When the shop opened again, there had been quite a few changes.
There were now metal ingots for sale. While the prices for these ingots were high, their purity alone was flawless, and no other faction was able to get even close to a similar purity with their current means.
The little bit of stock they had was soon sold out completely, leaving Yui rather surprised. She wouldn't have expected the metal to sell so quickly.
A few of the miners asked about the new forge area, but they were told by Yui that the area was not yet open to the public.
Even more important to the customers though, was the fact that there were some changes to the existing places that could be visited, as well as a completely new place altogether.
After Tora's big breakfast of spirit shards, she was now sleeping happily on a chair next to Miyuki's bed, not even willing to move to the shop or her own room, causing both Yui and Ryoma to smile at her undignified pose and blissful looking face.
The mine had now an added variety of metals, all in separate mine tunnels with signs above each for easy navigation. Not only did they have spirit copper, but also nickel, tin and iron.
In the Old Vine Forest on the other hand, there was a volcano like area and an ice cave now, making it possible to find plants that needed extreme heat or extreme cold in order to be able to grow.
"Ah sorry miss, but how did those additions suddenly appear? I could understand it if they were empty, but if your words are correct, they already have plants and all."
Yui smiled at the customer in her typical hyper motivated way, having already expected such a question.
"It is the same area, but the landing point where you will be transported to is now farther away, as such its not exactly the same place. It takes time to improve on our transport talismans to keep them working well and efficient enough to offer these new locations to you."
"The more we can invest in our shop, the more offers we will have after all."
As the whole landscape changed quite a bit, no one would even notice that it was the same place and Tora just added everything that was different now. Yui did not worry that her little lie would be detected.
She handed over a small letter to one of the alchemist apprentices from the Greenfire Sect when she had the chance too. After all she told Grandmaster Koda that she would inform him about changes to the herbal areas.
The highlight of the day however was the new crystal display which offered a completely new location
[Thousand Beasts Grasslands Ticket]
Recommended for Initial to Mid Level Qi Cultivation Stage
Recommended for Mid to Higher Level Qi Cultivation Stage
Recommended for Initial to Mid Level Foundation Cultivation Stage
"Miss Tai, what is this new location? It seems like it has beasts there unlike the other two?"
"Our new location has three different variations, each of them has different spirit beasts, one for beginning cultivators, while the others are respectively intended for a bit more experienced people."
Yui pointed to all the three available options, giving out some rough information what spirit beasts could be found inside.
"Why should we pay to hunt spirit beasts here, when we can easily hunt them outside of the city as well?" one of the cultivators asked, but quickly caught the looks of many others as if he were a fool.
Yui though did not mind and happily explained the benefits of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion's Beast locations.
"First of all, you will not find any beasts of a higher rank than mentioned here. We have a formation set up that prevents any beast from reaching a higher rank. This means that you don't have to worry about stumbling into a spirit beast beyond your current means and you don't have to risk injury or even death as you would outside."
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Everyone in the shop nodded. It was obvious that such a benefit would greatly change the way people could hunt. They would no longer have to hunt in a lower area just because a higher area would have the danger of having some rare beasts that were much higher ranked.
"Not only do we provide detailed information about what beasts you will find, where you will find them and possible ways to defeat and even tame them, but the talisman is also useful as a means of escape. If you are in a critical situation, you can always return to the pavilion."
"While you have to make sure to bring enough healing medicine to treat your injuries yourself, as we currently don't sell any of those, the talisman will also make sure to cure any deadly poisons, curses or other ailments caused by the beasts in our locations once you leave the place."
Yui's further explanation made many cultivators gasp. They had already expected that the benefits were good if there were no higher ranked beasts to be found, but having such escape and life saving mechanics on top of the transportation itself was exceptionally convenient for them.
"The talisman will make sure to provide enough distance between various customers and you will not have to worry about others finding you or any hidden threats from other people while you are inside our locations or the pavilion itself."
Now pretty much every cultivator who had even the slightest interest in hunting beasts was attentively listening to Yui's words. The benefits were simply too good to be true.
