The auction began.
The lights on the first floor dimmed, leaving only a single white pillar of light on the auction stage.
Standing in that light was a middle-aged woman in a deep red gown.
Her hair was piled into a high bun, and a golden Commerce Guild emblem was pinned to her chest.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried clearly throughout the entire hall.
“The first item.” She raised her hand, and the screen behind her displayed an image of the item—a silver-white crystal the size of a fist, with arcs of lightning dancing within it.
“A specialty of the Western Dragon Domain, an Earth-element Dragon Crystal. Produced in the Northern Wasteland, taken from the Dragon Core fragments of a fallen Earth Dragon. It can be used for weapon enchantment, formation cores, or direct absorption. Starting bid: 3,000 gold coins.”
Someone on the first floor immediately raised their paddle. “3,500.” “4,000.” “4,500.”
Elsa leaned over the railing on the second floor, her eyes sparkling.
“A dragon crystal! I’ve only seen those a few times in my life, and most of them were in my family’s treasury. That one’s bigger than my fist—”
“That’s because you haven’t seen larger ones.” Veralis’s voice came from beside her.
“Universal Commerce auctioned off a higher-grade one last year. The final price was twenty times this one.”
Elsa’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape, and she didn’t speak for a long time.
Reggie sat beside her, unusually still, quietly watching the bidding below.
His fingers tapped lightly on the armrest—Xuan Xi noticed that the rhythm of his tapping almost perfectly matched the rhythm of the paddles being raised downstairs. He was calculating the item’s price.
“What, do you want it?” Xuan Xi asked.
Reggie shook his head. “It’s not worth the current price.” He paused.
“The value of a Dragon Crystal depends on its purity. That one has impurities inside. You’d lose at least 30% of its energy when absorbing it. If it goes for 6,000 gold, it’s not a good deal.”
Just then, someone downstairs called out “6,000,” and Reggie fell silent.
The second item was a set of deep green light armor. “Produced by the Elf Race in the Southern Continent. This vine armor is made from thousand-year-old ancient vines from the Endless Forest. It’s as thin as a cicada’s wing, but can block physical attacks below A-rank. Starting bid: 5,000 gold coins.”
“How did something from the Elf Race end up here?” Elsa leaned back over the railing.
“And it’s thousand-year-old ancient vine at that.” Veralis picked up her teacup. “Technically, this counts as military supplies. The Elf Race wouldn’t sell these easily. This set was probably plundered from a battlefield.”
“A battlefield? Who’s fighting the Elf Race?”
“Humans.” Veralis’s tone was flat.
“Over the past few decades, the Human Kingdom has been expanding its territory, pushing all the way to the edge of the Endless Forest. The Elf Race refused to retreat, so they started fighting.”
Someone downstairs raised a paddle. Xuan Xi followed the sound—a middle-aged man in a deep blue uniform, with the Steel Mane Family emblem on his chest. It was Reggie’s father.
“Your father is buying it?” Xuan Xi asked.
Reggie nodded. “The Steel Mane Family’s guards need light armor. The Elf Race’s vine armor is lighter than the Western metal armor, making it more suitable for use.”
Elsa turned to him.
“What, is your family going to war?”
“Not a war. Just routine patrols.” Reggie didn’t elaborate.
The third item was a shortsword. Its silver-white blade was densely engraved with runes.
“A Rune Shortsword produced by the Human Kingdom, imbued with three elemental runes—Flame, Frost, and Lightning. It can be activated by the user’s elemental attribute. Starting bid: 8,000 gold coins.”
Elsa’s mouth fell open again. “Three runes? Humans can make something that powerful?”
“Humans can make anything.” SigrdrÃfa’s voice came from beside her. It was the first time she had commented on an item.
“They can’t use magic, so they find ways to carve magic into metal. They can’t undergo Dragon Transformation, so they find ways to weave dragon scales into armor. They can’t breathe elemental breath, so they find ways to build machines that spit fire. They can’t do anything, so they do everything.”
Xuan Xi looked at her, her amber-golden eyes reflecting the light from the auction stage below.
“You rarely compliment anyone, especially not an outsider race,” Xuan Xi said.
“I’m just stating the facts.” SigrdrÃfa’s tone didn’t change, but her finger tapped lightly on the armrest—Xuan Xi noticed that the rhythm matched the bidding pace downstairs. She was appraising it.
Someone downstairs called out “10,000,” and another voice countered with “12,000.” “15,000.” “20,000.” The price climbed, finally stopping at 25,000 gold coins.
The winner was a woman in a deep red long dress, with light blonde hair and ice-blue eyes—Veralis’s mother.
“Your mother buys Human-made things?” Xuan Xi asked.
Veralis glanced at her. “The Frostmark Family’s craftsmen have been researching the technique behind Rune Shortswords. This one is probably being bought for disassembly and study.”
“Bought to be taken apart?”
