With two high-quality items put up for auction, Cara found herself in the possession of a Gold-colored bidding paddle, meaning she had no real upper limit on the gold she could offer for any given item.

More surprising, though, was when she met back up with her student, she found that Zara also had a gold-colored paddle.

"What did you offer them?" Cara asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Just a few simple medicines. Since I came to this world I've had a few new ideas," Zara replied.

"Ideas like what?"

"Well," said Zara, "Using the new mandrake roots we found in the forest, I was able to make a pill that can make a knight reach the first Houtian Rung with almost one-hundred percent accuracy. No side effects, either."

"What?!" Cara almost jumped out of her skin. Such a pill would be unimaginable in their home world. How many sects or clans would go bankrupt over such a thing?! The hardest part of cultivating any talent would be the first Houtian Rung. That breakthrough would be almost impossible for some of the less talented children.

Cara, herself, struggled to break through to it in her current body, and she was known as The Sage! Imagine how difficult it was for true young children..

And a pill that guaranteed such a breakthrough? Without negative side effects?

Cara was surprised that the appraiser in the medicine section didn't yell out in shock.

"Do you think the Auction House will try to pocket it on me?" Zara asked, her voice laced with excitement at the prospect.

"It's different from the cultivation methods I turned in. While the pill you gave could sell for an astronomical sum, it doesn't have the staying power for an organization like a quality cultivation method," said Cara while rubbing her chin. "They'll probably auction it off in good faith, because they might think you can make more. It was a fresh pill, right?"

"Yeah. I made it a few days before we left the forest."

"So they'll know it was a freshly made pill. Things might get interesting from here.." Cara's voice trailed off as a familiar Prince appeared in front of her again.

"Miss Cara Stonelight," said the Prince, his voice far more respectful this time, "My Elders have set aside one of the nicest rooms in the whole venue for you and your Master. Please, let me lead you there personally~"

The Prince's words were in a far kinder tone, and Cara could feel his eyes traveling across her body as they spoke. It felt wrong and she didn't like it. Was this what it was like to be ogled as a woman?

"Teacher, if he doesn't stop staring at you, I'm going to rip his eyes out," said Zara off to the side. Her aura was slowly climbing and she looked far more dangerous than usual.

Cara put her hand on her student's shoulder and smiled.

"Relax," said Cara. "It's fine. Remember that old phrase, 'You can look but you can't touch.' Why don't you just lock arms with me and you can be my escort for once, instead of the other way around."

Immediately, the dangerous aura around Zara faded. She locked arms with her Teacher and her smile looked like a newborn star, dazzling in its radiance.

"Oh my, Teacher~" said Zara with a bit of flair. "You always escorted me to places back when you were a man. Now I can escort you~"

Zara started to give off a different aura, but Cara felt this one was equally as dangerous as the last one. Using her free hand, Cara pinched the skin between her brows. She wondered just what she was going to do about her strange student.

The private room the Auction House provided was high above the main room, overlooking it. Inside numerous screens formed from mana and glass showed the stage below, zooming in on all the products as they were presented.

It was rather advanced, all things considered. Cara found herself playing with the interface a bit. She smiled and, for a moment, looked the part of a proper child.

Zara watched from the side with a melting heart. Her face reddened a bit and she had to take deep breaths to control herself. She felt, for a moment, that this was what it felt like to have a cute little sister.

"Teacher, why don't you let me braid your hair from now on. It's starting to get a bit long and it'd be a shame to cut it," said Zara.

"That sounds like a pain," Cara replied, not bothering to look back.

"I could do it while you cultivate. You wouldn't even notice I was doing anything," said Zara.

Cara sighed. "Fine, but if it starts to bug me I'll literally shave my head."

"No. That's not allowed, Teacher. I will not let you shave such beautiful hair," Zara snapped.

"It's my hair, Zara. I can do with it as I please.."

