It was the seventeenth of the He month, and summer was in full bloom. The ‘Nine Sun Capital’ was in a rather festive mood, the ‘Day of the Blooming Lotus’ on the fifteenth had just come to pass and today was an incomparably precious day for the young cultivators of the ‘Great Qin’. For today, the illustrious ‘Radiant Sea Institute’ will open its gate to receive a fortunate few capable of joining its ranks, an opportunity that only comes once every five years!

*****

Near the northern districts of the ‘Nine Sun Capital’ was a small manor, a luxurious wooden plaque that read ‘林家’ hung on its rich timber gate. Waiting inside the manor, leaning against the gate, was a black-haired youth, dressed in light green robes, hair tied up in a ponytail, with jade-green eyes, and a rather feminine appearance. However, since there was no valley to be seen, this youth was most likely a man…

“Oi~ you slowpokes, why are you taking so long?” The youth demanded loudly, his right heel bouncing on the ground in rapid succession, revealing his impatience.

“Coming!” A voice rang out of from within the house as a young man in his twenties, with dark green eyes, and a dashing appearance stepped out.

“Lin Ming, where’s the little rascal?” The youth asked the young man.

“It’s big brother Lin Ming you ill-mannered wench!” The young man, Lin Ming, replied, slightly annoyed, “the rascal’s…still trying to tie his belt…”

“Argh! It’s been five years! He still can’t do something so simple?!” The youth complained. “I’m going! He can go buy the tools he needs himself!”

“Well, you did take almost half a shi in the bath and another half drying yourself…in an organic manner…” Lin Ming muttered. “So, we couldn’t get bathed…”

“Hmph! Just look at how smooth and silky my hair is, and how precious and brilliant my skin is! I need all the time I can get to clean it in the gentlest most tender way possible!” The youth rebuked. “He has three breaths to show up! If he doesn’t, I’ll break his third leg!”

*Bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *BOOM*

A series of bangs and a loud boom echoed out of the house, and a youth in black robes tumbled into view. Rolling out of the house into the courtyard, the youth quickly stood up, a bashful smile on his face.

“Hehe, big sis Qingtian, that took only two and a half breaths!” The youth spoke.

*Pok*

The green-robed youth, Qingtian, slammed her fist onto the black-robed youth’s head.

“Ow!” The youth exclaimed.

“Outside, it’s big bro Longtian! How many times do I have to hit you to get it through your thick skull?!” The youth, Qingtian, asked angrily.

“Oh…ok, big sis Longtian, err…wait…no, big bro Qingtian!” the black-robed youth replied stutteringly.

*Pok*

Qingtian slammed her fist onto the youth’s head once more.

“Ow!”

“Little rascal, I’ll feed your balls to wild pigs if you mess with me again!” Qingtian threatened in a huff.

“Hehe…” The youth laughed lightly, a sheepish grin on the corner of his lips.

“Let’s get going already, old Fang’s shop will open soon, although I asked them to set out the best batch of goods for us, we should still go pick things out ourselves,” Lin Ming interrupted, pushing open the gate and stepping out of the manor.

Pulling out a fist-sized yellow parchment from the folds of his robes, Lin Ming threw it onto the ground in front of him, and it instantly expanded to the size of a large door. Stepping onto this, now large, yellow parchment, Lin Ming’s consciousness reached into his ‘Inner World’ and a sliver of qi flowed out, fusing with the black ink inscribed onto the yellow parchment. Tapping his feet on it lightly, the qi infused into the yellow parchment activated, and it floated half a chi off the ground.

“Hop on!” Lin Ming spoke, turning back to beckon at the other two.

Without being needed to be told twice, the two quickly stepped onto the floating parchment, but their increased weight caused it the sink somewhat, almost touching the ground…

“Eh…did the two of you grow a bit heavier over the past few months?” Lin Ming asked, turning to glance at the two behind him.

*Pah*

Faster than Lin Ming could react, Qingtian reached out and struck him across the face.

