Chapter 98: (Patreon)

The Liquid Liquor was a humble hole-in-the-wall wedged directly next to the river between the docks and warehouses. It was a place for laborers, sailors, and the working folk of Daqing who kept the industry flowing. It was also a place visited and patronized exclusively by locals.

Chen Haoran felt eyes on him as soon as he entered the bar. Even though he wrapped himself in a large cloak and concealed his face under its hood, he felt exposed as the foreigner he was.

“You know, wearing something like that in a place like this doesn’t really help you go unnoticed,” Jiang Lei said. Unlike Chen Haoran, he made no move to hide his face and boldly looked around the bar. The few cultivators in the room quickly paled and lost themselves in their drinks rather than lock eyes with him.

Between the two of them, he considered Jiang Lei to be the more eye-catching one “Being noticed is fine so long as I go unrecognized.”

They made their way to the bar, where the bartender looked decidedly unfazed at seeing two powerful cultivators enter the establishment. “What’ll it be?” he gruffed.

“Dreamwater,” Chen Haoran said.

The bartender gave him a once over, and Chen Haoran flashed the Golden Lily Token from his cloak.

“Up the stairs and to the left.”

“Thank you.”

As they ascended the steps, Jiang Lei couldn’t hold his curiosity back. “You told me I could make some easy money. I wonder how you plan to do that here?”

“Don’t worry,” Chen Haoran said when they reached the top. He knocked on the door.

It silently swung open. Behind it was a woman wearing a well-fitted robe cinched with a white sash embroidered with yellow lily pads. A golden cloth mask obscured the upper half of her face. A quick glance with his sense revealed a Ninth-Layer cultivation. “Welcome, honored guest. I am Dreamwater.” She stretched a hand to the simple table within the windowless room. There was no other furniture save for a few simple candle stands scattered around the room for light. “Please.”

Chen Haoran brushed passed the attendant without a word and sat himself down. Jiang Lei remained next to the door. He offered Dreamwater a cheeky smile as she looked between the two of them. Chen Haoran wasn’t surprised. It was a special situation where the weaker cultivator took the lead. Dreamwater gingerly sat across from Chen Haoran and pleasantly smiled at him. Another professional. He was meeting a lot of those lately.

“How may I help you today, honored guest?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Chen Haoran said. He leaned back into his chair and causally tossed his token on the table. “You tell me.”

“Is this your first time doing business with us?”

“One of your people gave me this thing after I purchased a few knickknacks. I didn’t bother getting an explanation then.” It wasn’t entirely a lie either, although more because he wanted to get out of there than ignoring the Association.

“Allow me to introduce myself once again, then. I am Dreamwater. I am here to assist you and see to your needs for the duration of the auction in Daqing.”

“Such as?”

“If you desire your purchases to be sent to a specific location then I can help arrange that. If you require an unobserved exit from the city, I can also help you with that.”

“Can you tell me about the auction itself?”

She shook her head. “You will be notified of the auction date and your pickup location through your token. At that time, I will meet with you and bring you to the venue.” Her eyes drifted to Jiang Lei. “Shall I prepare two chairs?”

“Three,” Chen Haoran said. For safety’s sake, he wanted to bring Jiang Lei to the auction as well. Although he was sure that if he didn’t invite him the Liquid Meridian would pester him until he did. To that end, he may as well invite Wang Xiao as well and head off Jiang Lei’s inevitable asking. It would win him some brownie points, at least. He drummed his fingers along the table. “What about the items to be auctioned.”

Dreamwater smiled, pulled a cream-colored pamphlet from the folds of her robe, and handed it to Chen Haoran.  He could feel the quality of the paper beneath his fingers. The pamphlet was elegantly handwritten with gold ink, and each item came with a simple description of its effects, where it was sourced, and its starting prices. He’d sigh in amazement if he weren’t putting up an act right now. The Golden Lily Association’s reputation for quality was well-earned.

“I will have the pamphlet prepared on the day of the auction for you to peruse as well. If I may draw your attention to the top of the list, you will see our highlight for the auction, a Five-Element Heaven-Rank technique.”

Jiang Lei’s sharp intake of breath told Chen Haoran plenty about how valuable the technique was. His eyes traced over the golden name of the technique and its following information.

