Huang Jin thought that the hotel room was luxurious. Now, he reflected on true opulence as he surveyed the guests gathered for the Solstice Grand Auction. Even the least of these were positioned in a velvet-lined booth operated by formations, which would project glowing numbers into the air above them on command. These were open at the back, the better for serving-folk to come and go, and came stocked with amenities that the poor could hardly imagine.

  The VIP booths took it to the next level. One in particular caught the prince’s eye; less a ‘booth’ and more a ‘patio,’ a balcony situated just low enough for a fine view of the stage. They had created a garden there, complete with simulated sunlight from a crystal overhead, vibrant greenery and flowers, and a flowing stream which tumbled over the edge as a waterfall. This emptied into a well nestled between two much less desirable stations. ‘Decadent’ didn’t begin to describe it.

  And who should be seated there, watching the proceedings with a look of radiant contempt, but Huang Jin’s own doppelganger. The resemblance was uncanny. Long golden hair, sapphire eyes, delicate features… only the clothing and the expression differed. Beside her sat an old man, with similar blue eyes but a much sterner aspect. His seat was no less exalted, and no less luxurious, than her own.

  The prince peered transfixed through an opening in the ‘backstage’ area, which was kept silent and invisible by ancient artifice. There, he and his Master awaited their turn. They were not accompanied by any presenter; after their briefing, the showrunners saw fit to leave the matter in Dahe Yiji’s vaunted hands.

  “Feeling disconcerted, love?” asked said Master. She betrayed no nervousness at all, not that he expected any from her.

  “At the prospect of meeting my sister again? And I think that gentleman with her must be Elder Fu…” he whispered back, though the qualities of the space would have rendered even a scream completely silent.

  “No, I mean like…she’s a twelve-year-old girl.”

  “Yes?”

  “And you’re a thirteen-year-old boy.”

  “I am,” he prompted.

  “And you are virtually identical. Does that not make you a little uncomfortable?”

  This was a known issue, another distant side effect of his premature birth: hormone issues. He could repair it through cultivation, especially with his Master’s ‘Prana Bindu’ control techniques. But…

  “I’m cute. People like cute. I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” he stated. Sure, people might not take him as seriously as he’d like, and sometimes he had to tell people that he was a boy. But even he, in spite of his tunnel vision, could tell that strangers took an instant liking to him. He could use that.

  Master shrugged. “Yeah, fair enough. Might be part of your ‘blessing package,’ at that.” Then, the pair returned to watching the ongoing presentations.

  A handsome young cultivator had bid his presenter to set up a training dummy, intending to play up his artifact by demonstration. According to the announcer, he was a scion of an established-but-impoverished noble house, and had crafted the weapon by his own hands.

  He spun the massive halberd around and around as though it were light as a feather. Anyone with experience in arms could tell otherwise; the momentum it carried spoke of immense weight. Huang Jin saw the ‘trick’ coming an instant before the man unveiled it. He spied a small hole just above the blade, and a subtle, flush panel in the haft.

  The cultivator smirked and thumbed a hidden switch, and a thundering BOOM smashed through the auditorium. A fist-sized hole appeared in the qi-reinforced dummy as debris clattered harmlessly against the barriers protecting the audience. Appreciative murmurs bubbled up in all directions. Baoshi repositioned himself within his cloth prison to peek out of Huang Jin’s collar.

  “Oh hey, a bayonet-bearing cultivator-portable artillery piece. Either that guy’s got connections down South, or he’s got an old soul. What do you think, my apprentice? Use cases? Will it sell well?” Master never missed a teaching opportunity.

  The prince gave the matter some thought in the brief moment before the presenter started taking bids. “I couldn’t see the projectile clearly, but I could make out the blur. Probably, the firearm would be a good trick against a Student or Advanced-equivalent threat… but an Adept or higher would deal more damage leveraging its weight and sturdy construction. Even then, it would only work within certain styles…” He shook his head. “Not quite worth a full silk note, I think. Maybe fifteen jade coins.”

  Lights began flickering into numbers above the booths as the bidding commenced. It was a powerful and unique weapon, and the artificer offered to include two haft-fuls of ammunition. The bidding started at five jades; after several vigorous rounds, it ended up selling for sixteen, four coins short of a silk.

  “Right on the money. You’re getting good at this,” Master chuckled. In fairness, the auction had been going on for hours now and the prince had paid close attention to the going rates. They were scheduled for the very end of the day, for reasons that he could guess with some trepidation.

  He got to witness all kinds of treasures. Some artifacts were of well-known and much-appreciated utility; storage rings, spirit-refining pills, living swords and the like. One item which particularly intrigued him was a soul-damaging knife; a weapon that dealt damage to the ethereal ‘true’ being, and could therefore bring harm even to Brilliant Soul cultivators. This sold for an exorbitant seven silk notes.

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  Others were, like the gun halberd, unique and original. And of course, there were many rare and valuable reagents, like a bundle of perfectly-aged Moonfire Lavender and the hide of a Thousand-Jewel Heaven Caiman, completely intact.

  Yet none of these things appeared to move the two guests of honor. Princess Bai Shanyao’s cold eyes did not once show the slightest hint of interest, only varying shades of disgust or boredom. It was as though she watched a play she’d seen before, suffering through the majority to get to a single particularly favored scene.

