The Lord is Empire

The process of opening up a new region was the same as before, and soon, Zhao Fu arrived at East Green. The rocks on the ground were covered with lush, green moss, and there were few trees but many creeks here. There would sometimes be fog in the air, making the place seem quite dreamlike and beautiful.

East Green had four main cities, which were Southlight City, Heavenstone City, Ninesun City, and Seemwater City.

Just like before, Zhao Fu went around the main cities and found that the specialty good here was a type of freshwater fish. These fish were found in most of East Green’s creeks, and they looked like normal grass carps but slightly smaller. Their meat tasted incredibly delicious and tender, and they were loved by many people.

After looking at the goods in the main cities, Zhao Fu went about his business of buying properties and opening restaurants. He went to each of the four main cities and found that there were fewer players in Heavenstone City than the three other cities, but he could not figure out why.

After buying properties, Zhao Fu hired some people to start renovations and to make preparations for the grand openings. After taking care of these things, Zhao Fu started to send out his Intelligence Department, Eternal Night, and planted people in each of the main cities.

The one who was most excited about this was undoubtedly Liu Mei, as Zhao Fu normally restricted her greatly. Guo Binglin, Wang Ergou, and the other high-ranking members of the Intelligence Department could use teleportation channels at their discretion, but Zhao Fu restricted Liu Mei in this matter. Because of this, she always seemed unhappy when she saw him.

Now that Zhao Fu was no longer restricting her, she could finally use teleportation channels as she wished and go to the main cities whenever she wanted to supervise the operatives. As such, she was incredibly happy.

However, Zhao Fu reminded her that he would restrict her again if she didn’t take her job seriously or made trouble for him.

In response, Liu Mei acted incredibly obediently and continuously praised Zhao Fu.

Beside her, even Wang Ergou couldn’t help blush with shame, wondering where the domineering and boorish Third Mistress went – she was now better at flattery than even him.

Eternal Night established a small part of itself in each main city, with around 10 or so people per main city. In order to conceal their identities, Zhao Fu ordered them not to come into contact with any of the other Great Qin subjects in the main cities. They were to focus on collecting intelligence for now, as there were not yet any assassination targets.

Following this, Zhao Fu took out the Heaven Awaken World map and started to look at it seriously. Now that he had opened up paths north, south, east, and west of the Forest of Horrors, he needed to do some more planning and strategizing.

…………………………………..

In Holy Light City, Jiang Feng walked into Jiang Rou’s clothing shop and looked at her doing the accounts. He said with a caring expression, “Lil Rou, just leave the accounts to other people. You have a lot on your plate, so don’t tire yourself out.”

Jiang Rou stopped and looked up at Jiang Feng with a slight frown. She knew that her big brother would not come to find her if he didn’t need something from her. She knew that he was only pretending to care about her, so she calmly asked, “Big brother, what have you come to find me for?”

Because Jiang Rou didn’t appreciate his fake attitude, Jiang Feng looked quite awkward as he said, “It’s not much. I just wanted to ask how the clothing shop was going.”

“It’s doing quite well! It’s already somewhat famous, and many members of upper-society have started to order clothing tailored from here. We’re earning about 50 gold coins per day,” Jiang Rou replied curtly.

Hearing this, Jiang Feng was quite delighted and said, “Lil Rou, you should know that the Jiang family and Zhou family’s relationship has become quite strained, and putting aside why, the Zhou family seems to have obtained a nation’s legacy.

“The Jiang family’s in quite a dangerous spot – I heard that Zhao Xin hasn’t come to see you in a while, and I wanted to buy 500 Blue grade equipment sets for the Jiang family’s elites. Please talk to Zhao Xin about this!”

Jiang Rou could tell what her big brother wanted – he wanted to push her towards Zhao Xin to use Zhao Xin’s power to develop the Jiang family and defend against the Zhou family. He wanted something to happen between her and Zhao Xin while also obtaining some benefits.

Equipment sets consisted of a weapon and a set of armor, so 500 equipment sets meant 1,000 pieces of Blue grade equipment. Right now, a single piece of Blue grade equipment cost around 300-500 silver coins.

1,000 pieces of Blue grade equipment would be at least 300,000 silver coins, and even the Jiang family would be pained to spend such an amount. What’s more, this was the absolute lowest price, so they wanted her to personally talk to Zhao Xin.

“I’m not doing it!” Jiang Rou said somewhat coldly after finally hearing what Jiang Feng wanted. She was angry that the Jiang family wanted to use her as a tool, but she also didn’t want Zhao Fu to think of her as a woman who was just trying to use him.

Jiang Feng didn’t panic when Jiang Rou refused, and he started to use all kinds of matters, like their family, their parents, and the Zhou family, to persuade her.

In the end, Jiang Rou could only agree. Hearing this, a smile appeared on Jiang Feng’s face as he turned and left. Jiang Rou lowered her head, silently wiping away a few tears.

………..

“What is it, Jiang Rou?” Zhao Fu lightly smiled as he sat opposite Jiang Rou, who looked apologetic.

“Zhao Xin, I… would like… to buy some equipment!” Jiang Rou said with great difficulty.

Zhao Fu smiled and didn’t mind, and he nodded as he replied, “Sure! How many do you want?”

She looked up at Zhao Fu and breathed in deeply as she asked, “I want to buy 500 Blue grade equipment sets; can you give me a discount on them?”

“Haha!” Seeing how uncomfortable and tense Jiang Rou looked, Zhao Fu realized what this was about and couldn’t help but laugh, and he said, “Of course, I’ll give you 40% off.”

Jiang Rou let out a sigh of relief and felt incredibly grateful and ashamed – Zhao Xin treated her so well, yet she had the audacity to ask him for a favor. She soon started to tear up.

Zhao Fu asked with a concerned expression on his face, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Rou fought back the tears and shook her head, indicating that it was fine.

Zhao Fu felt that something was off, but he was not in a position to ask. At this moment, a soldier came to report that there were matters for him to take care of, so he apologized to Jiang Rou and said his farewells.

“Thank you so much!” Jiang Rou suddenly said with her head lowered.

Zhao Fu stopped walking and said, “No need to thank me; we’re friends. I’ll do my best to help you, and you don’t need to feel like you owe me anything. Perhaps I’ll need your help in the future!”

Those words completely undid the knot in Jiang Rou’s heart. She hoped that one day, she would be able to help Zhao Fu in return, and she lifted her head and beautifully smiled.

Zhao Fu was able to relax when he saw that Jiang Rou felt better. He cared about Jiang Rou, as she was his first friend, so it was only normal that he would help her.