V3C82: A Delightful Auction

“… And so, I…” he was continuing one of his long speeches when he broke out into another long cough, at which point one of the attendants stepped forward, whispered something in his ear, and unhelpfully patted him on the back a few times, as if something as simple as that was going to be sufficient to deal with the horrendous cough.

In fact, whatever had been said to him caused an even worse reaction, and he persisted to cough until several minutes passed and he seemed to have lost a few grams of weight by the end of it.

“So… it seems that I need to move on… My apologies,” Yi Laoshi said, taking a step back, “It is now finally time to move on… to the auction… and introduce it to all of you… Especially those who entered just now.”

Some of those that decided to participate didn’t show up until the end of the old man’s lecture, with most of them being members of the Chao family, so it seemed that they had been aware of the kinds of things that he would be discussing and simply decided to avoid being there while he was doing it. Those that weren’t part of it did feel somewhat displeased that they had ended up missing some potentially useful insights into the topics discussed but didn’t assume that they had missed all that much.

While all of them got seated, the old man took some kind of healing pill before taking the one that he had taken at the start of the lecture, presumably to allow for a clear and smooth voice despite all of the issues with his body. The likely downside for the latter pill was that it somehow negatively affected him in the long term, or at least it would if he consumed another one soon after the first stopped affecting his body, perhaps due to overdrawing on some internal energy reserve.

Then, he wet his throat again, remaining in place.

“Now that we have gotten to this part, let me briefly explain what kinds of things you may expect. This auction is hosted mostly due to the contributions from Chen Xiu, who has submitted thirty-one inscription plates that are of four-star quality or above. These will be introduced one by one, so make sure to watch out for anything that is of interest to you,” Yi Laoshi said, which seemed to be within the audience’s expectations, “Also, the inscriptions shall be separated by certain artefacts of four and five-star levels, or middle-grade artefacts. They are all also highly valuable, so don’t miss out on them.”

From her observation with spiritual perception that she enhanced with her mental energy, she was able to see six artefacts being prepared, so it seemed that they were to be brought out every five inscription plates.

‘Some of those are interesting, to be sure, so I think I might actually buy some of them. It would make my whole scheme a little more credible, which is rather fortunate since I was concerned that they might think that I was just trying to waste their money… which I am, but that is entirely beside the point,’ Wei Yi thought, noting down their internal structures in order to eventually duplicate them even if she failed to obtain them in the auction.

She still had her Living Spear technique, and with the assistance of yin and yang, laws and whatever else, she could likely modify it into a Living Weapon technique quite easily.

“If this is your first time, bid by making yourself known and calling out, if you wish.”

There were no questions raised, nor did anyone decide to make a fuss over anything, so the old man looked over the gathered crowd and then nodded to one of the male attendants, who went around the back of the stage and likely requested for the first item to be brought out onto the stage, leaving Yi Laoshi and the other attendants to wait.

“I have not done this before, so I apologise if I am unable to get quite the same excitement as those with more experience,” he said.

He took the short break to have another drink and look around the audience some more, perhaps searching for those that were particularly keen to listen to him, or perhaps he was just making himself seem confident.

Either way, the auction hall was quiet for a little while, with most groups of people keeping their voices down even when they did decide to talk to one another. Wei Yi was looking forward, Shun Liu Min was sipping on what remained of the veritable feast that they had ordered for her, and none of the people within their vicinity had the confidence to question them about anything that they were doing, since both did their best to manifest some light killing intent, with neither of them succeeding as well as they would have preferred to for various reasons.

One of them had too much killing intent in order for it to be dispersed in a limited quantity, while the other lacked any proper training other than the few snippets mentioned within the Ascendant’s Disciple technique, which weren’t there for offensive usage but instead simply to get one used to the mental energies within their body and mind.

Some of those who had been observing them initially and had turned away while all attention had been on Yi Laoshi now looked back, although they were simply directing occasional glances back for now.

After several minutes passed, the first inscription was finally brought out to the front, carried atop a red pillow that highlighted the otherwise drab appearance of any traditional inscription plate. From the other side of the stage, a stone pillar was brought over to place the pillow and plate atop it, with it somehow being carried over more quickly than the significantly lighter plate, although it was rather close regardless.

The pillar was placed, the inscription plate was put on top, and Yi Laoshi went in front of it.

