Li Chimia was an innovator, and a true pioneer in the field of alchemy. He was also known to be quite mad. He once made a potion that turned you into a flaming giant and caused you to implode into infernal bits of meat. He was a known force, and gained a clan through fame, this was hundreds of years ago.

He had a son, who did not take to alchemy. Li Alch, he hated his own name, a constant reminder of the failure he was in his fathers eye’s. This would never change. Even though he was a prodigy in the field of strength cultivation, it didn't matter.

His father retreated down below, absorbed in what he loved more than his family. His creations.

Li Alch even married a woman who had an incredible talent for the nature element. She caused plants to grow and thorns to spike as fauna shone through that crusted lake called the ground. They had a child, and named him Li He.

They were ecstatic, this child was a genius, he learned to read and write at the simple age of 3, at 4 he formed immaculate works of philosophy. At 5 they learned he had no talent for cultivation, and he was thrown from top of the tree.

The child still had a smile on his face. Why should he care? It didn't matter much to him. Meanwhile, his parents felt disgrace and shame. They built him a residence at the edge of the clan, and left him be. They tried to conceive another child, but it was all in vain.

Perhaps a curse of heaven, or perhaps the will of nothing at all. One day, walking upon the woods, some tribesman started up a fuss. He saw a pained, little monkey running his way. He told the monkey to hide, and when this tribesman came, they said an evil beast was about, Little Li had simply pointed the other direction, and said “it ran that way!” with a childish innocence.

The monkey asked him why, the little child asked why not. The monkey could read men's minds, but this child's mind was far too much. It thought of everything and nothing at once. They quickly became the closest of friends.

Back at the clan, whenever a group of boys came to bully little Li, the monkey showed them nightmares. Their paints then soaked with pee.

Not another problem was made, as a beautiful garden came out of earth's shade, and planted itself onto the home of Little Li.

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A story well-told. I applauded the monkey, who jokingly attempted to strangle me with his tail. We entered the shop, and it had a small line. The first guy bought some wine.

The second guy had ordered a brand new miniature staff for his child, but when it was too heavy, he began to grow wild. Eventually he was given a promise of a remade staff and left in a huff.

Finally, I came up. I made sure to puff out my chest, to show the emblem on my robes. At the counter was a friendly man with a kind smile. I gave a friendly smile back

“Do you guys purchase beast cores and souls in bulk?”

“Yes we do sir, what do you have?” I laughed, and pulled out about a quarter of what I had. It filled up half the room.

He excused himself, and a much fancier man from upstairs came down, they greeted me as “esteemed” and such. He looked at the massive pile of cores. They were not used in alchemy, as that energy tainted all concoctions.

“I have 10,000 beast cores I can sell to you, and a couple of nice grade beast souls.” I stated casually, “I'll settle for 100 million stones.” He laughed as if I said a joke,

“We can do 10 million at best.” I looked at satori on my shoulder, who could speak into my mind, but luckily no longer read it due to auha’s anti-information waves. He told me this guy was willing to go to 30 million.

Haggling ensued.

“Ha, you can sell these for 5-10 thousand a piece, not to mention those souls! Those Will go to auction for hundreds of thousands. I'll do 50 mil, no lower.”

“Sir…It is not easy to handle this much equipment…I can do 15 million…”

“Ha, I should just go to the central continent,” I started picking up the cores.

“Esteemed guest, please, I can do 20, no higher!”

“45”

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“Sir, maybe I can do 25, but this is a big maybe.”

“40.”

“Fine, 30! I can do 30 million stones…” The man sighed as if he took a loss, but he was gaining a massive profit.

“Good, good.” I coughed lightly, proud of the negotiation. Honestly, I didn't even need the money. There was no reason other than to just have it. Plus all those cores were filling the inner space up, I had to get rid of the corpses and herbs next.

“Here you are sir,” he handed me a golden card, I stared in awe. He saw my expression and explained.

“This is a balance card, you can use it to buy things at any major shop or auction house.” A credit card? They have technology like this? It made me wonder, they should really make an internet or something.

