And so, along with his master, Timothy began sight-seeing across Hollow City and visiting about a dozen different mercenary groups to gather their pricing. It was somewhat strange that their prices varied by quite a bit, but if he looked at the cheapest of the bunch, he would be able to have two Elementary level three cultivators to guard his family for an entire year for three hundred gold pieces.

This proved to Timothy that the weaker the cultivator, the harder it was for them to find proper work to generate actual wealth. If he cared more about quantity compared to quality, Timothy could choose to hire eight men after negotiating who would be all Elementary level one cultivators for just an additional fifty gold pieces.

After eating an above average dinner at one of the many nice restaurants within Hollow City, Timothy felt that it was time to begin heading back to that merchant group to conduct business and to possibly pick up the remainder of his earnings from the information.

But it seemed that the heavens had different plans for Timothy as a small group of city guards surrounded him. "Hey kid, you will be coming with us. If you choose to struggle we were told to use enough force to subdue you." one of them said as they each had their swords drawn. Normally city guards would have two weapons available to them to carry during their shifts. The first was a weapon of their choosing, and the second was a decent quality sword that was donated by the governor's family.

"I will not resist." Timothy said as he held out his hands close together so that one of the guards could chain him up properly as they then escorted him across the city. These guards were all of the Intermediate cultivation stage so they were able to move across the city with very few individuals pin pointing at them.

It was strange even to Master Sei that Timothy was being taken somewhere by a group of city guards, but still his instructions to his disciple was to just follow along as they continued forward. It was highly likely that his life shouldn't be in any danger and that maybe he was to be questioned on how he came across the information from earlier.

The group traveled quite a few miles across Hollow City until they finally stopped at the entrance of a massive mansion that was in the northern part of the city. This mansion was obviously the governor's home where he also took in visitors who needed to discuss matters with him, similar to that of a king.

"We have the child so let us through!" one of the guards as they finally landed at the gates shouted to the others. Not even hesitating, the group of guards guarding the gate immediately acted and made way for them to enter inside. Timothy, although unable to even have the time to react, couldn't help but to be in awe at how big the mansion actually was and even on the outside looked like a small decorated castle!

"Very good, I will take it from here, you are all headed to your positions at once." a well decorated guard told the group that originally were escorting Timothy to the mansion ordered as he actually took off the iron cuffs that were around Timothy's wrists. "Look kid, you do not have to be afraid, the governor just wants to ask you some simple questions and you will be free to head back." the guard told him with a smile on his face, trying to calm Timothy down. All he could respond with was a simple nod as the two entered into the mansion.

It seemed very unusual, but standing inside were a large group of experts remaining seated as a figure with a small crown on his head and a woman by his side sat with many guards surrounding them. It was very clear to Timothy that it was the governor and his wife who were sitting in the middle of the two thrones, but he was unsure who these other experts were who were present.

"Kneel to the governor of Hollow City and his wife!" the guard shouted as he bowed towards the two figures and physically made Timothy do the same immediately and remained in a bowed position. "You can both stand but only the child is to sit in that seat before us. You are dismissed." the governor told the guard before waving his hand.

The governor did not look as majestic as Master Sei, but Timothy still found it difficult to keep his composure. Part of it was because he was still unsure what fate had in store for him, but also because he could feel the power radiating from all of the other figures present and pressing down on him very lightly as if any one of them could crush him with just a thought.

"We were able to locate that so-called Flamed Roots clan in your township. Even I was surprised that the information you gave over was so accurate. However, because of our poor planning, we lost two Intermediate cultivators during the battle since we did not want anything bad to happen to the rest of the population there." the governor told Timothy but loud enough for the other experts present to hear.

"We have had some trouble with the Dark Hand for about an entire century now because they are just a subsidiary organization of a major faction in our world. You seem to be a commoner, so I would rather not tell you one of the many secrets, but it is only right for me to. Our kingdom is in fact considered a remote and weak one compared to the rest of the world, but the most powerful kingdoms continue to fight for dominance and one of them is of demon beasts."

"That particular kingdom worked very hard to offer up different types of incentives for even some kings in order to pull them to supporting them. Dark Hand may have been somewhat weak overall, but they were strong enough to give me some trouble in this region and I chose not to act. It was your information that infuriated me enough to finally do so, because it proved what they were able to do all of these years being left alone and expanding."