Star Gate

“Intelligence reports are one thing and of less importance,” said Hou Xiaochen. “This manager also holds a few more titles, such as being a broker. Do you understand?”

“An intermediary?” Li Hao frowned.

“Pretty much,” Hou Xiaochen laughed. “No matter what you want to do, find, or ask, you can do so through the Nine Dragons Pavilion! For example, if you want to buy a position—perhaps being inspector general of the Silver Moon Inspectorate—you can ask her how much it will cost or what kind of price you’ll have to pay.”

“That would be a costly transaction!” Li Hao laughed.

“Not at all!” Hou Xiaochen shook his head. “Your concern should be that you won’t be able to report to work, or that you’d die shortly after starting in your position. The position of Silver Moon Night Watcher director was once on sale here—it was available for one thousand pieces. During that time, I kept refusing the central Night Watcher command for me to redeploy to Skystar City, so the person who bought it couldn’t fill the position.

“Later on, there was someone fearless who wanted the position. They died before even reaching Silver Moon. The North Sea pirates killed them!”

“It must have been the Starlight Pirates and White Shark Raiders who did it,” Li Hao broke out laughing.

“Pretty much.”

Sweat beaded the manager’s forehead. She looked at Hou Xiaochen with a vague look of horror. This one knew everything in full detail! How did he obtain his information? Did he have a lot of secret agents in Skystar City?

Li Hao was also finding that he was learning a lot today. All the talking had made him hungry, so he smiled at the manager. “Where’s the menu?”

The manager forcefully calmed herself and set a menu in front of Li Hao. Other attendants supplied menus to Hou Xiaochen and Manager Yu as well. The young man flipped it open for a look…

Damn! So expensive!

“You sell monster spirit soup?”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you afraid of the monster spirits coming for you?”

“They’re the ones who deliver some of our ingredients.”

“I see.” Li Hao nodded. “Nova-level monster spirit meat is so expensive! One plate costs five hundred stones?”

“There aren’t many monster spirits of that level and they’re difficult opponents…”

Li Hao looked at Panther below his feet and chuckled. The dog shook. “I have a dog here that’s the descendant of an ancient monster spirit and possesses peak Nova battle strength. Its bloodline is pure—will a plate of its meat fetch more than one thousand stones?”

The manager didn’t answer, while Panther glared at Li Hao. How dare the young man wish to sell dog meat!

Li Hao continued to scan the menu and stroked his chin. “Seadragon Fish… a delicacy of the North Sea… Regular people can’t hope to net a creature like this. North Sea pirates caught this one, didn’t they?”

The manager continued to remain silent.

“It looks like your business spans a large territory,” Li Hao murmured. “You even transact with pirates. I recall that there’s four trading companies that operate at sea… but it looks like pirates are your major transaction targets, are they? Do you know that they eat people?”

“I am unaware of that,” whispered the manager as she lowered her head. “You might be mistaken, honored guest. These didn’t come from pirates, but from merchant vessels that caught these animals themselves.”

Li Hao inclined his head and continued scanning the menu. “Forget it, this is all trash! Get me a pot of tea with more Water of Life in it. Put sixteen hundred pieces worth in it! As for food, just get me regular, free snacks.” He suddenly thought of something and looked at Hou Xiaochen. “Director Hou, Senior Golden Spear is a high rank chief commissioner, right?”

“Correct.”

“Brother Second Mu?”

“The same.”

“Then add two hundred stones more!” Li Hao looked at the manager. “Put it on the tabs of Golden Spear of the Silver Moon Guards and Deputy Mu Lin.”

The manager was in incredibly awkward straits, but she didn’t refuse the instructions. “Understood, I’ll make the arrangements.”

Li Hao chuckled and watched her leave, as did Hou Xiaochen. The latter was seated in a chair and looking down below. Massive windows faced the palace and he sighed with emotion. “It used to be brighter here, now it’s almost completely pitch black.”

“There are a lot of powerhouses here.” Li Hao rubbed his eyes after looking outside for a while.

“Of course!” Hou Xiaochen laughed and continued to drink tea. Li Hao followed his motions.

“What does the director wish for me to do here?”

“You can decide that yourself.”

“Is there anything in it for me?” questioned the young man. “Not the benefits we normally speak of, but what is the long term gain after I do what I do? For me, for Silver Moon, for the director…”

“Intimidating one ministry and finding your footing in the Inspectorate is important enough. That will show the Inspectorate that while I am a thorn in their side, I focus my attention on seizing other people’s profits and authority. I strengthen the Inspectorate! You and I are both of the Inspectorate, so remember this well, Li Hao—you need to find a patron in a place like this, or someone to take the fall for you!

“Take that one in the Inspectorate, for example. He won’t pay attention to you if you only bring him trouble. But if you bring him massive benefits at the same time, he’ll help you then!

