As morning comes, Ren Qingquan slowly wakes up. Looking at the room he is slowly becoming familiar with, Ren Qingquan sighed and opened his system panel.
[Name: Ren Qingquan
Realm: Ninth-stage martial apprentice
Point: 3
Technique: dragon dance (martial grandmaster)
Skills: Tiger subduing palm (middle),Feather step (low), iron cloth (low).
System functions: devour, shop, scan, library, map, calculate, and system storage (1 cubic meter).]
Looking at the system function, Ren Qingquan realized he forgot to experiment with the system storage.
'System, how does the system storage work?'
[Ding! The system could store items up to 1 cubic meter in size. The storage space could be distorted by the item's shape. The host could look inside the storage area by thinking about it.
To activate the function and store items, the host may say 'Storage' mentally while touching said item and willing it to enter.]
With the system's explanation, Ren Qingqian started to look at the item nearest to him. As he placed his arm on a pitiful flower vase, with a thought, the flower vase suddenly disappeared from sight.
As Ren Qingqian thought about looking inside the [Storage], his view slowly changed. What came into his sight was a small flower vase encased in a small bubble while surrounded by darkness.
Willing for the vase to reappear from his arm, the vase suddenly returned near his hand that had been placed on top of the table.
A sudden ruckus stopped Ren Qingquan from his little experiment.
"Qingquan, are you alright!?"
With a hurried footstep, Xiao Ling arrived accompanied by his father, Ren Shiluo, who asked him a sudden question.
"Yes? What is going on here?"
"Some thief has broken into the Ren family's house! Luckily, except for some unimportant thing, there is no other thing stolen by that thief. I am just here to check on your well-being."
"Then there is no need to worry, as I have been sleeping very well last night."
"Young master, here is your wash basin."
Xiao Ling chimed in from the side.
Ren Shiluo continued his story while Ren Qingquan washed his face. Ren Qingquan suddenly opened his eyes wide, not because of the cold water, but due to the news he heard.
"The thief actually stole a garden. A whole garden! It is the garden located near your residence. Which is why I immediately visited you to check on your well-being. Just what is that guy doing as the patriarch of the Ren family? He should start to increase the defense and the number of guards on duty. Won't it make the Ren family's house look like a public plaza if a random expert just comes in and out that easily?"
Remembering the masterpiece he created, Ren Qingquan feels regret.
'Sigh. Why couldn't I wait until I traveled outside the city to activate [Devour]? Guess I will be more low-key nowadays.'
While thinking in his mind about how he must be more careful in the future, Ren Shiluo finally finished with his story and left, leaving only Xiao Ling and Ren Qingquan in his room.
"Young master, I have prepared the bath for you."
Ren Qingquan followed Xiao Ling into his bathroom. He finally took a bath for the first time since his transmigration.
As Ren Qingquan finished bathing, Xiao Ling helped him to wear his robes and accessories.
Boom!
Suddenly, a loud explosive sound came from the door. Accompanied by a massive stepping sound an excited sweaty chubby boy arrived. Looking at Ren Qingquan, who had just finished wearing his clothes and accessories, the fatty started to talk with a massive voice.
"Brother Ren, have you rested enough? Let's drink at my Black Flame Tavern and forget all your sadness, it is just a battle, you could easily win against that Qingchen guy next time."
"Fatty Zhang, if you keep on slamming the Ren family's door, someday I will slam your head to the ground!"
What answered the so-called fatty Zhang's question was an uncharacteristic anger from Xiao Ling instead, and it seems Xiao Ling's threat is effective, as Ren Qingquan could see fatty Zhang's excited face quickly retract.
Zhang Jixiang, usually known as Fatty Zhang, is a core member of the Zhang family, one of the top three families comparable to the Imperial family of the Great Azure Empire.
The Zhang family mainly dabbles in medicine and medicinal herbs. Their stores are spread across the Great Azure Empire. As a core member, Fatty Zhang is chosen to be the manager of the Zhang family's store branch in Burning Sky City.
Compared to the bloody competition in the Zhang family's main house at the Imperial Capital that Ren Qingquan often heard about from Fatty Zhang, Fatty Zhang's life in Burning Sky City is extremely relaxing. Although his chance to fight for the position of patriarch of the Zhang family has been lost in exchange.
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Remembering up to that part, Ren Qingquan couldn't help being happy to be transmigrated in this salted fish Ren family, where the most exciting event is an elder throwing some tantrum or the previous annual competition.
Returning to the topic, Ren Qingquan has been friends with Fatty Zhang since childhood, as their father is a life-and-death buddy with each other. Because during their youth, both of their fathers often went to travel and explore ruins or other unexamined areas together.
Different from Ren Qingquan's protective father, Fatty Zhang's father used the free-range method to raise his child, which caused Fatty Zhang to be a lot wilder and often visit bad places. And so Xiao Ling deemed Fatty Zhang a bad influence, and she always got angry whenever he came near Ren Qingquan.
Now that he thinks about it, Xiao Ling seems a bit too mature compared to her age. Perhaps Xiao Ling is actually much older than what she looks, afterall a Martial Saint could retain their youth. Also, Ren Qingquan has stopped worrying about Xiao Ling, a Martial Saint causing danger to him. She has been at his side for a long time. If she had ill will against him, the original Ren Qingquan would have died several times already.
