Tian Tian was silent for a bit before giving a nod, but then she also shook her head which confused Lin Fan.
Seeing this confused look, Tian Tian explained, “It could mean that the empire has set their sights on this dungeon town, but that’s very unlikely. This dungeon town hasn’t caused a bit enough stir for something like that to happen yet.”
Lin Fan asked with a frown, “Then why would one of the ducal families be sending bandits at us?”
Tian Tian didn’t answer right away as she knitted her brows to think.
After a long period of silence, Tian Tian finally shook her head and said, “I can’t be certain why they would send bandits at us, but I can be certain that it shouldn’t involve the empire. This should be the Yong Family acting on their own.”
Lin Fan didn’t know how she had reached this conclusion, but he trusted her conclusion. After all, Tian Tian was someone who worked for the Mercenary Guild, a giant organization that spanned across the entire Mu Empire. She would certainly have more information than him to analyze the situation with.
So Lin Fan changed the topic by asking, “Then what should we do about this?”
Both Tian Tian and Yue Lan looked at each other before falling into deep thought.
Lin Fan couldn’t help revealing a bitter smile when he saw this.
During this entire time, other than to explain things to him, they hadn’t said a single thing. Since they didn’t tell him anything, he had no idea what they were thinking about and was completely lost.
The only thing that he could do now was wait for them to say something.
So after a very long period of silence, longer than any other silence previously, the two girls strangely said at the same time, “There’s only one way.”
The two girls looked at each other with surprised looks before suddenly revealing smiles when they saw the look in each other’s eyes.
As for Lin Fan, he just looked at them and shook his head with a helpless smile before asking, “Well, what is it?”
The two girls gave each other a nod before turning back to Lin Fan and saying with a smile at the same time, “Information.”
Lin Fan didn’t know how to reply at first, but then he said, “Of course we have to get information…The problem is how are we going to get it?”
Yue Lan was the one to speak this time as she said, “We’re not going to get it, you are.”
This time it was Lin Fan’s turn to reveal a confused look.
He just looked at Yue Lan and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Yue Lan didn’t say anything as she moved to the cabinet at the side of the room. She started digging right through the cabinet until she found a piece of paper that she brought back for Lin Fan.
Even though this was a room in the village chief manor which should belong to Lin Fan, Yue Lan was the one that used this study more, so she was more familiar with the items in this room than Lin Fan. But that was normal since Yue Lan was the one that was really running the village.
Lin Fan was nothing more than her errand boy who she sent on many different errands.
Lin Fan looked down at the piece of paper that she had put in front of him and was even more confused. That was because this piece of paper was just a deed for a store and he didn’t understand how this was related to the current topic.
But Yue Lan pointed at a line at the top of the deed for Lin Fan.
Lin Fan looked down and found that this was a deed for a store in Brilliant Light City.
Wait, Brilliant Light City? Wasn’t that where the Yong Family was?
Lin Fan looked back up at her and asked, “You’re going to open another store in the city where the Yong Family is?”
Yue Lan revealed a faint smile and said, “Well, technically you are since you are the owner of the store.”
Lin Fan ignored this and asked, “Are you really going to Brilliant Light City? It’s dangerous there, you shouldn’t be opening a store there at this time.”
Yue Lan gave a shrug and said, “Who said that I was going? I’m already busy enough managing this dungeon town, how could I find time to go to Brilliant Light City?”
Lin Fan revealed a confused look again as he asked, “Then who’s going to manage this store?”
Yue Lan pointed at him and said, “Of course it’ll be you. Who else would it be if not the owner of the store?”
Lin Fan was surprised at first before revealing an awkward look, “But I don’t know how to run a store at all, I’ll just…” His voice suddenly drifted off for a bit before he suddenly revealed a look of understanding.
He looked right at Yue Lan and asked, “Wait, do you mean…”
He didn’t finish his question, but Yue Lan gave a nod in response, “I’ve already prepared the management team, but now you’ll have to go with them.” She gave a sigh and added, “I had thought that it was just a normal store, but now it seems like…”
It wasn’t just this one branch store that Yue Lan was opening.
