Nightingale knew Liu Qiyue very well. She had been at Liu Qiyue’s side since she was a small child, and she carried toward her a certain special feeling she had never quite put a name to. Over these years, nobody had seen more of what Liu Qiyue did, or heard more of what she said, than Nightingale had.
Liu Qiyue’s beauty had stolen the soul out of her, woman though she was, over and over again. Even after more than ten years at her side, she had still not grown used to it — a beauty no ordinary person could ever imitate, one that went down into the bone and into the soul. But knowing her so well, she found that under the respect and the admiration there was, deep down, a little fear of her too.
If Liu Qiyue loved someone, she would give up anything at all for him.
If she hated someone, she would use any means at all to make him regret it for the rest of his life, and those means were terrible enough that thinking back on them now still put a chill through her.
But Nightingale knew perfectly well that Liu Qiyue was in no way a rash or ignorant woman. Quite the reverse — her shrewdness and her wisdom were the equal of her beauty.
What Liu Qiyue had just said startled her deeply, startled her enough that she half doubted her own hearing. But she lowered her head at once and said, “I understand, Master.”
“Go on, good girl.” Liu Qiyue touched a finger to her chin, then moved it slowly lower.
Nightingale trembled from head to foot and withdrew, her face faintly red.
The clock came round to eight o’clock exactly.
Both the July Chamber’s auction and the Shroud-the-Sky No. 1 Chamber’s were set to begin at nine sharp. The auction floor the Shroud-the-Sky No. 1 Chamber had set up was nowhere near the July Chamber’s in scale — it could hold five thousand people at the most — but by this hour those five thousand places were packed to bursting, with not an empty seat anywhere. Every one of them had come, of course, in the hope of taking home a piece of top-grade equipment. At this stage of the game, having a single piece of Silver-grade gear on you was not simply a matter of raising your strength and speeding up your leveling. It was a lift in standing, glory made visible. Plenty of people were not short of money, and would throw ten thousand gold at appearances without blinking. And this was the sort of thing no amount of money could buy without the strength to go with it — so of course they came racing.
The vast power, strength and reputation of Wings That Shroud the Sky were there for anyone to see. Set beside a July Chamber of only a few dozen people, all of them women, which looked more like a small-time operation, Wings That Shroud the Sky made the choice easy for anyone whose goal was equipment. And once word went round that Liu Qiyue would not be attending the auction, the last reason anyone had for choosing the July Chamber was gone as well.
And then, at exactly this moment, an announcement covering the whole of the Huaxia region rang out overhead.
“Ding… A region-wide announcement from the July Chamber of Commerce. The July Chamber’s first auction opens shortly, and all friends are welcome to come and buy the equipment that suits them. For particular reasons, the ticket price for this auction will change from one period to the next — buy before eight thirty this morning and the price is 200 gold; between eight thirty and nine, the price is 1,000 gold; for anyone wishing to enter after the auction has opened, the price is 5,000 gold! For anyone wishing to enter after nine thirty, the price is 40,000 gold a ticket. Please pass word to one another, and give our July Chamber your kind support.”
At the broadcast points in any major town or city, a player could pay to have an announcement issued across the whole battle region. The price, naturally, was extremely steep, charged by the length of the announcement — a thousand gold per second! More outrageous than the advertising rates of a certain CCAV (a corruption of the name of the state broadcaster, whose advertising rates are legendary). But for the effect it bought, an announcement like this far outstripped a CCAV commercial, which only ever reached the people who happened to be watching that channel, while a region-wide announcement went straight into the ears of everyone in the region.
At the same time, issuing an announcement of this kind was not only expensive but fairly strictly limited. Insulting, obscene or seditious content obviously would not be accepted, and neither would anything in the nature of brand advertising. Otherwise, given the reach of the World of Fate, the air would have been thick with commercials for every product under the sun. On this point the Skyward Group did have some principles, and would not foul its players’ game environment for the sake of squeezing out more money.
This announcement from the July Chamber was a long one, and broadcasting it once had to have cost tens of thousands of gold. And the message it had spent that much gold to put out… gave people one immediate impression. The July Chamber had gone mad.
Admission to the Shroud-the-Sky No. 1 Chamber’s auction was 40 gold, and given the strength and influence of Wings That Shroud the Sky, nobody could find fault with that price. Admission to the July Chamber, on the other hand, was an astonishing 200 gold — a full five times that. That alone had already baffled any number of people.
And now, with this region-wide announcement ringing out, everyone was certain of it. The July Chamber wasn’t playing at auctions. It was fucking playing the players!
In no time at all, sounds of astonishment, sharp intakes of breath, snorts, roars of laughter, mockery and bafflement all broke out together among the knots of players in every corner.
