When Wan Shi and his family woke up, they immediately noticed that their young guest had left. The adults understood Jia Yuan’s intentions, but they still felt a little peeved. Late that night, while their children and Jia Yuan had been sleeping, they’d softly discussed that they would try and help Jia Yuan with anything he needed to do - it could be considered an investment for the future!
At the least, they’d wanted to pack him some food. Unfortunately, Jia Yuan had already left, and they were unsure if they would ever meet the young man again.
…
After a day of walking, Jia Yuan could see city walls in the distance, embellished with enormous banners bearing the emblem of the Fire Kingdom.
Although RockFire City wasn’t one of the premier cities of the Fire Kingdom, to Jia Yuan it was a gigantic city filled with opportunity and possibilities. Especially when compared to the little Fire Hill Village he had grown up in.
After another hour of walking he neared the city, and as the city before his eyes grew in size, so did his eyes.
Jia Yuan loved what he saw of RockFire City. Well, he didn’t love everything he saw. For example, he felt nauseated seeing the destitute milling about the slums around the outer regions of the city. But, he loved seeing the magnificent, imposing walls, the armored guards patrolling the streets, and he loved gazing toward the inner reaches of the city, where even the roof tiles spoke of an extravagance that Jia Yuan lacked in his life.
He couldn’t help but imagine himself walking through the streets wearing a fiery robe embedded with countless jewels…
Jia Yuan was caught in a daze staring at his surroundings.
Ah, right. I was here to buy a pot, and uh...well, we’ll see.
Jia Yuan roamed through the streets until he found a street full of merchants selling various goods. After a while, he found a store selling pots and walked in.
“Hello sir, I’ve come to buy a pot!”
The store owner looked Jia Yuan up and down, then sighed. It was just some other poor schmuck...
“What kind?”
“Not a great one, just one to cook congee in, maybe from time to time some stewed meat. Although, it would be nice if the pot were rather sturdy.”
The store owner heaved another sigh in his mind, and led Jia Yuan to a small and simple pot. “Fifty small fire shards.”
Jia Yuan was caught in a rather awkward position - after all, he’d only been given fifty small fire shards in total.
“How about forty?”
“Scram kid, that pot cost me nearly forty fire shards worth of material just to make. The Army’s been buying up all the steel around the Kingdom, so it’s been hard to come by these days.”
“Are there any chea -”
“Scram, kid. Don’t waste my time.”
And thus, Jia Yuan was rather ungracefully forced out of the shop. Outside, he pondered to himself.
If what the shop owner is said, and the army is buying up all the steel, then how am I going to buy a pot? What about iron? Wait, no. If the army is buying up steel to prepare for war, they’d be buying up iron, too.
Hmm…
Jia Yuan thought about it for a bit. He had only a few things of worth - the fifty small fire shards, his ring, and the pills in the box stored inside the ring.
He scratched his chin. Those pills represented his future - each one would help him on his road of cultivation. Yet, if he and his father starved to death, he wouldn’t have a future either.
Selling one or two wouldn’t hurt, right? After all, his cultivating to the 3rd level of Absorption was already ahead of schedule, so he could probably do without a few pills. There was still a problem, though. With his current appearance, it was clear that he wasn’t from a family that could afford pills such as the ones in his possession - he feared that if he went to one of the upscale pill stores, the store might assume that he had stolen them.
In this scenario, he might be jailed for robbery, or even killed!
With this in mind, Jia Yuan did not immediately head into the inner reaches of the city. Instead, he first headed into a clothing store. Seeing a child stroll into the store, the store owner observed him curiously, but didn’t intervene.
After a bit of walking around the store, Jia Yuan picked out a dark blue robe that was in his size, as well as a straw hat, and brought them to the store owner.
The robe was long enough to cover his entire body and hide the majority of his features, while the straw hat would prevent adults from being able to see his face unless he looked up toward them.
“Hello sir, how much for these?”
“Hmm… five small fire shards for the hat, and ten small fire shards for the robe.”
“Okay!”
Jia Yuan handed over the fire shards, then escaped into a side room in the store to change into his newly purchased outfit.
As for his usual clothes, he stored them in his ring.
He left the store and proceeded toward the inner parts of the city. This was the first “test” for his plan. The inner parts of the city were filled with the wealthy, and were inaccessible to the poor. As such, between the outer and inner parts of the city was a secondary castle wall, complete with a gate, to prevent intruders.
After a few minutes of walking from the clothing store, Jia Yuan reached the secondary city gate and walked past the guards without trouble.
Jia Yuan’s heart was filled with glee. His disguise actually worked!
Now, to find a pill store.
Jia Yuan wandered the streets with a discerning eye, judging items in display windows with the look of a buyer. Of course, the passerby on the street couldn’t tell his destitute background, but for Jia Yuan, it was rather fun for him to gaze into stores and be invited into them by these wealthy who probably saw more money come into their store each day than Jia Yuan had seen in his entire lifetime.
