Molting the Mortal Coil

Something about the giant egg, caught his eye and Sage immediately asked about it.

“Ahh, what a discerning eye you have, Sir Lang. That is one of my most treasured objects! Legend says that it’s the egg of a Dragon, but as you can see there is no lifeforce coming from it. It’s nothing more than an unfertilized egg, probably from a Demonic Beast. It’s only use now is as an ingredient for an alchemist, but it’s far too beautiful for that. There’s plenty of other demon eggs to use for alchemy but such a large and beautifully scaled golden egg is a much better decoration!”

As Sage got a better look, he also noticed that the egg’s shell seemed to be shaped like overlapping scales, each with a sharp point facing upward. After getting permission he even walked behind the desk and got a closer look, at which point he saw that the egg-shell didn’t just have a scale pattern on it, but it actually looked like the egg was armored in individual golden scales. He also didn’t feel any signs of life from it, meaning it was likely quite true what Xuan Bai said… on the other hand, he didn’t need an egg to have life in order to benefit from it. I have to have it. This could be a lucky break!

So began a round of intense negotiations. Sage knew he was in trouble as soon as Xuan Bai introduced the item as one of his most treasured objects. Obviously, it wasn’t. If it was treasured by him it wouldn’t be in the showroom, and it definitely wouldn’t be behind the desk where everyone who came in to do business was guaranteed to see it. It was more likely something was wrong with it that made it unusable as an alchemical or cooking material and so now it was stuck here as a decoration. He carefully hinted at different ways that the Egg could be useless until finally stumbling upon it.

“The shell is so very powerful and amazing, not even a herd of beasts could break it. Wouldn’t an intrepid warrior like yourself want their decorative treasures to be immune to damage?”

Sage called him out, and with more chattering found out that nobody could break the egg. They’d even tried putting it into the blacksmith’s forge of one of the Peak Masters with no result. Finally after nearly a half-hour of bartering and bantering the full story came to light. The egg was nearly three hundred years old, recovered from an abandoned monster den. It originally had a powerful aura and they thought it was a great treasure. The problem then came as they couldn’t hatch the egg for a decade. Next they downgraded it to a material but were unable to crack the egg open. Most monster eggs were either hatched and the monster’s tamed or cracked open and used as a material for alchemy or chef recipes. Dozens of more and more drastic methods were tried until they finally gave up. The aura the egg carried had dissipated after the first decade, which is why they gave up trying to hatch it. After a century it had become nothing more than a show piece and now it sat here in the Antique Shop.

For some reason Xuan Bai thought it was still special and so he resolved to sell it at a high price, which is why it still sat here today. Powerful Cultivators had long lives so many grew to appreciate antiques, or wished to regain objects they had earlier in their lives. That said, none of them wished to pay for mere decorative objects as if they were Cultivator resources. There was a reason this place was in the Servants District. If they were willing to pay massive amounts of contribution points or spirit stones for old objects the Antiques business would have a Profession based around it. Most of the businesses in the Servants District dealt mainly in gold coins, just like the mundane businesses outside of the Holy Flame Sect. That’s why it was so surprising when Xuan Bai finally named a price.

“Ten thousand Spirit Stones.”

Sage was amazed, that was ten times the price he’d paid for his Tiger Glove. Even the extravagant Memory Sphere altar usually only cost two thousand. It’s no wonder the egg was still sitting here after so very long. Thinking back, Sage had noticed a case full of weapons when he walking in. They were all Top-grade mortal treasures, but when he asked they were priced at many times higher than normal. Xuan Bai had told him they were priced for their artistic merit, age, history of their former owners, magnificent craftsmanship and their materials. This isn’t a weapons shop, but an Antiques Shop. Now he realized the same applied to everything here.

“All that you’ve brought me today… I’ll be generous and give it a value of five thousand spirit stones.”

Sage was further surprised, earlier they had been haggling over the prices for the furniture at around a thousand spirit stones in total. It seems the knick-knacks he’d provided from within the desks were worth quite a bit more. He asked to confirm.

“Yes, you’re quite correct. I noticed an indentation on one of the desks that perfectly matched one of these items, so I’m guessing that these are all objects that were found in the desks. If that’s the case then they are worth far more as a matching set!”

Sage was pleased by the news since he didn’t care in the least about engraved writing pens, jeweled paperweights, and embossed letter openers. He’d already sorted out all the valuable magic tools, but he brought them out just to be sure. Unfortunately, the price that Xuan Bai offered was basically the same as he’d get selling them to anyone else. They were magic tools and were far more valuable than antiques. A simple magic tool could cost dozens to hundreds of spirit stones, so their value was only barely raised by being antiques. This was an Antiques Shop so Xuan Bai wasn’t in the business of buying magic tools, it was the same reason the weapons case only had top-grade mortal treasures and no magic treasures. They were worth far more to Cultivators than to collectors. Oh well, may as well let him have mostly complete sets!

Sage even brought back some of the basic stationary and supplies he’d found in the desk and Xuan Bai was able to pick out a few with value. Sheets of paper that had been on top of the stack picked up some impressions of ink from the sheets above it. The small jars the inks were stored in, the case that had held the Memory Force, along with a few other decorative objects Sage had overlooked. He threw them all into the deal. He only had a little under five thousand spirit stones right now and had come here to make money, not spend it!

Finally, he got the balance he owed down to four thousand spirit stones. When he took out the stones to pay he stopped and had one last question.

“You don’t have any other eggs here, do you?”