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Chapter 331 Arrogance
Zhu Yu was still thinking about how Lu Yan said that the outside world had rumors that the Lord of Immortal Fortress was very mysterious and that almost no one outside had the opportunity to see his face. How come they were so lucky and influential today that the guards brought out the Lord of Fortress as soon as they entered? But when he heard that the man was dressed so richly, he was even more surprised that he was just a manager here.

The silk fabric shimmered softly in the sunlight, its texture exquisite. Even the steward of Lu Qing's carefree princely mansion had never worn such fine material, let alone in such a rural place.

Zhu Yu even felt that, let alone Lu Qing, whose household was very simple, even Lu Zhang, the most prestigious of the princes, might not have dared to dress so extravagantly, even with his steward in the Prince Yi's mansion.

"You gentlemen... are you merchants from the capital?" The manager, with a long white beard, stroked his beard slowly with the other hand behind his back, looking Lu Qing and his companions up and down. His gaze lingered on their coarse clothes for a moment, a hint of suspicion in his eyes. He seemed to think their attire was too shabby and didn't look like that of someone from a prominent merchant family in the capital.

“That’s right.” Lu Qing nodded calmly. “We’ve heard that there’s a Fairy Castle here that produces top-quality dyes and silk, so we came here to investigate. If it really does have such superior products, we would be very happy to have Fairy Castle supply us with these raw materials in the future.”

The manager smiled, but the smile was less one of happiness and more like the one of someone who had heard a joke.

“Our Fairy Castle does indeed have a precedent of supplying goods to merchants in the capital.” He said with a somewhat arrogant and lazy tone, “Our castle lord has some connections in the capital. In the past, the shops we supplied were not ordinary shops, but large merchants that catered to the wealthy families in the capital.”

After all… the dyes and silk from our Fairy Castle are the finest. Looking across the entire world, I wouldn't dare say you can find anything of better quality. Naturally, the price isn't something just anyone can afford.”

"Oh? That's great." Lu Qing raised an eyebrow, seemingly oblivious to the arrogance in the old steward's tone, and instead appearing quite pleased with his words. "We also felt that rumors shouldn't be taken at face value. This place is just a remote, desolate area on the outskirts of Lan Kingdom. We had our doubts about what people in the industry said about the best quality raw materials here."

Since the merchants you supplied to the capital in the past were specifically catering to wealthy and powerful families, we feel much more at ease. Please ask the manager to introduce us to your lord as soon as possible so that we can see the quality of your dyes and silk. If they are indeed as good as the rumors outside are, we will place a deposit with you.

But if it's all hype and nothing more than that... then we won't waste our time here.

Our regular customers are all people of extremely high status; they wouldn't even look at ordinary things.

"I see..." The manager didn't expect that after he had put his words to this point, the other party would not only not back down, but would become even more interested. Judging from his tone, it didn't seem like he was bluffing, but rather that he was very confident.

He stole another glance at the person in front of him and thought that although the man's clothes were really not very nice, he had a handsome appearance with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes. He seemed to have an air of nobility between his brows and eyes, which was not the kind of aura that ordinary small merchants and vendors could have.

"I wonder what kind of people are among your regular customers?" he asked tentatively.

“How can I casually tell you about my status as a distinguished person?” Lu Qing glanced at him coldly, seemingly displeased by the old steward’s overstepping his bounds. “Our regular customers only want the finest goods in the world.”

Just like the once-famous Ten-Colored Brocade, our regular customers no longer find it special. Now, they want something even more outstanding than the Ten-Colored Brocade, so of course we have to search the world for even better raw materials.”

Upon hearing the name "Ten-Colored Brocade," the old steward's eyes lit up.

Although many noble ladies in the capital now own the Ten-Color Brocade, when this fabric was first introduced, the only piece was bestowed by the Emperor upon his most beloved Consort Duan. After being made into a dress, it amazed all the powerful and wealthy people in the capital.

Since then, the Ten-Colored Brocade has become famous throughout the world, and noble ladies and noblewomen in the capital flock to it. Even now, many of them own dresses made of the Ten-Colored Brocade, but it is still an extremely prestigious symbol. Even if wealthy families offer them gold and silver, they may not be able to sell it to them.

So now these people say they want to find the best raw materials to weave fabrics that are even more stunning than the Ten-Color Brocade. Does this mean that their undisclosed VIPs are tired of the Ten-Color Brocade and want to take it to the next level and amaze someone with even more beautiful clothes?

The manager was puzzled and couldn't make up his mind.

Seeing this, Lu Qing took out a brocade pouch from his bosom and handed it to the old steward.

The old steward took it with a puzzled look. When his fingers touched the brocade pouch, he paused for a moment. He carefully rubbed it between his fingertips and felt that although the brocade pouch was just an inconspicuous plain cloth, it was smooth and delicate to the touch, and at the same time, it was also crisp and elegant. It was definitely not the kind of material that ordinary plain cloth could have.

The brocade pouch was heavy. He tore open the bag and looked inside, finding a packet of gold melon seeds. He weighed it in his hand; it was heavy, and the sound of the gold melon seeds clattering together was solid, indicating that they were all solid.

"To be honest, Steward, our group set off from the capital and headed straight for Lan Kingdom in search of this Immortal Fortress. However, we were unaware that Jie bandits were lurking in this area, so we were caught off guard and almost suffered a great loss."

Later, they had to disguise themselves and went through many twists and turns to get here, which was quite an ordeal.

"The sun is setting, and things aren't peaceful outside. If it's convenient, we hope the manager can let us stay overnight. Regardless of whether the business deal goes through or not, we can at least discuss it tomorrow." Lu Qing saw that the old manager's eyes were practically glued to the gold melon seeds, so he spoke up again.

The old steward was probably a little dizzy from being dazzled by those golden melon seeds. When he heard Lu Qing mention the Jie bandits, he quickly nodded and said, "This area is really the most peaceful in our fortress."

"In that case, distinguished guests, please follow me. We invite you to settle in our fortress for the night!"