Ch.10 - Phoenix Gourmet Pavilion
By noon Dalin had the hidden palace in the back of his mind as he arrived at the gates of a bustling city.
"2 inferior grade spirit stones please." The guard asked.
Dalin thought for a moment "I don't have any money, but I am a mortal grade 3rd tier rune master, how about I enchant your armor with a lifesaving ability as payment instead?"
The guard was stunned and thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"I'd appreciate if you could add an offensive rune to my spear instead." The guard stated slightly coldly. He didn't believe Dalin was a rune master but it didn't hurt to try.
Dalin nodded and the guard handed over his spear.
"Any particular elemental preference?" Dalin asked.
"Lightning." He responded to which Dalin nodded.
Dalin immediately began drawing spiritual runes in the air which then formed a tier 3 devil lightning rune.
That rune was then implanted crisply on the spears head.
Dalin gave the spear back, "Give it a try."
The guard nodded he aimed his spear in the distance and closed his eyes momentarily when he opened them a bolt of black lightning shot out of the spears head into the distance.
*BOOM!*
A small hill was obliterated.
The guard smiled.
"Thank you kid, pardon my cold attitude from before."
Dalin shrugged. "That's a lesser grade tier 3 rune which according to my instructor is worth at least 50 lesser spiritual stones. I wont ask for the full price since I'm the one who was unreasonable to come with no money, but id appreciate 10 at least."
The guard nodded he handed a spatial pouch over to Dalin, inside it was 15 spiritual stones.
"Thank you for the business." Dalin said with a grin.
The guard grinned back at him and handed him a token.
"In this city there are grades of passes, mortal passes allow you entry but don't cover any of your expenses, the earth grade pass on the other hand will make the city cover 5% of any of your transactions here, sky grade tokens cover 10%, heavenly grade covers 25%, and divine grade passes covers 50%." The guard explained.
"This is a sky grade pass, its on the house. I wouldn't have been able to afford a tier 3 rune under normal circumstances." The guard explained.
Dalin nodded with a smile and cupped his fist respectfully. "Thank you, brother guard."
After saying a few parting words Dalin entered the city and began making his way over to the floating cloud pavilion. This was an inn with various services. Apparently sky grade token holders get a 25% discount here with 10% of the price paid for by the city, Dalin could barely afford 1 night here, but that was enough for Dalin to make some more cash.
He planned to make some talismans using his knowledge as a mortal grade tier 3 rune master, then he would sell them to the floating cloud pavilions auction house which will be having an auction tomorrow night.
The floating cloud pavilion has daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly auctions. The weekly auctions contains items more valuable than the daily auctions, the monthly auctions contains items even more valuable than the weekly auctions and so on.
They also have once a decade and once a century auctions. These auctions have few goods, but each and every one of them is extraordinary in one way or another.
Anyways, moving on, Dalin rented a room before entering heavens gate and appearing in the phoenix empresses pagoda.
The maid smiled seeing he was here.
She bowed "Welcome back, young master Dalin."
Dalin nodded, he issued a command in his mind and the time flow inside Empyrean Heaven sped up. A week could pass before a day passes outside now.
"Wheres Celestia?" Dalin asked.
"Celestia is in a meeting with the Dragon lord." The maid responded.
Dalin nodded and sat down.
"Do you have any of that tea from before?" Dalin asked to which she smiled and nodded.
"Excuse me while I go fetch a cart." She replied.
'A phoenix as a maid… Who would have thought.' Dalin thought to himself.
He couldn't help but look back to when he was around 16, he had a maid fetish back then… He was a real weeb back then. He blushed in embarrassment remembering it.
'I remember when Alina, a exchange student came to my house dressed up as a maid… It was a memorable night… That was my first time too… However she moved away the next day…' Dalin got lost in thought for a bit with a bitter smile on his face.
The maid came back to this scene and noticed the pained smile on his face.
"Is something wrong my lord?" The maid asked worriedly.
Dalin shook his head "I was just reminiscing about my past life before being reincarnated."
She nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked softly.
Dalin shook his head "That life is that life, although it has shaped who I am, there's no point dwelling on it. I wont be able to go back there for some time anyways, I can only hope I'll grow strong enough soon… Maybe then I can find out answers as to what happened to a few people."
She nodded.
Dalin took a sip of the tea she served and Dalin got lost in thought again. Although he could practice runes, etc, he wanted to reflect right now.
The maid noticed that most of his expressions were one of sadness, loss, pain, anger, etc…
'His life must not have been easy… poor thing.'
Eventually Dalin heard the door slide open and he looked over to the side finding the phoenix empress, Celestia, there.
She smiled gently seeing him.
"What brings you here?" She asked.
"Talismans, how do I make them?" Dalin asked.
She nodded. She sat opposite to him "Talismans in theory are just runes written on an object, the difference between them and normal enchanted objects is, talismans are designed to overuse the rune bringing out its full might. Hence talismans only last for short periods of time, but are much stronger than normal runes of the same level. The downside is, the talisman is destroyed after one use."
Dalin nodded, he figured as much.
"Anna, can you bring us a couple stacks of talisman papers?"
The maid bowed and left coming back a moment later.
She set the paper on the table.
They were slips of paper.
With that she got to work teaching Dalin how to make talismans and he observed attentively.
