Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

Hong Dali took another bottle. This was a colorless bottle of white wine, Galaxy Fantasy. He sniffed it pretentiously and said, “This Galaxy Fantasy has a superb taste, but it is lacking in iciness. It must be drunk with a dragon horn cup. Jade adds color, but dragon horns add fragrance. Everything has its purpose!”

“Okay!” Mister Gate nodded and dashed out again. In a short while, he again returned with the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. They had no idea where he got it from…

Hong Dali broke out in cold sweat. Luckily, he did not say that any portion of a Galaxy Aristocrat was needed to contain the wine. Otherwise, he would have immediately become a wanted man in the Milky Way.

A T-Rex horn was cut off. Mister Gate was very satisfied after drinking the wine.

It was true that he liked drinking wine. He had tried almost all the wines and liquors in the Milky Way, but it was the first time he had met someone who made the choice of wine cup sound like it was an art. He suddenly felt enlightened. Even the way he looked at Hong Dali was different now.

At this time, Hong Dali brought another bottle of wine over. He looked carefully at the list of ingredients and nodded in satisfaction. “This Sorghum liquor is made using an ancient recipe from hundreds of thousands of years ago. Antique tools and brewing equipment had to be used. The older the better. Therefore, this wine is best drunk with some sort of antique cup.”

“Well, there are no antiques anywhere around here. Let’s keep it for later.” Mister Gate was a little disappointed because there really were no museums anywhere around there.

After another round of talking nonsense, Hong Dali reached for a bottle of Thousand Blossom wine and said, smiling, “This Thousand Blossoms wine is made with thousands of types of flowers, so the wine has a delicate fragrance which reminds one of spring, intoxicating you before you even drink it. This wine should be drunk with an ancient vine cup. However, ancient vines are hard to come by, so we can just make do with a wooden cup.”

“Okay, grave ¹ cup.” Mister Gate went out again. This time, he returned with a gravestone. “Should I carve this?”

Hong Dali was sweating profusely now. “I meant wood, not grave…”

“Oh…” Mister Gate’s face turned uncharacteristically red. “I misunderstood.” Then, he looked all around for some wood. Finally, he saw Comrade Luo Qiang’s office table—the table was made of real wood…

Half a minute later, Mister Gate was contentedly drinking wine from a wooden cup that had just been carved. He smiled and said, “Wahahaha, kid, way to go. You were right.” As he spoke, he looked carefully at Hong Dali. Suddenly, he leaned forward and pulled Hong Dali into an embrace—his arm was as thick as Hong Dali’s waist! “Kid, I like the look of you. Be my son!”

Kid, I like the look of you. Be my son!

It seemed that this was a special habit of Mister Gate. He would ask whoever he liked the look of to be his son…

To everyone’s surprise, Hong Dali did not reject him!

“Well, okay.” Hong Dali grinned and patted Mister Gate’s arm. “Pops!”

“Wahahaha!” Mister Gate roared with laughter. His voice was so loud the roof of the pawnshop shook. “I have another family member now. Wahahaha!”

Acknowledging a godfather was a joyous occasion, so everyone trooped out to find a restaurant where they could eat, drink and be merry—this was something to be happy about back on Earth in the Heavenly State, and it was not much different here in the Galaxy Alliance Center.

At the table, Hong Dali said naturally, “Oh, by the way, Pops, I opened a few shops at the Star Harbor and am short on staff. How about you go there and play? Help look after my shops!”

“Oh? Tend shops? Well, okay.” Mister Gate only thought for one second before agreeing. “Let’s go now. Right,” he glanced at Mister Eagle Eye, “you come with me too. If you want to fight, we can fight there!”

“Okay!” The man with the eagle eyes nodded without hesitation. “If I’m in a bad mood I can collect a couple of human heads.”

Tang Muxin and the rest shuddered. He was terrifying!

On the way to Star Harbor, Mister Gate asked Hong Dali, “Dali, what should I do when I get there? What kind of shop do you have? What does it sell?”

“Oh.” Hong Dali rubbed his chin and thought about it. Suddenly, he said, “Speaking of which, Pops, I forgot to give you a greeting present.” As he spoke, he pulled up a big pile of armor from his space watch and said, ” Pops, you’re a little too big. When I was buying these armor I did not plan for this. How about you pick a few and dig the gems out instead?”

“What?” Gate randomly picked up a piece of armor and felt it for a while. He was immediately shocked. “These gems are all top grade! The attributes they add are quite good.”

“Hehe, how else can I give them to you as a greeting present?” Hong Dali laughed and said, “Pops, you keep whatever catches your fancy. Anyway, I plan to sell these at one thousand Galaxy Dollars each. You can have your pick, then I will just sell the rest.” Then, he looked at the man with eagle eyes and said, “Right, how do I address you, Sir?

