Walking through the town, I felt alone.
Though people walked around me, I passed through them as though they were ghosts. This was because my mind was troubled.
This is a frequent issue for cultivators.
We find ourselves often troubled by seemingly simple thoughts. A normal person might not entertain such thoughts. Their lives are too precious for airy notions.
But a cultivator hopes to find hidden meanings to unlock secrets which will help them to break through to the next Stage.
I was stuck thinking about time.
How was it that it flowed only in one direction? Why did the rain not sometimes float back into the heavens?
There seemed no reason for not doing so. One might argue the gravity of the world rules with greater power, but as a cultivator I could defy gravity without much effort.
And I knew also the power of seemingly random moments.
Fish might fall from the sky during a storm.
So why did the rain not defy the laws of the world sometimes, too?
As I walked, I felt a trembling in my heart. As though a secret was on the verge of spilling into my mind.
"Watch where you're going, you old fool!"
The moment was lost.
Just like that.
I frowned at the young man standing in front of me. His hand on a sheathed sword at his hip. Dressed in an odd black outfit edged with yellow stripes.
I did not know him.
"You have interrupted my meditation," I said as calmly as I could.
"You are too old," he snorted. "Your youthful days are over."
"Hmm."
"Now, get out of my way."
"I will not," I said. "I am your elder. You should show respect and move to the side."
"You dare?" His eyes bulged and his fingers tightened around his sword. "You, a disciple, are refusing to move?"
"I am."
"Pathetic," he sneered. "If you don't move, I will cut you down."
"You would cut down an old man in the street for so simple a reason?"
"I would," he growled. "And you wouldn't be the first!"
I squinted at him.
His nose was crooked.
His teeth buckled.
"You are ugly," I told him. "Did your mother lay with a baboon?"
The sword was only halfway out of its scabbard when my palm hit his chin with an uppercut blow.
Surprisingly, his head didn't explode.
I was impressed.
It was always good to meet people who took their cultivation seriously. Unfortunately, this mysteriously rude cultivator hadn't practiced any other defensive art, so was forced to endure the power of my blow.
I lifted my head to follow the arc of his body as he rocketed into the sky. His shriek fading quickly into silence.
I watched as his body rose higher and higher until it was a speck in the blue.
And found myself considering the motion of his flight.
He'd gone almost straight up.
Into the heavens.
Like rain in reverse.
There was something heavy in that thought. Something I should capture in my mind's eye. I nodded slowly as I began to understand.
"Life is effortless motion," I said softly. "And motion is always one with the universe."
The fish rain when the breeze captures them from the lake.
It was not random at all. It was life in motion. From the water, to the sky, to the earth. A cycle.
I smiled into the blue above, waiting for the cultivator to fall back to earth so I could thank him for the insight his flight had provided.
But he never did.
"Hmm," I muttered in disappointment. "Perhaps that theory needs more meditation. I will think on it."
The auction house was owned by the Harmony Merchant Sect. This was not unusual. Many auction houses were owned by them. Unlike most sects, merchant sects spread thinly through the land rather than consolidate their power in one place.
This auction house had its name proudly displayed.
The Golden Feather.
The sign was richly decorated and the stately hall very impressive to look at. It had four tiers and the top one was open. No doubt for special guests to view the city from. I guessed there would be a table for tea up there, too.
Two guards, stationed at the gate to the hall, looked me up and down.
I could see their eyes lock onto my spatial ring, but not with the greed one might see in ordinary thugs.
"Disciple," one said, not disrespectfully. "Are you sure you are in the right place? There is another Auction House for simple things on the other side of the city."
"Thank you for your concern," I said with a small bow. "My name is Ten Cent Wey, and I have come to sell some items which the Purple Cow could not raise the funds to sell."
"Oh?" The guard seemed surprised. "Did you say your name was Ten Cent Wey?"
"I did."
"The new Great Elder?"
"I am a simple disciple," I said, spreading my arms humbly.
"Please wait here, Great Elder Wey," the guard said, offering a bow of his own. "I will return shortly."
