The Lord’s Empire

Zhao Fu decided to name the restaurant Westfall Restaurant because the sun was setting in the west when he had bought the place, and the sunset glow was especially beautiful as night was falling.

As for the equipment shop, Zhao Fu decided to call it Ancient Equipment Store because the equipment they were selling was fairly old.

After taking care of matters there, before he had even formally opened the store, many people had come to buy equipment. Following this, he took 100 gold coins to a large building.

The building was the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Zhao Fu took off his cloak and put on a big smile as he handed a few silver coins to the guards. Adding on Zhao Fu’s status as a Third-Ranked Baron, the guards quickly reported to the Minister, and soon, Zhao Fu was invited in.

After arriving at the guest hall, Zhao Fu saw a white and chubby middle-aged man sitting on a chair. Zhao Fu walked up and slightly bowed, saying, “I greet lord Minister of Internal Affairs.”

Even though Zhao Fu was a Third-Ranked Baron, which could make ordinary residents respect him, to the Minister of Internal Affairs, who wielded a lot of power, he was nothing.

Seeing this, a trace of a smile appeared on the Minister’s chubby face as he motioned with his hand and said, “Sir, please sit. What matters would you like to discuss with this official?”

Zhao Fu sat down on the chair beside him and lightly smiled before saying, “This lowly one has opened two shops in Holy Light City. I’ve long since heard of Minister’s illustrious name, so I came to pay my respects.”

Following this, Zhao Fu took out a small sack containing 100 gold coins and presented it to the Minister, saying, “This is merely a small token of my admiration; I hope your lordship will accept it.”

The Minister saw golden glimmers through the neck of the sack, and when he received it and felt it, he knew that it most likely contained around 100 gold coins. His smile instantly became sincere and warm, saying, “Sir can come and visit me whenever sir wants, and I will always welcome sir here. In the future, there’s no need to bring any gifts.”

As he spoke, the Minister stuffed the sack of gold coins into his own pocket with great deftness.

Of course, Zhao Fu would not believe his courteous words. He had already gathered information about this Minister; otherwise, he wouldn’t have come to meet him. Seeing that the Minister had accepted his money, he quickly replied, “Yes, yes, this lowly one understands. My little shops will have to rely on your lordship’s care in the future.”

The Minister smiled and nodded as he replied, “But of course. That’s right, does sir know you can hire 10 soldiers?”

Zhao Fu understood that the Minister was going to provide him with some benefits now, so he pretended to look confused and shook his head.

Seeing this, the Minister said, “Recently, some scoundrels have been making trouble, and Holy Light City has been in a bit of chaos. How about I send 20 soldiers to serve as guards for sir?”

Zhao Fu was delighted. He knew that hiring a Stage 1 soldier for a month cost at least 10 gold coins. Hiring 10 Stage 1 soldiers would have cost him 100 gold coins per month, and now, the Minister had gifted him 20 Stage 1 soldiers to serve as guards. This already completely eclipsed the 100 gold coins that he had given to the Minister.

However, this also meant that he might have to send gifts to the Minister now and then. Zhao Fu had no other choice though – if one wanted to do well, one had to get along with officials or even become friends with them.

“I’ll have to thank your lordship then,” Zhao Fu said. After chatting for a bit longer, he put on his cloak and took the 20 soldiers to his restaurant.

By the time they arrived, Zhao Fu’s employees had already covered a few tables with dishes, and Zhao Fu said to the soldiers, “Don’t hold back, all of this is on the house. In the future, I’ll have to rely on all of you to work hard.”

The soldiers all revealed looks of hesitation. They were ordered to come here to serve as guards, and they weren’t here to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves.

Seeing this, Zhao Fu smiled and said, “Don’t worry; just take this as an order from me. There’s no need for you all to worry needlessly.”

The soldiers looked at the delicacies on the tables and said with an embarrassed expression, “Thank you, boss.”

The soldiers gathered around the tables and started to heartily eat and drink. They did not frequent restaurants because most restaurants around here were fairly expensive.

After the soldiers started to eat, Zhao Fu told his chefs to prepare more food. After a while, he opened the doors and loudly called out, “Today is the restaurant’s grand opening; everything will be free of charge for residents of Holy Light City. Please come and eat however much you want! Do note that players, however, will have to pay.”

Right now, most players were incredibly poor and there were many of them. If Zhao Fu did not limit them, everyone coming in would be players, and the residents would not even be able to squeeze in.

In order for one’s business to do well, one had to let people know how good one’s products were. The residents were quite curious of the strange and wonderful food on the tables. Since it was all free, they did not hold back.

Zhao Fu left 10 soldiers there to maintain order before returning to his equipment store. He loudly called out that today was the equipment shop’s grand opening and everything would be 20% off. He then left 10 soldiers there in order to prevent anyone from making any trouble.

Zhao Fu was especially on his guard against the Zhou family. If the Zhou family was not amenable to reason and tried to make trouble for him, he would have to find an opportunity to get rid of them.

Just like that, the first day passed. The restaurant did not make any money, and it instead lost a lot of money. However, business on the second day was better than the first’s. Those who had come to eat on the first day had told everyone they knew about the restaurant, and many people, who were filled with curiosity, came to try the new food.

The equipment store sold 400 pieces of equipment on the first day, generating a terrifying revenue of 1,600 gold coins. After selling so many just on the first day alone, Zhao Fu was worried that he would not have any more to sell in the future. Because of this, Zhao Fu started to sell some of the White grade equipment as well.

In order to attract people, Zhao Fu also brought out a few Silver grade weapons. Normal shops owned by the main cities usually did not have Silver grade equipment, so those weapons drew quite a bit of attention. Apart from equipment, Zhao Fu also brought out a few of his Refined Martial Souls.

Refined Martial Souls all gave different grade skills. Some people even sold F grade skills, but most of them were worth 1-2 gold coins. The lowest grade skill that Zhao Fu sold was C grade, but because they were all physical skills, they were worth around 20 gold coins.

No matter if it were the Silver grade weapons or Refined Martial Skills, Zhao Fu did not want to sell any of them. As such, Zhao Fu priced them at ridiculous prices. Blue grade weapons were sold for 4,000 silver coins, while Zhao Fu priced the Silver grade weapons at 40,000 silver coins. The Refined Martial Skills, which were worth around 20 gold coins, were priced at 200 gold coins.

In order to increase the popularity of his equipment, the signs introducing them described them as weapons from tremendous ancient battles. The signs claimed that all of them possessed powerful ancient energy that ordinary people could not detect and that these weapons were waiting for someone connected to them by fate who saw their value and would bring them to divine glory again.

As for the Refined Martial Souls, the signs said that they had been left behind by ancient spirits and contained great powers. The signs claimed that it was possible for them to unlock godly SSS grade skills, but ordinary bumpkins would not be able to comprehend their profoundness.

“Haha!” Zhao Fu was quite delighted. By doing this, no one would dare to say that these goods were fake because that would be tantamount to admitting that they were ‘ordinary bumpkins’ who did not have good taste.

After making these signs, Zhao Fu’s equipment store became much more famous than those opened by residents around him. Rumors about ancient godly weapons and skills left behind by sacred spirits started to be spread around.