The table and chairs were made from white corals, also perfectly polished. Beautiful human girls carried large trays made from mother of pearl, carefully bringing a pot of tea and a few teacups. A strand of steam flew out slowly from the spout, and a refreshing aroma instantly suffused the entire room.
White Feather poured Ji Hao a cup of tea. Ji Hao picked up the cup and carefully looked at this simply-designed dark iron teacup, which seemed to be quite special. Observing for a while, Ji Hao’s heart twitched slightly. This cup was forged from an iron piece, as it still had hammer marks on it. In other people’ eyes, this cup might be an ordinary iron piece, but in Ji Hao’s eyes, those hammer marks on it and the natural texture of the cup together was a perfect ‘earth nourishing spell symbol’.
The earth bore the weight of all living creatures, nourishing all living creatures. It created all living creatures, and contained an inexhaustible life-force. ‘Earth nourishing spell symbol’ represented the great Dao of life, which was generated from the great Dao of earth. Human Maguspriests carved this spell symbol on flower pots, and plants growing in those pots would all be especially thriving.
This teacup wasn’t carved specially. Instead, the spell symbol was hammered on it, looking like a natural texture that merged completely with the cup itself. This technique was way more advanced than seal carving. Ji Hao hadn’t heard about one human Maguspreist who could do it so far.
Harmonious, natural; this cup’s maker’s skill had almost reached the level of Dao.
"Great cup! Drinking tea with this cup, your life can be prolonged by many years, right?" Ji Hao spoke out the specialty of this cup.
White Feather glanced at Ji Hao in surprise. In this shop, he treated many customers with this set of teaware, but Ji Hao was the only one who said nothing about the tea, but praised the magical effect of the cup.
A water-kind spirit creature, even an old one, shouldn’t be able to do that!
Even if this old crayfish, Summer, was an especially lucky one, who had the chance to learn things, he should only be familiar with all kinds of water-power-related spell symbols. However, with one single glance, Summer recognized the spell symbols hiding in hammer marks on the cup, which had a nature of earth!
"Good sight! Are you satisfied with the capabilities of our Westin Family, sir?" White Feather was shocked, but he tried to not act like that. Smilingly, he nodded to Ji Hao, and said, "I am surprised, Mr. Summer, you have a good sight."
"I wasn’t born with all my powers and abilities." Ji Hao gave a faint, mysterious smile, drank up the tea in the cup, then put the teacup straight into his sleeve. He even patted his sleeve with satisfaction after that.
White Feather looked at Ji Hao, a bit speechless. He had seen all strange kinds of customer, but putting the teacup directly into his own sleeve? Ji Hao was the first one who did this.
Should he pretend to see nothing? But the teacup was a masterpiece, purely handcrafted by an elder of the Westin Family.
Should he say something about it? But disrespecting a customer for a single teacup? As a member of the Westin Family, if he let anyone else knows about this, what would happen to the family’s reputation?
White Feather looked at Ji Hao’s broad sleeve, unable to help but complain in his head. ‘How can this old crayfish be so shameless? I’ve seen countless powerful spirit creatures, brutal ones, smart ones, evil ones, sinful ones, violent ones, but I’ve never seen such a shameless one!’
"If you like it, sir, you can have this whole set of teaware as a gift when you leave." White Feather’s mouth corners twitched, then he started advertising the products of his family. "This set includes one teapot and eight teacups. You may form an ‘eighty directions earth nourishing formation’ with them. This small formation will make the area one mile in radius around you thriving. Even a rotten wood that died ten-thousand years ago will be revitalized in this area!"
White Feather slightly raised his chin and continued, "Mr. Summer, only an honored guest like you can have a gift like this. This set of teaware is a work of an elder, not even for sale."
More or less, there were some underminings in White Feather’s words —‘Only honored guests can be treated like this; but what kind of customer can be called ‘honored guests’? Hehe, Summer, you old crayfish, figure it out!’
‘Without paying tons of crystals and other treasures, how can you consider yourself as an ‘honored guest’?’
Ji Hao crossed his legs. His legs were long and slim, covered in a thick layer of shell. Neatly, he put the entire set of teaware into his sleeve, then grinned without blushing at all, and said, "Hmm, Mr. Westin, thank you very much. I truly like this set of teaware."
Sighing heavily, Ji Hao reached out his hands and heavily held White Feather’s hand.
White Feather was startled by Ji Hao’s sudden movement. Sensing the sharp thorns on Ji Hao’s palms, White Feather smiled embarrassedly, and asked, "Mr. Summer, what are you doing?" He wasn’t used to being touched just like this.
"Us crayfishes, shrimps, we are miserable!" Ji Hao sighed towards the sky, "We are truly miserable!"
Holding White Feather’s hand tight, Ji Hao said with a bitter face, "We have lowly bloodlines. The other water-kind creatures have chances to become dragons, but we…I don’t even want to mention it. Rivers, lakes, oceans, they are full of us. The power released by any slightly powerful spirit creature can affect those tiny shrimps and turn them into a bunch of shrimp warriors in a few moments!"
"Brainless, powerless, knowing nothing but leaping and shouting around; most of our kids are unmentionable. The powerful ones fight battles, but the ones rushing to the forefront are always those silly shrimps. They die the first, in the most miserable way, in the largest numbers, these silly shrimps!"
Sighing again, Ji Hao continued, "White Feather, you say, how many of our good children have died in vain in the past countless years?"
White Feather grinned embarrassedly, but said nothing.
In any war fought by the water-kind, shrimp warriors suffered the greatest casualty, and that was for sure! Even if those shrimp warriors didn’t die in battles, they would become food of the other water-kind creatures! Not to mention those enormous ones, even an ordinary whale or a dragon whale could swallow a billion shrimps at one single time. Shrimps, they were expendable!
"I think things can’t go on like this!" Ji Hao seriously held White Feather’s hand, looked at him with sparkling eyes, and said, "Therefore, I want to select a batch of elite from my boys, teach them powerful magics, let them wear high-quality armors, and give them strong weapons. It’ll be even better if we can find some flying forts or other things…"
A heavy buyer, definitely a heavy buyer. White Feather started to get excited.
Billions and billions of shrimp warriors existed in the world. If Ji Hao truly wanted to arm shrimp warriors, he would be paying an astronomical figure for the armaments he needed.
"How many armaments do you need?" asked White Feather straightforwardly.
Ji Hao remained silent for a while, then threw the question back, as if he were a super-rich man. "How many can you provide?"
Ji Hao grinned brightly, while White Feather nearly screamed towards the sky —As he thought, Ji Hao was truly a heavy buyer. Ji Hao was a million times more generous than those stingy enormous spirit creatures!