In the center of Yicheng's main thoroughfare stood a sprawling, three-story edifice whose main entrance was adorned with a horizontal plaque bearing three gilded characters—Wànxiàng Lóu (Myriad Phenomena Tower)!
A mere tens of meters away, nestled within an adjacent alley.
"Qingshan and I will make a trip to Wànxiàng Lóu. The rest of you head to Old Wang's on the front street and sell off all the animal hides. Then, we'll regroup here in this alley," instructed Teng Yongfan, before glancing at Teng Qinghu. "Qinghu, you've never been inside Wànxiàng Lóu either. Care to join us for a look around?"
"Of course, I would!" Teng Qinghu declared, holding his head high.
"Then hand your weapons over to Old Wang and the others for temporary safekeeping." Teng Yongfan continued, "Qingshan, pass me your spear as well. Weapons aren't allowed inside Wànxiàng Lóu."
"What strict rules!" Teng Qingshan also gave his refined iron spear to the clansmen.
Following this, Teng Yongfan, Teng Qingshan, and Teng Qinghu proceeded toward Wànxiàng Lóu. At the grand entrance, two strikingly heroic women stood guard, both with sharp swords buckled at their waists, greeting every guest with a smile while politely reminding them about the no-weapon policy.
The trio, dressed in their hunter's attire, walked straight in; the two women offered no resistance.
"This place is huge," Teng Qinghu exclaimed, his eyes widening into perfect circles.
Teng Qingshan was equally startled. The interior space of Wànxiàng Lóu was vast, filled with countless counters. The clerks standing behind these counters alone numbered over a hundred, and this was only the first floor.
"Qingshan, Wànxiàng Lóu allows entry to all sorts of people, from all walks of life. And they have so many things here—absolutely everything," Teng Yongfan remarked with a sigh. "The first and second floors are for sales. As for the third floor... outsiders aren't allowed up there at all, but the quality items fetch utterly absurd prices!"
Teng Qingshan surveyed the merchandise displayed on the counters, silently marveling, "This Wànxiàng Lóu certainly has grand presence, displaying such precious items openly, completely unafraid of robbery or theft!" As his gaze swept across the hall, he noticed that besides the regular clerks, there were specialized patrols moving about.
"Probably Inner Strength masters, just to prevent theft," Teng Qingshan mused inwardly.
Teng Qinghu stared wide-eyed at a bracelet nearby: "Isn't that a Blue Flower Stone Bracelet? We happened to gather a large piece of Blue Flower Stone in the mountains and only sold it for a hundred taels of silver. A single chunk of Blue Flower Stone could make dozens of these bracelets, yet this one costs one hundred and twenty taels of silver!"
The clerk behind the counter merely glanced dismissively at Teng Qinghu. Clearly some rustic from the mountains. With that attire, he couldn't possibly afford such finely crafted bracelets.
"Alright, let's move further inside." Teng Yongfan frowned, shot a sharp look at Teng Qinghu, then moved aside, lowering his voice. "Qinghu, stop being so boisterous; it's embarrassing, understand?"
Teng Qinghu chuckled sheepishly and kept quiet.
"Father, what are you here to buy?" Teng Qingshan inquired.
"Some materials for crafting weapons. Refining the Jade Chill Saber this time used up nearly everything; I need to stock up. There's nowhere else in Yicheng that stocks these; only here does." Teng Yongfan immediately headed deeper inside. "Come on, let's check out the counter for weapon-making materials; it'll be an eye-opener for you both."
Most men from the village would be utterly dumbstruck on their first visit to Wànxiàng Lóu.
However, for Teng Qingshan, this place—smaller in area and with fewer goods than the massive shopping plazas of his previous life—wasn't quite enough to shock him.
Teng Qingshan and his cousin reached the counter selling weapon-making components.
"So much junk," Teng Qinghu muttered.
Indeed, the counter was laden with various blocks of different metals, chunks of stone, and even powdered substances. In short, the items looked unremarkable, yet their prices were staggering.
"Qingshan, look," Teng Yongfan pointed to a block of silvery metal bearing peculiar striations. "This is Star-Pattern Steel. You could say it's the steel with the best tensile strength currently available for refining. It's the prime material for crafting spear shafts! Of course, the price is equally high."
The clerk behind the counter, seeing that Teng Yongfan knew his wares, boasted proudly, "Spear shafts forged from Star-Pattern Steel are so tough that even Invincible Experts who have reached the Innate Realm find them difficult to break."
"Innate Realm?" Teng Qingshan was inwardly shocked.
Just as Records of a Thousand Ages described, an era abundant with Spiritual Qi could indeed birth Innate experts.
"What!" Teng Qinghu exclaimed, staring at a small slip of paper beneath the tiny piece of Star-Pattern Steel. "One jin of Star-Pattern Steel costs one jin of gold?"
Teng Qingshan also looked at the price and was secretly astonished.
This Star-Pattern Steel was priced equally with gold. In this world, gold possessed astonishing purchasing power: one liang of Star-Pattern Steel equaled one liang of gold, which equaled one hundred liang of silver.
"Star-Pattern Steel is quite heavy. To make an entire spear shaft purely from it would require at least a hundred jin of the metal," the clerk chuckled lightly. "That means one hundred jin of gold, or one hundred thousand liang of silver! Unless you're incredibly wealthy or a formidable martial artist, you simply can't afford that much silver."
Teng Qingshan sucked in a sharp breath.
Heavens, one hundred thousand liang of silver just for a spear shaft? The entire reserve of the Teng Family Village, pooled together, was only around twenty thousand liang of silver.
"Thousand-Year Cold Iron?" Teng Qingshan focused on a black stone block next to the Star-Pattern Steel, instantly feeling a biting chill radiating from it before even touching it.
