"Ah," Shu Wei shyly replied as he remembered he was supposed to hide his cultivation level before entering the village.

"The Chief would be happy to see you finally brokethrough," the merchant continued. "Ho ho ho, I'm pretty sure, he'll have the more reason to recruit you to settle in the village."

The merchant happens to be also an elder of the village. He is fondly called by everyone as Elder Lu. He first came into the village about ten years together with a 4-year old boy who he said was his nephew.

"You're jesting Elder Lu.. you know that I am quite satisfied with my backwater abode in the plateau," Shu Wei said.

"Now, now," the Elder Lu chuckled, "you know how much the chief fights for 'ward' rights over your family against Gale village."

Shu Wei just shook his head embarrasingly.

"Whoever wins your favor will be having a lifetime bragging rights as the stronger village," the merchant described passionately.

The Shu family is not particularly strong, but in this remote area of the region, any village would welcome a family of cultivators.

And now that Shu Wei entered Sage realm, it's only a matter of time before the two chiefs visit the plateau like never before and try to lure the family by all means to join their respective villages.

Again, Shu Wei just shook his head embarrasingly.

Unknown to him though, Qai was listening intently to their conversation with a big grin deep inside his face. It was his first time to hear something about his father's reputation.

"Anyway...," the Elder Lu finally breaks the awkward conversation, "what can I actually do for you?"

"Well, my son here wants a 'Beast Taming' skill," Shu Wei replied with a still-embarassed look on his face.

"That's easy." The merchant took the scroll from a spatial box.

"This is a common class skill with almost no prospective buyer," the merchant said as if emphasizing a caveat for choosing such skill.

"How about it," the merchant added while turning his head to Qai, "buy another skill scroll from me and I'll give you this one for free."

Elder Lu saw the cub and figured out that the black tiger must be the beast the kid is gonna contract with.

"I'll be honest with you kid," the merchant once again turned his voice in a warning tone, "this 'Beast Taming' scroll is sold for 10 silvers and I'm giving it to you for free. But just so you know, this skill is not always a wise choice."

"That's alright, Esteemed Elder" Qai assured in reply. "I have already made up my mind. But I would be shamelessly take advantage of your offer."

"Father, let's check out the list that we need to buy, we might chance upon one of the skills we need."

Shu Wei nodded in agreement.

After few minutes, they found nothing worthy of note as rare scrolls are just what it name suggests save for the 'Intermediate Healing' that naturally suits Shu Lings path of cultivation.

The healing scroll was sold for 500 silvers which is equivalent to half a gold coin.

"This scroll is a rare one, normally it would be sold for a gold coin, but for old time's sake Shu Wei, I'm giving you a whopping 50% discount, how about that, eh," the merchant said.

In this cultivation world, 1000 copper coins is equivalent to a silver and 1000 silver coins is equivalent to a gold coin.

To better illustrate the value of the currency, the Shu family's inn charges its customers 100 coppers a night with a free meal made out of demonic beast meat.

Beast cores and basic pills are sold in silvers. And this goes to show how valuable skill scrolls are.

And so for this transaction, the father and son thought they had a good bargain.

After some more idle talks with the merchant, the two decided to stay in the village for the night. So, they went to an inn at sunset, had their fill, and went straight to their rooms.

Qai went to his bed and sat in the lotus position to learn his first skill.

When he opened the scroll, ancient symbols immediately circled around his head. Few breaths later, the symbols started to dissipate in midair and stopped in front of Qai and then 'swooosh'--a golden beam flashed towards his forhead.

Afterwhich, Qai felt his dantian to be filled with different but harmonious energy. It's not Qi, but it does not felt foreign either.

Qai knew that this is what it feels to have learned a skill.