Destined Entwining: Capturing My Devoted Beau

Chapter 797: Chapter 406: Let Me Perform a Ritual for You (First Update)

She needed to see the old Daoist with her own eyes to feel at ease.

So last night, the three of them stayed in the old Daoist’s hospital room.

The old Daoist’s surgery had indeed gone well, but he was too old. Injuries that affected muscles and bones like these would take much longer to recover from than for a younger person.

They were all waiting for him to wake up.

As long as he could wake up, his chances of recovery would be greater.

Yesterday, she was also looking up information, researching the overseas Celestial Master Sect.

Not only the Grant Branch, but she had looked through all four branches of the Celestial Master Sect.

The four Great Heavenly Masters of the Celestial Path Sect are Alexander Zeller, Grant, Tyler, and Hudson Hunt. Later, their legacies developed into four branches, namely the Zeller Branch, Grant Branch, Tyler Branch, and Hunt Branch.

For the Zeller Branch, there were indeed only the three of them left in the family, because the Zeller Branch had always limited its succession by bloodline. In earlier times, it was even stricter, requiring direct lineage.

Thus, over a thousand years, the number of people in the Zeller Branch dwindled. Although the sect was famous, its connections were undeniably sparse.

When it came down to the old Daoist— a maverick in the branch— he never married or had children.

To ensure that the Zeller Branch’s legacy didn’t end with him, he announced a change in the branch’s tradition of accepting disciples, opting instead to consider ability and talent over bloodline for passing on the teachings.

Even so, he only accepted Nick Zeller as his sole disciple.

And Nick Zeller, in turn, only took Lawrence Winters as his sole disciple.

There was no blood relation between any of them.

Thus, the Zeller Branch’s tradition of selecting disciples based on bloodline was completely abolished.

Regarding the other three major branches, the Tyler and Hunt Branches saw their heritage severed before the founding of the country, but the last inheritor of the Grant Branch was an extraordinary man.

At the end of the final dynasty, he went abroad and claimed to have integrated the Tyler and Hunt Branches into the Grant Branch. As the sole overseas descendant of the three major branches of the Celestial Master Sect, he began accepting disciples.

The Grant Branch did not consider bloodline when selecting disciples, focusing instead on talent and various abilities, even looking at societal status.

It was no longer purely a Celestial Master Sect; it more closely resembled an organizational association, registered overseas as a non-governmental organization (NGO).

Nowadays, the Grant Branch’s name overseas is at its zenith, commanding a membership of over fifty thousand. Just from collecting membership fees each year, they generate a massive income.

In addition, the Grant Branch has nearly monopolized the overseas Feng Shui and Face Reading market, making money as easily as the Yangtze River flows.

Lawrence Winters watched this with extreme envy.

With over fifty thousand people, compared to their little office with only a couple of staff, one could only imagine how much more they earned.

She even silently made a small ledger for the Grant Branch, estimating its gross revenue for the entire previous year.

Conservatively estimated, it was already in the hundreds of millions.

However, she wasn’t clear on the Grant Branch’s expenditures, so she didn’t know what the net profit was from that gross income.

The Grant Branch’s vast influence was also inseparable from its ties with various bigwigs overseas.

Their relationship was mutually beneficial, with cooperation and mutual utilization.

For instance, the biggest overseas boss, Richard Stetford, known as Uncle Nine, was also Lucas Harlow, or Evan Stetford’s father.

Thus, looking at it this way, the Grant Branch has become a behemoth after nearly a century of overseas operations, uniting the three major branches of the Celestial Master Sect.

Its direct disciples are over fifty thousand in number, and these disciples have disciples of their own, who in turn have their own connections.

When spreading out the network, it truly has turned into a giant entity.

Thus, they view the last-standing Zeller Branch of the Celestial Master Sect unfavorably.

If they could eliminate the Zeller Branch, they could directly rename themselves "Celestial Master Sect Successors."

No wonder they were willing to take such risks.

Before falling asleep, Lawrence Winters lamented the necessity of wiping them out.

Wouldn’t cooperating to make modest money be much sweeter?

However, their opponents not only didn’t want them to make money, but they even intended to eradicate them entirely!

So, there was no other option but to retaliate. In her small notebook, Lawrence Winters silently marked a red cross over the current heir of the Grant Branch.

No matter if the old Daoist wakes up or not, in Lawrence Winters’ heart, the current heir to the Grant Branch was already a dead man.

If he didn’t die naturally, she would give him a push.

She slept very soundly, curled up on the small bed in the hospital room, without even having a single dream.

Early the next day, the light in the hospital room was still dim when her phone’s ringtone woke her up.

Lawrence Winters, eyes still closed, fumbled to grab her phone, and without looking at it, hurriedly swiped to answer, drowsily asking, "...Hello, who is this?"

Kenneth Osborne, hearing her voice, felt his heart soften again and asked gently, "Nora, did you stay overnight at the hospital? Do you want me to come pick you up and take you home? I was working overtime yesterday too, just got back home."