“Everyone, this is a Bolt Deflecting inscription, although you shouldn’t be misled by the name – it is not solely useful against pure projectile attacks. Anything with a travel time, be it a beam, bolt, wave or arc will be affected by the inscription, and will be deflected from it into the area around it, not including the holder,” he introduced the inscription, “So, not the best if there’s something behind you that you want to protect, but in most other scenarios, it is absolutely incredible. The seller has personally vouched for its effectiveness.”

“A one-star inscription plate? Did you not say four-star?” one of the people near the front called out a question.

Those with familiarity with inscriptions, or those that had spent a lot of time around one-star inscriptions, looked over and confirmed that it was indeed a simple one-star plate, albeit with far more channels than they were used to.

“It is a four-star inscription, and it can easily handle a powerful attack from someone in the fourth realm! Chen Xiu, a trusted merchant and favoured contributor to the venue, has confirmed this with his own attack, and if not for the danger to the auction hall itself, they told me that they would have allowed you to experiment with it as well.”

Much of the audience had their doubts, since few were actual inscription masters.

However, they suddenly witnessed a woman at the front of the raised platform near the middle of the hall stand up, throw her hand into the air, and loudly declare her intentions.

“I am bidding. I shall have it!”

“… The, uh… The starting bid is ten silver coins, so-”

“Ten silver? That’s low, and something that only the commoners would trade in. I demand that it must be twenty silver at the very least!” Wei Yi called out, making sure that she didn’t speak in a voice that could be even slightly familiar to Yi Laoshi just in case he did remember her despite all the odds.

The moment that this sudden bid was made, everyone else seemed to be thrown into a frenzy. They hadn’t experienced the inscription for themselves, nor did they know exactly why the person in black was so interested in it, but since she was willing to double her own bid, there had to be something of worth about it. It was such a silly notion, one that would have needed no more than a second to be challenged by a single reasonable thought, but it seemed to them that if they didn’t get to it in time, someone else would manage to outbid this person and receive this prized inscription for themselves.

What made it even easier was the price. It was merely twenty silver coins – a sum that most cultivators in the fourth realm and above could pay easily, and one that even those in the second realm wouldn’t need to worry themselves about so long as they were willing to put some effort into their work or go out of their way to earn funds.

Perhaps if they were asked to pay out one planar shard or more, it would have been somewhat difficult to accept it, and they would have given it just a little bit more thought, but just like countless other possibilities that did not occur in place of those that did, this would only ever be something that would be considered after the fact. For now, the law of greed, of desire, of haste in a time of pressure, forced them all into action, prompting them to discard all semblance of reason and simply raise their hands.

“Next is thirty- alright, then forty- fifty-”

“Old man, raise it to one gold coin! This lot clearly wants to bid high, so why not let them get to it?” Wei Yi called out to Yi Laoshi, prompting most others to agree with her.

“Then, one-”

“Five gold! I’ll bid five gold!”

“Just five? I’ll pay ten!” another person declared, seeming to forget about the person that began this, “And before anyone else starts, I can bid up to ten planar shards! Before any of you think to compete with me, know that!”

That did not dissuade the majority of bidders, who kept raising the price over and over again until it reached the price of five planar shards. It was sold to an unlucky buyer, and the auction continued.

After five inscriptions plates were sold at nonsensical prices, at least in the minds of those that had spent their money on them and had yet to experience the power of the inscriptions, the people had slowly caught on to the fact that there was something odd about the person that initiated all of these ridiculous bets, as, no matter how quickly the auction house wanted to go to capitalise on this sudden influx of interest, they could only bring out items so quickly.

This gave people enough time to think in between each round of rapid betting, and they noticed that the person that began the bets never tended to keep going after the prices started to leap up to the level of being excessive.

Most didn’t share their suspicion, but they hardly needed to. With how blatant it appeared, they didn’t need to do much pondering to understand the oddity of the matter, and with the five inscription plates out of the way, the auction momentarily paused as the first of the artefacts was being prepared, and everyone had plenty of time to ponder this, even if they hadn’t wanted to.

As a result, they were paying close attention to her when the sixth item of the auction, and the first one that wasn’t an inscription plate, was brought out.

Carried on a similar kind of pillow, it was a weapon that was long and lacked an obvious hilt or handle, instead resembling a large spike that was nearly as long as a regular sword. It was filled with faint patterns atop it, although they seemed neither carved into the spike nor painted on top, as if they were some natural occurrence within the light metal utilised in the creation of this weapon. Judging by the internal channels of the weapon, it did indeed seem to be a middle-grade artefact.

