Star Gate

Chapter 633: A Meal (I)

The woman looked beseechingly at Hou Xiaochen. Who is this? Your subordinate? What is he trying to get at?

Hou Xiaochen looked away in another direction, as if he wasn’t privy to the conversation.

“Can you not talk about it?” Li Hao asked in surprise.

“It’s not that...”

“So do you clear three million stones a year in revenue?”

“N-no...” The manager was on the verge of a mental breakdown. She was very skilled at hosting guests—no one had ever given her a bad review and she had answers to all of their questions. But this one... was truly something! It was her first time meeting someone like this!

“Our revenues aren’t that high, just one million pieces of stone or so,” she had to say. “But... we don’t actually make money. We need to purchase some treasures and also consume a great deal of mysterious power stones ourselves. There’s also the various precious ingredients that we acquire...”

“So you’ve got around a ten percent profit margin, don’t you?” Li Hao contemplated. “That means you retain at least one hundred thousand pieces a year. That’s one million pieces after ten years. Do you guys turn that in to the royal family, or keep it in your own reserves?”

“......” The manager’s expression changed. What did the young man mean by this? Did he want to rob them?? This was the heart of the nine ministries, the outskirts of the royal family! How was there someone asking her about their reserves...

Her composure collapsed and it took her a long moment to barely respond, “I cannot answer the honored guest’s question... I am not in charge of this matter.”

The elevator door opened and she darted out, on the verge of losing control. What a suffocating atmosphere it was inside!

Li Hao stroked the goatee on his chin. They definitely had at least one million pieces sitting in profits! The only question remained whether they’d sent it to the royal family or not. Even if they had...

Forget it, he was just thinking wildly about this. “We can open a tab, can’t we?”

“...you can!” The manager seemed to be forcing out through grit teeth. “Director Hou can charge his expenditures to the Inspectorate tab. He’ll just have some limitations when it comes to his limit.”

“How much is our limit?”

“One thousand pieces a year!”

Li Hao was startled by the high amount. “And regular peacemaker commissioners?”

“Five hundred pieces.”

“High rank chief commissioners?”

“One hundred pieces.” The woman added, “This is limited to those of Skystar City’s Inspectorate.”

I see! Li Hao ran some more numbers in his mind and smiled at Hou Xiaochen. The three of us can run up sixteen hundred pieces on our tab...

Hou Xiaochen was feeling extremely soul weary. Let it all burn!

“Let’s eat first, we’ll talk about this later!” Hou Xiaochen hurriedly walked toward a certain room, Manager Yu was hot on his heels.

Other than a large welcoming hall on the ninth floor, there was nothing else apart from nine private rooms that were as if nine individual halls. Four of them seemed occupied, meaning that four ministers were here taking dinner.

Struck by a sudden thought, Li Hao tilted his head in the direction of the occupied rooms. A stabbing pain shot through his eyes and he swiftly closed them again. Hot damn! There were a lot of powerhouses here, and this might not be all of them. He wouldn’t be able to see those who were pure martial masters.

......

At this time, in the other rooms.

Someone looked outside with a frown and another looked at the royal palace below. The latter intoned without looking back in the room, “Go and see who’s come upstairs. Have they brought a Heaven’s Eye with them? What do they want?”

“Understood!” A runner swiftly left to carry out orders.

The constantly victorious Li Hao would never fathom that his single glance would be so quickly detected. That had never happened before. Up ahead, Hou Xiaochen’s voice traveled into his ears.

“Don’t cast your eyes around randomly. I’m just bringing you here for a look and to familiarize yourself with new surroundings. We’re not here to cause trouble. If you want to cause trouble, just focus on one ministry. Do you think I’m undying to target several at once?”

Li Hao understood, it looked like they were going to move against the Ministry of Finance! Except... you can tell that I’m looking at someone? Ole Hou seemed to have gotten stronger! The man hadn’t seemed to sense anything when he looked at the director before.

The group entered a great hall next—one of the private rooms. Li Hao took in a deep breath, then another deep breath. This was a private room?

It was more like a palace!

Faint vitality surged through the premises—Li Hao felt so comfortable that he wanted to moan. What a lovely place! This was money well spent! How was this a “private room”? It was at least thirty-five hundred square feet, and there were nine of these rooms in the center of the royal city!

Everything that one could want could be found here. There was even a massive screen in the room with images flickering across it. Li Hao’s eyes widened when he caught sight of it.

