Aryon’s seat. Cloud Mist Treasure Palace main auction hall

Feng Yan stood on one side of lord Aryon, quiet and still as a statue.

The lord never showed much emotion given his… current form. He’d never seen his actual face before, with it always hidden behind his helm. Discerning his moods, therefore, relied on observing his actions and words; a difficult task given his disciplined lifestyle and noble bearing.

But right now he could discern his mood as easy as anyone. And right now, he was mad.

Lord Aryon sat straight in his chair, staring at the Great Spirit Core Crystal as it was carried away. Feng Yan, from the corner of his eye, could tell that his helm was shaking.

He distinctly heard the fan in the lord’s hand snap when the winner was announced. And when the lord looked towards the balcony where the Bai Clan young mistress was, the fan began disintegrating.

“...L-lord?” asked Liu Wong in a quiet voice. He, too, could read the signs.

The lord looked at the cowed youth and, like a puppet with his strings cut, he slumped back on his chair. The tension in the room vanished with his deflation.

“...Forgive me, my boys. I was… ah, distracted.”

He patted off the dust from his metal lap. “It seems I must pay a visit to a certain madam after this.”

“Will she give the crystal to you, lord?” he asked.

The lord re-adjusted himself and paused, looking at the balcony when he did.

“If she knows what’s good for her? Yes.”

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‘To think that I was bettered by a stripling of a woman. How humiliating.’

He would’ve pushed forward with the price war, but an elder came over from the sect's seat to plead with him to stop. The sect was in an emergency, they said, and needed as many funds as they could to do their task, all the while making excuses and apologies.

Since the money wasn't his to begin with, he had little choice but to stop his actions, resulting in his defeat.

‘Blast it all... Her little ploy wouldn’t’ve worked if that royal snoop didn’t join in too.’

He made a mental note to avoid confrontation with that imperial representative after this.

Grumbling, Aryon pondered on his next moves. “There’s no delay still, at least. If I can get the crystal within two month’s time, I can proceed with the plan.’

He could just nab the crystal with magic and fly away in the distance, laughing all the way.

‘But that’ll cause trouble, which I don’t want. Besides, I am a dignified mage-king and a representative of a kingdom. If I am to set a good example to my friends here, I must stick to my morals.’

‘Fine. Let’s jump through her little flaming hoops for now. I only pray that whatever request she has isn’t too mad.’

A few more items came up after the crystal, none of which moved the balconies yet rekindled the competition below. After all those items were inflated, sold and sent away, the hawk-like announcer returned.

“Honored guests, our second-to-the-last item is a surprise auction that just came to us today!”

Excited whispering came from the seats below. Even the balconies shifted their seats to take a look.

‘Oh. It’s finally here.’ said Aryon, his mood rising.

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‘Hm. Could it be better than the trash before?’ thought Tang Heng as he listened to the announcement.

Most of the ‘rare’ items put up could be found on a street-side stall in the capital. But now he wasn’t in the capital. He wasn’t even close to the center of the empire, where the lands were more developed.

When he found out that the clans working for him were secretly in league with his rival siblings, he quickly fled his old power-base in the lands south of the capital and ventured even further south to these untouched areas.

Ensuring the loyalty of his remaining retainers and cowing everyone else with his meagre strength as a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, he now had to rebuild what he had lost. And quickly.

The item in this auction was just what he needed to do that. But the announcement for the next caught his attention.

He stood up straight on his seat. ‘Let’s hope it’s more interesting than that crystal.’

The Great Spirit Core Crystal attracted his attention because of the competitors: the Bai Clan mistress and, from his sources, a foreigner guest in Green Blade Forest Sect. Sensing a hidden importance in this thing, he tried to obtain it for himself only to give up when the prices went too high for his patience.

The announcer below waved towards his aides, who brought in a lavish table with an item on top draped in red-and-gold cloth that blocked his spirit sense.

“Honored guests! Behold!”

With a grand, sweeping motion the announcer took off the cloth.

Tang Heng stood up from his seat. As did many others in the hall.

Earth-grade weapon! There was an Earth-grade weapon being sold right now!

Tang Heng blinked and took a second look. There was indeed an Earth-grade weapon right there.

Made of polished metal and menacing with sharpened spikes… mounted on a hilt of lacquered wood decorated with azure pearls… it was the most beautiful mace he had ever seen.

“This is a special weapon, honored guests, as described by our partners, the Bright Sun Weapon Pavillion.” said the announcer as he hefted it up for all to see. “By its spirit energy emanations, its grade is set to the first-level of Earth-grade.”

The difference between Mortal- and Earth-grade weapons was the same as cultivation realms: even the highest level of Mortal-grade could not compare to the lowest of Earth-grade. Tang Heng knew the worth of these weapons, as he himself owns a second-level Earth-grade sword

“Yet it also has strange properties rarely seen in mystic weapons! The Bright Sun Weapon Pavillion and our own Zhao Clan have confirmed that it deals greater damage against spirit beasts! In a battle against such terrifying monsters, your glancing blows will turn into deadly strikes, direct hits into mortal blows!”

‘What a powerful effect!’ he thought. Suppressing spirit beasts have long been a burdensome task to cultivators. ‘Yet this weapon can help deal with those problems easier.’

“And that’s not all! Observe!”

He raised the weapon high and, to the surprise and shock of all, the weapon became sheathed in crackling lightning. “By a mental command this weapon can channel the lightning of heaven, imbuing your strikes with crackling power!”

“Because of these extra effects, the Bright Sun Weapon Pavillion and our own Zhao Clan have agreed to set the level of this weapon to the third-level!”

A round of gasps and loud chatter followed the announcement. Third-level! It was already on par, or better, than some of the famous weapons in Dragon Border Prefecture.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the bidding begins now at ninety thousand spirit stones!”

Tang Heng raised his fan the instant the announcer uttered those words.

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Aryon was deeply annoyed.

‘If I knew I was going to lack crystals today… Bah! Why didn’t they sell the weapon earlier!’

Still, it gave him a cold comfort watching the crowd become hectic because of his little test. He took especial delight at the Bai Clan mistress raising her little fan several times, only to be shot down by the Ye Clan lord and the royal representative.

He had mixed feelings, however, on the Green Blade Forest Sect elders scrambling to buy it as well.

“Uh… lord?” asked Feng Yan. “Were you the one who made it?”

“Whatever do you mean, child?” he replied with feigned wonder.

“I saw lord leaving the hotel today with a bundle that wasn’t there when he came back. Could it be that you went here to have it sold?”

“Of course not.”

He went to the weapon pavillion to have it sold here. So that wasn’t a lie. Feng Yan returned to watching the bidding, unable to probe any further.

‘Still, that was an enlightening exercise. The items here are so receptive to magic.’

He overestimated the magic needed for crafting the mace. Some of the materials already possessed an inherent amount of power, so his experiments led to some of them being overloaded and disintegrating to useless dust.

He still managed to make a great weapon, in his opinion. One of his bests. The crazed crowd before him was proof of that.

‘Now, hopefully the winner will go on and make a mace manual or something similar.’