“Ow! You little-”

“Bastard! How can you ask a slender and dainty maiden like me such a question!” Qingtian swore, pouting in anger. Turning to the black-robed youth, Qingtian pinched his cheeks heavily, “it’s clearly the little rascal who’s been putting on weight, just look at his fat cheeks!”

“Ow! Sis you…” the black robe youth exclaimed; his tone slightly indignant.

In truth, it was Qingtian who had been putting on a bit of weight lately, but how could she not? She’d been indulging herself in auntie Qing’s cooking for the last three weeks after all! However, she definitely wasn’t going to admit to this…

“Eh…alright, let’s just get going then…” Lin Ming spoke as he channeled more qi into the parchment and it slowly floated higher and higher.

Suddenly, a deafening roar tore through the sky, shaking the manor, and scaring the whole street awake.

“Take care you little brats!”

“We will, auntie Qing!” The three replied in unison, warm smiles on their faces, as they soared into the sky atop the yellow parchment.

*****

Old Fang’s name was Fang Baocai, as his name somewhat implies, the old badger was the very epitome of a stingy and shameless person, but he was quite the businessman. Despite not being a native of the ‘Great Qin’, and being based in the poorest empire, he runs the largest shop and the most distinguished auction house in the whole continent! This was in large, thanks to his intimate connections with the ‘Radiant Sea Institute’…

Old Fang’s shop was a place called the ‘Trove of the Resplendent Pagoda’, and was shaped like, well, a pagoda, almost a full li tall, with six layers in total, it’s outer layer completely crafted out of gold. The entire pagoda sat on a large courtyard crafted out of hardened stone and was surrounded by walls dozens of zhang tall a few zhang thick, forged out of tempered iron. In addition, hundreds of guards in darksteel armor patrolled the walls and the gates leading to the golden pagoda. From this, one could see how wealthy this Old Fang was.

Currently, there was a large crowd of tens of thousands of people waiting outside, pushing and pulling, in a bid to get closer to the wall’s gates, to join a long line of people coiled around the courtyard, trying to get into the large golden pagoda…

Floating down from atop the yellow parchment, Lin Ming, Qingtian, and the youth directly landed inside the gates, attracting looks of envy and admiration from the crowd outside of the gates. Who were these people...to be able to just go in like this? The whole crowd wondered...

“Ai-yah~ I told you all we should hurry! Look at how much people are already here! I am sooo not wading through such a large crowd of people!” Qingtian began complaining the moment they stepped off the yellow parchment.

“Heh…don’t fret, I’ve recently gotten my hands on something precious…” Lin Ming muttered as he pulled out a purplish golden tablet from within his robes.

“Eh? Is that the ‘Violet Gold Guest Plate’?” Qingtian asked, her eyes widened slightly, “are you saying…you actually managed to become a ‘Higher Talisman Adept’?!”

Old Fang’s ‘Trove of the Resplendent Pagoda’ had six levels of patrons, starting from the bottom, they were, white, black, bronze, silver, gold, and violet gold, corresponding to six levels of item price. Each guest is given their plate based on the highest level of items they could buy, with each increment being at least ten times more expensive! That is to say, that if white level guests could buy things worth ten jin in gold, then violet gold guests could buy things worth a million jin in gold!

Of course, theses ‘Guest Plates’ of each rank come with their own perks and rewards from the shop. As a patron of the ‘Violet Gold Rank’, in addition to preferential treatment within the shop, Lin Ming was also entitled to a discount one-tenth discount on gold-ranked items, two-tenths for silver items, three-tenths for bronze ranked items and so on. Based on this alone, the ‘Violet Gold Guest Plate’ was almost priceless!

“Eh…no…I borrowed this thing from my master…hehe…” Lin Ming replied with a bashful smile, but quickly, his smile turned a bit devious as he toyed with the ‘Violet Gold Guest Plate’ in his hand. “So today…we’re going to spend as much as we want!”

Oh…by the way, ‘Guest Plates’ can be used to hold currency, it’s well, a high-class credit card of sorts…