“Fifty thousand gold,” I call out, raising the current bid of forty thousand by double the minimum increment.

“Fifty thousand gold,” the auctioneer notes. “Do I have fifty-five thousand?” she asks, sharp eyes scanning the crowd.

A woman sitting farther back with a group of six raises a hand.

She seems to be bidding on behalf of the older, more powerful man she’s sat beside, which I’ve noticed is a pattern here.

Apparently, many of the top dogs here consider themselves to be too cool to raise their hands for bidding, so they have their subordinates do it for them.

“Fifty-five thousand gold,” the auctioneer notes again. “Do I have sixty?”

Even before I raise my hand her eyes are already moving to me, and considering we’re on the third bid and I’ve routinely outbid everyone else so far, I can’t say I blame her.

“Seventy thousand gold,” I say.

Xiuying sharply sucks in air through her teeth like my words cause her physical pain.

I turn to grin at her. “What? Not enjoying throwing away someone else’s money?”

Before the bidding began, Xiuying had been looking forward to me wasting Tang Shui’s money even more than I had been, but when things actually got underway and ridiculous sums of money began to be thrown around, her expression changed to one of disbelief and then pain.

Her middleclass soul must be weeping right now. And, to be honest, mine is too, a little bit, but again, it isn’t my money I’m throwing around.

Someone else beats my bid, and I call out, this time raising the bid by fifteen thousand. “Ninety thousand gold.”

Xiuying looks constipated.

I snort. You know, more and more, I’m spending the money just to see her expression.

“Are there any contenders for ninety thousand gold?” the auctioneer asks, watching the crowd intently.

No one takes up the challenge.

“Very well then, the Chill Ginger Root is sold to Young Master Xian Qigang for ninety thousand gold,” the auctioneer announces.

Xiuying looks at me with a grimace. “I’m pretty sure I could get that Chill Ginger Root from a black-market dealer for twenty thousand gold easy,” she says.

“A black-market dealer would have stolen it,” Meng Yi points out.

Xiuying blinks blankly at the other woman. “Your point?” she asks.

Meng Yi rolls her eyes.

The next item for sale gets rolled out, a full set of armour with faint traces of peasant rank qi.

It looks well cared for, but I can spot nicks and scrapes all over it from what appears to be many battles.

More than just the scrapes though, the armour feels ancient.

“That’s the armour of Ming Qitao, right?” I ask Meng Yi, making an educated, and based on her nod, accurate guess since we’d talked about it a few days ago when we’d received the list of items on sale for The Auction.

“Wait, that’s Ming Qitao’s armour?” Xiuying asks in surprise. “Damn, how low has that family fallen to be selling off their ancestor’s treasures? Are they selling his spear too?”

“If they are, then they aren’t doing it here,” Meng Yi says.

Apparently, Ming Qitao is one of the founders of Silver Springs, and while he was never powerful in the way that the truly great of this world could be, only making it to the second layer of Vapour phase (i.e. the first phase of Qi Realm), he was a great warrior all the same and renown in these parts.

Ming Qitao had also been incredibly rich, leaving behind enough wealth that his family had been set for generations.

Until now.

“How careless do you have to be to squander that much wealth?” Xiuying asks, looking upset at the thought.

“Some people are gifted at making money, and others are gifted at wasting it,” I say.

“Can’t argue with you there,” Xiuying says. “I can’t count how many young scions I’ve seen throwing around their family’s money like they worked for a single copper of it.”

“That’s what happens when money is just handed to you, I guess. You lose appreciation for it,” I say.

Xiuying side-eyes me, an amused smile quirking her lips.

“What?” I ask. “Have you never seen a hypocrite before?”

Her little smile grows into a full-blown grin. “Oh, I have,” she says. “But you’re a rare breed.”

I roll my eyes at her, smiling too.

Up on stage, the bidding for the armour begins. The starting price: one hundred thousand gold.

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“Is my qi sense off? Because that armour feels ancient,” I say, as seemingly everyone begins to throw money at the chance to get their hands on the armour. “I don’t think that thing would hold up in battle. At all.”

Xiuying snorts. “Of course not.”

“They want it for its historical value, Young Master Xian, not for combat.”

“Ah,” I say in realisation.

Funny, with how focused on martial might cultivators are, I forgot for a moment there that they’re still humans under all the superpowers. And if there’s one thing you can always count on rich humans to spend obscene amounts of money on, it’s useless old things that belonged to long dead famous people.

“We have two hundred and ten thousand,” the auctioneer announces up on stage. “Do I have two-fifteen?”

Not even thirty full seconds into it, and the bid for the armour is already past double what it started at.

I swear, rich people are so weird.

The expression on Xiuying’s face clearly mirrors my thoughts, and, obviously in an attempt to distract herself, she turns to me and asks, “Not going to join the bid? Show all these rich people who has more money to spend?”

“Tempting, but no,” I say. “I don’t need a suit of armour. Although…” I turn to Meng Yi consideringly.

My manager returns my stare with a flat look. “Young Master Xian, Ming Qitao was almost nine handspans tall and weighed half as much as a bison. Somehow, I don’t think his armour was shaped with women of my stature in mind.”

“You’ll grow into it,” I say dismissively.

“Ha!” Xiuying guffaws. “Hear that, Yi?” She leans forward to look around me at Meng Yi. “Guess you’ve got some growing to do.”

Meng Yi spares the grinning woman a derisive glance, before turning her attention back to me. “See what you’ve done, Young Master Xian?” she asks, tone accusing, but a glint of humour clear in her eyes.

“I apologize,” I say, though the smile on my face is anything but apologetic.

The bidding for the armour carries on for a minute more, the furious pace it began with tapering off fast.

