51 Golden Chambers (2/2)
”I guess it makes sense that his guards thought I acted imperiously,” Xue Wei sighed, ”but how was I to know who he was when he did not introduce himself?”
”Not to mention that his actions were overbearing to the limit of what even I can accept. Although neither Luo Zhirou nor Shen Mu encountered great trouble or experienced any serious wounds, they were still bleeding, and it has made my first impression of them poor.”
Xue Wei looked at Luo Zhirou and Shen Mu, expecting to see anger on their faces after having been treated the way they had. But instead, they were expressing excitement
”You will bring us to the banquet?” Luo Zhirou asked with a voice trembling with excitement. Her eyes were glistening and a smile that she could not control spread on her face.
”Of course.” Xue Wei smiled and nodded his head. ”I have to bring my friends, and you two are my friends,” he said cheerfully, hiding the feelings of injustice he held within, but he had not forgotten it. He was very curious about how the Crown Prince would treat him and his friends.
”We have to go shopping!” Luo Zhirou exclaimed. ”We need to get our hands on a present for our host tomorrow, and I need to purchase a dress. I did not pack any pretty dresses since we were heading for the army and I doubted that there would be any big banquets at the army camp.”
Luo Zhirou blushed slightly, but both Shen Mu and Xue Wei laughed at her.
”This is the capital; the shops are open far into the night, so let us go and find something. But do we need to bring some sort of present to the Crown Prince? Will we be able to provide him anything he could be interested in?”
Hearing that, the two others became quiet for some time before they gave Xue Wei a wry smile. It was indeed impolite to show up at a banquet without a present, but at the same time, their gift would just embarrass them.
”We can always give him some beast cores,” Shen Mu attempted to find something they had that they could give but Xue Wei shook his head. ”We only have beast cores of Fierce Beast equivalent to Ordinary Warriors. Although it might be of use to us, the fact is that he is the Crown Prince. He has available to him the best resources our kingdom has to offer. He would not even pick up such a beast core if it was in front of him.”
Shen Mu hung his head, but Xue Wei just shrugged his shoulders. ”Well, we can go to the Golden Chambers. It is an auction house that spans the entire continent, and it is also the only auction house in the entire city. It has two branches in the capital, one in the outer city and one in the Inner City.”
”This auction house might have something valuable. They don't only do auctions, as you can also buy a lot of things in their stores, while it is all the rarer materials that are being auctioned off.”
Xue Wei smiled as he spoke. ”The Golden Chambers are never closed. They are open throughout the entire day – including the night – never missing business; and as the years have gone by, more and more of the shops in the Inner City have matched their style and are open nearly all hours of the day.”
”The Inner City is mainly inhabited by cultivators. And as you know, although we are still considered mortals we do not need to sleep any longer. Cultivation can change our need for sleep, and thus we never know when we need to go out buying things.”
”Okay, okay!” Shen Mu laughed. ”You have convinced us, let us grab our bags from the rooms upstairs and go to the shopping streets to see what exactly we need. If we fall over something outstanding, we can buy it for the Crown Prince. If we can't find anything, then we still ought to at least get a dress for little Zhirou. Although we are considered country bumpkins here, we can at least look the part as nobles!”
Shen Mu and Luo Zhirou had been given a fair amount of money by their individual families, just like Xue Wei, but Xue Wei had at least ten times their amount of money as he was the sole heir of Xiao Lei. Meanwhile, the Luo and Shen families had other youngsters. Both Shen Mu and Luo Zhirou had other siblings, cousins, uncles, nephews and so on.
Together, the group went to their rooms, grabbed their bags, and got ready to stroll into the bustling city.
Although the sky was dark, the city streets were lit by street lamps, and every shop had torches and other lamps to light them up.
Many of the local inhabitants were on their way home after playing outside the entire day, but others were on their way out after having practiced all day. Restaurants and drinking dens were filled to the brim; all of them had experts walking in and out, and some were sober while others were drunk.
”Well, where should we go first?” Shen Mu asked as they entered the busy streets. Both Shen Mu and Luo Zhirou were looking around with big eyes filled with the wonders of the capital.
Although Tiankong City was a major city within the Kingdom of Heping, it was nothing compared to the capital. The capital was at least ten times bigger. It had so many people living here, and the whole feel was different. It felt so much more luxurious and had a feeling of being from another world.
Xue Wei was leading his two friends. ”We will go to the Golden Chambers first.” he said, having made his decision early on. ”I want to see if they have any interesting things, and at the same time we will be able to get rid of all our beast cores.”
Their bags were still filled to the brim with beast cores. It was natural for them to have acquired as many as they had after the fight with the beast horde, and now it was time for them to truly profit.
”Although it is dangerous to sell all at once, that only matters in normal shops. Doing business with the Golden Chambers will be safe.”
”In that case, we know where to go!” Shen Mu decided, and Luo Zhirou nodded her head. She truly did not care where they went as long as she was capable of experiencing this wonderful city's nightlife.