Chapter 53: Fabrics
They left the shop and headed for the next house. This house was filled with clothes, furniture, cutlery, and other things that one could need for everyday living.
This was, fortunately, the next shop they had been looking for. As they entered, they looked around with eyes filled with wonder before they moved towards the clothes area.
Xue Wei looked at the fabrics and sighed in praise. They had all kinds of colors and patterns. From embroidery of flowers, phoenixes, dragons, to all kinds of mythical beasts, they had plenty of options.
There was every kind of pattern, and the fabrics were all of the highest quality. Some of them had embroideries made from pure gold and silver; others had the clothes weaved from various kinds of silk. There was even silk produced by Primordial Beasts! That was the silk from the Thunder Spider. A spider that would make a spider net at the top of trees and soak its body in thunder, which made its silk much more durable and carry traces of lightning.
There was also another kind of silk made from a Primordial Beast, but it carried traces of immortality and was as expensive as a treasured weapon, and hence not easily accessible to people.
The Thunder Spider made many nets everywhere in the forests, and coming across it was not too rare, but the silk made from the Immortal Larvae was something completely different.
The Immortal Larvae was a Primordial Beast with traces of immortality. As long as it had energy in its body, it was impossible to kill, and the silk it spun was also impossible to break for ordinary weapons.
This fabric was without a doubt the most expensive of all the fabrics present, but there was also the medium ranked fabrics that had been created from Fierce Beasts, before one went to the low-grade materials made from mortal beasts.
Everything that Xue Wei had been wearing so far had been created from mortal beasts. It was the finest quality that one could get, but it was after all still made from mortal beasts. As a result, it had no effect during battles. It could be penetrated by any weapon, and it held no extra power or abilities.
"This is so expensive!" Luo Zhirou said with shock as she looked at the fabrics in front of her. Although they had just sold hundreds of beast cores, they could not afford clothes made from the Thunder Spider's silk.
The middle-ranked clothes that were made from the silk of Fierce Beasts were more affordable, but even this made Luo Zhirou's and Shen Mu's hearts sting with pain.
"Well, we have been invited to the palace for a banquet," Shen Mu said as he grit his teeth. "I will not be happy if I am not looking dashing! This little amount of money, I will earn it again one day."
With Shen Mu having said this, Luo Zhirou seemed to have agreed as she nodded her head. Xue Wei also agreed that it was a great investment, but his reasoning was a bit different.
"Although we are going to the banquet, these are clothes that will prove beneficial to us in the future," he said with a slight chuckle.
"Look at this fabric. It is made from the silk of a Blazing Flame Spider. It has an inherited flame within and has some resistance to fire. Even if you were to enter a burning house, your body would not catch on fire, and you would not even be able to feel any discomfort."
"Although this is useful in battle, I am more interested in the inherited flame. If you insert some of your Qi into the clothes, you can even make the clothes sprout fire out of nothing. Having fireballs appearing in the middle of a fight can be of great use!"
The fabric that Xue Wei held in his hands was red like blood, and on it was golden embroidery of a dragon.
"I will be taking this," he decided straight away and turned to look for an attendant. Here, the fabric had still not been turned into clothing, as every piece of clothing was tailor-made, but it could be finished within half a day as they had tailors waiting at the back of the store, spending all their time sewing clothes for the customers.
"I want this," Luo Zhirou had also made a decision on what fabric she wished to wear. It was a blue fabric with a pattern of water lotuses made from a Water Lotus Larvae. It had its name because, although it was a Fierce Beast, it was usually found amongst the water lotuses in the wild.
This fabric had a gentle nature of water, and if one injected energy into the fabric, one could summon water globs just like the fireballs of the fabric Xue Wei had picked.
At the same time, it was very sturdy and had a high amount of defense. When it came to what element was best suited for defense, it was without doubt water and earth. Water was formless, able to both defend and attack, and this fabric had a beautiful balance of both.
"I will take this then," Shen Mu made a decision too as he took a black fabric. There were no embroideries on it so far, but the material had a beautiful sheen to it, and when he ordered it made he was likely to also ask for embroideries around the edges, just simple borders to make it lively.
This black fabric was the most expensive one of the three. It was made from a Void Larvae, a Fierce Beast that was skilled in hiding in the cracks of the world. It was even capable of splitting the void and teleporting away, which made capturing it incredibly difficult, and finding its silk even more so.