"It is possible to form groups up to five people if you would like, however the Earthly Treasures Pavilion can not take responsibility for any internal conflicts between group members. We will make sure that everyone gets out alive, but please pick your party members carefully."
With the introduction of the Thousand Beasts Grasslands, the business for the Earthly Treasures Pavilion boomed. While rare metals and herbs were useful to certain groups working with them, there was nearly no cultivator who would not be interested in hunting wild beasts to improve their battle prowess and cultivation.
In the end, Yui decided that it was all about expansion. Expand their own portfolio in order to have a broader target audience, then expand their reach by opening either branches or make their Earthly Treasures Pavilion accessible in other places.
'I guess to improve on our business even more, making some more powerful acquaintances would not hurt. We won't face any issues with production as well just sell access and Tora can make as many talismans as we need. Seems like we need to do some more role playing after all.' she thought to herself.
-
In a large room inside of the palace, not too far from the by now well-known Earthly Treasures Pavilion, King Yura Tetsu was having a discussion with his closest advisors.
It was not a typical court session, as he did not have time for all the useless talk of self-centered nobles or families who wanted to improve their standing by using such a court session to make ties with whoever offered the most.
"Did I understand you correctly? Do you really want to tell me, that we suddenly have a foreign nation in the middle of our kingdom, no even worse right next to our capital?!"
The elder who had just given a short summary of the situation to their king nodded.
"I'm afraid that seems to be the case here your Majesty. The piece of land was unused for hundreds of years and just recently its owners seem to have made use of it, this is why it was treated as just ownerless land all the time, handed out by the crown as if it were part of our kingdom."
Most of the other people in the room frowned, all of them either powerful individuals in their own right, or representatives of major powers in Yura.
"Who cares about some claims made several hundred years ago. It was unused all the time, why bother about some treaty ages old. Just take the land back and silence them." one of the generals proposed.
"They have at least a late stage Core or even an Origin state cultivator." someone else mumbled and the faces of everyone else turned even more unhappy.
Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment and Core Formation were the only commonly seen cultivation stages in the Yura Kingdom, with most stronger cultivators being in Foundation stage and only a handful of powerful elders in the Core stage.
Beyond all of that was Origin stage and Immortal Ascension, but none of the gathered people had any experience with such powers. Even a late stage Core cultivator was not someone they could deal with easily.
"Can we perhaps poison that cultivator?" Another person asked, as it was a simple way to deal with someone that could not be fought in direct combat.
"We simply don't know enough of them to make a proper decision. We don't know their numbers, we don't know their backers, we don't even know their true power or abilities. As long as we know nothing about them, how are we supposed to take action? What if they have backers that are even more powerful, and we step on their toes."
King Yura sighed and just nodded his head.
"Master Aoki is right. We cannot risk antagonizing a power we know nothing about. I highly doubt two young girls would cause such a scene all on their own. Who sent them, if they are really on their own, then who trained them."
"According to the law official, the girls were not even twenty years old. Whoever trained them is able to bring up a disciple that reached the late Core stage in twenty years. They would be at least in the Origin stage themselves."
Aoki Bokkai, sect master of the Five Winds sect added yet another thought.
"We are still assuming that they are at late Core stage, what if they are way beyond that. We all felt the disturbance some days ago that was obviously caused by the young woman. A Core stage cultivator cannot call down heavenly suppression like that. What if we're not dealing with an Origin cultivator either, but kids from the realms above?"
Everyone trembled slightly at the thought of having two immortals sitting inside of their capital.
Grandmaster Koda from the Greenfire sect just agreed. "That girl treated me as if I was not even worth her time. If not for her sister's kind nature, or perhaps her unwillingness to cause a larger disturbance, there is no doubt that I would not have made it back alive."
"We are not really getting anywhere with this. Elder Moriai will try to get more information about them and will be representing us to see what they want to sort this land issue." King Yura decided after some time.
"Me your Majesty?"
"I know you are retired, but I have no doubt that there is no one who is as universally liked as you are. Some people would argue that your words alone make merchants tremble and kids would hand you their only candy willingly."
"As you wish, I will make my way over there and see what can be done."