There are ten items on the list for today. The Ginde Pepper was number five.

“I’m guessing you want the manual for Meng Yi?” Xiuying asks, as item number six is brought up for sale.

Meng Yi and I look at each other, then back to her.

Xiuying rolls her eyes. “You said that you’d only bid for the Ginde Pepper and the manual,” she says. “I’m guessing it’s a method manual, and it can’t be higher than beast rank, or else even me would have heard about it. And the only reason you would need a beast rank method manual is her.” She points at Meng Yi.

“Huh,” I say, a little impressed. I mean, I understand that it isn’t a particularly complicated deduction to make, but even so.

Seeing my reaction, Meng Yi says, “I know, Young Master. She has the looks of a simple brute so it’s always a surprise to find that there’s an intellect in there.”

Xiuying shoots my manager an unimpressed look.

“Would it kill you to give me a straight compliment?” she asks.

Meng Yi nods immediately. “It probably would, yes,” she says.

Their back and forth gives me a moment to think.

This is a problem. And, worse, it’s a problem that I’ve only just realised is a problem.

If I buy Meng Yi a beast rank method, only for her to step out a few days later with a higher ranked cultivation, I might as well find the nearest mountaintop and announce to the world that there’s something sus going on at Casa Qigang.

Looks like I’m trapped here… which actually makes me wonder how this was missed in the first place.

Not by me, no, I miss things all the time. It’s practically expected at this point. But Meng Yi doesn’t. How did she miss something this obvious?

One look at the woman reveals the answer clear as day. She hadn’t.

Meng Yi had obviously come to the same conclusion I have long before now, probably since I first told her what I intend to do, but she’d said nothing.

Which can only mean that she intends to use it to trap me into giving her a beast rank method.

The direction my thoughts have taken clear, Meng Yi gives me an apologetic but unrepentant look and I almost sigh.

“You know, this whole talking through stares thing you two have going on is starting to get annoying,” Xiuying says.

“We have a talking through stares thing?” I ask, genuinely curious.

Xiuying looks at me like I must be joking.

“Don’t mind her, Young Master Xian, she’s envious of our bond,” Meng Yi says, taking my right hand in both of hers.

I shoot my manager a flat stare, letting her know that I’m still not over her manipulative attempts to be beast rank.

Like, I promised to stir some trouble and make her Sage rank, for Heaven’s sake. Is she trying to make a liar out of me?

The bidding for item six ends quickly, and number seven starts up not long after that.

I remain on the sidelines through the next three items, saving Tang Shui’s money for the big, and final, item on the list.

Fortunately, none of the items I pass on are anything particularly special, two of them more family heirlooms of the Mings (the least of which sells for one hundred and eighty thousand), and the other two, more cultivation supplements with temporary effects.

Soon enough, the final item for the day is brought out, and from the way the room’s aura changes, it’s immediately obvious that most, if not all, the patrons present have been anticipating this.

“You would think they would be less interested in a beast rank manual,” I say.

“Why would they be?” Xiuying asks. “You think manuals are easy to come by?”

“It’s not that I think they’re easy to come by,” I say. “It’s just… they’re all cultivators. They already have manuals.”

“Not necessarily, Young Master,” Meng Yi says. “Many cultivators have to rent access to manuals in order to cultivate.”

My brows climb. “Seriously?”

Xiuying snorts. “You’re such a rich boy,” she says, though not unkindly.

Actually, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that, based on the expression on her face, she finds my reaction rather endearing.

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“For many of the cultivators here, this is an incredible opportunity,” Meng Yi says. “For their families, if not themselves.”

“Yeah,” Xiuying says, looking almost sombrely at the audience. “Wouldn’t surprise me if some here today are putting up everything they have for the chance to own that manual.”

“That seems unwise,” I say. “Cultivation can’t be cheap.” Even with how easily mine has gone so far, that truth has always been evident to me, and it only became clearer after advancing to the second layer of Sprouting yesterday. Because, based on what I’m sensing, it would probably take a hundred or more cups of Prismatic Starlightdew Mint Tea to get from where I am now to the third layer.

Now, granted, beast rank is not noble rank, but the principle is the same, because— “If you spend all your money acquiring a method, then with what money are you going to fund your cultivating?” I ask.

“That’s tomorrow’s problem. Today’s problem is having a method,” Xiuying replies instantly, meaning every word.

Right. That’s certainly one way to look at things.

Bidding for the manual opens at eight hundred thousand gold.

In five seconds, it’s at one point one million and climbing.

Woah.

As the seconds tick, the bidding intensifies, and as it does, tempers, as well as qi, begin to rise.

It starts with one man, a peasant rank throwing about a little bit of qi just to show off, I guess, and next thing we know almost every peasant rank present is flaring their will, and the beast ranks have to pump out qi too just to stay conscious.

Meng Yi slumps onto her chair, pale and shivering, and my heart runs cold.

