It was here. The day of the auction at the Ross Estate.

But before that, let's rewind time a bit.

Soon after all of us had beaten the fourth floor's Gatekeeper, including the girls who had started on the third floor, Shi Yan had returned. His buddies were pretty excited to see him back, but the girls with me weren't exactly thrilled, with the exception of Xiang Peng, who was happy because he achieved results and gained valuable information for us.

Xiang Peng...truly a terrifying girl.

Shi Yan and her had obviously spoken privately beforehand already, before he met up with the rest of us. That was also why Xiang Peng took another bathroom break a little before Shi Yan grouped up with the rest of us - the same excuse as before, but...well, I guess it was a valid one.

In any case, when she came back, our eyes met, and I immediately knew that she wanted to talk to me later, when we were alone. That time, was now.

"So. What did your pawn find out?" I asked indifferently.

"Hm...calling Shi Yan my pawn..." Xiang Peng murmured thoughtfully, closing one eye.

"That is what he is, is he not?"

"Well, I suppose that's true," she agreed at last. "Though...when you put it like that, it's almost like I'm a villainess or something, heehee."

I scoffed. "Whatever. Get to the point."

"Mkay. To put it simply, what we had originally conjectured was correct. That button in the bathroom on the third floor...its power is greater than we had imagined."

"How so?"

"Well, according to Shi Yan, when he pressed it, the whole floor turned from an office-like layout to an auction stage with seats for audience all around. He then panicked and pressed the button again, and everything returned to normal."

"...I see. And how did he escape the building after causing such a commotion?"

"He brute forced it," Xiang Peng replied. As expected.

I sighed. "What a pain...now they're going to be on high alert for the auction this upcoming Tuesday..."

"Should I...not have done this? Tell Shi Yan to go be the scapegoat, I mean," Xiang Peng asked quietly. It was behavior that didn't suit her normal appearance.

I chuckled. "Nah. The information was worth it. It's not your fault."

"Hm...so what do you say, in that case? A reward for me, perhaps? Xiang Peng leaned in closer to me, pushing me against the wall and pressing her cleave against my body.

"Hmph. Don't you still have Shi Yan to deal with?" I asked, pushing her off of me. "He's looking forward to your answer, remember? I wonder how you're going to settle this."

Xiang Peng pouted. "Hngh...no fair, when Qing Yue hugs you, you hug her back, but when I do, you just push me away?"

Without bothering to give her a reply, I walked off, having gathered the information I needed.

*****

We explored the fourth floor after that. It wasn't all that exciting. For some reason, even though the third floor had contained some magic spells, albeit useless ones, this floor did not. The only things we found were...recipe books. Yep. Cooking books. I guess whoever decided what books went on which floor valued cooking over useless magic. I could see why. At least good cooking had a use - food. On the other hand, useless magic was...well, useless.

For the remainder of that week, I didn't attempt to climb any more floors. Mei Gui did not either. Instead, I figured it would be good to stock up on some money, so we spent our time taking on quests from the Hunters' Guild here in Shanghai. Not only was it good training, we also got an opportunity to explore all the different parts of Human territory...though it was only in the wild, since any Monsters or Magic Beasts raiding a city would've long been resolved before the Hunters' Guild could post up a quest for it.

The other girls decided to do the same thing as me, and took a break from the Library of Infinite Beginning. In all honesty, Yu An Yan and Yu An Xue had been paying for all our expenses as a group thus far, and we all felt indebted to them. The two of them could honestly keep climbing the Library or perhaps just take a break for a couple of days, but they insisted on coming with us to take on quests and make some money as well. They probably just didn't want to be left out.

It was nice to see that the girls had developed their own friendships with one another, even though they all met through me. As for the four people we became companions with by chance, they kept climbing the Library of Infinite Beginnings. I didn't know what Xiang Peng said exactly to Shi Yan, but he seemed to be extremely heartbroken. 99% certain he got rejected.

In any case, time passed by quickly. I had Xiang Peng teach the girls some Level Three spells as well in the process, but none of them could cast any yet. Still, it was a start.

By the time Tuesday rolled around, we were pretty stocked up on money. All of us had a good 10,000 bucks now each. The girls all had debit cards to store the cash in, but unfortunately, I did not. So, to compromise, I dumped all of the cash I received into my Space Locket.

In any case, today was the day of the auction. The Basilisk Dust we needed would be sold here, tonight. We had a good idea of how the interior of the building was, where all the security cameras were, and we had a plan too, which we devised over the time we had.

'If you want to get something dirty done, then you wait...for lights out.'

That was the theory we're running this plan on. The electricity source for this building came from a metal green box outside of the building itself, a little distance away. We received this information from Old Man Leng. Mei Gui would be the one responsible for the destruction of this box at the right time.

Feng Mian will be the one doing the stealing. She had entered my dorm room once before, so it's not like she didn't have experience being a thief. Moreover, the Cloak of Invisibility belonged to her, so it was only natural. She would hide within the building until the right time came.

Now, as for how she will get inside in the first place...that would be done with my help. Those two guards knew me, so it made it easier to convince them to let us through. Just going under a disguise as a plumber or something wouldn't work. They would never allow me in. But if I could convince the guards...

My portion of the fight was less of a physical battle, but more of a mental one. If I could persuade the guards to let me through, then I could take Feng Mian along with me easily, since she was invisible. Moreover, I knew that these guards were dissatisfied with this company because of that incident with that woman from last time.

But even if this plan failed, I had a back-up...though it wasn't pretty. I would have Yu An Yan and Yu An Xue hiding on the sides. If I couldn't convince the guards, I would give the signal, and they would use their Divine Weapons to kill the guards, or at least threaten them. Guns would be more useful in this situation, but unfortunately, neither of their guns were silenced ones, and magic was out of the question since it was too loud and conspicuous.

Anyway, once Feng Mian was safely inside and Mei Gui was in position, all we had to do was wait. Since everything that was underneath the Cloak of Invisibility would also be rendered invisible as long as it remained active, Feng Mian's escape shouldn't prove to be too difficult. We would be here at the front door to receive her, and if anyone is chasing after her, we would be ready to take them out. Of course, pulling this off stealthily was the best outcome, but stealth wasn't always an option.

This wouldn't be an easy mission. But it was one we needed to do, in order to save Lan Xiao Su's mother - and herself. She probably felt guilty about this whole situation, but under the continuous convincing of the other girls, she seemed to relax a little and accept the fact that we were all here for her. She wasn't the only one who had grown, after all. All of us had, and will continue to do so.

In any case, that was the plan we came up with.

All that was left was to carry it out, and hope everything would turn out fine.