After spending some time fooling around in this manner, Jia Yuan refocused on his initial goal. Along the way, he had asked some of the store owners about reputable pill shops and their locations.
From his investigation, he had found that there were three reputable pill shops in the city. The first was backed by the city’s governing family, while the other two were backed by the Army and the continent-wide Black Wing Merchant Guild. He also found that the shop owned by the governor’s family offered the best prices, but the Black Wing Merchant Guild offered special benefits to important and loyal patrons.
As for the Army, they would usually offer an acceptable price, as well as cheaper prices when purchasing weapons and armor from the army.
Jia Yuan thought about which pill shop to sell his pills to.
Being able to sell a pill for more fire shards is a good thing, but the governor’s influence is limited, and it sounds like the Black Wing Merchant Guild would be able to help me in the future.
Furthermore, in the future I’ll likely be training in other elements as well as fire, so it would make sense to align with the only choice of the three that spans the entire continent.
Jia Yuan headed towards the direction one of the store owners had said the Black Wing Merchant Guild was located. After looking around for a bit, he quickly found the building.
Actually, it was a little more accurate to say that the building simply couldn’t be missed - it was a grand behemoth, with a pair of highly detailed black wings sprouting from either side of the lone entrance.
This store, like the other two pill stores, was a general trading location that happened to include a section for trading pills. After all, while pills were in high demand, they were relatively rare - it was easy to implement a small pill shop in a location that sold other things.
I guess this is it… but what the hell is the size of this building??
He strode into the building and was quickly greeted by an attractive female receptionist.
“Hello sir, my name is Shi Guo. What brings you to our prestigious Black Wing Merchant Guild Hall?”
Jia Yuan glanced at the receptionist from under the brim of his straw hat, and responded with an abrupt tone. “Pills.”
The receptionist blinked her eyes in surprise, but quickly recovered. “Of course. I will lead you to our pill specialist on the 4th floor.”
As the receptionist led Jia Yuan through the Hall, he caught a glimpse of many interesting things, such as shiny weapons and armor, some well crafted clothing studded with diamonds and other jewels. He even spied a sign that said “Warning: Poison Exhibit.”
After a bit of this, they arrived at the Pill Shop on the 4th floor - a single elderly man sat behind the counter.
Shi Guo addressed the man. “Hello, esteemed elder. This guest is here to purchase pills.”
“Actually,” Jia Yuan interrupted. “I’m here to sell a pill or two.”
The elder’s eyes twinkled. “Oh? Would you be willing to show them to me?”
“But of course.”
Jia Yuan, from inside the long sleeve of his blue robe, extracted an Absorption level soul pill and a fire-based body pill. After doing so, he raised his arm, and placed the pills on the counter.
The elder carefully picked up the pills, and began to examine them. He tapped one of the pills lightly with a small hammer, then used a chisel to slightly scrape off a bit of the pill. He then rubbed this tiny fragment between his fingers, then sniffed it.
He was shocked - the quality of these pills were simply too high! In fact, despite having worked for the Black Wing Merchant Guild for more than 30 years, he had never seen pills of such high quality. If he could buy these pills for a good price, the Guild could easily make a killing!
“The soul pill, we can buy for two thousand medium fire shards, and as for the...body refining pill, we can pay three thousand medium fire shards for it. Will that do?”
Jia Yuan didn’t respond. He didn’t even move.
After about half a minute of silence, the elder sighed.
“Very well, we can offer four hundred large fire shards for the soul pill, and seven hundred for the body pill. I trust that this should be enough?”
The elder had noticed that Jia yuan hadn’t reacted at all to his initial offer, which he had taken as an absolute refusal to the prices he had given. As such, he’d raised his offer significantly. After all, although medium fire shards traded with small fire shards at a 1:10 ratio, it was the same between large and medium fire shards!
To be fair, the initial offer had been a lowball offer, but the second was a very generous. The elder had quickly decided that if he couldn’t make a large profit instantly by lowballing the customer, he would give a generous offer to lay the groundwork for a future partnership.
After all, who knew if this customer was part of a noble household, or even better, related to an alchemist?
How could he have known that the reason Jia Yuan hadn’t shown any reaction earlier was because his mind had completely exploded from hearing the initial offer? As soon as he’d heard the offer, his mind had completely shut down!
If one had read Jia Yuan’s mind at that moment, they would have heard the following.
Five thousand medium fire shards five thousand medium fire shards five thousand medium fire shards five thousand medium fire shards…!!!
It was enough for a small family to live in comfort for centuries - for only two pills!
And yet, the elder had quickly raised the offer even further! Jia Yuan bit his tongue to bring himself back to reality, and with difficulty, managed to utter a single word.
“Deal.”
“Esteemed customer, would you like the fire shards to be inserted into your Currency Card?”
Jia Yuan was confused. Currency Card? What was that?
