The village that the experiment was being held in was called Flying Fish Village.

This was a normal village that was a bit away from Brilliant Light City, located right by a river, which allowed it to have a prosperous fishing industry. Thus, the village was named Flying Fish Village.

When Lin Fan came closer to his target, he immediately stopped and released Greeny's puppets that spread out around him.

It didn't take long before the puppets were able to find what they were looking for.

As he had expected, there was a perimeter formed around this village with experts that kept all people out and all the villagers in. Another thing that he expected was that while these people didn't have the uniforms of the Mercenary Guild, they did have some tokens that belonged to the Mercenary Guild. It was clear that these people were from the Mercenary Guild.

But the one thing that came as a surprise was that among the people that were forming the perimeter, there were people that he recognized.

These people weren't from the Mercenary Guild, but rather from the city guards.

Lin Fan went in and out of the city from time to time for things, so he slowly became familiar with the faces of the city guards.

He noticed that some of the guards that had been there when he entered through the gate were now surrounding this village with the people from the Mercenary Guild.

He had thought that at least the city guards wouldn't be involved in this matter since they were made up of people that lived in this city. They would have some moral objections towards using the people from their city for experiments like this, but it seemed like he was wrong.

It seemed the corruption ran much higher than he had expected..

But this wasn't the time to think about that.

For now, he had to note the formation that they were taking around the town and their distribution so he could send it to his allies waiting. That would make it much easier for them to ambush them later.

If they could take them out without them being aware, then it would make it much easier and safer for them.

However, the bad thing was that he wasn't able to find a single trace of a Foundation Realm Cultivator.

They were certain that they would send them, Lin Fan just wasn't able to find them.

So if they weren't here, where were they hiding?

The other bad news was that Lin Fan also couldn't find a trace of the creature that they would be using for the experiment.

Lin Fan had already seen the giant chimera before and knew just how big it was. Something that big should be impossible to hide in a small area like this, so just where were they holding it?

Or could it be that they decided to call off the experiment? Was that why it wasn't here?

But if that was the case, why were there still so many guards surrounding the village?

Lin Fan looked up at the sun and realized that there was still some time before the time set for the experiment.

Standing here and thinking about all of this wouldn't help him, so it was better if he went around and got more information. There might be the chance that they were just hiding in another location, so if he tried looking for them, there was a chance that he would be able to find them.

It was at least better than sitting here with nothing to do but wait.

So coming to this decision, he decided to go and search in a wider area.

What Lin Fan didn't know was that he made the right choice.

..

A few days back.

Inside of Brilliant Light City's City Lord Manor.

There were a group of people that were sitting around a large table in a big hall with no one making a single sound.

There were two people on opposite sides of the table that everyone was afraid of, making it clear that they were the ones that were in charge of this meeting.

One was the Mercenary Guild's president, Ming Ze.

The other was Brilliant Light City's City Lord and the head of the Yong Family, Duke Yong.

Neither of them said a thing as they just sat there glaring at each other.

It was almost as if one could see the clashing electricity between them and the sparks that flew as a result.

In the end, it was Duke Yong who broke the silence by saying, "You really messed up."

There was no doubt in that voice, there was only a firm tone filled with affirmation. It was as if what he was talking about wasn't related to him at all and it was completely the fault of the other side.

Ming Ze knitted his brows slightly when he heard this, but he didn't respond.

Seeing this, Duke Yong then said, "What do we do now? Do we still move forward with our plan?"historical

Ming Ze calmly said, "We have no other choice but to move forward with our plan."

Duke Yong raised a brow before asking, "You're not afraid of the Feng Family taking action?"

Ming Ze said in the same calm voice, "They won't do anything right away since they haven't gathered enough information. That is our opportunity."

Duke Yong revealed a confused look as he asked, "What do you mean by this?"

Ming Ze explained, "The Feng Family don't have any information on us right now, so they won't act. We need to show them a display of strength that they won't want to go against if we want to stop them from taking action. The experiment is the perfect way of showing off this strength."

Duke Yong fell silent after hearing this, but after a while, he gave a nod of agreement.

He knew just how effective the experiment would be and with this display, it would allow them to regain their footing. He knew that this was the only way for them to go forward.

But then there was another issue that he had to raise.

"Who will go and take over the gap created by Feng Yu Ze?"

That was the main issue here.

Feng Yu Ze's Foundation Realm guard was supposed to cover one of the locations that they needed to protect. However, since Feng Yu Ze's Foundation Realm guard had been killed along with him, that meant that there was currently a gap with their defenses.

Ming Ze knitted his brows when he heard this since this was also something that he had considered.

He had wanted to deal with this casually by sending two Peak Qi Gathering Realm Cultivators to cover for him or even completely ignore this. After all, the location that they had planned on sending Feng Yu Ze to was a relatively safe location that they didn't need to worry about.

He was the second young master of the Feng Family, so they had to keep him safe.

But it was all pointless now that he was dead.

Ming Ze naturally couldn't be casual about it now that Duke Yong had brought it up, so he had no other choice..

Gritting his teeth, he said, "I'll do it myself."

Duke Yong revealed a slightly surprised look, but he gave a nod in agreement after that.

But he still couldn't help feeling a surprised feeling deep down.

He had only wanted to test Ming Ze with this, he never expected to get such a large boon from it. As long as Ming Ze was guarding this place and out of the way, his people would be able to..

It was hard for him to stop his lips from curling slightly, but he was able to stop them from showing any visible signs.

Since this was decided, there was nothing else for them to discuss.

However, this was the City Lord's Manor, so Duke Yong was the master here.

He just simply stood up and waved his hand to dismiss Ming Ze and the people from the Mercenary Guild without even looking at them. Then he turned and walked off without looking back once, as if they didn't exist.

The people from the Mercenary Guild were naturally unhappy to see this as well, but they endured and held back their anger because their leader remained calm.

Ming Ze just looked in the direction that Duke Yong left in before turning around to leave without a word.

Only when he left the City Lord Manor did he finally speak.

He turned to one of his subordinates beside him and waved his hand for him to come closer.

That subordinate came right beside Ming Ze and put his face in by his mouth as he waited for his orders.

Ming Ze said, "Go and secure "that". I'm sure that foolish duke will be trying to take it during the commotion, that was why he raised that fuss in the first place."

As he heard this, the subordinate couldn't help revealing a faint smile filled with disdain.

His master clearly had a full read on Duke Yong and he was just playing with his food at this point..

The subordinate gave a nod before breaking off from their group to take care of this.

As they walked back to the Mercenary Guild, Ming Ze waved his hand and all his subordinates took a few steps back.

He took out a pocket watch and opened it to look at for a few seconds before saying, "Xiao Xin..It's almost time."

Then without a word, he put it away and headed forward with eyes filled with even more determination.