Sein City

"Bye-bye." The little doll waved her hands before resting her head on her mother's shoulder.

Her mother chuckled before waving the entertaining old man goodbye as well. Peter laughed loudly as he returned their greetings before he faced Raizel, "Do you have something against children?"

Raizel gazed at him with deep eyes. Why does everyone like to think that? "No, I do not."

Peter peered at him, thinking carefully before shaking his head. "Of course not, you probably have a problem with everyone."

The entire railway station was full of lights as people came and left in a hurry. Raizel's eyes were filled with nostalgia as he viewed the not so familiar city he had visited many times in his youth.

'The City of Alchemy' it was popularly known as. Sein City had a very advantageous location; it had the Thousand Herbal Forest behind and Green Mountain in front. It was a place where growing herbs flourished and Alchemists appeared in huge numbers. If he could recall correctly, the Alchemist Association headquarters were also located in Sein City.

As they left the station, Raizel's eyes both dimmed with acceptance and was lit up with curiosity again. In his memory, Sein City was a beautiful garden city but gone were the tall trees that grew on both sides of the street and even on people's home.

Wooden houses and villas have been replaced with silver buildings even taller than the ones in Tempest Town. They were so tall that they resembled heavenly pillars leading to the skies. 

However, unlike Tempest town that looked more like a mundane town, Sein City was by all purposes and appearance a cultivator's location. Flying weapons, boats, cars with all sorts of lights and flames behind them soared through the air. Many citizens did not try to restrain their cultivation bases or auras as they moved several meters in a single step. 

Raizel merely glanced at them once before retracting his gaze and looking at Peter. He did not doubt that the marketplace he was familiar with was all gone.

Peter looked to the city, "Sein City is a good one compared to so many. How Peaceful!" He muttered, shaking the dark mood off him in seconds. 

"Let's hurry! We have many places to visit if we want to catch up." He waved his hands and an old raggedly boat appeared before him. He leapt into the boat and looked at Raizel impatiently.

Raizel knew he was not going to put one foot in that boat that looks like it would fall apart any moment. He took out a sword and took to the skies while waiting for Peter to show the way.

"Show off!" Peter muttered under his breath and he slowly moved his boat in front of Raizel.

They went to the bank first to exchange their credits for spirit stone and Peter kept on complaining about their way back. "I knew those bankers at Tempest Town are daylight robbers. The rate is 100 to 1 and they actually hiked the price. They really have no fear."

Seeing Raizel's questioning look, he shook his head, "Most places in Sein City trade only in spirit stone. The place we are going now, the Eagle Pavilion deals only in spirit stones."

'The Eagle Pavilion?' Raizel had never heard of it and he frowned a bit. It seems the Thousand Pill Pavilion like its namesake is no more.

They flew to the Eagle Pavilion. It was a very majestic and large building. Raizel was a little surprised. Is this still a store?

The Eagle Pavilion was the largest business centre in the entire city and many shoppers and tourists were entering and exiting the automatic doors at every moment. Some beautiful young ladies stood by each side of the door. Seeing Peter and Raizel, one of the girls smiled broadly at him.

"Respected customers, welcome to the Eagle Pavilion. There are different varieties each tailored to a single floor for you to choose. There are goods from all over the Terra here. As long as you want to shop, you can find almost anything here!" She was beautiful and her voice was very soft and melodious like the chirping of birds.

She passed them the pamphlet, her gaze lingering on more than what necessary on Raizel. "Rest assured, they are all genuine goods at fair prices. We wish you a happy shopping trip…"

Raizel scanned the pamphlet, Herbs, Weapons, Pills, Materials, Ores, Talismans, Delicacies, Spiritual Item, Games and various other products had their corresponding floor assigned to them.

"We will meet here in three hours. There is somewhere we must go this night." Peter said as he walked to the elevator.

Raizel nodded. Peter had been repeating over and over again that there was someplace he needed to take him to. He was getting curious.

Raizel did not follow him to walk to the elevator. He did not have much to buy and was contented to look around for a while. Most importantly, the first floor was for delicacies, he could not ignore it.

He stepped inside the large store with black and white décor. His nose twitched at the different scents that assaulted it. The pleasant fragrance was everywhere in the store. He picked up a basket and watched the customers. 

He moved to the section with the highest amount of customers. Typically if there were a lot of people buying the food, the taste would not be bad. At the very least, it would be palatable.

The words 'chocolate' was written in italics above the section. He picked some that seemed to be very popular ignoring the gazes he felt on his form. 

He moved to another section, following the pull of his nose and filing up his basket. He picked some many snacks that looked and felt delicious to him. He wondered what his master would say if he saw his filled basket as he moved to the counter.

The man smiled gently at him and quickly calculated the amount.

"20 spirit stones."

Raizel felt it was cheap. Wasn't sugar really expensive in mundane towns when he was young? Were some mines found or something? He turned back to the store with another empty basket. Since it was cheap; there was no reason not to indulge.

Raizel stepped through the door and pressed the number for the 5th floor. His initial reaction when he saw the elevator for the first time was a well-deserved shock, especially after he found out that it was not a short teleportation formation. Another efficient invention of the mundane, otherwise the cost of running a short formation array for such an establishment would be too much.

The setting of the fifth floor was different. On the first floor, it was constructed in a way that the shopper would be allowed to pick the goods by themselves and reaching to the staff only for questions. 

On the fifth floor, several counters blocked the way for customers to wander inside. No surprise there! Demon Beast cores and blood are vastly different from sweet. Handling them improperly might lead to death if one was not careful.

Behind one counter sat a young man of about twenty. Seeing Raizel walk over, he immediately stood up with a smile and said, "Hello, my name is Alfa Strop, I am honoured to be of service."

Raizel nodded, saying, "I would like to buy the blood of the Raging Flame Lizard, the Purple-Black Mouse, the Blood Spider, the Jade Devil Centipede and the Lotus Jellyfish as well as the blood of these demon beasts listed here."

While he was in the elevator a fascinating talisman experiment enter his head and he believed that the blood of these beasts would go a long way in making his experiment feasible. The blood of the demon beast alone or in conjunction with some roots or herbs was the major ingredient in making talisman ink.

The young man was very fast placing the package on top of the counter. "It would be 400 spirit stones." He collected the money from Raizel and bowed, "Thank you! Please come again."

Raizel made for the next floor to buy his talisman papers and brushes. The 6th floor sold talismans. He stopped in his tracks.

With a single step, Raizel reached the young boy before him as his shaking hands turned him around. It was that same messy black hair, the same flawless complexion and aquiline nose.

He could not breathe. Confused and warm green eyes stared back at him. This was not him. It was not his junior martial brother. That's true! That's true! His junior martial brother… his junior martial brother is dead.

----

"Raizel! Come!" A warm voice travelled into his ears as he wrote down the Dharma Epistle Characters for the third time. Recognizing the voice, he stood up and moved to the main peak….

"This is great news. I didn't imagine that two people will reach the White Peak in my lifetime. This is Lucas Aldine, he will be your junior martial brother. Look after him."

Raizel looked at the young man who was staring at him with arrogance and cupped his fist, "Yes, Sect Master."

__

Raizel crumbled as if his strings had been cut. His whole body shook as hysterical laughter bubbled from his lips. He stretched out his hands, feeling for the fabrics of Space, he tugged and vanished.