“Hey, are you guys going for Christmas shopping?” Dave came in through the front door and saw Caroline and Jason checking on their gold and platinum coins: “Hope you have a good time!”

“Dave, are you planning on going?” Jason asked: “Sounded like it would be fun.”

“No. It’s enough excitement for me this year already.” Dave shook his head: “Maybe next year - from what I heard things don’t change much year over year, so I’ll save some excitement for next year.”

“O… K...” neither Jason nor Caroline could not comprehend what Dave meant.

“Yeah. If you thought of something you might want, you can just call or text me.” Jason nodded, then closed the diner door and re-opened it, the door now led to an entrance of some sort of giant multi-layered building.

“Go in, don’t start wandering right away.” Jianmen made a “please go in” gesture at the diner door.

Caroline and Jason went in, and were instantly amazed at what they saw.

They were on a giant ring, floating in the air with quite a distance from the ground below. The floor under their feet was the upper surface of the floating ring, which seemed to be made of some kind of matte marble with meticulous patterns. On both sides of the walkway in front of them, were various stores just like a shopping mall, just that these stores were floating houses connected to the upper surface of the ring through various floating materials like carpets, wood panels, stairs, or even nothing at all. And in the space beyond the current ring they were on, were other floating rings all over the vast space, each interconnected with each other with bridges constructed by magical energy with different colors.

The place is spacious, and thus not as crowded as the shopping malls of the civilian world. This gave both Caroline and Jason a lot of time and clear space to marvel at the sheer wonders in this place.

“Nice right? This is way better than any shopping mall with a crazy sale. And less people too!” Jianmen joked and patted on both his students’ backs, “Hold onto your coins for now. Just like what you would see in a normal shopping mall, and with much less room for return or refund and much more need for a buyer beware attitude.”

“Okay, so what are worth buying and what are not?” Caroline asked.

“So, first, to a store that I trust.” Jianmen led Caroline and Jason forward and towards a floating store, in a house built like a temple but with modern design and a lot of electric lights. A simple wooden sign that said “Wen’s Miscellaneous & Everything” stood on the side of the walkway. The store was connected to the ring with floating batches of bamboo, which sunk a little bit every time someone stepped on them and it was quite a thrill for both Caroline and Jason when they first walked on them.

“Jianmen! Long time no see.” an Asian man with a Van Dyke greeted Jianmen and his students at the front door: “And these must be your apprentices! Welcome! What can I help you with?! We have a bit of everything and for a cheap price of three gold coins, you’ll have the wonderful holographic figure of the world famous half human half Siren performer ...”

“Wen, I have young students here. Save your not safe for work products in the back of your store.” Jianmen shook his head and shook hands with the man: “We’re here for some basics for a visit to the Grant Academy.”

“Hey Boss, we’re adults, what is this not safe for work stuff? I want to see!” Jason opened his eyes a little wider.

“Young students. Better not to see it then.” Wen’s smile made him look like an over friendly insurance salesman: “But no problem! Come on in! We have all the basics and for the best prices in the entire realm! From automatic note taking pens, to quick documentation reference pointers, and spell recorders that can record a spell and replay them at one one hundredth the speed, perfect for learning the intricacies of a spell.”

“I’d recommend a spell recorder.” Jianmen nodded: “Not just for learning and revisiting spell presentations, you can record yourself and find out where you went wrong.”

“Can I use it for video making?” Jason asked.

“If you use the one that comes with video recordings, yes. If you are interested in more detailed learning, you can definitely try it. Only one platinum coin and two gold coins!” Wen said with a passionate tone.

“That’s… really expensive. Maybe just the normal recorder then.” Jason roughly calculated the cost in his mind, then declined hesitantly.

“Good choice.” Jianmen approved: “The price is indeed high for you guys right now. It’s normal price for the products of its grade, but you don’t need it right now.”

“What’s this? ” Caroline pointed at a luxurious looking broadsword on the side of the wall.

“This is a Thomas Easy-charge Sword of Long-range Aviation. It can fly up to six hundred and fifty kilometers with one full charge and takes only five minutes to charge. It has a built in hidden space array for its spacious internal room and an auto navigation system that can be integrated with all kinds of maps - whether it is star maps or civilian smartphone maps.” Wen walked to the sword and lifted it up from the wall and presented it to Caroline: “For an incredible price of three platinum coins and five gold coins! It is one of the most cost efficient models in the market! Imagine that! When your classmates are still riding brooms and carriages to school, you rode in on a sword! How cool is that!?”

“Ooh, sounds like something you would need. You know, to pick up a moderately cute sorceress.” Caroline chuckled and patted Jason on the shoulder.

“Indeed it is!” Wen turned to Jason and mimicked a bad British accent: “What say you my handsome lad? Care to have a jolly ol’ride?”

“I’d rather ride a bike, for now.” Jason couldn’t say he wasn’t tempted, riding a flying sword was one of the coolest things he could think of when it comes to cultivation, yet the price was just too expensive for him.