“Friends, please quell your anger.”

Middle-aged, the man was dressed in a light pair of silken trousers along with a matching tunic of darker blue. The cloak that was draped over his shoulders only reached down to his waist, its edges trimmed with soft white fur. Not only was he covered in just as much star gold as the auction’s host, but the CMA insignia that was embroidered onto the bosom of his tunic had two layers of golden gilding rather than a single one like the sigils that were visible on all of the man’s fellow members that were in attendance. The fabric of the treasure chest was also a charcoal shade rather than the same dark black as seen on the others, signifying him as someone with unique status within the organization. As soon as he walked in, everyone in the room that was a part of the Continental Merchant Association stood up and nodded in his direction.

“You are?” said the bald elder, taking note of everyone’s reactions.

“Connick Sorus, Chamberlain to Merchant Lord Kalvin.” Connick was shadowed on either side by two powerful bodyguards. “We and the Falling Rain Sect have always had an amicable relationship, however we have rules here at the CMA and so you can’t stop us from selling these swords here at this auction.”

“Is that how you act in an amicable relationship?”

“I’m aware that it’s quite rude towards you, so how about this? I’ll purchase all of these swords here, for the price of the opening bid.” Looking at the host, he asked, “How much for all of them?”

Widening her eyes in surprise, the host said, “It’s 400,000 per set of fifty, so for all 852 swords it will cost just over 6.8 million spirit stones.”

Knowing full well that all of those spirit stones were going right into Nolan’s pocket, Esteban nearly fell out of his chair. And here he had been worried about selling three of his flying swords.

One of Connick’s eyelids twitched. Clearing his throat, he produced a spatial bag and then threw it towards the woman on stage, who caught it with quick hands. “There’re seven million in there. Now, return those swords to the elders so we can all get on with the auction.”

The swords all disappeared into a spatial bag that the host had just taken out, before the bag floated over to the elders. After stowing it away, they thanked Connick for his goodwill and each declared that they owed him a personal favour even if it meant killing someone on the man’s behalf. This made several members in the audience speak praises of Connick’s foresight, since the aid of three Genesis-staged cultivators was a rare thing to come by and in certain senses was a priceless benefit to have in one’s back pocket.

After settling the conflict, Connick directly leapt up into the suite where the elders were staying and began talking to them in a low, inaudible voice. Seeing this, the host of the auction moved on to the next item, much to the annoyance of all the merchants who had wanted to purchase the flying swords.

The event lasted for the entire evening, with a few intermittent breaks in between each round of sales. Nolan’s voice became a staple throughout the night, always deriding the elders of the Falling Rain Sect whenever they decided to bid on an item. Every time this happened, he would purchase the item directly if nobody else was competing against the elders for it.

Vocal as Nolan was, the targets of his trolling didn’t bite the bait for a second time, and managed to control their anger all throughout the duration of the sales. Nothing else remarkable took place at the auction house, so by the time that Aine and Esteban went over to the neighbouring building to collect the 117,000 spirit stones that his items had earned him after commission, the excitement of the night had all but fizzled out.

The two of them waited for Nolan to come by to collect his earnings, but an entire hour passed before Esteban realized that the older boy must have left the auction house earlier on and had likely collected his earnings quite a while ago. Realizing this, he convinced Aine that they should use their movement skills to return home as quickly as possible, which they did soon after.

Nolan and May still weren’t around by the time that they returned to the suite, which was empty save for Nyla and Alicia, who were currently sharing a meal while the others were off training in their rooms. Nyla’s eyes darted to the front doors as soon as they walked in, though she quickly looked away when she saw that it was them.

As he and Aine sat down to join them for dinner, Alicia turned to her friend with a curious glance.

“Where were you guys all day?”

“We went shopping in town,” said Aine, her expression bright. “And then we went to this big auction that was taking place today.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you two hanging out together,” said Nyla, dark eyes a bit downcast as she picked at her stew without much enthusiasm. “It’s kind of surprising.”

“Nobody else would go with me,” grumbled Aine, giving Alicia a playful glare. “But I’m glad he came along. It was a fun day, wasn’t it, Esteban?”

“Ah, yeah. It was pretty fun.”

Nyla gave a half-laugh half-snicker at his response, though she didn’t say anything.

Looking at the older girl, Aine tugged at the fabric of the sleeveless dress that Nyla was wearing, which was as black as her hair. “That’s such a nice dress! I don’t think I’ve seen you wear this one.”

“Come to think of it,” said Alicia, “Why are you dressed like that if you were cultivating? Were you planning on going out?”

“I was,” she sighed, “though I wasn’t fast enough.”

Esteban didn’t understand what had prevented her from leaving, but the girls seemed to. At that moment, May suddenly entered the room in her usual appearance, that of a mature, alluring young woman.

“Oh?” said Nyla. “Where’s Nolan?”

“Who knows,” shrugged May, who snatched some grapes from the table in passing. “Last I sensed him, he was heading toward the auction house.” With that, she disappeared into her room while munching on the fruit.

“He was there,” Esteban confirmed, balking beneath Nyla’s instant, questioning gaze. “Though we didn’t talk to him.”

“Was he alone?”

“I think so? Why?”

“Oh,” said Aine, waving Esteban into silence with an excited motion of her hand. “Listen to what happened while we were there!”

Esteban excused himself as Aine began to fill the girls in on what had taken place at the auction hall, deciding that he had dedicated enough of his day to leisure activities and that it would be in his best interest to resume cultivating in his quarters. Closing the door behind him, he walked over to the crate of heavenly dew that he’d left sitting in his room and then stared at it with distracted eyes.

Tapping a hand against his primary spatial bag, he sensed the jade pendent within and then considered it with an awkward sort of embarrassment. It was an oval of sculpted jade that hung from a silver chain, something that had been in one of the many spatial bags that Nyla had given him. It must have belonged to a female member of the Falling Rain Sect, because it was covered in carvings of flowers and tiny little birds. He had only just remembered that he had kept it.

Girls like jewelry, right? He decided to set aside some time later on to give it to Aine in order to make up for not buying her something at the auction as he had promised her. Not only did it not cost him any money, but this way he could show her that he was the sort of person that kept their word.

I’ll give it to her tomorrow, if I can.

Smiling to himself at the memories that he had made today, he took a sip of the heavenly dew and then began to practice the Ancestral Body Technique, which filtered the energy quite a bit faster than the White Flame Scripture. Although he was eager to build up his affinity for the element of fire, he didn’t want to fall behind Sean who had just enjoyed a whole day of cultivation that Esteban had almost entirely missed out on. As both tended to be neck-and-neck when it came to their progress in cultivation, they had been in a competition of sorts for a while now, one which he didn’t want to fall behind in.

Esteban made a mental note to bug Nolan later for some of the profits that the flying swords had brought in, planning to do so when his friend was a bit tipsy. He tended to be more generous when he was into his cups, and Esteban was eager to add to his growing stock of savings.

***