Seven-Colored Steps of the Rainbow Stairs

Baghmar Republic

Starting Price: 10 million Gold Taels

It was a movement technique. Each of its seven steps corresponded to a different color, and when mastered in full, any attack on the user would be as futile as finding the end of a rainbow. It was quite the ostentatious claim, but given its 10 million gold tael price tag, he had to assume there was some truth in it. It was already double the price of the Stygian Lotus back in Clearsprings. The final cost would no doubt be enormous. Already his head was swimming with questions. What did it mean for it to be Five-Elements? Did it require someone to have all five before using it? Was acquiring all five even possible? Not just that but…

“Why is the Golden Lily Association Auction selling something like this?”

Dreamwater smiled in the way a retail employee did when a customer asked something they wouldn’t answer. He shouldn’t have bothered asking. There was no way an attendant wouldn’t know. His estimation of the Golden Lily Association rose higher. How powerful were they that they would sell a Heaven-rank technique rather than keep it for themselves? By all accounts, Heaven-rank anything were vanishingly rare. Techniques and cultivation methods, especially, were things jealously guarded.

Well, his speculation was all meaningless anyway. Whatever the Golden Lily Association’s intentions, he was far removed from them. Still, at least from the prices involved, he could see that Daqing had money. That was good. It was exactly what he wanted.

He tossed the pamphlet on the table. “Arrange one of those exits for me.”

Dreamwater gracefully bowed her head. “Of course, sir. I’ll inform you of the specifics when we next meet. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“I want to enter something into the auction. Are you able to arrange that?”

Dreamwater’s smile became even more professional. Chen Haoran recognized it at once. It was the ‘Prepared to gently let down the customer’s ridiculous demand and get yelled at for it,’ smile. It seemed that the language of customer service was universal no matter the time period or, indeed, the world.

“If you desire to enter an item, I am trained in the appraisal arts and can evaluate it right now if you so wish,” Dreamwater said. “However, I must warn the honored guest in advance that while we do evaluate submissions, we may not accept them.”

Translation: ‘If your shit isn’t valuable, we don’t want it.’

Chen Haoran reached into his storage bag and pulled out a deep green jade box. Its surface was etched with images of spring in bloom and thrummed with vital qi. A single leather band was tightly wrapped across its top with a brass latch closing it. He had purchased it from Chanchu for a pretty penny, and even then, the merchant had been reluctant to part with it. Dreamwater’s professional mask turned into genuine interest.

Chen Haoran looked around the room with an air of indifference. “How private is this room?”

Dreamwater observed his expression and looked back down at the jade box. If she were as professionally trained appraisal as she purported herself to be, she would have recognized the box was meant to contain and preserve the energies of delicate spiritual materials. After a moment, her hands disappeared into the sleeves of her robes, and her qi flared. The walls around them lit up with complex patterns and scripts, and the air in the room shifted. Chen Haoran could feel the ambient qi in the room rapidly scatter before becoming unnaturally still when the patterns on the walls disappeared. Chen Haoran cast his sense to the wall in search of the formation and found nothing.

“Nothing will leave this room, honored guest,” Dreamwater said.

Chen Haoran placed a single finger on the leather band’s brass latch. It opened with a pulse of qi, and as soon as the box lid loosened, a faint blue mist started seeping from its seams. When he removed the lid, the mist poured out in a flood, covering the table and spilling to the floor. The room suddenly became cooler, and what light the candles gave off was devoured by the mist. However, it did not become darker because after devouring the candlelight, a soft white light emerged from the mist itself as if it were backlit by the moon. Accompanying the mist was a faint floral scent. Chen Haoran breathed deeply and smelled a wet, moonlit night. The scent sank into his meridians, and despite him being at the peak of the Qi realm and having no more space for energy, it still found corners and crevasses to fill in.

The blue flower that was the source of the phenomena lay in the jade box, giving off the impression of frailty and softness, yet at the same time looking as still and unmoveable as a mountain. Chen Haoran chalked the strange feeling up to the wondrous nature of qi. He slammed the lid back down onto the box and broke the beautiful scene. Jiang Lei and Dreamwater looked at him with shocked silence.

He couldn’t help it. He smirked. “30-thousand-year-old Moonflower. Please appraise it.”