Chapter 355: Uncle Tam?
Haru was satisfied with himself as he felt as though he was finally getting a gauge on his strength. Since the bartender had said that it was difficult to catch the feathered rabbits and he had done so easily without much effort he figured that his strength was already pretty good compared to the regular people of the planet.
Although he doubted that he could match up against a warrior that has trained specifically to cultivate their power to kill.
But he couldn't be sure. For all, he knew the people of this planet could have been very weak or extremely strong. But that wasn't something that he could find out unless he decided to pick a fight with one of the locals which he wanted to avoid at all costs.
He didn't even know the laws of the town let alone the world laws. One wrong move on his part and Haru could find himself in a lot of trouble. And that wasn't something he wanted to risk especially since he felt responsible for Hong Xia.
As he thought about all the possibilities on his way back into the city and passed the guards with no trouble. It seemed as though they had all been informed about him since no one tried to hassle him as the other people had to line up.
'I wonder what kind of clothes Hong Xia would like?' Haru thought as he looked around at a few of the storefronts in the main street of the city. He looked around at the people in the streets and noticed they were all wearing bright colours before looking at the long robe that draped over his shoulders which was a dark brown colour.
"Maybe, I could use a little bit of a fashion upgrade too? The lack of colour makes me stand out more than I want to." Haru thought before seeing a store with many different coloured and patterned designed fabric hanging from the windows.
'This looks like a decent place. I hope they have a middle ground between boring and flashy I don't want to be on either end of the spectrum.' Haru said to himself as he walked along the cobbled street, towards the store before pushing open the door.
A bell chimed out as the door opened to reveal a dark and dingy looking store, it was nothing like what he imagined from the outside and he was about to leave before he heard a voice call out.
"Welcome to Uncle Tam's clothing and accessories. Is there anything we can do for you today?" A young-sounding woman called out as Haru's eyes narrowed in on a teenage girl who looked to be around his age standing behind a counter that was covered in many different samples of clothing as she looked up at Haru.
There was a moment of silence as Haru stared at her and looked around the store as he tried to figure out what kind of a store it was. It seemed a little strange to him but he knew that was exactly how people had described him before. He wasn't going to let strange discourage him from entering the store as he knew exactly what he wanted for himself. But as for Hong Xia, he was completely lost.
"Yes, I would like a new robe. Something with a bit more colour but not too flashy. I don't want to draw attention to myself. Are you capable of making something like that?" Haru asked as he stepped further into the store and closed the door behind him before approaching the counter.
"A new robe? Yes, we are able to make them. Do you have any idea what colour you would like in particular or do you happen to know what kind of fabric you want it to be made out of?" The girl asked as Haru thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"Do you have any recommendations? Do you know what would look good on me? I don't really have an eye for fashion." Haru said with a smile as he looked down at the girl who sighed slightly upon hearing Haru's lack of knowledge.
"I can tell. Well, let me just turn on the light so I can get a better look at you. I'm not going to be able to figure out what would match your body shape, skin tone and eye colour if I can't see you very well." The girl said before hitting a switch underneath her desk that turned on all of the lights in the store that were previously turned off.
The whole room illuminated and Haru finally got to see the dire state that it was in for the first time.
There were books and long strips of fabric covering the entire floor. But despite the mess that was all over the place it still remained relatively clean. There was no dust or dirt anywhere in sight and it looked like the mess was recently made which seemed unlikely given the amount but it had to be true since it would be impossible to clean the floors with fabric on top of them.
Haru looked back up at the girl behind the counter as she slid a pair of glasses down from the top of her head and rested them upon her nose as she stared at Haru with a curious look on her face before reaching out before poking him the stomach with her index finger.
"I see…" The girl said as she climbed up onto the counter and sat on her legs as she put her hands on Haru's shoulders as he looked back feeling confused and worried at the same time from the fact that she had started to touch him so suddenly.
"What do you see?" Haru asked as he looked down at the girl as she began to massage his shoulders for a few moments.
"It's a little bit difficult to tell. But you have a unique body. I haven't seen muscles like this before. They are weirdly dense yet not very large." The girl said as Haru remained silent.
'Is this because of that thing that happened when I was training with Li Jun? He called it returning to Origin right? He said that my body would never change so long as I carried on cultivating. But it did change a little bit after his soul partially merged with my body. I don't know if it's that important but I feel like since he was surprised that it's probably the reason that this girl noticed that my body isn't the same as others.' Haru thought as the girl looked at him with suspicion for a few seconds.
"Do you mind waiting a moment? I need to call my boss." The woman asked before running back through the door of the store without waiting for Haru's response, leaving him standing there in the store not knowing how he should feel about being physically violated by her.
But just as he was thinking about it he heard two sets of footsteps coming towards him as the door opened back up to reveal an old man with a long white beard following behind the girl as they both stood behind the counter for a few moments looking at Haru with suspicion before the old man held out his hand.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm the owner of this establishment you can call me Tam." The old man said as Haru reached out to shake his hand but as he did the old man clenched down on Haru's hand as his eyes widened in shock.
"So that's how it is…" The old man said as he withdrew his hand from Haru and bowed his head slightly.
"So I understand that you would like to buy some clothing?" Tam said as Haru hesitated for a moment as he wasn't sure how to feel but decided to go along with it anyway as he still needed to buy some clothes.
"That's right. I want something that isn't too bright or too plain. This robe is making me stand out for all the wrong reasons." Haru explained as he pointed the brown robe that was over the rest of his clothes.
"They are certainly good quality but you're right. That brown does look rather old. Yet I think I might have the perfect thing for you." The old man said as he turned to the girl standing beside him.
"Mai, Bring me a measuring tape, scissors, and that new fabric that we just got in," Tam said as the girl looked shocked by what he had just said but his orders were absolute as he stared down at her with an angry look on his face because she didn't do what he had asked right away. But she quickly ran back through the door again and came back with everything that he had asked for.
Haru caught a glimpse of something dark blue beneath the brown bag that was covering the role of fabric before the old man took everything from her and lay it down on the counter.
"Okay, try to stand as still as possible. I will finish this before you know it." Tam said as a grin appeared on his face as his entire body began to glow a light yellow colour as he reached out and grabbed the tape measure which shot forwards upon his touch and wrapped around Haru's body for a moment before he retracted it and looked at the numbers.
After glancing at the results for a few minutes he reached for the scissors and fabric before revealing a long layer of dark blue fabric that had a slight metallic look to it as it seemed to shine from the light that hit it. But before Haru could even see what he was doing, the man began to move with incredible speeds as he sliced the fabric in many different directions before he called for the girl once again.
"Needles and red threads!" Tam shouted out as the girl reached down to her pocked and threw two small needles at the old man which were quickly caught by the yellow light around his body before they too sped up and attacked the fabric for a few seconds before suddenly stopping as Tam turned around to face Haru.
"Here, try it on. Let me know if you need it adjusting in any way." Tam said as Haru looked on in amazement. He had never seen someone work so fast in his life and it was simply incredible.