The Flowing River restaurant was the most famous restaurant within the town of Heaven’s Peak. Every morning there would be a long line of customers just waiting to get in. Although their prices were on the more pricy side, no one complained because the food was just that good.
Relic, Hana, and Jiro appeared in front of the restaurant.
“(You wait out here; you are too big to fit the door.)” Relic told Jiro.
“(Whatever.)” Jiro walked towards a tree and sat underneath the shade. Heaven’s Peak actually had quite the number of spirit beasts which roamed the streets. Most were domesticated and were used to help around as labour. The people of Heaven’s peak didn’t think much about the spirit beasts in their town. So long as they didn’t attack anyone, no one would question it. Thus, although Jiro caught a few glares, no one bothered him.
Relic and Hana headed inside and saw a densely packed restaurant. Chatter and noise filled the room and there were plenty of drunken laughter. The whole building had three floors with the more affluent customers on the higher floors.
A Beautiful women hostess had just finished seating some of her guests and returned to the front of the restaurant where two dirty and bulging children were standing.
“Excuse me, miss, we were wondering if we could speak with the owner of this establishment.” Relic spoke politely. “We have some things we thought they might be interested in.”
“Brats, get lost, we don’t want anything to do with your kind here.” The hostess immediately directed her finger and pointed it out the door. She did nothing to hide the disgust she had on her face.
Relic could see the strong animosity coming from the women. “Excuse us.” He took Hana’s hand and they left.
Once outside he asked, “Are there any other well-known restaurants here?”
“There are but none of them comes even close to this one.”
“That’s okay; please lead me to the next one.”
They walked for a while before they reached another restaurant. On top read, ‘Moon lit dining Hall’. It was quite apparent this restaurant was not as classy as the first one they went to but it was still quite clean and inviting.
They walked inside and while the restaurant had a good number of customers, many tables and chairs remained empty.
At the front was a woman even more beautiful than the last. Her silky hair was braided in a beautiful braid which ran down her slender back.
“Beautiful miss, may we see your manager? We have somethings to sell.” Relic said.
“Oh, what sort of things do you have?” She carried a bored expression and did not seem to mind what the children looked like at all.
Relic reached under his shirt and took out a lumpy truffle. “We found these mushrooms”
When the woman saw the truffle in Relic’s hands, her eyes instantly widened and without hesitation, she lifted the two kids by the collar and headed towards one of the rooms in the back.
She glared intently at the truffles in his hands. “These… they must be the poisonous ones, right?” She couldn’t help but think. “Only the ‘Sun and Moon trading group’ has non- poisonous ones, but what if...”
She grabbed the piece away from Relic and ripped off a piece. The aroma from the truffle invigorated her entire body. Without hesitation she threw the piece into her mouth. The piece of truffle seemed to melt in her mouth as her countenance turned dazed.
The Moon lit dining hall was not actually some second rate restaurant. It was actually a branch of a much bigger and more successful restaurant outside of Heaven’s Peak. This lady moved from the main restaurant to set up a branch here and was much more experienced than Hana. She had dealt with truffles before as well as the group that provided them. She didn’t know where good truffles came from but she could definitely tell the difference between the two.
“Miss?” Relic suddenly spoke
The woman suddenly snapped out of her daze and looked at Relic with fervor eyes.
“Little children, what are your names?”
“I’m Relic and this is my sister, Hana” He politely introduced them both.
“My name is Chelsi. I would like to purchase these mushrooms from you. Judging from your bulging clothes it seems like you have found quite a bit. How does 50 gold coins for everything you have sound? It is quite a lot you know.” Her tone was calm but her eyes were blazing like a fiery sun.
Relic stared at her for a second before giving a quick bow.
“Sorry for wasting your time.” He took the truffle from her hands and began to make his way out the door.
“NO WAIT!” She flung her entire body in a panicked manner and blocked the door with her body.
“I’m sorry, that was my bad. I should have offered you a competitive price. How does 100 gold for everything sound?” Her heart was palpitating
Relic frowned in response.
“Last I checked, a single truffle can be sold for 8 gold coins per piece, and that is for the lowest of quality of truffles. The truffles I have brought are all fairly high quality and all fist sized. How could I accept such a low price?”
The prices he was referring to was based off his own experience in dealing with them when he was out adventuring.
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Chelsi suddenly felt like she wasn’t talking to a kid but an adult. She had thought the reason Relic had turned down her offer initially was because even kids knew that truffles were an expensive good. Now she realized that this kid wasn’t ordinary and actually knew his mushrooms.
“Y-your right… I was greedy and thought you were just kids who got lucky finding them. I will offer you 11 gold coins per piece.”
Relic’s brow had a slight frown upon hearing that.
She quickly explained, “Of course, if we were in a big city I would not hesitate to offer 25 gold coins per piece. But in the end we are still in a small town. Even the richest person living here would not match even 10% of the wealth of a random wealthy noble living in a major city. The people in our village would not be able to afford the cost if we bought your truffles at such a high price.”
What she said was definitely reasonable. He thought for a moment before deciding to agree. In the end, these truffles were not going to be his main source of income. He merely needed enough to start buying some supplies.
He gestured to Hana and they both displayed 42 pieces of truffles on a table. Chelsi’s eyes sparkled like gold at the scene.
She quickly went out of the room and returned with a 5 golden paper note, each worth a 100 gold coins.. “A little extra for ya.” She gave him a wink.
He looked as if he didn’t notice and quickly stored them in his clothes.
“If you ever find anymore truffles you will remember this sister, right?” Her tone suddenly became seductive. She crossed her arms and pushed them towards her chest, leaning ever closer to Relic.
