Grand Elder He stood behind the podium, clutching his nephrite gavel with both hands.
His jaundiced eyes darted between the ten glowing hills of spirit stones in the central aisle and the front-row seats where Situ Hao and Deacon Dan Huo sat trembling in humiliation.
Grand Elder He cleared his raspy throat, trying to reassert his authority over the room.
“Lot Number Two of the Heritage Collection!” Grand Elder He announced, raising his gavel. “A three-hundred-year-old Fire-Cloud Spirit Ginseng, unearthed from the sacred volcanic peaks of Changbai Mountain! Opening reserve price: twenty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones!”
Deacon Dan Huo of the Pill-Cauldron Syndicate immediately raised his jade paddle with desperate haste.
“Twenty-five thousand spirit stones!” Dan Huo shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. “The Pill-Cauldron Syndicate claims this lot!”
Before Grand Elder He could even begin his chant, Lin Mo raised two fingers from Table Twenty-Eight.
“One hundred thousand spirit stones,” Lin Mo said in his calm, deadpan voice.
