Chapter 58

The crowd in the auction house was shaken once more. Everyone turned toward the new voice in surprise. A moment later, there was a collective gasp, and a ringing buzz of gossip dribbled out among the crowd.

Minister Jokoran and Willow were also visibly surprised. They immediately turned toward the source of the voice, and then just a moment later, developed ugly expressions.

“Hm?” Zairen also turned toward the source of the new voice, and his eyes too also widened in surprise.

The one who had bidded was a young brown-haired boy, around the same age as Willow, sitting a few tables away from Willow in the front section. However, the surprising was, the boy was wearing the same blue silk robes as Willow!

‘The same robes…’ Zairen thought. ‘That could only mean… that he went to the same school as Willow?’ He tilted his head in curiosity. Weren’t those from the same school supposed to support each other?

“That sick guy,” Jannie growled out, his eyes narrowing toward the source of the new voice. “Leero of the Jang family… that guy is awful. Of course he would do something like this. He doesn’t even need the pills, he just wants to be petty and raise up the price!”

“Leero?” Zairen turned to Jannie in question.

“That guy Leero goes to the same school as Willow, Sunrise Academy. He’s also considered a great talent, only second in the school to Willow, having a strong wood affinity and powerful family as well,” Jannie explained with a scowl. “He had seemingly gotten along with Willow before, and they had even been rumored to have been a couple. Yet…” He curled his hands into fists. “Just after Willow’s spirit energy stagnated, he suddenly turned his back on her. Ever since then, he’s shown his true colors and made disparaging remarks against her, even though they are from the same school!”

Yinry nodded in agreement. “He’s awful. He’s even said that she doesn’t deserve to be part of Sunrise Academy anymore because she won’t be able to improve anymore.”

“Yes, that made me so angry,” Jannie’s expression turned sour. “How can a classmate of the same school disparage a fellow student like that?”

Everyone from Black Cloud School nodded in agreement. They would never be able to understand something like that - if they were from the same school, shouldn’t they support each other?

In the front tabled section of the room, the giant hulking figure of Minister Jokoran continued to glare harshly at Leero. However, Leero seemed to be unaffected, smiling condescendingly back at him, seemingly without fear. A few moments later, Minister Jokoran uttered out another bid, his voice very direct: “2600 high grade spirit stones.”

“2650,” Leero spat back. Chuckling to himself, he gave a another jeering smile to both Minister Jokoran and Willow. At the same time, a tall, well dressed, brown-haired man beside the immature boy seemed to be glancing at Minister Jokoran nervously, as if telling him: ‘I can’t help it.’

Instantly, everyone could detect the tense atmosphere, and the auction house turned quiet. Especially in the front tabled section of the auction, people seemed to look nervous, glancing around at each other in an uncomfortable fashion.

Zairen clicked his tongue as well. He could feel the hints of a power struggle seeping to the surface. The more time he spent in the auction house, the more he got a sense of the politics of all of the ministers and schools that competed with each other.

Minister Jokoran stared back at the little brown haired boy Leero, his gaze turning less and less intense, but still just as direct. It was as if he was putting away his claws, but still prowling around his prey. His voice eerily calm this time, he stated another bid: “2700 high grade spirit stones.”

“2750-” Leero’s voice once against rang out, but then was suddenly cut out as the tall man beside him pulled him back and put his hand over his mouth, cutting his voice off.

“I’m sorry! We rescind our bid!” The tall man holding Leero back stated in a nasally voice, his tone a bit exasperated.

High minister Jokoran shifted his gaze to the tall brown-haired man and nodded slightly. Then, he turned back toward Sohar.

“...ah, yes,” Sohar immediately coughed out, making a gesture toward minister Jokoran. “Going once, going twice, going three times! Sold! To high minister Jokoran.” He quickly signaled for the Golden Rooster to wheel out the display box containing the jade pill bottle off of the stage.

As soon as the word “sold” had rang out throughout the auction house, it was like a weight had been lifted from peoples’ shoulders, and everyone let out a breath. The atmosphere had been a bit intense with the struggle between the two families.

Everyone shook off their nervousness and began to chatter with each other again.

But heavens!

