Mystic Trade Hall

Alex stepped off the road and entered the building. Inside, a bustling atmosphere greeted Alex. Dozens of people were on the first floor talking to one of the numerous attendants or perusing the various items on display.

A middle-aged man walked up to Alex and asked "How can I help you sir?"

"What is this place?" asked Alex.

"This is the Mystic Trade Hall. Well, a branch Trade Hall stationed in the Devontae Kingdom. How can I help you?" asked the man once more.

"Branch trade hall?" thought Alex. This building was quite luxurious, and was even larger than his own clan's trade hall, and yet it was just a branch building?

Realizing he had been standing there in silence, Alex quickly said "I'd like to sell some Qi Gathering level beast corpses. Also, if you have any sword battle arts or body arts, I'd like to look at those as well."

"Very well, follow me" responded the man before turning around. Alex followed him through a door in the back of the large room, at which point a large staircase was revealed to Alex.

The man led Alex to the third floor of the building before walking down the hallway and entering one of the many rooms available. Alex stepped inside the room and looked around. There were two comfortable looking couches with a table in between them. Many luxurious statues and vases were placed on small pedestals all around the perimeter of the room.

"Please be seated. Someone will soon arrive to attend to your needs." The attendant slowly closed the door and left.

Alex looked around the room for a while before sitting on one of the couches. He closed his eyes and started focusing on cultivating. Alex was close to the second stage of the Qi Gathering Realm, so he took every second to cultivate, so he could reach it quicker.

Five minutes later, the door slowly opened, and an attendant stepped inside. It was a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. She had long black hair and large brown eyes. Her face was quite sharp, giving her quite an intimidating presence.

"Foundation Establishment?" thought Alex as he opened his eyes in surprise. Even an attendant for the Mystic Trade Hall had such a cultivation. And this was only one of its branch buildings.

The woman sat down on the couch opposite Alex and placed a tea set on the table in between them. She poured two cups of tea and slid one towards Alex.

"Just how powerful is the Mystic Trade Hall?" mused Alex.

"I heard that you have some beast corpses to sell. And you're also looking for some sword battle arts and body arts ?" asked the woman.

"Yes. I have many beast corpses, all at the First Stage of the Qi Gathering level. Please see for yourself" responded Alex as he handed over his storage ring.

The woman took the ring and inspected the contents inside. As she inspected all the beast corpses, her eyebrows raised slightly.

"Indeed, they are all Qi Gathering level beasts. I'll give you ten gold for all the corpses." The woman offered.

Alex thought about it for a bit before accepting. The woman transferred the corpses to her own storage ring before handing Alex his storage ring back with the ten gold coins inside.

"Now that this matter is settled, what type of battle arts are you looking for?" asked the woman curiously. She had already taken note of the boy in front of her. His robes clearly showed that he was from the Dracon Clan. As such, she had treated him with respect from the start and even attended to him personally despite being quite important in this branch location. She was curious however, as to why a Dracon Clan youth was so far from their clan, alone nonetheless.

"Well, my request depends on what you can provide," said Alex, his response causing the woman to raise her eyebrow slightly.

"I'm looking for any Qi Gathering level sword arts you have. If you don't have any, then I want to look at all your Qi Gathering body battle arts" responded Alex.

"Swords and Body techniques, huh? How interesting" the woman responded while rhythmically tapping the armrest of her couch.

"We do have a few techniques. One moment." The woman took out a small disk. It had many runes carved into its surface. Alex could tell she was channeling her Qi into the disk, but didn't ask what she was doing.

A few minutes later, the door to the room opened. A young boy entered the room and quickly approached the woman before handing her two storage rings. The woman inspected the rings before nodding to the boy, at which point he quickly left the room.

"Seems like she used the disk in her hand to contact the boy. I think I remember father using something similar once" thought Alex.

While Alex was deep in thought, many books and scrolls suddenly appeared on the table in front of him. Alex was quickly startled out of his thoughts.

"So many!" thought Alex in surprise. There were clearly almost a dozen books on the table in front of him, all regarding swords battle arts and body battle arts. His clan didn't have any body arts, but the mystic trade hall had almost a dozen of them.

"Well, I guess that makes some sense. No one in our clan is a body cultivator, and so there's no need for the clan to collect any body battle arts" thought Alex as he picked up the book closest to him.

"Steel Hands Arts! Pretty impressive name" thought Alex. He opened the book and read over the introduction of the technique. After reading for a minute, Alex put the book down and picked up the next one.

"Golden Ape Body Arts! Sounds domineering." Alex read the first page technique introduction before setting the book down and picking up the next one. He proceeded to do the same for the remaining books before his eyes widened in shock as he looked at an unfurled scroll.

The woman noticed Alex shocked reaction and narrowed her eyes slightly but said nothing.

Alex took a few seconds to compose himself before he reached out and picked up the unfurled scroll.

"This is technique..."

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I apologize for not posting; I was busy with college exams and didn't have much time to write. I'll start posting more frequently once my exams are finished; for the time being, I'll update every 2 or 3 days.

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