Chapter 8
This Is Too Low Grade
The Celestial Army Pavilion, a place in Fiery Wind City market where weapons were sold. They had both weapons for ordinary citizens and spiritual weapons for martial artists.
Spiritual weapons, forged from precious materials, were as sharp as razors, so strong they could easily slice through metal like mud. They were the perfect weapons for martial artists since they could also enhance their wielder’s fighting abilities.
Spiritual weapons just like Lu Ming’s father’s sword, the same one that had been taken by Lu Chuan.
Spiritual weapons were categorized into nine different Levels, and within each Level, they were broken down into Inferior, Mediocre, and Superior quality.
This round, Lu Ming intended to purchase a spiritual weapon to practice his sword technique with.
Lu Ming and Qiu Yue entered the Celestial Army Pavilion together.
They were greeted by the sight of lovely young maidens in two rows – salesgirls tasked to serve guests.
However, when Lu Ming and Qiu Yue entered the store, these salesgirls frowned. No one would step out to serve them.
Lu Ming and Qiu Yue were not dressed expensively. Lu Ming wore simple, coarse-clothed clothes while Qiu Yue donned maidservant clothes. As experienced as these salesgirls were, they could already tell that the two that just walked in were not wealthy.
No one wanted to serve these two.
Lu Ming frowned slightly, then went on to check out the items sold, unaffected.
Most of the items sold at the Celestial Army Pavilion were ordinary weapons. First Level spiritual weapons sold were scarce, and they were mostly of the Inferior quality. There were only a few Mediocre quality ones. After looking through the entire shop, Lu Ming only found three Mediocre quality spiritual weapons.
Lu Ming did not fancy any of them. If he were to make a purchase, he wanted something a little better.
“How may I help you, Young Lord? I could recommend something for you.”
A timid voice rang.
Lu Ming
turned to see a young, round-faced, rosy-cheeked but slightly flustered salesgirl facing him.
She was new to her job as a salesgirl at the store. She was timid by nature and had a poor sales performance. She had mustered her courage to step up since she saw that no one wanted to serve Lu Ming.
“The girl’s had no sales this month. To be serving these types of people, she must be desperate. From my years of experience, it would be a surprise if that lad can even afford a metal sword worth ten taels of silver.”
“Isn’t that so? I’d rather stand and rest here than serve country bumpkins like him.”
Not too far away, a few salesgirls looked in Lu Ming’s direction and whispered amongst themselves.
It was not very loud, but it did not escape Lu Ming and Qiu Yue’s ears.
“Young Lord…” Qiu Yue tugged Lu Ming’s sleeves.
“It’s fine,” Lu Ming flashed Qiu Yue a smile. These were just ordinary people and he did not want to stoop to their level.
As he was about to ask the round-faced salesgirl if there were any higher quality spiritual weapons, he was interrupted by an unharmonious voice.
“Yo yo yo, isn’t that Lu Ming, Eldest Young Lord Lu? What in the world brings you here?” The voice was followed by a guy and a girl as they walked in.
The guy had a pockmarked face, was not very tall in height, but sported a glamorous silver robe.
The girl looked above average but had an air of arrogance around her as she walked in with her nostrils in the air.
“Lu Bing, Lu Mei.”
Lu Ming’s expressions changed.
The Lu Family consisted of eight branches, which were the Main Branch and the seven other Sub Branches.
Lu Ming knew these two people, one of them was the son of the Fifth Sub Branch, and the other was the daughter of the Sixth Sub Branch. The one that spoke, was Lu Bing.
Lu Bing sized up Lu Ming and said with disdain, “Why, Lu Ming, I heard that you failed to awaken your blood meridian and you can’t even cultivate Essential Qi, but here you are wanting to buy a weapon like the others? Are you looking for a kitchen knife to slaughter some chickens with? Hahaha!”
“Move aside, Pockmarked Lu, you’re blocking the way.”
Lu Ming replied indifferently.
“W-what did you say, Lu Ming?” Being called pockmarked was Lu Bing’s biggest pet peeve, and being addressed by Lu Ming in such a way in front of so many young and beautiful maidens, especially in front of Lu Mei had immediately enraged him.
“Pockmarked face, I said move aside!” Lu Ming exclaimed coldly.
“You looking to die, Lu Ming? Do you still think that you’re the young lord of the Main Branch? Once the House Meeting is over, Miss Yao’er would be the Lord of the family. You are nothing, you understand me? You dare offend me? Come on, suck up to me right now, kowtow and apologize. I might still bestow upon you a bowl of rice then.”
