Chapter 36 - 36: Surabhi Emporium
Wei Wuyin hated abrupt endings. After a bit of sulking, he calmed himself down and shrugged. What happened had happened. He had formed his saber intent, with his Heart of Qi, he would be able to convert essence into saber essence, saber essence into saber energy, and saber energy into saber qi.
If he wished, he could use the saber qi to transform either heart into a Heart of Saber Qi. However, he didn’t do that, nor did he have plans to do so. He’d much rather have two Divine Hearts of Elemental Qi than one Heart of Saber Qi and one Divine Heart of Elemental Qi.
After deciding this, he found himself a nearby Inn and rested.
"A Nascent Saber Soul. Hm." He sat in his cultivation stance as he slowly considered the previous events. He had definitely piggybacked on that young man’s lucky chance. However, was he supposed to find the palace or befriend the boy?
Was he an expert in the making? As he thought more about it, he felt more certain of this possibility. He wasn’t supposed to find the boy’s lucky chance but befriend him with good-natured actions.
"The Forge. It sounded like a place to temper and train. It’s likely that the boy chose a Dao and didn’t form his intent or reach completion, so he gained access to the tempering grounds. The reason I was sent away was because I had finished forming my intent, skipping the seed form of intent." As he started to ruminate further, he had a ninety percent belief that was the truth.
He sighed.
He checked his karmic luck value: 162.4.
So, piggybacking on someone else’s lucky chance doesn’t decrease or increase one’s karmic value? Then...how did I increase it before without voluntary transmission?
This question still bothered him. At first, he thought it was killing others to steal their luck, but he killed a Mortal God. His karmic luck couldn’t be zero, right?
"Let’s just move on, it’ll make sense sooner or later. For now, the Nascent Saber Soul." He opened his mind’s eye and connected his spirit to his soul. When he did, he saw an egg-like object.
He touched the egg with his mental and spiritual senses, but nothing happened. He frowned.
Oh!
He formed saber intent and touched the egg. It then trembled and started to crack. In a split second, the shell faded away and a saber appeared. It had the shape of a chinese saber, the curvature of its spine and sharpness established a raw potential within.
When the saber formed, it emitted a light that embraced his mind’s eye. Information started to stream into his mind, enough to rival the scriptures he had obtained before.
"A saber soul!" He exclaimed with a tinge of excitement. He had obtained information about its origins and uses. It was a literal soul of a saber spirit born from the Dao of Sabers. Its rarity was beyond imagination and the creation of which was heaven-shaking.
It had no memories outside of its birth and it possessed a will. This will was what Wei Wuyin connected with when his saber intent merged into it. Now, its will was his will.
He exited his mind’s eye and started to cultivate. The Essence of Heaven and Earth entered his meridians. This time, he had his saber intent flare within his meridians, allowing the essence to inherently be imbued with saber qualities. It was transformed into saber essence. Then, it was directed to his dantian.
After his Hearts of Qi sensed the minute saber essence, they drew it in, absorbing it into their cores and refining it into an energy form. A pure energy form. Because of the saber intent, this energy took the characteristics of a saber, sharp and forceful, and became saber energy.
With a thought, the saber energy was refined into Metaphysical Qi, merging with the cyclones that spun continuously around the cores. In a blink of an eye, that newly produced saber qi was directed outwards and manifested itself in the air from his palm. A miniature saber formed.
"This is Saber Qi! According to the Ethereal Qi guides, Ethereal Qi gave benefit to the mind and spirit, not the body. Material Qi affected the body and spirit. Mind Qi must affect the mind and spirit.." He had already experienced a change in his mind’s eye. With a thought, his spiritual sense swept out.
The formation that had prevented him from sending his spiritual sense outwards interfered once more. However, how could it be so easy to hinder the movements of a saber? It was peerlessly sharp and fierce beyond description!
His spiritual sense sliced through the formation’s restrictive force and exited outwards to flow freely.
"My spiritual sense now has saber-like qualities! If I used offensive spiritual spells, I can only imagine its power!" As he marveled at his newfound power, he felt awash with pride.
He stretched out his palm and started to circulate the core energies within his Heart of Qi. All thirteen-types of energies, including saber and basic essence energy, were drawn out as a whole.
A trembling emerged in his soul as he called out with his spirit. "Saber Soul!"
Suddenly, he found himself holding a saber. It was pure white and of solid form. This was his Saber Soul! In fact, this was its material body!
He used his various pure energies to create a body for his Saber Soul to enter and materialize into the real world. He grasped it and felt the myriad of energies within, but the most dominant and leader of all these energies were the saber energy laced with saber intent.
This wasn’t qi, but pure, refined energy of its highest quality, completely controlled by saber energy and intent. They were obedient like good children.
"I need soul nourishing and strengthening materials to refine you. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Wu Country has such things. But from now on, I can use you in place of a true saber. As long as you become stronger, so will I! As long as I grow stronger, so will you!"
According to its memories, it was a Level One Saber Soul. It was at its most basic strength, but it possessed the inherent ability to materialize using a body of pure energy. As it grew stronger, new and greater abilities would be unlocked as well.
Taking a deep breath, he swung the saber lightly. A trace of multicolored light lingered in space like a comet’s tail. The energy of the world was being subtly influenced. It was likely due to all the elemental, yin, yang, and yin-yang energies used in its creation. It was nearly the ultimate elemental saber.
"I’ll call you Element." Since it was close to possessing all the natural and advanced elemental energies in the world and led it with saber energy, he felt the name was befitting. It would soon become its own element, a king of other worldly elements!
With Element in hand, his eyes flashed with anticipation.
He wanted to fight!