“Taken apart. And whether it can be reassembled is another question.”
The fourth item was a dark red ore. “Blood Steel from the Beast Tribe of the Western Continent. Produced deep within a volcanic crater in the wasteland. Extremely hard, with high enchantment affinity. A dream material for blacksmiths of the Western Dragon Domain. Starting bid: 10,000 gold coins.”
Elsa leaned over the railing again. “Blood Steel! My father talked about this. A weapon forged from Blood Steel can be passed down for three generations—”
“That’s because Blood Steel is too hard. The forging cost is too high, and no one’s willing to use it.” Reggie said.
“The Ashes Family bought a piece last year. It’s still sitting in their warehouse collecting dust.”
Elsa opened her mouth to argue, but realized Reggie was telling the truth. She sighed and rested her chin on the railing.
“I don’t understand the world of the rich. Spending that much gold just to hire a warehouse manager.”
On the auction stage, the auctioneer’s voice rang out again. “The fifth item.”
She gestured, and the screen displayed a yellowed scroll with frayed edges, tied with a red string.
“From the Eastern Dragon Domain. An ancient scroll fragment. Its contents relate to the cultivation theories of the Eastern Dragon Race. Starting bid: 20,000 gold coins.”
Xuan Xi’s finger stopped moving.
“Something from the Eastern Dragon Domain?” Elsa’s voice dropped low, and she turned to look at Xuan Xi.
Someone downstairs raised a paddle. “25,000.” The voice came from an elderly man in a silver-gray gown—Xuan Xi didn’t recognize him, but Elsa did.
“That’s an elder of the Wolf Family,” she whispered in Xuan Xi’s ear.
Another paddle went up. “30,000.” This time, it was the middle-aged man in the deep blue uniform—Reggie’s father.
“The Steel Mane Family is interested in the Eastern Dragon Race?” Veralis’s voice came from beside her.
Reggie glanced at her. “Not exactly interested. If the price is right, we can resell it to collectors on the Central Continent and make a small profit.” (Elsa: So your family is in the reselling business.)
“40,000.” Another voice, this one from the second floor.
Xuan Xi turned her head and saw that the bidder was Veralis—she had raised her numbered paddle, her ice-blue eyes fixed on the auction stage, her expression unchanged.
“Why are you buying that?” Elsa asked.
Veralis didn’t answer. Someone downstairs raised a paddle again. “50,000.”
“60,000.” Veralis raised her paddle again.
“70,000.” The Wolf Family’s elder downstairs didn’t back down.
But Veralis lowered her paddle, picked up her teacup, and took a sip. “I’ll pass.” Elsa’s eyes widened. “You’re just messing with them?”
“The price exceeded my budget.” Veralis’s tone was indifferent.
“Besides, that scroll fragment is incomplete. It’s missing the most important pages. It’s not worth 70,000.”
“How do you know it’s missing the most important pages?” Xuan Xi asked.
Veralis looked at her. “Because the complete version is in my mother’s notebooks. You’ve already read it, haven’t you?”
On the stage, the scroll was won by the Wolf Family at 70,000 gold coins.
The auctioneer struck her small hammer, the sound clear and crisp.
“Sold.”
Elsa rested her chin on the back of her hand. “70,000 gold coins… That would last me a really, really long time.”
The sixth item was a palm-sized wooden box.
The box was black, carved with intricate patterns.
The auctioneer didn’t open it immediately.
She looked at the crowd below, pausing for a few seconds.
“The sixth item comes from the Eastern Dragon Domain. But as for what it is exactly, even our auction house doesn’t know.”
A low murmur of discussion rippled through the audience.
“They’re auctioning something they don’t even know what it is?” “What is Universal Commerce up to?”
The auctioneer raised her hand, and the murmuring stopped.
“This item was acquired by Universal Commerce from a traveling merchant on the Central Continent. The merchant said he brought it out of the Eastern Dragon Domain, but didn’t know its purpose. Universal Commerce consulted several appraisers, but not one could determine its origin or value.” She paused.
“So we’ve placed it as the sixth item—not because it isn’t precious, but because we don’t know how precious it is. Therefore, the starting bid is only 5,000 gold coins.”
“5,000 gold for something no one knows what it is?” Elsa frowned. “Who would buy that?”
Then, someone downstairs raised a paddle. “5,000.” The voice was soft, but earnest. Xuan Xi followed the sound—a figure in a dark gray robe, sitting in a corner of the general seating area.
Their hood was pulled low, obscuring their face. They had no attendants, no servants.
They had come alone.
“Who is that?” Xuan Xi asked.
No one answered her.
“6,000.” Another voice came from the VIP section.
Veralis had raised her paddle again. Elsa turned to look at her.
“Didn’t you say not to buy things you don’t know about?”
“I said that scroll fragment wasn’t worth 70,000.” Veralis lowered her paddle.