Many got dizzy just thinking about the price. 2700 high grade spirit stones! That was equivalent to 135,000 low grade spirit stones, at the rate of 45,000 low grade spirit stones per pill!

Most people had never even seen a small fraction of that amount in their entire life. However, nobody thought it was strange. Such an amazing pill, if it didn’t sell for that much, they didn’t know what would. It was basically a get-out-of-jail-free card!

“A rare moment,” Jannie suddenly commented out loud. “Emblematic of the internal power struggles between families.”

“I guess that’s what it’s all about,” Yinry nodded. “However, I’m glad Willow was able to get those miracle pills, after all.”

“Yes,” Horace added on. “Maybe with those, she’ll be able to recover from whatever problem she has and rise up in the world of cultivation once again.”

Everyone nodded, all empathetic of Willow’s struggle.

“They won’t help,” Zairen mumbled out.

“Huh?” Jannie turned toward Zairen and furrowed his brows. “What did you say?”

“Nothing,” Zairen waved his hand with a stiff smile. He glanced around and saw that everyone was shuffling around and packing their stuff, getting ready to go. “The auction is over now, right? Should we go pick up our item?”

Just at that moment, the commanding voice of Sohar rang out again.

“Well everyone, that marks the end of our famous monthly Golden Rooster auction! I have to thank everyone for coming! And of course, congratulations to all the winning bidders; please come to our special backstage entrance to pick up your items,” he announced. “However, I do have one final announcement! May I have your attention once more?”

Hearing Sohar’s voice, most of the crowd dimmed their chatter and looked back up at him.

Seeing that he had gotten the audience’s attention again, Sohar suddenly turned to the side and assuming an introductory pose once more. “Before you go, Captain Janor has an announcement to make.”

“Hm?”

As soon as the words “Captain Janor” had rung out, it was like a wave of hypnotism had went over the crowd again, and everyone immediately completely stopped what they were doing and looked attentively over to the side of the stage toward Captain Janor. They were clearly eager to hear what she had to say.

Zairen looked around in amazement. This Captain Janor really had a natural command of everyone’s attention.

Captain Janor smiled and walked toward the center of the stage again.

“Congratulations to the Jokorans for acquiring those amazing miracle healing pills.” She gave her signature pleasant smile, looking down toward high minister Jokoran and Willow.

High Minister Jokoran and Willow smiled eagerly back. It seemed that they both really liked her.

She looked back up at the entire audience.

“If you could help me out, there’s a reason why I put these miracle pills for auction. I’m actually looking for the person that refined them - Apothecary Shen really wanted to meet them. I know almost for certain that the person is in our Sunrise City. However, after a while of searching, I was unable to find them; thus, I had decided to send out a notice in search of the person, as well as putting a few of his pills on auction to spread the message. The person I am looking for is short and commonly wears a black cloak.”

She scanned over the audience, as if inspecting each and every person one by one. “I hope all of you can spread the word. If the person can come to the Rain Province Apothecary department headquarters and confirm it is actually them, there will be a large monetary reward, as well as access to the city’s reserves of rare herbs and plants. Also, we can even directly give them the position of Lead Department Advisor within the Apothecary Department, a role with high prestige and without any daily responsibilities!”

An amazed gasp spread out throughout the crowd.

Directly give the position of Lead Department Advisor? Access to to the city’s reserves of rare herbs and plants? These were privileges that many would vy for their entire lives. Yet, Captain Janor was going to grant such high-level access and such a prestigious and high-paying role to this random expert? Few other than Apothecary Shen herself had such exclusive access!

People were shocked.

At the same time, Zairen stared out back at Captain Janor and scratched his head, his gaze full of disbelief. What was happening?

“That person could even possibly be in the crowd today, right now!” Captain Janor’s voice turned inviting, and she once again scanned around the room, as if personally talking to each individual person there. “If you’re here right now, make sure to come to the Apothecary headquarters later! There will be many benefits; you will not regret it!”

Suddenly, her roaming gaze passed over a small red-haired girl and blue-haired boy standing a bit stiffly together in the vast laymen section. Although it was far, the superb vision granted by her cultivation allowed her to see the two children within the massive crowd, although not perfectly clearly. Since the children were so small, only the top halves of their heads could be seen, and they constantly moved around.