  Absorbed as he was in the proceedings, Huang Jin couldn’t help but notice the growing agitation of the little dragon within his cloak. Baoshi, too, got to see many wondrous things beyond his experience- and the excitement was clearly getting to him.

  Finally, the time came. The primary auctioneer bowed to the audience, saying, “And now, the moment you have all been waiting for! We’ve saved a very special presentation for last. Allow me to introduce… Ah! But I shall leave that to the lovely woman herself!” The ostentatiously-dressed man made a grand gesture, the signal for their part of the show to begin.

  Huang Jin steeled himself, but his Master only looked down and gave him a wink. “Get ready, this is going to be amazing.” Then, she flipped up the hood of her own covering, and they took to the stage together.

  -

  The Sect of the Imperial Household’s Elder was troubled- as he knew he would be. In a way, the Hallowed Rift’s Solstice Grand Auction made for a perfect place for his great-niece to choose her reward for her first Ascension. The institution had honor and prestige, yet in general the treasures here were of middling power; quite appropriate for a newly Advanced cultivator. Many had been displayed already that would be quite useful for her, yet she’d conspicuously turned up her nose at every single one. It smelled of a setup.

  And now there was this ‘big surprise.’ Two figures emerged from the hidden space behind the presentation floor, hooded and robed. One had to be a child, based on their stature, but Cai Fu could only gain a muddy impression of their qi. Surely, their cloaks alone would have fetched a fine price; his senses were not easily confounded. He could gain a better picture if he really tried, certainly, but it was impressive that he would have to.

  The taller one drew his close attention as he concentrated further. This one wasn’t muddy, he simply could not read their qi at all. Even as he started to reflect on their suppression technique, the figure threw back her hood to reveal a lovely face set with shimmering, slate-grey eyes. As her long, ink-black hair fell down her back, the Elder shivered with a sudden pang of familiarity. That face…

  After the hood fell, she threw the whole robe aside, calling to mind some uncouth floor-show despite the modest silk dress underneath. Murmurs sprouted up throughout the rows of patrons; more than a few echoed Cai Fu’s nagging sense of recognition. And he still couldn’t sense her qi.

  She ‘opened.’

  Something like a vast eye unlidded to reveal power- not as a presence, but as an absence. Qi so dense that it did not register to the senses, and from which not even light itself could escape. This was a bottomless well, a hole, a wound in the universe itself made manifest.

  At over three thousand years old, and as one of the three mightiest cultivators in the Empire, most would consider Elder Fu an ‘old monster.’ But this was old. And this was a monster.

  He recognized it. Back then, he’d caught only the barest glimpse of the thing on the stage. He’d been so young then, during his Dao Journey, and he’d met a certain miracle worker masquerading as a whore. At the time, he had known that her power was above his own, but thought that it was a thing he would one day understand and surpass.

  No. His only point of comparison to… this, would be standing in front of the Ancestor Yulong himself. Everything, sight, sense, qi, knowledge, life itself, drew inward toward that terrible force.

  As quickly as the ‘eye’ had opened, it shut once again. This glimpse into the beyond had only lasted two seconds, but not one person in the audience spoke or made the slightest sound. For the moment, all were stricken spellbound by the display of power.

  With the undivided attention of the crowd, the miracle worker began to speak. Her voice, in contrast to her qi, came out soothing and proper. “Ah, my friends! And indeed I call you my friends, for I see many familiar faces. To some, I am Dahe Yiji, a scholar and a sage, and a worker of miracles. To others, I am Lady Swallowstone, a worker of an entirely different sort of wonder.”

  She swept a gaze across the room, even meeting Fu’s eyes for an instant as she continued, “Such is the way of the long-lived, to cross more paths than most. Your own grandfathers knew me as ‘the Immortal of the Great River.’” She patiently waited for a few rumbling knots to quiet down. Not many knew of this name… very few, besides those who made a study of esoteric history. But the reaction of those who knew spoke volumes. So that ancient figure still lived?

  She continued, “I fear that I haven’t brought anything to sell you today, and yet I have spent the last several years embroiled in the act of creation. I would have you witness the work of my hands, my worthy and industrious apprentice- he has wares I believe you will find most agreeable.”

  At a gesture from her, the smaller cloaked figure stepped forward. This one had been all but forgotten amid the shock, but now was the center of attention. The monstrous being continued, “I believe you will all find him quite familiar, and like his Master you might know him by another name. I present to you-”

  But before she could finish, a shape writhed beneath the cloak and rose upward, surging like a steam geyser. The covering flew off in a flourish, thrown by… a dragon? Green and iridescent, flying in a tight spiral above the ‘apprentice,’ an actual, live dragon lifted its claws and voice. “BEHOLD!” it squeeked, as if it had been waiting to do so all day.

  Beneath it, wearing an expression nearly as shocked as the audience, stood a small child… Cai Fu boggled all over again. The First Prince himself, Yulong Huang Jin, Jade in Gold, Peace between East and West.

  This was why they came. Somehow, the Empress knew he would be here. And now, the rest of the Empire would know.

  Elder Yulong Cai Fu could do nothing but stare.