The golden light didn’t fade. It gathered into glowing clouds near the vaulted ceiling.
A crystal spirit-horn embedded above the central archway buzzed twice, followed by a crisp, mechanical broadcast that echoed across all nine floors of the pavilion.
[STOREWIDE BROADCAST: PROBATIONARY CLERK XIAO BAI HAS COMPLETED A TRANSACTION OF 3,500,000,000 SUPREME SPIRIT STONES!]
[COMMISSION CREDITED DIRECTLY TO CLERK ACCOUNT: +350,000,000 SUPREME SPIRIT STONES!]
[FUNDS ARE TAX-FREE AND IRREVOCABLE BY PAVILION BYLAWS. CONGRATULATIONS, CLERK XIAO BAI!]
From the carved ceiling grates, magical spirit-confetti drifted down like glowing golden snow. Flakes of warm, scented light fluttered through the air, dusting Xiao Bai’s silver hair and settling on the tips of her white rabbit ears.
The entire hall froze.
Nobody coughed. Nobody took a step. A clerk polishing a copper mirror on the second-floor mezzanine let go of his rag, letting it drop twenty feet down into an empty flower basin. Dozens of wandering cultivators who had gathered to watch the commotion stood rooted in their tracks, staring at the ceiling horn as if it had spoken in ancient divine script.
