"Aaaah!" A girl screamed, "Get this pig off me!"

Her voice was m.u.f.fled as she was buried underneath another body. The weight lying on her was so great she thought her spine would snap.

Moisture tickled the back of her neck. She freaked out.

"Noooo!"

Van was not offended by her calling him a 'pig.'

In fact, she wasn't talking to him at all.

There really was a pig lying on top of her!

A giant, s...o...b..ring pig with black spots on its pink body.

But how had this happened?

____

[Flashback Start]

Nose buried in the map, Van didn't notice the big cart moving in front of him until it was too late. He b.u.mped straight into it.

BANG!

The cart tilted steeply due to impacting Van's body.

Suddenly, a giant, grunting pig with black spots was ejected from the big cart!

Van rubbed his eyes. He saw a small girl up ahead and had a bad feeling.

[Uh oh].

Oink Oink!

There was the sound of a girlish scream.

[Flashback End]

____

[s.h.i.+t,] Van thought, [Did I do that?]

Oink Oink!

The pig panicked and struggled to heave itself up.

"My pig!" The pig-seller yelled, horrified. He ran over and tried to rescue it.

Van was guiltily aware that the whole thing was his fault. He rolled up his sleeves, strode forwards heroically and seized the ma.s.sive pig by its two back trotters!

Oink Oink!

The pig squealed wildly. It was lifted high into the air.

Delphine was revealed beneath. Her hair was slightly messy, and her pink robes wrinkled. She looked ruffled and displeased. She eyed Van suspiciously.

[Why did this guy suddenly appear when this happened...? Did he do this? To get back at me negotiating a higher share in the Threadspinner woods?]

The pig continued to flail wildly in mid-air.

"You! Get your hands off my pig!" The red-faced pig-seller yelled at Van angrily. He had his hands on his hips, "My prize-pig weighs eight-hundred kilos and is going to win at the Pig Champions.h.i.+p tonight!"

The crowd was shocked. They were already awed by the sight of the young boy holding a giant pig above his head, but now it was also an eight-hundred kilo pig?

The kid had lifted an eight-hundred-kilo pig to rescue a young girl!

Glimmers of admiration could be seen in the eyes of the crowd. What a gentleman!

Van had no idea that the crowd's thoughts were running wild and missing the point. He folded his arms and looked at the pig-seller with contempt, "Eight-hundred kilos? Your prize pig isn't even six-hundred kilos, who are you trying to fool?"

The pig seller's face grew red with a mix of anger, embarra.s.sment and indignation.

Van did not allow the pig seller a chance to speak, "So clumsy as well. You better watch your steps carefully from now on, lest you harm another young girl with your carelessness!"

Van hurled a flurry of unkind words. Why? He was trying to deflect the crowd's attention to the pig-seller and make the other guy into public enemy one of course!

After all, Van was the real culprit!

Like a gentleman, Van stepped forwards and extended a hand to Delphine. She grasped his proffered hand with her small fingers.

"Thank you," Delphine said. Her ears pinked.

Oink Oink!

The ma.s.sive pig suddenly started acting wild on the cart. The pig-seller immediately went to calm the distraught pig.

Van tightened his hold on Delphine's hand and dragged her away from the scene.

Ryan followed. He was incredibly amused with the whole situation.

The trio soon left the sight of the crowd.

"My hand…" Delphine said. She felt embarra.s.sed because they had held hands for so long. Plus, there was another person here!

Van dropped her hand immediately.

Delphine was stunned. He had flung her hand away so quickly…!

After a few moments, she regained herself, "Who is this young man beside you, Van?"

Van slapped Ryan on the shoulder, "This is my friend, Ryan. We both came from the same village. He's a hardworking fella. Bit hard to talk to sometimes because the only thing that he cares about is training, training and training."

Delphine and Ryan awkwardly greeted each other.

The grey-eyed boy looked surrept.i.tiously at Van and then back at Delphine. One was clearly interested in the other, but the other one… was like a brick wall.

Ryan shook his head.

Delphine turned her cat-like eyes to Van, "I apologise for showing you such a shameful sight. The pig was ordinary and did not have an aura, and I did not expect it to suddenly fly my way. I reacted too slowly…"

"Anyway," she continued, "Where were you guys off to before? I have lived in Dragon City all my life, so I can give you directions and sight-seeing tours. Think of it as thanks for rescuing me from further embarra.s.sment just now."

Van exchanged a glance with Ryan, "Actually, we were going to check out the Mystery Object Sale."

Delphine was surprised, "I am going there as well. Follow me, then."

____

The trio soon arrived at Pearl-Blossom Avenue, the most decorated and festive street in the inner city.

It seemed as if the entire city were crammed into this tiny s.p.a.ce. People waited patiently with expressions of hope and anxiety on their faces.

