by Riceproblem
On an infinite planet where cultivation opportunities are hoarded by sects, clans, and the wealthy, Cole Nox awakens a strange Auction House System. He earns Value Points by doing anything of worth—saving lives, preventing losses, organizing labor, solving disputes, and creating useful order—but every treasure or opportunity he buys must be placed into auction. He can never claim the prizes directly. Inside his water-themed inner auction house, Cole invites mortals, merchants, sect officials, laborers, and outcasts to bid not only with currency, but with labor, information, reputation, need, future value, and witnessed promises. As he solves the hidden social puzzles spread through the auction house, new halls and functions unlock, allowing him to turn overlooked people and buried value into power. Still poor, still without qi, and still barred from directly taking the treasures he needs, Cole begins building something more dangerous than wealth: a marketplace where the closed gates of the cultivation world can be forced open.
