Chapter 2: How much?

Alimo Village was a bustling place, people everywhere searching for something to buy, it was loud and chaotic people pushing past each other yet it was also organized, there were bids and trades from stalls that had a lot of plants and medicine to help a cultivator expand and grow their foundation.

Ara and Isabella went around a few stalls together to look for the swollen churu, after checking over 30 stalls, Ara glanced over to a stall in the distance that had no one around but behind the stall was a hooded figure it gave Ara a creepy feeling but he saw on the table of that stall a plant that looked exactly like Isabella had explained to him.

"Urm Isabella? Isn't that the plant you were searching for?" Questioned Ara, "Yes! That's the swollen churu!" Isabella had almost given up hope for the day but thanks to Ara she was excited, Isabella grabbed Ara's hand and dragged him over to that stall "Hey slow down! I'm almost lifting off the ground!" shouted Ara.

As they got to the stall Isabella got too excited and her eyes began to grow and shine like stars "Sir how much for this swollen churu?" asked Isabella to the hooded figure.

"This swollen churu is 100 years old, found on the mountain peak outside of crossroad city, it's 90 jade stones" Explained the hooded figure.

"What? Isn't that too expensive?" asked Ara "Isabella I smell a lot of jokes coming from this guy's mouth, how can this plant be worth 90 jade stones?" Ara picked up the plant and before he could properly see the plant the hooded figure snatched it back and placed it back down on the table.

"Before I buy this plant let me see if it's real" Isabella picked up the plant and used her foundation to detect if anything was changing, she closed her eyes and thought about the plant, she was feeling vibrations and a warm feeling throughout her body, spreading the warmth from head to toe through her dantian.

"I'll take it!" Isabella hands over 90 jade stones, Ara's face drops, his jaw is almost dragging on the floor with surprise, his eyes turned whiter than his clothes, Isabella grabbed Ara's arm and carried on dragging him away from the stall.

"Ara I paid 90 jade stone because this isn't a normal swollen churu, somehow this swollen churu has a positive effect on me, as soon as we find your sister I shall be leaving you so I can cultivate this into my dantain to see the effects," Isabelle whispered.

"Eh..but… alright well, we shall try to find my sister" Ara looked at Isabelle with his hands above his head while thinking to himself: Martial arts is a long road, I understand somethings due to school but there's something that cannot be explained until you experience it, i'm just at the Physical Aroma stage, in 4 years I've gone up 2 stages, there are 10 realms altogether in this world and the first 3 realms have 3 stages within that realm.

In my realm is the Aroma realm it is the first realm along a martial arts path, there's the Aroma foundation, Mental Aroma, and Physical Aroma."

"The next 2 Realms are Bone and Vessel realm, after that it gradually gets harder and harder to progress unless you have the help of medicines and martial manuals and pure luck, it's just a shame I don't have such luck."

"Ara? Are you ok? You seem to have dazed out.. What are you thinking about?" asked Isabelle very curiously.

"Oh nothing, Just trying to remember the places my sister might have gone too." lied Ara.