The Lord’s Empire

In another one of the Li family’s rooms, Li Baiqing was sitting on a chair and looking through some documents. A surprised smile appeared on his face as he said, “Who would have thought that I would have a big brother from a different mother!”

As Great Tang’s Legatee, Li Baiqing received the full support of the Li family. They poured all of their resources into him, which he had used to create an intelligence network. That was how he had found out that his grandpa had sent an assassin after Zhao Fu.

After thinking about it, Li Baiqing thought to himself, “ _Zhao Fu, the Li family has wronged you. If you don’t do anything to harm the Li family, I’ll definitely spare you in the future and make it up to you. However, if you become the Ying family’s pawn and try to harm the Li family, don’t blame me for being merciless.”_

“Your Majesty, what should we do now?” A formidable-looking young man asked as he lowered his head and cupped his fist.

This young man had an extraordinary background. He was the descendant of a famed general of Great Tang and was called Li Guangye. Even though he was part of his own family, after meeting Li Baiqing, he was awed by his talent and saw Li Baiqing as a wise liege. As such, he decided to do as his ancestor did by giving his loyalty to Great Tang.

Great Tang also spawned 2 historical figures. One was Xue Rengui, a peerless general who fought and won countless battles and made many heroic contributions to Great Tang. The other was Wei Zheng, a great Prime Minister who dared to speak forthrightly and remonstrate the Emperor.

Li Baiqing replied to Li Guangye, “Don’t worry about it for now. Conflict between the Li family and the Ying family isn’t good for either of us, and it will only serve to benefit others. We’ll let everything proceed naturally.”

Li Guangye nodded and retreated to one side to serve Li Baiqing.

……………………………………………………………..

As for Zhao Fu, he had been moved to where the main family members lived, and Ying Xi had even given him a bodyguard to protect him.

That was all they could do for now. Zhao Fu was much safer now, and when he went to his new room, he took out the Heaven Awaken Stone and chose to enter the Heaven Awaken World.

Zhao Fu discarded his unpleasant thoughts of the real world and completely focused on the Great Qin Village. Right now, the Great Qin Village was the only thing that Zhao Fu could rely on.

Because the Orc threat had been eliminated, Zhao Fu started to scheme about godly spirits. However, he first had to consider whether he could use them for the Heaven and Earth Refining Formation, and he also needed energy stones. With the limited amount of energy left, how could it refine a godly spirit?

Energy stones would definitely be an important resource, whether it was now or in the future. After all, without them, he would not be able to use the Heaven and Earth Refining Formation. However, energy stones were simply too expensive, and they were worth 10 gold coins each. That was 100,000 copper coins!

Zhao Fu did not have that much money, but he could use the equipment he obtained from the region of bones to exchange for energy stones. However, equipment was something that Zhao Fu desperately lacked at the moment.

After conquering so many Outlanders, Zhao Fu took 100 Kobolds from the 300 he had conquered, 300 Goblins from the 700 he had conquered, 100 Orcs from the 400 he had conquered, and 600 Elves from the 1,400 he had conquered to add to his army. Now, Zhao Fu had 2,900 soldiers, but he only had 1,000 or so pieces of Blue grade armor. How could he sell any when he was greatly lacking equipment?

Energy stones were incredibly difficult to obtain, and unless he found a way to earn massive amounts of money, it would be impossible for him to buy any. Zhao Fu started to wonder if he could find any mines for them in the Forest of Horrors.

As such, he could only put his plan of refining a godly spirit on hold. Of course, his plans now were to continue exploring the Forest of Horrors. Right now, Zhao Fu had only explored the 30-kilometer radius around the Great Qin Village, so he wanted to see what other gains he could obtain from outside that area.

Now, he had 2,900 soldiers in total and bringing along so many soldiers was a bit too much. Zhao Fu decided to split them into two teams – one would be led by himself and the other by Bai Qi. They would explore the region around them from different directions.

A few days later, the two teams finished exploring the 50-kilometer radius outside of the Great Qin Village. They did not find anything significant, but they did conquer another four Basic Villages. There was an ordinary Human Village, an ordinary Bandit Village, an ordinary Gnome Village, and an ordinary Goblin Village.

These four villages were able to greatly increase the Great Qin Village’s population because Zhao Fu employed tactics that kept as many people alive as possible. The four villages supplied him with an extra 1,300 people, and he moved 500 of them into his military, increasing it to 3,400 soldiers. Now, the Great Qin Village was definitely the most powerful village in the 100-kilometer radius around the village.

Moreover, after conquering 4 Basic Villages, Zhao Fu obtained 200 Achievement Points, causing him to rank up to Third-Ranked Baron. Even though he was only Third-Ranked, it was still a baronage, which meant that he had the right to upgrade the Great Qin Village into a Town. Apart from this, Third-Ranked Barons also had other special privileges, such as more respect from the guards in main cities, 10% discounts at stores, the ability to buy houses within main cities, and the ability to become a resident of a main city without spending Merit Points.

Zhao Fu was attracted by the ability to buy a house. In some virtual gaming novels, the characters would buy massive amounts of land and then develop and sell it for an astronomical profit.

However, the houses in main cities could only be rented for now. Most people had to earn Merit Points and become a resident before they could buy land. However, they were limited to buying land in the Residential District and could not buy any land in the business or luxury areas, and there was a limit on how much land they could buy.

Zhao Fu knew that he would be able to directly buy houses with his Third-Ranked Baron status, but there might be similar limits. However, he still decided to go to some main cities to have a look. He desperately lacked money, so he wanted to see if there were any good ways to earn large amounts of money quickly.

Zhao Fu used the transportation channel and once again went to Holy Light City. There were not many changes there, and there were still just as many people. After arriving, Zhao Fu headed directly towards the real estate office in the Residential District.

When Zhao Fu arrived, he found that there were only a few people there. Zhao Fu saw a few people he knew: there was Jiang Rou and a few of the Jiang family’s people and the pompous young man from the Zhou family and a few of his followers hanging around.

However, the pompous young man did not dare to go too far. The real estate office was managed by Holy Light City, so even though the Zhou family could act big around players, the Zhou family was nothing in the eyes of the residents of the main cities. If the Zhou family dared to offend the main city, no one from the Zhou family would dare to enter Holy Light City again. The might of a main city could not be defied by just anyone.

Zhao Fu didn’t bother dealing with the scene before him. First, it had nothing to do with him, and second, there was definitely a reason why the pompous young man dared to continuously harass the Jiang family’s people without suffering any consequences.

It could be because the Zhou family was simply too powerful, causing the Jiang family to lower their heads. After all, Zhao Fu could tell that the Jiang family was not weak at all. Alternatively, it could be because their families’ elders supported them developing a relationship or at least permitted it, so no one intervened.