The Grand Auction Tiered hall on the fifth floor of the Thousand Treasures Pavilion was a theater of amazing greed.
More than eight hundred of the wealthiest men in the southern provinces sat in tiered rows of carved sandalwood armchairs, their fingers adorned with glittering jade rings, their robes woven from imported sea-silk and gold lamé. In the private viewing boxes overlooking the stage sat high elders of the seven great sects, hidden behind semi-see-through screens of scented bamboo.
On the central stage stood Auction Master Lu. A tall, elegant man with a voice like a silver trumpet, holding a polished star-iron gavel.
“Honored patrons, esteemed elders, and noble masters!” Lu’s voice soared across the hall, drawing the chattering crowd into an expectant, breathless hush. “We now present an unscheduled lot of never seen before rarity—a treasure that hasn’t appeared on the southern market in over thirty years!”
Two heavy brass portcullises behind the stage rolled upward with a groaning rattle of chains.
Tie Shan stepped onto the stage.
The giant walked with unrushed, terrifying power. His bare bronze torso shone with health beneath his clean linen wrap, his crimson silk sash with the silver tigers fluttering against his dark trousers. On his left shoulder, he carried a four-hundred-pound star-iron cask, banded with polished brass hoops and stamped with the ancient seal of the First Alchemical Pavilion.
