After making his demands known, Guan Zhenyan gave the Trader a cold stare. The Trader tried to hold the stare for a while, but Zhenyan was a high level expert after all and even if he didn’t radiate his aura, the strength in his gaze was still there and pressured the Trader to back down. The man looked at the goods a few more times and then he finally caved, “Fine. Come along.”

The two of them walked out of the Trader’s workshop area and out a back door. They hopped into the eye-holes of a large object that looked like the front half of an angel fish. It floated in the air, just at the edge of a catwalk and the two of them hopped through the air without showing any fear for the thousand foot high chasm in front of them.

The building they were in was immense, and in line with their chosen merchandise they needed a lot of room for storage and also for moving goods around. The huge chasm beneath them also extended upwards even further, creating an immense vertical passageway that could facilitate the movement of the largest Flying Ships. The tailless-fish Flying Tool brought them upwards and down the huge transport corridor for a while before stopping at another catwalk-like mooring. The Trader hopped out and Guan Zhenyan followed after him, the two of them walking down a wide corridor and into a small human sized entrance next to a pair of massive hanger doors.

Walking inside, they entered an immense showroom just like the one that they’d seen upon first entering the building, only this time there were no sales clerks or customers walking around. The room was deserted and the promotional materials for each item consisted only of a single small Jade Talisman as a sign. Yet, despite these irregularities the items on display were awe inspiring. Each and every one of them was jaw dropping. There were no cheap goods or low level products here. That said, not all of them were the most pleasant to look at.

“Welcome to the Hall of Eccentricities.”

Guan Zhenyan kept his mouth shut as the Trader named the room. The silence stretched on for a few moments as Zhenyan’s eyes roamed over the products on display. In fact, the quiet stretched on long enough that the Trader coughed awkwardly and gave up waiting for questions before making the rest of his introduction.

“I don’t have access to the highest level showroom. The only way to get into those is with a massive wallet, or by sharing something really good with the higher ups. While I’m interested in your goods, they aren’t enough to get those people excited. Since you’ve got high performance requirements, then the only other place that has what you need is here.”

“This place is…”

“Eccentric. As you can see, the works here are of high quality, but there is something…”

“Wrong with them.”

“That’s a little too harsh. For the right buyers, these vessels would be perfect. It just so happens that each of the Flying Tools here are made to very unusual specifications.”

Guan Zhenyan wasn’t a connoisseur of Flying Tools, but he conducted more than enough business to know a thing or two about every type of product. The name for this place was giving the weirdos who made these things a little too much credit, but it was apt enough.

The piece in the direct center, where the most eye-catching and awe inspiring works would go, certainly fit the bill. In fact, it was the most outstanding and magnificent Flying Ship that he’d seen in a long time. In his lifetime there were only a few Flying Ships that could top it and he’d encountered characters that would consider this whole world to be a dingy backwater. It was in the shape of a waterborne mortal ship, a sort of corsair or sloop-like design with long and elegant lines and a single swooping sail. The sail was quite eye-catching as it extended out to either side of the ship like a pair of bird’s wings partially extended and on the verge of its downbeat. The ship seemed ready to accelerate forward or dive upon its prey at any moment.

The body of the ship shimmered, the light reflecting off the layer of sky blue scales that made up its hull. Each of the scales was the size of a palm, their edges a darker shade than the rest giving the ship a wonderfully textured look from afar. The number of identical overlapping scales required to cover a ship of such size was immense, but it was only the tip of the iceberg on the expensive amenities in this Flying Ship. The deck’s railings were carved out of a high tier jade and inlaid with gemstones. The deck itself was made of a species of wood that was prized for the most expensive incense costing thousands of Spirit Stones for a small finger’s length.

Looking from afar, Sage couldn’t pick out all the exact details, but Guan Zhenyan touched the Jade Talisman that was used as a signboard and then shared the information with him. The full list of materials used and their quantities were absolutely astounding. Many high level resources had been carefully refined down into smaller amounts and then used to outfit this Flying Ship. Sage also realized why this ship was here: it was just too expensive.

While the performance and capabilities of the ship were nearly off the charts, the same amount of resources could probably make hundreds of ships with half the ability. It was like paying ten million for an F1 car when there were plenty of supercars available for a million or less. Only in this case, it was a matter of ten to one, it was a hundred to one price difference because they’d outfitted the thing like it was a yacht with the most frivolous owner. Any Sect or organization with the funds to purchase a high level Flying Ship would want to maximize the power of their group, and wasting so much on a single extravagant vessel would be extremely foolish. Perhaps only an entire Empire would have that much to spend, and even then only the most selfish of them would choose to spend so much on a single ship.

So the prodigal son of a collapsed empire probably sold this here to fund their further escape?

Whatever the case, the price they paid for the ship was likely only a fraction of that spent to make it, but even so the selling price on this ship was in the hundreds of millions of Spirit Stones and he wouldn’t be surprised if a billion was spent to build it. Either way, it was way outside of their price range. Maybe if Sage sold himself and the use of the Inner World to someone for a few decades he could afford it, but that was a little bit too extreme for him. After giving away so many of his secrets it would be a surprise if he ever got to see daylight again afterwards.

From the looks of things, there were a few other overly expensive Flying Tools in the showroom, but there were many others with drastically different problems. The next ‘ship’ to catch their eyes actually looked like a giant statue in the shape of a morbidly obese man. The soft clay or stone used in its construction had a tone quite similar to that of skin and the small imperfections in the stone actually looked quite like blemishes. Worse yet, this half ton man actually was actually many times heavier as he was nearly a hundred feet tall with not a detail spared.

Who would want to fly around on the back of a giant fat man?