The next day, Lin Fan headed alone to the inner city for the location of the meeting.
This was his first time in the inner city and he was quite surprised when he stepped through the gates of the inner city.
This place was completely different from the outer and middle parts of the city, the buildings here weren't as run down as the outer and middle parts of the city. Though they couldn't be considered luxurious, they could be considered livable.
This wasn't considered much for Lin Fan who had lived in a much more developed city, but for the people who lived in the slum all their lives, this was considered luxurious.
Only the people who were able to reach this place would never be people who had lived in the slums all their lives. The people who came here were all people who ended up in the slums for one reason or another and were the ones that actually had high cultivations.
So for them, this place wasn't considered that luxurious either.
Lin Fan continued heading deeper into the inner city until he finally came to a place that finally looked quite impressive.
This was the hotel that was right in the center of the city and was considered the most luxurious place in the entire city. That was because this was the place that had been built by the nobles for them to stay when they came down to inspect the slum city.
So this hotel was very luxurious to suit their needs. Even the location of this hotel was in the best spot, right under the passage that led to the slum city from the capital city above.
So the nobles wouldn't have to travel far after arriving in this city.
Normally one would need a special token proving their identity to even enter this hotel and luckily Lin Fan had one of these.
It had been given to him by the person that he had contacted to broker this deal, so he was allowed right in and someone even led him right up to the room that had been booked.
Naturally as a place that catered to nobles, they understood what the nobles wanted. For nobles that came to a slum city like this, naturally they were doing things that they didn't want people to know about.
So with this in mind, all of the rooms had been soundproofed and guarded against eavesdropping.
But Lin Fan wasn't assured in just leaving this to others, so he also released some of Brainy's puppets and had them secure the area.
To his and Brainy's surprise, they weren't able to find a single thing wrong with this room. It seemed like whoever designed this place had really put quite the effort into making this place.
But of course, this was to be expected since many different nobles came together to make this place.
After Lin Fan arrived, he actually waited in this room for quite a bit before the other side arrived.
When they arrived, he couldn't help being surprised by how they were dressed.
That was because they had been completely covered up in cloaks and didn't reveal a single trace of themselves. It was almost as if they were rogues instead of nobles…
They didn't say a word as they sat down right in front of them and there was an awkward silence that filled the air. However, even with this awkward silence, Lin Fan didn't say a thing since he knew that saying something would actually mean that he would be giving up the initiative.
In a situation like this where both sides were waiting for the other side to slip up and give them something to take advantage of, the person who spoke second would have the upper hand. After all, to get something, you had to give something, so the first person who spoke would actually be giving up information about themselves.
But of course, if they let this silence remain for too long, they would never get anywhere.
Luckily, the person who had contacted Lin Fan also came in not long after.
This was a sloppily dressed young man named Zhong Jun and despite how he looked, he was actually in the Nascent Soul Realm and was the vice president of the Swift Lightning Gang.
After he came in, he revealed an apologetic look and raised his hand to say, "Sorry I'm late. I had some business that kept me occupied until now."
Though he said this, not a single person in the room believed it.
That was because he had indeed been late on purpose.
He had been waiting outside on the orders of the noble family behind the Swift Lightning Gang and had only come in because he received a secret order.
The cloaked figures knew that keeping the silence wasn't the right thing to do, but they couldn't do it since they had their reputation to consider. So they chose to use Zhong Jun instead since this was a method that they could use to break the silence while also not exposing anything about themselves and keeping their prestige.
Lin Fan didn't mind this since he knew that there was nothing he had lost from this.
Zhong Jun saw that no one spoke, so he came forward to sit in between the two sides and said, "Should we get this started?"
Though he said this to everyone, he looked at Lin Fan when he said this, making it clear that he was directing this to Lin Fan. In a way, he was using a passive aggressive manner to make Lin Fan speak first.
Even though Lin Fan knew this, he still took the bait since he knew that staying too firm would mean that they would never go forward.
Lin Fan nodded and said, "Alright, let's hear what kind of a deal you have?"
The cloaked figures looked at him in silence for a few seconds before the smaller of the two cloaked figures said, "You really are interesting, aren't you?"
Lin Fan couldn't help slightly knitting his brows when he heard this. The first words that came out of this person's mouth wasn't an offer, but rather this strange question.
But what really surprised him was that even though this person had disguised their voice with sound laws, with Lin Fan's understanding of sound laws, he was able to easily break through this. The voice that had just spoken was clearly the voice of a little girl…
Before Lin Fan could answer, the taller of the two cloaked figures gave a cough and said, "You already know what we want, so give us your conditions."
Lin Fan looked at the taller of the two and then turned to the shorter one, but seeing that she didn't say anything, he said, "Alright, it's very simple. I just want passage into the capital for me and another person."
There was only silence that met this as all three of them looked at Lin Fan.
Lin Fan couldn't see what expression the two cloaked figures had, but Zhong Jun had knitted brows on his face. Based on his guesses, he figured that the two cloaked figures most likely had the same expression as Zhong Jun.
After a long period of silence, the taller of the two cloaked figures said in a deep voice, "It's not as easy as you think to bring someone out of the slums and into the capital. Perhaps if you asked to be sent to a different world, then we can help you, but to ask to be sent to the capital…"
Lin Fan remained firm as he said, "I want to go to the capital."
There was another moment of silence before the taller of the two cloaked figures suddenly released his aura which pressed down on Lin Fan.
To Lin Fan's surprise, this aura wasn't the aura of a True Soul Realm Expert that he was already used to, but rather…
This was the aura of a World Realm Expert!
This taller of the two cloaked figures was actually a World Realm Expert!
Even if he had felt this kind of aura before, with his cultivation, it was still hard for him to endure and he couldn't help shrinking a bit in the seat. But he stayed firm and looked at the cloaked figures right in the face.
After a long moment of silence, the shorter of the two cloaked figures raised her hand.
The taller of the two cloaked figures was surprised by this and quickly retracted his aura. However, even though Lin Fan couldn't see his face, he could tell by the way that he was looking at him that the taller cloaked figure was glaring at him.
The smaller of the two cloaked figures then said, "Since he has given us these conditions, he must be confident that he has something worthy of this condition." She turned back to Lin Fan and said, "Speak, let us hear what gives you this confidence."
Lin Fan revealed a faint smile when he heard this.
He ignored the taller cloaked figure and focused on the smaller cloaked figure as he said, "I'll give you all the business in the outer and middle parts of the city if you grant me this."
Once again, there was only silence that met this, but this time the atmosphere was different.
While the cloaked figures weren't as shocked as the look on Zhong Jun's face, it was clear that they were surprised by this offer.
But after a moment of silence, the smaller cloaked figure said, "Do you think that the other factions will just let us take all of this business?"
Lin Fan said with the same smile, "Who said that it would be you taking it all?"
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