Guan Meiyan

"Item number twenty seven! Four Aperture Nourishing Pills made by Outer Disciple Hu, starting price of eight hundred silver taels?" Xi finished with a question. He was as surprised at the price as everyone else, because the audience tittered in response.

Outer Disciples who took part in the selling side of the auction at Sword Peak usually had an inflated sense of self worth.

Fairy Guan dragged her eye over the crowd of cultivators until she settled on the man who must have been the seller. Nearly everyone was confused at the price tag, but the boy who must have been Disciple Lu looked genuinely shocked. He wouldn't have had that reaction if he wasn't injured by the reaction from the crowd.

She carefully took in his features. A pert nose, a noble - if somewhat effeminate - jawline, eyes that were just a little too close together, cheekbones that were high but not sharp - something that Fairy Guan was sure the boy had never thought about. This was the face of a cultivator who believed cultivation would make him attractive.

Fairy Guan had lived for many, many years, but when she got bored, she liked to pretend she was still that shallow girl of nineteen from Huzhou - and put people into boxes they didn't quite fit in, were she to be honest.

Appearance counted for little in cultivation, but that wasn't the point. Disciple Hu cared about his appearance, but hadn't the diligence to study what made a face beautiful, a sure sign of mediocrity. This boy would be considered quite handsome, for a mortal. To cultivators, he was as faceless as could be.

"Going once, going twice, going three times!" shouted Xi. "The starting price has been reset to a single silver tael, ladies and gentlemen!"

Fairy Guan lost all interest in the boy and let her eyes wander to other places, other people. The various corners of the Middle Continent were quite well represented here today. Even if the colors of their robes weren't a dead giveaway for the sect they were from, she liked to think that she'd be able to tell from their appearance alone.

The people of the Linked Cities prized different things and often adopted the customs of the sects they spent the lion's share of their life in, but some cultural memory was difficult to shake and manifested itself in their features.

"Forty-five taels!" some woman seated in the back left section of the amphitheatre called out. A cultivator representing a merchant clan, for sure. The cultivators from merchant families and clans tended to congregate together as long as Fairy Guan could remember and they had chosen that area of the Sword Platform this year.

The woman was somewhere along the road of foundation establishment and wore a hanfu. The hanfu was cut from a clean, baby blue silk. The tired shadows beneath her eyes clashed with the colors and her slightly-too-sharp nose. A Dongjing native, for sure.

Early in her life, Fairy Guan had found it difficult to predict whether someone was from Dongjing with a glance, but after spending a few centuries there, she'd come to realize that her friends from the eastern capital all loved intrigue and the dramatic. Mystery was cast within the shadows of their faces and accentuated by their posture and tone of voice.

"Eighty!" fired back Peak Master Feng to her left. "These are made by the proud disciples of the Ascending Sky, not some mortal in a backwater Minghai market!"

Fairy Guan didn't bother to correct him. Feng did not need low quality pills made by an Outer Disciple. This display was solely aimed at getting a fair price for the disciples of their sect. He was haggling on the behalf of his students.

"One hundred taels," responded the woman, defeated. She looked about as insulted as she could be.

Peak Master Feng didn't increase his bid. Twenty five taels apiece for four Aperture Nourishing Pills was quite a fair deal, even if they weren't very well made.

Xi nodded up at them. "Going once, going twice-"

"One hundred and one!" a man shouted within the same section of the amphitheatre as the woman.

Pavilion Master Xi exhaled, letting out a noise like a whistling kettle. "Sold to the offer of one hundred taels." He swivelled his head towards the man and glared at him angrily. "We've matched twenty-six offerings with their new owners. And here I’d thought we’d make it through the last sale from the Outer Sect without someone conducting themselves like a clown. For the first time in centuries - we were so close!"

On the surface, Pavilion Master Xi, Sect Master Su and the outer disciple selling these pills looked quite similar.

Of course, the Pavilion Master and the Sect Master had faces that were far more refined than an outer disciple's. But they were the ones who fell under and then propagated that uninspired, blind standard of beauty the outer disciple had sought to emulate.

And it was a blind standard, formed by the passive observation of other cultivators. A blind observation was a bit of a contradiction, but it was the best way of describing it. Over their long lifespans, cultivators like Xi and Su passively took in the expectations of the world and let those expectations mold them.

Fairy Guan was certain that neither of the two had been attractive in the slightest before they'd begun cultivating. She chased away that ever-so-slight spike of disdain, an artifact of a time when she was a different person. There were many reasons to dislike both the Pavilion Master and the Sect Master - to dislike them on this basis would cheapen the rest.

