The shopkeeper was, as expected, an old man with a long wispy white beard. His back was stooped and he had a glass eye. The old man was even smoking from a long curved pipe, taking a few puffs and blowing out the smoke before answering, “Quite a demand. Why don’t you just go take a look around for yourself. Everything is already on display.”

Sage had let his excitement get the better of him. He nodded to the old man and started to browse around the store. It might seem strange to not fawn over the customers and fulfill their every wish, but this was sort of like an exotic pet store. If the buyer didn’t recognize what it was they were purchasing they would be bound not to treat it properly. It was actually a decent tactic not to try and upsell a customer in this sort of place or the shop owner might actually cause problems for himself. If an arrogant rich person bought a creature they couldn’t handle, it could end up with an injury, death, or even release a deadly creature among the normal people. What use would the extra money be, if it led to an angry Clan or City Lord clamoring for his head?

Whether or not the shop owner was being responsible or just lazy, Sage wandered around the shop, peeking into the little cages to see what they contained. Of the small cages hanging from the ceiling a majority of them were types of birds, but a large part of them were interesting to Sage. Various lizards and insects sat within them. From the shape of the cages it would seem dangerous to put small bugs inside, but they were carved with formation symbols. The little wicker and reed baskets were actually similar items to Sage’s own Insect Cages from the Lang and Chong Clan.

Many of the creatures were ones that Sage recognized as being bred by the Chong Clan. More than a few of them contained venom of various sorts and Sage smiled at the variety. There were many others that he’d never seen in person before, but only seen them listed in various beast books. How refreshing to find such a great store. Who knew something like this existed over here.

Sage was quite pleased. There was only the three or so Insect Tamers in the Holy Flame Sect and it was an area he felt was very underutilized. Here they were on the border with the Green Plateau and yet there was such a well stocked store. It seems that the variety of wildlife was just as unique as the plant life. The Cult of the Woodlord was famously related to the cultivation of plants and Wood natured techniques. When Sage was listening for rumors he even heard that the Cult of the Woodlord actually had some of the legendary Gardeners. The rare profession was actually right under Sage’s nose, in the hands of a rival Sect. When he first heard about it, Sage thought about infiltrating the other Sect, but he eventually ruled the idea out. He had been made into far too much of a spectacle after the ordeal with the Soul Taming Abode. The chances of him being recognized were too high.

After browsing through the hanging bug and bird cages, Sage moved onto the larger cages on the ground and shelves around the store. Most of them were furred beasts of one sort or another. The most eye catching were various types of beautifully colored and highly trained wolf variants. No doubt the majority of the store’s stock would be things in high demand, in this case hunting and attack dogs in the form of wolf type spirit animals and demonic beasts. There was also a number of felines with strange features like the wolves. Spines, scaled ridges, eagle talons, tail stingers, bone blades, quills, the variety among these creatures was immense. Just like how back home there was a hundred species of dogs bred for looks or ability, the same was true here. Beast Tamers bred them to fulfill specific roles and the ones that were the most popular would spread around to other breeders. Sage knew them all, and they were indeed the most useful of animals. Sage moved on, heading to a side room that was more humid and had some array symbols on the pillars around the room.

Sage recognized this area as one with a slightly different climate, there was a pond in the center of the room filled with various fish along with cages that were more like terrariums lining the walls. There was more for Sage to look at, the humid area being more like a swamp or jungle and that meant far more snakes, lizards, and bugs. He also found a whole wall of frogs, toads, and other amphibians. Back in the Saffron Swamp there had been plenty of croaking and frog calls, but Sage hadn’t been in the mood to search them out at the time.

Examining each of the creatures in the room, Sage nodded his head and moved out towards the yard. A huge courtyard was surrounded by a half-dozen different buildings each of the butting up against each other. Aside from the main building he walked out of, there was also a storehouse to replenish the stock in the main showroom as well as four other buildings to house the larger beasts. Two of them sold mounts and beasts of burden, one for spirit animals and one for demonic beasts. The third building was filled with untamed large animals, while the last was for everything else.

Sage nodded again, just like the large portion of the main shop they reserved the most space for their biggest sellers. Most people would be in the market for hunting beasts, mounts, or work animals. One showroom for low end buyers of spirit animals, and another showroom for the rich to get demonic beasts. The other two buildings were for other fellow Beast Tamers, or Sects and Clans with tamers and the last building was probably like the seasonal aisle in a retail store, or the specials menu at a restaurant.

Sage saved those two rooms for last and browsed the Spirit Animal and Demonic Beast Mount stalls. The spirit animals were just as he imagined. Many varieties of exotic looking horses and cattle were on sale. They all had a little tinge of the unusual whether it be colors or body features like the wolves inside. The demonic beast mounts took that idea to the next level. Horses with three toed clawed feet and scaled legs like a lizard. A Bison with a huge bony cap over its flat head. A gazelle as big as a horse with glittering antlers. The demonic beast mounts were far more spectacular than the spirit animals, there was even a few huge birds and bats to be used as flying mounts.

Sage had seen every single one of these creatures in books before and even a few of them in person walking around in different cities in the past. They were all famous types of mounts with differing levels of status or wealth attached to them.

As expected.

Sage walked into the untamed beast shop and was met with a far different vibe. The rest of the shop had quaint cages and clean, well maintained stalls. This portion of the shop was filled with huge iron cages and the smell of blood. When he walked in, he felt the stare of numerous beasts, glaring at him with fierce bloodlust and killing intent. He almost laughed, this reminded him of the first time he became a tamer. Wan Yuhan had taken him to the Tamer’s Hall and took him on a tour to maintain all the animals. They fed all the domesticated ones before entering a small mountain valley where Sage felt this exactly feeling.

They were powerful and deadly beasts locked in cages. They wanted revenge for their loss of freedom. Demonic Beasts all had a measure of intelligence and he could feel them plotting behind those terrifying eyes, wanting him to move closer to their cages so they could reach out and grab him. Sage actually laughed and looked over to the group of Tamers that sat in the center of the room. One of them was working with a beast in a central ring while the others all sat around a table in various states of relaxation. Some were playing cards while other were drinking. Sage wasn’t fooled. He could tell they were all on guard, watching the room full of beasts and also the other customers that were in this room along with Sage.

Currently there was two other groups. A pair of middle aged men that looked like Beast Tamers themselves were looking at a huge yellow-striped tiger. It was about the size of a VW Beetle and covered in six inch long sharp black spines. Sage recognized it as a Hornet Tiger, called because of its coloring and the poison that it could inject with the spines on its body. On the other side of the room, the more interesting group had a half dozen people. Most of the tamers on duty were looking over at them from time to time with wariness. One of the six men in the group was wearing fur and leather and covered in scars, and from his stance was probably a Beast Tamer. The other five wore similar colors to the Beast Tamer, but they were dressed like refined Cultivators. They all had a matching badge on their chests, so Sage guessed it was a Sect or Clan wanting to purchase something.

From afar, Sage heard their voices rising a bit like they were arguing about something. Curious, he moved closer to do a little eavesdropping and in the meanwhile examined all the creatures he was passing by.

“...look at the fur pattern and coloring. It’s definitely not a normal beast. I’m telling you, this is a mutated variant. It has to be caused by some sort of trea..”