Chapter 13: Plan B

Outside the shop, he pondered to himself. “If what the shop

owner said was true, how am I going to be able to buy a pot?”

Well, guess I’ll go ahead with… Plan B!

Jia Yuan had thought about many things on the way to

RockFire City. After all, running by oneself was rather boring. As such, he had

come up with an idea. Jia Yuan wanted a real weapon to use in life or death

battles. After all, running at a bunch of well-equipped opponents with a wooden

sword wasn’t exactly advantageous.

So then came another problem. How was he going to get money

to buy a sword? The only thing Jia Yuan had a surplus of, was pills. Also, he

had only consumed about 30 of the Absorption level soul pills, and about 25 of

the Fire based body pills. With his current training speed, he felt that it was

okay if he sold some of those pills.

However, there was a problem that came with this. With his

current appearance he was clearly either a slave or a child from a poor family. As

such, if he went to one of the upscale pill stores to sell pills, the store may

assumed that he had stolen said pills. In this case, they might jail him for robbery or even kill him!

With this in mind, Jia Yuan had come up with the first part of his

plan.

First, he headed toward a store selling clothing. The store

owner looked at him curiously but didn’t intervene. Even though this “customer”

of his was a child in faded and tattered clothing, he couldn’t risk turning

away a potential customer… after all, he only ran a small store, and no matter what profits he made, he had to pay regular taxes to the city.

Jia Yuan picked out a dark blue robe and a straw hat and

brought them to the store owner. The robe was long enough to cover his entire body and hide the majority of his features.

“Hello sir, how much for these?”

“Hm… 1 small fire shard for the hat, and 3 small fire shards

for the robe.”

“Okay!”

Jia Yuan handed over the 4 small fire shards, and went into

a side room in the store to change into the robe. As for his usual clothes, he

stored them into his ring.

Now, aside from his face, he could easily pass as a member

of the middle class. As for his face, that was why he had purchased the straw

hat. He would use the straw hat to cover his face.

He left the store, and proceeded to walk toward the inner

parts of the city. This was the first test for his plan. The inner parts of the

city were filled with the wealthy and were not accessible to poor people. As

such, there was a secondary gate lined with guards to prevent intruders.

After a few minutes of walking, Jia Yuan reached the

secondary city gate and walked past the guards without trouble.

Jia Yuan’s heart was filled with glee. So his disguise

really did work!

Now, to find a pill store.

Jia Yuan wandered the streets with a discerning eye, judging

items with a look of a buyer. Of course, the other passerby on the street who could see him couldn’t tell

that he was a slave living a destitute lifestyle.

But for Jia Yuan, it was rather fun for him to gaze into

stores and be invited to the stores by these wealthy merchants who probably saw

more money come into their store each day than Jia Yuan had seen in his entire

life.

After spending some time fooling around in this manner, Jia

Yuan moved on to his initial goal. Along the way, he had asked some of the

store owners about pill shops and their locations.

From his investigation, he found that there were three

reputable pill shops in the city. The first was backed by the city’s governing

family, while the other two were controlled by the Army and the continent-wide Black Wing

Merchant Guild. He also found that the shop owned by the governor’s family offered

the best prices, but the Black Wing Merchant guild would offer benefits if one

were to continually do business with them.

As for the Army, they would usually offer a medium price as

well as some benefits for purchasing weapons and armor from the Army.

Jia Yuan thought about which pill shop to sell

his pills to. “Being able to sell for more fire shards is a good thing, but it

sounds like the benefits offered by the Black Wing Merchant guild are unmatched.

Furthermore, in the future I will likely be training in other elements. As

such, it would make sense to participate with the only entity of the three that

has stores all over the continent.