Paragon of Sin

"I was the humble servant who informed her." The voice sounded wizened and amicable. The moment one heard it, they would feel a refreshing feeling within their heart and mind. Wei Wuyin's brows lifted slightly as his eyes shifted to observe a man dressed in a very clean and crisp black and blue suit.

He seemed to be about forty or fifty years old by appearance with hints of wrinkles emerging on his face, slightly droopy eyes, and a white smile with an imperfect set of teeth that gave him a more earthy feel. His smile pulled his wrinkles upwards and revealed that this man was likely quite handsome when he was younger.

The black hair with greying temples and highlights were quite aesthetically pleasing and fit his overall appearance perfectly. 

"You are?" He was shocked to see this man dressed in a suit and tie, tight-fitting, and form-shaping. With his upright back, he truly gave him a feeling of a professional. However, Wei Wuyin wasn't used to such dressings. While he knew that suits and tuxedos existed, they weren't basic cultural and traditional wear.

Most cultivators wore robes, dresses, battle armor, or simply a basic shirt and pants combo. He mostly wore tight-fitting martial robes with combat accessories. This was more akin to the world's standard.

The old man didn't find Wei Wuyin's reaction unexpected. Those first-timers often find a suit and tie dressing quite odd, so he merely smiled: "My name's Han Bo, I'm the Manager of the 22nd Floor. It is my pleasure to meet you." He bowed slightly with the utmost poise and grace.

Wei Wuyin gave a faint nod in response. A Manager of a floor must be quite an impressive position. Furthermore, he felt trickling waves of qi that seemed to have reached a sublime state from Han Bo's body; he was at least at the Seventh Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, Sublime Qi Phase, and a peak-Mortal God.

"I am-" Just as he was about to introduce himself, Han Bo interrupted.

"The Saber Ascendant, Wei Wuyin. I've heard quite a lot about you, Godlord Wei." His wizened eyes brightened as he revealed an intelligent glimmer.

Wei Wuyin was momentarily shocked. Then, recalling the purpose of the Life World Pavilion and their ability to gather, regulate, and disseminate information meant they likely knew of his actions in the Jade Lotus Sect. But what truly shocked him was their ability to know his cultivation base.

At the moment, his control over his aura was impeccable. As long as he willed it, not even a Godking could determine his cultivation. 

"I see," in the end, he was mostly indifferent. Instead, he said, "Since that's the case, the Darklight God Saber, where is it and what's the price?" He was direct, intending to conduct the transaction quickly before moving on to his own priorities. 

Su Mei stood quietly behind Wei Wuyin.

"Yes, yes. The Darklight God Saber. How about we move to a more comfortable setting before discussing this?" Han Bo spoke as he glanced at the surroundings. Currently, they were at the entrance of the emporium with heavy traffic. There were quite a lot of cultivators exiting and entering, here for all sorts of business, both mundane and unique.

Wei Wuyin nodded in agreement. At Han Bo's lead, they traveled the floor for a while. The first floor was mostly a directory and customer service-type service. There were dozens of workers idling about, both male and females, uniformed and good-looking, that were available to answer questions or directly act as a guide.

If he was an ordinary customer, he could choose one and have him or her escort him to his designated floor with introductions and such. This type of service was first class. From the sheer size of this building, there must be hundreds of these workers. If he designed this, and each floor had a specialty, then that floor would have specialized guides.

Just as he believed, Han Bo proceeded to explain the layout and structure of the Life World Emporium. He had a calm pride resonating with every syllable.

According to him, the Life World Emporium had three thousand employees total. Each employee was at the Third Stage of Qi Condensation and below the age of a fifty. This meant they had vigor, looks, and talent. In fact, many of them were members of the Life World Pavilion.

Under his constant explanations, they arrived at a sealed door. Wei Wuyin found that the door frame was odd, as the door was further inwards than the frame. Furthermore, the door didn't have any handles or notches to open. It was constructed with Hygh Steel, a steel known for its incredible durability and conductivity towards formations and arrays.

"This…?" With a raised brow, Wei Wuyin inspected the door's contents and found it to be an empty room with four sides and no exit. "A trapped room?" He had faint suspicions that this was a trap, but then Han Bo executed a handseal and a surge of spiritual energies entered the door frame.

Oooom!

An odd sound occurred, followed by the activation of the various spiritual formations within. These formations triggered various arrays and then a square-like container descended from above. While the door was closed, Wei Wuyin paid rapt attention to the events with his spiritual sense.

When the container approached at rapid speeds from several floors up, it slowed down until it came to an abrupt stop. Then—

Ding!

Woosh!

The door separated at its middle and vanished into the frame. Wei Wuyin's eyes widened for a moment, his hand reached towards the door frame and saw the door embedded perfectly into it. As for the inside, the container that had descended had arrived. It was similarly made with Hygh Steel.

"Please enter," Han Bo said with a smile.

Wei Wuyin gulped slightly and entered the container, his eyes constantly roaming about and examining every facet of the area, including the various formations and arrays that seemed to enable vertical movements in an ascending and descending direction.

Su Mei followed, but her awe wasn't there. It seemed during her travels earlier, she had already known about this miraculous contraption. Han Bo entered too, performing another handseal that closed the doors. The container started to move upwards.

"We'll be going to the 22nd Floor," Han Bo said. Wei Wuyin's eyes were bulging out of his sockets. They were ascending upwards but he didn't feel the increase in velocity that rising would usually be accompanied by. Before he could truly figure out the reason, they arrived at the 22nd Floor.

"The 22nd Floor deals in high-end Qi Armaments. From swords, sabers, shields, armor, or even rope. We have everything with the most top-tier blacksmiths at your disposal for custom products." Han Bo explained as he walked out into the floor.