Thinking up to this point, Ren Qingquan said to Xiao Ling
"Then, Xiao Ling, I will be going with my brother Zhang and traveling in the city."
"Young master, I will prepare your carriage and guards. My apologies, couldn't follow you as I still have some matters to attend to."
Ren Qingquan and Zhang Jixiang traveled through the carriage Xiao Ling prepared. While inside, Ren Qingquan looked at the scenery outside the carriage through the window.
As a city that is connected with the Imperial Capital by the same river, the prosperity of Burning Sky City could be felt easily. Especially on the main street, a lot of people and carriages could be seen on the street. There is only one extremely annoying thing. This place smells so bad, if not for the smell existing consistently, Ren Qingqian would have thought fatty Zhang farted.
While looking outside the window, Ren Qingqian accidentally saw someone who looked like Ren Qingchen outside, although Ren Qingquan lost sight of him after Ren Qingchen entered a dark alleyway.
Not long after, someone in black clothes who looked like a ninja or thief followed Ren Qingchen and went inside the alley.
'As expected of someone I suspect to have a main character template, He actually got chased the first thing in the morning.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thinking so, Ren Qingquan continued his daze and looked at the scenery outside while half-heartedly answering Fatty Zhang.
After a journey that seems to span eternity, Ren Qingquan rubbed his hurt buttocks and walked down from the carriage. Although the roads in Burning Sky City are good, But, with every little bump, the carriage shook so badly that Ren Qingquan thought they had collided with something instead.
Arriving at Black Flame Tavern, what first comes to mind is their massive signboard, written using some calligraphy that looks beautiful.
Boom!
Using his trademarked door smash, Fatty Zhang opened the door to Black Flame Tavern.
What greeted us was a tavern lit with a lot of candles. There were many patrons eating, and some servers could be seen moving quickly between tables. That is when a middle-aged man with fancy clothing comes and greets both of them.
"Young Master Zhang, I just asked someone to repair the tavern door last week. We might enter a deficit if you keep on slamming and destroying doors like this."
"No worries, manager Yang. It's okay to enter a deficit occasionally. After all, I mainly built the tavern here to relax, eat my favorite food, and listen to gossip."
"Sigh, young master, shall I prepare a private room for both of you?"
"There is no need. I will just eat at the dining area. Also bring me the new dishes and drinks, and whatever brother Ren wants."
Fatty Zhang answered while waving his hand.
"I will just have some snacks to accompany my drink."
While waiting for the food to be served, Ren Qingquan talked about many things with Fatty Zhang when he realized he hadn't used [Scan] today.
And so, Ren Qingquan activated [Scan] and started to scan many things in the tavern, from furniture like chairs and tables, dishes and drinks, and also the patrons and servers inside.
Soon, the dishes and drinks were served, and Fatty Zhang finally shut up and started eating. Looking at fatty Zhang's exaggerated expressions as he ate, Ren Qingquan felt as if he were looking at a food commercial.
Ren Qingquan ate his snack while listening to the gossip from another diner. He finally understood why Fatty Zhang loved to eat here. After all, this world has almost no entertainment. Listening to gossip is one of the best ways to entertain yourself. Especially when the gossip is so darn interesting.
Just from a few minutes of listening, Ren Qingquan has heard about many things, both important and not. For example, someone's wife found sleeping with his friend, some people found a place suspected to be an ancient martial sect ruins, someone talking big about his fight against a monster beast in an endless mountain, and other fantasy-sounding stories.
After he finished eating and drinking, Ren Qingquan chatted with Fatty Zhang and finally left when it was already noon.
As he traveled on the carriage, Ren Qingquan played around with [Storage] in boredom. When Ren Qingquan seemed bored from playing with [Storage], he opened the system shop, which was refreshed several minutes ago.
'Open the system shop.'
[Daily shop (refresh at 23:18:26)
Water, 1 point. description: normal drinkable water.
Food, 1 point. description: Random foods from Black Flame Tavern.
Steel, 1 point. description: solid, heavy, pure steel with a customized shape. (2000 kg)
Air, 1 point. description: breathable air.
Sunlight, 1 point. description: blinding light, contains some heat.
Permanent shop:-
Note 1: ... ]
Except for food and steel, everything is the same as before, except for soil that went missing from the daily shop. Looking at the description of steel, Ren Qingquan entered deep thought and asked the system some incomprehensible things.
'System, if I stored some steel in the storage, could you change its shape into something I want? And how much will it cost?'
[Yes, the system could transform items stored in 'Storage'. As for the cost, it will increase depending on size, complexity, and materials.]
'Then, how much would it cost to transform steel to the size of one or two cubic meters?'
[Less than one point. Unless it contains an extremely high level of detail.]
'Are there any limits to the size of things I could pull from [storage] at once?'
[The host may pull everything from 'Storage' at once.]
After getting his answer, Ren Qingquan smiled and called the coachman.
"Let's visit some blacksmith stores first before we go home."
***
Consciousness space
Listening to Rent Qingquan's request, I somehow got an incredibly bad feeling. Especially when he suddenly asked about [storage] after asking about modifying something. I just hope he doesn't do anything too weird and inappropriate for children to see.
Also, I could finally approximately calculate how much energy doing something might cost. As expected of this genius, me.