The auctioneer raised a hand before the apprentices could take the black silk off Lot Fourteen.
“We’ll start with a benchmark for ordinary wholesale medicine. These don’t treat the same injuries as the reversing pills, and this lot takes mid-grade stones. Lot Thirteen-B. Ten Fourth-Grade Spirit Vein Consolidating Pellets, from the licensed alchemists of the Azure Jade Firm.”
An attendant set a clear flask on the jade stand. Ten brown pellets rested against the glass.
“Standard grade,” the auctioneer said, reading from a scroll. “Iron-Bone Ginseng, bear gall, and purified river red stone. Tested residue, thirty-two percent. Suitable for Peak Foundation and Early Golden Core cultivators. Eighty mid-grade spirit stones to open.”
“Eighty-five,” called a man with gray at his temples.
“Ninety,” someone answered from the west gallery.
“Ninety-five.” The gray-haired man gripped his wooden tally hard enough to bend it.
The black curtain in Box One parted. A steward in silver armor stepped to the rail and held up a token with the Beitang crest.