Was that a television? It seemed so! This item was recorded in the ancient records, but the dynasty hadn’t been able to produce it. The young man had thought that no one had excavated it yet, but it turned out that it’d been dug up, just not popularized!

Not only that, but there was something similar to a fighting ring set up in the middle of the room. Eight fine-looking attendants waited in the room. They were all either Darkmoons or Sunflares.

“Welcome, honored guests!” The attendants rushed forward after the group entered the room. Some wanted to help Li Hao take off his outer garments...

The young man quickly shook his arms. “Don’t touch me!”

Hou Xiaochen flicked a glance at him and didn’t say a word. He permitted the attendants to take off his jacket. Li Hao looked at the man’s actions—is this how it’s done? Sorry, I’ve never experienced this before.

The manager next to him was likewise speechless, but naturally wouldn’t display it. “It’s inconvenient for the honored guests to be wearing too much when they dine,” she explained softly.

“There’s nothing inconvenient about it.” Li Hao would never allow someone else to undress him in this establishment, if for no other reason than him wearing silver armor beneath his trench coat. He was deathly afraid of being caught off guard in an ambush; he constantly wore the armor beneath his outer garments.

The manager was resigned by his response, as were the two female attendants who’d walked up to the young man. However, they didn’t say anything. Anyone who could enter the Nine Dragons Pavilion was a personage that they couldn’t afford to run afoul of. No matter how uncouth they were, they were still important characters. Even a driver was the driver of a very important existence.

Manager Yu didn’t let the attendants handle her clothing either. She waved off the people who walked up to her.

The manager led Li Hao toward the dining table, making introductions as she walked. She’d determined that Li Hao was a massive country bumpkin despite his peculiar outfit. He wasn’t any sort of fashion icon.

“This way please, honored guests!” She pointed at the big screen. “This is a real-time broadcast of the Colosseum.”

“What is the Colosseum?”

“There are too many supernaturals and their associated grudges in Skystar City. But being the royal city, Skystar cannot infinitely suppress these supernaturals. That would only give rise to greater conflict. Thus, the city prepared a massive Colosseum for all supernaturals to settle their differences in. So long as both sides are willing, duels can be fought in the Colosseum! They can be fights to the death or simple sparring. Victors receive prize money from the hosts.”

“What is this nonsense!” Li Hao frowned. “Grudges between supernaturals are naturally settled by the Night Watchers! Dueling in private is against the law! Does no one know of the rules or regulations? Did the Night Watchers build this place?”

The woman hesitated before shaking her head with resignation. “No.”

“Who runs the show behind the scenes?”

“......” She looked at Hou Xiaochen, but the man had already sat down. “The Ministry of Finance.”

“No wonder!” Li Hao snorted. “This infringes on Night Watcher rights! No wonder the Ministry of Finance is so well off. With this Colosseum, there is certain to be gambling on the results. With gambling comes profits, with profits comes fighting... Tickets for a place that treats supernaturals like animals will go for high numbers and prices. The profits involved are easy to imagine. When is it ever the Ministry of Finance’s turn to be involved in this?”

The manager didn’t say a word and was beginning to wonder who this person was.

One had to say, Li Hao had touched upon the crux of the issue with a single response. The profits here were enormous, too enormous. Fights between supernaturals often took place, but usually in the wilderness. The nobles of the royal city were unwilling to traipse to the countryside to witness those fights.

Here, however, one could sit in ease and luxury to watch a fight. The money at hand likely involved astronomical figures. The Ministry of Finance held a monopoly over it.

Li Hao suddenly understood why Hou Xiaochen had this particular ministry in his sights. “Is the Inspectorate involved?” the young man suddenly laughed. “This plainly infringes upon our rights.”

“I think so, but I don’t think it was able to claim ownership over this domain,” Hou Xiaochen responded calmly.

“They’re useless!” Li Hao laughed.

The two brazenly spoke of such matters without any restraint. This was common knowledge, so what did it matter if they discussed it?

Hou Xiaochen lifted his tea cup and took a sip. Manager Yu had poured it for him—she’d dismissed the attendants who wanted to undertake the duty. Li Hao sat down as well. The manager who wanted to flee the room was growing curious and remained.

These two... how many could talk to Hou Xiaochen like this? She was very curious about the unknown young man now. It was definitely this person’s first visit to Skystar City. Was he from Silver Moon? But... who?

He’s young...

There were people like him in Silver Moon, but the most famous was Demon Sword Li Hao. Did Li Hao dare come to Skystar City?