I sensed no disrespect from him, so simply nodded and stepped aside in case someone else wanted to go inside. No one was behind me, though. Still. Manners are not to make the lives of others pleasant, but to honour oneself.
The wait was not long.
The guard returned quickly with a small waifish woman whose eyes looked very large in her head. She was dressed in a fine outfit of blue and green which suited her very well.
My wife would be jealous of it.
"Great Elder Wey," the woman greeted me with a formal bow. "You honour us with your presence. On behalf of the Harmony Merchant Sect and the Golden Feather Auction House, I, Lili Kyoma, greet you humbly."
"Please," I said, my cheeks flushing a little. I was not used to such pomp. It's one of the reasons I preferred to live in caves. "I am deeply moved by your words, but there is no need for such displays. I merely came to trade."
"Of course," she said with a relieved smile. "And we will be most fair, I promise you!"
"I have heard only positive opinions," I assured her. "And have no doubts."
"Please, then, Great Elder. Follow me. We have a room set aside for you. Miss Sera will serve you directly."
I had heard the name spoken in the market. "She is the owner?"
"Yes, Great Elder."
The room she led me to was very ornate. Not too loudly. But just enough for me to feel the weight not of an Auction House in a small city, but a Merchant Sect whose reach extended deep into the Empire and perhaps even beyond.
I took a seat at the table.
Lili served tea.
It was very nice and floral.
Things were just getting awkward when the door was gently slid aside and an elegant older woman with incredible poise and superior aristocracy, ghosted into the room as though her legs weren't even moving.
I smiled with delight as she paused in front of the table.
"I see you cultivate the Way of Water," I said. "Your footwork is most impressive."
"Coming from you, Great Elder, I will take that as a very large compliment," she said with a pleasant smile as she seated herself with enough elegance that she might even compare to my wife.
I nodded approvingly. "My wife has also studied this technique," I told her. "It is not an easy one to master."
She let out a humble sigh and reached for the tea, pouring one for me and then one for herself. "Alas, I am stuck," she said. "It is no excuse, but the running of an Auction House takes more time than I had expected. And I have yet to break through the Third Barrier. Every time I try to manifest a Flow, my concentration scatters."
"Ah," I said, knowing the problem. "She had the same issue for a while."
"She has surpassed the Third Barrier?"
"Yes," I said, a little proudly. "She made it to the sixth before getting bored and starting something else."
"Sixth?" The woman gulped. "I would very much like to meet her if it is possible. Her insight would be most valuable."
"I shall let her know," I said, sipping the tea.
"I have been rude," she said suddenly. "I apologise. I should introduce myself. I am Sera Kyoma. Lili said you wished to trade items the Purple Cow could not assist you with."
"I do."
"May I ask what kind of items?"
"I picked up some special treasures from the Fire Plum Sect," I told her. I almost blurted out that I'd found a dragon but quickly turned my words elsewhere. It wasn't my place to reveal a dragon's presence to the world. It might anger him. And an angry dragon is something of a nuisance. "I also found some spirit stones."
"Really?" Her eyes glittered at that. Spirit stones weren't particularly rare in the Empire, but they weren't exactly common either. Especially not this far along the outer skirts.
I had a feeling these might not get auctioned but would instead be used to improve the cultivation of the merchants.
She might even want some for herself personally.
All of this was unimportant to me. Who used them in the end wasn't my business. I cared only that I got paid fairly.
"Really." I sipped my tea. "In truth, I'm mostly here to set up an account. My wife and I tend to stumble across the odd treasure here and there and would prefer to sell to the Auction House directly. It saves time. And effort. Both of which we have come to respect in our old age."
She raised her eyebrow at my words and her lips gave a small twitch.
"I think we can come to an agreement which suits us both," she said confidently. "How many spirit stones did you want to trade?"
I gave her a number.
And it's a good thing I am used to women or I wouldn't have had the reflexes I needed to catch her as she slid off her chair in a dead faint.
Frowning, I cradled the Auction House Owner in my arms and winced.
Maybe I shouldn't have told her I had ten thousand of them.