“This is the Piercing Needle, with a property of being significantly more effective whenever used in order to pierce or penetrate defences. Be it flesh, metal or even stone, this is a worthwhile weapon for those that require such aid,” Yi Laoshi introduced it, inserting his own commentary as always.

In the same way, it could easily be predicted that Wei Yi would rise and question him.

“How much?”

“Fifty silver-”

“Two gold. I will acquire this weapon, and it will be perfect within my collection of sharp things, beside the collection of dull things,” she said excitedly, although she maintained a calm expression beneath the mask as she had yet to get to the truly fun part, “I have plenty to spend, so come on, just try and outbid me, you common fools!”

It was the first time that she had resorted to such a provocation, but everyone was more alert now. They wouldn’t lose their self-control quite as easily.

“Three gold,” one person hesitantly raised the bid, then watched Wei Yi carefully.

She did not hesitate to reply, reaching into her pockets and casually removing a number of golden coins, “Just three? I bid six gold coins.”

According to the undisclosed estimates of the auction venue, the Piercing Needle was worth two planar shards, and with the previous estimates being easily broken by their eager customers, they had hoped that the bidding would be just as heated as the last five times. Obviously, since the management of the place wasn’t bidding, they had already noticed that Wei Yi was rather quick to raise the bid then go quiet, but it wasn’t against the rules to participate in the bidding process, and they hadn’t hired her to do this, so nobody could complain to them no matter how much they might have wanted to.

They did wish that they had found someone who was able to stoke the fires so quickly, since putting someone like her in every auction after this could easily triple their profits until the people understood what was happening.

However, the person that had chosen to raise the bid went quiet. It was difficult to tell just how far the woman would raise the price before stopping, so if he kept going, he might need to spend far more than he had expected on something that he did not have enough interest in, which would hardly be to his advantage. He was more interested in finding out her reaction when she ends up needing to pay, as he wasn’t even sure that she wasn’t employed by the venue, or by the people selling things at it.

As a result, he chose to stay quiet and say nothing.

“Eh? Uh, six gold coins going once… twice…” Yi Laoshi nearly forgot what to do in such a situation, but barely managed it before finally ending this bid, “Sold for six coins, payment-”

The coins that Wei Yi had taken out flew at him with great speed, barely giving him enough time to shut his mouth and dampen their flight with some of his planar energy, before catching them with it and the speed that was still present within his body, no matter how little remained after the years. He had intended to tell her to come to the back at the end of the auction, or when she decided to leave, and pay for it then, as he had done for all customers that he had been informed about in advance, but had to settle with this.

Everyone that had chosen to skip out on the bidding was now somewhat confused, with the one that had chosen not to raise the bid being rather frustrated, but at the very least they had been able to confirm that this woman was able to bid, and that she did have some funds, at the very least.

“Ehem…” the old man on the stage passed the coins along to one of the attendants, then proceeded, “Now that this artefact has been purchased, we may proceed onto the next set of five inscriptions. Just as the ones before it, these have been made with one-star materials, but they are still of four-star quality, you can be certain of that. In total, there will be sixteen such inscription plates, so now that five have been sold, only eleven more will appear before two-star plates with four-star inscriptions…”

The following rounds continued in much the same way as the first one had. Having been swayed by the purchase of an artefact, the crowd once more got into willing bidding wars with her, only for Wei Yi to go quiet and stop raising the bid not long after enough people joined in with sufficient energy, wealth and vigour. If they weren’t managing well enough on their own, she would occasionally shout out another bid to bring them closer to what their budget was and what they were willing to spend, but that didn’t end up being particularly necessary most of the time.

Over the five rounds of inscription sales, doubt in her would grow, but when she was able to easily acquire an artefact even with a little more competition than the first time, they were convinced once again, and the cycle began anew.

Just like that, without needing to pay all that much at all, she was able to purchase the Blistering Book, an artefact that was able to create a variety of flame-based attacks based on the page it was opened to, something called an Abyssal Eye, which was able to release a dark energy to confuse and damage foes, a Monstrous Glove that seemed to have been made of dried skin and could rapidly drain the blood of those it struck, a simple Spiralling Twig that could aid beam-type skills, and something introduced as End, Signet Ring, although its functions were not explained whatsoever. She doubted most of these.