The floor didn't have an incredible amount of people, but each person, be it man, woman, child, or granny had excellent cultivation bases for their age and exuded wealth and prosperity. He had even found a few alchemists roaming about. While these alchemists didn't have an Alchemic Heart of Qi, they cultivated alchemical energies and Alchemic Qi. They would retain their combat ability but be dozens, if not hundreds of times, less effective. This was how the vast majority, if not everyone except a few, cultivated in the Eden Earth Sect, including the Sect Leader.

Wei Wuyin similarly cultivated Alchemic Qi while he was an inner disciple of the Scarlet Solaris Sect. He recalled the cauldron of his, the one that he treasured, was destroyed by those assassins. 

Those alchemists might not have an Alchemic Heart, but due to their constant conversion of Qi into Alchemic Qi, they carried a faint alchemical aura that couldn't be disguised. Moreover, they wore this aura with the utmost pride.

"Here," Han Bo led both of them to a storefront embedded into the wall of the emporium. Despite saying it was embedded, it was quite expansive and could be considered a building in its own right. There were a variety of Qi Weapons on display. Some emitted Sublime Qi, while others had Spiritual Qi.

These were Mortal God & Godlord-tier weapons suitable for them. They were inscribed with all sorts of arrays and formations that could amplify both spiritual spells and Qi Arts that agreed with their attributes. Yan Zhu used a Scarlet Qi weapon without a Heart of Scarlet Qi, yet the weapon would allow her to match those with it. 

Like cultivators, these Qi Armaments were defined by rankings, usually determining the suitability of the weapon to cultivators. An eighth-rank Qi Weapon was suitable for Godlords or Eighth Phase experts. With it, their strength could double, even triple in some cases. If they used a weapon beyond their cultivation, they could reach untold levels of strength.

"I wonder, for the exalted manager of this floor himself to seek out my subordinate and lure her here with the promise of a weapon that she couldn't possibly afford, and then await for my arrival, what's your intention?" Wei Wuyin had a quiet smile as he directly put Han Bo on blast.

This was an obvious ploy to get Su Mei to ask Wei Wuyin for wealth, but how could any leader mindlessly hand their subordinate that level of wealth to handle? They could get swindled or worse.

Han Bo wasn't ashamed. Neither was Su Mei. She understood the intention, but she also knew that regardless of her actions, Han Bo would scheme to bring Wei Wuyin here somehow. Luckily, Wei Wuyin's strength was unprecedented and absolute. In truth, she had a faint hope they had ill-intentions so Wei Wuyin could topple and rob the entire Life World Pavilion.

But that was just a minor hope.

There's no way someone would go to this level of trouble to get Wei Wuyin's attention. 

Han Bo calmly nodded, but he wouldn't offer Wei Wuyin praise for his deduction. If he couldn't deduce this much from the beginning, then he was entirely unworthy of his cultivation base. 

"Apologies for this roundabout manner. I wanted to ensure success, and my old heart still has the need to plan everything carefully."

"You mean scheme everything to your favor?" Wei Wuyin softly chuckled.

Han Bo laughed in response, completely unaffected by Wei Wuyin's burning comment. "Godlord Wei, I've long since heard of your name and seek to make an exchange. What do you think?"

"Depends on what you seek from me," Wei Wuyin responded flatly.

"This exchange would include the Darklight God Saber and Yang-Aegis Robe. They are both top-tier eighth-rank armaments. The Darklight God Saber contains a mixture of pure Light and Dark Qi and a unique array that can converge and merge its strength, producing Darklight Qi. As for the Yang-Aegis Robe, it was a defensive battle robe that can refine the body by absorbing yang energies from sunlight and refine the physical body." Han Bo said.

Wei Wuyin merely responded with: "Depends on what you seek from me." His tone the same, seemingly disinterested in his words.

Han Bo felt his heart sigh. The Yang-Aegis Robe was a treasure that required immense effort and decades to create. It was well-known amongst cultivators as the strongest battle robe for males, its defensive abilities can even rival ninth-rank robes.

It was unfortunate for Han Bo that Wei Wuyin had no idea about Godlord-level armaments, so they couldn't move his heart to reveal any anxiety.

"Godlord Wei, I know you're an Godlord Alchemist with an Alchemic Spirit of Qi. I wonder, are you capable of concocting peak-tier sixth-grade products?" Han Bo asked, finally revealing his purpose.

During his clash with the Jade Lotus Sect, he revealed his pure Alchemic Qi during the process of surgically altering Jiao Ning's memories. This would've been witnessed by many, whether they understood the importance was up in the air.

Wei Wuyin pondered for a moment and nodded. "I can."

A light of elation flashed within Han Bo's eyes. "Good, good, good. I have a recipe here called the Spirit Earth Life Pill. It can—"

"It's primary effect is to help the process of restoring a damaged or crippled spirit. Its secondary effect can help boost one's lifespan. I know the pill." Wei Wuyin unapologetically interrupted. Not only did he know it, he concocted a few during his experimentation of peak-tier sixth-grade products. He had seven low-quality, three high-quality, and two peak-quality pills. 

In truth, he had a lot of products that were mostly useless to him or highly specific. This was because, when he was trained in the Eden Earth Sect, the mantra of the Sect Leader was: "Always be prepared." Who knew if he'd need it for himself, Su Mei, or someone else he considered important.

Han Bo felt even more elated. But just as he was about to speak to seal the deal, Wei Wuyin interrupted him once more.

"I can exchange the pill, but two Godlord-tier weapons seems too little, no?" A grin surfaced on Wei Wuyin's face. And it screamed: "Open your wallet. It's about to feel real empty soon."

Han Bo's heart felt an ominous chill.