Ye Tianxie rode his Blood-Sweating Steed south, studying the map in his hand. At every town he passed, large or small, the first thing he did was buy a few Return Scrolls for that town, so that even if he went back to the City of Stars he could return at once to the point he had already reached. And on the road ahead of him, without question, there was no longer a player to be seen anywhere.
Yaoyao lay asleep on the horse’s head. Apart from sleeping, it seemed to have nothing much else to do. Xiaobei, on the other hand, was looking this way and that at the scenery, poking Yaoyao now and then, or licking its own paw. Xiaobei was level 16 now, and its basic attack power had already passed that of the level 20 Ye Tianxie; and with combination attack skills it went several times beyond him, which had made Ye Tianxie want to peel off its “Meow-Meow Fist” and fit it onto himself more than once.
The announcement from the July Chamber had of course reached his ears. He put the map away, looked up at the sky, and a faint, unreadable smile came to the corner of his mouth — that was Big Sister for you. Fine methods indeed.
If the July Chamber had suddenly put its ticket prices up later on, it would certainly have drawn complaints. As it was, the July Chamber had told everybody in advance, by announcing it to the whole world; so when the price did climb wildly, no one would have a word to say. They could only blame themselves for not buying while it was at its lowest.
And the crucial point was this. After one move like Liu Qiyue’s, if there were ever a second auction once today’s was over, the tickets would be snapped up the instant they went on sale.
“Heh. Better go back and watch the show. Wings That Shroud the Sky — I really didn’t expect you to be the one to jump up and play the clown in a tragedy that was written before it started.” With a colossus like Wings That Shroud the Sky for contrast, the comparison would only make the July Chamber’s name ring the louder. After all, beating an opponent standing at the bottom and crushing one standing at the summit did not come close to carrying the same influence.
Ye Tianxie took out a Return Scroll and went back to the City of Stars.
“What on earth is Liu Qiyue trying to do?”
The announcement from the July Chamber had not led the Son of Heaven to conclude, as ordinary players had, that the July Chamber must have gone mad. From what he knew of Liu Qiyue, she was a city-toppling fox spirit, extremely hard to conquer and possessed of an extremely careful mind, and a move like this did not look like her work at all. What was she actually trying to do?
“Little sister, did you hear the July Chamber’s announcement? Could there be something behind it?” The Son of Heaven picked up his communicator and got through to his sister. Whenever something he could not work out left him unable to sit still, he would instinctively go and ask her.
And the answer he got was…
A ding, and the call was cut off. The Son of Heaven lowered his wrist and shook his head with a wry smile. She had told him before that she would not involve herself in anything between him and Liu Qiyue again… and more than that, she hoped he would take a serious loss for once.
“Young Master, your worry is entirely unnecessary.” Behind the Son of Heaven, a slight, rather short figure dressed as an archer spoke up. Oddly enough, in a place where there was nobody but the Son of Heaven, he had covered his own face, leaving only a pair of sharp eyes showing. One look at those eyes and you would conclude at once that here was a very fine archer indeed.
“What the July Chamber is doing is nothing but mystification, meant to make people curious enough to come to the auction. In truth it is only an unusual sort of hype, a way of making itself better known.” He said it coldly. “The July Chamber’s scale and position may be a surprise, but it has neither strong enough renown nor a strong enough backing. With the foundation Wings That Shroud the Sky has, are we really to be afraid of the July Chamber? Beneath a power great enough to shroud the sky, a tiny enemy can play every trick it has and still be no match for us, and still fall at the first blow. Young Master, surely you don’t imagine that a July Chamber with no source of goods at all can produce Silver-grade equipment to put under the hammer?”
The Son of Heaven nodded and said, “What you say is exactly what I think. But you don’t know Liu Qiyue. Would a woman I could fall in love with be nothing but a pretty face good only for empty tricks?… Still, those last few words of yours were well put. The July Chamber really has no channel for equipment, and Liu Qiyue has announced herself that she won’t be attending the auction. So what is she actually going to use to catch people’s eyes?… Come on. Let’s get to the chamber first.”
The central plaza of the City of Stars.
Near the respawn point at the middle of the plaza stood four broad magic screens, one to each of the four directions. Ordinarily only two of them were lit, showing the top ten of the level ranking and the top ten of the Renown ranking for every player in the Huaxia battle region. But today… in the very first second of half past eight, those two screens showing the level and Renown rankings switched their picture at the same instant, and the other two lit up in that same moment. The change drew the eyes of any number of players, all of them astonished.
When the picture on all four magic screens settled, what they saw was a broad hall — and as the view drew closer, four great words leapt out at them. July Chamber of Commerce!
What the screens were showing was, unmistakably, the floor of the July Chamber’s auction, happening today!
(End of Chapter 225)