Back at the Earthly Treasures Pavilion, Yui was leaning against a wall, her face looking as if she had just watched a horror movie.

"Aaahh, I'm still not good with people, I wonder how I'm supposed to be a selling anything in the store."

After a while once she had calmed down again, Yui decided to open the shop. Still a bit reluctant about having to deal with all these people, but nonetheless motivated to find a place in this world for herself, the sign of them shop was quickly turned around from 'Closed' to 'Open'.

"It doesn't look like I have to clean anything, it seems to be pretty clean already." she mumbled, while inspecting the building once again. Even the dark red shingles on the roof seemed to be shining as if someone had just polished them recently.

The large garden area was also very well kept, with the main pavilion located on top of a little hill with a stone stairway winding up to it and many bonsai trees among other plants planted everywhere in nice looking stone areas.

"It's not exactly located right at a market. I wonder if people will even find their way here."

None of her questions were answered, however. In the end, she just decided to sit back at a chair inside of the counter area and read the books she was gifted with.

"It seems like these books are all specific to the pavilion, even though much of the information inside can be used as general knowledge as well. Like the Spirit Copper. That's what the mine is about."

"The Spirit Copper Mine here is properly aligned with the surrounding area and has pure spirit veins added in certain ways to nurture and replenish the ore quickly. To do that, a certain amount of spirit energy is necessary either by using spirit cores from beasts or from spirit stones."

Looking through the books, she quickly found information on various minerals and plants, including the descriptions of Spirit Copper and the herbs from the Old Vine Forest as well as many others.

Yui was just wondering if she could go and gather some of these materials herself, when her thoughts were interrupted by a soft chime noise coming from the entrance gate.

'It seems like it makes a sound on its own when someone enters, similar to a doorbell for smaller doors. That's quite neat.' Yui thought to herself.

"Welcome to the Earthly Treasures Pavilion." she started with her best shopkeeper imitation, but quickly paused after she didn't know what to say next.

-

Sato Teika entered the pavilion, curiously looking around. His task among others was to scout the markets and find promising deals that his clan could make use of. While normal metals and herbs were easy to be found, it was quite a challenge to regularly procure a large amount of spirit materials.

With humans expanding more and more, resources become more and more important as their supply with not limitless. The various clans and families would go to great lengths to procure such materials, because in the end, cultivation was a lot slower and harder, if not impossible without them.

Not having resources would be the same as not being able to advance. For a cultivator this was the same as not advancing their own status, power and lifetime.

"I see there seems to be a new shop here. What do you sell here miss?" he looked around but was not exactly sure what this shop was really all about.

Other shops had lots and lots of displayed wares, making it easy enough to see what they sold, but this shop was different. It seemed rather empty, making him wonder if the shop was really open already.

"We sell tickets to grant access to our Spirit Copper Mines and to our Old Vine Forest!" Yui replied enthusiastically.

"It will grant you access to the respective area for two hours, so you can gather resources in these places. Whatever you find or mine will be yours to keep."

She pointed towards their only two display cases with the prices listed along with the small replica of the areas.

"Five hundred spirit shards just for access to these places?! Isn't that quite expensive?" Sato Teika had heard of quite a lot of new ways of making money, but never had he heard of any scams that would sell access to a place for such a price.

"I.. I'm sorry sir, but that's what they are sold for. Our mine is exceptionally well established and will provide the best possible environment for pure spirit copper to form. Not only will the quality of the ore be superior, but it is also much easier to find it in larger quantities."

"Our vine forest is also suffused with spiritual mist, making the quality and density of spiritual herbs much better than elsewhere."

Yui tried to appear calm, but she had a hard time not shaking.

"Spirit Copper? Ye have a mine with spirit copper?!" Yui just wanted to elaborate on the nice locations, when another person entered through the gate. Other than Sato Teika who looked more like a scholar, it was easy to see that the new person was some sort of craftsman.

"What would yer Sato family even know about minin'? Better go back to yer golden tea cups and let people who understand their profession do the talkin'."

Sato Teika seemed quite upset about the newcomer. Not only was he humiliated right in front of a young girl, but he couldn't even properly argue with this person.

"Araki Hachiro. Since when were you guys loitering around in the city. Why not return to your mud infested holes and dig for some more metal."

After a while of some harsh words, both had started bringing up insults and soon started to shout at each other. As both sides not only seemed to know each other but were ready to get into a brawl if things didn't calm down, Yui became more and more nervous.

"Excuse me, do you want to buy something? If not, can I please ask you to calm down a little bit or leave the shop. We like to have a friendly, peaceful atmosphere here."

They both looked at her, quite stunned to see that she would interfere in their argument.

Araki Hachiro laughed, and gave her a little bow.

"I am sorry miss, me sorry self should not have caused trouble for ye here, no matter how unlikable this person is."

Sato Teika on the other head just turned around and left the pavilion. "As if there would be anything here our family would be interested in. Go play around in another mudhole then if you wish to. I don't care."

"Ahh much better." Hachiro was visibly happy now that his rival had left the shop. "Back to business it is. I'm not sure if yer mine's quality is really as good as ye say, but I have a request from one of me customers and to complete it we need some spirit copper."

"Now that all of them available stocks in the city are depleted, I guess I can only take this gamble. Even if I only get a little and the price for entering the place isn't worth it for the material, at least I can complete the commission for the project on time and avoid any fees for being late ye see."

Yui nodded her head in understanding.

"I guess that makes sense. You don't have to worry though, as the ore in our mine is of excellent quality."

Praising the mine, when she had not even been there herself took quite a bit of confidence. She was already worried about the outcome, if this mine did not meet the customers expectations, but she had no chance but to advertise it properly if she wanted anyone to buy access to it.

"What are ye called miss, are ye offering this access in the name of yer family or clan? Where is it located and how do I get me old bones there?"

"I'm Tai Yui and this shop's offers are not related to my family or any clan. You will receive a transportation talisman when you make a purchase. You can use it to enter the place you bought it for, for two hours and you will be returned to the place you entered once the time is up, along with anything you gathered."

Hachiro was rather surprised. This simple looking girl, that was obviously not used to being in this position, judging by her nervous looks, did not get sent here by her family?

"A transportation talisman? Now that sounds like an int'restin' concept to me. Hide the location of yer mine, so no other can go there on their own. Didn't even know that such talismans could be made in large quantities or still be cost effective for such a purpose."

Scratching his chin, he seemed to give it some more thought. Charging someone for access to a place that you could only reach with a transportation talisman still seemed like a rather novel idea.

"Well well, let me take a look at this mine of yers. If yer place proves to be of some value to us, I can offer ye the support of the Araki family. With how rare spiritual copper is around here, ye'd likely make a fortune if this mine spot is halfway decent."

"I hope you will be happy with what you find."

Yui happily took the spirit shards that were handed over to her in a small pouch and in return gave her first customer a glittering talisman for a two-hour access to the spirit copper mine in return.

The talisman itself appeared on the counter once she dumped the contents of the pouch into the area designed to gather the spirit stones and cores. Yui had no idea where those shards were going to, but as the pavilion seems to use them on its own, she did not have to worry about it anyways.