Yet still, seeing those two children, she felt that they were familiar.

‘Hm?’ She thought, furrowing her brows. ‘Could it be… those kids?’

Looking past them a bit, she also saw a small, black-haired little boy right next to them.

Strangely… he looked a bit familiar as well? She raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

Yet, it wasn’t strange for children to have different brightly colored hair in this world, and many children did come to the auctions for fun all the time. Out of the tens of thousands of people in the crowd tonight, she had seen multiple cases of the almost the exact same scene. Her gaze quickly moved on, having not stayed on those three children for more than a moment.

At the same time, Zairen suddenly got the chills.

“Alright guys, I should go pick up my ancient relic box,” Zairen turned toward the other Black Cloud School students.

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“Congratulations on your winning bid!” The golden robed employee smiled at Zairen and Jannie. “If you could please provide payment... We can accept bank notes or spirit stones directly.” He extended out a polite hand in a cupped gesture.

“Uh… yes,” Zairen nodded. After a moment of hesitation, he took out a small pouch from his pocket and emptied it out onto the employee’s hand, spilling out a plethora of dark blue spirit stones.

He, Jannie, and a Golden Rooster employee were standing in the the side stage area in the very front of the Golden Rooster auction house. Zairen and Jannie had spent over half an hour wading through the massive crowd that was clearing out, and after finally making it through and spotting an employee standing at attention in front of a backstage door, they had immediately approached to claim their item.

“Thank you,” the employee bowed his head slightly in thanks, before looking down and bringing his other hand forward to count the stones. About a minute of counting, he looked up. “That adds up to only 75 low grade spirit stones. Do you have the other 25?”

“Yes,” Jannie cut in from Zairen’s side. Producing a plethora of spirit stones from his pocket, he selected five lighter and larger medium-grade spirit stones and passed them to the employee. As he did, he moved with a sort of reluctancy. Clearly, the sum was a large amount of money to him.

From the side, Zairen made a mental note of the debt that he now owed Jannie, and smiled slightly in thanks.

“Thank you,” the employee smiled, putting the spirit stones away and bowing slightly. “Please come with me.” He turned toward the side and raised his arm in an inviting gesture.

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The golden robed employee led Zairen and Jannie through a long corridor into a large, spacious room. Although it was mostly empty, there were still some people here, presumably winning bidders, guided by employees to their items.

Stepping in and looking around, Zairen and Jannie noted many fancy display pillars spread out throughout the room, many empty. It seemed that these pillars had held the auction items, and that most had already been claimed and taken.

“This way.”

The Golden Rooster employee continued to lead Zairen and Jannie to the back of the room. Eventually, they approached a display pillar that that contained a dirty green box. Stopping in front of it, everyone got a better look at the relic.

Seeing it up close for the first time, Jannie and Zairen both couldn’t help but scrunch their faces. The relic box looked completely ordinary and even a bit dirty. They both individually found that they didn’t understand: what was the use of something like this?

“Here it is.” The Golden Rooster employee produced a jade spirit key from his pocket and then leaned over to place it into the keyhole. A moment later, the display box clicked open and a glass panel on the outside slid open, revealing the item within.

The Golden Rooster employee reached in to grab the box and then carefully pulled it out, careful to not damage it in any way, and then turned, bowed, presenting it to Zairen. “Here you are, sir. Thank you for your business.”

“Thank you.” Zairen bowed back in response and then received the dirty green box.

Immediately, he got a surprise, his arms lifting high against the expected weight: it was much lighter than he had expected.

‘Hm?’ Zairen looked down at the box and raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t much heavier than a lightweight block of wood.

That was unexpected… it had seemed to be metal-like or at least jade-like from a distance, so he had expected that it would weigh much more. But since it was so unexpectedly light, did that mean it had special properties?

Looking closer, Zairen discovered that all over the outside surface of it, there were inumerable fine, intricate inscriptions of incomprehensible patterns and words. Immediately, his eyes widened. The inscriptions were much more complicated that he had expected: with innumerable nonrepeating swirls, designs, and shapes, it suddenly seemed much more profound than it had from a distance.

