Fang Shi was immediately inundated with questions from guests that had watched all the trailers when an even louder noise caught everyone's attention. Two familiar faces exited from the elevator while squabbling with each other until they set their sights on him.
"Owner!", the two men rushed over simultaneously.
Fang Shi recognized Peng Hui easily as he always proclaimed himself the number one fan of the store but it took him a few moments to identify the other figure.
"Fellow Daoist Han Shan?", he timidly asked.
The older man smiled, "It has been a few years, but Owner Fang still remembers me."
"Yes, well how have you been?", Fang Shi relaxed now that he correctly remembered the man's name.
"My cultivation has proceeded well since my entering the Profound Sword sect but it's only because of the artifacts you sold to them", Han Shan explained.
Fang Shi nodded in understanding before giving a slight bow to Peng Hui, "Daoist Peng, may I ask why the two of you are having a disagreement?"
Peng Hui quickly returned the greeting before explaining, "I entered the elevator to visit the tea house, but as I went to select the floor I noticed that Senior Han was still inside despite having come down from an upper floor. I waited a few moments from him to exit but when it he had no intention to leave, I went push the button and noticed a new button had been placed on the elevator array control disk. Obviously I had to discover what this new floor was, so I selected 'B1' and was excited to see what lay there. What I hadn't noticed was that Senior Han had finally broken out of the trance he was in. He then stopped the doors from closing, and tried to reprimand me from seeking you out to learn more about some new artifact he says appeared own the gaming floor. Being falsely accused I defended myself, but Senior Han saw you and I followed so I could launch a complaint."
Han Shan looked annoyed at Peng Hui, "Owner Fang, this is a minor issue. Instead, I want to know more about the new artifacts that line the walls and why they weren't advertised like all the other new items shown earlier."
Fang Shi sighed, "I understand, please follow me and I'll explain it. It was my failure in thinking that these new services and items didn't require a place on the light screen."
With a brisk pace, he entered the elevator along with Peng Hui and Han Shan until the space was filled. Other guests realized that there wasn't enough space, and a mass of people went to the stairs. Next to the stairs that ascended to the second floor was a new set that descended into a lower floor, but no one seemed to remember when this new flight of stairs appeared. Though questions seems to form in the customer's mind, they decided to wait until later to ask as they used the stairs in droves.
Fang Shi exited the elevator with the rest of the passengers as a crowd gathered from the people who used the stairs. Everyone murmured as they looked around the room, a large window with several employees were sitting greeted them, as well as walls with thousands of little doors.
"Now I'm sure that you have questions, but first let me explain more about this place", Fang Shi told the crowd, "This is the post office, and its purpose is to send or receive items in between store locations. My senior has recently had a small breakthrough in array formations, and created a teleportation array that connects the two stores. Unfortunately, it can only send items the size of a storage ring or bag and can only be activated once every eight days. There will be a service fee for sending items and each customer can only register with one box. Are there any question?"
"Yes", a woman in a red robe responded, "If both stores have the same products, what's the purpose of this 'post office'?"
"Actually, both locations don't have all the same products", Fang Shi replied, "Before my senior's breakthrough, there wasn't a way to share ingredients from different places. From now on, you will start seeing new dishes make their way onto the menu in the restaurant and food stalls. Also, the next time you log into your account in the cultivation pod, you'll see new services that have been added. One will allow customers to advertise their own goods and services to others as long as you keep a good reputation, and the other will allow for massive auctions. The Heaven & Earth pavilion will only take a commission from these sales, and this post office will the used to transport them if the buyer isn't a local resident."
An excited murmur rose from the crowd.
"Your senior will start hosting auctions?", Han Shan inquired.
"No", Fang Shi shook his head, "We only provide the virtual space so that others can organize auctions. The fee we ask for is for this virtual venue, customer anonymity and safety, and product transportation."
"So how does this 'post office' work?", a man in black asked.
