Chapter 57: I’ll Use The Real One!
The ninth prince is indeed a kind person, exactly like how people define him. The watchman was touched and told Hong Xiaobao everything he knew, “This building belongs to Councillor w.a.n.g who used to be one of the richest men in town for his successful rice and noodles business. It all went well at the beginning. However, a few years after Councillor w.a.n.g started to export his stocks, his entire team was slaughtered by Demonic Beasts. Once he died, his only son lost his entire fortune by gambling. This building is his last family property which has to be sold to clear his debts. Sigh…”
After listening to the watchman’s words, Hong Xiaobao immediately understood since he had heard of Councillor w.a.n.g before, whose name was w.a.n.g Fugui. His rice and noodles business was rather successful and was worth for at least a hundred thousand silver taels. Unfortunately it ended up being like this… It seemed like what Hong Xiaobao heard was true.
“Haih, what a sad story…” Hong Xiaobao shook his head and sighed. “I plan to buy this building. How much does Councillor w.a.n.g’s son want to sell it for?”
“Sixty thousand taels.” The watchman sighed once again and said, “Haih… Even with that amount of money, he won’t be able to clear his debts…”
Sixty thousand taels was considered to be quite a large amount of money. Not to mention it was only the cost of a barebone building. No wonder people said that building a sect required a large amount of money. Even Fang Xinghan frowned — he was a formidable head teacher, so he certainly knew how difficult it was to earn silver taels.
“En, okay then. Who do I find to sign the agreement letter?”
“This building was foreclosed. Councillor w.a.n.g’s son doesn’t have the authority. This building is under the name of Councillor Zhang who lives at the east side of the town.” Since he was the watchman of this building, he certainly knew who owned the building.
“En, let’s look for him now. Three, go with this uncle and deal with everything.” Hong Xiaobao pa.s.sed this matter over to Three. The reason this guard was called Three was because he was ranked number three in terms of age. So Hong Xiaobao along with other guards called him Three. They were indeed intimate.
“Woohoo! I shall get going then!” Three immediately went with the watchman to handle the legal procedures. Before they left, Hong Xiaobao called the watchman to open the gate before going into the building with the others.
What Fang Xinghan said was certainly right. This was a really nice building. Once you enter the main entrance, there was a 20-metre long lobby which had a fifty-square-metre fish pond in it. In the fish pond, there were up to a hundred red carp fish. Once a person pa.s.ses by, they all float on the water surface, waiting for treats.
The open-air lobby was surrounded by ancient trees which were at least a hundred years old. However since it was not cleaned for a long period of time, the ground was surrounded by leaves and weeds. As they proceeded further, a couple of bedrooms and small pavilions could be seen. The facilities were quite complete!
“Not bad!” Hong Xiaobao walked around the building and was satisfied, “This building is really great! En, this will be the headquarter of Grand Alliance. Hehe.” He casually made his decision.
“Xiaobao,” Fang Xinghan looked around and said, “this building is indeed great. However, it requires to be cleaned up. After all, this is a sect and the location isn’t too great. The looks isn’t domineering either. Do you have any ideas? Like putting two lion statues in front of the entrance.”
Fang Xinghan said what he felt from the bottom of his heart, with good intentions. What he meant was, if Xiaobao wanted to put lion statues in front, he would lend his hand to chop some statues down. Since this was a sect building, placing something domineering at the entrance was definitely a requirement!
Once again, Hong Xiaobao thought Fang Xinghan’s suggestions were too lame. “How embarra.s.sing it is to put lion statues. Since I’m so rich,” Hong Xiaobao looked at the entrance, picked his nose and continued his sentence, “I’ll use real ones! Aren’t there Jade-eyed Golden-armored Tigers? I’ll use those!”
“Huh?!” Fang Xinghan was shocked for Hong Xiaobao’s words. “Jade-eyed Golden-armored Tigers are 8-star Demonic Beasts! Are you possibly planning to catch and bring 8-star Demonic Beasts into your town house?!”
Jade-eyed Golden-armored Tiger, the king of mountains which had a pair of shining-green tiger eyes and a golden armor which was basically impenetrable. It was the world’s strongest and biggest Demonic Beast!
(TL: Demonic beast is actually a common noun which should not be capitalized. I’m following what Loathsome did to remain consistent.)
After a while, Fang Xinghan did not keep it in mind since he was more concerned about Living Printing Technique. “Xiaobao, since your guard will be in charge of buying the building, shouldn’t we be doing something else? I have already written some words. Shall we start making them now?”
En, Fang Xinghan really cared about the Living Printing Technique.
“Hmm, okay then.” Hong Xiaobao had a clue of what to do, “Then Uncle Fang, I’ll leave recruiting craftsmen for you. I’ll see what I can find here which is suitable to be the mould of the words.”
Living Printing Technique fully relied on the moulds of the words. He previously thought of using wood, however, the material used must not be too hard nor too soft. This matter seemed easy enough, but was in fact rather difficult.
“Okay, no problem!” Fang Xinghan rushed out immediately to recruit his craftsman friends. He suddenly stopped before stepping out of the entrance, “Xiaobao, wait for me here. I’ll be back in an instant!” His figure then disappeared…
“Eh…” Hong Xiaobao laughed. He was quite pushy about it. Hehe. He then rubbed his chin and looked around. He said silently, “Metals cannot be used. With the underdeveloped technology in this world, it is impossible to melt them. How about mud?”
Mud moulds sound like a good idea. Moreover, the cost was extremely low.
“Brother Xiaobao,” Qingqing called out, “what can I do now?”
“Hmm… you? Let’s go and play mud together!” Hong Xiaobao said and his words got Qingqing stunned.
Play mud? Being the formidable ninth prince of Chiyun Empire, he wanted to bring a young lady to play mud with him?!
The guards heard what Hong Xiaobao said and got excited. He must have something fun for us to play again!
“Why are you still standing there? Quick, follow me to the riverside, Brother Xiaobao is bringing you to play with mud!” Hong Xiaobao pulled Qingqing and ran to the riverside which was right outside the building. He asked the guards to carry some water over, rolled up his sleeves and directly squatted down before mixing the mud. He was not worried about getting dirty at all…