The smile on September’s face broadened. “The price stands at three million gold. Is there any friend willing to bid higher? Three million, going once… three million, going twice… three million, third and final call! Congratulations, Mr. Zangshen. This Tiger Fang Blade, which may fairly be called the finest short blade in Huaxia at present, is yours.”

“I am honored.” Zangshen’s smile did not change. He rose to answer her like a gentleman, his expression mild, his bearing easy, without the least trace of a pose or of arrogance.

“Mr. Zangshen, one moment, please. There is something I must say before we complete the trade.” September inclined her head slightly. “First of all, my mistress — Liu Qiyue, the owner of our July Chamber — has words she wishes me to pass on to you. My mistress says she is deeply grateful for the support of all our friends in the Divine Domain Pact. When everyone else was looking down on the July Chamber, you not only sent five hundred friends from across the Pact to our first auction but attended in person. My mistress was greatly moved, and asked me to thank you and every friend of the Divine Domain Pact here today on her behalf. And this Tiger Fang Blade is the piece my mistress changed her mind at the last moment to put up, for your sake… My mistress said that with Mr. Zangshen’s ability and decisiveness, the final bidder could be nobody else. And if you were the one to win it, then this Tiger Fang Blade is a gift to you, free of charge, in thanks for your support of our July Chamber.”

The auction floor went completely silent, and countless envious eyes fixed on Zangshen.

Zangshen was startled at first, and then the smile on his face grew warmer and warmer. By the end, though he still met it with a smile and the same unruffled calm on the surface, inwardly the surge of feeling in him was very close to breaking loose… because this was Liu Qiyue’s approval of him. Her goodwill toward him. And more than that, it was the first time Liu Qiyue had ever given him anything, and a thing this precious at that.

The Tiger Fang Blade had not been handed to Zangshen before the bidding. It had been given to him only after he won it, and the two were not remotely the same thing. Because the second way let Zangshen prove his own strength first, and the gift that followed gave both him and the whole Divine Domain Pact all the face there was to give. And it did not take much imagination to guess how bitterly the Son of Heaven would regret his own decision if he were watching this.

Zangshen walked toward the front. Turning an auction into a gift required a direct trade, face to face. Taking the Tiger Fang Blade from September’s hands, he said, like the gentleman he was, “Thank your mistress for me. This short blade will stay at my side until the World of Fate comes to an end… and if I had my way, this beautiful game world would never see such a day at all.”

Zangshen did not let the chance to declare himself go to waste, and what he said — together with his looks and his standing — set any number of young women’s hearts beating faster, and drew envy from every direction. September nodded with a smile. “I will pass your words on exactly as you said them. And my mistress has one more thing she asked me to tell you: she hopes this Tiger Fang Blade will be the spur that carries you to Level 20 faster than anyone.”

Zangshen nodded and walked back to his seat beaming. Beneath the calm surface his heart would not settle for a long while. He was more and more certain that coming to the July Chamber’s auction in person today had been a decision that could not possibly have been more right.

“Ai. Big Sister’s methods are as sharp as ever. No wonder the two men from the Yun family and the Dugu family have chased her all these years without getting anywhere and still won’t give up. And Big Sister obviously means to build the July Chamber up this time. With a connection to the Divine Domain Pact, a great many things get a great deal easier.” Zuo Pojun said it very quietly, wagging his head as he talked.

“Mm… Big Sister can play any man in the world like a toy in her palm, even a true Son of Heaven or Son of God… and yet the one person she cares about most is the only one she cannot get hold of. Ugh! Is this the wonder of the world? Oh… all of a sudden I very much want to know where the one I care about is.”

Ye Tianxie: “……”

“Are you talking about a man or a woman?” Zuo Pojun leaned over and said it perfectly calmly.

Murong Qiushui turned a look of profound reproach on him, and three seconds of it had Zuo Pojun’s heart seizing up. Murong Qiushui’s eyes went misty, his lips curved faintly, and he lowered his head slowly and said, in a voice thin as a mosquito’s, “Third Brother, what a thing to ask. Here I am, wrapped around you day in and day out — can you really not feel who I mean…”

And with that, he stole another glance at Zuo Pojun, with a misty look a thousand times more aggrieved than any neglected wife’s.

Zuo Pojun forced down the urge to dig a hole in the ground and climb into it, shut his mouth, clenched his teeth, and did not make another sound. Endless experience had taught him that whenever this sort of thing started, the best choice was to keep quiet and not say one word, or else…

“Hmph!” Murong Qiushui gave a light snort and turned his head away.

Ye Tianxie, sweating freely, kept his eyes fixed on the stage and had the good sense to act as though he had heard nothing. Come to that, neither Zuo Pojun nor Murong Qiushui had anything like an ordinary temperament. Murong Qiushui needed no further comment. As for Zuo Pojun — in front of the people he genuinely cared about he came across as a warm, simple sort who was very easy to get close to, sometimes even a little slow, with none of the airs of the Zuo family’s eldest son. But in front of anyone outside that circle… he was more overbearing than the most high-handed young lord in the capital, and when his temper went up he was a good deal more frightening than any thug.

