Chapter : 4 : Mysterious Lady :
Location : Glory City : Market Place :
The Glory City where the Xiao clan is located spans in a huge area and is in fact second largest city in the kingdom after the capital city .
The fact that Xiao family one of the strongest clans in the kingdom is established there gives the city a prime position in terms of protection .
This intern has allowed various traders and merchants to choose the city as a connecting hub of the kingdom .
Various roads connect to the city bringing trade from various parts of the kingdom and neighbouring lands forming a colourful and vibrant ecosystem .
This had an enchanting effect on the trade and commerce of the city as it became like a city sized supermarket in the kingdom where from ordinary things to cultivation materials can be found .
Many things even beyond the imaginations of normal people could be found here if you have the money , connection and luck .
" Young lady you look beautiful ! Would you like to have some of this jewellery , I am sure it will make you look even more gorgeous . "
" Hey young man you seem like a person with potential . Why not try some of our latest merchandise , I am sure your cultivation level will increase . "
" Hollo sir would you be interested in our new delicacy . "
" 12 coins ! It's too much . I will pay only 8 . "
Such sounds of shopkeepers attracting customers and haggling prices can be heard from almost around every corner in this market .
At this moment in this crowd of people a young man could be seen passing through the shops not even looking at them his eyes focused and concentrated .
He wore a simple but elegant dress which had a symbol of the Xiao Clan on it .
He was obviously non other then the protagonist of this story Xiao Ming .
When people saw him and the family symbol on his dress they look towards him for sometime with attention especially the outsiders who came for the first time
But after sometime no one paid much attention as the members of the Xiao clan could be seen in many places in the market some walking , others shopping and guarding the area .
As for what Xiao Ming was doing here well there are two reasons actually .
The first reason was that he came here for shopping - not clothes or food but he was looking for a storage ring .
The first problem that he faced using the life simulation which was even pointed out by the system itself was that he did not have a storage ring where the rewards can be directly transferred to .
In such a situation the system was forced to deliver his reward to other area like this time is rewards were delivered on top of his bed .
For now it was fine but what if in the future the rewards he got were very big and large or perhaps powerful enough to catch the attention of powerfull people nearby .
It would put him in a very bad situation .
But according to the system if he had a storage ring this would not be a problem .
A storage ring is one of the most essential equipments used by cultivators on daily basis and while it's function was simply to store various items it's need was everywhere .
But while it's a very much needed item that doesn't mean it was cheap .
Even the cheapest and ordinary storage ring is at least a Blue grade item that costs around 8,000 gold coins and for the context in the kingdom where Xiao Ming lived the annual income of an average commoner household was around 4000 gold coins .
And even Xiao Ming as a member of Xiao clan got a monthly allowance of 1000 gold coins .
While many may think that as a member of the Xiao family the amount should have been larger but Xiao Ming was afterall just a ordinary member and there are many like him in the clan .
Obviously once he gained more prominence in martial arts automatically the resources given to him will also increase .
And on top of his monthly 1000 gold coins he also gets an extra sum of 2000 gold coins because of his parent's contribution to the clan which in total brings his monthly income to around 3000 gold coins .
But he does not get the 3000 gold coins directly and he gets around 2600 gold coin per month and the rest of the 400 gold coins are kept in the clan storage .
This amount is an emergency fund that his parents made for him so that he can use it when required .
And it was the same for his parents which was given to him after their passing .
Till now he hadn't used them but now he took some money from that savings to buy himself a good storage ring .
And as for the second it was directly tied to the limited range of his life simulation .
While doing the first life simulation he noticed that almost his entire life simulation was based inside the clan estate grounds .
He realised it may be because he spends most of his time inside the clan .
Since the clan was so big and had all kinds of resources inside along with the fact that he was too afraid to go outside before he considered himself strong enough in this new world he actually pretty rarely leaved the clan estate .
And the occasional trips he did were never too far or for too long .
Over cautious ? Yes certainly he was .
But for his defence at that time everything happened so fast from his arrival to this world to getting an entirely new life that was so foreign to him that being over cautious became a natural response .
After that when finally he started to understand the world he came in he had already started cultivating in silence driven by the desire to get strong as fast as possible .
That left him barely no time to go shopping especially when the basic necessities were found inside the clan compound .
After the first life simulation he understood this was a problem when a thought came to him .
What if he went outside the clan and visited more places regularly .
