The Celestial Dragon Empire, Panyu, March 20
Local authorities have released an official statement regarding the bombing of an upscale auction house in the infamous Crimson Market area of Panyu this January. Hsu Xian-Ji, the head of the Major Investigations division of Panyu's Guard, spoke to the press this afternoon. "This was obviously a well planned terrorist attack," Commisioner Hsu explained, "an individual as unstable as Sun Xi-Long clearly wouldn't have had the capacity to organize something this elaborate on his own. We have several leads indicating that a group of Li insurgents provided him with both material and tactical aid."
The city was shocked on January 30th when Sun, 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 300 unrelated individuals 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 an ethnic minority in the CDE known for their preference of mo shu (traditional magic) over ji shu (magical technology).
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.
