Panyu, CDE, January 30
The city of Panyu in the Celestial Dragon Empire was shocked today when Sun Xi-Long, an unemployed Li with Ji Shu skills, entered Madame Long's, a well respected auction house in Panyu's Sentient Goods market, and interrupted an auction with the announcement that he was wearing a bomb. He then used his considerable talent at Ji Shu to overlay the local vid channels with video of himself and his captives.
Audiences watched in horror as he first demanded that the state put an end to slavery and then flogged two respected members of the business community. Sun became increasingly incoherent over the course of the hour that he held his prisoners captive. Despite their valiant attempts to disarm him, he ultimately set off his bomb, killing all of the people inside, inclding four slaves, as well as another 300 who were within the bomb's radius
The Sentient Goods Market, also known as the Crimson market, is the center of the slave trade in Panyu. It is estimated that an average of 100 individuals are sold in its auction houses and on its streets each day.
The Li are the largest ethnic minority in the CDE. They tend to be viewed as technologically backwards because of their preference for traditional magic (mo shu) over the use of magical technology (ji shu).
Panyu is one of the largest cities in the Celstial Dragon Empire, a thread that is located in the area that was occupied by China in the Penn State timeline. It is a high magic thread whose government is dominated by a group of reptaloid humanoids who call themselves Dragons.