"Whether it's personal or business", Fang Shi began explaining, "You bring the items you wish to transport to the window here. The employees will inspect the items to ensure that they are properly handled, you will pay the fee, and every eighth day the items will be sent to the other store. Everyone that registers a box in their name will receive a message on their Tianmu phone if something is sent to them. When you get the notification, you come here to your box and retrieve the item or you can also have it delivered to you if you pay extra."
"Wouldn't it be possible for someone to steal our items during the delievy?", a man in green robes relayed his worries.
"I believe everyone here is familiar with the birds and puppets that deliver to the city already?", Fang Shi countered, "Even to this day, not one delivery has been blocked and no one is requiring you to use this service."
The man looked embarrassed after hearing the response, but couldn't refute it. After the Heaven & Earth pavilion started providing delivery services, there had been several attempts by others to attack the couriers and rob the parcels but they were all unsuccessful.
"If there aren't any more major questions or concerns, let's move to the game room", Fang Shi suggested as he moved towards the elevator.
Everyone had seemed to have understood the general idea, so once again a mass of people trekked upstairs again several floors until they reached the game room. The game room was almost the same as it normally would be with tables arranged for Go, Mahjong, Shogi, Risk, and Chess except for a new addition. All four walls had new large artifacts set next to each other. Each one had two large screen with two control panels and two seats facing each other. The crowd had doubled from before as more guests had decided to satisfy their curiosity, and follow the group that has travel upstairs.
"Fellow friends, guests, and visitors, this artifact holds a new style of combat strategy that is different than the others in this room", Fang Shi grandly announced, "To better understand this new game, I'll show this to everyone."
A large light screen appeared before the crowd as they wait in anticipation. The black screen changed to a white background as a strange blaring noise could be heard.
Suddenly a voice was heard, "Even if fate plays cruel tricks, I'll carve my own path!"
Another man responded, "Let the heavens fall, I'll slice the stars themselves."
Musical instruments that no one can recognize suddenly started playing a brash song that seem to cause people's blood to boil as the owner of the two voice appeared on screen.
"Wait, that's Li Xiaoyao and the Wine Sword Immortal!", an unseen man in the crowd exclaimed.
An announcer shouted, "Fight!", and the two characters on screen dashed towards each other as they began fighting. Music from an electric guitar added to the song as the heroic song shifted into one of tension as the two character valiantly fought the other and just when it was thought to be a draw, something happened.
"I'll become a real hero, just wait and see", Wang Xiaohu from fairy and sword 2 dashed into the screen as Li Xiaoyao disappeared. The move caught the wine sword immortal off guard and he crashed through some boxes and the back ground changed.
The crowd was about to get upset when another man's voice cut in, "They took everything from me, now I'll take Destiny into my own hand."
The wine sword immortal took a drink and walked off screen as Zhang Xiaofan rushed towards Wang Xiaohu and another round of battle began. After a few exchanges, both made a move and two more characters entered the screen.
"Sword and duty, that's all I know", "Justice will always prevail."
The audience was shocked as Li Xueqi from Jade Dynasty began to fight with Chun Li from the training room. The music kept the pace exciting as the two fought before once again the two exited the screen.
On one side, an old man entered carrying a sword, "Only when the heart is empty, can the sword strike true."
"I'm the master of the fist, tremble before me", Akuma shouted.
The battle reached a fevered pitch as the sword saint Jian Chen was about to unleash World ending sword 23 against Akuma's Evil Intent, but the scene changed as a title screen appeared and background music peaked. 'Soulforged: Warring Destinies' was displayed as the trailer came to an end.
Peng Hui couldn't contain his excitement, "Owner Fang, what is this?"
"It's exactly what it looks like", Fang Shi replied, "You control a character from the games, movies, or shows from the store to battle against someone else. You can even use your own data to put yourself into the game, and battle against the characters or each other. Obviously, this style of fighting is more simplistic than inside the cultivation pod but the purpose is to learn the strategy of fighting. You can face each other one versus one, two versus two, or three versus three, and you can customize your own character how you like depending on your profile. Also a special array is laid around these artifacts to prevent theft and to eliminate noise so that players will not disturb the others in the room, but if this game is popular enough, I'll create another floor just for it."
