The moon was a silver carapace, faintly discernable among floating clouds. Thinly spread stars decorated the night sky, and a gentle autumn breeze accompanied the gradual change in temperature.

Along the far reaches of the neutral grounds, the sounds of wildlife calmly gave way to an ineffable silence. Unspeakable horrors, spiritual remnants, and all manner of nighttime abominations rose from their dwellings to roam the twisted landscape. It was as if any evidence of a once flourishing ecosystem had completely disappeared with sunset.

In contrast with the seemingly barren scape beyond its stone walls, Peng Gong city was alive with song and festivity. Bright lights illuminated the night sky, giving off the impression of a northern skyline. Bustling crowds made way through populated streets, where all manner of vendors and merchants lined up to peddle their wares.

"Does anyone have white tail chiseled-dove talons for sale?"

“I hear Peak Lord Fēngmì huángfēng is attending this year’s auction.”

“Azure Lotus Petals! Azure Lotus Petals for sale, just five spirit stones!”

Restaurants along either side of the central plaza road were stacked to the brim with patrons. Sect brothers and lifelong rivals shared drinks with one another in friendly discourse. The occasional brawl between two drunks would bring about a crowd of cheering onlookers. Outside a tall building spanning forty Li* in height (TL note: about 20 kilometers), a large crowd had begun to gather.

Once in a three-year cycle, the Bai Feng auction house opens its doors to the general public. Rare treasures and alchemy ingredients which could not be readily found anywhere else passed hands through this place like flat stones along a riverbed.

Long-time patrons, merchants and cultivators, even young masters from imperial backgrounds and scions of the ten families arrived to entertain the occasion. Some sought out the grand banquet hall in hopes of striking it rich, while others perused the centre lobby, preferring to socialize and network.

“Senior, why are there so many people gathered in front of these doors? The main auction does not start for another seven hours.”

“This must be your first time, junior brother. Everyone here is lining up to get a good seat before the main event begins.”

“Once these doors open, finding a seat with a decent view of the auction will become as difficult as catching an azure-willow pangolin.”

Upon entering the building, many guests would find themselves within the main lobby. This was a vast expanse connected to the many rooms and stairways leading to the different areas of the auction house. Within this building, guests were generally limited to three gathering grounds, that being, the main lobby, the parlor, and the banquet hall.

Across the main hall was a stairway that led up to the second floor, this was a space measuring one hundred Li* to and from (TL note: about 50 kilometers²). This room was where the majority of auctions were held, and regularly amassed the greatest crowds throughout the night. A majority of guests coming through the two front doors were already beginning to line up. A limited number of back-aisle seats were available to the public, with the rest of the seats requiring the attendee to either have an invitation or late-stage bone refining cultivation base.

Along the right walls of the lobby, a passageway led into the banquet hall. The banquet hall generally sold gambling rocks and all manner of sealed inheritances excavated from immortal tombs and ancient burial grounds. This was a place where cultivators had the opportunity to spend their spirit stones and points in hopes of striking it rich, and to cajole in merriment among peers. As the main auction would not begin for another seven hours, many guests gradually filled up the space.

“Brother Cheng! Brother Cheng!”

A group of mortals and cultivators loudly cheered as a man standing in the center parlor nervously threw down another bag of spirit stones. Beads of sweat rolled down the cultivator’s brow stared with bloodshot eyes at the palm-sized rock laying on top of the anvil. The shop keep casually raised his hammer; a shower of thunder and tremor rippled throughout the area as the worker slammed his hammer down unto the anvil.

When it comes to rock gambling, the contents of a stone usually amounts to nothing more than common crystal or a layer of dust, however this would not always be the case. As rumor would have it, every now and then a down-on-his-luck cultivator would happen to gamble the last of his twenty spirit stones on an ordinary rock, only to crack it open and discover a rank four 宜家 Ikea desk-lamp Gu* inside.

“Ah, brother Cheng! Better luck next time!”

Members of the crowd wailed and turned to console the cultivator. As expected, the gambling rock had come to empty.

A short distance away, three men stood around an octagonal ring filled with sand, clutching onto paper bills and copper pence. A crowd had formed around them--the sounds of cheers and commotion drowned out everything in the nearby vicinity. These three men were watching a group of tiny clay people build a community in the sand pit. Suddenly, another group of little clay people ran into the village, massacring the inhabitants.

One of the three men, a portly fellow with cheeks flushed red and a bushy mustache, threw himself backward and cried out. "Bahh, lost again!"

He took a swig of the drink at his side and leaned back into his seat, apparently displeased with his loss. The other two men shook their heads and lightly chuckled, before turning their attentions back into the ring.

"How distasteful, playing around with the lives of lesser beings." Sitting under at an indoor café, Proctor Ming took a sip of her drink and glanced at the far-off group men with apparent disdain.

"Such are the vices of men, sigh. I hear you are attending this year's exchange." A young woman sat across from Ming Xiwei. This woman was the peak lord of Saint Devil walks about Thousand Paths Sect's third peak, Luo Jinhua.

"Yes," Ming Xiwei nodded. Regarding the exchange event*, Proctor was confident that she had brought with her something good this time around.

'Earthen-grade, Tier three medicinal pill, Heavengarde Literature Pill.'

Consuming this pill could allow the user to recite a line of poetry from the dao marks encompassing the world, possibly gaining the user some form of enlightenment and permanently improving their cultivation strength. However, as it was an Earthen-grade, meaning the quality could only fall between 30-50% purity at best. Thus, consuming this pill could lead the user to build up significant immunity against other pills of the same medicinal-type, such as the ever-common Dews-light Honey Pill, and the much rarer, Heavenly [email protected] Pill.

"Good. Very Good." Luo Jinhua nodded. As the peak lord of Dantian Peak, which specialized in medical herbs and pill concoction, how could Luo Jinhua not know of the difficulties Ming Xiwei gone through to get to this point? This was a momentous achievement, for someone of Ming Xiwei's young age to cultivate such a pill!

One should know the difficulties of pill concoction--nevermind the weighing, measuring, and sampling of ingredients. The true difficulty of pill concoction lies in the difficulty of action involved in this procedure. It is akin to solving a complicated mathematical equation every step of the way, for every action, and every passing second.

As I understand that you, the reader, are an uneducated bum and cannot comprehend the difficulty of pill alchemy with mere words. Therefor I, yours truly, will have to prove it to you how difficult the act of pill concoction is. Please, by all means, solve this equation below in your head and tell me the time took you to do it:

That's what I thought. Now for those of you like yours truly with whom resides a big brain, solving this problem in twelve seconds can be considered average, possibly mediocre talent. Not bad, not bad at all. However, the tier-1 pill refiner is expected to perform a calculation of an equivalent difficulty within 0.00271 seconds during many times over the pill-making process. Therefore, by all accounts, you, the reader, are a trash and have no talent for pill concoction.

"Little Ming, what happened to your other invitation? Have you given it a thought as to whether you will take up my offer?" Luo Jinhua asked.

"Mm, I gave it to a young disciple whom I had met the other day.” Ming Xiwei replied.

Luo Jinhua was momentarily stunned.

This invitation was, after all, something that could no be assigned ordinary value using currency.

But seeing as Ming Xiwei did not have any problems with giving away the invitation, Luo Jinhua reasoned this person of interest must be quite the talent. “This disciple, I would very much like to meet with them.”