Chapter 440: Chapter 303: Overcoming Cunning with Strength
Peacock City.
Headquarters of the History and Ritual Association.
Due to an unprecedented setback in their operations, branch president Pearson was furious.
What he had thought was a trivial matter had led to the death of Vice President Osmon and fourteen Transcendent members. Pearson immediately dispatched two other vice presidents to investigate the matter.
But the outcome was astonishing to everyone.
“Spade Knight Qiaoke! How could it be him?!”
...
Upon learning who the perpetrator was, Pearson felt a chill down his spine.
He hadn’t expected that this vicious figure from the Mystic Realm would wander into Peacock City. It was sheer bad luck that Osmon and his group had encountered such a disaster.
A wave of wrath compressed inside Pearson’s heart, and he needed to vent it fiercely.
Of course, he dared not trouble the Spade Knight himself. With the association’s strength in Peacock City, even if they mobilized everyone, they likely wouldn’t match up to his opponent’s single hand.
Therefore, he reported the situation, hoping that the higher-ups would deploy the elite Transcendent team “Ancient Readers Squad” to pursue him, while Pearson directed his rage towards Domme and the entire Simon family.
Although the Simon family was a prominent business family in Peacock City, second only to the “Moses Far Voyage” corporate branch, they were ultimately ordinary people.
Under the deliberate targeting by the History and Ritual Association, they could not only forget about business, but their once decent lives were over as well.
As the various industries under the Simon family were shut down, panic began to spread within the entire family. Domme personally visited old friends hoping to get some help, but to no avail.
The Simon family was in hot water!
No one in Peacock City was willing to help them!
Domme seemed to have aged ten years overnight—his hair had whitened significantly, and he looked gloomy, having lost his usual fighting spirit and zest. He now only wanted to find a way out for his family.
However, his own family members didn’t appreciate his efforts and even blamed him. They argued that he should have given those worthless collections directly to the History and Ritual Association to prevent the current dire situation.
Among those blaming him were even his own sons and daughters.
Domme bitterly resented his family members’ shortsightedness, completely oblivious to the underlying schemes. He, of course, knew those three items meant little, but to surrender them so easily would signal to the other party that the Simon family was weak and could be bullied further in the future.
He had no choice but to stand firm, which was the best course of action at the time.
Little did he know that the History and Ritual Association would dare to commit a serious offense, directly utilizing the name and power of the Righteous God Church to ruthlessly suppress the Simon family.
Domme, left with no choice, sought help from the head of the Peacock City Shelter.
Group leader Amos called a meeting immediately upon receiving the news, furiously slamming the table and denouncing that the History and Ritual Association did not deserve to be part of the Righteous God Church.
Ever since they took their position in Peacock City, they hadn’t done a single thing to stabilize the Empire; each time a mystical threat appeared, they had all sorts of excuses and merely watched from the sidelines. The Madman School, though mostly neutral, at least didn’t cause trouble and even supported the establishment of Omutuo Academy, cultivating many talents.
The History and Ritual Association, on the other hand, simply occupied a spot in the Righteous God Church and did nothing productive.
After the meeting ended.
Amos personally led a team of investigators to the headquarters of the History and Ritual Association and negotiated with President Pearson, warning him not to abuse the power of the Righteous God Church to interfere in the lives of civilians anymore.
Pearson smiled and promised.
But the situation of the Simon family had not seen any substantial improvement.
*
*
*
That day, Chen Lun received an invitation from Mister Hoyle.
He had Golov personally drive the horse carriage to the designated tavern.
Upon entering, he immediately saw Hoyle sitting alone in a corner, drowning his sorrows.
“Mister Jack, you have arrived,” Hoyle said, draining his glass in one gulp, drunkenly.
The glass was slammed down on the table, the ice cubes clinking against the glass walls, producing a crisp sound.
“I’m terribly sorry, Mister Jack, I… I regret to say, the show can’t go on… The City Garden Theater is done, now completely closed.”
Hoyle bitterly smiled, raising his hand to vigorously rub his cheeks.
“Even the Simon family is almost done for,” Hoyle confessed.
Chen Lun sat down across from Hoyle, poured himself a glass of water, and quietly listened to his lament.
Hoyle, possibly because of his family’s predicament, appeared somewhat decadent and depressed, no longer minding his words, and told Chen Lun all about the suppression by the History and Ritual Association.
“Why… Shouldn’t the Righteous God Church be protecting people? Why are they oppressing us… We are just ordinary businessmen,” Hoyle said, supporting his heavy head, mumbling indistinctly.
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
“What do you plan to do?” Chen Lun asked.
“I… don’t know,” Hoyle said, shaking his head in confusion.
“Maybe, my father will take us out of Peacock City, to start over somewhere else… a place without the History and Ritual Association.”
Chen Lun looked at him, paused to think, and then said,
“Mister Hoyle, perhaps you don’t need to be so pessimistic. Maybe in a few days, everything will get better.”
“It won’t, it won’t get better…” Hoyle said, painfully scratching his head.
