It did not take her long to get the compendiums that Xue Wei had requested.
After completing her tasks, she returned to the room with a tailor in tow, smiling at her two customers.
"This is our most renowned tailor. His name is An Jie, and he is able to create masterpieces of clothes that rarely wear down and that have abilities and resistances woven into the silk and leathers."
"Hello," An Jie greeted Xue Wei and Hei Gou with a bow. He then spread his hand and fabrics appeared all over the room.
These were all high-quality fabrics, made from either high-level Fierce Beasts or low-level Primordial Beasts - the silk and hide from the stronger kinds of Primordial Beasts were just too rare to be sold in this fashion, even here closer to the center of the continent.
Xue Wei had accepted three jade slips from the saleswoman, one for the herbs, one for the spirit fruits, and one for the pills.
He then started going through the many fabrics at hand. Xue Wei was attracted to the red fabrics, while Hei Gou was more interested in the black fabrics.
Looking at these fabrics, Hei Gou lifted a roll of black silk and looked at it intently.
"Oh, you like the silk of the Midnight Silkworm?" An Jie asked with a look at Hei Gou. "The Midnight Silkworm's silk is the sturdiest of its kind. It is hard to find as the silkworm can only spin it with moonlight. Not only this, it has to be harvested when the moon is full, or else it will disintegrate."
"Amongst the many silkworm families, the Midnight Silkworm is the rarest."
"This Midnight Silkworm Silk is also equipped with multiple elemental resistances, and at the same time, it has an ability that can be unleashed if you channel your Qi into the fabric. It works like an inscription, without being an inscription."
"The Midnight Silkworm's silk is resilient against fire; it is also good at blending into the darkness, letting one merge with the shadows and hiding their presence."
"This silk is from a Midnight Silkworm that was an Ordinary Knight, and it had gained insight into the element of darkness."
"The ability granted by the Midnight Silkworm Silk is called Claw of Darkness. It transforms one's Qi into dark energy and sends out a half-spiritual, half-physical attack. It is a two-pronged attack.”
"This attack is exceptionally strong and will continue growing with the user until the Ordinary Knight-level of strength. If you gain insights into the darkness element as well, your attacks will be even stronger!"
Xue Wei and Hei Gou were silent. Element? Insight? What was this? They were both puzzled, but they understood that now was not the time to ask such questions.
"We will take the Midnight Silkworm Silk," Xue Wei decided for Hei Gou. He could see that his friend was eager to have it, but hesitant because of their financial situation.
"Great choice!" The tailor praised Xue Wei and Hei Gou quite vigorously as if they had made a life-changing decision.
Xue Wei looked at the red fabrics and found a silk that was soft to the touch but also seemed incredibly firm.
"So you are thinking about the Magma-scaled Larvae's silk?" An Jie smiled. "This silk is from a Fierce Beast equivalent to an Earth Knight. It has gained elemental insight into not only fire but also earth."
"It has a strong resistance to the fire and the earth elements. The ability granted by this fabric is the Scaled Earth Dragon's Fire Seal!"
"This attack doesn’t just sound outstanding, it is every bit as outstanding as it sounds. It is purely a physical attack, but to a devastating degree. It will continue to grow with you until you reach the rank of an Earth Knight."
Xue Wei contemplated for some time as to whether or not he should buy armor for them.
"I would like a set of armor," Xue Wei said finally and stopped looking at the silk. He went towards the leathers that were on display nearby.
Once again, his eyes were dragged to the red leather, and he quickly found something that suited him.
Where Xue Wei was interested in the red leathers, Hei Gou showed no interest whatsoever.
Hei Gou was a Primordial Beast. Not just any Primordial Beast, but a Celestial Dog, and one that had undergone a metamorphosis to boot. His body was now as tough as the leathers one could buy from this tailor, tougher than even copper.
Although Xue Wei had quite a lot of strength, he was unsure of whether or not his physical body would be able to block a sword as easily as the Fierce Beast and Primordial Beast leather could, and thus he wanted a set of armor.
Xue Wei lifted a patch of dark-red leather, which had a color that reminded him of the blood that he spilled every time he ended someone's life. Something deep within made him feel drawn towards this color.
He could feel the bloodlust within starting to stir just by thinking about how he would wear this armor on the stage against the many young geniuses of the Skyward Empire during the tournament.
Although it was for experts beneath forty-five years old and they were not considered youngsters anymore, they were still young.
One had to remember that the average Sky Warrior had a lifespan of five hundred years. To a person who could live for five hundred years, a forty-five-year-old was indeed a young person.
Xue Wei was rooted in his own thoughts when the tailor suddenly appeared by his side. "You are interested in the Molten Fire Bull’s hide?" he asked curiously. Xue Wei nodded his head.
"Please tell me about it," he added. Although he felt drawn to this leather, he was not interested in it if it did not have some sort of ability. The whole point of having clothes made with the furs and hides and other parts of both Primordial and Fierce Beasts were their additional abilities and resistances.
