Chapter 386: Sudden invitation

The night passed just like this without much happening because both sides were still making preparations.

Most of the next day also passed by without much incident since they were still making preparations, but something suddenly arrived the next night.

While Lin Fan's group were resting at the residence that the Xu Family had given them, there was someone that suddenly visited them. It was no one else but Xu Lin with one of the elders.

Once again, they were led through the secret passage into the private meeting room inside the Xu Manor where all the higher ups of the Xu Family had gathered again.

When Lin Fan's group arrived in the room, they had all been silent, but seeing Lin Fan come in, the Xu Family Head immediately came over to say, "Brother Lin, we have a problem."

Lin Fan slightly knitted his brows as he could sense the feel of this room, so it didn't seem like a small matter. Lin Fan asked, "What is it?"

The Xu Family Head went back to his seat to pick something up before giving it to Lin Fan.

When Lin Fan looked down at it, he slightly knitted his brows at first when he read the contents before relaxing them once again. He even couldn't help laughing when he read what was written on this sheet of paper.

Seeing Lin Fan suddenly break out in laughter, the Xu Family Head had a strange look on his face as he asked, "Brother Lin, what are you laughing at?"

Lin Fan pointed at the paper in his hand and said, "This thing, how can you not laugh at it?"

The Xu Family Head was even more confused because this piece of paper was exactly what he had been worried about. It was also the reason why this meeting had even been called.

On this piece of paper was an invitation from the One Shadow Organization to meet for negotiations tomorrow night.

This had come this afternoon after the Xu Family had mentioned through several channels that their family head had gone into closed door cultivation.

It was clear what the intentions of the One Shadow Organization were, but they were different from what they had expected with the information that they had received, which threw them off. So they held this meeting to counter this situation while also inviting Lin Fan to see what his thoughts on this were.

But no one would have expected Lin Fan to burst into laughter when he saw this invitation.

The Xu Family Head was still confused, but since this was a serious meeting, he had to act the part, so he said, "Of course I can't laugh at this invitation, this is a serious matter for our Xu Family."

Lin Fan stopped laughing and put the piece of paper back down on the table before saying, "This thing isn't a problem, it just means that the situation has changed a bit."

Everyone was once again confused by Lin Fan's words.

The Xu Family Head took the lead and asked, "Brother Lin, what do you mean by that?"

Lin Fan didn't answer this question, but rather he answered it with another question, "If you were able to get something without fighting for it, wouldn't you want to take that path?"

The Xu Family Head didn't understand why Lin Fan asked this, but he still nodded as he said, "Of course, anyone would want to get what they want with as little effort as possible."

Lin Fan gave a nod and tapped on the invitation that was on the table as he said, "That is what this is. They're assuming that we don't know about their planned attack, so they want to use this invitation as a way to make us let our guard down while also trying to see if they can get us to give up. If we do give up, wouldn't that be much easier for them?"

The Xu Family Head paused to think about it and after a bit of thought, he realized that Lin Fan was right. There was no reason for them to do this since they should have thought that they had the element of surprise with their attack, so why would they suddenly make a move now?

Unless they wanted to see if they could handle this matter without any bloodshed at all.

There was nothing to lose for them if they tried this since they knew something that others didn't. They knew that the Xu Family Head should have succumbed to the poison, which was why the Xu Family had announced that the Xu Family Head was going into closed door cultivation. This was a way for them to hide this fact.

But after thinking about it for a bit more, the Xu Family Head also realized that something else was off.

While this would make them let their guard down since they would never expect an attack right after the meeting, this would still make the Xu Family more vigilant overall, which would make them harder to attack.

That would be something that was bad for them, so there was nothing to gain from sending this invitation.

If anything, they should have sent the invitation right before their attack to give them no time to raise their guard, but they set it a day before the day of their attack.

The Xu Family Head knitted his brows once again and said, "But this doesn't make sense still, why would they send it for a day before their attack?"

