Chapter 1: The Karmic Seed
The Azure Moon Sect was quiet that night, save for the whisper of leaves beneath the wind. Deep in its outer disciple quarters, a youth sat cross-legged atop a cold stone slab. His skin was pale, his breath even. The candle beside him flickered as though sensing the shift in the heavens.
Li Xuan.
A name once forgotten. Once cast aside by fate.
Now, reborn.
He opened his eyes. They glinted with profound calm and infinite cruelty. Gone was the lowly outer disciple who swept floors and endured scorn. In his place stood a cultivator who had lived lives beyond death—his soul twisted and sharpened by a fate no mortal should've endured.
In this life, he would not kneel. Not to sect, heaven, or fate.
In his dantian, a swirling golden vortex emerged—the Karmic Seed, an anomaly birthed from his reincarnation. Unlike normal cultivators who cultivated spiritual essence, Li Xuan cultivated karma.
His path: obscure, deadly, and never before walked.
He smiled. Tonight, he would take his first step.
Chapter 2: Auctioneer's Mask
The Thousandfold Echo Hall was an auction house of legend, its origins forgotten by most. To outer eyes, it was merely a powerful mercantile hub. But deep beneath its golden floors, ancient formations pulsed with karmic resonance, recording every transaction of soul, treasure, and secret.
Li Xuan stood before the hall.
In his hand was a wooden token. Burnt around the edges, carved with runes no mortal could read—an Invitation of Oath.
He entered.
As he stepped through the doors, a strange force evaluated his existence. It saw his cultivation: Qi Condensation, Ninth Layer. Weak. But then it saw his karma.
The hall stilled.
A robed elder emerged from shadow. No words. No courtesy. He bowed.
"You may enter the Hall of Whispers."
Inside, Li Xuan sold a single item: a bone shard infused with forbidden knowledge from a past life. It earned him three hundred low-grade spirit stones and a vial of Karma Condensing Liquid.
But more importantly, it earned him a name among the hall's shadowy ranks.
From this day forward, he would be known not as a sect disciple, but an auctioneer.
Chapter 3: The First Transaction
His first auction.
Held in secret. Ten guests. Each disguised, each dangerous.
Li Xuan wore a silver mask shaped like an inverted crescent moon. His voice was altered, his aura suppressed. The other auctioneers watched him with curiosity. A new face, they thought. A new pawn to use or crush.
They did not know.
He auctioned a cursed talisman from a fallen kingdom—a fake in truth, but imbued with just enough residual resentment to be convincing. It sold for five hundred spirit stones and a minor beast core.
He watched as one buyer left and died an hour later to the talisman's backlash.
He gained karma.
In his chamber, he meditated. His Karmic Seed spun faster, absorbing strands of destiny from those affected by his auction.
He smiled.
Power didn't come only from fists.
It came from control.
Chapter 4: Threads of Deception
Li Xuan expanded.
He used puppet auctioneers—low-level cultivators swayed by fortune. He provided them items, cursed or genuine, and watched the auctions spread across minor cities.
Karma flowed to him endlessly.
He manipulated clans into bidding wars. Sold cultivation manuals with hidden flaws. Provided spirit herbs tainted with microscopic soul bugs. For each fall, each betrayal, each death, his karma grew.
He reached Foundation Establishment.
In the Azure Moon Sect, he remained a humble outer disciple. He smiled at elders who spat near him. One day, they would kneel.
His private hall beneath the Echo Chamber expanded. He began crafting fake relics using memories from past lives. He sold a tooth from a "Heavenly Beast" that was really an alchemically sculpted stone. It caused a clan war.
More karma.
Chapter 5: Formation of the Web
Li Xuan founded his own hidden organization. He called it The Thousand Eyes.
Each eye was a subordinate, unaware of his true identity. They operated auctions, spread rumors, crafted illusions. Through them, he touched over thirty small cities.
He created a karmic formation: Heaven's Scale Array.
Anyone who entered it had their fate recorded. Their deaths would empower him. Their triumphs would still pay a portion to him. Karma flowed no matter the outcome.
He was now at Core Formation. Silent. Unknown.
The real auctioneers in the Echo Hall began to whisper of a new player. A ghost. A man who never appeared, yet whose influence spread like ink through water.
They did not know that the Hall itself would soon be his.
Li Xuan stared at his reflection. A silver crescent mask stared back.
"Let the realm become my auction.