The business of the store in Sunset City was going so well that many different merchants had been asking to sell their products in different cities. They had seen how well Lin Fan’s products had been selling, so they all wanted to get a piece of the profit.
But Yue Lan had rejected all of them since she had other plans.
Her plan was to open up many branch stores so they could sell these products themselves and earn more profits.
During the past month, she had been setting this up.
With the profit earned from the store and the money that they earned from this dungeon town, they had plenty of money now. So she took that money and invested it into opening different branch stores.
She had chosen Brilliant Light City as the first main city to expand into, but she never thought that there would be a coincidence like this…
But it was good that there was this coincidence since at least that gave them a reason to go in and investigate. At the very least, she wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of opening a new branch store in another main city just so they could have a reason to go and investigate.
Since that had been settled, Lin Fan casually asked, “Then since I’m going to investigate the Yong Family and the Mercenary Guild is involved, then…”
As he said this, he slowly turned to look at Tian Tian. However, Tian Tian revealed an awkward look when she heard this.
After hesitating a bit, she said, “I’m afraid that the Mercenary Guild won’t be able to help you this time.”
Lin Fan couldn’t help revealing a surprised look before asking in a confused voice, “Why?”
Tian Tian’s awkward smile became even more awkward before she said, “It’s just that…the president of the Brilliant Light City branch…has a bit of a history with…my big sister.”
Tian Tian gave a cough to calm herself down before saying, “While this is a matter that involves the Mercenary Guild’s interests and we should be helping you, the president over in Brilliant Light City most likely won’t if we were to ask him to help. In fact, if we were to talk to him, he would most likely make it harder for you.”
Lin Fan knitted his brows to think for a bit before saying, “Do you mean that your big sister and the president of the Brilliant Light City branch…?”
Tian Tian revealed an awkward look again before saying, “He tried to confess to her once and it didn’t go well…”
Lin Fan couldn’t help revealing a helpless smile when he heard this, but he knew better than to ask any further than this.
At the very least, they had already decided what they would do next.
So after discussing a few more details, they were about to end this meeting.
However, Lin Fan suddenly remembered something and stopped them.
The two girls looked at him with curious looks as he took out the little pod of poison and he placed it on the table. They looked up at him with confused looks as he explained what it was.
When they understood what it was, they were about to get closer, but Lin Fan suddenly raised his hands in front of them to stop them as he said, “Careful, it’s poisonous. Don’t get too close or something might happen to you.”
The girls looked up at him like he was worrying too much, but even then, he still wouldn’t let them get closer without putting on the surgical masks.
The two girls relented and put on the masks before moving in for a closer look at the pod.
However, no matter how they looked at it, they couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Tian Tian had a better understanding of it since she had seen more artifacts than the two of them from working at the Mercenary Guild. She said half to herself and half out loud, “It seems like there’s a small array carved onto this pod and there’s a detonation effect on it. But as for what the conditions are or how it’s detonated, I have no idea since I’m not an array master.”
Lin Fan asked, “Can you have someone from the Mercenary Guild take a look at this? I want to understand how it works and what kind of poison is in it so I know how to deal with it if I encounter this in the future.”
Lin Fan had tried using his Appraisal Eye on it before, but for some reason, his Appraisal Eyes skill hadn’t been able to see through the pod to tell him what kind of poison it was. The only thing that he had learned was what kind of array it was, but he didn’t know what the effects were since the Appraisal Eyes didn’t give him that much detail.
Tian Tian gave a nod in response to this and said, “Sure, I know people in the Mercenary Guild who can take a look at this.” But then after a pause, she added, “But it will take some time for them to analyze this, is that alright with you?”
Lin Fan nodded and said, “Sure, you can just have Yue Lan send the information to me once you’re done.”
Yue Lan nodded in agreement since she knew that it was easier for her to send information to Lin Fan. After all, she could disguise it as a caravan to the branch store in Brilliant Light City without drawing any attention at all.
Tian Tian nodded in agreement and put the pod away.
With this, it was decided that Lin Fan was heading off to Brilliant Light City.
