The boy was a little freaked out, but when Sage held up a gold coin, he immediately nodded his head. The boy took the coin and climbed up onto the driver’s seat of the coach. Sage laughed, “Can you actually drive, or do you just want the coin? Just find me another driver, you can keep the coin either way.”
While he thought it would be funny to see the kid driving around wildly, he might also end up liable for any damage the boy caused. The kid’s face turned pale and then he hopped back down from the seat and came back in a few minutes with a white haired man who was puffing for breath.
“This is my grandpa, he used to be a cart driver. Is that okay?”
Sage chuckled and tossed the old man a gold coin as well, “Alright, let’s get going. Sit up with your grandpa, Kid. He can teach you on the way. Take us to the Golden Market.”
The boy was still anxious about being turned away, but when he saw another coin flying through the air he was ecstatic. He lifted his fist to his chest in a sort of clumsy salute, something he probably saw soldiers do. Sage stepped up into the carriage and double checked the inventory of objects he was preparing for sale. That large Storage Ring could nearly pay off Lionheart Town’s debt in one fell swoop, but it may be more beneficial to keep a large amount of capital ready. Especially if those two other Prefects teamed up and assaulted Lionheart Town. What good would it be to pay off debts only to lose the city?
It was possible to hire a few more powerful warriors, but such an expenditure would be pretty high. A more ideal situation would be to use some benefits to entice a few more high level warriors into joining the Jade Horde. There’s still two open spots among the Seven Stars at the moment. Currently, there’s an informal competition among the troops aiming to take over Black Saber’s spot now that he’d become the Leader of the Horde. If any of the members of the Jade Horde could reach rank 5 they would immediately get promoted to join the Seven Stars. On top of that open spot, Abbot Kunga and Bi Hongbing weren’t yet in rank 5 either. They needed at least 3 more Core Formation cultivators to reach Sage’s goal for the Jade Horde’s initial strength.
After I sell what I need to, maybe I should see what sorts of talent is hanging around in Golden Cricket Cove.
The coach arrived at the Golden Market after a few minutes and Sage took a good look around, “Ahh, perfect!”
Sage walked towards a clothing shop, and the boy followed him while the old man stayed with the coach. The Golden Market was the local name for the most bustling part of Golden Cricket Cove. It was where the majority of the cultivator friendly businesses were located. Pristine Fortune Coaches was an exception, as the majority of other businesses catering to cultivators and wealthy citizens were in the Golden Market area. Outside the clothing shop, Sage tossed a gold coin to the doorguard, “Have a few people watch my coach.”
The guard nodded and then ran off. Sage didn’t bother to watch him return. Since he was pretending to be a rich merchant type, he acted confident in the behavior of paid guards. Walking into the clothing store, Sage exchanged greetings with one of the clerks before pointing to the boy behind him.
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“Dress this boy appropriately to be a page. Oh, and also the driver on my coach,” at that point he pulled out a string of golden coins. The coins here were also in an eastern style, circular with a square hole in the center. They were also commonly strung onto strings through the center hole in groups of 100 to make large transactions easier. He passed the string of gold coins to the clerk, “I also need a new wardrobe. As you can see, I ran into some difficulties on the road.”
An hour later, Sage left the clothing shop in a brand new outfit, as did the boy and his grandpa. Their outfits weren’t anything special, but they also wouldn’t be an embarrassment for a wealthy merchant to be seen with. As for his own outfits, they were merely to keep up appearances. He made sure not to order anything with magical functions as they were mainly destined to be fed to the Wardrobe Spider belt he wore. He purposely wore regular clothing coming to town this time to provide him a good cover story, but in the future with a proper coach he wouldn’t have to worry about it.
After the clothing shop, Sage went directly to Thousand Treasures. As this was a larger city, the Thousand Treasures branch here didn’t have as extensive a collection on display like the others he’d visited. Their main business was actually as an auction house. They had the best appraisers and held weekly, monthly, and yearly auctions. In smaller towns it was harder to hold many auctions so they did business more like a normal store. In larger towns like this, they left such small business to others and focused on their auctions, appraisals, and buying from customers. Goods could be consigned to Thousand Treasures for auction, and they would take a cut of the proceeds after the auction. If a seller was in a hurry they could sell it directly to Thousand Treasures. They could also act as a pawn shop, offering money for items which they hold in their warehouses. If the seller didn’t return in time, or they couldn’t pay the fee to retrieve the item it would be auctioned off.
In Provincial Capital cities like this, the traditional 1st and 2nd ‘floor’ where goods were sold was quite small. They took up only half the first level with the other half being devoted to private rooms. Those rooms were the ‘3rd floor’, where VIPs were greeted and items were appraised for auction. The ‘4th floor’, the warehouses and offices took up the whole second floor of the building, while the ‘5th floor’ usually used in auctions was actually its own separate building with a huge theater inside.
Sage wasn’t in a big hurry, so he chose to auction his goods. The Storage Ring was definitely a rare item, so it was very likely to earn a higher return in an auction. Of course, he didn’t want to wait for the yearly auction either, so he chose the monthly auction. The weekly auctions were for the cheapest items, while the most expensive were in the yearly auction. The richest and most powerful didn’t want to come to an auction house more than once a year and by making a big event they could attract more people to it. With more people there was more competition and hence, bigger profits for Thousand Treasures.
With a bit of coaxing and polite flattery, Sage met with the top Appraisal Master on duty that day and brought out the goods he planned to auction off. In order to show he was serious, he first brought out the trio of Hundred Spike Tigers he’d captured from the Fierce Tigers. They were all in good health now and in individual cages. The appraiser wasn’t impressed, but he recognized the value of the goods. Next, Sage brought out some miscellaneous goods from the past. There was a pile of trading contracts and property deeds along with associated maps he’d once collected off the body of a dead merchant. He wasn’t sure how many were valid anymore, but there were at least a few he’d seen with exclusive long term deals on them. As a lot, they might catch some attention.
Next, he brought out the Yellow Furred Gremlin he got from the last auction he was at. He’d ended up with the thing while messing with the guy who was driving up his auction prices. It was somewhat primate-like, and just like the Tigers couldn’t be used with his Insect Immortal Index, so it wasn’t worth much to him. After that he brought out the extensive collection of monster organs, body parts, and preserved creatures that Hei Bai collected. Such things could be useful to different professions, but Sage didn’t have any immediate use for them and felt creeped out by having such a huge collection of stuff. He kept the tailoring supplies, but added the most valuable hides and goods to the pile to make a few more Spirit Stones. Without any plans to use them, it was better to liquidate the goods for now.
He did the same with the beast bones. The bones of different Demonic Beasts could be used for various types of alchemical potions, smithing materials, or other ingredients for different professions. Sage needed Spirit Stones so he sold most of them. He only kept the skeleton of a single beast, a Rhino Seal. An adult was only a rank 4 beast, but they had some of the densest and strongest bones. Sage kept them, as they were pretty valuable for weapon forging and he might need to make something to entice people to his cause.
The last three items were likely the most valuable.