The Lord’s Empire

What Zhao Fu did not expect was that in just six months, the original 180 Cities had developed so quickly, completely exceeding anything Zhao Fu could imagine. Its strength had already surpassed the Dark Demon World’s Night Dynasty; how could it have developed so quickly? It was almost seven times bigger than before.

Zhao Fu’s main focus was on developing Great Qin, as Great Qin was Zhao Fu’s foundation. The Night Dynasty and the Fish Scale world factions were just minor things that he wanted to develop on the side, so he did not spend much effort or resources on them, yet this faction had developed so quickly.

In actuality, Zhao Fu had to thank the Fish Scale players. Because of the rise of a few player factions in the Darkwater Continent, many of the system factions had felt quite unsettled and threatened.

Zhao Fu’s faction in the Fish Scale world had a massive advantage, which was that they were all indigenous resident City Lords. Even though they were controlled by brain bugs, no one else knew this, so it was easy to gain the trust of other indigenous resident City Lords.

As such, they had invited countless other City Lords to join them, and many of those City Lords had agreed. After all, the location of Zhao Fu’s faction was in a remote location and was easy to defend and difficult to attack, so they had quite a big advantage.

With their distrust of player factions, it was even easier for them to join together. At first, it was just a few hundred City Lords willing to join Zhao Fu’s faction, but as the faction became stronger and stronger, more and more people were attracted, causing the faction to become even more powerful and safe. No one dared to offend it, and they often went to attack others.

Somehow, Zhao Fu’s faction had become the top system faction in the Darkwater Continent, making Zhao Fu feel like laughing to death. Zhao Fu had not expected this at all; it had all been planned and executed by the brain bugs.

Under Zhao Fu’s command, the many City Lords continuously cleared the surrounding smaller factions to boost their own strength. However, the brain bugs had felt that this was too slow, so they had thought of this method.

The brain bugs could not only control living creatures, but they also had their own consciousness as well. They had high intelligence, or else they would not be able to imitate people perfectly.

Back then, they had gathered and thought of this method together before suggesting it to Zhao Fu. Zhao Fu had not cared too much and allowed them to try, and he had never expected things to go so well.

Now, they suddenly had 1,400 Cities, around 700 million people, and 140 million soldiers. All of them were Stage 1 soldiers, and who wouldn’t be ecstatic after suddenly obtaining a faction like this.

However, Zhao Fu did not have full control over this massive faction, and it was almost impossible to do so. After all, out of these 1,400 City Lords, only 300 of them were controlled by brain bugs and 1,100 were not.

Now, Zhao Fu desperately lacked a large number of brain bugs. If he could control all of them, he would be able to fully control this faction. After returning from the Fish Scale world, Zhao Fu excitedly opened the Heaven Spirit Stele and looked at the quests offering brain bugs.

All of the ones he found were not very good deals, such as trading ten Legendary grade weapons for one brain bug, a City for a brain bug, or 20 bottles of high-quality Cultivation pills for two brain bugs. This was because all of the better value quests had already been completed by Zhao Fu.

Of course, Zhao Fu was not willing to do the low value quests, but he desperately needed brain bugs. Zhao Fu thought back to the commotion he had caused because of his Supreme level account, and he wondered if he would be able to obtain a large number of brain bugs this way.

Ordinary Legendary grade equipment and Cities held no appeal at all to those with high-level Heaven Spirit Stele accounts. The only two things that Zhao Fu had of value to them were Level 2 Ginseng Fruits, which could increase one’s lifespan by 250 years, and the Intermediate Water of Life, which even some Elf Kingdoms would not have.

Zhao Fu thought about it and said in the Communication Region, “I need a large number of brain bugs; one Ginseng Fruit for 100 brain bugs or one bottle of Intermediate Water of Life for one brain bug.”

After saying this, Zhao Fu attached the information of those two items. Because Ginseng Fruits could be planted, Zhao Fu destroyed the seeds, making it impossible to plant them, but this did not affect the effects of the Ginseng Fruits.

Zhao Fu’s message once again caused a large commotion, and the scene became quite lively, making Zhao Fu feel quite embarrassed.

“Heavens, it’s that higher being from last time; he’s speaking again. It’s been quite a while!”

“Higher being, do you still remember this lowly one? I’m Zhang Xiaohua from the Minotaur Mountain; it’s my honor to meet you again.”

“Higher being, please take me as your disciple! I’ll help you with anything!”

After looking at all of these replies, Zhao Fu felt quite speechless. Apart from those wanting to curry favor, there were not any people offering any trades.

Perhaps there were too many messages, so many people had not seen Zhao Fu’s original offer. As such, Zhao Fu could only re-send his message and the information of the two items, and someone finally took notice.

“Ginseng Fruit? One that can add 250 years of lifespan? This is quite a good longevity treasure, and the price of 100 brain bugs is quite reasonable as well. Higher being, I’m willing to trade with you.”

Zhao Fu grinned and completed the transaction, obtaining 100 brain bugs, and he waited for the next transaction.

“Even though I also have Intermediate Water of Life, I want to see what a higher being’s Intermediate Water of Life is like. I’d like ten bottles please.”

Zhao Fu’s smile grew even wider as he completed this transaction and obtained another ten brain bugs. The speed of these transactions was quite fast, and Zhao Fu felt that soon, he would be able to obtain 1,000 brain bugs, if not more.

“Um, higher being, this little one only has one brain bug but there’s nothing I really want, I just want to gift this brain bug to you. All I ask is that you give some pointers on comprehending the Dao. Is that possible? This little one doesn’t mean to offend you, and if that isn’t okay, then I’m still willing to gift this brain bug to you.”

This person spoke carefully, incredibly worried that he would offend Zhao Fu.

That message caused everyone in the Communication Region to fall silent, wondering if that person was going to die; he was asking a higher being to explain the Dao for just a brain bug – were higher beings that cheap? After all, higher beings were people who stood at the peak of the Heaven Awaken World, and they were only below Celestials.

Ordinarily, higher beings had their own circles and never interacted with low-level Cultivators. That was why they were so shocked to see Zhao Fu speaking in the Communication Region and why they were so desperate to curry favor with him.

Zhao Fu felt quite startled and had never expected to be able to obtain a brain bug for free. However, Zhao Fu was not a higher being, so he could not explain the Dao; after all, these people’s Cultivations were definitely higher than his, so there was nothing he could say to them.

However, the Heaven Awaken World’s Cultivation system was similar to eastern Cultivation, as Cultivating required spirit qi. The most powerful ones were Celestials, and this was something similar to eastern culture. When he thought about this, Zhao Fu could not help but think of a book, which was from the School of Taoism, the Book of Dao.