Walker Of The Worlds

About five days had passed since the day when the Fen clan agreed to join the alliance.

The overall progress had been steady, and everything had been going well. Even the other members of the merchant council seemed to have stabilized by now and the initial panic after the massacre of the three clans was now mostly gone.

Though Shantung still seemed to be at a loss for what to do next. He had exhausted every means of contacting his backer but had gotten no response. At this point, he was close to believing that it might be his own backer that had massacred the three clans and was now refusing to answer him.

Shantung sat in his clan's mansion while nervously drinking some wine.

"Patriarch, you need to mediate. So much worrying is not good for you." A man spoke to Shantung.

~tap~

Shantung put the cup of wine on the table with a clack before rubbing his forehead.

"Even if I want to, I can't… if it really is as everyone is expecting, then our troubles would increase many folds. With the backer changing the stance, we are left between a cliff and a ravine.

If we still decide to stick with them, while we might have a chance to survive, we would also be excommunicated from the merchant council. Not to mention the final intentions of the backer are still unknown to us." Shantung said to the man.

"Then what are we supposed to do, patriarch? As you said, the backer is very powerful, so what does he even want with a place like the Jiao Long city? Even if the merchant council members are based here, that is only because of the safety.

Our actual businesses are all spread across the empire. We don't even keep our wealth here." The man asked, feeling confused.

Shantung had cold sweat appear on his forehead after hearing the words of the man. For about five minutes, Shantung went silent before letting out a sigh.

~Sigh~

"My son… you might be right. When I was asked to support him, I wasn't 'asked' exactly… more like threatened." Shantung answered.

patriarch?" The man, who

~Sigh~

sigh, Shantung

would have, but the danger was simply too much. The backer said that he would exterminate me and our clan if I opposed him. And look now, the

waited just one more day, he would have

we could have had the same fate as that of those clans?" The son of

nodded his head in a

~thud~

couldn't help but fall on the ground from

you had been worried so much… this is just our worst fears

room for about ten minutes before the son of Shantung

~pata~

up the other cup of wine and drank it all in one go before putting it back on the table.

a solution to this, father. We can't just be on the passive any more." He said, changing the title

Shantung couldn't help but feel emotional. The mix

don't think I can do

our stance. We cannot associate with the backer anymore… whoever they are. We need to consolidate support

we are the ones to admit it first, while the council members may vilify us at first, they will still have some semblance of trust. Even if we are merchants, we should aim for the target that brings us profit, and associating with the backer is no longer good for us."

for a few seconds and found them to be reasonable. While they may have to pay some penalties to overcome the initial problems of mistrust with the council members, it will still be better in the long

shall do that then."

~clap~clap~clap~

Shantung said that he was shocked by the sound of someone clapping. He and his son became alert and turned