The auction ran on a twenty-four-hour cycle with no rest periods.
Every night was the hour of premium auctions. During those two hours, only buyers with a deposit exceeding one million Gold Soul Coins could participate. At all other times, any bidder was welcome.
The rules were simple, but
It was far more lucrative than even a major Soul Dueling Arena.
"Please take us to the auction floor."
Following the young woman's lead, Tang San and
The Auction Center occupied the second floor of the building. Eight staircases from the main hall led up to it. Before they entered, the reception girl handed each of them a mask and told them that henceforth they would need to wear masks to attend any auction, a security measure for the clients' safety. Next time, no one would come to escort them.
The girl walked them all the way to the entrance of the Auction Center before turning to leave — the center had its own staff.
Xiao Wu used her slightly taller frame to block Tang San's line of sight as much as she could, then followed a rather generously proportioned server girl into the Auction Center.
The Auction Center felt more like a grand auditorium. Its layout resembled the main arena of a Soul Dueling Arena — a circular stage sat in the center, surrounded by concentric rings of seats radiating outward.
There were five sections in total. The three rows closest to the stage were red. Radiating outward came black, purple, yellow, and white, clearly designated for different tiers of bidders.
The reception girl had explained it to them earlier. The innermost red seats were accessed through a special passage and guarded by dedicated security personnel. That was the so-called million-tier VIP area, and only those with genuine status and standing could qualify for red-tier VIP access.
The next ring outward — the black seats — was the standard million-tier VIP section. As long as you had the money, you could get in.
These were the second-tier black VIPs.
Further out, purple was the five-hundred-thousand-tier, yellow was the hundred-thousand-tier, and the outermost white seats — also the largest section — were for ordinary VIPs like Tang San and Xiao Wu.
The server girl led them to the white section and gestured that they were free to choose their seats. Whether it was because Tang San and Xiao Wu looked too young, or because their VIP tier was too low, the server was far from enthusiastic. She simply led them to their seats with the bare minimum of professional courtesy — not even the perfunctory smile the reception girl had offered.
Tang San didn't mind, but Xiao Wu was a little put out. "Hmph. Snobbish. Dressing like that just to lure rich men — what's the point of growing those so big anyway?" As she spoke, she glanced down at her own chest.
"The servers here are all like that — it's nothing personal against you," a gentle voice came from beside them. Tang San and Xiao Wu turned to look and saw a middle-aged man in white robes, refined and scholarly in appearance, smiling and nodding at them.
Oddly, he wasn't wearing a mask, and no staff had come to question him.
Xiao Wu couldn't help asking, "All like that? Why?"
The middle-aged man smiled. "These servers all belong to the auction house — including their very lives. They were commoner girls purchased by the house at a very young age and raised from childhood. They are not merely service staff here; they are also part of the merchandise. If someone is willing to pay, they can be bought and sold."
"Isn't that just slavery? But aren't the two great empires supposed to forbid the slave trade?" Tang San said, somewhat surprised.
The middle-aged man gave a faint, indifferent smile. "There are many unfortunate realities in this world. This is the Heaven Dou Auction House. Forget slaves — there is nothing they dare not sell here. The reason those girls wear such blank expressions is that they long since lost hearts of their own and cannot determine their own fates. All they can do is obey. Their faces are lovely, but they possess no souls of their own. The only words I can offer them are 'how pitiful.'"
As he spoke, the look on Xiao Wu's face gradually shifted. If before she had felt nothing but distaste toward those provocatively dressed server girls, now her heart was filling with sympathy.