Once the group was out of the sacred beast’s dwelling, Kafka asked them, “Is there anywhere specific where you would like to go next, or would you like me to choose for you?”
Seph answered, “Actually, I would like to visit the shop first, and then we can visit the armorer; I need to liquidate some of my items and commission something from the armorer.”
“That’s fine by me; let’s go,” Kafka said as he led the group through the sandy streets of the vast cave where their sect was built.
As they got closer, they heard a scream from faraway that Zhi Zixin’s sudden appearance must have caused, but luckily no ruckus followed this time either. The word of the new sect ghost was going around fast.
After a few minutes, they reached the treasure pavilion of the sect. Usually, the treasure pavilion is for rewarding the disciples of the sect with magic items that could help them in their cultivation.
That was the case in this sect too, but five meters inside the building after they passed the fancy traditional door, there was a small shop in front of them.
Once they walked inside the shop’s door, they found the shop to be much bigger inside. Seph’s mouth dropped as he said, “How?”
Lilith was the one to answer him as she said, “Spatial magic; my father had many buildings like this, even my room was made using spatial magic. I really miss my room; this cultivation tomb doesn’t amount to 1% of how amazing my room was.”
Seph whispered under his breath, “Show off.”
Lilith didn’t catch what he said and asked, “Did you say something?”
Seph said innocently, “Nothing, I was coughing.” He followed that with a smirk that she didn’t see.
Behind the counter of the shop stood a middle-aged man; oddly, he didn’t look like a cultivator, as he looked gruff and not well dressed like most people in this place, except for Seph, who was a mess.
The man wore a grey, unusual hat; it looked to be made of wool or something, and its bottom edge was folded upward.
He wore a matching grey robe, which was opened widely on the chest; it revealed a black robe underneath, but still a lot of his chest hair was visible through the gap in the under-robe.
“Welcome, one and all, to my humble shop; please feel free to peruse my wares. Anything you’ll ever want is here. Well, most of the things you’ll need, but you understand what I mean, right?” The man cheerfully said his best sales pitch, which he probably had repeated a thousand times before.
Kafka made an order immediately. “One chopped pig, please, Silver Chan, keep every tasty part, as usual.”
The shopkeeper’s helper immediately went to the back as Kafka was a usual customer and got out with a bloody sack that Kafka took and put in his spatial ring.
He paid Silver Chan 1 gold coin, and told Seph and Lilith, “I’ll go feed my cats in my cultivation tomb; I’ll be back by the time you finish shopping and commissioning the armorer”
Lilith answered with a smile, “Take your time; we will wait for you.”
Meanwhile, Seph was busy gawking at all the items in the shop, he saw talismans, concoctions, multiple tools of different kinds including alchemy furnaces, a mahogany box with a glass cover that had multiple gold rings topped with different gems like the ones he saw Rong Sha use in the trials. Beside it was an identical mahogany box with protective rings and earrings; Seph knew that immediately since he had two of them; they all had the same pearl-shaped black gem on top.
On the right side, he saw a rack that had six spatial sacks hanged on it, and behind a glass casing beside it, there were different spatial rings or that was what Seph assumed since they were in proximity and a few of them looked similar to his.
There were also different beast furs hanging; Seph assumed they were materials for crafting.
What caught Seph’s eyes from that side was two different rings, one had a globe stone on top of it, and inside the globe there was blue everywhere, the blue surface was moving like it was actual real-life water, and there was a single piece of land in the middle.
The other ring had a different globe stone, and this one looked like it had the entire cosmos inside of it. Seph thought it must be very expensive.
He was also interested in the multiple flying swords that were hung on the wall and had many colors and various shapes.
Seph wanted so bad to use his Eye of the appraiser skill on these items, but the skill was time consuming and he didn’t want to use it in front of a stranger, and zone out checking all the items, which would waste all of their times, and make it awkward for his companion Lilith.
On the left side, there was a bookshelf that had a glass cover; on the shelves there were many manuals, and on the top shelf, there were many books of different shapes and forms.