Seeing that all three of them had already found the fabric that they wished to purchase, three attendants came to their aid.
"Please follow me," all of them said in unison as they each picked a roll of fabric and started walking towards the back of the shop.
There were multiple rooms, and inside of all these rooms were various treats and drinks on a table to the side, but there were no chairs to sit down on.
"Please stand in the middle," the attendant asked Xue Wei as she took a notebook and a pen from a pocket and a measurement tape from another pocket that she held up against him.
Xue Wei stood in the middle, and the woman measured his entire figure, after which she scribbled down his measurements on the notebook.
"The clothes will be ready for you to pick up in seven hours," the woman said, and Xue Wei nodded his head.
"Please follow me," she continued, and they went to the counter where Xue Wei was given a small gem. This gem had the character for the number eight carved into it. "When you come back, please use this gem as proof of your order. You pay a deposit now, and the rest of the price when the clothes have been fitted to you."
"Sounds good," Xue Wei nodded his head in approval and placed ten gold coins on the counter, which was the deposit. Another seventeen would have to be paid when he came back to pick up the clothes.
While he paid, Luo Zhirou and Shen Mu also exited their rooms and paid their deposits after getting a gem each. Luo Zhirou's had the character for nine while Shen Mu's had the character for the number ten.
"Well then, now we just need a gift," Luo Zhirou said, but the three of them turned silent. It was not that they did not wish to purchase a gift, but who knew what was useable for the Crown Prince.
"Well we can always just give him some gold," Xue Wei sighed. "Although he has all the resources that he can wish for in the imperial family to boost his strength, he has to have his own economy to bribe officials and pay his servants, keep his mansions thriving, and so on."
"Does he not get paid an annual amount of money from the taxes?" Shen Mu asked, puzzled, and Xue Wei nodded his head. "All the children of the king gets their yearly salary, if you will, as a part of the tax-payers money, but at the same time the King has many children and the kingdom is in constant war with the beasts, meaning armies are in constant need of being maintained. He cannot afford to splurge on his sons."
"I see." Shen Mu nodded his head, feeling enlightened. Although the Crown Prince would receive some minimal allowance for simply being a prince, he still had to earn money elsewhere to afford the things he needed to pay for.
"We have to be careful when we go to the banquet," Xue Wei warned them. "We know no one there, and at the same time we have already drawn attention to ourselves. The Crown Prince is likely to try and draw us into his camp, but we have just arrived in the capital, so joining a faction just like that would be too reckless."
Luo Zhirou and Shen Mu were silent, but after a bit of thinking, they nodded their heads.
"I think it is true that we have to be careful with whom we support," Shen Mu said after a bit of consideration. "But at the same time, I also need to be loyal to the royal family. I am after all the next City Lord of Tiankong City. Serving the royal family will be for the best, and the King has long since favored the Crown Prince. As long as he is alive, he will be steady in his position."
"So you want to be reeled in by the Crown Prince?" Xue Wei asked with a frown, and Shen Mu nodded his head hesitatingly. "I understand why you feel indecision, but my family has never been close to any royalty, and this can become an opportunity for us to change this. If I manage to strike up a relationship with him, even if that is with me being his vassal, then I would be able to improve the growth of my family in the future."
"I see," Xue Wei knew that it was pointless to try and discuss it with him, and thus he just respected his friend's decision.
"I will do what Shen Mu does," Luo Zhirou said after a bit of consideration. "I wish to be a supporter for Shen Mu, and I will follow his decision."
Xue Wei had already expected this, so he just nodded his head.
"Let us return to the inn. We still have quite some hours before it is time for us to pick up our clothes. The banquet is in the evening, so we should rest and cultivate hard."
Neither Luo Zhirou nor Shen Mu disagreed with Xue Wei. As a result, they rushed back to their inn where they entered their rooms and sat down on their respective beds.
Of the four girls Luo Zhirou shared a room with, two were present, while the final two were nowhere to be seen.
Seeing that they were there, Luo Zhirou was as quiet as she could be as she moved to her bed and started cultivating. Shen Mu was the same; only Xue Wei was benefitting from the single room.
Like this, the next couple of hours passed. The rooms were continually being entered and left by their roommates, but as proper cultivators neither Luo Zhirou nor Shen Mu were disturbed by this. It was not before Xue Wei appeared outside of their doors calling for them that they woke up from their meditation.
It was finally time to pick up their clothes and prepare for the banquet.