An Auction of Souls

An epic adventure inspired by Chinese mythology about an enterprising girl thrust into a fantastical quest to save her world from total destruction. A start to a new duology from Amber Chen, perfect for fans of Meng Lingxi and her grandmother run a legendary auction house, Meng Wu--the House of Dreams. But when a mysterious traveler arrives bearing a fragment of a soul, all that Lingxi knows changes in an instant. Her grandmother mysteriously vanishes, and restless spirits descend upon Meng Wu. Then two unlikely allies--Yan Jun and Yan Shan, guardians of hell itself--come to Lingxi''s aid, revealing a shocking secret about the only home she''s ever known: Meng Wu sits upon the gateway to hell, and her grandmother serves the god of the underworld himself. Soon, Lingxi joins her two companions on a perilous journey to find her grandmother and unravel the mystery behind the dangerous fragment of soul. Along the way, the trio must outsmart humans, gods, and demons alike who try to stand in their way--before hell is let loose on earth.

Autorentext

Amber Chen is a Singaporean Chinese author of SFF and contemporary fiction. She spends much of her free time living within Chinese fantasy novels and dramas, and also drinks one too many cups of bubble tea. One of her webnovels, The Cutting Edge, has been adapted for television. She is also the author of Of Jade and Dragons and The Blood Phoenix. You can find her online at AmberCWrites.com and on TikTok, Instagram, and X @AmberWrites88.

Klappentext

A start to a new duology from Of Jade and Dragons author Amber Chen, this sweeping fantasy full of magic and danger follows a girl and her two unlikely companions on an adventure through fantastical lands in pursuit of answers to a centuries' long mystery.

Meng Lingxi and her grandmother run a legendary auction house, Meng Wu—the House of Dreams. But when a mysterious traveler arrives bearing a fragment of a soul, all that Lingxi knows changes in an instant. Her grandmother mysteriously vanishes, and restless spirits descend upon Meng Wu.

Then two unlikely allies—Yan Jun and Yan Shan, guardians of hell itself—come to Lingxi's aid, revealing a shocking secret about the only home she's ever known: Meng Wu sits upon the gateway to hell, and her grandmother serves the god of the underworld himself.

Soon, Lingxi joins her two companions on a perilous journey to find her grandmother and unravel the mystery behind the dangerous fragment of soul. Along the way, the trio must outsmart humans, gods, and demons alike who try to stand in their way—before hell is let loose on earth.

Zusammenfassung
A start to a new duology from Of Jade and Dragons author Amber Chen, perfect for fans of The Scorpion and the Night Blossom and A Forgery of Fate!

Meng Lingxi and her grandmother run a legendary auction house, Meng Wu—the House of Dreams. But when a mysterious traveler arrives bearing a fragment of a soul, all that Lingxi knows changes in an instant. Her grandmother mysteriously vanishes, and restless spirits descend upon Meng Wu.

Then two unlikely allies—Yan Jun and Yan Shan, guardians of hell itself—come to Lingxi's aid, revealing a shocking secret about the only home she's ever known: Meng Wu sits upon the gateway to hell, and her grandmother serves the god of the underworld himself.

Soon, Lingxi joins her two companions on a perilous journey to find her grandmother and unravel the mystery behind the dangerous fragment of soul. Along the way, the trio must outsmart humans, gods, and demons alike who try to stand in their way—before hell is let loose on earth.

Leseprobe
Auctions at Meng Wu ran swiftly, because time was money and there was nothing that Lingxi hated more than wasting money. In less than two hours, the auction list of over two dozen items had dwindled down to only one.
“We are nearing the end of today’s auction, and we have but one final item left to offer. This extremely rare item has not been seen across the kingdoms since the elusive God of Physicians disappeared over fifty years ago, and no other physician has been able to reproduce it since.” Lingxi held up a small sandalwood box on the palm of her hand, keeping perfectly still for one dramatic moment. Then she flipped open the lid to reveal a deceptively ­ordinary-​­looking brown pill sitting on its velvet cushion. A subtle fragrance of flowers wafted into the air, and the eyes of dozens of patrons widened when the scent drifted past their noses. “Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the cure to any illness in the world, an escape from certain ­death—​­the Hundred Flower Pill. The starting bid will be ten thousand gold taels.”
An audible gasp went around the room.
Before the Hundred Flower Pill took to the stage, the most expensive item, a pair of twin swords forged by the late sword master Leirong, had only fetched eight thousand gold taels. Ten thousand was almost equivalent to one year of an entire kingdom’s ­taxes—​­who would be able to afford that?
“Ten thousand!” a soft, squeaky voice called out from above. The princeling from the Kingdom of Snow eagerly held out his wooden paddle through the open windows of the Coral Room.
Lingxi chuckled inward, imagining the coffers of the kingdom emptying into her own vault.
“Ten thousand from the young man up there. Do we have any other bids?”
“Fifteen thousand!” someone else shouted. The bid came from a group of burly men on the balcony, wrapped in animal furs with tattoos of tigers covering half their faces. Pugilists from the Nanshan clan, one of the wealthiest in the jianghu.
The prince waved his paddle once more. “Twenty thousand!”
“Twenty-​­five.”
“Thirty!”
“Thirty-​­five!”
“Fifty thousand!” the prince yelled, his youthful face red with agitation.
The entire auction hall fell silent, all eyes resting upon the competing bidders from the Nanshan clan. The pugilists bowed their heads in discussion for a brief ­moment—​­and their paddle stayed down. The leader of the group slammed his heavily inked fist against the table, shooting a bloodthirsty glare at the young prince.
Fifty thousand taels? Lingxi’s eyes lit up. *The kid must be desperate to save his mother.
*Fifty thousand was not at all a bad deal. In fact, it was already higher than what she had been aiming for. But now?
Lingxi had been carefully observing the faces of the Snow prince’s entourage while their young master raised his hand to the tune of several years’ worth of their kingdom’s revenue. Not a single one of them so much as batted an eyelid. What did this mean? It meant that there was more gold, possibly much, much more, where that fifty thousand was coming from.
She raised a hand to her face, using two fingers to scratch the slight dent in her nose bridge just below her eyes.
Right on cue, a new voice joined the fray, coming from another private room on the top floor, directly across from the Snow prince. The windows to that room were shut, so no one could see who exactly had spoken or how many people were actually in there.
“Seventy thousand,” the voice called, its gravelly tone grating against ears.
A furor erupted from the crowd, arched necks and pointing fingers directed toward the room in question. The Snow prince blanched, falling back onto his seat. Behind her scarf, Lingxi’s lips twitched in a smile.
She cleared her throat and raised her ebony gavel into the air.
“Seventy thousand gold taels for the Hundred Flower Pill, going once, going ­twice—­”
“Wait!” the prince cried. He came…