A weighted silence fell over the grand auction hall. My bid of "Four hundred gold" echoed for a moment before being swallowed by the collective, stunned intake of breath from hundreds of people. Every eye in the room, from the common merchants in the back to the clan leaders in the front, swiveled to stare up at the darkened balcony of VIP room number two. We had just thrown a boulder into a placid pond, and the ripples were spreading fast.
On the stage, Ya Fei's professional smile didn't falter, but I could see a brilliant spark of intrigue flash in her eyes. She had likely expected a drawn-out bidding war between the local clans, not a sudden, decisive knockout blow from a mysterious newcomer.
Down on the floor, the reactions were more transparent. The leaders of the Galeo and Primer clans exchanged surprised, calculating looks. Wealthy merchants whispered behind their fans, their minds racing to figure out who had just demonstrated such casual financial power. I saw Xiao Zhan's shoulders slump in utter defeat, the last of his hope extinguished.
But my gaze was drawn to the figure beside him. Xiao Yan. He wasn't looking at his father; his head was tilted up, his dark, intense eyes fixed directly on our balcony. There was no longer any boredom in his expression. It had been replaced by a sharp, analytical focus. He wasn't just disappointed; he was trying to pierce the shadows, to understand the identity of the faceless entity that had just thwarted him. It was the gaze of a wolf, not a sheep. A flicker of unease went through me, but I ruthlessly suppressed it. This was the price of our new philosophy.
"Four hundred gold from our esteemed guests in room two!" Ya Fei's voice boomed, cutting through the silence. "Do I hear four hundred and ten? Four hundred, going once... Going twice..."
The hall remained silent. No one was willing to challenge the mysterious moneybags in the VIP room.
"Sold!" she declared, her gavel striking the podium with a sharp crack that sealed our victory. "To our guests in room number two!"
In the quiet of our private chamber, the tension broke. Ming let out a low chuckle, leaning back in his chair with a look of deep satisfaction. "Step one complete," he said, his voice laced with amusement. "And we even got a little bit of drama out of it. Fun."
"We just made an enemy of the protagonist for a single Tier 2 pill," I murmured, watching as Xiao Yan finally dropped his gaze, his face a mask of cold frustration.
"We acquired a necessary resource," Ming corrected me gently, though his tone was anything but. "He'll get over it. Or he won't. It doesn't matter. Now, what's next on your little shopping list, Qing-er?"
His nonchalance was both chilling and reassuring. He was fully committed to this path, and his confidence was infectious. We stayed put for the next several items, a deliberate act of performance. We needed to appear as casual observers, not as surgical predators who had come for one specific thing. We watched a rare monster-taming manual sell for an exorbitant price and a set of throwing knives made from cold iron get snapped up by a grim-faced mercenary captain.
Then, my moment came.
"And for our next item," Ya Fei announced, "we have something of a curiosity. A fragment of a metal plate, recovered from a deep cavern in the Demonic Beast Mountain Range. Its material is unknown to our appraisers, and it is strangely resistant to both Dou Qi and fire. We can make no guarantees as to its function, but it is undoubtedly an ancient artifact. A piece of history, perhaps?"
A servant brought out the item. It was a dark, irregular shard of metal, its surface etched with faint, intricate lines that seemed to form a partial map. To everyone else in the room, it was a worthless, mysterious piece of junk. To me, it was a key to ultimate power. It was a fragment of the map leading to the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame.
"We shall start the bidding for this historical oddity at a mere ten gold coins!" Ya Fei said, her tone suggesting she didn't expect much.
The hall was silent. No one was interested.
Down below, I saw Xiao Yan lean forward, his eyes locked onto the plate. I knew that the other map fragment he possessed was reacting to this one, calling to it. He felt its importance on an instinctual level. He began whispering to his father, likely begging for the last of their funds.
This was the true test of my resolve. The Foundation Elixir was a resource. This map was a cornerstone of Xiao Yan's entire destiny. Taking it felt… different. Heavier.
Is this something we need? I asked myself, the last vestiges of my old sentimentality warring with my new pragmatism. A map to a Heavenly Flame was a treasure beyond measure, but it was also a death sentence. We were nowhere near strong enough to even think about pursuing it.
Ming, seeming to sense my internal conflict, leaned closer. "Qing-er," he whispered to my ear, his voice a low thrum of temptation. "A Heavenly Flame. The ultimate tool of destruction and refinement in this world. It's a long-term asset. Think of it as our retirement plan. We take it off the board now, while it's cheap. We put it away and forget about it for ten years. It's the smart play. It's the Taigong Wang play."
He was right. It was a ruthless, long-term strategic acquisition. It was about denying a powerful weapon to a potential future rival and securing it for ourselves, no matter how far off that future might be.
I saw Xiao Yan stand up, ready to make his desperate bid.
I acted first.
"Fifty gold," my voice projected into the hall, calm and decisive.
