Amos frowned.“What do you think Harvey did to cause all this? He turned me into his pawn?“These are all complicated plans…“Judging from Harvey’s behavior, he wouldn’t waste all this effort in the first place. Every time he took action, it’d always make a huge impact, despite how casual he is.The figure played around with a chess piece for a long time.“If I guess correctly, Harvey must’ve given Stefan the Smalt Sect’s badge.”Amos shivered, then let out a long sigh.“Thank you, Lord Roue. I didn’t realize that at all!“I only saw the benefits that come with the badge, but I didn’t think Harvey wouldn’t even care for such things in the first place.“He gave Stefan the badge so he could stab me in the back at the most crucial moment!“What a move!“It’s a shame Vaati ruined his mighty plan just by visiting him. Harvey must be furious by now.”“Probably not. After all, since Vaati didn’t go against Harvey, it must mean that he needs the badge as well.“After all, from a c
Roue chuckled.“Not exactly. The difficulty depends on your resolution.”“What do you mean by that?” Amos asked, still frowning. “If, say… Someone Vaati deeply cares about dies in Harvey’s hands… Would the Aenar Temple remain friends with him?” Roue said, smiling mysteriously.“Someone Vaati cares about…? Does he have a woman or something?”Amos showed a curious expression.“Let’s think outside the box, Young Master.”Roue seemed quite relaxed.“Why can’t a man be the person he cares about the most? Everyone says that Stefan is his child. If he dies, do you think Vaati would remain this calm?”Amos scowled. “There’s a huge risk in that. If he finds out that I started this… He’ll fight me with everything he’s got. This plan won’t do. Let’s think of something safer.”“There’s no time, Young Master.“I can only tell you this. You need to be ruthless to stand your ground. The outskirts’ situation isn’t good for you right now.“If you’re still going to be this paranoid… You’d b
Harvey froze, then smiled. “You’re too humble. As a consul, your schemes and combat prowess should be no less than outstanding. Without any proper defenses, even Amos wouldn’t be a match against you, right?”Stefan shook his head.“You know me, Sir York.“I don’t want to hear things like this. I want to win without a shadow of a doubt! I can only go all out if I have better odds at winning against Amos!“I know that with your strength, I’ll definitely achieve that.“Besides, you don’t have anything to lose in the situation, right?”Harvey was impressed by Stefan’s honesty. It’d be better to show his sincerity by not hiding anything.Harvey pondered for a moment, looking at Stefan with narrowed eyes. Stefan was holding his emotions back despite his wild ambition.“Since we’re here already…” he said with a smile. “Let me give you something.”Harvey scribbled on a piece of paper for a long time before handing it over.“These are Amos’s weak spots. Simply put, they’re what’s ke
An hour later, Stefan arrived at the Mandrake Residence.This was one of the most important strongholds of the Aenar Temple. Not only was the place very safe, but it was tightly secured as well.After waving at the people behind to dismiss them, Stefan came to the sun room at the edge of the cliff. He’d usually come here when he needed to think things through.He showed a playful expression after taking a look at the paper Harvey gave him.“Rumors say that Amos is trained under both the Kronen Temple and the Adenar Temple’s martial arts. His strength rose exponentially, but there’s also a huge trouble.“Judging from the current situation, he probably asked for Sir York’s help as well. And from what Sir York said, Amos is probably having a hard time controlling the energies in his body.“If that’s the case, it’d be better for me to stall a few more days.“Maybe, if I go back to the Aenar Temple right now and announce that I have the Smalt Sect’s badge, Amos will be pressured even
Stefan took a deep breath. “Pretty good. I like it a lot.”“Heh, heh! Good. You’d be letting me down if you didn’t. I put a lot of effort into preparing it.”Stefan instantly cut off the person. “Who are you? What do you want?”“Who am I?”The person lightly chuckled.“I’m just an ordinary person. The Smalt Sect wanted you dead—Amos was supposed to make the call… But he’s probably scared witless because of Harvey at this point.“If that’s the case, then I’ll have to force him to do the dirty work.“I’m giving you two choices. Either you end your own life here… Or I come to you and finish the job myself.“Would you be willing to save me some energy?”Stefan was dead silent for a moment. “You’re from Evermore?”“Smart man!”The person burst out laughing, holding his hands together.“You must be intelligent enough to figure out my identity. It’s always refreshing to talk to someone of your caliber.”Stefan took another deep breath. “No matter what Amos promised you, I can dou
“What should we do now?” one of the guards asked. “Evermore’s near-invincible, Consul. Maybe we should agree to their conditions.”“Their conditions?” Stefan glared coldly. “They want me to either kill myself, or they kill me themselves. How am I supposed to agree to that?”The guard shivered; he couldn’t say another word at this point.Stefan casually sat down, and took a sip of his cold tea.“Since Evermore has already announced my death, they’ll surely take action soon after.“They’re probably using me to make an example. They want Amos to understand he has no right to negotiate with Evermore, despite being the young master of the Smalt Sect.“Or, they’re forcing Amos into a corner to ensure he continues Evermore’s plan.“Either that, or this might be some plot to shift blame towards Sir York. If that’s the case, my master would fight him to the death if he doesn’t know about the situation.“They’ve planned everything…”Stefan revealed a gloomy expression.“Should we conta