Lin Fan revealed a smile when he heard this as he had been waiting for someone to notice this, this very tiny flaw in this plan.

Lin Fan had the same smile as he said, "It's very simple, they're confident."

The Xu Family Head had a puzzled look as he asked, "Confident, what do you mean by that?"

Lin Fan's smile disappeared as he said with a serious look, "It means that the situation has changed and they must have gotten some support. Based on the fact that they made this move, it shouldn't be a normal expert. By my calculations, it should be someone that's beyond the low Embryo Soul Realm."

Everyone in the room knitted their brows at this as they began discussing this. The Xu Family Head said in a worried voice, "Beyond the low Embryo Soul Realm? Just how strong would they be?"

Lin Fan gave a shrug at this, "I know as much as you do, but I'm certain that they're still in the Embryo Soul Realm at least."

This was what Lin Fan had slowly learned from being in this upper realm for a while now. He learned the spread of experts among the forces in this upper realm.

In these smaller forces, it was impossible for there to be an expert in the Child Soul Realm since they would have been swept into one of the twelve great factions already, so the strongest this person could be was in the peak Embryo Soul Realm. That was also why Lin Fan was confident.

With his current strength, he could even fight against those in the Child Soul Realm. While he might not be able to win, he would still be able to defend himself and escape if necessary.

Someone with this kind of power definitely didn't need to fear anyone in the Embryo Soul Realm unless that person had a special ability to allow them to match those in the Child Soul Realm. But even then, Lin Fan had a trump card that he had been saving for those situations.

The Xu Family Head began to worry even more.

If it was someone in the mid Embryo Soul Realm, perhaps he would be confident since there was another trump card hidden in the Xu Family, but if it was someone that was beyond that…

He never expected that things would change in these final moments, but there was nothing he could do except accept them since there was nothing he could change about it. No matter what, the One Shadow Organization would still be attacking in the end and no matter what, this would involve the survival of the Xu Family.

There was only one thing they could do, face them head on and hope that they could win.

But at the very least, there was something that could give him a bit of confidence. Rather, there was one person who had been relaxed and confident the entire time.

The Xu Family Head turned to Lin Fan and asked, "Brother Lin, how confident are you in handling this?"

Lin Fan gave a shrug and said, "If you're willing to pay, I can take care of this for you."

The Xu Family Head knitted his brows as he asked, "How much?"

Lin Fan revealed a smile and said, "Who knows, I might be wrong and there might not be this expert at the One Shadow Organization. But if there is, I'll take an extra 5% to deal with him. What do you think?"

The Xu Family Head was surprised when he heard this, but then he immediately said, "Alright!"

Just an extra 5% to deal with an expert that no one else could deal with? That was a bargain!

The Xu Family Head was this confident in making this deal because he knew that Lin Fan was more powerful than him. Even though he had already recovered his cultivation and was back to his peak in the low Embryo Soul Realm, he still couldn't see through Lin Fan.

He knew that Lin Fan was definitely more powerful than him or this wouldn't happen.

But what he didn't know was that Lin Fan's cultivation was actually still below his, being in the peak Fragmented Soul Realm. It was only because of Lin Fan's special physique that he could hide his cultivation.

As for Lin Fan, the only reason he offered such a cheap price was because he wanted 50% at most. If he took anymore, that would negatively impact the Xu Family's development and he didn't want that.

After all, the Xu Family had already sworn to follow him and as their boss, he would need to develop them in the future.

There was no man that could do things on his own and he would need manpower to take care of things in the future, the Xu Family was a great choice for this. Lin Fan could see that they were a close family and there wasn't much plotting among them, albeit there was still a bit, but it was on the low side for normal large families like this.

Not to mention that the family head had a personality that Lin Fan liked, so there was no reason why he shouldn't help them develop.

Once that was decided, they went back to another topic which was their attack on the One Shadow Organization.