Of course, someone as poor as Jia Yuan wouldn’t have known what a Currency Card was, so he had no choice but to ask.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what a Currency Card is.”
The elder was rather surprised - someone possessing multiple high-quality pills didn’t know what a Currency Card was??
In his mind, he concluded that Jia Yuan must have spent his life in solitary training, perhaps with an alchemist. This combination explained the pills, but also why Jia Yuan didn’t know about Currency Cards.
Alas, people lacking in information tend to jump to conclusions, typically the wrong ones.
“Let me explain, esteemed customer. A Currency Card is a card that has been imbued by magic, and is capable of storing certain items. In the Fire Kingdom, most currency cards are only capable of holding fire shards. As for volume, there are low-class Currency Cards all the way up to high class Currency Cards. Low class ones can hold up to 500 large fire shards, while high class Currency Cards and hold millions.”
This, in a way, showed the disparity of wealth in the Fire Kingdom, which was matched in the other Kingdoms.
A normal family had to scrape together a few small fire shards, while the richest families of the Kingdom could possess millions upon millions of large fire shards.
“How much will a Currency Card cost?”
“Well, sir. For your needs, I would recommend a Currency Card that is able to hold at least ten thousand large fire shards. As for the price... I’ll cut to the chase. If you ensure that any pills you wish to sell in the future will be shown to the Black Wing Merchant Guild first, we will provide you the Currency Card for free.”
Jia Yuan was rather surprised, but readily agreed. After all, this agreement wouldn’t necessarily ever be fulfilled - he wasn’t sure he would be willing to sell more of his pills in the future. He’d only done so in order to buy a pot, and food to eat. In the future, with the money he’d already made from the pills he had sold, he and his father would be able to live without worry.
“Then, please wait a moment, sir.”
The elder, Shi Guo, and Jia Yuan waited for a moment, until a worker walked in with a platter, on top of which was a black card with gold decorations.
“Here you go, sir.” The worker explained to Jia Yuan. “If you use your spirit sense to communicate with the card, you should be able to see and “touch” the large fire shards within. Using this method, you can withdraw the fire shards when you wish.
“Furthermore, after using your spirit sense to interact with the card, it will only recognize you as its owner, until you die. In that case, the next person to use their spirit sense to communicate with the card will become its owner.”
Jia Yuan nodded to show that he understood, and took the black card.
After exchanging some pleasantries, Shi Guo and Jia Yuan stepped away from the elder. On the way toward the stairs, Jia Yuan turned to Shi Guo.
“I’d like to buy a weapon for myself.”
“What kind of weapon, sir?”
“Hm...a sword of the highest quality. Price is of no object.”
With the money in his Currency Card, Jia Yuan felt as if he could buy the world!
“Of course sir, we will head towards the 3rd floor, then. The 3rd floor is our weapons floor, which is divided into multiple sections according to the type and quality of the weapons. Assuming you don’t wish to spend more than the money in your Currency Card, your best bet would probably be section four.”
The two navigated their way through the building.
“And… here we are, sir. You are allowed to look at everything, but if you would like to test one of the weapons, you must let me know. We will invite one of our weapons specialists and bring you to the field testing area.”
Jia Yuan looked around the room. His eyes sparkled, but Shi Guo couldn’t tell because of the straw hat. If she had seen Jia Yuan’s face, however, she would have seen that he was nearly drooling at the sight of the weapons.
Every time he’d grasped his wooden sword, he’d dreamed of owning a real, metal weapon one day in the future. And today, that dream would finally come true!
Unfortunately for Jia Yuan, a large portion of the room was filled with axes. Many in the Fire Kingdom used either one-handed or two-handed axes, which allowed for strong and explosive attacks typically of the fire element. In this regard, sword practitioners like Jia Yuan were still plentiful, but still part of the minority.
However, the swords he saw were more than enough to sate his eyes. Swords of all shapes and sizes, thick and thin, intimidating and graceful, could be seen lined up throughout the room.
It took him several moments to gather himself and focus on his initial goal: to find a sword that he could reliably use in the future.
After examining the swords more closely, he looked back at Shi Guo.
“If I just want to check the balance of a weapon, do I have to go to the field testing area?”
As he was on the third floor of the building, and the field testing area would be outside, it would be quite troublesome to have to repeatedly traverse between the two areas.
“No, but I will have to invite one of our weapon specialists over. Would you like for me to do so?”
“Sure.”
Jia Yuan understood that there were two main strengths he needed in a sword. First, it needed to have been made from quality materials and forging techniques, and it needed to be weighed and balanced to his liking.
In short, he needed a sword that had a similar balance to the wooden sword he’d been using and training with all these years.
The receptionist led Jia Yuan to the first room, where he had noticed some people lounging about earlier. Apparently, these were the weapon specialists.
Shi Guo led Jia Yuan to one and said, “Hello sir, this esteemed customer would like to test the balance of some weapons.”
“Hmm? Alright, alright… let’s go.”