Sage had stabilized at the fourth rank and after celebrating with the members of the Prosperity Company, he immediately started to work on recovering his stores of materials and pills. The spirit stones were mostly just currency, but the spirit jades and piles of other materials were necessary preparations for his Professions. He used to have ample supplies of nearly every low level material sorted into vertical hex shaped patterns, but starting from scratch he prioritized things he actually needed often. His portion of the income from the Prosperity Company along with the rest of his saved up contribution points were put into purchasing materials used to create Array Formations.

Once that was done, Sage brought out a few wardrobes worth of clothing as well as a pile of a dozen weapons. These were his spoils from the Soul Taming Abode that he’d only given cursory inspection to. It felt like he always had something more important to spend his time on, so besides throwing on the most impressive clothing and wielding the huge mace to smash lower level cultivators, Sage had barely touched them. Even now, Sage only brought them out because he knew they were worth a sizable sum. He had never sold them in the past since he wanted to research them properly first. Now that he had lost so much and he’d even reached a new plateau of power, it seemed as good a time as any to dig in.

He spent the next few months researching the clothing, splitting his time between his home and the library. Naturally, the library referred to not only the Million Skills Library, but also the one he’d copied over from the Timeless Master’s cave. In the process, Sage was inspired and created many garments of his own, improving his skills as a Tailor and Weaver. He was far from being able to create such exquisite clothing himself, filled with dozens of interlocking arrays and supporting effects, but he was able to reproduce each of the effects on their own within his created clothing. One of his Memory Spheres was now devoted to his crafting knowledge and experiences, the tailoring and weaving knowledge within was now a rival to the smithing knowledge it already contained.

Sage then sold the whole collection, consigning it to an auction house and later learning he had acted rashly. The dozens of garments sold for a sum that made his gasp in amazement, but he knew that if he had been more careful he could have earned much more.

Fool! I should have got Wan Ling to help me out. Ugh!

Each of the pieces of clothing was sold for thousands of spirit stones, but after hearing the auctioneer’s descriptions he realized that they would probably all be resold in other places for even higher prices. The clothes were not exceptionally powerful, but they were of remarkable craftsmanship and layered with dozens of different complementary effects. Just the sort of things that the rich and powerful might wear. They weren’t ostentatious, but for the discerning eye they would know that the clothing that seemed only high quality to normal folks were actually astounding treasures. In the end, the whole collection sold for nearly three hundred thousand spirit stones, and Sage knew that was only a fraction of the real worth. The garments were actually sold off as a single collection since they were all of similar age and exquisite craftsmanship.

Probably just like all those designer clothes lines, handbags and shoes from Earth. How the hell was I supposed to know they were so attractive to collectors?

Thinking himself an idiot for sitting on such a treasure for so long, he turned his attention to the dozen weapons. He hadn’t wanted to split his attention and studying from the clothing over to weaponry at the time so it took him a few more months of attentive study and testing to recreate the effects of the weapons. Not wanting to repeat his mistake in the sales of these weapons, he took extra time to fully assess their worth and value, even taking the time to have them appraised in that antique shop where he once purchased a golden egg. As expected, they were of exceedingly high craftsmanship and not just valuable for their great power as Sage had first thought. They weren’t magical artifacts, but they were all top-grade magical weapons, and made with exceedingly high standards. Each of them were like a work of art, that huge stone type mace he’d used a few times was actually the most ugly, but that was only from a cursory glance. Looking closely, the rough looking stone weapon was actually intricately carved and detailed, it was just at a minute scale. The handle itself was actually covered with thousands of stone carvings that depicted huge and detailed scenes. These epic murals were exquisitely detailed, but they were shrunk down so each was only the size of a fingernail instead of a wall.

Each of the weapons also had impressive magical abilities, though some had a hard time matching up to their beautiful appearances. The red stone mace with a carved head on the end of it was named ‘Red Giant’, and actually had the ability to enlarge the wielder to such a size that the huge two handed maul could be used like a small hammer. There was a pair of butterfly swords that had the usual ‘D’ shaped handguards changed into something more like basket hilts. They were carried side by side in a single sheath and when placed together the two large handguards formed the face of a roaring lion. When Qi was poured into them, they actually acted to bolster the mind, instilling courage and protecting from mental attacks. It was a very rare and highly sought after ability, keeping a clear head and banishing fear was very useful in battle. Of course, they were named ‘Azure Lion Blades’.

There was a dagger called ‘Molten Silver’ that almost looked like solidified mercury and touching it felt like molten metal. The more energy was put in, the hotter it got. The ‘Jade Meteor Pike’ seemed like it was carved from green jade and the haft could rapidly extend when it was empowered. A shortbow called ‘Amber Falcon’, its arrows formed small layers of amber on their targets, sealing in the arrow head and slowly encasing enemies in stone. A longbow named ‘Moonstone Seer’ that had a huge stone mounted above the handle that was used like a sight. Looking through the stone it would glow brighter when it pointed at the target’s weak point. A strange weapon called ‘Darknight Slayer’, it was called a ‘dagger-axe’ and was a type of polearm similar to a spear, yet with a dagger like blade pointed to the side at a ninety degree angle like a knife shaped axe head. It gave the wielder the ability to see in the dark and it could also make the axe like dagger blade turn completely invisible like it was a normal spear.

The whip, ‘Darkness Rose’, one that Sage almost started using when he first got the weapons. The handle was made of wood, but the whip was a long vine. When it was empowered, shadowy thorns could extend from the vines. A huge single bladed axe the size of a shield named ‘Ocean of Green Jade’ that actually created huge waves of water whenever it was swung. There was a sword that looked twice the normal size, akin to a european bastard or hand and a half sword. ‘Terror Maw’, as it was named, could enlarge the wounds it created. With enough energy it could stab into a wall and rip open a doorway sized hole. There was also the beautiful ‘Golden Crystal Emperor Sword’, which seemed to be named for its appearance. It was like an extremely thin and eye catching piece of yellow crystal like a topaz. Its only ability was that even with such an extreme appearance it was superbly strong and sharp, even if it wasn’t flexible. Lastly, the most unusual, ‘Banded Ogre Blade’. A greatsword with no edge, what some called a ruler, it was nearly eight feet long, two feet wide, and weighed hundreds of pounds. The strangest thing was that its ability was that it was actually just a voluminous cloak of fine metal mesh. When it was empowered it folded itself up like origami and took the shape of a huge blunt sword.

Sage eventually finished his study of the weapons and got the help of the Prosperity Company this time. Each of them were enamoured with the weapons in one way or another, but eventually they learned how expensive they were likely to be and changed their minds. Instead, Sage worked out a deal to reproduce the various effects they liked on new weapons. With their real values worked out, the auctions they could be sold at had to be large and didn’t happen often. Eventually, they each sold for tens of thousands of spirit stones and over the course of the next few years Sage completed weapons for his friends and in the process formally improved his profession ranks, rising to the third rank as a Blacksmith and Tailor, but only the second rank as a Weaver. Having had only a dozen spirit stones a few years ago, he now had more than half a million.

The world sure can be strange sometimes.