they might uncover her true identity.

Zheng He never wanted to bring trouble to that girl, especially since he had already gained such a significant favor from her.

"Oh, if you're not going to let me see it, then fine. I was just saying it casually," Zhu Qing said, realizing the true meaning behind his boss's words.

"Sister Han is too honest; if it were me, I wouldn't be willing to bring out such a good item."

"So she is she, and you are you!"

Zheng He gave Zhu Qing a disdainful glance, but their banter eased some of the melancholy from parting.

"Boss, with those few items in your hand plus this three-spirit flower, we might actually compete for today's grand prize," Zhou Yi suddenly chimed in. "I heard the owner of the cave-dwelling space is precisely looking to trade for the kind of items you have. We could pool together our resources to help you."

The cave-dwelling space! The allure of such an item was too great. Zhou Yi felt he really didn't want that random guy from the No. 10 VIP room to get a good deal.

If the boss could secure the cave space, they would certainly benefit from it.

"Not a chance. You're underestimating the value of the cave space," Zheng He directly shook his head. "Don't even think about it. Even if you had enough capital to bid, you still wouldn't win. Do you think the old-timers from the major families didn't come because they lack good items in their hands?"

Not to mention anyone else, even Zheng He's own father had known for a long time that today's auction would feature a cave space, yet he didn't even come to take a look.

It wasn't that his father didn't care about the cave space, nor was it that they had no chance with all their family's resources. It was just that publicly bidding on such a treasure required one to have the strength to keep it safe.