Would the life simulation also include those places like some video game options where you need to explore more regions and places in the map to unlock more quests and opportunities .
So he intended to make regular visits outside the clan ground for this month and see whether or not this will affect the life simulation that he will get next month .
Moreover he needed to get out of the safety of the clan soon enough anyway .
After all while staying within the clan gave him safety it also limited his potential and options .
And since he intends to join the mythical Dragon sect in the future where he would have to leave the clan to go and study he can no longer afford to rely on such a timid strategy .
While thinking about this he finally reached a area of the market where there were far fewer shops .
This area was not as busy or crowded as the other parts of the market but this area was special as only cultivation related materials were sold here .
Here you could see various shops selling different kinds of cultivation related product from Alchemist pills to swords and the shopkeepers were not shouting to attract attention but simply waited for the next customer to come .
" Do you have any storage rings for sale . " - Xiao Ming went to a shop at the corner of the street and asked .
Inside the shop there was an old man who was reading a book and hearing Xiao Ming's voice he looked up with an annoyed expression which somewhat surprised Xiao Ming .
" Yeah ! I got a few Blue and Earth Grade storage rings with me but they aren't cheap . You sure you have that much gold coins with you brat . " - the old man asked in raspy voice .
" Just show them to me . " - Xiao Ming replied back is attitude now colder then before .
" Alright whatever you want . " - with that the old man took 4 Blue Grade storage rings and 2 Earth Grade storage ring .
" For the Blue Grade storage rings you need 10,000 gold coins each and for the Earth Grade 24,000 gold coins each . " - the old man said casually .
" That much for a single Earth Grade item ! " - Xiao Ming was genuinely surprised .
" Tich ! I knew you were like a cheap shot . "
" Listen here brat ! all my stuff are of genuine high quality if you want it then take it . No haggling the prices . " - the old man replied .
' You really got some attitude . ' - by now even Xiao Ming who was usually very patient started to get annoyed by his attitude .
" Listen you ... ! " - he couldn't finish his sentence .
Because just as he was about to reply back he felt a strong sensation from behind and by instinct took a defensive stand from the evading fist technique .
When he looked back he saw a lady around his height dressed in black clothes and a black weimmao that covered her face standing right behind him .
' When did she appear? I didn't even hear any footsteps . ' - Xiao Ming thought to himself as cold sweat started to form on his forehead .
He tried to sence the strength of the opposite side but felt nothing which usually meant that this person was stronger than him or was using a high grade item to cover her actual strength.
And both of this meant nothing good for him .
One thing he understood very clearly was that if this lady had attacked him right now he wouldn't even know what hit him .
On the other side the girl in black clothes looked at him for a second and seemingly not interested she walked past him to the shop.
" Do you have what I asked you to bring . " - then she asked her voice cold as ice .
But what shocked Xiao Ming even more was that the shop owner who was just now very much rude to him showed a respectful expression as he quietly handed over a sealed box to her .
But it was not the respect alone that shocked him but the knowing look on his face said everything .
' He must know her . And that respect in his eyes , that's not something you can build in one day . ' he thought to himself .
Just as he was thinking for a brief moment of time his eyes met with the girl's eyes and all though he couldn't see her face due to the weimmao a faint sence of knowing came .
' Wait ! Is that who I think she is ? But what's she doing here ? ' - suddenly a storm of realisation came to him as he looked back at her for confirmation .
But when he looked back again he saw that that lady had already left the shop and this time too he did not here a single foot step .
" Hey young man do you want to take this storage ring or not tell fast I don't have all day . " - suddenly his thoughts were disrupted by the old man who looked at him impatiently .
" Huh ... Yeah give me a Earth Grade storage ring . " - Xiao Ming said and quickly took out the money required and after taking the ring left the area .
While he could have asked the old shopkeeper about the incident just now he stopped himself because for some reason he felt that it wouldn't be wise to do so .
After he left the area the old shopkeeper's expression changed immediately turning cold .
" It doesn't seem like the boy recognised her . " - he said looking at the direction where Xiao Ming left .
" But still it would be best to keep an eye on him for sometime just in case . "
" Go it's your job now moniter him for a weak or two . " - with that suddenly a dark figure quickly separated from the old man's shadow and vanished from the area in a blink of an eye.
With that without even knowing Xiao Ming had caused himself some huge troubles on a simple shopping trip .
To Be Continued .