"Esteemed guests, dear friends!""Good afternoon, everyone!""Welcome to the Dachang Auction!""I am the auctioneer, Li Enqing."
A magnetic female voice cut through the hubbub. Soft, poised — and instantly the room quieted. The crowd knew the show was about to begin.
Onstage, Li Enqing stood in a dark professional skirt, waves of hair framing a composed, confident face. She wielded the gavel like a conductor's baton; every eye in the hall followed her.
"It's an honor to host today's sale. This auction follows openness, fairness, and impartiality. Barter is the rule." Her tone was smooth. "Of course, we also accept Evolution Points — Xingyue Base will handle material exchange and balance. Items bought with Evolution Points receive a 30% discount. Bid vigorously, everyone.""Now, let's start the auction. Bring out the first lot!"
A cart rolled onto the stage, piled with vacuum-sealed meat."Pig-spirit pork, two thousand jin!""Starting bid: strategic supplies equivalent, or 3,000 Evolution Points. Minimum raise: 100 points!"
Bids exploded.
"3,100 Evolution Points!""3,500!""3,800!"
Although barter was supposed to rule, almost everyone fought with Evolution Points. Why? Because most attendees treated those points as worthless scraps — a freebie to burn.
"Evolution Points are pointless — pool our base's points and grab the pork!""Xingyue Base is generous; they're giving us food!""Hah, I've got eight hundred points alone. Ganges Base will snatch this!"
Chen Xiao sat in the front row with Ouyang Miao, comfortable and unhurried. Ouyang Miao tilted her head. "Chen Xiao, why is Xingyue hoarding Evolution Points so hard?"
Chen Xiao chuckled. "Who knows? If they can trade Evolution Points now, Xingyue Base is hiding something."
"I've got over five thousand Evolution Points," she said casually.
Chen Xiao's eyes flicked up. "How many?""Over five thousand."
Five thousand. Not small. Chen Xiao's own stash was comparable — largely thanks to the top-three-family cleanup. Between killing elites and cleaning up battlefields, his totals weren't surprising, but still significant.
The pork lot closed at eight thousand Evolution Points. Next up: donkey meat. The room's excitement kept climbing. Chen Xiao didn't care about food; he was here for the payment method, the hidden mechanism. He barely glanced at later lots, including a sold-for-service contract for an S-rank talent. Instead he nudged Ouyang Miao to spend a few points — she used Evolution Points to win three hundred jin of chicken at his suggestion.
A man in a gray short-sleeve shirt came over. "Excuse me — distinguished guests from Jiangbei?""We are." Ouyang Miao answered.
"Follow me — you can pay and collect your chicken now." They were led backstage, where two middle-aged men awaited. The one in cyan introduced himself with a chuckle: "I'm Lin Shengyan, third leader of Xingyue Base." The suited man beside him added, "I'm He Xiangliu, squad leader — I'm with Brother Yan."
Ouyang Miao's eyes narrowed. "How do I pay with Evolution Points?"
Lin Shengyan smiled. "Do you have companions? Three thousand points is not small." He paused, then: "If you hand over your Evolution Points, Xingyue Base will provide the matching supplies."
Ouyang Miao looked puzzled. Chen Xiao had seen this before: Evolution Points can be harvested like crops if someone has a way to drain them. He signaled her to proceed.
He Xiangliu wheeled over a stone slab draped in an opaque black cloth. "Place your hand on it to pay. We've packed the chicken — honest dealers." Ouyang Miao didn't hesitate; she pressed her palm to the cloth. A faint light leaked through.
Chen Xiao watched her face change. She'd just glimpsed the "evolution opportunity" hidden beneath the cloth. He wasn't hurried to grab it — this game would cost far more than a few thousand points, otherwise no one would stage an auction this elaborate.
Numbers flashed in Ouyang Miao's mind: "500,000…" "Now 439,000."
Chen Xiao's expression tightened. That kind of price-tag meant this opportunity was no petty trinket — it was terrifying.
"Alright, Xiangliu — find the next item…" Lin Shengyan's voice trailed off.
Squelch.
Blood sprayed. Lin Shengyan staggered as a spear of crimson opened his back. He collapsed, gurgling. He Xiangliu — the man beside him — had killed him in one brutal motion, uncaring even with Chen Xiao and Ouyang Miao watching. He laughed as he stood in the spreading blood. "Sorry, Brother Yan. With your strength, you don't deserve this opportunity. Of course… neither do I."
Betrayal at a summit. The apocalypse made treachery standard practice; when an evolution opportunity blooms, loyalties rot.
Chen Xiao stepped forward. The hall hummed with tension.
"You said neither of you deserves it," he said quietly. "Then hand it over. I deserve it."
He didn't shout. He didn't grandstand. He simply claimed it with an unnerving calm that made other bidders shift in their seats.
Around him, the crowd reined in murmurs into silence. Evolution Opportunities weren't toys — they were gates to power. If Dachang had built a machine to extract or trade them, that was a weapon any nation would fight for. Chen Xiao's instincts told him this sale was a front: whoever controlled the mechanism could harvest evolution points en masse — and that meant controlling the next generation of awakeners.
He stepped closer to the covered slab. The auction room felt suddenly small, like a cage of eyes and knives.
"If you don't hand it over," he said, "I'll take it anyway."
The implication wasn't a threat — it was a promise.