The story the bandit leader had was actually quite a stereotypical one.
The bandit leader's name was Jiang Zhi Shu and he was from the Jiang Family of Rock Mountain City.
He had been the golden offspring of the Jiang Family, the most talented one of the younger generation who was destined to take over the Jiang Family.
But there was this girl who he had grown up with, always butting heads with her. However, he didn't know when it started, but he slowly fell in love with her attitude of never giving up.
This girl was someone who came from a low birth, so of course his family wouldn't allow for them to be together.
So in the end, he decided to run away with her.
But that was quickly dealt with and she was imprisoned in his family.
He soon saw his family for what it truly was, even his father, the head of the family had turned his back on him.
In the end, Jiang Zhi Shu faked his own death and ran away from his family. But before doing so, he had arranged for his big brother to watch over the girl until the time came that he would be able to come back to take her away.
Since that day, two years had passed and he was no closer to going back to the Jiang Family.
When his story came to an end, Angela turned to Lin Fan with a bit of a sparkle in her eyes.
It was clear that this story had moved her and she wanted Lin Fan to help, but Lin Fan gave a slight shake of his head and squeezed her hand.
Lin Fan leaned in to whisper, "We can't act rashly here. I'm almost certain that the Jiang Family he mentioned is the Legendary Realm Family of Rock Mountain City, which is one of the five main cities."
Then after pausing, Lin Fan continued, "The fact that he didn't mention this means he's thinking about using us to take care of his family, or rather he wants to use his family to see how strong we really are. I'm sure that his story is true because I can tell that those emotions can't be faked, but he isn't an idiot. A relationship takes a long time to forge, we have to forge our relationship with him first before helping him."
Jiang Zhi Shu saw all of this and knew that it was no use acting any longer, so he said with a sigh, "I guess that didn't work."
Lin Fan looked back at him with a smile, "We'll help you one day, but before that, we need to make you stronger. I'm sure you won't feel satisfied letting someone else take care of everything for you."
Jiang Zhi Shu hesitated a bit before nodding, "You're right, I need to settle this with my own hands. But what plans do you have for making us stronger."
Lin Fan casually said, "Plain and simple, you will become righteous bandits."
"Righteous bandits?" All three of them said at the same time.
They had never heard such a contradictory term before, but here it was being said by Lin Fan.
"Simply put, you will…"
…
After they finished their discussion, the bandit leader and the two adjutants escorted Lin Fan out of their base, but this time, their expressions were much more genuine. They had been won over by Lin Fan's words and felt it was worth giving it a chance to work with him.
Once Lin Fan and Angela came out of the bandits' base, they quickly headed back to Green Wood City.
They easily passed through the gates since the guards already knew who they were from before. While the guards were confused why they headed out right after landing, when they brought out the Gold Realm beast corpse Lin Fan had Brainy bring to them on their way back, the guards completely understood. They must have had some special task to take care of, it all made sense when they thought about what kind of expert Lin Fan was. He was someone who could chase off a pack of bandits led by the Platinum Realm Expert.
When Lin Fan and Angela entered the streets of Green Wood City, they were swept up by the waves of people moving through the city. It was just an endless sea of people as far as the eye could see.
But main cities had their own businesses to deal with this problem.
Standing by the sides of the streets near the gate were kids waiting there.
When these kids saw Lin Fan and Angela just looking lost, they quickly came over.
With the larger cities, there were many people living in different situations. With larger cities, there were more people who went out and died, meaning there were more kids who were left as orphans.
For these kids who lived on the streets, they had two ways to make their living. They could either pickpocket and work for the street gangs, or they could make a living off of doing odd jobs.
The kids that approached Lin Fan and Angela were part of the latter, they survived by guiding newcomers to the city around for a fee.
But of course, not all of them were good. Some of them took the fee from the mark before leading them to certain ambush spots…
Lin Fan could guess what these kids wanted, but he didn't trust people that easily. Lin Fan swept his spiritual senses over these kids which they couldn't feel at all and he found several of them with blood stains on the clothes hidden under their coats. It was easy to tell that these kids were involved in some shady business, but Lin Fan wasn't here to clean the gutters of this city.
Still, as his spiritual senses swept over them, there was one kid who caught his attention.
It was a scruffy looking kid who had come over with the crowd, but was shyly standing on the edge of the crowd of kids surrounding them. What surprised Lin Fan was that under all the dirt on that kid, there was a beautiful little girl who had skin that was white as jade who seemed no more than eight years old.
It was surprising to see an orphan who looked like this on the streets, normally it would have been easy to be adopted with her looks, but somehow she was still living on the streets.
Lin Fan couldn't help feeling a bit of pity for this little girl, so after shooing off the other kids, he approached her and said, "Do you know your way around this city?"
The little girl grabbed her hat and lowered it over her head before saying in a shy voice, "Yes, yes, sir, I know my way, way around."
Lin Fan brought a crystal out of his storage and said, "This is for you if you can bring us to the Mu Manor."
The little girl was shocked to see a crystal appear, this was the currency of beast masters!
But still she nodded and said, "I can take you there sir."
Lin Fan took her hand and put the crystal in her palm before saying, "Lead us there then."
The girl just nodded before waving at them and running off.
Lin Fan and Angela were surprised by how fast this little girl ran, but they followed her through the streets of the city.
Along the way, Lin Fan couldn't help asking, "Little girl, what is your name?"
When she heard this, the little girl was surprised, "Little girl? Sir I think you're mistaken, I'm clearly a boy."
Lin Fan was also a bit surprised by this answer, but he didn't refute it, "Alright, little boy, what is your name?"
The little girl hesitated a bit before answering, "Song Shu, they say that I look like a squirrel when I eat, so they called me that."
"Hmm." Lin Fan just said without saying anything else.
He did feel a bit of pity for this little girl, but since she wasn't willing to ask for his help, he wouldn't butt into her business.
After a few minutes, they made their way to the Mu Manor.
Once the little girl brought them to their destination, she seemed like she was struggling with something, but she never said a thing in the end.
Lin Fan just took out another crystal and tossed it to her, "This is for bringing us here so quickly. Thank you."
The little girl quickly caught it and after realizing her mistake, she gave a bow to both of them before running off along the streets.
Lin Fan and Angela watched over this little girl for a bit, both falling into thought before turning back to the Mu Manor.
When they approached the gates to the Mu Manor, there were two guards that suddenly appeared.
"Halt!"
