Lin Fan was shocked when he heard this.
But he quickly recovered and said, "Song Shu, I'm not someone who has much to teach you. If you follow Elder Fu, there will be many more chances for you."
Elder Fu saw that Lin Fan was on his side, so he quickly echoed, "Yes, Xiao Hua, the resources of the upper realm are not something this lower realm can compare to. Plus our Alchemy King Hall is one of the ten factions controlling the Galactic Humanity Alliances, which means that the resources we receive is the best of what the entire upper realm has to offer."
But Song Shu just pouted her lips and a blush came over her cheeks as she said, "But I want to stay with Owner Lin."
Everyone looked at Lin Fan with awkward gazes.
Lin Fan felt a chill from behind him which he could clearly tell came from Angela's cold gaze.
Lin Fan couldn't help complaining in his heart, "Why did everyone think that he was into little girls?"
Lin Fan just revealed an awkward smile and said, "I'm flattered that you think this way, but…"
But then before he could finish, there was a prompt from the system that immediately made him swallow those words back in.
Song Shu looked up at him and asked, "But?"
Lin Fan said, "But, you don't need to admire me to become my apprentice. As long as you work hard, that is all I ask."
Song Shu's eyes lit up immediately when she heard this, "Does that mean you'll take me as your apprentice?"
Lin Fan said with a smile, "Of course!"
Elder Fu quickly said, "But Owner Lin, it's dangerous for Xiao Hua if she stays in this lower realm."
Lin Fan just said, "As long as she stays in my store, she will be safe."
Elder Fu thought about how not only did the princess protect him, there was also this expert that was by his side. He turned over to look at Angela before giving a slow nod.
There was nothing Elder Fu could say to this since it did seem like Lin Fan was right. Jun Xiao Hua would be safe as long as she remained in his shop.
But still he didn't feel assured, so he decided to stay in this lower realm for some time first before heading back to the upper realm. He had to make sure that everything was safe for his granddaughter before he went back to the upper realm.
As for what the system had suddenly said to make Lin Fan change his mind, it was very simple.
The system had said, "Host, if you accept Jun Xiao Hua as your apprentice, you will immediately finish your side mission and one third of your main mission. Jun Xiao Hua will become the new Alchemy Master of the Alchemy Tower, with the fame of having the new Alchemy Master as your apprentice, you will not only spread your fame as an alchemist, you will also spread the fame of your shop."
And the words of the system were true.
Over the next few days, the shop gained a burst in popularity, it even reached the point of Snow Wind City. Of course there was a difference between the two cities since Green Wood City was a much bigger city in comparison.
Over these few days, there were even more customers and with the richer customers of this S Ranked City, there were many more special elixirs that were bought.
Lin Fan had a very happy look as he watched his points soar, reaching the ten million mark, but he still saved it since there was also a new feature unlocked with the success of the alchemy quest.
But with how busy the store had become, Lin Fan had to hire even more workers, namely Mu Xiao Hai and Yang Yun since they already spent most of their time here with Song Shu and the three other orphans.
The three other orphans had also been adopted by Elder Fu as grandchildren since Song Shu insisted on taking them as her siblings.
Elder Fu was someone who didn't have biological grandchildren since he had spent his entire youth on training and before he could find a wife, he had already found a son in Jun Ting. Of course, there were other members of his family who did have children, so their bloodline would still continue, which was why no one from their family forced Elder Fu to find a wife.
As for Elder Hua, she didn't come to the store as much since she was now running the Alchemy Tower. While Jun Xiao Hua was the Alchemy Master, since she was still too young, Elder Hua ran the daily operations of the Alchemy Tower for her so she could learn from Lin Fan.
That was also one of the main reasons why she let Yang Yun work in this store. She wanted Yang Yun to keep watch over Jun Xiao Hua.
The other reason was of course to learn as much as she could from watching Lin Fan work.
…
Time went by and it had been a week since the ending of the tournament and the shuffling of the Alchemy Tower.
Lin Fan had been very busy managing his new store during this week and teaching his new staff, but now that all that was over, he could finally leave the store to the staff while he headed off on his own.
Normally Song Shu liked to tag along with Lin Fan wherever he went, but this time he wouldn't allow her to come since he was meeting someone special.
As for her name, even though Lin Fan had learned that her real name was Jun Xiao Hua, he and the other kids still called her Song Shu since they were used to calling her this.
Lin Fan and Angela made their way out of Green Wood City and they came to the mountain base of the bandits once again, but the treatment they received was much more different.
When the bandits came out to see who it was, they were much more respectful towards Lin Fan after what had happened last time.
Lin Fan took this opportunity to look over the bandits and he found that among the faces he had seen before, there were also quite a few new faces that were looking at him with puzzled looks.
These new bandits clearly had never seen Lin Fan's power, so they were confused why their seniors treated Lin Fan like this.
But once the word of Lin Fan's arrival had been spread and one of the two vice leaders came forward to lead Lin Fan into the mountain, everyone understood that this had to be someone special.
Lin Fan came through the waterfall, he was surprised to see just how much had changed with this base.
The doors had all been replaced with steel doors and there was much better upholstery that filled the gathering area outside.
Even the clothes and food that the bandits had were leagues better than what they had before.
Lin Fan was led to the same side room as before where they had held their meeting the first time.
But this time, when they came in, Lin Fan took the main seat while the Jiang Zhi Shu and his two adjutants took seats on the side. Angela just remained standing behind Lin Fan which put Jiang Zhi Shu and the two adjutants off a bit, but of course they didn't dare say anything.
Lin Fan just sat down and looked at them for a bit before saying with a smile, "So, how's it going?"
Jiang Zhi Shu revealed a serious look and had someone on the side bring over the reports they were holding. Only the leaders of the bandits knew about Lin Fan's identity, the man who had been standing on the side was the first squad leader who commanded respect among the other bandits, but here he was relegated to stand on the side. But of course, he didn't complain since he knew just how powerful Lin Fan and Angela were.
While Lin Fan looked over the reports, Jiang Zhi Shu said, "The main points in those reports is that we've expanded our ranks, reaching over two thousand members in our group now. Their strength goes from the Iron Realm to the Silver Realm. Then there are the ten squad captains who are all in the Gold Realm."
The reason why they were able to recruit all these people was that this bandit group had changed from robbing everyone to just robbing the wicked, while donating a portion of that to the poor, turning them into righteous bandits.
But of course, they didn't give everything away. Just a single portion of it was already enough for them to earn a good reputation and these wicked merchants were quite rich, so they kept quite a bit for themselves.
As for where they found these wicked merchants, there was no lack of them in this world that followed the law of the jungle. All merchants wanted to make money and in this world, one had to get their hands dirty to make that money.
It wasn't hard to find these secrets with Brainy's ability and once they were exposed, they became ripe targets for Jiang Zhi Shu's group.
Then with a bit of clever advertising, it was easy to establish a brand for Jiang Zhi Shu's group.
To make it even more memorable, Lin Fan even came up with a nickname for Jiang Zhi Shu.
Currently, he was known as Robin Hood, the defender of the public and his band were known as the Merry Men.