Thanks to the power of the kaijin, in Zhen Liu's case, and the majin, in the girls' case, the entire party was well aware that someone or something had been rampaging in Rainbowden's underworld and had subjugated many of the factions that called this city home.

Amongst their number was the Beautiful Marionette Society, that group of puppet makers that Zhen Liu and the others had travelled with to get to Rainbowden and had assumed to be the reason why Axer's master and their old contacts had wound up dead.

It wasn't that hard to put together that a group obsessed with making the most beautiful and powerful puppets in existence would probably try and do something incredibly shady with the corpses of powerful aether warriors that were killed using [Mandrake Tears].

However, once they had heard that the Beautifully Marionette Society had been wiped out by another underworld force, they had figured that was a dead-end lead.

As such, when they heard that name being used for an auction house item, the group couldn't help but be...a little intrigued and a little worried.

However, the more courageous among them saw this moment as an opportunity.

"So...do you guys think if we win this particular bid, we'll be able to meet whoever placed this Aether puppet up for purchase?" Jinju Ren asked as she stared down at the auction stage from above.

The initial price of this silver tiered aether puppet was around five thousand gold pieces and had gone up to six thousand gold pieces. At this point, the number of people willing to help him had tapered off to about two people. However, this was only the first puppet out of a lot of ten, so Zhen Liu and his allies weren't too worried about losing out on this first auction.

"I don't think we'll be able to do so due to the house's policy on anonymity," Zhong Wei pointed out. "Although, I think your bridegroom-to-be probably has a method or two to track people, yes?"

"That...he does," Jinju Ren agreed. "He most certainly does."

Everyone in the room turned their gazes towards Zhen Liu, expecting him to immediately answer with how he would be able to undergo this task.

He didn't verbally answer the group, but his tangential awareness made him able to provide an answer by reaching into his pocket and producing a solid gold zako marble, which then took on the shape of a gold piece.

"Excellent," Jinju Ren nodded in approval. "In that case, it's time to secure one of these puppets..."

...As for the reason why Zhen Liu was silent...

'...'

[...]

=...=

...alright, I'm just going to point this out.

'Please don't.'

In the span of less than a day, a literal day after arriving here, you and your friends have somehow stumbled upon a chunk of solid [Chaos], run into several old enemies of yours that may or may not be fighting to the end here, and your girl has now bought an item that belonged to a faction that was just eighty-sixed by one of those aforementioned enemies of yours. All in an attempt to meet them on their level.

'Your point, Pathos. What is your point? Also, wait, what was that last one?'

We may have sealed memories in regard to some of our previous Kaijin Lords, but we can at least tell you that absolutely none of them had the sheer amount of back-to-back bullshit you seem to go through.

=Remind us later to have your body and spirit undergo a thorough examination once we get our hands on some key materials. That or we see if we can hook you up with diviner that knows more about what they're doing than most other people claim they know what they're doing.=

[To be fair, I've heard of people with this level of luck before,] Hurricroak commented. [People who have everything go wrong for them no matter what they do, or go incredibly right no matter what crimes they commit. Maybe the maestro is just...built like that.]

[That or he's the protagonist of a light novel with an author who doesn't know how to move plot properly,] Razorstella joked.

*BING-BONG!*

...

|...|

...

|...what?|

Are you good?

|Yes.|

Okay....

*BING-BONG!*

=Either way, you should probably pay more attention to your surroundings again, as your girl just secured a lead to figuring out this discrepancy and it involves one of your zako coins.=

'Right, thank you.'

...Oh, this might not end well...

Securing the bid on one of these Growth-Model Gem puppets cost Zhen Liu and company around eight thousand and six hundred gold pieces.

Thanks to their recently acquired wealth from the previous auctions, this wasn't a massive sum to the group, but it was still substantially noticeable to outsiders.

At this point in time, everyone in the private booth had assumed that this would be the end of their auction fun since that was the only item that had piqued their interest so far.

However, that quickly changed in Zhen Liu's case once he heard what the next item being sold was.

Well, to be more precise, it was Logo and Pathos who urged him to purchase this next item.

…

"Ladies and gentlemen, I know we have sold a multitude of wonderful hand-crafted aether treasures made by our local artisans this fine afternoon, but now it is time to go back to the books, and this one, this next item, is something truly special to behold."

Signifying the seriousness of his words, a pair of assistants entered the stage while carrying a massive treasure chest that looked almost like a palanquin.

The sight of this chest elicited excited murmurs amongst the crowd…as well as mutterings of discontent.

^Hehe, looks like another one bit the dust…^

"And so the accursed book returns to circulation…"

I wonder if I can actually get a crack at reading this thing this time…

Once the chest was placed upon the ground, the auctioneer made moves to open it so that its contents could be seen and felt by all in attendance.

The moment the chest was opened, two events that only a few could feel had happened.

Everyone with even the faintest hint of aether cultivation could feel a surge of aether that washed everyone over and made them feel as if a warm summer breeze had blown right by them.

However, to the very few who had an understanding of [Chaos], or dragon force to a lesser extent, they could feel the underlying power that dwarfed that surge of aether like a giant shadow looming over a desert.

[By the ancestors,] Frosttusk rumbled, the power fully warming up their very core. [Its like standing in front of a furnace.]

[You mean a volcano?]Nepherage corrected.

"Xiao Liu...did it feel like this when you inherited the will of the Storm Queen?" Jinju Ren asked as she used dragon force to push back against the overwhelming [Chaos] flowing into the private box.

"No...no it did not," Zhen Liu managed to answer after taking a deep breath of the ambient [Chaos] and letting it energize his body and blood.

The source of this overwhelming power was the shabbiest-looking book that Zhen Liu had ever seen.

It was old, tattered, and covered in ash and soot, and he could tell it would reek of iron and sulfur.

In other words, it was the kind of book a master of the forge would definitely keep by their side.

"Ladies and gentlemen, before you is the one and only copy of the [Rainbow Forge Manual], a book that was written by the one and only Rainbowsmith, the founder of this fair city and the man who once crafted the [Nine Sun Sabers], the [Three Grand Disasters], and the [Four Apocalypses]."

At the mention of these ancient weapons, the [Hammer of the Dearly Departed] on Zhen Liu's hip began to shake with competitive intent.

"This book, if fully comprehended, will allow the wielder to not only wield multiple different types of aether flames from multiple different series but also enable them to combine these conflicting flames into newer and stranger ways," the auctioneer explained. "With these flames, you'd be able to work with materials that many once thought impossible to manipulate."

[Sounds like something I can already do,] Blazejudicator commented. [Or rather, a more advanced version of own my techniques.]

"Keep heed, though, prospective buyer. This manual has been bought and resold dozens of times, each owner only able to grasp a mere fragment of the power locked within these pages," the auctioneer warned the buyers. "But every last one of those owners failed to produce even a proper knockoff of the Rainbowsmith's work. As such, the price for this manual will be starting at...five hundred thousand gold pieces."

Half a million wasn't a small sum, and Zhen Liu partially expected no one wanting to put that much upfront.

Unfortunately, he learned in real time that idle wealth was a rather...vicious force.

Especially when one of those bastards happened to be a rival Shaper.