Chapter 98

The group were in the opposite direction of Fog Village, so it took them an entire three days to make it to the village with only stopping for bathroom and meal breaks. Since they were all at least of the Elementary stage of cultivation, they all had higher stamina and endurance compared to ordinary humans, so not a single person in the group had complaints, especially due to them stopping so frequently to rest briefly or to even eat a free meal given to them by Timothy.

As they all walked up to the entrance, a small group of guards stood up and quickly took out their weapons. Timothy told the rest of the group to hang back as he approached himself. He also told them to remove any equipment that they were wearing as he put his own back into his storage ring. "Hello, I am the proud owner of the Golden Finger Merchant Group and I wish to enter into your village with all of my employees and to make Fog Village the home of our headquarters." Timothy with his hands above his head told the group of five guards.

The closer he looked at them, the more he noticed that they seemed rather weakened with dark circles under their eyes. Hearing what Timothy had said and seeing that everyone he came with stood back and even took off all of their protective equipment and weapons caused the leader of the group of guards to relax slightly. "And why would you want to make our Fog Village the home of your merchant group's headquarters when we are in such a sorry state from being attacked by those damnable revolutionaries?" he asked Timothy with a slightly respectful tone that also held a hint of hostility.

"Well recently I recruited all of these employees but it turned out that out of them, there were a total of six that had special skills. So I figured that Fog Village would not just be perfect for us to make our headquarters in, but we are also interested in helping boost Fog Village's overall economy by opening up six other smaller businesses underneath our merchant group. I am just wondering if there are enough buildings and space for us to go through with these plans of ours?"

"It is possible for us to enact the same plans with a small township or even create a small township with our current members, but it just makes more sense to build within a village as everyone grows accordingly to eventually use the wealth generated to continue to grow and expand. I just hope that if anything, your governor would be willing to hear us out. We do not have any bad intentions and are indeed very sorry that your Fog Village had suffered through such a harsh tribulation." Timothy told the leader of the guards

"Our governor died protecting this village and we are still in the middle of electing a new one because the first and foremost thing is to find a new leader to lead us towards rebuilding and once more prospering since we are a rather nice hotspot for traders to pass by and warriors who wish to head to Tornado City to compete in tournaments to test their strength and earn wealth and glory for themselves and their families and clans." the leader of the guards told Timothy while some sadness appeared in his eyes.

"We only have the best of intentions, so if your village needs time before working on such arrangements with us, we will wait out here patiently in the meantime." Timothy told the guard as he placed one hand on his shoulder to show just how genuine of a person he was. "I have quite a bit of food due to traveling from so far away, so we will not complain as long as your village does not allow us to starve to death."

"No, right now our total number of villagers dropped from over three thousand down to just only seven hundred people, majority who are simple farmers and commoners with no backgrounds in different types of trades. Other than the five of us, there are only eleven more experts and two of them are Advance stage experts. They are currently working on figuring out a way to both be governors together temporarily. Maybe with all of you arriving and clearly with good intentions, I will personally bring you and only you to see and speak to the two elders." the guard told Timothy as he gestured for him to update his group before following him inside.

"Go and do your thing. You might actually be able to receive the position as governor or at the very least we could all draw small salaries as guards within the village which I am sure would make any of us thrilled." After Timothy told the group everything, Cole was the first to speak up and he seemed rather pleased. However, Timothy had other plans such as not being held down by a title since he still wanted to one day become an immortal which meant he needed to go on many journeys in order to temper his strength properly and continue growing.

"Very well, then Cole, take this storage ring. It is full of at least a week's worth of meals that you could all survive on. Ideally, I want the negotiations to last for less than an hour, but you never know, especially since the village is in such a sorry and desperate looking state." Timothy replied before handing over the storage ring and withdrawing enough chairs for the group to comfortably sit and wait in.

The guard then escorted Timothy into the village and it was as Cole estimated. Majority of the buildings within Fog Village were indeed destroyed while there were big empty spaces of land with some scorched earth filling said empty spaces as if a revolutionary specialized in the fire element and let loose many attacks to destroy as many buildings as he or she could in a short amount of time. At least that was how it looked as there was a lack of villagers nearby.