These two items, unlike the others, were made of higher materials. Yet somehow, they were locked at the peak grade of the first stage.

Fengyu inspected them quite a lot, and yet he still couldn’t exactly determine their stage. It was weird, as if it was an item of a higher stage, yet its power was clearly of the first stage.

"Fellow daoist, you have a keen sense." The female refiner behind the counter spoke up when she saw him only staying on the left shelf for a short time, then go to the right shelves, go through these items, and then remain for a long time on the last item.

Among her customers, there were quite a few who looked wealthy, and also a few who looked impoverished like this one, so she didn’t really care about their appearance and instead judged their quality as customers based on their behaviour.

Anyone who glanced at the left shelves for a longer time would be stamped as useless customers, those who looked over the right shelves were normal customers, and those who focused deeply on the top shelf of unique items would be the customers she truly catered to.

"These items are of an extremely high quality," Fengyu commented as he looked at them, "This brush seems to only have a single character engraved, but the most important part is the first sentence - anyone with deep understanding of taoism may draw the characters in the air on their own.

Doesn’t this mean there are infinite ways to use this item?

And the rulebook... I’ve never seen such an item! Domains are extremely difficult - to think there’s an item that can directly change the rules of a domain!"

"It seems fellow daoist is truly insightful," the refiner said again, her voice carrying a hint of appreciation - this cultivator didn’t care about the other items at all, only focusing on these!

"Indeed, domains are quite difficult to construct. Haha, this item can actually be used like a formation plate - placed on a spiritual vein, it can directly influence the whole area of this vein. Outside, its range depends on the cultivator," she explained with excitement, as if she wasn’t the one who crafted it.

"As for this brush---" she looked over to the brush, her eyes carrying a hint of annoyance, "It was initially crafted for a taoist who talked about being upright and righteous. But when I created it and presented to him the character ’Jian (Frugality)’ he said that it didn’t fit him and that he wouldn’t take it.

How is this possible! This character is one of the three treasures of taoism - I researched day and night and finally decided on this one," she explained, anger slightly flaring up in her words.

Yet Fengyu only saw an elegant lady, really making it difficult to connect her with a weapon refiner. Her robe was slightly loose, allowing him to clearly see her hands and arms - fair and soft, white without a single blemish or mark, as if they had never even touched a hammer or other refining tools.

Even when she was angry, she only seemed like she was complaining to her friends, not like the anger a cultivator should feel when a deal was broken after crafting an item -

His mind quickly returned to the present as he observed her, listening to her words.

"Ordering something and not paying? And this Jian seems extremely useful - just my first thoughts are to use it on enemies and lessen their spiritual power, making them ’frugal’ in their use of spiritual power, or something else. No matter how I think about it, it seems to be an extremely strong item..."

"Right!" she deeply agreed, "When I first said Jian, he looked so happy, but when I said it’s frugality, his face contorted..." she looked annoyed.

As she did so, she looked over to the customer, who... also had a look of disdain.

"Such cultivators who focus on image and vanity... fellow daoist, you really should forget them!" Fengyu complained, the argument making him feel closer to this refiner, so he dared to be so presumptuous and say such a thing.

"Business is poor, I have to take business even from people like this," she complained.

"Ah, then today is a day of fortune for fellow daoist and me!" Fengyu smiled as he pointed at the rulebook, "I want to purchase this item!"

Just as he said so, he looked over to the price, and saw... there was no number.

"Fellow daoist..." the refiner looked wryly, "To be honest, these items aren’t for sale. They’re merely showcases so that fellow daoists can judge whether they want to order an item from me."

"Oh..." Fengyu looked over to the rulebook, looking unwilling.

"Fellow daoist, you need not worry. As described, this is only a single page of a rulebook - although this is a showpiece, in fact, what fellow daoist needs is a rulebook foundation. Without that, no matter whether you get this page or not, you won’t be able to achieve much." She explained clearly and openly, obviously not trying to scam anyone, while also feeling a bit expectant. This customer seemed to have deep pockets!

"Then, fellow daoist, could I first purchase a rulebook foundation?"

The cultivator instantly nodded, "No issue, no issue - the foundation includes three items: Case, Binding, and the Introduction Page.

Fellow daoist first and foremost needs the case, while the binding and the introduction can be added later. Each of them costs 100.000 spirit stones! And a single page on which a rule can be placed also costs 100.000 spirit stones!"

The refiner stated a price that Fengyu could barely accept.

What? A rulebook foundation costs 300.000 spirit stones in total, and then you have to get at least one page... all for what?

Looking over to this page, he felt a sense of being scammed. A showpiece? 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Her initial explanation seemed like you could use the page even without anything else, and now it’s as if you have to buy the foundation to use it...

What a good marketing scheme!