Even with the knowledge that Wei Yi did possess, figuring out a potential use for it was rather challenging, although she did have a few ideas by the time it was brought up to her.

All of these artefacts went for far less than they had been predicted to cost, even if the sale price did rise with each one. It was simply not fast enough to rise to the level of planar shards, meaning that the amount she had paid in total was akin to the expected price of the first item, the Piercing Needle, which she had passed to Shun Liu Min as she didn’t need it.

Since she had been able to observe them from afar with spiritual perception, she had also scanned all of them, and was able to make use of their internal structures for whatever purpose she might find for them, she technically didn’t need any one of these items, but she could still find a use for them when they were so cheap to acquire. In fact, she had paid for all of these with her very first sale of the Bolt Deflecting inscription plate, so even if she had thrown out even more money, it would have been fine.

Just as how people were able to understand her actions after the first five inscriptions, being thrown off by the easy acquisition of the first artefact, after it had repeated with all thirty of the inscription plates sold so far, they began to realise what was going on, and some even called for the attendants of the auction to question them on whether Wei Yi was someone planted to raise certain prices, with her reward being the artefacts that she ended up obtaining. However, every single one of them was informed that this was not the case and were referred to the VIP card that Wei Yi would occasionally present.

Due to this, when the final inscription was being brought out, people were prepared to not bid too much, as to not fall into her trap again, although their definition of much for four-star plates and five-star inscriptions differed significantly from the typical price for one-star plates.

Thus, when Yi Laoshi stepped up to explain the function of the last plate, as well as its price, those who still had funds left weren’t particularly surprised about the latter, only the former.

“This inscription is called the Brand Alternator inscription. It is based on something called a brand technique and is able to conjure a number of them to attack foes in its vicinity, with allies needing to be added beforehand, as with the earlier Fifty-Five Channels Defence inscription. Each brand is at the level of an average fifth realm cultivator, meaning that it will pose a significant threat to most careless individuals that might attempt to invade whatever space it is intended to protect,” the old man explained, a few coughs making their way into his words.

“How much is this inscription, and will we finally get a demonstration?” one person beat Wei Yi to it.

“The inscription is of an incredible quality, but unlike the other inscriptions, this one can be demonstrated safely. As such, I have been asked to do things slightly differently. Instead of setting an initial bid, you shall be shown the inscription functioning against some planar constructs and may then set the price yourself!”

This certainly got the attention of those who still had funds on them. If an auction was willing to do such a thing, then they certainly believed the inscription to be worthwhile, to the point that it couldn’t be praised sufficiently with words. Perhaps it would even be as interesting as the previous Projecting Visage inscription, which was rather interesting based on the description provided, even if nobody would be able to find out how it actually worked without testing it themselves.

As a result, most of the people with any interest in the item leaned forward slightly, some doing so unconsciously while others intended to get a better view.

Everyone who had been in the vicinity of the inscription distanced themselves so that they wouldn’t be affected by a stray brand, then a number of warriors employed at the venue appeared on the stage, each one clearly having practised a very specific set of techniques in order to be able to contribute to the demonstration.

In fact, a number of them stood close by and had unusually pale skin and red eyes, almost resembling those with the Eclipsed Sun physique, except that these people were clearly part of the Bai family, with matching tattoos on their left arms, similar bands tied around their right arm, a similar tear within the shoulder portion of their light tunics, and a number of other details that would have seemed extremely coincidental otherwise. Seeing as they were part of the Bai family, a family that had dedicated itself to learning about every minor aspect of group combat techniques and cultivation.

Besides being the primary creators of most group combat arts in the world, they were also known for some stranger things, such as being responsible for most of the dual cultivation techniques as well. The groups of soldiers taught at the Bai District were said to live, sleep, fight and die together, and so seeing so many shared features on their bodies and clothing was nothing strange. It was also not uncommon for them to relieve their stress together, but that was another matter.

One of the common applications of group combat techniques was to enhance the strength of a force by working in unison, but certain other methods led to being able to avoid engaging in combat personally by instead conjuring planar constructs that would be able to execute their combined techniques on their own, whereas different interpretations instead created duplicates of each soldier and sent them in to fight in the stead of the original body. Whichever method was used, it allowed for far fewer injuries and permitted soldiers to keep fighting for significantly longer periods of time, as the only type of exhaustion they would face would be a planar and mental one, both of which could be supplemented with the right kind of pills and occasional rest.

