Cultivation Pet Shop

The banquet continued on as normal and many different people approached Lin Fan, especially the elders, but he didn't accept any of their invitations in the end.

The elders were clearly unhappy about this, but they didn't let it show on their faces since their rivals were also here.

Still, even if they were unhappy, this didn't affect how they treated Lin Fan. Until he chose a side, he was still someone that they wanted to win over. Especially after they had talked to him and found that his knowledge of alchemy might not be below their own.

Yuki on the other hand acted more coldly, but still, she was treated the same because of the alchemy knowledge that she displayed.

So after the banquet, Lin Fan and Yuki were given plenty of presents by the elders that they couldn't refuse.

However, none of that mattered since they had somewhere they had to get to.

When they arrived in this empty building, Angela suddenly appeared in front of them.

Lin Fan asked, "Is the area clear?"

Angela gave a nod before going to sit down at the table on the side.

Angela had been there with them at the banquet, but she had also snuck out early to secure this place with Brainy's puppets.

That was because they were about to meet someone here, someone that would be the key part of their plan.

A few minutes later, there was a person that came in through the door and asked, "Is it really you?"

Lin Fan gave a nod to this person and said, "It's me, I came up from the Blue Star Planet."

When the person heard the words "Blue Star Planet", he came out to reveal his face. It turned out that the person that Lin Fan was meeting was actually Elder Fu.

As for how he had gotten word to him about this meeting…He had used Brainy's rat puppet to sneak a message to Elder Fu during the banquet.

With his shadow and sound laws developing further, he was able to easily sneak the rat through the banquet hall without anyone noticing. Even Elder Fu had been surprised to find the message that had suddenly appeared in his pocket.

However, since the message had contained information about Song Shu before she had met him, he chose to follow this message and meet with the person this message was from.

As he had expected, it was Lin Fan.

After he came into the room, the first thing he did was give a sigh before bowing his head to Lin Fan and saying, "It's my fault, I couldn't keep my promise."

Before he had left with Song Shu, he had promised that he would keep her safe.

With the current situation of the Alchemy King Hall, it was clear that he had broken that promise.

Lin Fan didn't say anything at first, but then he waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault…It's those greedy old fools' fault."

Elder Fu didn't correct the way he had described the elders, instead he asked, "What is your plan?"

Lin Fan said, "I don't know since I don't have enough information right now. I need to ask you a few things before I can come up with a plan."

Elder Fu gave a nod before saying, "Alright, ask me whatever you need to ask."

Over the next half an hour, Lin Fan asked Elder Fu many different questions. There were some that he wasn't able to answer since they were specific questions about certain elders, but most of the questions he was able to answer.

After he had received all his answers, Lin Fan fell into deep thought for a few minutes.

There was a period of silence before Lin Fan said, "I have a plan, but it might not be one that you like."

Elder Fu knitted his brows as he asked, "Why? Is it going to put Xiao Song Shu in danger?"

Lin Fan didn't answer right away, but eventually he gave a nod and explained his plan.

It took another few minutes before he finished explaining his plan, but by the end of it, Elder Fu suddenly slapped the table that they had been sitting at and shouted, "No, there are too many unstable variables to your plan! I won't accept it!"

Lin Fan gave a sigh and said, "What can't you accept?"

Elder Fu sat down again and said, "First, your plan depends too much on how you predict the elders will act. They might be old fools, but they are still old fools that have held their positions for many decades, so they are quite shrewd. They won't act the way that you think they will."

Lin Fan shook his head and argued, "That might be true normally, but this time there's another variable that cancels that out. As long as we use that variable, it'll cancel out everything since this will be the best chance that they have."

Elder Fu knitted his brows immediately and refuted, "But that variable is the one that will put Xiao Song Shu at risk. Do you really think I'll allow that?"

Then after calming down, he said, "I'll only accept a plan where there's no chance that Xiao Song Shu will be at risk. If there isn't one, then we'll just wait for an opportunity to reverse the situation. At the very least, if the current situation persists, they won't have a chance to do anything."

Lin Fan once again shook his head as he said, "That's not the case. Even if this situation persists, they will still try to find their chances."

After saying this, Lin Fan took out two pieces of paper from his Storage Ring that he placed in front of Elder Fu.

Elder Fu was confused at first, but then when he read the letters that had been placed in front of him, he deeply knitted his brows and asked Lin Fan in an anxious voice, "Where did you get these?"

The letters that Lin Fan had just taken out were letters between elders who were planning on allying with each other to force Song Shu to get married. As long as they worked together, they would be able to gain enough influence that they could forcefully set this matter.

By the time that the Alchemy Master came back, it would already be too late since this would have become a matter that was accepted by everyone. If he wanted to go back on it, it would be a slap to his face and would be very hard for him to accept.

These letters had been found by Lin Fan before the banquet.

With Brainy's puppets, it was easy for him to find these things.

Since he had no information after arriving in this place, he hadn't been idle. His greatest advantage was the information seeking abilities that Brainy had, so of course he would put them to full use.

Specifically, these two letters had been found in the residences of the seventh elder and the eleventh elder who had sent people to welcome him.

He had Brainy's puppets follow the people who had been sent to welcome him and he had found these almost right away. It wasn't even hidden, they were placed out in the middle of the elders' residences.

It seemed that these elders had gotten complacent after thinking that their plans were about to succeed…

But it wasn't Lin Fan's place to judge them.

Seeing that Lin Fan wasn't saying a thing, Elder Fu fell into a state of deep thought.

He naturally knew why Lin Fan had taken these things out and he knew that even if Lin Fan gave these things to him, he wouldn't have been able to do anything with them.

In fact, the Alchemy Master faction that he followed was the weakest since in this situation, everyone wanted to gain advantages while he was away, so even the people in the same faction as him were plotting against Song Shu.

After all, it was almost certain that Song Shu would be the future Alchemy Master, so as long as they could get their disciples to marry her, their position would be secured in the future.

So in this situation, even if Elder Fu had these letters, no one would trust them or back him up, even if he could prove that they were written in the handwriting of the elders.

Lin Fan had brought these out to force Elder Fu since he was basically saying that Elder Fu had no choice but to accept his plan. If he didn't accept his plan, it was only a matter of time before Song Shu's wedding was forcefully decided.

Elder Fu gritted his teeth for a long time, but in the end, he had no choice but to say, "I can accept this plan, but you have to tell me what tricks you have up your sleeve that you're so confident that this plan will work."

Lin Fan revealed a smile at this, but he still gave a nod and said, "Alright, that's not a problem."

Then he began explaining a few more things to Elder Fu.

​ By the end of it, the look of Elder Fu's face had relaxed a bit, but he still seemed like he was worried.

But in the end, he said in a defeated voice, "We'll follow your plan, but I have to say that I'm still very against it."

Lin Fan gave a shrug and said, "That's fine. It's not like you have any other choices."

Elder Fu gave a sigh before saying, "Why does it seem like I'm making a deal with the devil?"

Lin Fan just sat there with a smile on his face, but then he suddenly thought of something and said, "Right, don't tell Song Shu that I'm here."

Elder Fu was confused when he heard this as he asked, "Why not? I'm sure that she'll be happy to know that you came for her."

Lin Fan shook his head and as he simply said, "It'll be more fun this way."

Elder Fu was even more confused, but Lin Fan didn't offer any more explanation beyond that.