They’re hurting her. These idiots are hurting her!

Options fly through my mind. Ways to protect Meng Yi as quickly as possible.

Even as I consider them though, the truth stands out to me like the sun up in the sky: the quickest way to make them stop, is to make them stop!

So I make them stop.

Weight of The Emperor’s Will

I pull the technique back to its minimum for much of the room, only letting the weight truly sit on the chests of those powerful few pumping their qi all over the place.

The pavilion goes deathly still, and what was just a wild mix of qi is now a single presence, the sun.

Gently, I rise from my seat to check on Meng Yi.

“Is she okay?” Xiuying asks.

“She’s unconscious,” I reply, not holding back my sigh.

Great, this again.

And the doctor had said just yesterday to not strain her qi network.

…Wait, the doctor. He’s here, right? I remember seeing him.

Looking over where I saw the man last, I spot him and quickly wave him over.

He’s beast rank, so not one of the people I’m still crushing with my technique, but the man freezes at my attention all the same, eyes wide and scared.

I sigh. The look stings.

“Meng Yi needs your help,” I call to him. “Please.” And whether it’s because I used the magic word, or because there’s some sort of Hippocratic oath in this world, that does the trick, and he rushes over.

He has Meng Yi conscious in seconds, and when her eyes flutter open, I sigh with relief.

“Are you okay? Does your head hurt?” She’d admitted to a headache yesterday, so I figure it’s a safe bet.

Meng Yi looks around, then back at me. “This is rather embarrassing,” she says, cheeks reddening.

Xiuying and I laugh.

“Yeah, she’s okay,” the other woman says, looking relieved too.

I spend almost half a minute being reassured by the doctor that no, Meng Yi suffering qi shock twice in as many days will not in fact cause brain, or any other, serious or irreparable damage.

Not that qi shock couldn’t cause such damage, it could. Death even was on the table. But apparently, what Meng Yi has suffered twice are low levels of qi shock, because none of those cultivators, bar me, were strong enough to do worse, and I certainly hadn’t been trying to hurt her.

“Young Master Xian.” Hong Li rushes to me, he and his retinue of three falling down to their knees.

“Forgive us for this transgression upon your person!” he cries.

“It’s okay,” I say. “Not your fault. Just people being people.” I raise my voice. “Does anyone else need medical attention?”

It takes a moment, but hands begin to go up.

I count five.

“Okay, just hold on, Doctor Gu Chi will get to you,” I say. “And if there are any other doctors present, please help out.”

There is another doctor present, a woman.

And together, they make quick work of everyone who needs aid.

A few minutes later, everything is settled, and only one matter remains.

I address the room. “Everyone, please, let’s maintain our excitement, okay?” I ask calmly. “We’re adults. We should act like it.”

I release the technique.

They try to hide it. The gasping for air. The relief.

They fail.

And, watching them, just like I had with Tang Shui’s son, I feel a little bad.

Quietly, ignoring the many scared, hateful—and Xue Tai’s singular amused—stares on my me, I take my seat.

Up on stage, the beast rank auctioneer, with not a hair out of place, clears her throat and continues, “For the beast rank, Path of The Spider cultivation method manual, we have the current bid of two-and-a-half million gold, by the Shin Patriarch. Are there any contenders?”

“Five million gold,” I say.

All eyes turn to me.

“Well, now,” Xue Tai says, sucking on her pipe, “whatever could a cultivator of your calibre need a lowly beast rank manual for, Young Master Xian? Could it perhaps be for that comely Manager of yours?”

I give the woman the flattest stare I can manage. “I stopped being amused five minutes ago,” I say.

Her eyes widen with surprise for a moment, then she smiles at me again, though bashfully this time, and dips her head before looking away.

“Five million gold from Young Master Xian,” the auctioneer calls. “Any counters?”

The Shin Patriarch raises the bid by five hundred thousand, so, in response, I take it up to eight million.

Because, right now, I don’t give a flying fuck.

No one can match my bid.

There are clearly many who would like to, if only to show me up in some way, but they can’t. And, even if they could, it’s evident to everyone present that I will just keep raising the bar.

I half expect Xue Tai to pull something, but she stays silent, and I realise that she never even once bid on the manual.

The only item she made a play at today was the Ginde Pepper.

Despite my bid clearly being above the ability of everyone else present, the auctioneer still fulfills all righteousness by asking, “Will anyone match that bid?”

She waits a beat, but silence is her only reply.

“The beast rank Path of The Spider cultivation method manual is sold to Young Master Xian Qigang for eight million gold,” she announces.

There’s some applause. Not much, but more than I expected, which surprises me.

I shrug it off.

I turn to Meng Yi.

She gives me a look that’s hard to decipher, proving that Xiuying is full of crap with that whole ‘talking through stares’ thing she was on about.

“What?” I ask her, feeling a little funny as those brown eyes remain locked on me.

Meng Yi just shakes her head. “Nothing,” she says.