It was this kind of method that the participants in the auction were able to see now. Each combatant, whether they were from the Bai family or not, assumed their position and began to activate their techniques, with the inscription plate hungrily absorbing planar energy all the while.

The glow of planar energy lit the stage, brown and grey light primarily emanating from those of the Bai family while the rest of the fighters on the stage used fire and water-type methods to achieve similar results. One by one, phantoms, mirages and dense constructs that vaguely resembled the ones that summoned them emerged, some doing so out of the bodies of the cultivator while others appeared out of the ground, or thin air, some way ahead of them.

For a few moments, they stood by, doing nothing, waiting for the channels of the inscription plate to fully fill, and acted only then.

Even with the coordination of the Bai family, the planar constructs could hardly move in perfect synchronicity when there were so many cultivators involved, none of whom had previously trained together. It was a simple group of guards hired from all kinds of places in order to protect a single location, and it was the first time that they had needed to display this kind of skill before a crowd.

Those in the audience did not know what the invisible circle of protection covered by the Brand Alternator inscription was, but even though the guards stood a great distance away from it, at the very edges of the stage, they still presumed that the inscription would be guarding a smaller area, and that the space provided was merely there for their own safety, but they turned out to be entirely wrong, more than they believed they could be.

The very instant that the humanoid planar constructs charged forward, the inscription plate burst into life, a pulse of orange light emanating from it as a portion of the stored energy dissipated.

Ten flaming circles appeared within the air, and none were quite alike. Some were large, wider than any individual person, while others were more akin to needles. The light of some of them was rather bright, making it difficult to see the individual details of the brands, but others were very dim but rather erratic, as if they were barely holding on within the air. All of them did have a set of lines and symbols within the circle, making up the actual structure of the brand, although they did not correlate to any inscription, array or artefact known to the people at the auction.

What they could be certain about was that the moment that they appeared, they fell upon the approaching constructs with immense speed, although even this wasn’t shared exactly between the different variations of the brands. The slowest still fell within a second, but the fastest couldn’t be seen by the common human eye as it struck the construct over and over again, cutting countless holes within its target.

The moment that it struck the ground, it seemed to return into the air in an instant, doing no damage on the way up but travelling far faster than any of the brands was able to, regardless of luminosity, size and power.

Whether by coincidence or some intentional action on the part of the inscription or the one that made it, the brands appeared beside those that they were most able to damage and affect. Above the largest groups, the largest and most powerful brands appeared to finish them off right away, while the singular targets that were frail or feeble were met with small and equally feeble seeming brands.

Those that had been maddening and erratic turned out to be the fastest, but they also switched between targets every time they fell, getting through several weak constructs in just five seconds.

After that time, the inscription plate pulsed again, and all of the brands that were still hovering in the air suddenly appeared beside it, all of them switching around before they returned to the air above the few foes that remained from the particularly sturdy group combat arts of the Bai family’s warriors, crushing them with one final strike. They landed on the ground and sat there, a faint spark passing through the thin lines of the brands for the last four seconds before they vanished again, this time without reappearing beside the inscription plate.

The crowd had been silent, but that did not mean that they were not impressed. This four-star inscription plate was able to power a five-star inscription that had the ability to tear through a large number of fourth realm combatants in less than ten seconds, and it seemed that it had the capacity to do more if placed in the right place and if given the right opportunity.

Some were considering bidding for it seriously, even if they had to compete with the woman in black clothing again, but then they saw Yi Laoshi shaking his head and waving to the combatants that remained on the stage.

“No, this isn’t it. Try it again!”

For those that didn’t know exactly what Wei Yi had intended for the inscription, they couldn’t have known what it could result in. However, the old man didn’t seem to be trying to trick them, unless he suddenly became far better at speaking than he had been before, so they saw no other choice but to remained seated and observe. If there was truly more to the inscription than they had already seen, they would certainly pay as much as they needed to obtain it.

Even if the inscription itself wasn’t particularly useful to them specifically, obtaining it could mean getting to interact with the one that made it, allowing them to commission something more suited to their own needs and thus benefitting from a true expert in the great art.

Certain auctions prepared this kind of meeting ahead of time, usually when the great art master wished to get more patronage and requests from those that could afford to pay him or her, but at other times, the master in question might linger around to see how their creations perform and whether there are any glaring flaws that they might correct.

