Cultivation Pet Shop

The next day passed by as normal, but there was definitely a heavy air that hung over Rock Mountain City.

Not many people knew what had happened, but the Jiang Family had suddenly decided to seal themselves in. Not a single member of the main family came out that day, there wasn't even a single member of the branch family that came out.

It was as if the Jiang Family had completely sealed themselves off, not interacting with the world at all.

Since the Jiang Family had been established, this had never happened once.

Just what had happened for the Jiang Family to suddenly act this way?

Others didn't know what had happened to the Jiang Family, but Lin Fan couldn't be more clear on what had happened.

The Jiang Family had lost too much in a single night, there was no way they would be able to recover from this in a short period of time.

First, the Jiang Family had lost their main source of business which generated the majority of their finances. Even if they could salvage their business, they would have lost the trust of many of their loyal customers and without those loyal customers, cracks would form in their business model. Those loyal customers weren't only big spenders, they were also quite influential.

Without the support of those influential backers, even if the Jiang Family wanted to continue in this slave trade, they would be putting their own heads on the chopping block.

Before, with the support of these influential backers, even if they were caught, they could rely on them to suppress the authorities and continue their business.

It wasn't hard for these powerful backers to find out what had happened and once there was a crack that was shown, no one would be willing to trust the Jiang Family again.

With these backers lost, if the Jiang Family continued in this business and were ever caught with their hand in the cookie jar, that hand would be immediately chopped off.  Even if the Jiang Family themselves were influential, there was nothing they alone could do against the entire government and the human race. Unless there was a day that the human race suddenly decided that slavery was acceptable which was almost impossible with how united they were against the Beast Race.

So with this loss, that meant the Jiang Family's finances were in shambles and they no longer dared to act as arrogantly as before.

But even with the Jiang Family losing their main business, they were a family that had been around for close to a thousand years. This meant that they had accumulated quite a bit of resources, so they wouldn't immediately suffer from this loss of a source of income.

The most important loss of all was actually the loss of their shadow squad.

The ones that had been sent to capture Song Shu had all been the leaders of the shadow squad, so they were all experts in the Platinum Realm, making up a total of ten Platinum Realm Experts.

They didn't know what had happened that night, but when they had seen the carnage of the scene, they knew that they had seriously miscalculated the strength behind Lin Fan.

With the death of all ten of these Platinum Realm Experts, this had dealt a heavy blow to them since this was a permanent loss of strength, unlike losing funds where they could just find new methods of income. These Platinum Realm Experts had been slowly nurtured by the Jiang Family and now that they were dead, it meant that decades of work had gone to waste.

Then there was Jiang Hei who had also been killed in the slave trade base. That was the biggest blow of all.

Peak Platinum Realm Experts or those that could fight at that level were extremely rare on this Blue Star Planet. Those that were at that level could be counted in the hundreds. 

After all, the Legendary Realm was the peak of this world and there were only less than a hundred of them. Right beneath them was the Platinum Realm, or rather the peak of that realm. They were considered the ones that truly ruled this realm since the Legendary Realm Experts usually don't meddle in mortal affairs.

The Jiang Family only had six elders in total and losing even a single elder meant that they would be losing a sixth of their entire power, this was definitely a crisis for the Jiang Family.

In the close to a thousand years they had existed, this was the weakest they had ever been.

If they didn't close themselves off at this time, who knows what kind of consequences they would suffer.

But the fact that they did created a tense atmosphere in Rock Mountain City. There were many powers that were wondering what had happened to the Jiang Family and there were other powers that wanted to take advantage of this. Overall, it meant that everyone was trying to claim more power from each other, causing tensions to rise.

As for the one who caused all this, Lin Fan had spent a boring day watching over his store. Even with how tense the atmosphere in the city was, it didn't affect his business since there were still plenty of people fighting over his training quota spots each day. The only real problem was that no one bought anything else from him other than the pets.

On this day, Qiang You had come again, bringing Qiang Ben with him.

Watching Qiang Ben follow Song Shu around, Qiang You leaned up against the counter where Lin Fan was sitting and asked, "Owner Lin, are you related to what happened yesterday with the Jiang Family's 'business'?"

Lin Fan didn't say a single thing, but there was a smile that hung on his lips.

Qiang You knew exactly what this meant, so he didn't dwell on this.

Instead his eyes narrowed as he asked, "Why are you so focused on the Jiang Family?"

Lin Fan looked right into his narrowed eyes looking at him with his own narrowed eyes, not moving away from his gaze at all. After a few seconds, Lin Fan casually said, "I have my own reason."

Qiang You didn't react at all to this at first, but then he gave a sigh.

After getting to know Lin Fan over the past few days, he had a good analysis of his personality. Lin Fan was someone who stuck to his word and his mood changed quite frequently.

If Lin Fan wasn't willing to tell him, it didn't matter what he asked since there would be no way for him to convince Lin Fan to speak.

More importantly, he was scared of the girl who stood by Lin Fan's side who looked like an angel, but was actually a demon who could slaughter without a care.

Qiang You hesitated a bit more before saying, "Do you at least know when to stop?"

Lin Fan paused for a second like he was in thought before saying, "I have my ideas of what to do and what not to do. In the end, the Jiang Family is important in holding back the Beast Race, so I won't go too far."

Qiang You gave a nod when he heard this. As long as he could get this from Lin Fan, he was satisfied.

No matter what, in the end, the Jiang Family was one of the only five Legendary Realm Families on the entire Blue Star Planet and one of the main forces of humanity in the fight against the Beast Race.

Even if the descendants lost control of themselves, it couldn't be blamed on the ancestor.

The ancestor of the Jiang Family was the most important person in their entire family since he was their only Legendary Realm Expert. As long as he was alive, the Jiang Family would never truly collapse.

Neither Lin Fan or Qiang You wanted the Jiang Family to collapse since in the fight against the Beast Race, every single expert was important.

The only reason Lin Fan was willing to discuss this was because he could sense the law barrier that Qiang You had placed around them. This was similar to the law that he used to move around undetected, so everyone had just walked past them without any notice of their conversation.

After getting through the serious stuff, Qiang You changed the topic to some other matters they needed to discuss.

But before they could even start discussing them, they suddenly heard someone in the shop say, "Did you hear? The Jiang Family is about to hold an announcement ceremony."

Another person asked, "Announcement ceremony? What announcement ceremony and where is it?"

The first person said, "They're holding it for select reporters outside their manor and the broadcast is about to begin."

Both Lin Fan and Qiang You knit their brows when they heard this.

They both knew just how dire the situation of the Jiang Family was, so for the Jiang Family to make an announcement now, it was either a final desperation move or they were planning something else.

Lin Fan immediately turned on the TV that was hanging in the shop which he had bought to watch when he was bored watching over the shop and he quickly found a channel with the program he was looking for. Actually, it didn't take him much effort since almost all the local channels were broadcasting this live conference.

There was a person who Lin Fan didn't recognize who was standing in front of a podium and everyone there was waiting for him to begin.