Divine Convenience Store

"Here. It's for you, dear customer. You haven't returned in a while so I haven't had the chance to give this to you." Lin Mo said as he handed Yan Wei his golden loyalty card.

Apart from him, there's only Yu Qingyan's grandmother, the Pavilion Master of the Verdant Sky Pavilion and Lin Yuanzhi, the Sect Master of the White Ember Sect who hadn't picked up their card yet.

"Oh! Shopkeeper, do you finally recognize this one's superiority? I acquired the card faster than any other disciples," Yan Wei smugly said as he swiped the card from Lin Mo's hand. His usual pompousness was once again at the forefront. He glanced at the other four figures around him and noticed that they were all senior cultivators at the Elder level of their respective sects.

Lin Mo didn't say anything and let him continue gloating for a moment, knowing full well that the elders in the group wouldn't entertain his self-important antics for long.

Yu Qingyan rolled her eyes, "Young Master Yan, have some humility. You're putting your sect's name down. You're acting as if this means you're better than the rest of us when it actually means you were reckless enough to throw your wealth at the store first. Mind you, I am the first Golden Patron."

With that declaration, Yu Qingyan puffed up her chest as she glanced at Lin Mo. Somehow, she had already forgotten her previous mindset of not showing off.

Yan Wei scoffed, crossing his arms, "Reckless? I call it being a visionary, Elder Yu. Is there something wrong with what I said? No other disciples apart from me had acquired a golden card."

Chu Yueying, who had been silently observing, chuckled lightly. "Be that as it may. But being the first isn't much of a privilege, Young Master. And Qingyan, how long did you hold that in? Are you hoping for Shopkeeper Lin to praise you?"

"Shut up, vixen. I never thought of that!" Yu Qingyan glared at her and then to Lin Mo who simply tilted his head, waiting for them to finish their bickering.

With their words laced with equal parts amusement and underlying pride, he was rather fascinated with how quickly they had shifted from being skeptical customers to practically competing over who had the most prestige in the store in less than a week.

But then again, he couldn't attribute that to him. It's all because of how effective the store's products were.

Meanwhile, Pill Master Ying and Grandmaster Lian observed the interaction with mild curiosity. They stepped into the store with an ulterior motive but now, they had become the 4th and 5th Golden Patrons simply by purchasing store products a lot more than their peers. While Lin Mo didn't mention the criteria for being eligible for the loyalty card, it was quite easy for them to infer that it had to do with the amount they spent. And that should be the same for the other three.

"Ahem," Lin Mo cleared his throat, bringing their attention back to him. "Now that we have all five recipients gathered, let's move on to the main event. May I present to you: The Viewing Jades."

As he spoke, he held up one of the Viewing Jades that looked like a modern tablet device, allowing its inscriptions to shimmer under the store's gentle lighting.

"As mentioned before, these Viewing Jades will grant you access to our Divine Convenience Store's Bulletin Board. There, you will be able to view our store's announcements, certain promotions, and more. You will also be capable of writing a commentary beneath each announcement post."

As he began his explanation, he noticed that the five Golden Patrons in front of him were tilting their heads and he knew why.

They couldn't visualize what he was talking about even though he was only using a few modern terminologies. They needed to see it directly to understand.

"What is that? An artifact?" Yu Qingyan murmured, narrowing her eyes. "But it doesn't seem like a normal communication jade."

"It isn't." Lin Mo replied. "The Viewing Jade is a special artifact attuned to our store's system. Once activated, it will display a direct connection to our Store's Bulletin Board. Any updates from the store will be instantly visible to you wherever you are in the realm."

After saying that, he handed them the Viewing Jades. As it was an artifact that would become soulbound, they needed to activate it directly to complete the demonstration.

Each of them accepted the Viewing Jades with varying expressions. Skepticism, curiosity, and in Yan Wei's case, blatant excitement.

Lin Mo smirked inwardly, already knowing that once they activated them, they would be hooked.

"To activate the Viewing Jade…" Lin Mo continued, "...infuse it with a sliver of your spiritual energy and acknowledge the bond. It will link itself to your unique soul signature, ensuring only you can use it."