Spirit-net? Maybe I'll float the idea to someone one day.

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There was an auction the next coming weeks. I listened to the chatter around the auction house, as Au-ha replayed the past sound recordings as information streaming into my mind.

I was ecstatic to learn that there was something I actually : The soul of A High-ranked Golden earth beetle. I was also shocked to find out it was starting at 10 million. There was no chance I could afford it. At this point, it may be best to just stalk home whoever bought it and steal it.

But I was a shapeshifting assassin. All I needed to do was get my hands on the soul and pop it in.

The night before the auction, I casually asked around and found out who the auctioneer was. Some woman who went by Rione. I asked about

“There is something important to discuss with Rione; this comes from above.” I was talking to some event planner.

“Who, above?”

“You already know. Now stop wasting my time.” I commanded. I flashed my left eye, which could not cast illusions but could subtly influence weaker minds.

“Yes, that's right…” he seemed to remember ‘who’ could be, and led me to a room upstairs. He knocked, inside was a stunning woman with auburn hair. “Rione?” I asked.

“Who are you? Why are you bothering me this late?” She was an irritated diva. I waved the event director away, and walked into her room. Nobody was in here.

“What the he-” I muffled her before she could speak any further. “Sorry, honey.” I said to console her as I gently electrocuted her, sending her unconscious.I tied her up and put her in the closet for the time, I took her form.

Time to become an auctioneer.

“How is it being a woman?” Au-ha teased.

“Eh, its not so bad…”

“Maybe we can reverse our roles for one night…”

“Please, no.”

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The auction had begun early in the morning. I saw clans from east, west and south. The north didn't care about shit. I even saw the young master addicted to whipping Hon Fu. Now, this was true improv.

“Ladies and gentleman, are you ready for an auction!?”

Pure silence, clearly this was an unusual way to start.

“Ahem….just kidding.” The crowd laughed, and I had them back. “Well, we have many items on the plate today, so let's jump right into it!” I couldn't help but feel awkward, this my first imitation as a woman.

“This first thing is…A soul strengthening pill…oooh, wow…that, like, is known to strengthen the soul! Starting bid is 10,000.” I didn't know anything.

“Is she drunk?” someone in the audience said. A few bids went out and it ended at 90 thousand.

“Next is….A potion! Who knows what this does? Oooh….” I was struggling here.

“What kind of auction is this?”

“It kind of makes me want it more….”

“10,000!” shouted out Hon fu. “50,000!” shouted out some young master from a southern clan.

“100,000!” “250,000!”

“500,000!” someone stood up and said mightily, to the gasps of the audience. So, this random potion got sold for half a million stones.

Somewhere, in the audience, a man tried not to hold back his tears. He had made a simple strengthening potion which should have been sold for mabe 50,000.

Using this tactic over and over again, the auction house reached record highs.

“And this is…some goo!” I shouted.

“100,000!”

“150,000!”......

“This is…an eye….”

“400,000!”....

“Oh, I know what this one is, A life longevity pill for up to ten years!” I knew what one was, which made nobody even want it.

“Eh..500…”

Eventually, we got to the main event, the ascended soul Golden-earth beetle, but almost everyone's wallets were almost empty. Still people went wild. I already held it in my hands, and could barely contain my desire to eat it right then.

“25 million, no 30!” Perhaps I had gotten them too excited. Many young masters went into bidding wars, but it ended at the disgusting price of 100 million. I announced an end to the auction, and that everyone will get their stuff in the back.

“Hold on, hold on.” A young master from the eastern clan of “Wan” stood up. “Please hand that soul to me right now.” he held his hand out and walked down. He stood a few feet before me. Time for plan B

“For the north!” I shouted and punched him hard in the throat, running away. I quickly jumped up the stairs back into the room, where the woman was now awake and struggling in the closet.

I untied her, ate the soul, and jumped out the window as I changed forms in the bushes down below.

The guards broke into her room, taking her away. I slowly crawled to the shadows, now a phantom thief.