A huge pressure fell on Cara's head as Zara released some of her aura. The floor of the auction house cracked beneath her.

"Teacher, I've been very kind and accommodating. I've been trying my best to go along with your wishes, but there are a few lines you should not cross," said Zara, her tone dangerous. "I love you with all my heart, but you need to come to terms with the fact that you're a woman now. If I have to force you to come to terms with it, I will."

"Zara relax. It was a joke," Cara sputtered out through grit teeth, actually a bit afraid of her own student. In that moment she started to remember just how crazy her student had been. Zara wasn't kidding, here.

"Don't joke about things like that. From now on I'll be teaching you how to be a proper woman, okay."

"Zara, I don't want to learn how to be a woman," said Cara.

"But you are one, now, Teacher. And we can't exactly change your gender, either," Zara's voice turned grim. "The shield has already fused your soul with that body. It doesn't have enough energy to facilitate another swap. We'd need to gather all Twelve of us again to possibly switch you into a new body, and I doubt everyone would agree. It's too dangerous. We only used the shield in the first place because we had no other choice."

"What do you mean it's too dangerous?" Cara asked.

"There are risks, Teacher. Your soul could have suffered the Declines. Doing this all was a risk.. And with one of my fellow disciples being a traitor.. I refuse to help you with trying to get a male body."

Cara didn't know what to say. She didn't want to be a woman, and she certainly didn't want to have to learn to act like one..

"Just because my body is female doesn't mean my mind or soul is, Zara," said Cara after a long time. "I can still dress and live as a man, even if I'm not one biologically."

Now it was Zara's turn to be speechless. She wanted to refute, she wanted to claim how it was 'such a waste' while looking at how absolutely beautiful her teacher was.. But she knew that wouldn't convince her teacher at all.

Perhaps the only thing that could convince her teacher would be if..

Zara shook her head and stopped her mind from going down a dark path. She refused to do anything too traumatizing. She wanted her teacher to be a cute little sister, but if the person in question didn't want to..

Zara regretted wasting her portion of the Soul Shield. She realized that, if she had thought of it at the time, she could have erased all of her teacher's memories of being male.

-

While Zara was stuck red-faced while traveling down some strange thoughts, the auction continued below. Cara focused in and looked over anything that looked remotely useful.

"And this next object," said the woman manning the auction itself, "Is a Mana Stone from a powerful beast! A team of Broken-Soul Knights took down this monster after a long battle. This core has two attributes to it, making it extra rare. It contains both the power of Wind and Fire!"

Cara stood up from her seat. The stone on display was exactly what she needed. Immediately she raised her paddle.

"We already have a bid from the private booths, with Number 87!" Said the auctioneer. "Can we hear 2,300,000? Anyone?"

A black paddle in the lower seats raised.

"There it is!" Yelled the auctioneer. "Do I see 2,500,000?!"

A small vein bulged on Cara's forehead. She raised her paddle again and called out, "Four million!"

"What an increase! Do we see 4,500,000? Anyone?" The auctioneer continued to do her job. "Going once, going twice.."

"Five million!" Called a new voice. Cara's head snapped to the side and, from another private booth, she could see a young man holding up a gold-colored paddle. In a seat next to him was a familiar girl wearing a teal-colored robe. Her eyes were laughing.

"5,500,000!" Cara immediately raised.

"You may be a broken-soul Knight," said Enra Zeitgar, the teal-robed girl. "But can someone without a backer like you really afford to spend so much money?"

"The Auction House wouldn't be letting her bid if she couldn't back it up," replied the young man sitting with Enra. He raised his paddle again and said, "Six Million!"

"Ten million!" Cara's voice bellowed over the venue. She needed that magic core. Money didn't matter to her. If she needed to, she could pull out 100 more Soul Refining tier cultivation techniques!

Meanwhile, while all this was happening, Zara was still off in her own little world, thinking about how to make her teacher into the prettiest little sister that ever lived.