At the same time, Jannie looked down at the box as well. Seeing the incredibly complicated inscriptions, his expression started to lighten up as well. He found that the more he looked at them, the more they looked mysterious and powerful.

Maybe there really was something special about this box that he couldn’t discern!

Just at that moment, from the corner of their eyes, they saw a door near them open and two familiar figures walk through: one big black-haired man and a small black-haired girl.

‘Hm?’ Zairen and Jannie looked over, spotting the two people in surprise.

A different golden robed employee followed the two figures out from the doorway, bowing toward them. “Congratulations and thank you for your bid! Good luck with your item.”

“Thank you,” the big black-haired man replied in a deep voice, raising up a familiar jade bottle in his right hand in kudos. “We really hope it will help.”

“It’s high ministed Jokoran and Willow!” Jannie leaned toward Zairen and murmured. “They must be getting their item too. I’ve never seen them up this close.”

“Yea…” Zairen nodded absentmindedly, his eyes wandering between them.

Up close, high minister Jokoran seemed even bigger and intimidating. And in comparison to the tiny Willow, he seemed even bigger. Willow, on the other hand, seemed much more innocent than it looked from a distance, with soft facial features and big, dark, eyes.

It seemed that the items for the main auction were kept in their own secure rooms, which was what minister Jokoran and Willow seemed to be coming from.

After a few more back and forths with the employee, Minister Jokoran and Willow paid their final respects before finally turning around and walking away.

“Hm?” As she turned around, Willow looked up and spotted Zairen and Jannie staring toward her.

Minister Jokoran also spotted the two peeping boys. Immediately reacting defensively, he stepped intimidatingly forward. “Do you youngsters need something?”

“No!” Jannie was snapped out of his trance and immediately stuttered out. He took a step back and put up his hands in surrender. The man had an intimidating presence.

On the other hand, seemingly unaffected, Zairen continued to stare at Willow for a moment before locking eye contact with her. “Those pills… please don’t raise your expectations.”

His words were extremely deadpan, seemingly no emotion in them.

“Huh?” A bit surprised at the response, Willow raised her eyebrows, staring back at this tiny little black-haired boy. “What did you say?”

“Boy…” Minister Jokoran looked over and stared at Zairen. “Are you trying to start a fight?"

“No no...” Jannie immediately stepped forward in front of Zairen, blocking him and raising his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry for my friend. Please go on.” He gave a non-threatening friendly gesture. “Good luck with the pills!”

Minister Jokoran was silent for a moments, his face flat. A few moments later, he turned and nodded. “Let’s go, Willow.”

Willow stared back at the obscured Zairen, taken aback. With her status, few would so directly stare at her like that, especially with her father near her.

“Willow.” Minister Jokoran tapped her on the shoulder, interrupting her trance. “Let’s go.”

“Yes.” Willow nodded, turning and sticking to her father’s side once more. Together, they strode out and left the room.

“Zairen!” Jannie elbowed Zairen in the gut and made an exasperated groan. “What was that?!”

“Just telling them the truth,” Zairen explained.

“It seemed a bit aggressive…” Jannie sighed softly.

Glancing toward Zairen, he saw the seriousness on his face. He paused and then asked: “You were staring at her for a while. You think you can cure what she has?”

“Yeah,” Zairen nodded.

Jannie shook his head in exasperated amazement. “That’s incredible.”

He thought back to when Zairen had first offered to help cure him. At first, he had been just as direct. However, it was only later than Jannie had realized that the boy had good intentions and possessed mysterious skills that actually did give him credentials. At this point, he wouldn’t question what Zairen said. Although, he was still just as amazed.

He nodded. “You’re a good person, Zairen.”

“You know, if you really want to help…” He brought his hand to his chin. “As I mentioned before, Minister Jokoran is offering a large reward to anyone who can help his daughter regain her spirit energy. Quite a few doctors have tried and failed.”

Zairen’s eyes lit up. That was right. They had been offering a large reward to anyone that could help them.

“But… he wouldn’t let a young child like me try to treat his daughter, would he?” Zairen scratched the side of his head.

Realizing the fault in that idea, Jannie chuckled and shrugged.