“They are the Righteous God Church, no one in Peacock City is willing to help us now… Even the Shelter is powerless in this regard.”
He poured himself another strong drink, his face full of apology as he looked at Chen Lun.
“These past few days, the family has been in disarray, and Father has been too busy for me to discuss the collection with him… But rest assured, if we really do need to leave Peacock City, I will secure that collection for you before I go.”
Chen Lun sighed quietly.
He comforted Hoyle, telling him not to worry about it anymore.
Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.
Little did Hoyle know, those three collections had already been taken by the History and Ritual Association and had now ended up in Chen Lun’s hands.
A moment later.
Hoyle, having drunk too much, passed out on the table.
Chen Lun had Golov come into the tavern to help carry Hoyle to the carriage, then sent him back to the Simon Family’s estate.
‘Although I snatched those three items from the hands of the History and Ritual Association, I still owe the Simon Family a favor.’
Chen Lun rode away in the carriage, gazing through the carriage window at the quiet estate.
‘Since the History and Ritual Association is relentlessly pursuing this, I might as well help Hoyle out with this trouble… Returning the favor makes me feel somewhat better.’
Chen Lun thought.
*
*
*
Helping the Simon Family get rid of the History and Ritual Association’s oppression was actually quite simple.
All it took was for them to start fighting among themselves, even suffer significant damage, and they wouldn’t have time to bother with the Simon family anymore. It would be most efficient to eliminate the president of the Peacock City branch of the History and Ritual Association, once and for all.
Chen Lun had no plans to engage in a battle of wits with them.
The next day, he took on a commission from the Murder Club’s “commission menu” to assassinate the bishop of the Red Apple Church, then once again transformed into Spade Knight Qiaoke, and traveled to another district of Rock State.
In a city in the Red Calamity Area called Rainflower City, Chen Lun located the bishop.
‘Sequence Six—Bloodline?… That’s enough.’
In a church littered with corpses, Chen Lun dragged his giant silver sword all the way to the bishop’s front.
This bishop, named Cliff, had obviously heard of the fearsome reputation of the Spade Knight; one might say that no high-ranking official of the Red Apple Church was unaware of this ruthless person.
But Cliff could never have imagined that his opponent would appear suddenly in Rainflower City, right in front of him.
Recently, the church had organized an ambush targeting the Spade Knight, although he had narrowly escaped. It hadn’t been long, and now this man dared to show his face again, continuing his hunt for the church.
Cliff was secretly terrified, and he wanted to roar aloud.
How dare he?!
How could this man dare?!
A moment later.
This bishop of the Red Apple Church collapsed on the ground like a dead dog, spitting blood, his face ashen.
The Spade Knight, wearing rusty armor, slowly bent down, grabbed Cliff by the neck, lifted him up, then stepped forward and disappeared with him from the spot.
Cloud Leap!
Chen Lun used Cloud Leap four times consecutively, traveling in a straight line across two districts of Rock State, returning to Bronze City in Peacock City.
The entire process consumed a great deal of physical strength; Chen Lun suppressed the fatigue engulfing his body and the surging desire to kill within him, and threw the bishop into the headquarters of the History and Ritual Association.
Before this, he had used “Mental Sharing” for the first time.
After a judgment, the bishop of the Red Apple Church, Cliff, couldn’t compete with Chen Lun’s willpower and influence and suffered a mental intrusion.
The overwhelming desire to kill, pouring out from Chen Lun, instantly swamped the bishop’s mind. Cliff’s eyes reddened, his face twisted into a bloodthirsty grimace, even displaying a kind of madness.
Immediately after, Chen Lun gave the final “push” by using the power of a bookmark to heal the bishop’s injuries.
Having done all this, Chen Lun quickly left the scene.
He left behind the bloodthirsty, mad bishop of the Red Apple Church and a group of frightened members of the History and Ritual Association who had rushed to the sound.
Pearson, the president of the association, was most puzzled and furious.
He couldn’t understand how the bishop of the Red Apple Church could appear in Peacock City, even making his way into the association’s headquarters!
He had not heard a whisper of it, so sudden and shocking was this event!
Boom!!
A loud explosion accompanied by roars and screams resounded.
In the center of Peacock City, two streets away from Jack’s Winery, a building experienced a severe explosion and collapse.
This incident made the newspaper headlines the next day.
“Well done, Cliff.”
Sitting in his living room eating breakfast, Chen Lun read the newspaper with interest.
“Mr. Jack, who is Cliff?”
Noah asked curiously by his side.
Chen Lun chuckled, shoved a fried ball into his mouth, and chewed as he spoke:
“A venerable bishop of the Red Apple Church. He bravely charged into the building of the History and Ritual Association, pummeling President Pearson so savagely he drained him of blood.”
He shook his head, remarking:
“It was quite brutal. Although the Shelter and Madman School arrived in time to suppress Bishop Cliff, nearly half of the Association members were butchered.”
Noah blinked, feeling as if Mr. Jack was reveling in the calamity.
But he had no proof.