Lu Bing barked like a distressed wild dog.
Lu Ming stared at him coldly, as if he was looking at an idiot.
“Just you wait, Lu Ming.”
Lu Bing’s eyes flashed with sinister cold rage, he took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down.
Right after, “Lu Ming, I was right about you wanting to buy a kitchen knife to slaughter chickens, wasn’t I? If that’s true, what quality items can someone like you afford?” Lu Bing sneered.
“Young Master Lu Bing, thank you for gracing us with your presence. Please let me be of assistance to, for absolutely anything at all.”
Lu Bing was already surrounded by several salesgirls, cajoling smiles on all their faces.
“Hehe!”
Looking at the only round-faced salesgirl by Lu Ming’s side, Lu Bing scoffed proudly and said in an intentionally loud voice, “Today is my Sister Lu Mei’s birthday, and I’d like to buy her a spiritual weapon as a gift. Tell me, what spiritual weapons do you have to recommend?”
He placed extra emphasis on the words “spiritual weapon”.
“Young Master Lu Bing wants to buy spiritual weapons!”
Instantly, the eyes of the salesgirls sparkled and pitched their recommendations to Lu Bing with all that they could.
“Young Master Lu Bing, what do you think of this Pine Sword? An Inferior First Level spiritual weapon with pine marks inside…”
“This Silver Ice Sword is fairly well made too…”
Upon looking at these spiritual weapons, Lu Mei shook her head in distaste, indicating that she did not fancy any of them.
Lu Bing gritted his teeth and exclaimed, “Don’t hoodwink me with these Inferior First Level spiritual weapons, bring out your Mediocre First Level spiritual weapons!”
“Young Master Lu Bing wants to purchase Mediocre First Level spiritual weapons?!” The salesgirls shook with excitement and their eyes shone as brightly as the sun. They circled Lu Bing and promoted crazily, as if their lives depended on it.
A Mediocre quality spiritual weapon was worth at least eight hundred taels of silver, and the commission would not be small. How could they not be excited?
On Lu Ming’s side, the round-faced salesgirl looked over enviously. She was naturally timid and shy, she could never compete with those salesgirls.
After rounds of intense promotion, Lu Bing chose the Light Breeze Sword, a Mediocre First Level spiritual weapon that was worth a thousand taels of silver.
Lu Bing waved two silver notes of five hundred taels in the air intentionally as he glanced at Lu Ming with a look of disdain on his face, and paid the amount in full with a dull ache in his heart.
“Why? Aren’t you picking the weapons you want to buy yet, Lu Ming? Or are these weapons too low grade for you? Hahaha!” laughed Lu Bing haughtily.
“Of course, Brother Lu Bing, he’s the Young Lord of the Main Branch, how could Mediocre First Level spiritual weapons be to his liking?” giggled Lu Mei as she inspected her Light Breeze Sword with immense fondness.
“How did you two know? I’d sincerely thought that the weapons here are too low grade,” said Lu Ming out of the blue, feigning surprise.
He turned to the round-faced salesgirl and said, “Miss, do you have any Superior First Level spiritual weapons? Let me have a look at them.”
“What?”
Pin drop silence swept across the store. Everyone, including the round-faced salesgirl, Qiu Yue, the other salesgirls, Lu Bing and Lu Mei gawked at Lu Ming.
“What? Lu Ming, you want to buy a Superior First Level spiritual weapon? Don’t you know how much it costs? Don’t just talk empty, can you afford it?”
Lu Bing’s eyes flashed as he yelled at Lu Ming.
A Superior First Level spiritual weapon was easily worth a few times the amount of a Mediocre First Level spiritual weapon, he refused to believe, even if his life depended on it, that Lu Ming could afford such a thing.
“Young Lord, did you say that you want to buy a Superior First Level spiritual weapon?” asked the round-faced salesgirl incredulously.
“Why, don’t you have any Superior First Level spiritual weapons here? Or are you afraid that I haven’t got enough money?”
Lu Ming grinned and took out a stack of silver notes, each silver note worth five hundred taels, and there were at least ten or more silver notes.
“W-where did you get so much money?”
Staring at the stack of silver notes in Lu Ming’s hand, Lu Bing’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Lu Mei and the few other salesgirls too almost had their eyes popped out of their sockets.
Qiu Yue gaped and gawked at Lu Ming.
“It seems like Young Master did have a supernatural encounter,” thought Qiu Yue.
- Author wrote 唐枫 which is Tang Fang, but from context the author should be referring to Lu Ming.