However, he knew that was currently unlikely. He may have been sidetracked due to events, but he came for a reason. With essence stones in both hands, he decided to cultivate till morning.
When morning arrived, he immediately left and made his way to Surabhi Emporium.
The Surabhi Emporium was impressively massive. It was a complex that stood nearly twenty stories high and was as wide as a football field. Wei Wuyin was struck speechless by its sheer enormity of its existence. Even the Scarlet Solaris Mountain, which was many times its size, hadn’t brought him to such an awed state.
The only reason was because of its status as a building. This was the tallest and widest building he had ever seen built. From afar, it didn’t look impressive, but as he stood at its base, and looked up, his eyes shook with amazement.
"Incredible!"
Even though he was a Mortal God, capable of creating rivers of fire, water, magma, and lightning, he still felt that child-like awe one experienced when coming across something new. Before, this type of existence wasn’t a part of his natural beliefs.
Now, it was material and before him.
It took him a few minutes to adjust and regain his calm. A smile on his lips as he felt satisfied in his decision to experience the world. However, he was soon struck speechless once more.
When he entered the Surabhi Emporium, his eyes widened. It was so spacious, dazzling, and fancy!
There were glass chandeliers, expertly crafted statues radiating power, a fountain that spat clear water containing dense water energy, and there was a huge opening in the center with interconnecting bridges and kiosks set up on those wide bridges.
The true stores were all placed near or inside the walls, and there seemed to be a vast variety of them. They had bright signs radiating neon lights and various attractive energies. It was as if they were begging for his attention.
He walked in and saw stairs.
Wait.
No.
Those stairs were moving on its own!
As he watched the constantly rising stairs, he realized a unique earth qi formation was set to carry one upwards naturally to any floor they wished.
It was like a complex maze with people traveling to and fro with ease!
He gulped.
Looking at those sturdy bridges, he counted the amount that connected the second floor from the eight cardinal directions. Any bridge could take one to the other area. There were four full bridges, all of which merged together at the central point.
The central point, from below, he could only see stone as there was a platform. It was circular and large, capable of fitting hundreds of people at a time with enough space to spread one’s arms.
Many of the largest kiosks that sold a variety of food and simple merchandise were set up here. This continued throughout the nineteen floors. The final floor above, the twentieth, had no bridges and was just a normal floor.
He basked in amazement as he looked all around. There were kids, the elderly, and adults going places, arriving, and leaving. They chatted and talked, some sat at tables and ate as if it was a restaurant.
"That’s convenient!"
His mind spiraled as he nearly got a culture shock. He felt like a country bumpkin in comparison. What was this? Why didn’t the Scarlet Solaris Sect have one?
Did they have one?
As he asked himself that question, he was approached by what seemed to be a female attendant assigned to help and assist others. It was likely his gaped expression and bright eyes of wonder and ignorance that brought her his way. When he saw that young twenty or so young woman, he similarly gawked at her outfit.
Before he could completely take in the cute outfit, which seemed like a uniform, the woman asked in a friendly voice, "Sir, do you need any help?"
He cleared his throat as he realized he had lost himself like a child at a candy store. How embarrassing. If this woman knew he was a lofty Mortal God, where would his face go?
"Yes. I want to sell materials, pills, elixirs, weapons, and armor for essence stones. Where can I do that?" He calmly asked, trying to regain his composure.
The young woman was shocked at first, but quickly said, "There are many stores here willing to do trades, and finding speciality stores would be the best. If you’re selling high-level things, I believe you should make your way towards the thirteenth floor. They specialize in high-level sales, like qi weapons and energy pills. Those mid-level sells such as low-grade pills and high-grade crafted weapons, you can take it to the ninth floor.
"As for low-level sales, the fifth floor will handle your needs. Is that all?" The woman answered with a good attitude.
Wei Wuyin memorized that and felt that he needed to make a trip to all those floors. His materials were all over the place in quality, and he wanted to sell it all.
"No, is there a place I can buy high-level Ice Essence?" He directly asked.
Her eyes lit up and she nodded. "Things like that are up on the fifteenth floor and higher. You may have to check all the stores suitable for it. You can try King Essence or Kosh’s Energy. Those are at the fifteenth and sixteenth floor respectively. You can find them by their signs."
Wei Wuyin had never been helped in such a clear fashion, so he thanked her and gave her an essence stone for her troubles. After all, good service deserved to be rewarded. Shockingly, she refused.
"I can’t accept gifts or tips. I’m merely doing my job, Sir." She declined with a gentle smile and followed up with, "Do you need anything else, sir?"
"..."
Impeccable.
This place’s standard was exceptional. She didn’t even accept a reward because it was her job in the first place. He sighed and realized this place was toppling his beliefs and faith in the world.
He had to praise the creator of this place. It was perfect.
He shook his head and she properly said her goodbyes before saying that if he needed anything else, he could come to her or those dressed in similar outfits. He nodded and she left him to his own devices.
The next couple of hours were truly a frightening shift in his perception of business. There were some areas that accepted some materials for higher or lower prices, so he had to run around and get the best prices and estimates, but it was worth it.
At the end of the day, he had unloaded all his unwanted materials and received eight hundred and thirty-seven essence stones. It was far greater than what he originally believed, but going to the highest buying places truly gained him a decent profit.
He felt drenched in wealth and wanted to cultivate almost immediately. With what he already had and this, he neared a thousand essence stones. That was more than enough to cultivate to the Sublime Qi Phase, but instead, he decided to see about the high-level Ice Essences available.
He had already tried King Essence and came up short, so he went to Kosh’s Energy. When he arrived, he saw a familiar figure.