Yet Zuo Pojun’s heart was the softer of the two. At the very least, he had never killed anyone. Whereas Murong Qiushui had left far more than eight or ten dead behind him.

“We now begin the auction of the third piece of Gold equipment. Friends, please look at the big screen.”

On the screen, a long spear wreathed in a dark, grim air appeared.

Undead Spear: Gold-grade artifact. Requirement: Level 15 Warrior class. A spear steeped in the breath of death; on striking, it unleashes a terrifying undead power. Attributes: Attack +70. Strength +18. Attacks carry an additional 30–50 death-type damage. 5% chance on attack to inflict 3–5 seconds of Confusion. 1% chance on attack to trigger instant death.

“The spear is the soul of a Spear Warrior. I imagine this Undead Spear, in its look and in its attributes both, has already left you all impatient. I will say no more — the bidding begins. The reserve on the Undead Spear is 200,000 gold!”

A Level 15 Gold spear, with a reserve higher than the Level 20 dagger’s. But the price surprised nobody, because Level 15 equipment was what players needed most urgently at this stage.

Outside the hall, the Son of Heaven, who had been watching the July Chamber’s auction the whole time, could not sit still a moment longer. He snatched up his communicator and roared into it, “Now listen to me. You are to win me that Undead Spear whatever it takes — however high the price! Five million is acceptable! Have you got that!”

At the other end of the communicator, two men of Wings That Shroud the Sky looked at each other, then said with faces like a funeral, “Young Master… the tickets for the auction sold out long ago. We’ve begged and pleaded here and they simply won’t let us in.”

“What!! You still haven’t got inside!?!?”

“Y-y-young Master, don’t be angry, it was only because we were afraid you’d be angry that we—”

“Useless!” The Son of Heaven brought a fist down on the tabletop and shouted, his face black. “I don’t care what method you use. If you don’t win me that spear, don’t come back and face me!”

The Son of Heaven’s class was Spear Warrior.

Among the Warrior classes in the World of Fate, slightly fewer chose Spear Warrior than Sword Warrior, since a sword was simply handier to use. But the spear was the most striking weapon there was, and nobody could deny it. And the mysterious, dangerous air of death around this Undead Spear pushed its appearance up into the outright spectacular. Any number of Spear Warriors watching had their fists clenched and were all but drooling, and even some of the Sword Warriors had begun to regret not taking the spear branch after all. With a spear like that on your back, your strength would leap — and wherever you went you would be the focus of every eye. Which above all meant the eyes of the girls.

In no time at all, countless pairs of eyes were fixed hungrily on the Undead Spear. But… a strange thing happened. For a while, nobody called out a bid at all.

The first two pieces of Gold equipment — one Level 15 robe, one Level 20 Gold weapon — had both gone at the sky-high price of three million. And in both cases the man who took it had stunned the room with a single call at the end, so that the crowd shouting bids before him had served as nothing but a backdrop to that one astonishing stroke…

Nobody wanted that role again. The ones who coveted the Undead Spear but whose purses genuinely would not stretch to it could only stand and drool in silence… because anyone could see that the overall value of this Undead Spear ran far above the first two pieces.

September was not thrown by the silence that had suddenly fallen. After five seconds of it she said, smiling, “Since none of our friends has any interest in this Undead Spear, I shall withdraw it…”

“Ah… wait! I bid five hundred thousand!”

“Bloody hell… don’t! I bid a million…”

“Eight hundred thousand… I’ll take it at eight hundred thousand!”

“Don’t you dare… everything I own, six hundred and eighty thousand!”

September had not even finished before the players’ bids came roaring up as though they had all gone mad at once, hundreds of voices piling on top of one another until the din made it impossible to tell who was saying what. While nobody was bidding they had all been able to hold their nerve; the moment they heard it might be withdrawn they turned frantic as ants on a hot pan, ready to fling themselves bodily at the stage.

Outside the July Chamber’s auction hall.

“Ladies — my dear ladies, my own grandmothers — I’m begging you, just this once, let it slide. Ten thousand! I’ll pay ten thousand gold, will that do it?”

Listening to the noise inside, the Wings That Shroud the Sky man the Son of Heaven had sent was pleading with the two reception girls, his face like a funeral. Ever since he joined Wings That Shroud the Sky he had cut an imposing figure wherever he went; when had he ever had to look this pathetic in front of outsiders? But with the Young Master’s do-or-die order hanging over him, he had no choice but to bow his head, and bow it low.

“We’ve said it any number of times — the tickets are all sold. If you want to get in, you’ll just have to wait until after half past nine.” The girl on the left said it with a smile.

“…I’m begging you. If people can get in after half past nine, then surely they can get in now as well…” He remembered suddenly that after half past nine the ticket price went up to 40,000 gold, and added quickly, “Ladies, then I’ll pay fifty thousand gold. Will that do?”

(End of Chapter 229)