Who hadn't heard about Gauntlet Mask? That gallant hero who had discovered that the thing stuck under layers of ancient crust in an extremely old urinal was in fact, a legendary mask?

What about the famous Frost Pill Sage, the foremost alchemy expert in Cloud River? She had used a chipped bowl she bought from the Mystery Object Sale as an incense holder, and one day discovered that it was the mythical Snow-Spirit Cauldron!

Who didn't want to rise to fame and change their fortunes over night?

The rhythmic sound of drums began to fill the air.

People's faces glowed with excitement.

"It's starting!"

Boom boom boom boom

Over a hundred figures dressed in white emerged from the far end of the street. They wore torn and ripped robes that flowed eerily in a non-existent breeze. Many of them were bloodstained. Their faces were pale and drained of colour, as if they had spent hundreds of years without sunlight. The ghostly figures cried out in a strange language and held mysterious pieces of wood in their hands that they shook in the air.

Woooo woooo

Ghostly cries filled the street.

"This is the famous Hundred Ghost Procession. It is always performed before the opening of the Mystery Object Sale," Delphine told Van and Ryan, "This dance wards any evil intent aimed at them from angry ghosts they offended by raiding their tombs."

Boom boom boom

The procession slowed and stopped.

Fireworks lit the sky. A ma.s.sive shadow appeared in the sky above. It began to descend.

With a loud thud, a large hall decorated with golden tiles landed in the middle of the street.

Dazzling yellow light spilt from it as the doors opened.

In concert, the one hundred ghosts stripped off their costumes to reveal neat golden uniforms. With a wave of their hands, their makeup disappeared. Figures in the same uniform emerged from the doors of the golden hall and placed ten ma.s.sive chests in the street.

"The ones in golden uniform are the auctioneers," Delphine explained.

The auctioneers bowed in unison and shouted:

"The Annual Mystery Object Sale will now begin!"

The crowd cheered.

A slender woman in gold stepped forwards and spoke loudly, "As usual, twelve separate auctions will be held in different rooms within the golden hall. The largest items are auctioned in the 1st room, while the smallest items will be auctioned in the 12th room. Mystery objects smaller than the size of a finger will be sold in the streets."

"Generally," the golden lady explained, "The bigger the mystery item it, the more it is auctioned for. It is more likely for a large mystery object to turn out to be a treasure."

Delphine turned to Van, "Where will you go?"

Van picked his ear, "Eh. I'll check out the street sale."

"I will accompany you then," Delphine a.s.serted. She worried that he would get duped by the auctioneers and pay a thousands for a bag of useless ancient pebbles. Besides, if she was lucky, she might find an ancient pill or something.

Van had a good reason for wanting to go to the street sale over the auction rooms.

Firstly, they were bound to pay less attention to the people buying on the streets. This was perfect for Van's purpose of making a killing from nothing.

Plus, the stuff in the auction rooms were much more likely to be overpriced. The auctions will also proceed slowly. I will be better off quickly going through the goods in the streets and then looking at the auction rooms later.]

You might ask why the people who conducted the Mystery Object Sale didn't just sc.r.a.pe off this crust themselves and find out what was below them.

The truth is, they would be complete and utter idiots if they did!

After all, if they simply left the crust on, they could even sell trash worth absolutely nothing!

The occasional loss from selling a superb treasure for less money, was insignificant compared to the amount of money they made simply from selling ancient trash items for 1000 times their true value.

The probability of gaining something good was only 0.0001%!

Even Van couldn't help but praise their business model.

The auctioneers were already hard at work on the streets, talking loudly and advertising the things they extracted from the chests. All the objects they pulled out were covered in ancient crust that obscured their true appearance and dulled the spiritual power they might emit.

"Esteemed customers! Look at the shape of this mystery item! The way the crust is shaped is very familiar…I have sold many of these mystery items before, and 8/10 times they yielded ancient bronze statues. These statues calm the mind and clears internal demons!"

Immediately, a few customers rushed forwards and began to tussle for the item. When a bald man finally was the winner, he triumphantly bought the mystery object. He wanted the ancient bronze statue!

Impatient, the bald man immediately cracked the ancient crust. His expression sank.

"Aiyah. Just trash," he complained to his friends, "But I will not give up until I find a true treasure tonight!"

His friends cheered and egged him on.

The auctioneer watched them walk away with a broad smile on his face.

[These types of idiots are exactly why we make so much money. What a fool.]

The auctioneer looked at the ma.s.sive bags of pebble-sized mystery objects he still had to sell. From experience, the size and shape of the mystery objects indicated that they were 100% worthless trash.

He felt a headache coming on.

[I need to find some gullible people to sell these to…]

The auctioneer spotter two very young cultivators walking towards him. One was a young boy with dark hair. He wore the robes of an outer disciple of the Cedar Sect. The other was a young girl with expensive looking clothes and expensive pearl earrings.

The auctioneer smiled.

"Young couple! Over here!"