Chapter 898 – The Dark Hand in the Shadows

Translated by: Berrrybunz

Edited by: TN and DeAndreR

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“What did you say?”

Tang Tian was dumbstruck, as though he had heard of an inconceivable matter.

Melissa was extremely excited, her voice still trembling: “It was just reported that the Qiu Family’s stronghold was ambushed by the Honorable Martial Banner of Knights, Qiu Yun Qi was killed on the spot, Qiu Bei Feng was severely injured, and his personal guards unit was destroyed.”

“Have the Honorable Martial Banner of Knights gone crazy?” Tang Tian felt that the news was too absurd, there was no need to discuss about the strength of the Banner of Knights, he had personally experienced it before. He felt that it was normal that the entire unit was destroyed, but for Qiu Bei Feng to only be injured and escape, it showed that Qiu Bei Feng himself was not weak.

~It doesn’t make sense.~

Qian Hui and him had analyzed the situation excessively, aside from the Qiu Family failing to appreciate Temple’s kindness, there was no reason for Temple to make a move on them. Temple needed the strength of the Prestigious Families the most, and the Qiu Family was a true first rate Prestigious Family, their strength could influence others greatly, furthermore, Qiu Xu Hua was still at war with the Southern Alliance.

Only if they were at their wits end, Temple would definitely not make a move on the Qiu Family.

Tang Tian’s eyes turned to look at Qian Hui.

Qian Hui spoke: “When did this happen?”

Melissa immediately replied: “Last night.”

She knew that Qian Hui was the Lady Boss, and was extremely respectful towards her, not daring to be a tad slow. All of them who followed Tang Tian understood the position that the Lady Boss held in Tang Tian’s heart, and no one dared to be reckless.

If one were to say that if anyone needed to interact with Tang Tian for a period of time to understand how strong he was, then Qian Hui was one that only required an extremely short interaction time to be able to sense how powerful she was.

Qian Hui’s eyes flashed with a gleam of light: “Something must have happened at Temple! Send people to find out, it is extremely important to us, use all the resources we have, get the information!”

“Understood!” Melissa gritted her teeth and complied.

In the Honorable Martial Continent, any powerhouse understood that understanding Temple’s thoughts was far more useful than anything else. To Infiltrate Temple was naturally an extremely difficult matter, but as it was related to the survival of the families, they had to do it no matter how difficult it was.

With time and money, the constant perseverance would yield success.

The Mace Field Family might not be strong, but in any case, they had crossed the doors to become a Prestigious Family. It was naturally impossible for them to have powerful influence, but they had a close relations with one or two Clan Elders. All of they had to do for these Clan Elders were provide food and enjoyment, and did not need to do anything else, all for such a moment like this.

Clan Elder Bianchi arrived at Temple as per usual. But he immediately sensed a different atmosphere, the Temple had become extremely strict with security, and there were guards everywhere.

The guards of Temple had a unique name, called the Temple Guardians. In normal times, the Temple Guards could only be seen in a corner, they were like shadows, and even the arrogant words of the Clan Elders never influenced them.

But Bianchi had seen over 200 Temple Guardians while walking through Temple. It was then he realized that there were actually so many Temple Guardians.

~Something must have definitely happened.~

Bianchi felt uneasy, but his eyes suddenly lit up when he saw Clan Elder Seuss. He and Clan Elder Seuss were close friends, furthermore he, a low rank Clan Elder, was different from Seuss. Seuss held a high position and was a Clan Elder with true authority.

Seuss held high powers, and received many invitations from all around, and his information gathering was extremely fluid.

Bianchi walked over and spoke in a soft voice: “What happened? What’s going on?”

Seuss face became gloomy, he raised his head and looked around, then spoke equally softly: “Something big has happened! His Highness was assassinated.”

Bianchi’s eyes became completely dilated, he froze on the spot, and only regained himself after a long time, he stammered: “H–how I–is t–that possible…..how did that…..”

“All of the Sacred Son candidates were grabbed.” Seuss spoke softly: “Great Clan Elder gave the orders.”

Bianchi was terrified, he was naturally not an imbecile to become a Temple Clan Elder. The Highness’ death would definitely lead to suspecting the Sacred Son Candidates.

“How would they dare to?” Bianchi still had a look of disbelief.

“If it was only them, they naturally would not dare to.” Seuss snorted, his face covered with killing intent, and said spitefully: “With those Prestigious Families helping them, it is a different story. Today, there was words from the smaller families, hoping to select a new Sacred Son soon.”

Bianchi’s face flashed with a look of hatred: “Assholes!”

“They are just cannon fodder to test the waters.” Seuss face darkened: “Those old fogeys behind them are the real Dark Hands in the shadows. They are truly vicious and cunning! To dare plot at such a critical moment!”

Bianchi was overwhelmed with fear, ~That’s right, can’t they see what kind of predicament we are all in? Don’t they know that if we lose this war, our entire Honorable Martial Continent is finished?~

“If our entire body falls, every individual will fall as well!” He blurted out.

“They know it as well.” Seuss kept quiet for a moment, before speaking with hesitation: “But they also know, that only in this situation will the Great Clan Elder compromise.”

Bianchi also remained quiet, Seuss was right. With the Great Clan Elder’s overbearing personality, if not for the critical situation, he would have pulled out every single Prestigious Family up to their roots and left none alive.

