“You stupid bunny-spirit slave, how dare you tell a provincial customer that our Fire-Dragon Warming Pearl has a core crack!”
A shrill, furious roar echoed across the grand marble rotunda of the Heavenly Treasury Auction Pavilion.
Senior Floor Manager Hu stood before a polished glass display pedestal, his face twisted in ugly rage. He was a thin, rat-faced man wearing silk robes dyed in imperial yellow, with an oversized silver abacus pinned to his chest. Above his greasy topknot, a dim grey icon floated in Lin Mo’s vision: [Goodness: 11/100].
In his right hand, Manager Hu gripped a foot-long disciplinary ruler forged from blackened cold-iron.
Cowering on the cold white floor in front of him was a petite girl with soft, cream-colored rabbit ears. Her ears twitched nervously against her braided brown hair. Her apprentice robes were clean and neatly pressed, but visibly patched at both elbows. A cheap brass nameplate on her lapel read: Tao Yao (Apprentice Appraiser #094).
Above her trembling head, a radiant emerald halo glowed with unmistakable brilliance: [Goodness: 94/100].
Beside her stood an elderly cultivator dressed in coarse hemp robes that were stiff with frost. His hands were heavily calloused, cracked by mountain winds, and stained with bitter pine resin. A battered wooden trunk bound with hemp cords rested at his feet. A warm green aura hovered over his bent shoulders: [Elder Song | Qing-Cloud Mountain Sect | Goodness: 90/100].
