"Wang Wei, it's time to go!"

Senior Han opened the door to his room and walked in, Mei following.

"Wait..." Wang Wei muttered.

His pill furnace was before him, still covered in some frost and dripping with condensation. There was a strange planty smell in the air.

Curious as to what he was looking at, Mei peeked into the caldron, where she saw some half-frozen slag.

Senior Han gasped.

"What did you do to the furnace? You can't just freeze it like that, what are you going to do if it gets damaged? You'll have to reimburse the elders if it cracks!"

He angrily reprimanded the protesting Wang Wei and dragged him out, the rest of the group following.

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The auction building was huge. Pillars of red capped with green lined the outside of it, holding up a massive golden roof with another storey on it. The construct was placed on a huge white stone foundation that stood 4 metres above the ground, lined with stone fences.

Staring at it in awe, she shooed away the urge to compare it to a certain crappy white box.

She turned around to look at her group. Ning Xing wasn't there, as she left to do something.

Senior Han had a pretty proud expression on his face for some reason, while her friends stared in awe. As usual, Wang Wei looked less impressed than she would have hoped.

She didn't know why, but it sort of miffed her to see how unimpressed he was by 'cool' stuff. It wasn't like she built them herself. But really, these were buildings made by cultivators! She didn't care how rich the mortal was, there was no way they would be able to build anything remotely as good, right?

She poked at Su Qing who floated beside her as she followed Senior Han up the stairs to the building. The spirit sent a vague feeling of confusion to her, making her grin.

At the front doors of the auction building, two guards stood, spears crossed over the open entrance. They wore black armour lined with edges of gold, with featureless masks of the same colours that covered their faces entirely.

The heads of the spears were in the shape of stylised flames, the black poles as shiny as jade, veins and bands of gold decorating them.

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"Hello! We are here to offer items up for auction!" Senior Han put on a wide grin, handing over a golden city token.

Mei widened her eyes. He could get the fruit from the trees! She made up her mind to 'pester' him for them later.

Wordlessly, the guards lowered their spears and gestured for them to walk in. One of the guards offered them masks of the same type, but Senior Han shook his head with a smile.

"I thought the auction was today?" Mei asked, then quickly added: "Feng Shen said that."

"Oh, it's actually tomorrow. He must have gotten that mixed up."

What an unreliable bird...

They went through halls and into a room, where an unmasked middle-aged man sat before a large table. He looked aloof as he meditated.

Only when Senior Han cleared his throat did he look over, giving them a cold look.

"He's waiting for us to place the items for auction." Senior Han whispered.

Immediately, Xiuying, Wang Wei, Liu Qiang and Yingyi fumbled with their bags or rings. Mei felt a bit awkward, but luckily she wasn't the only one not reaching for their bags, Shaohe.

She did consider reaching for Wang Wei's green pill, but after seeing the look on the man, she thought that would be a bad idea. Plus, it might be a bit rude to try to sell it in front of Wang Wei.

Wang Wei took out his jar of glowing pills, placing it on the table with a confident look. The middle-aged man nodded approvingly.

"Cerulean Stream pills with 50% purity!" he paused to use qi sense on it. "138 of them, mostly around the same quality. The starting bid will be 1500 Jade."

What?! Mei felt envious. Alchemists sure were rich... Maybe she should give alchemy a try after all.

Xiuying took out around 20 fruits and 5 bundles of herbs, placing them on the table. Half of them were rejected, but the starting bid for her produce would be 570 Jade in total.

To her horror, Mei felt a presence behind her cackling, whispering nonsense about farming. She shooed it away, making Yingyi give her a strange look.

Liu Qiang was next, a nervous look on his face as he placed his three sabres on the table.

The man's expression seemed to soften a bit.

"Rejected."

The chubby boy's face sunk.

"Don't be discouraged, these swords are perfectly fine. It's simply that our auction only accepts high-quality items. As a new blacksmith, you have done pretty well. You can sell them to the Blacktail Armoury not too far away."

"Right..." Liu Qiang sighed.

Finally, Yingyi plucked up his courage and put his own jar of pills. They were drab in comparison to Wang Wei's, grey and with waxy shines on the outside. Naturally, Wang Wei's pills were coated with the wax as well, but the glowing made that hard to see. It was a common procedure to reduce the amount of qi leaking from pills.

The auctioneer rejected them, but gave some reassuring words as well, also recommending another place to sell his goods. Mei was surprised. From how he acted, she didn't expect him to be so nice and encouraging. Looks were decieving indeed.

With their items put up, they were about to leave, but the man suddenly spoke up.

"Don't you have anything to put up for auction personally?" he turned to Senior Han with a meaningful look in his eye.

Senior Han looked back with a similar look, making Mei a bit taken back. Had they been having some weird dealings?

Shaking his head, but still smiling gently, Senior Han took out a green jade box lined with gold and placed it on the table. From it, Mei sensed an astonishing aura.

The man smiled for the first time as he received the box.

"Let's go." Senior Han led them out.

For the first time, Mei felt that the 'foodie' was rather enigmatic...