Behind him all the way to the back, there was a unique setting, multiple shelves with the widest of them at the bottom, and they narrowed as they reached up.
They had different spiritual herbs inside; Seph assumed that the lower rarity herbs were on the bottom shelf since it was wider and carried more and the rarity increased as you went up.
In the center of the huge shop, there was the rarest of all the items, many unique looking materials and stones, Seph didn’t know any of them, but they were all in a glass casing and showcased at the middle of the shop, so he reached that conclusion.
At the back of the shop on the left side, there was even a door; Seph wondered if there were even more items behind that door, that only came out if you specifically requested them. He had completely missed the interaction between Kafka and Silver Chan and his helper going through the door, being star-struck with all the items in front of him.
The group couldn’t look away from everything in the shop, so the owner talked again, “I see already that my extensive collection mesmerized you. Let me tell you, I have everything legal and illegal for sale if you know what I mean.” He finished with a wink.
Seph looked at him and said, “No, I don’t know what you mean, and why are you winking?!”
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The shopkeeper rolled his eyes dramatically as he said under his breath, “He must be na?ve or stupid.” Then he raised his voice. “I see you are new to this, but don’t worry, I’ve dealt with more clueless cultivators before. What I meant was I have everything, including dangerous, flammable and exploding weapons, but those are in the back.” He gestured to the door behind him before he continued, “I can sell you drugs that are specifically made to affect yin cultivators for various effects, I can sell you cursed items if you can lift their curse somehow or have a skill that make them ineffective against you; or if you are just a plain crazy guy. I can also get you clan-exclusive skills or items, but I can’t guarantee that these clans won’t hunt you down to get back their item and torture you to find out what you did to the original owner of the item. If you mention my name, nobody will believe you because, as far as anybody’s concerned, I don’t even exist. I can even get you women if you are feeling lonely one of these chilly nights.” He glanced at Lilith as he said women.
It angered her immediately, and she slapped him after her scales covered her fist for maximum effect.
“Ouch! What was that for? She packs a mean slap; women these days are hard to deal with, my friend,” Silver Chan said unperturbed.
Lilith turned to Seph and said, “I will wait for you outside; if I stay here, I’ll punch a hole through this jerk’s skull the next time.”
Seph replied, “Okay, sorry, I’ll just sell some items and follow you.”
Silver Chan waved her off provocatively and said, “The only thing I can’t offer you are pills. That asshole alchemist of ours had a fight with me over some trivial thing, and monopolized all the pills the sect makes; only she sells them now. Otherwise, nothing else is off the table. Shit, I can even provide you with corpses if you have some need for them.”
“Well, perhaps try to be less provocative too, or you will end up with no customers either; what you did with my friend wasn’t nice. The only reason I am not kicking your ass is that you probably have higher cultivation than me.” Seph was clearly annoyed by what had happened and by their helplessness as new cultivators.
Silver Chan nodded in respect and said, “Ouch! Okay, I think what you said is fair, I applaud your honesty, but I advise you against being honest in the outside world, here we are sect associates, and specially with me I am one of the older members of the sect we have no interest in making feuds with newbies. The outside world though, you’d be writing your own death sentence by showing any hostility to anyone above your realm. Anyway, I apologize, and I’ll apologize to her myself next time she comes in here. Now what business did you have with me?” He ended excitedly.
Seph took out a book from his spatial sack as he said, “Well, since you mentioned selling cursed items, I am sure you must buy cursed items too. I have this cursed book, and I have no need of it. How much can you pay me for it?”
Silver Chan’s eyes went wide as he held the book. He noticed the black smoke hovering over the book, and he seemed to activate some kind of skill that made him understand the red lettering, and his eyes went wider for a second, Seph noticed that and thought it was good news, but then Silver Chan feigned disinterest as he said, “Well, it will be hard to move this, as it’s cursed, and not really that special either; I mean, look, the pages are empty. If they weren’t, then this would be worth more. I can offer you 1000 spirit stones for this.”
Lilith seemed to have been listening in from the outside, and came barging in and said, “Don’t sell it, Seph, it’s worth way more; he is obviously trying to cheat you. This book is probably worth 20 thousand if not more.”