It was a pittance, but it was more than Xiao Yan had. He froze, his mouth half-open, and stared up at our balcony with a look of pure disbelief. He had been thwarted again. By the same invisible hand. The connection was unmistakable. He slowly sat back down, but his eyes, burning with a cold fire, never left our room.
Ya Fei looked just as bewildered as everyone else but quickly recovered. "Fifty gold from room two! A bold bid for this mysterious treasure! Going once, twice... Sold! The metal fragment goes to our esteemed guests in room two!"
We had done it. In the space of an hour, we had acquired a vital resource for our immediate growth and a legendary treasure that could define our distant future, all while establishing ourselves as the city's most baffling new power players.
"Now we can go," Ming said, standing up. "Our work here is done."
We were escorted through a private exit to a lavish office where Ya Fei met us to finalize the transaction. She handed over a small, elegant box containing the vial of Foundation Elixir and the cool, heavy metal plate. Her curiosity was practically a physical force in the room.
"Your tastes are certainly… unique, Young Miss Bai," she said, her smile sharp as a razor. "I do hope these items bring you great fortune."
"One must always look for potential where others see none, Miss Ya Fei," I replied, my voice a mask of serene mystery.
We paid the 450 gold, leaving us with just under 400 coins. It felt like a heist. We bid our farewells and slipped out a back exit into the dusky streets of Wu Tan City.
The cool evening air did little to calm the nervous energy thrumming through me. We were carrying treasures that could get us killed, and we had just made a powerful impression on an entire city, including its most promising young genius.
We were halfway back to the pavilion, sticking to the less crowded side streets, when Ming suddenly stopped. He put a steadying hand on my arm.
"We've got tails," he murmured, his head completely still.
"How many?" I whispered, my heart leaping into my throat.
"Two of them," he replied, his voice devoid of any concern. "Amateurs. Low-level Dou Zhe. They've been on us since we left the auction house. Galeo Clan insignia. It seems our arrogant young master is curious."
"We should lose them," I suggested, my mind immediately going to escape routes.
Ming scoffed softly. "Qing-er, you don't get rid of rats by running. You get rid of them by showing them the cat."
Without another word, he steered me into a narrow, dark alleyway, a dead-end between two tall warehouses. It was the perfect place for an ambush. For a moment, I thought he'd made a mistake, but then I saw the cold smirk on his face and understood. The trap wasn't for us.
Seconds later, two figures appeared at the mouth of the alley, blocking our only exit. They were clad in the Galeo Clan's green uniforms, their faces set in arrogant sneers.
"Well, well. Look what we have here," the first one said, cracking his knuckles. "Nowhere left to run. The Young Master was very interested in who was in that VIP room. He wants to have a chat with the pretty lady. So why don't you be a good boy, hand over whatever you bought at the auction, and we'll let you walk away with most of your bones intact."
I instinctively tensed, ready to try and summon my pathetic flame.
Ming just laughed, a soft, airy sound that seemed strangely loud in the confined space. "You want to know who we are?"
He took a step forward. The second thug, emboldened by our apparent lack of resistance, threw a clumsy punch aimed straight at Ming's face.
Then, the impossible happened.
The punch, thrown with the full force of a 5 Duan Dou Zhe, slowed to a crawl as it entered the space around Ming. It was like watching a video in slow motion. The thug's face contorted from a sneer of arrogance to a mask of pure terror as his fist, moving as if through thick molasses, stopped dead a single inch from Ming's blindfold. He pushed with all his might, his muscles bulging, but his hand would not, could not, move another millimeter.
"You are nothing," Ming said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, cold whisper. The Infinity around him was absolute.
He didn't even look at the man. He flicked his wrist. The latent, uncontrolled power of "Blue" that he'd been practicing erupted in a small, sharp flash. It wasn't an explosion. It was a silent, violent yanking. The sword at the second thug's hip was ripped from its sheath, flying through the air with a shriek of protesting metal and embedding itself deep into the far wall of the alley with a loud THUNK.
Both men stared, their jaws agape, their minds unable to process the casual, inexplicable display of power. They hadn't just met a stronger expert. They had encountered something entirely outside their comprehension.
"Go back to your little master," Ming said, his voice cutting through their fear like a shard of ice. "Tell him that some people are not to be trifled with. Tell him that if I ever see his face, or yours, again... I will not be this merciful."
He lowered his hand. The first thug's fist was released, and he stumbled back, falling over his own feet in his haste to get away. The two of them scrambled up, not even daring to retrieve the sword, and fled from the alley as if the devil himself were on their heels.
Silence returned. Ming stood there, completely unfazed, as if he had just been shooing away a fly.
We walked the rest of the way back in silence. When we finally reached the safety of our pavilion and closed the door to the main hall behind us, I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.
On the table, I placed the small, elegant box containing the vial of Foundation Elixir and the cool, heavy, mysterious metal plate. The spoils of our new war. We had faced our first test as active players in this world, and we had not just survived; we had dominated.
The path ahead was uncertain, but one thing was crystal clear. We were no longer playing by the book. We were writing our own.