Relic did not even pay attention and took his sister’s hands as they made their way towards the door. “If you continue to give us a competitive price, I do not see why not.”
After the two were gone, she continued to stand inside her room. “I know he is just a kid but… my charm should still have affected him a little, right?” looking defeated, she slowly made her way to the kitchen in preparation of the restaurant’s new dish.
Hana followed closely behind as Relic began leading her out. To her, his personality was like night and day compared to how he was before. In her heart, she could no longer doubt what Relic had said. He was truly from the future and was in fact, an older version of himself. However, she was now struggling with the choices Relic had given her.
Next, Relic had Hana lead them to a trading Hub. Trading Hubs were by far the most popular place in any town or city. They would regularly carry everything cultivators would need, whether it is for pill refining, weapons, medicinal plants, seals, or anything else.
The place Hana had led Relic to was large building called Heaven’s Treasures. It was by far the largest building in the entire town, taking up 3 blocks worth of space. People were coming in and out of the store in droves. Many of them were actually wearing different styles of clothes which would indicate they came from outside of this town.
“How original…” Relic couldn’t help but mutter under his breath.
The two soon entered the large building but very quickly Relic found himself with a problem.
“Excuse me miss……”
“Sir, can I get some service….”
The building was full of people and its employees were scrambling on their feet to meet the needs of its customers. A frown quickly appeared on Relic’s face as he was being completely ignored.
“Hey you, come here.” amidst the crowd, a teenage girl with purple hair gestured for Relic and Hana to come over.
Relic saw the girl and pondered for a moment before deciding to head towards her. She then led the two siblings under the service counter and into a room.
“Phew, very hectic isn’t it. Now, how can I help you two?” she asked.
“You work here?” He asked suspiciously.
“Well no, but I’m capable of selling anything here. My grandfather owns this place and I have full authority on anything within this place.” She puffed up her chest.
“Oh, okay, in that case do you have any fire and ice lotuses? “ It didn’t really matter to him whether she was telling the truth or not. If she was able to give him what he wanted, he wouldn’t ask any unnecessary questions.
“Ah, you must be new cultivators, fire and ice lotuses carry small amounts of spiritual energy that is useful for very new cultivators. We sell each fire and ice lotuses for 50 silver coins each. How many would you like? ” She asked respectfully.
“Could you get me 200 Fire and Water lotuses?”
“200... are you sure you have the money for it?” She asked cautiously.
Relic took out one golden paper note and handed it to the girl. She immediately inspected it and told him to wait.
A couple of minutes later, she was carrying two large bags.
“Here are two bags consisting of 200 fire and ice lotuses. Would you like to count them?”
“No, it is fine, thank you. I’m also looking for spirit beast blood with the essence of water.”
“Oh, are you two getting ready for a blood cleansing? If you are looking for spirit beast blood with water affinity, I guess you both must have affinity to the Dao of water.” She spoke with confidence.
“In terms of blood with water affinity, we sell the blood of the rain mink, the rainbow feathered swallow tail bird, and the mirage ape king. Please keep in mind; these are common type blood extracted from beasts below the arcane realm.” She said.
“How much per liter?”
“They are all around 35 gold coins per liter.”
He nodded.
“Do you sell any more water affinity blood?”
“Hmm?” She suddenly became curious. The beast blood she had mentioned were the most popular blood they had in their store. She didn’t understand why Relic was asking about other ones.
“Yes, we do, but those beast bloods are normally unfit for blood baths and are bought by those interested in studying beast bloodlines.”
A cultivator’s first blood bath was not something a cultivator would take likely. The beast blood bath was capable of strengthening the cultivator’s body and may even allow their body to be more attuned to certain essences depending on which beast blood they chose. If a regular cultivator was able to find the blood of a divine spirit beast and bathe in it, they could essentially turn into a genius overnight! However, this was only true for a cultivator’s first bath; any subsequent baths carry almost no real benefit to the cultivator.
She looked at Relic’s attire and could not peg him as one of those scholars who were interested in studying blood lines. A thought suddenly occurred and she immediately spoke with concern, “Please do not consider mixing the blood!” Her appearance had turned frantic.
She continued: “Most new cultivators are unable to obtain high class beast blood and are forced to settle for some of the lower class ones. Thus, sometimes newer cultivators will try to mix beast blood in hopes of getting some beneficial outcome. However… ” Her face turned increasingly solemn. “Almost 100% of the time they will get blood poisoning which not only decreases their life span, but also makes it impossible for them to continue cultivation. Once it enters your body, your body becomes like a furnace as the beast blood boils in your body and decays the person form the inside out.”
Hana shook from the words and became pale. She had limited knowledge in the world of cultivation and never even heard of such a thing!
Relic only waved his hand “Please do not worry. I have no intention of mixing the beast blood in order to take a blood bath. I actually need them for a different reason.”
“What kind of reason.”
“I…My teacher, you see, he is one of those old eccentrics who love to study blood talents of many beasts. This time, he told me to fetch beast blood with water affinity.”
Relic was confident he could stick to this lie whenever someone asked him some questions he couldn’t answer. It was the simplest answer he could think of and most would choose to believe him.
“Oh, that’s good.” She had a sigh of relief. “In that case, let me show you around.”
The girl showed him around, and he ended up buying 26 bottles of blood from different beasts at half a liter each.
By the end of it, he had only a few silver coins left.
Relic thanked the purple haired girl and left together with Hana.
As soon as they left, the little girl burst into excitement and took out the money she had gotten.
“I can’t wait to show grandpa my first sale! A couple more sales and he will have to let me go!” She happily skipped around the room and sang herself a little tune.