Fang Shi was about to let the crowd ask more questions when he suddenly felt an emergency notification from his phone. With a quick motion, he checked the message and had a solemn look afterwards.
"Guests, please excuse me but the senior from the other location has just informed me that an emergency situation was requires my attention has come up", he informed everyone, "If you have additional questions, please find a staff member and they will assist."
Fang Shi rushed to the elevator, selected the post office floor, and proceeded to the back of the office where the teleportation array was laid.
"Owner Fang", one of his employees greeted him as he entered the room.
He bowed slightly in return and then handed the employee several glowing card shaped objects, "I have to return to the Tianbao location now. I know the array isn't ready at this time so I'll power it so that I can return. Once my transfer is complete use those card to compensate the array for my emergency transfer, and the teleportation schedule shouldn't be affected."
"Of course, boss", the employee answered as Fang Shi slid additional spiritual stones into the array.
With a quick salute, he bid farewell to the employees before entering the array, heading to Tianbao just a few days after arriving.
Hei Yaoxing was cursing under his breath as he ran through the forest. His father, Hei Tun, had recently returned from visiting the old dragon turtle in the mountain and had assigned him the task of finding You Du. It was supposed to be an easy task, You DU's territory was right next to his own but nothing every goes as planned.
Halfway through his journey, Hei Yaoxing discovered he was being followed by one of the damnable birds from the Fengming Xuanjing, a bunch of birds who wished they were phoenixes, luans, or rocs. After some maneuvers, he figured out his pursuer was Ming Zhaoyan, a sparrow he had some rivalry with for many decades now. Since then, traveling had become much more difficult but with persistence, he had almost arrived to his intended destination.
In the distance, Hei Yaoxing finally saw the walls of Tianbao but that wasn't his final destination. After speaking with some of the local clans, he had discovered that You Du had been seen here after being invited by the five top clans of the Evernight forest. His task was simple, find the clans, ask about senior You Du, and then pass his father's words to the him.
Just as he was about to reach the forest, his instincts went crazy, and he dodge out of the way just as a small sparrow almost speared him.
"Have you gone insane?", Hei Yaoxing shouted, "Even if you can fly, how dare you attack me in my ally's territory."
"Your ally's territory?", Ming Zhaoyan laughed, "You can have the land as the sky belongs to us."
Hei Yaoxing had a hard time hearing her after a few moments, and he realized this meant she had flown far enough away to start her next dive bomb. He ran between trees to make himself a harder target and switched tactics.
"I bet your assignment was only to observe where I was going", he surmised, "And if something strange was found, you'd have to take the news back. What happened? Did you get jealous of watching a superior spiritual beast with a stronger bloodline, and strike out in anger?"
Hei Yaoxing took a quick evasive step afterwards only to see a blur speed past.
"Superior?", Ming Zhaoyan snorted, "Where's a superior bloodline at? I just thought saw some weak trash, and thought I would put it out of its misery."
Hei Yaoxing was pleased that his plan worked but after several minutes, he realized it had worked too well. The sparrow was constantly diving at him at speeds he couldn't handle other than dodging. Every time she passed by, a tree would get damaged or the ground would be lightly scarred. He knew if this continued, they would both gain the ire of the local clans but he couldn't do much other than advancing further into the forest.
Hei Yaoxing had been avoiding the sparrow for an hour when something he never expected came into view, the walls of a human building.
"Ming Zhaoyan, cease your attack", he called out, "There's a strange human settlement here in local tribes lands."
He had hope this would cause her to stop her attacks, but he could feel that she had ignored what said and about to dive again.
As expected, he prepared to dodge again as he felt her closing in on his location only to be shocked when he heard a voice, "I would take his advice young lady, you have caused a lot of trouble."
Hei Yaoxing still had his attention on Ming Zhaoyan when he noticed that a small ball had hit her causing her to disappear. His eyes widen as he realized the implication, and as he turned to face the voice, he felt a small object hit him as well. Afterwards, everything went black.