BXBX NOVEL Chapter 1585 - Xia Hou Complicating Matters
Chapter 1585: Xia Hou Complicating Matters
Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
A new power, the Emperor Pavilion appeared in the central city regions of Lifire City. It gradually became more and more prosperous, but the pavilion lord Di Tian slowly faded out from the vision of the crowd.
As time flowed by, the Emperor Pavilion became increasingly prosperous. It underwent reconstruction and expanded further. Right now, when many people thought about transacting treasures, they would involuntarily think of the Emperor Pavilion.
Although Di Tian rarely showed his face now, and there were not many people who talked about him, it didn’t represent that his fame had lessened. It was on the contrary, as time flowed by, Di Tian’s reputation grew more and more, gradually seeping into the hearts of everyone. Right now, their impression of Di Tian was no longer the young upstart that just recently rose in fame. Their impression of Di Tian’s extraordinary status was further deepened by the monthly auctions. Although his person has vanished, the divine weapons he created were still of high-quality and sold without fail monthly. How could his fame not be great?
Before he got famous, many people could seek Grandmaster Di Tian out to inscribe formations. But after Grandmaster Di Tian produced high-grade emperor weapons, it was extremely tough for people even to meet with him. Even many major powers couldn’t get an audience with him. After all, an elder and the daughter of Mo Clan’s clan leader, was working in the Emperor Pavilion.
Of course, it was understandable as Di Tian’s fame was far superior to before. How could anyone manage to invite him? He was a character that can create high-grade emperor weapons, why would he waste his time on inscribing some minor formations for you? Clearly, it was impossible.
Today was the day of tribute once again. The Emperor Pavilion was the same as many other powers and needed to pay the tax. The amount payable was determined by the scale of the business and because this was the first time the Emperor Pavilion was paying tax, the grand supervisor Mo Fei personally led people to the governor’s manor to pay. However, Mo Fei seemed extremely unhappy when he returned from there.
“Grand supervisor, what’s wrong?” The serving girl Little Zhu couldn’t help but ask when she saw Mo Fei’s black face.
“Did pavilion lord offend the Governor’s Manor before?” Mo Fei asked.
“Not to my knowledge. It’s just that back then when Governor Xia Hou personally came by to invite Grandmaster Di to become a vice governor, Grandmaster Di rejected him.” Little Zhu replied.
Mo Fei’s eyes flashed. After that, he coldly continued, “This Xia Hou is truly arrogant to the extreme and his methods are extremely tyrannical. The scale of our business cannot be considered great but he actually categorised us as a top-tier power and set our tax bracket to the highest. His actions are simply too overbearing.”
“How much did we have to contribute?” Mo Junyi asked.
“Little miss, you have never participated in such matters before, hence you are somewhat unclear. There are nine tiers of tribute contribution, for those peak powers, they belong to the first tier and have to pay the highest amount of tax, and it’s also a constant. Secondly, the second-tier powers, followed by the other lower tiers. According to scale, our Emperor Pavilion can barely be counted as a third-tier power. Yet the Governor’s Manor said that because we have me, a peak-stage immortal emperor, as well as the fact that Grandmaster Di can create high-grade emperor-ranked weapons, in addition to the fact that there are many people who always transact at our place, we should be considered as a first-tier power, equal to those grand auction house. This meant that the amount of tax we have to pay is naturally of the first-tier too. How ridiculous this is?”
Mo Fei’s voice turned cold. Mo Junyi’s expression also grew unsightly. She then coldly spoke, “Is there no one that can resolve this?”
“In the central city regions, Governor Xia Hou is like a hegemon with immense authority. If we refuse to pay the tributes, he can cause our Emperor Pavilion to cease functioning. Unless our Emperor Pavilion relocated to the other city regions.” Mo Fei spoke. “It wasn’t easy for us to accumulate enough popularity and fame. I’m unsure how much losses we would have to endure if we relocated. Xia Hou clearly must have foreseen this.”
The popularity and fame of the Emperor Pavilion were slowly accumulated through time, if they relocated now, they had to start anew and their losses would be immense.
“The governor of a region is truly overbearing.” A voice rang out. A moment later, Di Tian’s figure walked over, his eyes flickering with a cold light.
“You’ve come.” Mo Fei bitterly smiled. “We have no choice in this. Governor Xia Hou wants to bully us but we can only choose to endure. Usually, the governor’s manor doesn’t need to follow the rules when they do things. Clearly, he harbors hatred for your rejection back then and now that the Emperor Pavilion is rising up, he felt extremely unhappy about it.
“A more critical point is that as the governor, there’s no need for him to depend on you to procure emperor weapons. He can easily find other grandmasters to forge weapons for him. This is why he dared to do this.”
“Mhm.” Di Tian nodded, his eyes flashing with coldness. “The first-tier tax bracket, how much would we lose?”
“It’s about a hundred times higher compared to the tax bracket of a third-tier power. Roughly half of our profits from auctions will be paid as tribute to the governor’s manor.” Mo Fei spoke. After all, although their Emperor Pavilion was developing well, the real profits still came during the auctions held each month. For the Emperor Pavilion providing its venue as a free trading ground, they earned nothing from that at all.
A hundred times the tax bracket of third-tier powers was truly a terrifying concept. How could anyone accept it so simply?
“Since Governor Xia Hou takes such good care of us, let us expand to a real first-tier power then.” Di Tian coldly spoke. “Release news that I will appear in the next auction. I’ve recently created an extremely unique divine weapon and will stake my reputation on it.”
“Are you prepared?” Mo Fei’s eyes flashed sharply.
