Universe Bag.
Li Jun glanced around. Most, if not all, of the jewelry in this shop seemed to be imbued with spiritual energy, and the old man himself was like Master Shen and the city lord. The spiritual energy in the room seemed to avoid him completely.
"I was hoping to sell some gold." Li Jun said and bowed his head respectfully as he recognized the old man was much stronger than him.
"Oh? Do you know its purity?" The old man asked.
"I don't; I'm sorry," Li Jun said, but then he reached into his pocket and presented five of the gold coins he had taken from his silver ring.
"Interesting," the old man said as he looked at the coins Li Jun had placed on the counter. I haven't seen these engravings before. Where did you get them?"
"I found them in the dark forest," he said as his eyes glanced at the rest of the store's products. Most of them seemed to be jewelry, but there were a few leather pouches with intricate designs on them. He couldn't tell what they did, but they seemed to have a bit more spiritual energy surrounding them than the other items in the shop.
"Lucky find. But since I don't know the engravings, I can't buy them at their true value. I can weigh them and give you a fair price for the gold if you're okay with that," the old man said.
"That's fine." Said Li Jun as he waited for the man to weigh the coins.
"Not a bad weight. They are much larger than regular gold coins." The old man smiled. "I can give you two thousand silvers or twenty gold coins. It's your choice."
Li Jun didn't think too much about it when he first saw the coins, but they were bigger than the coins they used in the Hao empire. He was surprised by the price he was offered.
"I'll take gold coins." He said as he accepted the coins and turned his attention back towards the leather pouches that leaked spiritual energy.
"What are those pouches?" He asked.
The old shopkeeper followed his gaze. "Universe bags. They were made by a great craftsmen in the capital."
"What do they do? I can sense a lot of energy coming from them." Li Jun asked. He had never heard any mention of universe bags before, but the name interested him.
"I think its best if I show you." The old shop keeper picked up one of the bags and then untied the ribbon that held it closed. He walked over to a wooden chair and pointed the bag towards it. The chair flew through the air towards the bag and then vanished as it was just about to make contact.
"It has a space within it equivalent to two meters. It can hold pretty much anything you need it to. They are great if you plan to travel somewhere alone." The old man began to list all the great things a universe bag could do for him with a smile.
Li Jun was surprised, he would have been awestruck if not for the fact that his silver ring could do the same thing. He wasn't sure if he could use his ring in front of others though as he thought the function defied logic. Although he still didn't want to expose the ring and the treasures within.
"How much do you want for it?" Li Jun asked bluntly. If he was going to buy a new sword, he would want to avoid carrying it around with him. It would only draw unwanted attention.
"Twelve gold. But for you, since you brought me something I've never seen before, I will give you a discount. Ten gold coins."
Li Jun looked at the old man's scheming smile and knew he could haggle the price a little more, although he wasn't too concerned. He could get a decent sword for a hundred silver coins, and if he remembered correctly, he still had 34 of the large gold coins in his silver ring.
"I'll take it." He said, and he handed over the money immediately. The old shopkeeper took the chair back out of the universe bag and then handed it to him with a smile as he accepted the money.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" He asked with a grin.
"Do you know anywhere I could buy a nice sword? I don't want anything fancy. I just want it to be durable." He said.
"A sword." The old shop keeper rubbed his beard. "If you head toward the merchants gate there is a blacksmith that makes good swords. Although I'm not sure how much he charges these days."
"Thank you," he bowed respectfully.
Spirit City had two entrances, one at the front for visitors and residents to leave and enter and one at the back, where merchants would wait in line for guards to inspect their goods before entering the city. Although he hadn't been there before. He tied the universe bag to his waist and figured that he could ask around if he couldn't locate the shop. He hurried over as quickly as he could.
Once he reached the merchant's entrance, Li Jun was surprised to see how many people were there. He heard the sounds of clanking metal. He followed the sound and arrived at a small house with an open forge in front of it.
A large muscular man was standing beside the forge with a gigantic hammer, pounding away at a red hot bar of steel. He watched the man forge it into the rough shape of a blade and plunge it back into the forge. Beside him a young woman used a pump to circulate air throughout the forge. She wore a leather apron over her dress with her sleeves rolled up. Her eyes glanced towards Li Jun who had been watching for a few minutes.
"Father, we have a customer." She said, and the man put down his hammer. He looked at Li Jun and then frowned slightly as he saw that it was a kid. He looked Li Jun up and down briefly and then picked up his hammer again and ignored him.
Li Jun felt slightly irritated; he stepped forward towards the forge and glanced up at the large man.
"Hello, I was hoping to buy a sword." He said respectfully.
The man pulled the glowing blade from the forge with a sour expression.
"I don't sell weapons to kids. Now clear off if you know what's good for you." He grunted before slamming his hammer down on the red-hot steel once more.
Li Jun looked at the man as his hammer swings fell into a melodic rhythm that seemed to sing with each hit. He was clearly an expert blacksmith, but Li Jun stared for a moment and realized that the spiritual energy surrounding him was weak; he wasn't a martial artist.