Among the group, Yu Qingyan only stared at Lin Mo for a second. That was enough for him to get her trust.

She immediately did as instructed. A soft blue glow surrounded the Viewing Jade as it pulsed with Yu Qingyan's spiritual energy before the light dimmed and stabilized. The inscriptions on the surface shimmered, forming a holographic display hovering above the jade.

She blinked, surprised as a fully formed interface appeared before her eyes. It wasn't like a typical communication jade, where messages were simply transmitted through voice or written text. This had a structured layout and something resembling a scrollable interface.

"Ahaha! I knew it! This is something amazing!" Yan Wei immediately followed suit, and soon enough, the same glowing display appeared in front of him.
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One by one, the others activated their Viewing Jades as well. Pill Master Ying and Grandmaster Lian, despite their earlier cautiousness, showed genuine intrigue.

Chu Yueying meaningfully smirked as her gaze lingered on Lin Mo's face a second longer. She raised an eyebrow as she stared at its booting sequence.

But then, all of them furrowed their brows when something popped up in front of them.

They were being prompted to input their username as a keyboard also got projected on the screen.

Yu Qingyan was the first one to understand what it was asking as she quickly typed her real name.

However, her fingers froze before pressing the confirmation button. She lifted her head and addressed Lin Mo.

"Shopkeeper, is it required to use our names?"

"I'm glad you asked, dear customer. It is not required. You are free to use an alias. As long as it's not something inappropriate or the name of another person to impersonate them, you're free to let your creativity flow." He answered with a relieved smile. He also forgot to inform them about it, after all.

Hearing this, Yu Qingyan smirked slightly and erased her name, replacing it with "MistyRain." She confirmed her input, and a welcome notification popped up:

[Welcome, MistyRain! You are now connected to the Divine Convenience Store Bulletin Board.]

The others, watching her, wasted no time in putting their chosen username for the Store Bulletin Board.

Pill Master Ying hesitated before entering "EmberAlchemist" as his username.

Grandmaster Lian followed suit, choosing "ScarletTalisman."

Chu Yueying, who had been watching all this with great interest, finally picked the name "CrimsonDaisy."

Yan Wei, however, was the most enthusiastic. He grinned and immediately inputted a name without hesitation. When the others glanced at his screen, they all groaned in unison.

"Young Master Yan… really?" Yu Qingyan sighed.

Yan Wei puffed out his chest. "What? 'UnrivaledGale' is a perfect name for someone as extraordinary as me!"

Yu Qingyanshook her head. "More like 'UnrivaledEgo'..."

Lin Mo was inwardly snickering as watching them was like seeing those old folks from the previous generation getting exposed to modern technology.

After a while, he clapped his hand, taking their attention again. "Now that you've all registered, you can finally see the Store Bulletin Board's main page. An announcement post should be visible there. You can tap and access the whole post.

All five immediately followed his words as they continued staring at their Viewing Jades with fascination.

But not long after that, they all looked at Lin Mo for an explanation.

Yu Qingyan pointed at the words 'Prestige' and 'Future Update' on the announcement while the rest waited for his answer.

They wanted to know what those words meant as they were the only information not included in the poster on the wall.

"Relax, dear customers. For the prestige recognition, you can easily confirm it by leaving a commentary below the post. And for the Future Update, it should be understandable that it's a feature of the Bulletin Board that has yet to be implemented." Lin Mo hurriedly explained.

Eventually, by following his words, the first comments by the customers appeared on the Store's Bulletin Board. Each name was glowing in different colors and effects with a huge golden badge next to it.

MistyRain: "Testing. Is this how it works?"

ScarletTalisman: "Fascinating. The interface is remarkably intuitive. Is this similar to a formation-based messaging system?"

EmberAlchemist: "Hmph. A useful tool. Though I fail to see how this 'prestige recognition' is relevant."

CrimsonDaisy: "Oh? The golden glow around my name is quite pretty. What happens if we reply to someone else's comment?"

UnrivaledGale: "HAHA! Look at this! My name is shining brighter than the rest! As expected of me!"