"Mm, this Thousand-Year Cold Iron cannot be forged; it must be excavated from various locations. But its price is significantly lower than Star-Pattern Steel—one jin of Thousand-Year Cold Iron requires two liang of gold!" Teng Yongfan explained, noting that the Cold Iron was only about twenty percent the price of the Star-Pattern Steel.
Naturally, this was still far beyond what Teng Qingshan and the others could afford.
"These materials..." Teng Qingshan admired inwardly. It truly was an age rich in Spiritual Qi, capable of nurturing so many miraculous materials. In his previous life, materials like Thousand-Year Cold Iron were only mentioned in texts; such magical metals no longer existed in modern society.
"Qingshan, you and Qinghu go look around the other sections. I'll finish purchasing my materials, and then I'll call you both to leave," Teng Yongfan said.
"Understood, Father."
Teng Qingshan and his cousin Qinghu wandered to other counters in Wànxiàng Lóu.
"Qingshan, Qingshan," Teng Qinghu suddenly tugged on Teng Qingshan's sleeve. Confused, Teng Qingshan looked at him, following his gaze toward the main entrance of Wànxiàng Lóu. There, a handsome young man dressed in a lake-blue long gown, accompanied by an adorable girl in a white sable fur cloak, were stepping inside.
Behind them trailed guards and servants.
"That's the daughter of that big salt merchant," Teng Qinghu whispered.
"It is her," Teng Qingshan confirmed, though his attention was fixed more on the young man. "It's deep winter now, but that handsome youth is wearing nothing but a long gown, seemingly unaffected by the cold. He must be a master of Inner Strength cultivation."
"Qingshan," Teng Qinghu furtively observed the pair from afar, speaking in a low voice, "this young lady is completely different from the mountain girls in our village. Look how fair her skin is, and her complexion... even softer than the women in the pleasure houses." Teng Qinghu’s comment nearly made Teng Qingshan laugh out loud.
"If you want to look, get closer. What good is secretly peeking from afar? Once we return to the village, we won't see them again," Teng Qingshan chuckled. Mountain girls toiled from childhood, exposed to wind and sun; how could they compare to these wealthy young ladies who never had to lift a finger for food or dress?
"Yeah, look closer," Teng Qinghu, surprisingly bold, actually started walking toward them.
...
"Brother Liu, you bragged so much about how powerful you are. Tell me, is your name on the Young Dragon Ranking?" As they approached, Teng Qingshan overheard the salt merchant's daughter questioning the young man in the blue gown.
"Qingyu, those who make the Young Dragon Ranking are the select few talents across the Nine Provinces. Which of them hasn't been cultivating Inner Strength since childhood? I started cultivating too late... However, I don't care about the Young Dragon Ranking. My ambition is to make the Earth Ranking! Only those who rank on the Earth Ranking are true heroes!"
The salt merchant's daughter, 'Li Qingyu,' covered her mouth and laughed. "Can't make the Young Dragon Ranking, and you still aim for the Earth Ranking?"
The young man's face flushed slightly. "Qingyu, don't tease me. It's just an aspiration! Besides, the Senior Disciple of our Qinghu Island is a true hero who simultaneously ranks on both the Young Dragon and Earth Rankings. What about your Guiyuan Sect? You don't have a single person on either the Young Dragon or Earth Rankings, do you?"
"Just because your Senior Disciple is formidable doesn't make you formidable," Qingyu huffed.
"Alright, Qingyu, don't be angry." The young man quickly tried to soothe her. "Didn't you want to buy the Young Dragon Ranking and Fledgling Phoenix Ranking? Clerk, two copies each of the Young Dragon Ranking and the Fledgling Phoenix Ranking."
Teng Qingshan clearly saw the clerk retrieve four thread-bound books, each at least an inch thick. The topmost book bore three large, flourishing characters—Young Dragon Ranking. The servant behind the young man immediately paid—four silver notes, each worth one hundred taels.
"Four hundred taels?" Teng Qingshan inwardly gasped. "Four books for four hundred taels? Why so expensive?" Books should logically be cheap.
The handsome pair then moved on to other counters, while Teng Qingshan approached the spot where the books were sold. The most prominent display featured three books: the Young Dragon Ranking, the Fledgling Phoenix Ranking, and the Earth Ranking. The first two were quite thick, but the Earth Ranking was notably thin. The former two cost one hundred taels of silver each, while the Earth Ranking was priced at ten taels.
"What are these three books?" Teng Qingshan inquired.
The shop clerk glanced at the youthful Teng Qingshan and smiled. "Little fellow, these three books detail the famous heroes and their biographical stories across the Nine Provinces. If you want to buy, ask your elders for money." Most buyers of these books were Inner Strength practitioners or rich youths who admired martial artists, hence the exorbitant prices.
Teng Qingshan's heart stirred. Although he knew of the eight great Super Sects across the Nine Provinces, he remained hazy about many details.
"I'll buy that Earth Ranking," Teng Qingshan stated, pulling out a silver ingot worth ten taels from his pouch. As the leader of the clan's hunting team, he received an allowance of ten taels of silver monthly. Within the clan, the hunting team leader, spear master, and top blacksmith held the greatest contributions and received the most silver. Still, a monthly stipend of ten taels was lower than what some guards in Yicheng earned. But since they served the clan, they couldn't demand too much.
"Qingshan, ten taels for one book?" Teng Qinghu, having just shifted his attention from the salt merchant's daughter, saw Teng Qingshan spend ten taels on a single book.
"For me, this book is worth that price," Teng Qingshan smiled, taking the book from the clerk.
"Hmph, if your father finds out, he'll certainly scold you," Teng Qinghu grumbled.
Teng Qingshan, however, stood rooted to the spot, already flipping through the pages of the book.