Elaine froze. She looked confused.“I didn’t agree to kill off Stefan…“This probably doesn’t align with Evermore’s benefits. That was why they planned to kill him themselves.“They might just blame us for his death, too.Elaine frowned. “What? Isn’t Evermore working with us right now? If anything, they should be shifting the blame to Harvey instead! What’s the point of throwing all that mess to us?”“Evermore would naturally do that if they could. After all, they could pit him against Great Wall Vaati. However, Harvey might have backup plans against that,” Amos said. “For so long, Evermore is a rat hiding in the shadows of history. No matter how long they’ve been in this world—no matter how powerful they are, they simply can’t put themselves in the public.”Amos showed a horrible expression. Disdain could be heard in his words.After all, Evermore was essentially threatening him with this move; he was being utterly disrespected.For a prideful man like him, it was already ba
“If our men show up right now… Not only would we fail in killing Stefan, we’d be forced to flee while also leaving tracks for him to find.”Amos showed a scheming gaze.“Besides, Evermore must’ve leaked the information to us intentionally. The more they want us to take action, the more we should opt to do nothing. If not, we’d be the ones suffering!”Murderous intent was evident in Amos’s eyes.Other than his hatred towards Stefan, who dared to fight him… He started to despise Roue as well, who had been constantly forcing him to do things.‘I told him to give me a few days! Stalling is a legitimate tactic! Why would he force my hand like this?!’“If we don’t take action, Evermore would use the sect’s name anyway,” Serval said.“That alone would show a huge hole in our plan. Evermore might even tell Stefan you were the one who started all this after keeping him alive.”“Sigh…” Amos sighed, his face grim.“You didn’t think of all this yourself, did you?” he asked after a long
"Not to mention, these are weapons that Grand City's top brass directly controls. If it isn't because I've taken control over Earth Hall recently, I wouldn't have been able to take these out," Clarion said with a sigh.Harvey nodded. "Looks like letting you control Earth Hall is one of my correct decisions after coming to Grand City."Then, Harvey narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. "Clarion. Take your men and attack from the outer ring. Do your best to reach the destination and save our people."Clarion blinked. "And you?"Harvey said, "Always go for the head. A truly powerful elite must be keeping an eye on everything. If we don't eliminate him, our rescue will be destined to fail."Harvey slammed his foot on the ground before jumping into the air, his figure quickly disappearing into the horizon. He noticed that there were plenty of elites converging. This was Sky Plane's territory. No matter how many he killed, his enemies would most likely swarm him.If that was the case,
While Clarion and Harvey were talking, the Origin Sword Style elites were already slowly coming closer.600 feet. 300 feet. 150 feet!As they drew closer, everyone could see their murderous expression. Their firearms already had their safety off. One could also see there were no longer any gaps in their encirclement.With how things were going, the only two options for Harvey and his men were to either get killed or to simply surrender.As they drew closer, not only was Clarion sweating, but all his bodyguards also had cold sweat on their foreheads.Only Harvey wasn't doing anything. He simply narrowed his eyes as if he was quietly calculating something. When there were only 60 feet left, he suddenly said, "You have two seconds."Harvey suddenly slammed his foot on the ground.Boom!A powerful shockwave extended outward, and all the Origin Sword Style elites surrounding them were subconsciously stunned. The shield they were holding momentarily left the ground."Warsong! Fire
At Clarion's order, all his bodyguards immediately dragged out several black suitcases. Within were black holes with blue bullets. It was obvious these bullets were created to be used on Martial Arts elites. The damage they could deal was beyond anyone's imagination.The bodyguards stood in front of Harvey and Clarion with the suitcases, ready to fight their enemies to the bitter end.When the Origin Sword Style elites saw how Harvey and the others reacted, they took out a shield and placed it in front of them. It was obvious they were prepared.Or perhaps, it was easier to say that the Origin Sword Style elites already knew what they had prepared.Clarion's expression darkened. "How did these fools manage to guess we're here with the Warsongs?"Harvey narrowed his eyes. "Is there a possibility that they didn't make a guess, but instead already received news about how many people we brought and what kind of weapons, so they could make preparations for us?"Clarion was stunned. "W