“Mihawk.” The man with the eagle eyes picked up two pieces of armor with his black knife and held them in his hand. “Yes, the attributes are really quite good. I will keep a few suitable ones first. Thank you. I’ll give you another human head for free when the time comes.”

Tang Muxin: “…” Li Nianwei: “…” Luo Qiang: “…” The others: “…”

Could you please not talk about something so horrifying, we don’t take human heads here!

Since he had become her boyfriend, he could not leave Jiang Qianxue out. Hong Dali said, “Qianxue, you pick out a suit of armor too. Anyway, I have no use for them even if I keep them.”

Jiang Qianxue was not present when Hong Dali bought the various armors. When he bought the raw gemstone, Jiang Qianxue had no idea what they were for. She did not think much of it, either. However, when she picked up the armor, she was surprised. “So many high-grade gems?” Saying this, she suddenly thought about the three mysterious women she met at Sauron Auction Center. Now that she looked carefully at Tang Muxin, Li Nianwei and Ling Xiaoyi…

God, the three women she met the other day, could they be the three of them? Hong Dali had a lot of assets!

Of course, Jiang Qianxue was an intelligent woman—she did not dig for the truth. She remembered her position as the girlfriend, she should accept whatever her boyfriend gave her, so she chose a few pieces that she liked.

She chose a full suit of steel armor. It seemed like she was a very powerful professional swordswoman…

They soon reached Star Harbor. Hong Dali and his group went first to level eleven, where Hong Dali’s armor shop was.

Actually, when you open a shop, there are things you should be particular about. For example, the renovations and decoration, as well as staffing and allocation of manpower. There should also be a manager? There should also be some security personnel? Especially for someone like Hong Dali, who bought seven shops at one shot, he should definitely have some of that, right?

Not Hong Dali.

Once he entered the shop, he looked around and started instructing. “Eh, Uncle Mihawk, I think we will need to trouble you. I intend to renovate this store.”

“Dali,” Tang Muxin asked curiously. “if you want to renovate the shop, you should look for a renovation contractor? Why are you asking Uncle Mihawk? He is a swordsman, not a renovation contractor!”

No matter what, Mihawk was a great man who could fight against the great Mister Gate the whole night, how could he do the work of a renovation contractor…

Of course, under-utilizing resources and talents were one of the requisite skills of a qualified prodigal. Hong Dali’s reply was very matter-of-fact. “Uncle Mihawk’s swordsmanship is good, it will be really easy and convenient for him to simply carve up the walls to make doors. Renovation contractors will still have to knock at the wall and it’ll be noisy.”

Mihawk: “…”

This was the first time he had heard that good swordsmanship could be used in this way.

Hong Dali continued, “Besides, after clearing the door, we should make some cabinets or something? Make some holes in the walls so we can put some decorations? We can also make a pool on the ground, let the customers fish or something? Some hacking and cutting will be needed to make a counter, or perhaps cut up stuff to move around? Such an important task can only be undertaken by a powerful swordsman like Uncle Mihawk!”

Mihawk: “…”

“Wahahaha!” After hearing that, Gate laughed uproariously. He pointed at Mihawk as he clutched his stomach. He realized that the more he looked at Hong Dali, the more he liked him.

He soon realized he was wrong, very wrong…

Hong Dali said, “When the door has been cut out and all the furnishings removed, someone has to move the stuff—Pops… that… perhaps you…”

Gate: “…”

“Ah, actually, I think that you may be old, but you are still very strong.” Hong Dali grinned. “This job is suitable for you! When we’re finished I’ll treat you to wine. You can drink as much as you want!”

Okay, since he put it that way, there was no way to reject him.

Everyone was trying hard to suppress their laughter. It was hilarious. Of course, laughter aside, the job still needed to be done.

They started work.

Honestly speaking, the great Uncle Eagle Eye and the super great Mister Gate were really efficient when they worked. Mihawk waved his black sword about wildly and hacked vehemently at everything. As long as it was something that did not seem pleasing, he hacked it off! Mister Gate followed behind moving and piling up all the bits that got hacked off. First, they made a circle on the ground, then they further cut the hacked off material into smaller pieces. Li Yang and the other lackeys went out and bought back something that worked like cement and plastered it on the circle of chips…

They really were recycling and reusing all the unwanted and discarded material. Before long, the seven shops were neatly hacked through. On the ground was a huge water pond connecting all seven stores. The stuff that should be hacked was hacked, and the ones that should be thrown were thrown. Then, they randomly added some sofas and coffee tables. The armor shop was thus complete!

“Dali…” Tang Muxin stared dumbfounded at the new store that had been just refreshed or rather, defaced, and said, “You were right. It seems like this is much faster than renovation work…”

Mihawk: “…” Mister Gate: “…”

“It’s necessary!” Hong Dali nodded vigorously while grinning. “In the future, display one piece of armor right here in the middle. We will sell just one a day. Once it’s sold, the shop closes!”