On the plus side, the rchant was quite rich with spirit stones, gold and trade goods. Spirit Stones were the currency of Cultivators while gold was the currency of mortals. There was interplay between them, but the exchange rates were weird. Depending on where you went, you might find either a higher or lower demand for gold or spirit stones. The problem was spirit stones were consumable and completely useless to normal people while valuable to Cultivators. If a commoner got paid in Spirit Stones, he might be able to take them and exchange them for thousands of gold pieces per stone. On the other hand, he might just go missing. In this way, Spirit Stones and Gold were sowhat separate and it conversions were tricky. A Cultivator might take over an area filled with commoners and have millions of gold. Another Cultivator could have no need for gold and the trade ratio would be millions of gold for a single stone. In another place the opposite could happen. A nation could have a strong army, laws, and currency. The Cultivators there might find that spirit stones are only worth a hundred gold each, a price set by the nation.
With such strange conversion rules many rchants rely dealt in gold. Most of them just wanted to live lives of indulgence. Gold could buy them manors, won, expensive wine, and expensive clothes. Their only real need for spirit stones would be their own cultivation or to hire guards. Many guards would take gold as they also sought the good life, but others worked to get stronger and would only take their pay in spirit stones. Sage learned that the spirit stone to gold trade was sowhat like the stock market from earth. It was extrely complicated and many people lost or gained fortunes on a daily basis. There was different mints of coin for each country or even city, there was also different styles and denominations of spirit stones. Spirit stones were like gemstones filled with energy. They could have different cuts, shapes and sizes just like the rocks on jewelry. For the most part there was a uniform amount of energy for the basic denomination, but they still varied greatly depending on where you were at in the world and most places would only convert or trade in specific types. Sage found many different types of stones and gold coins in the rchants hidden ring. He also found maps, trading contracts, and even a few deeds. Sage wasnt sure if he could make use of any of these things, since that might tie him to the missing rchant, but he had plenty of room in his storage ring so he held onto them.
The only downside was that Sage now had a whole pack full of empty storage bags. He had shifted them from his knapsack into one of the weight reducing backpacks from a porter. While these Lifting Packs werent all that valuable, they were larger than his knapsack. He was carrying more than seventy empty storage bags so the Lifting Pack actually made a reasonable difference and he wouldnt just throw away potential spirit stones.
Deciding not to pick a fight with that Young Hero for no reason, Sage continued on his journey, breaking away from the road and heading off into the wilderness. The road led to a city, one that was at the border of the Holy Fla Province, Red Knife City. Red Knife City was nad after the Red Knife Pass that it guarded. The pass led to the Green Plateau Province, a strange place that rose hundreds of feet into the air creating a sheer cliff all around the ten thousand mile wide plateau. Each of the passes that led down from the top of the plateau were the border guards of the Green Plateau Province. They had a city at the top of the Plateau and the neighboring provinces built a city at the bottom of the plateau. It was a natural defense and the small size of the passes ant put the Green Plateau Province at a slight advantage because of height. At the sa ti, the narrow pass made it simple for either side to defend. As such, the pairs of cities that seed antagonistic were actually the greatest trading partners. Each of the half-dozen cities was quite large as it was the filter point for all the goods in and out of the Green Plateau Province.
The Green Plateau Province was the headquarters of the Cult of the Woodlord, just like how the Holy Fla Province was the headquarters of the Holy Fla Sect. They were sowhat at odds with the Holy Fla Sect, so Sage did not want to take the chance of running into any Cult mbers. There was also the fact that he still hadnt found a way to hide his unusual appearance. He had plenty of spirit stones right now and there was still a little bit of room left inside his Storage Ring so he didnt need to sell the mound of trade goods imdiately.
He continued on across a large hilly grassland before entering more forests, the Chaleon Mantis slowed him down, but made his travels very safe. Anyti anything cause sight of him they would drop down and continue on foot for a while, the visual camouflage effect took a few seconds to shift colors and blend in. Flying through the sky they were the sa color as the blue sky or white clouds, but they were still far easier to see than when creeping through the undergrowth. Because of the slow speed, they were free to take their ti and Sage found dozens of rare herbs and other spirit plants. Adding them to his collection in the storage ring, Sage had no problem with gathering more resources.
Truth be told, many of the resources Sage had within his ring had the ability to help raise his cultivation faster. The problem was that if they were taken directly and not refined into pills, they would lose efficiency and also weaken his foundation. Each pill would leave dicinal after effects in the body and when too many of them acculated it would make it even harder to improve while also diluting the effect of further dicines. Sage had already taken many different pills when he first joined the Holy Fla Sect. He trained as an Alchemist and used that knowledge to improve his cultivation. It was only through the help of the Sunfire Pagoda that he was able to cleanse much of the dicinal dregs trapped in his body and improve himself to the third rank.
As it was now, he was leery of consuming any cultivation resources without first researching them properly. In addition, his rank as an Alchemist was still too low to create higher level pills. He wanted to make the most use out of any pills he took so he was resolved to only consu the best pills his body could handle and not the 1 star resources he could concoct himself. His problem had originally happened because of all the things hed ate and consud through his early years at the Lang Clan, in the Back Mines, and traveling on the road as a caravan guard. He had been constantly taking anything that he thought would help him. When he first beca an Alchemist he realized the mistake he made and had to spend years crafting Flesh Cleansing Pills to clear out the accumulated dicinal dregs. When that wasnt enough he used the Sunfire Pagoda to finish the job and then again later to help cultivate faster.
If Sages problems could just be solved with pills and resources he would just stay in the Sect and work for contribution points. Instead, he knew that his only way to truly grow strong was keep searching for fortune. The normal routes could not help him, he would have to hunt and compete for ancient legacies, hidden caches, dangerous tombs, and buried treasures. His only hope was to persevere and try to push his luck. Ive heard that Karmic Luck can grow greater and greater over ti. Most of the famous heroes and personages arent just talented, they are blessed with good luck. Each lucky break can lead to another.
Finally, after nearly a month of travel, the Chaleon Mantis was standing in front of the Seal Masters Cave once again.
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