Some have even been known to challenge their own inscription plates after a while, experiencing them and the other defences the owner might have acquired in order to see how they were being used and whether it would be possible to merge some of them, or to take some elements from other defences and incorporate them into the inscription either as something new or old, depending on what was most convenient and feasible. The people at the auction had been told nothing about the creator of the inscription, and as such, they were unable to guess which one of the two might occur. They could only hope.

The warriors prepared their combat arts again, and a series of planar constructs appeared once more, charging into the range of the inscription at nearly the same speed as before.

Although the constructs were rather demanding when it came to planar and mental energy costs, when they were around for only a few seconds, they didn’t suffer all that much and could likely create quite a few more warriors to send at the inscription, although the heightened cost of creating the constructs as opposed to maintaining them would limit that number somewhat.

Fire, earth and water energy in all kinds of forms and shapes – mostly humanoid – entered the range of the inscription once more, and after only a short delay, the orange pulse of energy from the inscription appeared once again. A set of ten brands appeared over the heads of the groups of planar construct combatants, although they had chosen to space themselves out differently in order to potentially allow for a few more different brands to appear and be showcased to the current engaged audience.

Eight of the brands had already been seen in the previous instance of the inscription’s activity, but the last two appeared to be mostly different.

One also pulsed regularly, like the inscription plate that it came from, while the other appeared to be alight, as if someone had managed to set a blaze to the manifestation of energy within the air. The flame travelled behind it as it fell onto the foes beneath it, setting them alight as well.

This was very effective, and seemed to make the other brands even more powerful, but it was the first unique brand that caught the attention of the vast majority of them, as it struck the ground beneath the chosen foe and didn’t immediately disappear again, as it instead released a burst of unusual crimson energy that seemed to be some kind of mix between lightning and solidified light that didn’t provide an immediate name for itself to anyone that witnessed it.

It exploded and instantly obliterated the entirety of the Bai family soldier’s planar constructs.

“I must have that inscription!” the first person to question its price exclaimed, for the power of that was truly equivalent to a typical fifth realm cultivator’s powerful attack, meaning that it could easily match or even surpass even their own capabilities to protect something, allowing them to be elsewhere and yet maintain an optimal level of security.

However, since one person had noticed the value of such a thing, others did as well, and they looked around greedily to try and guess who would be their opponent. Some might be their friends or allies, and they could compromise or make some kind of deal between themselves, others might be enemies that would be particularly keen to force them to raise their prices just to annoy them, even if they didn’t want the item itself.

Then, there was the woman in black, with silver eyes, who seemed to be some kind of mysterious spirit that came out of nowhere, had no background that they knew of, yet was intent to make them pay as much as possible whenever possible. Would she interfere now, or finally give up?

Perhaps the only thing that didn’t make sense for some was why the inscription wouldn’t create those powerful brands all the time, since they seemed able to handle one foe, many foes, strong foes and weak foes alike. Most did understand it after they considered the way in which the brands appeared and disappeared each five seconds, since having varying brands able to appear and disappear at any moment would make it significantly more difficult to figure out a countermeasure to them than if it was one brand every single time.

With the second wave of planar construct warriors gone and Yi Laoshi, alongside the organisers of the auction, seeming to be satisfied, the old man returned to the stage, disabling the inscription and turning back to the audience, many of whom were currently counting their funds by hand just to be certain that they were getting it correctly.

Some looked at gold coins, but the majority had tossed them away and were instead inspecting planar shards, making sure that none of them could be said to be faulty in some way.

Although the old man was merely a guest that had been invited to host the auction, Yi Laoshi still felt the corners of his lips rise when he witnessed it, a fact that did not go unseen by the woman in black. He had seen the effects of the inscription before, although with far fewer participants and thus less variety in the brands, and simply witnessing that one unique brand was enough for him to want something like this himself. If he had more funds, he would have joined in betting on his own.

“So, it seems that you… have seen it as well… Who shall begin?”

It was a calm question, punctuated on either side by a dry cough, but it might as well have been the declaration that the sky was falling, and that the world was coming to an end, as it immediately led to countless bidders rising from their seats and calling out their bids as loudly as they could.

“One shard-”

“No, five-”

“Twenty-”

Wei Yi didn’t even need to do anything, and they had gone into another frenzy, earning her an incredible amount of funds in mere minutes.

It was a good way to begin a new day.