Chapter 140: The Clothing Dilemma

More time passed by and it was finally the time for the morning. Lin Mu opened his eyes and took a long stretch to relax his body. He had learned a lot of things in the Sleepscape and there was a lot more that was to come.

But for now, he needed to go to the Hei corps and help them in their mission. Before leaving, he decided to eat and finish the last of the spirit beast meat, so that he could hunt more later on. The taste of the meat was also getting a little old for him since it had been in the ring for a while now.

Although things wouldn't rot inside the ring, there was still an inexplicable change in taste that he could perceive now. While it didn't bother him as much, he still felt better when the meat was fresh and new.

'I should still have some time left.' Lin Mu thought as he looked at the sun that was at the very edge of the horizon.

He entered his kitchen and started preparing the meat. Lin Mu also realized that he was actually about to run out of the spices and condiments he had too. 

"Another thing to add to my list. I especially don't want to forget this. Eating plain roasted meat in the forest would get pretty boring after a while." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

Fifteen minutes later, his meal was cooked, and he finished it in the next ten minutes. Another half an hour later, Lin Mu had assimilated all the vital energy and was now ready to leave. He walked outside and looked at his house one last time before closing the gate of the courtyard and locking it.

Lin Mu didn't know how long they would be out in the forest, thus he just wanted to be sure beforehand. A few seconds after he locked the gate, a person called him out from behind. He recognized the voice and turned to see that it was none other than Hei Ping.

"Sir Lin Mu, are you heading out now? It's still a little early though." Hei Ping asked.

"Yes, but I still have some extra tasks I need to do. It's better for me to complete them now." Lin Mu replied.

"As you wish, sir. Farewell." Hei Ping said as he cupped his hands.

Lin Mu nodded and left to be on his way. He headed towards the marketplace as he wanted to get the things on his list first. Not only did he need the spices and condiments again, even the clothes that he had were getting rather damaged.

The multiple fights and the cleanup of blood he did beforehand had only made it worse for him. Right now he only had two pairs of clothes left for use. Lin Mu now knew that he would be getting injured and damaging his clothes in the future, thus wanted to get them right now.

Just as he was thinking of this, an unusual question popped into his mind.

"Senior, the cultivators that battle a lot, don't their clothes get damage?" Lin Mu questioned.

Xukong who had been engrossed in his own cultivation was a little thrown off because of Lin Mu's question. Usually, the questions he asked were related to cultivation and such, but this time it was related to a much more mundane matter.

"Yes, they do get damaged. So?" Xukong replied.

"Then what do they do with their clothes? Do they just replace them?" Lin Mu questioned.

"They…" Xukong trailed off.

Xukong now realized that he actually didn't know what they did. He himself was a beast thus had no use for human clothes, and getting injured just meant getting his own skin hurt. Beasts technically had no use for clothes, thus this question had stumped him.

Beasts had their fur, feathers and scales which protected them from most of the things, thus they had no use for them. Only humans and other humanoid creatures needed to use clothes to cover themselves. 

Xukong tried to rememberer but realized that there were far too few cultivators that he knew of that were of a low level such as Lin Mu. The others that he knew of or was acquainted with were seldom, if never injured enough to get their clothes damaged.

Some of them had peerless techniques to defend themselves, others had their Armour's, while some were skilled enough that their clothes were actually not made up of normal materials but rather from their understanding of the laws which was then condensed into forming their clothes. 

That final method was simply something that was beyond most of the people in this world, thus he didn't even tell Lin Mu about it. 

"Senior?" Lin Mu questioned again upon seeing that he hadn't received any response.

"Umm, actually I don't know?" Xukong admitted.

"What? Really, you don't know? But why?" Lin Mu asked, feeling surprised.

"I've never had enough interactions with common cultivators. The ones that I did know were never injured enough that their clothes would get damaged, or it was that their clothes were made of unique and strong materials that couldn't be harmed by normal means." Xukong answered honestly.

"I see. I guess I'll just buy multiple sets and keep them with me." Lin Mu replied as he made up his mind.

'I have plenty of money now, anyway. Even a couple of gold coins will be enough for me to buy a hundred sets of clothes.' Lin Mu thought to himself as he kept on walking.

A few minutes later he had reached the marketplace and could see the residents of the town wandering around in warm and thick clothes. While Lin Mu himself was not wearing any warm clothes, the sheer number of armors he was wearing under his outer robe was enough to make it look as is he was.

The first place he went to was a vendor that sold the spices and condiments. He bought plenty of them for about twenty silver coins and completely emptied out the stock of the small vendor. The man was extremely happy and even gave him some extra items as complimentary gifts. 

The vendor also sold some miscellaneous goods, thus Lin Mu actually able to get some items he had been missing over a few days. He got some rolls of rope, writing supplies, storage gourds, and barrels. The shop keeper packed the items into a sack and gave them to Lin Mu. 

Lin Mu simply told the shopkeeper that he'll pass these items to his friends and come back as an excuse. The shop keeper didn't mind it at all and let him leave.

Lin Mu slung the sack on his back and carried one of the barrels with his free hands. He had bought the barrels as he felt like sorting out the meat in them would be a better way to keep it. Lin Mu left the shop and walked into an empty alley where he stored all the things into his ring.

He then returned to continue the process until he had stored all five of the barrels in his ring. Done with this task, he continued on to a clothing shop and walked inside. It seemed as if the shopkeeper had just opened the shop as well since the clerk was still wiping down the door and the counter.

The clerk saw Lin Mu enter and welcomed him inside.

"What would you like today?" The clerk asked.

Lin Mu thought for a bit and wondered how he should frame his question.

"Hmm, I would like clothes that are my size." Lin Mu spoke.

"Very well, please come here so I can measure you." Another clerk spoke and took his measurements.

After being done with it, the clerk then asked again.

"What kind of clothes would you like and how many?" 

"Umm, bring me all of them. I would like… two hundred sets." Lin Mu answered.

The clerk was left stunned and didn't know how to respond. He felt as if he had heard it wrong or something.

"Did you say that right? You want two hundred sets?" The clerk repeated.

"Yes, I do." Lin Mu affirmed.

"Wait, let me talk with the shop owner first. I can't do such a large transaction on my own." The clerk spoke and left to get the shop owner while the other clerk looked after Lin Mu.

The clerk scanned Lin Mu from top to bottom and took note of a few things. He saw the clothes that Lin Mu was wearing of were good quality and that he looked rather well built. The eyes of the clerk then went towards the short sword that Lin Mu had on his waist.

The clerk then silently nodded in approval and waited for the other clerk to return with the shop owner. Two minutes later the shop owner appeared and spoke to Lin Mu.

"Are you sure you want that many clothes? It will cost a lot."

"Yes, I'm sure and the money is not a problem." Lin Mu replied.

"Alright, bring in the clothes." The owner ordered.

The clerks then brought out all the clothes that they had in the shop that were of Lin Mu's size. They counted all of them and found out that they actually only had around 150 sets of clothes that were of his size.

The shop owner tallied the cost and spoke to Lin Mu, "It'll cost you 1 gold, 9 silvers, and 20 copper coins."

Lin Mu nonchalantly nodded and took out slightly more than the specified amount from his pouch and passed it to the shop owner.

The shop owner was actually doubting his eyes and had not expected that he would truly buy all of them.

Lin Mu then liked at the shop owner and thought for a bit.

"Can you deliver all these to the town center? I'll come along." 

The shop owner and the clerks finally believed now.