At what point would she Sever away that girl from Huzhou who cared a little too much about appearances?

After the inner disciple kneeling at a little desk behind the Pavilion Master made a note of the woman who'd offered the hundred taels, Xi clapped his hands together and changed his tone dramatically.

"As usual, if you've won a bid on anything, please remain seated after the auction is over, we will be collecting payment and distributing receipts at that point. We will negotiate the transfer of goods and services at the Pavilion in Sky Peak. There will be an inner disciple ready to lead you there if it is necessary," Xi fired off. It was the fifth time he'd repeated that.

The Yin Fire Lamp hanging above him dimmed slightly.

"Now begins the auctions for works made by our Inner Disciples! We have far fewer options compared to works by our outer sect - only twelve, but I'm very excited to show you our batch for this year. I'm proud to present to you-"

He waited, turning around.

The edge of a long, pine table exited a room behind Pavilion Master Xi at shoulder height. Even on its side, the table was a bit too wide for the doorway. One of the legs was stuck behind a door frame. There was an almighty bang as the disciple wriggling it out of the room lost patience. The bang echoed through Sword Platform, and sounded something like deafening incompetence.

The disciple piloting the table squeaked and slid it out with a horrid grinding that could be confused for amateur carpentry. She was wearing the thick leather boots of Sky Peak and had a rather wispy beauty to her, at odds with her actions.

"One of yours?" Fairy Guan asked Ling.

Ling nodded. "Daoist Shi. Does good work. Very clumsy, very enthusiastic. A bit of an in-betweener, overly cautious in her cultivation. If she spends another decade doing odd jobs for the sect instead of advancing, she'll be a sure disappointment."

The look on his face told her that Ling considered the girl a disappointment already.

"Luckily, we're not auctioning the table!" Xi joked with the crowd, getting a wave of laughter.

Daoist Shi looked mortified and retreated at just under full speed into the room whence she came.

"It is unfailingly strange to me, how our disciples will go to any lengths not to cultivate," judged the Sect Master.

Fairy Guan thought of saying something about how there was more to life, about how the disciples of the sect kept it running, about how the talented were built off the efforts of the less fortunate inner disciples, but said nothing. That would be hypocritical. In truth, she felt the same way as the Sect Master.

"Our first item is a painting, a classic of sea and sky, put on canvas by the esteemed Daoist Po of our Inner Sect!" Xi unfurled the painting across the table - it was done on white paper with black inks. The telltale notes of blue implied that the ink used had come not from the traditional mixture of mountain coal and pine charcoal of Tianbei, but the squids of the eastern ocean.

"Inscribed into the art itself with simple, strong lines are the celebrated words of alchemists across the world, the first verse of the Book of Changes!"

The audience gasped, mostly because they were uncultured. The first verse of the Book of Changes could be found in the archive of any reputable sect. Though the painting was quite nice.

"Imagine being so excited about the first verse alone," said Feng. He fiddled with his mustache. “What does that say about our Middle Continent?”

Fairy Guan sniffed. "Any Daoist who has sought Principle should know the first verse," she said with a scowl. "It remains the most succinct summary of cultivation and, in my opinion, is amongst the most beautiful. Origin and nine - the dragon hides, still unused."

"I've given much thought to the sixth verse, in my preparations," said Sect Master Su, giving her the shadow of a smirk. "Uppermost and nine - the dragon exceeds the boundaries. He repents, but not for long. The Heavens will never accept those who are full of regrets - that is not the path to greatness."

Su had driven her Master to retire early to the star council. He’d only worn white at her Master's funeral, and now he was being critical of her Master's character. Fairy Guan contemplated the likelihood of escape were she to successfully kill him on the spot. She'd never wanted to be the Sect Master, but it was hard to accept him as their leader even on days he didn't make comments like this.

"Starting bid of one spirit stone of low density!"

"The boy is out of his mind," grumbled Ling, who was eager to break up the sudden turn of emotion within the alcove. "Who would ever pay a spirit stone for-"

"One spirit stone!" called out a voice from the seats for honored guests directly in front of the Sword Platform. The man was wearing the pale yellow of the Clear Skies and a rather pleased grin. A little silver band on the forefinger of his right hand marked him as a core disciple of the sect.

Fairy Guan took another look at the aforementioned honored guests, seated front and center at the auction. They were representatives from many of the Great Sects - the light green of the Rolling Clouds, the blood red of Song Mountain, the ocean blue of the Still Waters. The other was a Zhu princess, who could only represent the Paper Flowers.

There were also, curiously, three outer disciples from the Ascending Sky seated with them.