Boom! Boom! Boom!There was a string of explosions in mid-air. The bolts had also been engulfed by the explosion. Even after Harvey had managed to negate the attacks, he didn't stop. He grabbed the rocks from the ground with his hand.Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!Several elites hidden in the shadows instantly lost their fighting skills."He really is a True Warrior," Clarion muttered when he saw what happened. He wasn't even sure what to say.He thought he should be able to put himself to some use this time, hence why he asked to come with Harvey. He didn't expect Harvey to be so powerful that he needed others at all.Very quickly, all the attackers gathered. It was obvious they knew they couldn't do anything to Harvey anymore."These people are from the Origin Sword Style!" Clarion said seriously after he looked at what the attackers were wearing. "They're quite troublesome. While they look like they're over-the-top, they're most likely sacrificial soldiers. But the problem is t
"Of course, if we can maintain absolute discretion, we can escape without alerting anyone once we find Ms. Mandy," Clarion said, remaining positive. "That way, we don't have to fight and draw the attention of those who hold power in Sky Plane."Harvey was sitting in the van. He frowned and looked at the buildings with clear Island Nation influence. "Since Daichi is blackmailing me using Mandy, that means they're confident we won't be able to take her away. I believe we'll have to fight with those from the Origin Sword Style today."Harvey gave it a thought for a while and said, "And don't you think that the information Vaida gave us is too accurate? As if someone left behind an opening for us."Clarion's eyes widened. "Don't tell me this is a trap just for us?"Harvey shook his head. "Not only for us, but also for Grand City. If we're really stuck here… It doesn't matter if we're killed or captured alive, we'll become the excuse for them to attack Grand City. This time, we must…"
Sky Plane's countryside, Clover Hotel.In the Clover Hotel's VIP area, a mansion at the edge of the hotel, Mandy was looking outside with a deep frown. At this time, someone gently knocked at her door from the outside."Come in," Mandy said.The leader of the security team, Seven Jean of the Jeans of Mordu, came in. He bowed to Mandy with respect before saying calmly, "Ms. Mandy, according to the information I've received, the women you've saved have been sent out of Sky Plane. I've also confirmed the people we came into conflict with. He's Yamamoto Sora, scion of the Origin Sword Style."The school's status is very high in Sky Plane. While we managed to get some protection for the time being, I believe we won't be able to make this disappear so quickly. Our visa only has an effective duration of seven days. Once the time is up, Sky Plane will have an excuse to remove all the security here. We'll be in danger when that happens."I think we should leave Sky Plane immediately whil
Mandy reacted very quickly, as if she understood something. She quickly said to Harvey through the phone, "I'm on the sixth floor of a hotel! I…"Before she could even finish, Daichi had already hung up the call with a tap. He then gave Harvey a meaningful look. "There are some rules you should keep, Mr. Harvey. Otherwise, if the people from Sky Plane's side have a misunderstanding, I can't tell what will happen next."Alright. Let's get into the main topic. Ms. Mandy is very safe right now, but I believe that her safety can only be maintained for two to three days. My men can't continue protecting her without a good reason, right? "Once it has been confirmed that there's nothing here that I want, my people who maintain her protection will be pulled back immediately. No one can tell what will happen after that."Daichi gave Harvey a dry smile. "That's why you'll be in control of Ms. Mandy's life and death. We are people who keep our side of the deals. We hope you can maintai
Harvey's expression was calm as he said coldly to Daichi, "No matter how good and logical you make it sound, the truth is, you're threatening me. Rather than being threatened by the Sky Plane, why don't you stick around and be my hostage for an exchange?"As soon as Harvey had finished saying that, he slammed his hand on the table. A piece of wood immediately fired out from the table and pierced into the chair's backrest, just next to Daichi's ear.However, Harvey was in for a surprise. Even in a situation like this, Daichi was still able to maintain his calmness as he continued to enjoy his meal. It was as if the one about to die here wasn't him.Once Daichi had chewed his food slowly and swallowed it, only then did he smile at Harvey. "Mr. Harvey, or Mr. Representative. Do you really think fighting can solve everything? It's true I'm from the branch family of the Ruling Royal Family and the blood of royalty flows in my veins, but there are too many like me. So many that I am eas
"Most importantly, this matter with Ms. Mandy happened in Sky Plane—which means outsiders can't enter quietly and save her," Daichi said to Harvey with a smile. "But don't worry, Harvey. We know Ms. Mandy is yours, so we'll find a way to keep protecting her. How to protect her and for how long would depend on your sincerity, though."Harvey's expression was cold as he said slowly, "And here I thought you'd tell me you'd do everything to protect Mandy, making a show despite how shameless you are. I didn't expect you to be so direct—in threatening me! If I refuse your request, Mandy will immediately fall into Sora's hand, right?"Daichi smiled faintly. "You're indeed a perceptive and decisive man. It makes things easier for me to work with someone like you. I will tell you what you need to do—or perhaps, it's easier for me to say what price you need to pay for Mandy's return."Daichi took a final bite of his fish and said with a smug smile, "It's simple. Give me the Chapter of Ascensi