"Thank you, Celestia. I should be able to make a decent amount of money now." Dalin thanked her sincerely. Ever since he found the gate to Empyrean Heaven, she has been a huge help to him allowing him to come so far in such a short period of time.
He made a mental note to repay his debts to her when he gets the chance.
It was then he remembered the mortal gale fruit.
'Could it work?'
Yin Yang Empyrean Heaven is a separate world entirely from the ancient violet domain, so its free from any restrictions imposed by the ancient violet domains will.
Dalin brought out the black jade wood box that he stored the mortal gale fruit in and opened it causing a sweet fragrance to spread throughout the room.
"I'm not sure if this will help you, but I'm hoping it will." He explained.
She smiled sweetly seeing this.
"You don't have to give it to me you know… "
Dalin smiled shaking his head "You've been a huge help to me, even if it cant help you it can probably help some of your clansmen. So please, take it. I got an earth crystal anyways."
She nodded, she accepted his gift with a smile.
After saying some parting words, Dalin left and got to work crafting talismans.
Celestia sighed and left.
Meanwhile night fell and Dalin had crafted over 50 lesser grade tier 3 talismans, 300 greater tier 2 talismans, 750 true grade tier 1 talismans, and 3000 true grade tier 0 talismans.
'I cant keep using the earth crystal to replenish my energy, so its paramount I get a lot of spirit stones. All of these talismans should keep me stocked for a few weeks after I sell them, but I'll need more.'
Dalin continued making talismans until morning. He ran out of talisman paper by then.
With that he went downstairs and approached the desk where a few clerks were at.
"Hello sir, how may I help you?" She asked.
"Hi, I heard the floating clouds pavilion had an auction house. I have some talisman's I'd like to auction." Dalin politely explained with a smile.
She nodded "Please follow me."
She left the desk making one of her coworkers take over for her and led him through a door next to the desk which led to a hallway with several rooms.
She knocked on one of the doors.
"Come in." an aged voice resounded.
She opened the door motioning for Dalin to go in.
Dalin stepped in and found an old man who looked to be 60 in the room.
"Young man, what business do you have with me?" The man asked with a gentle smile. Though inwardly he was shocked, he could feel an aura of absolute authority coming from Dalin, as if he has commanded thousands before.
Dalin sat down and tossed a spatial ring to the man.
"5000 true grade tier 0 talismans, 1000 true grade tier 1 talismans, 500 greater tier 2 talismans, 125 greater tier 3 talismans. I'd like you to appraise them and auction them. You can directly buy the 5000 tier 0 talismans from me and keep the profits from it, while the tier 1, 2, and 3 talismans I want auctioned off under my name." Dalin explained.
The man narrowed his eyes 'This kid… He knows what he's doing. He's not arrogant, conceited, or haughty like those young masters from clans.'
The man nodded with a smile "I see, I should inform you we have a processing fee of 10% of the profit from auctioned goods. Is that alright with you?"
Dalin nodded.
The man smiled and got down to appraising them, he was shocked to find the spatial ring had a area of 100 kilometers cubed. This was huge in the lower layer.
'His identity isn't simple.'
Once the old man was done inspecting them after a couple of hours he nodded.
"I see a number of runes I haven't seen before, did you make them yourself?"
Dalin nodded.
"Since their unique this raises their value… Furthermore their effect isn't low at all, some of your true grade tier 0 talismans are comparable to pinnacle lesser tier 1 talismans… Very interesting. I can offer you 1 extreme grade and 50 high grade spirit stones or 150 high grade spirit stones for the 5000 tier 0's if that's more convenient."
"Overall, I can guarantee you will probably get at least 10 extreme grade stones total from all of these talismans." He appraised.
Dalin nodded.
With that the man took the spatial ring and gave Dalin a card.
"This is a VIP card for tonight's auction, you will have your own private room."
Dalin nodded.
He went back to the desk, paid to extend his stay in his room, changed clothes, and took a shower in his room, before going to a market in the city to look around. Eventually night fell and he decided to get some food. He hasn't had any food for over 3 years technically. If it weren't for his cultivation, he would have died a long time ago.
So, he found one of the best restaurants in the city, the phoenix gourmet pavilion. He went into an ally beside it though.
Dalin contacted Celestia [Do you want to eat with me? I'm at a place called the phoenix gourmet pavilion.]
[Sure, let me finish a few things.]
A few minutes later heavens gate appeared and she walked out of it, she was wearing a nice fiery red dress with her currently scarlet hair tied up. It had a bold cut going to just below her waist on one side exposing her beautiful long legs. She was also wearing a necklace made of rose gold and it had various stones implanted.
She looked stunning. Dalin was breathless for a moment.
She blushed "Do you like it?" She asked meekly.
Dalin nodded "You look amazing.".
She took his arm and they walked into the pavilion. Everyone was stunned seeing her walk in, her dazzling smile, flawless skin, and perfect figure blew everyone away.
A waiter didn't hesitate to walk over to them.
A/N: Day 9 everyone, last day to get us to 3 reviews for a 2 chapter release tomorrow! Hope everyones enjoying the book so far! As usual comments, suggestions, power stones, and collections are highly appreciated! Also a slight change of plans regarding future chapter releases, i wont post 2 chaps every day, its simply impossible for me to maintain since im writing other books on the side, and each of their chapters is also 2k words.
HOWEVER, I will post 2 chaps on july 5th as promised AND I will also post 2 chaps on the 10th, and every sunday after that.