“This is different.”
“How is it different?”
“With the scroll fragment, you knew what it was missing, so you knew it wasn’t worth it. With an unknown thing, you don’t know if it’s worth it or not, so it might be worth it.”
Elsa opened her mouth, then closed it again.
“You talk in circles.”
“7,000.” The hooded figure in the general seating area raised their paddle again.
“8,000.” Veralis didn’t hesitate.
“9,000.”
“10,000.”
The hooded figure was silent for a moment, then stood up and turned to leave. Their seat was empty. Veralis watched the empty seat, her ice-blue eyes narrowing slightly.
She had won, but her expression held no joy of having captured a treasure.
“What’s wrong?” Xuan Xi asked.
“Nothing. Probably just my imagination.” Veralis withdrew her gaze.
The wooden box was delivered to the second floor. Veralis took it and placed it on her lap, not opening it. She just gently traced the patterns on the lid with her finger.
Xuan Xi watched her fingers.
Those patterns—she felt like she had seen them somewhere before. The area under her right eye began to feel warm again.
The seventh item.
The auctioneer’s voice was slightly higher than before.
“Next is tonight’s grand finale.” The screen lit up.
It was a jade pendant, dark green, palm-sized, with worn edges, as if it had been worn close to someone’s body for many years.
Xuan Xi froze.
The auctioneer’s voice continued. “A jade pendant from the ancient Eastern Dragon Race.”
She reached out and picked up the jade pendant from the display stand.
The light focused on her palm. The pendant was a deep cyan color, a deep green that had settled over a hundred years.
As the light passed through the jade, faint, dense patterns emerged from within—like dragon scales, or like cloud patterns, spreading in overlapping layers.
“After expert appraisal, this jade pendant is over three hundred years old. The material is Azure Dragon Jade, unique to the Eastern Dragon Domain. That mine vein was exhausted one hundred and twenty years ago. In other words, this is likely one of the last pieces of Azure Dragon Jade in existence.”
A slight stir rippled through the first floor.
The auctioneer’s finger traced the surface of the pendant. Under the light, a warm luster seeped from the jade’s surface.
“Most of you have probably heard of the properties of Azure Dragon Jade: worn close to the skin, it can nourish the meridians and slow the loss of Attribute Power. The cultivators of the Eastern Dragon Domain call it ‘Nourishing Jade.’ The longer it’s worn, the stronger the connection between the jade and the person.”
She turned the pendant over. The image on the screen flipped in sync, enlarging and projecting the details of the back onto the auction stage.
The entire hall fell silent for a moment.
It wasn’t an ordinary engraving. It was a pattern—lines flowing smoothly, arcs perfectly rounded. One half was Yin, the other half was Yang, interlocking and separating, like two fish chasing each other’s tails.
But only half of the pattern was engraved on the pendant.
The other half was empty, marked only by a shallow indentation, as if something had once been embedded there but had been removed.
“A Yin Yang Diagram.” The auctioneer’s voice was exceptionally clear in the silence.
“Or, to be precise, one half of a Yin Yang Diagram.”
She held the pendant in her palm, letting the light strike it from different angles. Every stroke of the half-pattern was carved deeply and steadily.
The blade work was clean and decisive, without a hint of hesitation.
The bottom of the engraving was smooth and polished—not from wear, but from being repeatedly rubbed by someone’s fingers over many, many years, many, many times.
“In other words, this jade pendant is not complete.” the auctioneer said.
“It’s missing its other half.”
People on the first floor began talking in low voices, discussing whether a half-finished jade pendant was still worth buying.
“A complete Yin Yang Diagram is formed by two jade pendants—one Yin, one Yang—coming together. This one is the ‘Yin’ side. As for the Yang half—based on the direction and depth of the engraving—it should be a jade pendant with a perfectly symmetrical shape and matching texture. When the two are joined, they form a complete circle.”
She paused.
“But when Universal Commerce received this jade pendant, we only had this half.”
“As for the whereabouts of the other half… there are no records, no rumors, and no clues.”
On the second floor, Xuan Xi sat in the deep red velvet chair. Her amber-golden eyes were fixed on the half-finished pattern on the screen.
Her hand unconsciously reached for her collar.
Something was hanging there—a piece of jade, dark green. The one she had brought from home. It had been hanging around her neck for as long as she could remember. Her foster father had told her that it was on her when she was found, that it should have been a token for her birth mother to identify her by.
