Leading up to the Auction

It only took a day and a half before Yue was given orders to move to the next city scheduled for inspections as the new staff from the Imperial Guard arrive. As we planned, from the moment the appointed day arrived we basically never left Dai Jiang's residence. Most of us anyway, I may have gotten bored and wandered around the Treasury on a couple of occasions, much to the dismay of the others.

According to Dai Jiang, Yue had reportedly left the city within an hour after the Imperial Guard arrived. But without any warnings at all, the next morning, Yue had walked out from the room neighbouring the one Lia and I had occupied. Even Dai Jiang was surprised at how she got there, not even Aurelia with her telepathy could find out how she did it. Since she would explain, all we could do was speculate.

The next few days leading up to the special auction left me in a state of incredible boredom. After my several incursions out on the first day, Aurelia made sure to keep a stable watch over the exit to prevent me from sneaking off into the rest of the Treasury. Leaving me with little to do, I turned my attention to messing with new weapon designs.

At first, I tried to make new guns based on the ones from Earth, but I got tired of this quickly as I don't have any background in this field. I can replicate anything as long as I've eaten it and its composition is of Elements I can manipulate or if I have the blueprints but I'm not very familiar with the weapons from Earth nor do I have any experience with creating them from scratch. As I'm also not terribly interested in learning as well, I quickly shifted my focus elsewhere.

My new focus went towards improving the Big Metal Dragons, remembering those automatons that we fought with when we first left for the Lan Shu forest. If I can incorporate the mechanics behind them into the Big Metal Dragons, I can send them to battle with having to personally control them. At first, I went to Wanjing, but she didn't know much about them, so I left her with more biology homework then went to find Yue and Dai Jiang, but they seemed to both be elsewhere in the Treasury. Under Aurelia's watchful eyes, I put the matter aside for the moment to take a nap instead.

The next day I found the two of them in one of Dai Jiang's few non-bedrooms, the lounge, and brought up my questions regarding automatons. Like Wanjing, neither of them knew much in regards to the specifics of how they work, but they did at least know more than Wanjing. During the discussion, Aurelia came in and mentioned how the automatons probably work in a similar manner to golems.

"Although the technology behind golem creation is gone and most the ones that are known are no longer functional, the few that are still operational seem to have some similarities in the automatons we saw. This is conjuncture on my part, but I think one might be derivative of the other or they both share the same origin, they might even be the same thing but with different names," Aurelia says.

"Say, are there any people in Shipping that can construct an automaton?" I ask.

As the person most knowledgable about Shipping, Aurelia, Yue, and I all turn to face Dai Jiang as I pose the question.

"Unfortunately for you, that would be a no. Automaton Creators are something of a mix between an alchemist and blacksmith, they're highly specialised in their craft and are exceedingly rare. Let alone Shipping, there's only a handful of them in all of Shenzhou, and only a few dozen over all of Shengdi."

"Then do you know where I can find one?"

"In Shenzhou, I can think of two places where you might find an Automaton Creator. The first is naturally the Capital, all sorts of talent gather there. The second place is the border city, Zhongyang, it's right in the middle of Shengdi and serves as the only city where the borders of Shenzhou, Yamato, and Samhan, all collide. That place is a bit special since as per a treaty, it's an independent city that isn't beholden to any of the three powers, but that doesn't stop them from trying to shift the city's direction towards one of them," Dai Jiang explains.

"That's actually a good idea, it's a much better place to go instead of the Capital, considering your situation. If you all went to the Capital right now, you'd likely get caught within a matter of hours, it is the home of the Imperial Guard after all. But you're also more likely to find the most competent people in Zhongyang, moreover, you're also likely to find an Automaton Creator that is willing to help you there than if you went to the Capital. My next assignment will also take me in that direction, so I can join you there as well for a bit once I finish my Inspections," Yue says.

"Yue brings up a good point, if we were to go to the Capital of Shenzhou like we originally planned, it's likely we would run into trouble, especially if there are several people at power levels that are equal to or stronger than her. I think we should bring this up with the others and see what they think about changing the plan, but I don't think they'll disagree," Aurelia says.

"I'm not exactly opposed, but the matter of the Automaton Creator is a secondary problem to me. My main concern right now is still trying to find a suitable way for me to climb the ranks up to Demigod status."

"If that's the case, you might find Zhongyang to be quite a nice place. As the headquarters of the Treasury, it isn't too rare to see some half decent cultivation manuals at the auction, but if you're looking for something special, then I might be able to introduce you to someone, from what I heard from you about your abilities, I think this person's techniques will suit you quite well," Yue says.

"Can you tell me more about this person? You're being pretty vague."

"I have to be vague, they're a full-blown Demigod, if I mentioned them directly then they would know it. She prefers to live like a hermit and doesn't like to many people to be aware of her for no reason, so she doesn't like it when people spread her name. I am personally fond of living so I don't want to attract the attention of someone so far out of my league, the most I can do is introduce you to her in person, so long as you agree to keep her name and location a secret."

"Oh, I think I know who it is your talking about. I agree that the techniques and methods she created seem like they would be a good fit for our Dragon friend here, they are probably more suited for Cordelia then they are for the creator herself," Dai Jiang says.

"You're trying to set me up with a Demigod for a teacher? Am I hearing this right? Would they even agree in the first place? I feel as if someone like me were to ask a Demigod to teach me would be like asking to die."

"On the contrary, while I can't say much on it, I think you'll be accepted as a student, I get the feeling you can help her just as much as she can help you. As long as I vouch for you, at the very least, I can guarantee that you won't be killed in the event you're rejected," Yue says.

"Let me think about this for a bit, I think we'll probably head over to Zhongyang instead of the Capital, but I need to think about this proposal, so I'll give you an answer in Zhongyang."

"That's fine, you have other matters to worry about right now after all."

"Yeah, there's the auction tomorrow and finding a way out of the city without causing a commotion."