"The Molten Fire Bull's leather works well with the Magma-scaled Larvae's silk! Both of them have gained elemental insight into the fire element, and when used together they can complement each other."
"The Molten Fire Bull the leather came from was an Ordinary Knight-ranked beast. Although it is somewhat expensive, the leather is of high quality."
"The Molten Fire Bull's leather is resistant against fire; it is also strong enough to block a few attacks from an Ordinary Knight if he is using his bare fists. It is another thing if he is using a weapon or skill, though."
"The ability this leather contains is called Fire Stomp and is very simple. It creates a flaming shockwave that emanates from your armor and pushes everyone close to you back."
"Of course, it only works against experts of a certain strength. If you yourself are not strong enough, then it will not work against your opponent."
Xue Wei nodded his head. An ability that would knock back his opponents was something he could definitely use in some situations.
"Well then, I would like to order this armor made too," he said with a nod of his head and paid the gold coins that he was requested to pay.
The tailor was glowing with a smile on his face. Although many younger cultivators had come to the Black Iron Fortress, not many of them had shown interest in buying clothes. They had already been fitted with the best clothes and items they could get from their homes.
The tailor accepted the gold coins and handed over three tokens to Xue Wei. "Come back tomorrow night, and the clothes should be finished," he promised and waved his hand, drawing all the fabrics in the room towards himself with some kind of pulling force, and excused himself hastily, apparently eager to start working on these clothes that he had guaranteed to deliver shortly.
"Can I help you with something else?" the saleswoman was still all smiles as she looked at Xue Wei. She would be getting a cut from both the clothes sales and the compendiums she had sold to Xue Wei, so she was eager to see if she could get her hands on more money.
The Golden Chamber had lots of personnel, and there was competition between all of them. They all wished to be the top of the bunch, and if they did well, they were likely to be sent into the capital or other more flourishing branches where they could earn a much better living.
"As a matter of fact, there is one more thing that I would like to buy," Xue Wei added after a second of thinking.
"Do you have any information about the various ranks of cultivation? Such as introductions to the Knight and Saint ranks?"
The saleswoman looked at Xue Wei and narrowed her eyes. "We do," she said with a nod of her head.
After buying this jade slip with information about the ranks above the Warrior rank, Xue Wei and Hei Gou bid their farewell and made their way back to the inn once more.
The saleswoman was standing in the doorway of the Golden Chambers when they did, her eyes still slightly narrowed.
"What is wrong?" The manager came towards her at this moment, but the saleswoman just shook her head in response. "I think there is something wrong with those two experts," she said after a bit of consideration.
"Wrong with them?" The manager frowned. "What do you mean by ‘something wrong with them’?"
"The young man was clearly wearing a face-altering mask," she said hesitatingly. "They came from far away, clearly from a backwater kingdom, as they didn’t even know that a Knight needs to have some sort of elemental insight to break through the boundaries of a Warrior, and they are far too young to have ended their time in the military."
"I fear that they are deserters from some kingdom. All of us are bound to do our duty to humanity, so why are those two not doing theirs? Is it really okay for us to sell items to them and take their money when they are criminals?"
"Question them, and you will die," an old voice suddenly drifted into the Golden Chambers. Both the saleswoman and the manager froze in their spots.
"Wan Qiang, what an honor to serve you," the manager turned around and saw the leading expert within their empire standing behind him.
Currently, a smile was hanging on the face of the middle-aged man, and he seemed as gentle as a grandfather looking at his child. His expression was in no way similar to the words he had uttered.
"You heard me," he said smilingly as he nodded his head. "Those two are not someone you can question. They are special, so treat them nicely in the future, or perhaps I will have to cleanse the Golden Chambers from the Black Iron Fortress."
His words were domineering, and his voice was low and dangerous. The man did not wait for either reaction of response before he vanished and returned to his mansion in the middle of the Black Iron Fortress.
He leaned back and sighed heavily. "What do you think about his strength?" he asked out loud. A rustle could be heard before an astonishingly beautiful woman appeared by his side.
"He is so weak! Why has he not become stronger than that?!" she complained, her eyes displaying madness and hatred.
"Don't run amok again," Wan Qiang warned her. "We need to rouse his potential, but we also need him alive. Your personal vendetta can wait for another time."
"We need him to completely control Xiao Lei as well. Do you wish to be beaten black and blue every time you visit him? Do you want him to lose all reason and execute us all?"
Wan Qiang was scolding the woman who seemed to be obediently listening, but her eyes still flashed with a ray of coldness.
"Don't give me a chance," she said through gritted teeth. "If I have the chance to kill that little disgusting human runt, I will not hesitate!"
"Chu Huiyin!" Wan Qiang yelled out loud, "you cannot kill him just yet! We have made plans for thousands of years already! You cannot destroy them!"