“Mhm, announce it. Also, although we are also doing auctions, our profits are 50% fewer compared to the other auction houses. By announcing that, we can attract more people to use us as a platform to auction their treasures away. Other than that, also spread the news saying that from now on, on our auction day every month, my Emperor Pavilion will take out only the best treasure to be auctioned away. Spread the news through the entire city, I want everyone to know about this.” Di Tian spoke.
“It’s a good technique.” Mo Fei praised. Mo Junyi’s beautiful eyes flashed, staring at the masked Di Tian. How did this fellow’s mind work? He was actually so intelligent as well.
...
The news about Di Tian personally appearing in the next auction, and that he would take out a unique treasure he recently forged, instantly caused many of the major powers in Lifire City to pay attention to this.
Back then when Di Tian first acted, he immediately took out a high-grade emperor-ranked weapon to harshly smack the faces of Grandmaster Xuanming and the Yan Clan. After that, Di Tian rarely appeared in public. Right now, he was going to be high profile again? In that case, the treasure he will take out will definitely be an extraordinary one. How could the major powers not pay attention to it?
The news swiftly circulated around. Not only the central city region, the other four city regions of Lifire City also learned about it and sent experts over, wanting to participate in the auction. All of them were extremely curious what that unique treasure was going to be.
Today, in the new grounds in the Emperor Pavilion that were built to hold an auction, many people had already gathered. Experts were as common as clouds and the space was filled to the brim. Even so, there were many figures floating in the air. All of them waiting with anticipation for Di Tian to start the auction.
The transactional booths here were all packed. Because of the number of people, there would naturally be many customers keen on exchanging or buying items. This caused the transactors who signed a contract with the Emperor Pavilion to grin widely, feeling gratitude to Di Tian. Despite after expanding the pavilion, he still didn’t collect any fee from them to use his venue. Even the tax portion of their transactions was borne by the Emperor Pavilion.
When the auction was about to start, the transactors all sent their more valuable treasures up the auction stage. The grand supervisor of the Emperor Pavilion Mo Fei, appeared. He thanked everyone for their arrival, coming from afar just for this auction.
After that, Mo Junyi and Di Tian also appeared, seemingly like a couple. This caused Liu Feibai who was in the crowd, to have an unnatural expression on his face. This time around, the people of the Liu Clan came as well.
Not only the Liu Clan, the Yan Clan and Grandmaster Xuanming all arrived too. However, they all kept a low-profile today, and were mixed in with the crowd. In fact, Grandmaster Xuanming even had a conical bamboo hat and mantle on, wrapping himself up entirely, not wanting to reveal his identity.
“Grandmaster Di!”
“It has been many years since we last met, but Grandmaster Di’s glorious aura is way more overwhelming than before.” Some of the more familiar people with Di Tian stood up and greeted him. Di Tian nodded to express his acknowledgement before walking up the auction stage with Mo Junyi.
Di Tian’s gaze roamed the crowd. He naturally saw the people of the Liu and Yan Clans. He also saw the Mo Clan’s clan leader Mo Ting who came here personally today.
Other than that, Di Tian noticed the people from the central governor’s manor in a certain location. Xia Hou was in the center of the group of them. Other than him, Lin Ba, Beauty Xiao and Yin Qiu, the three city governors of the other regions were present as well. This meant that out of the five governors, four actually came here today. From this, one could see how great his current fame was. The entire Lifire Palace knew about him.
“Is he Grandmaster Di Tian? He has such a presence, I’m sure he must be very handsome.” Beauty Xiao’s eyes were like silk, filled with amorous passion. Today, she wore an alluring and provocative dress designed to reveal the best parts of her figure. Her fair white thighs were faintly discernible through the material, causing many to sneak looks at her. But because she was seated together with Governor Xia Hou, many thought she was his subordinate and no one dared to go too far with their actions.
“You even assume he is handsome with a mask on? Are you struck with starry-eyed infatuation?” Yin Qiu rolled his eyes at her.
“How can my judgement ever be wrong? This Di Tian is most assuredly young and handsome, yet his aura is so stable. He’s already this famous despite only having a cultivation base at the initial-stage of the immortal emperor realm. If there’s a chance, I must invite him to my governor’s manor to ‘play.’” Beauty Xiao’s smile stirred the hearts of many who glanced at her. Yin Qiu coldly spoke, “Beauty Xiao, why have you never invited me before?”
“You?” Beauty Xiao glanced at Yin Qiu mockingly, “You are neither a male nor female.”
“Beauty Xiao, there’s no need to put me down like that, right?” Yin Qiu spoke in a depressed manner.
“Alright, the auction is starting. Let’s see what sort of treasures can he forge.” Xia Hou quietly spoke, interrupting the two of them. A moment later, they turned their gazes to the auction platform.
“Once again, a big welcome to everyone who came to attend this auction. I know everyone is already impatient and wants to see what unique treasure Grandmaster Di has forged. This little lass will cut to the chase and invite Grandmaster Di Tian to show everyone the treasure then.” Mo Junyi laughed. Beauty Xiao’s eyes narrowed to slits, as she commented, “Hmm, although this girl is beautiful, she isn’t suitable to host the auction. She lacks sufficient charm. If I was the one hosting, things would surely be perfect.”
“You? Do you believe that the palace lord will remove your governor’s position?” Lin Ba laughed. “In addition, according to what I know, this female is considered the great young mistress of a powerful clan in Xia Hou’s territory. Being able to do things to such an extent, she is already not bad. But of course, if it wasn’t to get close to Grandmaster Di Tian, I’m sure that aristocrat clan wouldn’t have chosen to do this, sending their young miss to work at the Emperor Pavilion.”