Bianchi had a strange sense of sadness, and suddenly had a feeling,that the powerful Temple would no longer be able to appear. Unknowingly, this feeling was extremely strong. His heart that was locked down by the sadness asked with difficulty: “What did the Great Clan Elder say?”

Seuss remained silent for a long while before speaking out indistinctly: “He didn’t say anything.”

Bianchi did not know how he returned home, and only recalled when he was leaving Temple, he saw a second representative from the Prestigious Families walking into the Honorable Martial Palace.

He sat into the chair dispirited.

“Old master, there is a Mr. Ben that is requesting to meet you.” The butler’s voice came from outside the study.

Bianchi regained himself, he knew that Mr. Ben came from Mace Field Family. ~Are we unable to control even a small family like Mace Field Family now?~

Sighing in his heart, he replied indifferently: “Let him in.”

Melissa quickly received the news, and when she received it, she almost could not believe her own eyes. She ran to Tang Tian and Qian Hui with the report.

When Tang Tian saw the report, he was equally stunned. He had seen Charles before, and right from the start, Charles had always been on his blacklist. Assassinating Charles had been one of the plans that he, Qian Hui, and Bing had discussed before.

Who would had expected for Charles to be assassinated by someone else.

Qian Hui was much calmer, she had never seen Charles before, thus did not react much to the news, and immediately thought about the advantages and disadvantages.

Ah Xin and Sima Xiao were called in for the discussion. Ah Xin was proficient in strategies, while Sima Xiao was proficient in plotting and trickeries.

“We need to spread this news immediately.”

Ah Xin and Sima Xiao had the same suggestion as they spouted it out simultaneously.

“We need to take advantage of the crisis for our own gains, the more chaotic the situation, the more advantage we have, and the more space we have to manoeuvre, and more opportunities will open for us.” Sima Xiao’s eyes gleamed with light, a chaotic situation was his favourite: “We can take advantage of this to get rid of a few important people in those Prestigious Families.”

He then continued: “Once we kill them, the Prestigious Families will definitely point their fingers and weapons at Temple, both parties will not have a leeway of understanding, and the resistance will become more intense. The Prestigious Families have no way to retreat, and if they lose, will Temple let them go? So they will walk this path till to the end, and force Temple to retreat and force the Great Clan Elder to hand over his authority!”

“That’s a good idea!” Ah Xin voiced out excitedly: “We must help these Prestigious Families out well, but The Five Great Generals are armies under Temple, will they be loyal to Temple, or will they support the Prestigious Families? What about the soldiers under them? As long as the Prestigious Families gain control, the Honorable Martial Continent will start to show signs of split and cracks. As for those loyal armies under Temple, how will they ever obey the orders from the Prestigious Families? And how will the Prestigious Families rest easy knowing that so many armies are not willing to obey them?”

Tang Tian was pleased listening to Ah Xin and Sima Xiao completing each others’ sentences. In the past, whenever he encountered a problem, he could only rack his own brain. But now, all of his subordinates were all experts, all valiant generals, with brilliant minds that could plot and plan, Tang Tian thought to himself, ~Since when did I become so competent?~

He and Bing agreed to the spreading of news, and furthermore, it was easily achievable with their unique communication means.

Tang Tian thought about Gou Cheng WenDao, he had not received any news from his rear, but Charles’ assassination had already spread through the entire Southern Alliance, ~Gou Cheng WenDao’s face must definitely be extremely spectacular.~

~A pity we can’t see it.~

As for the plan of going into Temple in disguise and getting rid of a few important figures of the top few Prestigious Families, their first target came into mind without a thought.

~Definitely the Qiu Family!~

Charles’ death shocked the entire Sacred Saint Galaxy.

The Sacred Son of the Honorable Martial Continent held an esteemed position, he was viewed as the most important figure that would replace the Great Clan Elder in the future, and his death shook the entire Sacred Saint Galaxy. Furthermore, he was assassinated, and one had to know, there had never been an instance where an important figure in Temple was assassinated. Temple had its defenses against assassins, adding the strict security system in the Palace, there was a huge disparity in level with the outside, preventing outside assassins from sneaking into Honorable Martial Palace.

Thus, the ones to be able to assassinate Charles was someone from the inside, otherwise, had a form of connection with an insider. What shocked everyone as well was that Temple held an extremely strict control over their internal members, therefore for something like that to happen, it was unprecedented.

For one to enter the Honorable Martial Palace, one had to go through many rounds of examinations and screenings, every single round, there would be oaths taking, Holy Flame tests etc. One cannot think that these are just mere tests, in truth, they had an effect, any one who betrayed the oaths would succumb to an extremely harsh punishment, furthermore, this punishment came from the soul, which was inescapable, furthermore, the higher one position had, the more stringent the oath was.

Aside from the benefits, the fact that Temple never had turncoats was one of the reason why many people hated Temple. To many people, Temple’s absolute control over a person’s body and mind completely went against humanity.

But one had to admit, Temple’s methods was effective. While other families were in struggles against one another, Temple was always as one. The higher ups’ orders were executed unconditionally, their soldiers were zealots without any fear of self sacrifice.

That was why the outside world was filled with respect and fear towards Temple, to them, such a thing was difficult to fight against.

But Sacred Son Charles had been assassinated, shattering everything.

To everyone, the rate of the news being spread throughout the entire Sacred Saint Galaxy on such an important matter was obviously fuel to the fire done by the perpetrator.

Immediately, the conflict between Temple and the Prestigious Families surfaced, and became the most heated and popular topic of discussion.

This was a wave that had just begun.