The Lord is Empire

That was only one of the various businesses run by the Merchant Alliance. Apart from selling specialty foods from each region, it also sold clothes, medicinal grasses, and other materials from different regions.

If the establishment of restaurants caused the various factions to start feeling wary, the establishment of the Merchant Alliance made them feel an extremely grave sense of danger, as the Merchant Alliance’s profits would be massive. It wasn’t just the various factions that placed their attention on it, but even the system’s governmental factions took it seriously.

Countless gazes fell on the Drizzle Merchant Alliance, but it ignored all of these gazes and continued to make money in a low-profile way. It didn’t show any signs of danger and acted merely as a businessperson. It even gave the various factions some discounts.

This surprised and delighted the factions. With the Merchant Alliance bringing them benefits, they no longer felt as tense about the Merchant Alliance, and the relationship between the Merchant alliance and the various factions became more amicable. This was exactly what Zhao Fu had wanted. After all, a businessperson had to show that he or she was harmless and would be beneficial to everyone in order to do well.

However, the various factions couldn’t help but try to guess who the Drizzle Merchant Alliance belonged to, but they were unable to find any information, nor could they make any precise guesses. They just had to accept that the mysterious Merchant Alliance couldn’t be offended and was best kept on good terms.

Zhao Fu was quite pleased with the Drizzle Merchant Alliance. It now spanned the Forest of Horrors, Little Valley, Hundred Bamboo, and Red Plum Plains. In order to fool others, he set the headquarters of the Drizzle Merchant Alliance at Little Valley, while the true headquarters was at the Great Qin Town.

Now, the Merchant Alliance and restaurants in each region earned a bit more than 7,000 gold coins per day. 7,000 gold coins did not seem like much, but the four regions added up to over 28,000 gold coins per day, which was 280 million copper coins or $2.8 billion in the real world. And that was only for one day.

As Zhao Fu opened up more and more regions, the profits would be greater and greater. With so much money, Zhao Fu bought all of the energy crystals in all of the main cities, spending 10,000 gold coins to buy 1,000 energy crystals.

Zhao Fu had kept the God-Refining Plan in his heart this entire time, and even though he now had the energy crystals required, he still couldn’t carry out the plan because he was still lacking a few important things. Zhao Fu still hadn’t finished preparing some matters and finding some things, so even though he had the energy crystals, he couldn’t carry out the plan just yet. He would only be able to start it after finding the thing that he needed.

After checking on the Merchant Alliance, Zhao Fu went to Battle City and went to the Arena to see Ge Nia.

Zhao Fu found that Ge Nia had become one of the most prominent fighters in Battle City. Now, anyone who had not heard of Sword Demon was definitely not from Battle City.

Every time Ge Nia fought, the Arena was completely packed, with most of the people there to watch him fight. It was clear how popular he was.

These people liked Ge Nia because they liked to watch him execute people with a cultivation level above his, and they were completely astonished by his superb sword skills. They were also completely stunned by his talent, going through Stage 0 to Stage 0-4 in just a short period of time.

Both the player factions and governmental factions set their eyes on him, and they extended many generous offers to persuade him to join them. However, they were all refused.

Countless people started to investigate Ge Nia. They wanted to know his true identity, where he came from, and what faction he belonged to, but they couldn’t find anything. The only thing that they knew was that he was brought by a mysterious, black-cloaked figure to the Arena one bright morning, which started his legend.

After 50 or so battles, not a single person had been able to force Ge Nia to take off his cloak, and no one had seen the true appearance of Sword Demon.

This made Ge Nia even more mysterious, and there was even a rumor that no one knew what Sword Demon looked like, as those who had ever seen his appearance had all died!

Zhao Fu couldn’t help but smile when he heard those rumors. He went to the big man in charge of registrations, and by now, he had found out that the man was called Zheng Li. Zhao Fu walked over and said, “Brother Zheng! How have you been recently?”

Hearing that voice, Zheng Li turned and saw that it was Zhao Fu, making him feel quite delighted. He smiled as he replied, “So it’s brother Zhao! Here, please take a seat. Sword Demon will be fighting next.”

Zheng Li gave Zhao Fu a VIP seat in the Arena, and Zheng Li’s attitude towards Zhao Fu was extremely good. This was because to everyone else, everyone thought that Zheng Li had discovered Sword Demon. As Ge Nia’s status rose in the Arena, so did Zheng Li’s.

Only Zheng Li knew that it was because he had been lucky. He had luckily been in charge of registrations that day, and Zhao Fu had insisted that Ge Nia compete. Otherwise, he really wouldn’t have discovered Ge Nia, a sword genius.

Zhao Fu sat down – he had come specifically to see Ge Nia’s progress. Following this, Ge Nia walked onto the stage, still wearing his black cloak, but his aura was colder and more powerful.

As he walked into the Arena, countless people cheered his name, making the scene seem incredibly lively.

What surprised Zhao Fu was Ge Nia’s opponent. It was a large, burly man who was wearing clothes made of beast fur and had a large beard. It seemed that he was a Xiongnu person.

“Those from the minority clans can enter the system’s main cities? Or was this person captured and brought here?”

The man piqued Zhao Fu’s interest. Historically, the Xiongnu people had some enmity with Great Qin, and it could be said that they were a powerful enemy. As such, Zhao Fu asked Zheng Li about the appearance of the minority clans in the system’s main cities.

It turned out that in order to increase the number of people in the Arenas, the City Lord of Battle City had allowed the Ancient Fallen Clans, or minority clans, and Outlanders to enter the city.

It seemed that governmental policies really did wildly differ from region to region. Player factions were usually weaker than minority clans and Outlanders, but with the system’s main cities supporting player factions and trading with them, player factions were able to become much more powerful. This included purchasing good equipment, recovery items, and support items. However, since player factions did not have this advantage in Battle City, they were in quite a precarious situation.

Zhao Fu turned his attention to the fight. Facing Ge Nia, the Xiongnu person felt an indescribable sense of contempt, and he raised the scimitar in his hand and rushed towards Ge Nia, seeming incredibly ferocious. Ge Nia knew that the person in front of him was a Xiongnu person, and he did not hold back either.

The battle concluded very quickly. In just an instant, the Xiongnu person fell to the ground and Ge Nia left the stage amidst wild cheering. Zhao Fu could tell that Ge Nia had improved incredibly quickly here, so he told him to remain here. After chatting with him for a bit, Zhao Fu returned to the Great Qin Town.

The next day, a new Void Beast spawned, so Zhao Fu decided to open up a fourth path, which was to the final region around the Forest of Horrors, East Green.