novelnext Chapter 644: Factions in the Shadows
Chapter 644: Factions in the Shadows
Ethan kept his steady pace along the stone path, his face remaining entirely expressionless as he glanced at the gleaming White Unicorn crest in Ash’s palm.
"Driz is an asset of the Fourth Prince," Ash muttered, quickly tucking the medallion back into his heavy robes as the mist swirled around them. "I do not trust him in the slightest, and neither should you. The only reason he is groveling at your boots now is because the Admiral personally threatened to take his head. It was actually Driz who covertly delayed our frontline logistics a month ago, ensuring that my own shadow operatives couldn’t get close enough to secure your insertion point. The absolute most I could do under those restrictions was provide you with those initial tactical entry tips and systematically eradicate the remaining remnants of the mercenary groups who were causing you problems in the wild."
Ethan stopped walking, turning his sharp amethyst eyes toward the veteran elder. "So, it was you who fed me the specific parameters regarding the entrance examination."
"Mmm, that is correct," Ash replied, letting out a soft sigh as he looked around the quiet path. "I couldn’t openly interfere with the administration without blowing my cover to the Prince’s faction. However, I spoke with a few key logistical personnel to ensure the trial parameters would heavily favor a specific set of raw, survival-based skills I knew you possessed. The Chief Examiner of that trial is a man who is incredibly sympathetic toward native residents of our frontier branch, yet fiercely xenophobic toward anyone originating from the inner capital peaks. Therefore, it was remarkably easy to convince him to assist you under the assumption that you were a pure, struggling native of our remote borderlands."
Ethan let out a low, analytical hum, his mind quickly filing away the intricate web of internal betrayals and competing royal factions. "The Prince is playing a dangerous game delaying imperial assets in a war zone."
"The throne is a bloody seat, Emissary," Ash said grimly. "They care more about who controls the pieces than the survival of the board itself. But with Great Elder Hestia now firmly under your medical thumb and the Branch Leader formally backing your new pavilion, the Prince’s lackeys won’t dare to touch you openly."
The two men continued walking in silence for a few more minutes until they reached the edge of the restricted elder transit zone. Ash stopped near a massive stone archway, reaching into his sleeve one final time to pull out a small, pristine white jade token shaped exactly like a miniature, double-edged longsword.
"You may contact me at my personal peak at any given moment to issue your direct commands," said Ash, extending the token toward Ethan. "With this specific blade plaque, you can bypass the perimeter guards and ascend straight to my residence without raising any administrative flags. If I were to visit your new Medical Pavilion too frequently, it would undoubtedly look highly suspicious to the other factions. Therefore, I will maintain a strict professional distance."
Ethan took the cold jade token, slipping it smoothly into his robes.
"Tomorrow morning, I will personally dispatch a pair of my most trusted, elite shadow assistants to your establishment," Ash continued, bowing his head in a deep, formal show of military respect. "They will act as standard couriers and guards, safely passing your encrypted messages directly to my desk. If anything urgent occurs before they arrive, do not hesitate to seek me out, Emissary. The Princess was absolutely clear in her private decrees: every single one of our localized resources is entirely yours to command for the ultimate glory of the Kingdom."
Ethan stood completely frozen beneath the shadow of the stone archway, his piercing amethyst eyes watching Elder Ash’s silhouette slowly dissolve into the thick mountain mist.
"It seems that perfectly explains why I was utterly unable to establish contact with our internal espionage network during my first month here," whispered Ethan, his deep voice carrying a cold, razor-sharp edge. "No matter how frequently I ventured down to the lower markets to mingle with the informants of the slums... the two royal factions were actively waging a silent war against each other just to keep me at arm’s length."
"that’s looks like" Crul’s voice echoed directly inside his mind space, his tone laced with a dark, calculating amusement. [Everything indicates that the Fourth Prince’s faction desperately wanted to prevent your successful infiltration, yet they thoroughly feared exposing their own treasonous cells to the sect’s internal security. They were forced to employ soft, subterranean tactics against you. They merely never expected that their internal sabotage would actually end up assisting your rise. If what Ash said is true, they deployed those external mercenary groups and actively manipulated the trial parameters to make your entry a living hell. The Admiral and the Princess have undoubtedly been informed of this massive logistical failure, which is exactly why Elder Driz is currently drowning in pure terror. They are terrified of the situation spiraling completely out of their control.]
Ethan’s lips slowly curled into a dark, incredibly predatory smile as he turned back toward the main transit junction. "And now, we hold absolute, total control over the entire local board. This Driz sounds like the absolute definition of a perfect, thoroughly disposable lackey."
[He is a desperate rat, maestro,] Crul replied with a low hiss. [A cornered beast is always unpredictable.]
"Exactly what I was thinking," said Ethan, his voice dropping into a chilling, calculated register. "If I ruthlessly corner a pathetic creature like Driz, he will eventually grow mad with despair, turn around to aggressively bite my hand, and attempt to drag everyone down to the grave along with him at the absolute cost of his own life. However... if I systematically feed him a tiny, flickering shred of hope, I can easily manipulate his desperation. I can make him willingly lay down his entire life for me, thinking he is saving his own skin."
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.