Disciple Zhu, who Fairy Guan had cautioned about her own family, sat behind her sister and to the left - the place of an attendant, with the expression of a beaten dog.

Disciple Ji, with the pretty jaw, and Disciple Chow, with the sharp cheekbones, were frantically whispering into the ears of the disciple from the Clear Skies who'd made the bid. Disciple Chow had a particular disdain on her face - she'd known the worth of the painting and was making it very clear to her friend. After a few moments, the man looked less pleased.

"A spirit stone and two hundred taels," came another voice after a few moments - from the merchant clans' side of the amphitheatre again. There was a faint quiver in the man's words - the hesitation that came from the stigma of bidding against one of the Great Sects. He clearly didn't know he was doing the delegation from Dongjing a favor.

"Going once, twice - and sold!"

"Are you kidding me?" Ling muttered. “At least it wasn’t someone from our sect who bought it. I would have given them a stern talking to.”

Spirit stones of low density were worth roughly a thousand pieces of silver - far more than the painting in question. It was a common occurrence - it was easy to scam the uninitiated with art at an auction.

The painting was rolled up once more, and the necessary clerical work was done to note its buyer. As it was happening, an inner disciple brought a faded, yellow brocade box to the stage. Fairy Guan noted that the man was trembling. Whatever was inside must have been very, very valuable.

“Next up, item two, we have something really special for everyone here! Everyone has that one beloved relative who has not managed to awaken - today, in partnership with our august Peak Master Feng, Daoist Pai has recovered the recipe for an Awakening Pill from a crypt in the Polar Mountains of the Northern Continent!”

There was another gasp from the audience, but this one was well deserved.

“Is that not express cause for tribulation?” Su asked quietly, looking faintly concerned.

“We have the technology.” Feng had nothing more to say on the topic, but he looked quite pleased.

“Since this pill has only had a forty percent success rate amongst trial populations, we can only start the offer at a single spirit stone - but it is a sign of things to come!” shouted Xi.

“Two spirit stones!” was the instant reply from one of the inner disciples in the audience.

This was, without a doubt, the first real treasure of the auction - and the sort of thing that gave the Ascending Sky its reputation. Cultivation supplies were often commodities that advanced cultivators would beg, steal and kill for. A pill like this, however, was something that offered the promise of eternity to a much larger portion of the world.

“Five!” snapped the same merchant who'd bought the painting. The price of the pill had risen dramatically in just two bids.

But this was something that piqued the interest of the Great Sects. "Seven," responded the delegate from the Rolling Clouds. This was to be expected - if a sect could break down the pill and reverse engineer it, it would present a large advantage for the descendants of their best cultivators who could have immense talent, but hadn't experienced enough of life to enter Qi Condensation.

But there was another interest that wanted it far more desperately. "Ten spirit stones. And I would appreciate it if everyone here would give a thought to the common man and understand why the House of Zhu will buy this pill," said Zhu Luoli. True to form, she represented the interests of the dynasty rather than the Paper Flowers.

“Honored guests always bid the most,” said Feng. His smile was incandescent. Ten spirit stones was likely a princely sum for the inner disciple who'd worked with him to develop the Awakening Pill, but it was nothing to him. Feng worked for recognition above all else - and he was getting it.

No one was willing to incur the wrath of the House of Zhu and, thus, they got what they wanted. This sort of thing happened often.

Fairy Guan examined the woman who was considered the House of Zhu's most promising prospect. The current Zhu Emperor was younger than Fairy Guan and older than Sect Master Su, placing him at six or seven thousand years of age. His first four daughters had come and gone with little talent for cultivation and his first wife had died to her Ignition. This would be true of the Emperor's next two wives as well.

The Fifth Princess, however, showed more talent for cultivation than her father ever did - Igniting in her first century. By Fairy Guan's measure, the woman had opened eight meridians and now sought Principle. It was a fantastic, if not spectacular, use of three thousand years.

And shades of the Fifth Princess's personality were obvious to Fairy Guan in just the cast of her face. Zhu Luoli kept the blemishes of the Zhu line - ears that were very slightly too large, and a nose that was very slightly too short - features that she shared with the Emperor. But even with these traits, she was one of the most attractive women of the Middle Continent. Fairy Guan was sure this was the Emperor's favorite daughter, of those who survived.

Few did. Zhu princesses had the strange habit of contracting rare diseases, dabbling in treason and dishonoring the royal line. Fairy Guan stared at Zhu Luoli's shadow, a girl in her teens who wore the black robes of her own sect, and wondered what would become of her.