Immortality Starts With Generosity

“The Garrison Commander,” Jiang Lei whispered. He and Wang Xiao shot out of their chairs. Chen Haoran held Phelps close to him.

Above them, the Garrison Commander had placed himself between the auction hall and the light spilling through the hole in the ceiling. Standing in the air, he looked like a bloody angel descending. Scarlet light coalesced around his halberd and dripped to the floor, melting anything they touched. One large drop fell atop a tent and dissolved it instantly. Its occupants ran out screaming, red light eating their limbs away. Chen Haoran watched them erode into nothingness. Even their blood wasn’t spared. The only evidence there was once something there were the gouges where the red light ate pieces of the floor.contemporary romance

The Garrison Commander raised his axe and swung. The red light fell.

There was a sigh.

On the stage, the Auctioneer raised his hand. The falling red light stopped and, like it had met an opposite force, flew back up. The Garrison Commander did not move as the red light washed over him to no harm and chewed away the entire roof. The dark auction hall was immediately exposed to the daytime sky. The abrupt change had Phelps squealing in pain and Chen Haoran blinking stars out of his eyes.

The Auctioneer held his other hand out to the Heaven-rank technique, and the book flew into his sleeve. An aura rose from him, it was understated and less overbearing than the Garrison Official’s but no less powerful. Chen Haoran found he could breathe again. He didn’t even realize he wasn’t.

“Commander Lu,” the Auctioneer said. “Have you come to participate in today’s auction?”

The newly named Commander Lu snorted derisively. “The Golden Lily Association stands accused of smuggling illegal contraband and cooperating with foreign influences to disturb the Emperor’s Peace. The punishment for both is the same: death.”

Commander Lu pointed his halberd to the sky. The scarlet light banished from the Auction Hall gathered into a cloud and fell back down, stopping where the roof used to be. Or rather, it was stopped. Flashes of gold lightning sparked above them as the red cloud of light tried to press down and devour them all.

“Come now,” The Auctioneer said. “It’s just business.”

Commander Lu grunted and swung his halberd down. The Auctioneer flew into the air and pulled from his sleeve three gold coins. He threw them forward, and they met the halberd head-on. Rather than be knocked away, they stuck to the halberd like magnets and stopped its momentum dead. Under the coins' gold light, the scarlet light covering the halberd receded and vanished. The Auctioneer flicked his hand left, and the coins followed the motion, dragging the halberd with them.

Commander Lu let go of his weapon and let it fly away, he looked at the Auctioneer with a dignified expression. “The Treasure-Defeating Coins. So it's you, Gold-Eater. I’ve caught a big fish today.”

“Unfortunately, here you have to pay before eating.” Auctioneer Gold-Eater took a casual step and ascended into the air. “All guests, please calmly make your way out of the building. Our employees are available for directions if you require them. Thank you for attending today’s auction, and we look forward to your business in the future.”

“Money grubber,” Commander Lu said. He opened his palm, and scarlet light gathered and shaped itself into a halberd. He twirled it around in his hand, and the light snarled and snapped at the air like a beast. With every snap came a chorus of roars like a horde of monsters had suddenly dropped into the hall. It reverberated in Chen Haoran’s chest like all loud sounds did and stayed there, circling around his heart like predators did prey.

Suddenly several other auras filled the hall, and it took Chen Haoran a minute to remember that there had been other Crystal Transformation Realms in attendance. Would they intervene? They were here for the Heaven-rank technique, after all. Them taking action would at least let a little guy like him escape, but Chen Haoran wasn’t looking forward to the potential free-for-all. Escaping under the cover of chaos was all well and good until a stray attack evaporated him.

“You have five seconds,” Commander Lu said.

The auras vanished.

Chen Haoran blinked. His sense which had been pressed up against the immense presences now floundered like the rug had been pulled beneath it. Where there had been many, there were now only two. “They ran?”

“We should learn from our seniors,” Jiang Lei said, pulling him to his feet.

Right. Focus. Chen Haoran cycled his qi and felt his head clear. He turned to Dreamwater. “Where—”

The Auctioneer and Commander Lu clashed. The window shattered, and the building shook so hard Chen Haoran was nearly thrown off his feet.

“The exit!” he roared at Dreamwater.

She pointed to the auction hall. “Down there!”

“And go through that fight?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“Senior Brother,” Wang Xiao urgently called. His ear was pressed to the door. “There’s fighting in the hall.”

“We don’t have time,” Jiang Lei said, taking command. “The building is most likely surrounded. We have to chance it. Follow me.”

