The shop room of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion was filled with various people as usual, discussing various crafting methods, riddles in the dungeon and cooking recipes. Some were even starting trade agreements right here and there.

A whole section of the room had expanded, and a large alcove had formed, separated only by a few black wooden pillars. This alcove was filled with various pillows and blankets on top of the material the floor was made of. Low tables were also arranged next to the pillows and people could sit and discuss, as well as eat snacks.

There was a direct door leading outside into the garden, with windows making it easy to see outside. From time to time some of the kids would run inside, quickly stop running or get scolded by the elders around before grabbing some food and returning back outside.

Kita Ihito really wondered if this was really a shop or some child daycare. What seemed more interesting to him rather than the unusual atmosphere of this shop, was the way these snacks seemed to refill whenever a plate was empty, without anyone actually doing something.

The alcoves and all the rooms extending to the sides were obviously much larger than the outside made it seem too. Spatial technology used for such a simple building?

He was still inspecting the shop when a very enthusiastic shopkeeper welcomed them inside.

"Welcome to the Earthly Treasures Pavilion!"

He had the urge to jump slightly and draw his weapon but managed to hold back his instincts at the last moment.

-

"I heard you had a shop here and I wanted to know what you're selling."

The person with the scraggy beard who looked as if he could use a relaxing bath and some skincare products approached Yui, who wondered in turn who he might be.

"We are selling access tickets to our various managed locations where you can gather materials in an efficient and easy way." she started to explain and pointed to the various displays and quickly explained the locations a little bit.

"Third tier spirit metals and herbs? You are giving others access to such strategic resources?"

The leader of this new group, a group Yui had never seen before, was obviously rather smart, as he quickly understood the concept of their shop.

"Yes, exactly, we are limiting the time each person can enter each day, but otherwise they are free to gather as much as they would like."

The man seemed to ponder for a while, then turned around to the others in his group to discuss it.

"Miss, how many mines or places do you have and how many people can you accommodate?"

A regular mine would obviously have a limited quantity of ore. You could only mine it once and it was best to limit the number of miners, otherwise with too many people they would just step on each other's toes and not be very efficient at mining.

The Earthly Treasure Pavilion's places were rather different though. The more people gathered and paid, the easier it would be for them to expand their places.

"We will make sure to have enough locations for everyone, no matter how many people you bring along. It is advisable though for larger factions to consider the influence of overmining. If you hire a lot of people to mine a lot of ore, the prices of this ore might drop."

"Our prices for the access of the locations are fixed however, if ore prices drop, we won't lower the price to access the mines."

Prices would quickly find a balance, not only because the access was at a fixed price, but also because getting to the Earthly Treasures Pavilion in the first place was limited to people who lived in and around Sume city.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

While other spirit mine owners in the area suffered severe losses as they simply could not compete with the pavilion at all, Yui did not mind much about it. That's just the way competition worked in this world after all.

Miners who lost their jobs in other spirit mines would often form groups and start their own small business to enter the pavilion's spirit mines instead. Serfs and other people bound to the mine owners would usually be sent there as well by their lords.

Not much changed overall, other than prices for various spirit materials dropping and access to good quality spirit items becoming much more reasonable.

Yui's answer was unexpected for the commander. How many mines could they possibly have? Why would they allow others to access them, were they short on manpower? Why did they not just hire more people?

Lot's of questions that the commander found no answers for.

"I heard this place is working with the Grey Order? What's this all about?"

How would they react to such a question? The commander was rather curious if he could find out more.

Yui paused for a moment, as this was obviously a question, she did not expect. This knowledge was not widely known, other than in certain circles with people far away. She looked once more at the clothes these people wore and finally understood where they must be coming from.

"Ah the Grey Order. I guess you could say we are working with them, they helped with some manpower issues. They sent us some people, but sadly we quickly noticed that most of their cultivators were not really strong enough. We just decided to keep the more talented ones and sent the others back."

"You kept the more talented ones? Somehow, I cannot really believe this. Are you sure you did not hear this wrong miss?"

Never did Kita Ihito hear of Grey Order members leaving, at least not alive, let alone joining some other faction.

"Rin, do you have a moment?"

Rinomi quickly joined Yui in the shop, curiously inspecting the various people in front of her.

"Miss Yui, how can I help?" her eyes paused for a moment at the people inspecting her.

"What would bring the sky forces of Asho Empire here to our Pavilion?"

Rinomi was a true member of the Grey Order before. While she had learned a lot from Tora over the past weeks, the old cultivation methods had given her spiritual aura a certain feeling shared between all cultivators learning the same cultivation techniques. This aura could be hidden, but it was hard to change or fake such an aura without special means.

"She really is a Grey Order member!" the commander mumbled, having met more than his fair share of Grey Order envois or assassins to make the distinction. His words turned his subordinates slightly nervous and on edge.

Dealing with the elusive Grey Order people, was in some ways the same as being confronted with the boogeyman. Their commander could easily fight one or even a few of them in a fair fight, but it was rare for the Grey Order to ever fight fair.

Not only would they attack you when you would least expect it, but in nearly all situations they had enough information on their target to make all plans of escape very hard.

"Was. She's part of our Earthly Treasures Pavilion now."

"They just let her go?"

"Well, we didn't exactly ask them for their opinion." Yui shrugged. "We just told them that they don't need to expect her to come back."

Commander Kita glanced at one of his subordinates quickly, who only shook his head slightly with a stunned look.

"I see." Trying to find a way to change the topic he pointed to a rainbow-colored display case this shopkeeper girl did not explain yet.

'The lady' he corrected himself in his mind. Whoever the young woman in front of him might be, the respectful attitude of not only the Grey Order woman, but pretty much everyone around them gave him a good idea that she had to have some standing.

"What's this?"

"It's our riddle dungeon. You can enter it from time to time for free and there are little rewards. In a way you can see it as a game of wits. Would you like to give it a try? It's intended for Qi Condensation cultivators though."

With so many people enjoying the little dungeon with the riddles, Yui had long ago decided to open it up to everyone. The place would limit people's cultivation strength, otherwise it would be too simple to go around the obstacles or smash through them.

"Ah thank you, I think I will just do that miss …"

"Yui. People usually call me Yui."

He headed for the strange rainbow colored 'riddle dungeon' when he noticed the inscription on it.

[Yui's Dungeon of Many Things]

"Captain Kimura" he quietly called out to his subordinate.

"Yes commander?"

"What was the name of that Empress again?"

"I think it was, let me check. Tai Yui." He paused as if considering the importance of this name and why their commander would ask about this now.

"Commander you don't think that girl …

"Captain, I think the part about her acting skills was right on point. Have you ever heard of an empress who could make a good shopkeeper?"

No one answered his question. Who would have ever heard about an Empress working as a shopkeeper before?

Kita Ihito looked back at the young woman, who gave him a big knowing smile as if to slightly mock him that he didn't realize her real identity sooner. It just confirmed all of his suspicions right away. Not only this, but he also realized that this young woman was fully aware of who they were and why they were here.

"Captain, are you sure she was telling the truth earlier?"

"Well, the truth crystal didn't react at all. It would only react to lies. Even though there are ways to hide the truth, the chance is rather low."

"Dangit. Well, let's go see this dungeon place."