Miteer Auction House, top floor.
This was a restricted area that ordinary VIPs had no right to enter.
The thick walls of soundproofing magic crystal shut out every noise from the outside. Only the air's faint, soothing fragrance remained, like an invisible hand calming the minds of all who entered.
Ya Fei stepped lightly forward and personally opened a heavy door carved from a single piece of Amethyst Wood for Su Chen.
"Please, sir."
There was a note of solemnity in her voice, subtle but unmistakable.
Su Chen gave a slight nod and stepped inside.
A figure had already been waiting in the private room for some time.
The man sat behind a broad purplewood desk. He looked to be around fifty, with a slightly plump build and a well-tailored brocade robe. A genial smile rested on his face.
In his hand, he slowly rolled two smooth, mirror-black iron balls across his palm. They struck each other with a dull, rhythmic clack.
This was Aoba Pa, head of the Aoba Clan and one of the powers steering one of Wutan City's three great clans.
He looked more like a shrewd, prosperous merchant than a powerful lord commanding a force to be reckoned with.
But the moment Su Chen entered, the clacking of the iron balls stopped.
Aoba Pa looked up. A glint flashed in his narrow eyes, so quickly it might have been mistaken for a trick of the light.
He rose to his feet, his genial smile growing even more sincere.
"You must be Mr. Su, the one said to possess a rare treasure. A pleasure to meet you!"
His voice was warm and rich, as comforting as a spring breeze.
Ya Fei did not enter. She merely bowed slightly at the doorway, then gently closed the door, leaving the room to a meeting that promised to be anything but ordinary.
Su Chen walked to the desk and took the guest seat that had been prepared for him.
He did not remove his bamboo hat or return the other man's pleasantries.
Aoba Pa's warmth did nothing to ease the atmosphere in the room. Instead, an odd, tense silence settled over it.
In the end, Aoba Pa was the first to speak.
He gestured toward a valuable purple clay tea set on the desk, then personally poured Su Chen a cup of steaming tea.
"Mr. Su's Rock Fire Seed is truly a divine treasure! The alchemists under my command praised it without end, calling it the heavens' finest gift to alchemists!"
He gently pushed the teacup toward Su Chen, his manner deferential.
"That fool Jialie Bi couldn't recognize a gem if it were set in gold. He actually tried to resort to such underhanded tricks. He was courting death."
Aoba Pa changed tack and leaned forward slightly. His narrowed eyes shone with a merchant's characteristic eagerness.
"I invited you here today for one reason."
"My Aoba Clan is willing to pay thirty percent more than the Jialie Clan offered to secure exclusive rights to buy every Rock Fire Seed you produce in the future!"
"We'll take however many you have!"
"And the price will only go up!"
His final words rang out with conviction, carrying the force of an offer that admitted no doubt.
It was a proposal enough to make any faction go wild.
Long-term. High-priced. Exclusive.
Together, those three words meant a fortune large enough to change the balance of power in Wutan City.
When he finished, Aoba Pa leaned back and watched Su Chen with a smile, waiting for his answer.
He believed no one could turn down such terms.
And yet.
Su Chen merely lifted the teacup. He did not even remove the lid.
He held it beneath his nose and gently inhaled its fragrant steam.
After a moment, a soft laugh came from beneath his hat.
It was quiet, but like a cold needle, it easily pierced the warmth Aoba Pa had carefully cultivated.
Su Chen set down the teacup.
"Clan Head Aoba, do you think I need money?"
The question was delivered in an even tone.
For the first time, Aoba Pa's smile stiffened, so slightly it was almost imperceptible.
The iron balls in his palm had stopped rolling as well.
Su Chen did not wait for him to answer. He simply continued.
"I'm not very interested in selling Kindling."
He leaned back against the soft chair, settling into a more comfortable position. Beneath his hat, his voice carried the lazy, easygoing air of a traveler.
"I prefer... the process of finding it."
"I'm a traveler in pursuit of flames."
A glint appeared once more in Aoba Pa's narrowed eyes.
He was not fooled by the explanation. If anything, he caught a whiff of something unusual in it.
A traveler?
Finding?
Those two words left more room for imagination than a simple sale.
"Oh? Then what you mean is..." Aoba Pa asked tentatively.
"The Rock Fire Seed was just some trifle I picked up along my travels. Nothing worth mentioning."
Su Chen abruptly changed tack.
"Though I won't sell Kindling, I can sell... information."
Before the words had faded, he reached into his robe and took out a rolled-up animal-hide map that gave off a faint, fishy smell. He placed it on the desk without ceremony.
Tap.
A soft sound.