But she had never thought much about it. After all these years, there wasn’t a single clue about her origins. She had always treated it as an ordinary charm. She slept with it, bathed with it. During the school entrance physical, the school doctor even reminded her, “Jade pendants can’t be brought into the attribute testing room.”
Now, she pulled it out from her collar.
The dark green jade surface glowed with a warm luster under the VIP section’s warm light—the exact same luster as the one in the auctioneer’s hand downstairs. She turned the jade over. Her finger traced the back. The pattern engraved there was exactly the other half of the Yin Yang Diagram—the Yang side.
Her hands began to tremble. SigrdrÃfa noticed her movement and glanced at what she was holding. Her amethyst-crystal eyes instantly constricted when they saw the jade pendant.
“Xuan Xi—”
“The other half.” Xuan Xi’s voice was very soft, as if afraid of startling something. “It’s here with me.”
She turned the pendant over, letting SigrdrÃfa see the pattern on the back. Yin and Yang.
Absence and wholeness.
Over a hundred years of separation—in this moment, across the chasm of time and space, their gazes finally met.
Downstairs, the auctioneer’s voice continued.
“Azure Dragon Jade Pendant. Yin Face of the Yin Yang Diagram. Starting bid: 100,000 gold coins.”
The entire hall was silent for a moment. One hundred thousand gold coins.
That price surpassed the total of all the items tonight. But the silence only lasted a moment.
“110,000.” The Wolf Family’s elder raised his paddle.
“120,000.” The Steel Mane Family.
“130,000.” The Ashes Family.
“150,000.” Veralis’s mother.
The price climbed.
“220,000.”
“250,000.”
“VIP section, 280,000.”
The bidding calls came and went downstairs, each raise of a paddle striking Xuan Xi’s heart like a hammer.
She sat in the deep red velvet chair, her fingers gripping the jade pendant under her collar, her knuckles white.
Her amber-golden eyes were fixed on the image of the half-finished Yin face on the screen.
It was clearly made from the same piece of Azure Dragon Jade as the one under her collar, carved by the same hands.
That missing half-circle… the one in her hand could perfectly complete it.
Only one thought occupied her mind.
‘That jade… it has to be mine.’
Something seemed to scream in her blood, as if the jade was calling out to her.
A fate carved three hundred years ago was finally intertwining in this auction hall.
But she didn’t have enough money to buy it. The money she had was barely enough to live on.
Her fingers slipped from her collar and gripped the armrest of the chair. Her breathing became rapid. Each bid pushed her deeper into the seat, like a caged beast.
“300,000.”
“350,000.”
“VIP section, 400,000.”
Four hundred thousand. A number she could never earn in a lifetime.
She turned her head to look at the person beside her. There was only one person who could help her now.
SigrdrÃfa was looking downstairs.
Her profile was cold and quiet in the VIP section’s light, her silver-white hair falling over her shoulders, like a motionless statue.
She seemed to sense Xuan Xi’s gaze and turned her head slightly.
Their eyes met. Xuan Xi opened her mouth. Her voice was very quiet, so quiet that almost only the two of them could hear it.
“Sigr… can you… buy it for me?”
SigrdrÃfa’s eyelashes trembled.
“I don’t have any money.” Xuan Xi’s voice was even quieter, carrying a fragility she had never shown in front of anyone before. “But I have a feeling… I really… need it.”
SigrdrÃfa looked at her, silent for a moment. Then, a hint of amusement crept into her voice. “And what conditions can you offer, My Princess?”
The question was too direct. So direct that Xuan Xi was stunned. She stared at SigrdrÃfa’s face, trying to read the meaning behind those amethyst-crystal eyes—was this serious, or was she just teasing?
But SigrdrÃfa’s expression was impenetrable. Her face showed no change. But Xuan Xi noticed that the tips of her ears had turned a little red.
In that instant, a flood of thoughts rushed through Xuan Xi’s mind. Her class notes. Her Golden Eyes. Her current state of having nothing.
All the favors she owed Sigr.
What could she possibly offer? Right now, she was practically a pauper.
No, wait… there was one thing…
So, she forced herself to lower her head.
But her face involuntarily turned red. Silence stretched between them.
Someone downstairs called out another bid. Xuan Xi didn’t catch the number. Her heart was beating too fast, so fast that SigrdrÃfa could probably hear it.
Xuan Xi did something she hadn’t expected herself to do.
She gently leaned sideways, closed the distance to SigrdrÃfa, and planted an extremely light, extremely quick kiss on her cheek.
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