Silver Chan seized the chance to placate Lilith. “I am glad you are back; I would like to apologize for earlier; I meant nothing by what I said. To make it up to both of you, I’ll raise the price to 2000 spirit stones.”
This only helped to make Lilith angrier as she said, “See? I told you he was cheating you; he went up to double the price in an instant.”
Seph intervened and said, “I will sell it to you for 15 thousand; you’d still be making a big profit; it was very dangerous to get this book; I fought a bloody army.”
Silver Chan grimaced as he said, “I mean, yeah, to get items like this you have to fight for them, but that doesn’t mean that they are all good. It has a power level of death dismantling only, and it’s not even a growth item.”
Seph raised one eyebrow as he said, “So, you are trying to cheat us! It’s definitely a growth item; I have an identifying skill of my own too, and it told me this much.”
As if to prove his point, Seph used his skill on one of the flying swords.
Appraising…
Name: Blue flying sword
Type: Mount
Quality: Uncommon
Speed: 14 miles per hour
Magical Ability: +20 prestige
Requirement: Death Establishment
Description: Made by a skilled blacksmith, these swords help to conserve the cultivator’s energy after they gain the power to hover in the air. At that stage, they still can’t fly properly as it takes a lot of effort. Enter the genius who made these swords; you can now go anywhere by spending very little energy. You will need to use energy elixirs if you are traveling long distances, though. While these low-quality swords are slow, they help you avoid obstacles in your way if you are traveling on foot, like mountains.
Silver Chan noticed the skill immediately and said, “Okay, you got me, but you know a man has to make a living. What about this as a double apology from me, I can offer you 10 thousand spirit stones for your cursed book, plus a 50% discount on an item of your choice from my shop that you can redeem at any time, and a 50% discount on your first commission from my good friend the armorer. After all, I provide him with all the materials he needs, and he provides me with some weapons and armor that I sell to others outside the sect, since I can’t sell his crafts when he is right next door. What do you say? This offer could even be worth over twenty thousand if you buy or commission something expensive from me or him.”
Seph looked to Lilith for her opinion, and she gave him a nod. He wanted to accept the offer since it would help him finish one part of his Eye of the Appraiser quest, so he said, “Okay, we have got a deal.”
Silver Chan made a gesture with his head to his helper, and while they waited for the helper to come back, he said, “I noticed you recognized the protective rings earlier as you have one of your own. You know how they are made?”
Seph said, “Not really, I don’t know a lot about the cultivation world as I just came out of the legacy trial.”
Silver Chan smiled and said, “Fair, both protective accessories and offensive accessories are made from shattered skill stones. Sometimes you will find shattered skill stones around Jianghu. A jewel crafter can use those shards and smoothens and polishes them and then insert them into different accessories. What this does is it allows you to use a diluted version of the skill that you could have gotten from the skill stone. But that’s not the only way, an enchanter can inscribe the fractal lines of the original skill stone and turn a mundane jewel into a skill stone, it requires a lot of mana though, also the higher the level of the skill, the more skilled the enchanter needs to be, and still there will always be skill stones that are out of reach for even an immortal enchanter to mimic.”
Seph said, “That’s fascinating stuff; this world is vaster than I could ever imagine, but I’ll learn as much as I can about it.”
The helper then came out from the back with a hefty sack that had ten thousand spirit stones inside; he handed it to the shopkeeper, who handed it to Seph.
Seph immediately put it in his spatial ring and checked his eye of the appraiser quest.
Quest
Eye of the Appraise level 3
*Sell items worth 10000 spirit stones. *Find 10 secret places
Progress: 10000/10000 Progress: 2/10
Seph fist-pumped as he shouted, “Yes!”
Silver Chan laughed and said, “I am glad you are happy with the spirit stones, but this is not everything, here are the two discount tickets, you hand me or the armorer our respective tickets at any time and you get your discount, unless you want to use mine now.”
Seph took the yellow ticket of the treasure pavilion discount, and the red ticket of the armorer discount and put them in his spatial ring too.