“He doesn’t care about trouble, only what he will gain after the trouble is over. If you use reasonable methods and stay within sensible bounds to fight for the Inspectorate, he’ll be willing to help you within that range.”

Li Hao nodded, then asked, “Will his help be significant?”

“Of course! He’s an Arcanus, at the very least,” Hou Xiaochen laughed. “This means that other Arcanus won’t be able to stick their nose into our affairs, right?”

“Right! But won’t he be afraid of his subordinates being stronger than him? We’re of Silver Moon, after all.” Li Hao looked quizzically at the director.

“Keep in mind that in the eyes of the nine ministries and royal family, they are the best! Second best are the three great organizations, seven divine mountains, three dukes, and Silver Moon. Then comes the lower ranked provinces, monster spirit territory, pirates of the four seas…”

“The seven divine mountains?” Li Hao raised a brow. “Sky Sword Mountain only has Senior Sky Sword, doesn’t it? How is he number two?”

And to be on par with Silver Moon and the dukes? Granted, Sky Sword was very strong.

“Who says that there’s only Sky Sword at Sky Sword Mountain?” Hou Xiaochen was startled into a wide grin. “How would it be one of the seven divine mountains if there’s only Sky Sword? What difference would there be between him and Tyrant Blade or Northern Fist? Ninety percent of the world’s sword cultivators are at Sky Sword Mountain! Not just Silver Moon martial masters, but also ones from the central region and four continents…

“They’re all gathered at Sky Sword Mountain! You didn’t think that Sky Sword was the only resident, did you?”

Li Hao laughed dryly, he really had thought so. So the truth was otherwise! The man had almost unified all of the sword cultivators in the world. This ran counter to the young man’s imagination. He’d thought that Sky Sword was a lone wolf and didn’t bother himself with matters like these.

Footsteps sounded outside the door as they chatted—they didn’t belong to the female manager. Instead, the doors were pushed open as she watched with resignation and a slightly chubby man walked in with a few officials.

The chubby middle-aged man smiled at Hou Xiaochen. “Little Hou’s here, let’s eat together! I happen to have something to discuss with you, so we don’t need to move. Let’s enjoy dinner together.”

Li Hao looked at Chubby, then did a double take. He breathed out after a long moment—there were so many powerhouses present! Other than the manager, there were six newcomers. Apart from Chubby, there were old and young members of his group and all of them were at least of the Nova level. Two of them even seemed to be metamorphosis and the remaining three weren’t just initial Novas.

He couldn’t read anything from Chubby, but the man ought to be a martial master. As such, he wouldn’t be too weak.

“Minister Lu!” Hou Xiaochen rose with a smile. “I didn’t know that the minister was coming tonight. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have taken the room.” He looked at the manager. “Why didn’t you say that Minister Liu was here? If you had, I wouldn’t have requested this room. Now I’m giving the impression that I’m occupying the minister’s space…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” chuckled Chubby. “This is just a place to eat! Let’s eat together, it will be more fun that way!” He looked at Li Hao with a smile. “You are the famous Demon Sword, aren’t you? You are quite the talent!”

Li Hao rose in an exceedingly “graceful” manner to accept the compliment. He inclined his body and took off his top hat. “Night Watcher Li Hao greets Minister Liu!”

“Don’t stand on ceremony, don’t stand on ceremony. Sit. We’re all part of the same family here, there’s no need to be so polite!” Chubby chuckled and walked over with his people. Some of them looked in an unfriendly manner at Li Hao and Hou Xiaochen.

Hou Xiaochen was sitting in the head seat, Li Hao and Manager Yu sat in the seats right below him. Why were they not getting up?

Minister Liu didn’t mind and randomly sat down in a seat. He indicated for the others to sit as well and then looked at the female manager. “Bring on an order of everything good. You have to put on an impressive show for Director Hou and the others!”

“Understood!” The manager swiftly left without further word; sweat had drenched the back of her shirt.

“Then we shall enjoy ourselves thanks to the minister!” Hou Xiaochen laughed softly.

“Just listen to yourself!” Minister Liu laughed. “If Little Hou is willing to come to the Ministry of Finance, you can come to this place and eat as much as you want. Take it all to go, you can put it on my bill!”

“How can I ever do that!” Hou Xiaochen laughed.

“It’s but a small matter!” The minister looked at Li Hao next. “Demon Sword Li Hao… Not bad, very good! Xu Qing was always full of himself, so it’s good that he died! Are you interested in coming to the Ministry of Finance? I can’t make you a vice minister, but we have plenty of positions. If you come, I promise that you’ll be second to only the ministers. You’ll be on par with Little Hou here!”

etvolare’s Thoughts

Do you guys think a fight will break out? A secret contest of strength maybe? I don’t expect anything too overt...