Aoba Pa's gaze was instantly riveted to the hide map.
Its material was rough and ancient, and dried blood still clung to the edges.
Su Chen rested his long fingers on one end of the map and slowly slid it to the center of the desk.
"Black Wind Valley, outside the city."
Beneath his hat, his voice was as calm as if he were discussing some trivial matter.
"In the Lava Nest at the very bottom of the valley, a pair of Tier 2 Magical Beasts makes its lair."
"Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snakes."
"Their Beast Flame is far superior to the Rock Fire Seed."
"More valuable still, they're a mated pair. If both of their Magic Cores are extracted and used to refine the second-grade Dragon Strength Pill, you should know better than I do what they're worth."
The room fell into deathly silence.
Aoba Pa's smile froze completely.
Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snakes!
Tier 2 Magical Beasts!
Companion Magic Cores!
Those words struck his heart like three blazing hammers, one after another!
As the head of a clan, he knew perfectly well what this meant.
It wasn't merely a high-quality Beast Flame. It was a fortune vast enough to raise the strength of the entire Aoba Clan by a whole tier!
But...
Was the information true?
Black Wind Valley was treacherous terrain, and Tier 2 Magical Beasts were ferocious. If the information was wrong, the experts he sent might never return.
That was a price the Aoba Clan could not afford, either.
Go, or stay?
Believe him, or not?
It was a dilemma.
And it was a deadly test, thrown before him by the mysterious man sitting across the table.
Aoba Pa leaned back in his chair, motionless, his narrowed eyes fixed on the ancient hide map.
Time passed, second by second.
The air in the room seemed to have solidified.
For a long while.
A very long while.
Then, suddenly, a smile bloomed across Aoba Pa's stiff face.
It was brighter than before, and more sincere.
"Hahahaha!"
He let out a hearty laugh, brimming with the decisiveness and boldness of a true power player. It shattered the silence in an instant.
"Mr. Su truly is a man of great ability! Jialie Bi isn't fit to carry your shoes!"
He did not question whether the information was true or haggle over the price.
He had made his choice.
He would take the gamble!
"My Aoba Clan will buy this information!"
Aoba Pa spoke with unshakable certainty.
"Name your price, sir!"
Su Chen lifted his fingers from the map.
He held up five fingers.
"Five thousand gold coins."
Hiss—
Even though he had prepared himself to be fleeced, Aoba Pa's eye still twitched uncontrollably when he heard the figure.
Five thousand gold coins!
That was nearly a month's net profit for the Aoba Clan!
All for information he could not verify at once!
This wasn't just an outrageous demand.
It was as if Su Chen were carving the flesh from his body with a knife!
Aoba Pa's breathing grew heavier.
But Su Chen's next words made his bleeding heart leap.
"Of course, I'm only joking."
A trace of amusement colored the voice beneath his hat.
"Consider this information a... greeting gift for our first meeting."
Su Chen slowly drew back his hand.
"I don't want money."
Aoba Pa was completely stunned.
He could not keep up with the young man's train of thought.
The dizzying rise and fall left even the old fox, who had spent half his life navigating the business world, reeling.
He didn't want money?
Was there anything in this world more unsettling than that?
"Sir, you mean..."
"What I mean is, what I truly want to trade with Clan Head Aoba is something a hundred, a thousand times more precious than this information."
Su Chen rose to his feet.
He went to the window and looked down over the grand complex of buildings belonging to the Miteer Auction House.
"But that thing needs a grand enough stage, and enough witnesses to see its worth."
If Aoba Pa still didn't understand after that, he had no business being a clan head.
His heart began to pound uncontrollably.
Something a hundred times more precious than information about Two-Headed Fire Spirit Snakes?
What could it be?
Could it be... the thing spoken of in legends...
A wild thought burst into his mind!
Aoba Pa sprang to his feet. His voice trembled with excitement.
"Rest assured, sir!"
"If your information proves true, then from this day on, the Aoba Clan will be your most reliable friend in Wutan City!"
"If you need a stage, I'll build one for you that no one in all of Wutan City can match!"
Su Chen did not turn around.
He merely raised a hand and gave a slight wave behind him.
That was his answer.
He opened the door, and his slender figure soon disappeared outside.
Aoba Pa was left alone in the room.
He hurried to the desk and, with trembling hands, picked up the hide map, still warm from the young man's touch.
His gaze seemed to pass through the map. He could almost see the two giant serpents coiled in the lava, and the two Companion Magic Cores gleaming with brilliant light.
And he could see... a future beyond imagination, full of endless possibilities.
He knew.
From this day on.
The skies over Wutan City were about to change.
Before you continue