In the end, the armour sells for three hundred and five thousand gold, over triple its starting bid.

“Well, guess the Ming boys now have three hundred thousand gold more to waste on whatever the fuck they’ve wasted the rest of their inheritance on,” Xiuying says, upset and disgusted.

“To be fair, the family’s legacy has been dwindling for a few generations now,” Meng Yi says. “They just happen to be the ones in whose hands the ox keeled over.”

“Families like those tend to have lots of property,” I say. “Not to mention relics like the armour that people will gladly pay for. If they’re smart about it, they just might survive this.”

Xiuying snorts.

“That may be unlikely, Young Master Xian,” Meng Yi says at the same time Xiuying mutters, “Not happening.”

“Too bad,” I say, watching with some sadness as the armour is carted off the stage, a piece of someone’s history traded off for gold.

I guess even in a cultivation world, money speaks.

The fifth bid is announced, and it’s one of the two items I had my sights on coming into The Auction: the Ginde Pepper.

Xiuying’s eyebrows climb at its announcement.

“You have to get that,” she says, turning to me.

“I am,” I say. “You know what it is?”

She nods. “That will be perfect for your cultivation.”

“Meng Yi thinks so too,” I say.

“There shouldn’t be too much competition for it,” Meng Yi says. “Not many in these parts use methods that have good synergy with heat.”

“Maybe not, but those who do will want it badly,” Xiuying says.

“Doesn’t matter how badly they want it,” I say. “It’s not my money I’m spending.”

And even if it was, it would change nothing.

“On the matter of money, Young Master, perhaps it would be best if you… slowed down a bit?” Meng Yi says gently. “Tang Shui looks like the kind of man who could be trouble.”

Xiuying scoffs, but I ignore her to focus on Meng Yi.

“What are you saying?” I ask.

“I’m saying that there are layers to slights, Young Master Xian. And, perhaps, it might be best to stay in shallow waters.”

I guess she’s got a point. After insulting the man, and his family, to his face, throwing away his money just to spite him might be a bit much.

“So, should I refuse his offer to pay for—”

“No,” both women say in unison.

I thought they might agree on that, though for different reasons, I’m sure.

“Just… more restraint is all I’m asking, Young Master,” Meng Yi finishes.

“Alright then,” I say. “I’ll only bid on this and the manual moving forward.”

“Thank you, Young Master,” Meng Yi says, while Xiuying asks, “Wait, manual? What manual?”

Before Meng Yi or I could answer, bidding for the Ginde Pepper starts at a whooping hundred and twenty thousand gold.

“Two hundred thousand,” I call out, sending the room into a hush.

My plan here is simple, show everyone that I’m obviously the biggest baddest mofo in town, that they all give up on the bid without even trying. Because, what would be the point?

It seems to work.

“We have a bid of two hundred thousand,” the auctioneer announces. “Will anyone match that?”

Silence.

A second passes. Two. And right as she’s about to state me the winner of the bid, a woman’s voice rings out from the group seating right to our left, “Three hundred thousand gold.”

All eyes turn to the woman.

She sits with three others, their seating arrangement and her peasant rank cultivation in the fifth layer of Sprouting marking her as the head honcho of the group.

She is incredibly beautiful, and dressed in a lavender attire with large pink roses designing it.

There are three things about her that really stand out to me though, number one being that this is the first bid she’s made on anything since the auction began.

For the second, my qi sense tells me that her cultivation is plant flavoured, making the Ginde Pepper less than useless to her as it would be actively detrimental to her growth.

Both of those are minor before number three though, which is the big, friendly smile she’s shooting my way.

“Who is that?” I ask.

“Her name is Xue Tai,” Meng Yi says. “She’s a merchant, among other things.”

‘Other things’, huh? That’s a loaded phrase if ever I’ve heard one.

“Do I have some sort of grudge with her?” I ask, not fooled by the woman’s friendly attitude towards me.

“Not to my knowledge, Young Master Xian.”

I see.

Deciding to test out something, I call out a new bid, gaze not shifting from Xue Tai. “Four hundred thousand.”

Her smile shifts into a playful smirk, and she sucks on a long, golden pipe in her hand.

Blowing out some pale, blue smoke, she beats my bid. “Five hundred thousand gold.”

The crowd audibly gasps.

“Well,” I say, pitching my voice to carry, “you must really want that Ginde Pepper.”

Xue Tai shrugs playfully. “What can I say? I really like spicy foods.”

Despite myself, her words get a genuine laugh out of me.

I stare at her, trying to get a read on her, but she just smiles at me and sucks on her pipe again.

“If you don’t bid soon that item will be mine,” she says.

“Young Master Xian,” Meng Yi calls softly and I turn to her. “I think she’s trying to make you offend Tang Shui more than you have.”

Ah. So that’s it.

“What does she get out of that though?” I wonder aloud.

“Who knows?” Xiuying says, lips curled in distaste. “Xue Tai isn’t called the queen of plots for nothing. Everything with her always has an angle.”

Is that right?

“Young Master Xian Qigang,” the auctioneer calls, addressing anyone directly for the first time. “Will you challenge her bid?”

I take a moment to weigh my options.

On one hand, I risk offending Tang Shui (more than I already have, that is). But, on the other, I kind of want that Ginde Pepper.

Making my choice, I say, “Eight hundred thousand gold.”

All focus moves back to Xue Tai at my declaration, breaths bated as the audience waits to see what she’ll do.

Xue Tai smiles at me and dips her head playfully. “I concede,” she says.

“For eight hundred thousand gold, the Ginde Pepper is sold to Young Master Xian Qigang,” the auctioneer announces.

I barely hear it. All I’m wondering is how much trouble Xue Tai will be when I bid for the manual.