He leaped out the window, followed by Wang Xiao. Chen Haoran cursed and held Phelps close to his chest as he jumped after them. He landed heavily on his legs and dispersed the force with his qi. He cast his eyes up to see Commander Lu slam his screaming halberd onto a gold lightning storm the Auctioneer summoned. The storm shattered into lightning sparks and wrapped around his red armor. Before Commander Lu could chop the Auctioneer in half, the gold sparks flashed. The Auctioneer twisted his hand, and Commander Lu was thrown away by some invisible force. He snarled and flushed the gold sparks away with scarlet qi and avoided another golden storm.

Even though he was closer to the fight in the box, being underneath them only intensified the pressure he felt. Chen Haoran let out a shuddering breath and flinched when Dreamwater landed next to him.

“Where now?” he asked her.

“Use the talisman,” she said.

Right. Chen Haoran fumbled through his storage bag and pulled out the talisman Dreamwater handed him before the auction, and quickly channeled qi into it. A dark blue light flashed from the paper and covered the five of them. The bright auction area changed once more before Chen Haoran’s eyes, the whole hall taking on a dark blue tint. Glowing blue lines covered the entire floor beneath their feet.

“It’s an Obscuring Formation,” Dreamwater explained. “We won’t be seen so long as we stay near the talisman.”

“Incredible,” Chen Haoran said. He meant it with every fiber of his being. “Where do we go now?”

Dreamwater pointed to the stage. The stage that was across the auction hall from where they were at.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Did I really pay money for such a shitty exit?”

“You didn’t pay anything,” Dreamwater snapped. Her professionalism cracking. “It’s a service we offer to paranoid guests afraid of being robbed.”

“Should we look for an alternate way?” Wang Xiao asked Jiang Lei.

“Where does that escape route lead?” Jiang Lei asked.

“Directly outside the city,” Dreamwater said.

“We’ll have to cut our way through if we go outside anyway else,” Jiang Lei finally said. “If they bring the Gu Department, then we’ll never escape. That exit is our best bet.”

Chen Haoran’s curse was cut short when the air itself shook from the clash going on above their heads.

Damn it all, they didn’t have the time. “Go,” Chen Haoran said. “While the Auctioneer is still in control.”

With Chen Haoran as the center holding the talisman, they rushed as quickly as they could across the auction hall. Around them, cultivators of all sorts fled in every direction from their tents. The air was awash with qi from techniques and treasures being activated. Across the hall Chen Haoran could see other people glowing completely blue in his eyes. His fellow Gold Token members using their own talismans, most likely. Above them, the battle raged on. Under the Auctioneer's golden light however, its aftershocks were kept mostly in check though he even couldn’t completely stop Commander Lu’s scarlet light from raining down on them between attacks. Every droplet of light splashed out like a ravenous beast and devoured anything it fell on.

A large droplet fell directly onto an unlucky cultivator right next to them. As the man fell to the ground screaming, the scarlet light pounced directly at them despite their invisibility. Jiang Lei’s peach-colored liquid qi surged and drowned the scarlet light. Before even an instant passed, the beastly light had already eaten through it.

“Move!” Jiang Lei roared as he sacrificed more liquid qi to the light.

They leapt to the stage. Dreamwater was leading the way to the back. They were almost out. Chen Haoran couldn’t help but spare a glance back.

“I’ll be billing you for the damages,” the Auctioneer said. Golden lightning crackled in his hands. “For your sake, I recommend keeping them down.”

“You can send your invoice from hell,” Commander Lu snarled.

The Auctioneer raised his hands to throw more golden storms when a red blur broke through the wall a shot toward him. The Auctioneer hastily brought his up to block as the red blur slammed into him and sent the Auctioneer shooting down into the stage.

Chen Haoran didn’t even have time to cry in alarm before the stage was blown to pieces. One moment he was on the ground. The next moment he found himself tumbling wildly through the air. He felt Phelps’s qi cover him in an attempt to cancel their momentum, but the force was too much. Phelps was flung out his hand, and Chen Haoran crashed into the ground. The breath fled out his lungs, and it almost felt like his qi flew out with it as it absorbed the shock of his fall. His head spun, and his vision alternated between normal and pitch black. His only stable sense was the feeling of his qi rushing to return his body to normal. Even so, he was aware enough when the red blur that knocked the Auctioneer out of the air spoke.

“Can an old soldier get a veteran’s discount?” The second Imperial Crystal Transformation Realm asked.

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