Roman didn’t go to the capital eventually. It wasn’t that Delia was too jealous and didn’t let him go. Instead, it was because Paglio proposed something, which was to train Roman and Delia for a while.
Although the inheritance stone could inherit the strength, the same inheritance stone had varied inheritance effects and the key lied in the strength and understanding of the recipient. Shea was currently at the peak of Great Demon King. A large part of this strength came from her father, the Crown Prince, Grimm’s lasting heritage. Since Shea wasn’t very strong at that time, she would have attained Demon Emperor, but she ended up at the peak of Great Demon King. Besides, up to now, Shea hadn’t fully refined and integrated this strength, so her combat power wasn’t as high as those of peak Great Demon King who truly trained themselves.
If Shea and Paglio fought, Paglio could defeat her with middle stage Great Demon King’s strength without using territory nor poison.
Roman and Delia had been staying at Demon King for a long time. Recently, they took the full set of eternal potions provided by Chen Rui, so they were one step closer to the Great Demon King. Together with a special training by a Demon Emperor, their possibility of breaking through would greatly increase.
After becoming a Great Demon King, the influence of [Soul Shackles] would be greatly reduced. Even if he didn’t consider the unreliable inheritance stone, that reason alone made Roman stay voluntarily to train with Delia.
Athena was also at the peak of Demon King. She always wanted to strengthen herself to help Chen Rui. Thus, she requested to join the special training. As for the barrack, it was gradually getting on track, so she left Arux to take charge.
Three days later, Chen Rui brought Cyprus to the Mellon Family.
Originally, the realm king fruit would be matured in two days. However, on the second day, Chen Rui’s inner demon attacked again. It took him a hard time to withstand it. Is this a coincidence? Since I opened the mysterious silver box previously, the frequency of inner demon’s attack has increased yet the Star Conversion has been stuck at 50%. The final progress might be a crazy explosion, so it will be an unprecedented huge test.
Anyway, the shelf life of the matured realm king fruit is 3 months, so missing a day or two doesn’t matter.
Chen Rui wasn’t in a hurry, but Lombardo was a bit anxious as he was afraid of delaying. Seeing “Lavat” finally arrived, he was relieved.
Chen Rui started blaming first immediately when they met, “Your information was indeed wrong. Aguile and Arux have both reached Demon King. No wonder Dominique was killed. Yesterday, I personally damaged that Aguile severely, but that guy was extremely sly. He actually hid in the palace when he was dying. I came here to do something more important, and I didn’t want to alarm the Princess Royal, so I don’t want to disturb the Cloak Gang anymore. As for the demon-trafficking, we can pause for half a year first. I’ll have a solution by then.”
Everything he said was 50% false, especially the last sentence was purely boasting. Yet, Lombardo was convinced because mere demon-trafficking was incomparable to the importance of the realm king fruit. Therefore, Lavat’s decision was completely reasonable. After half a year, when the situation was calmed down, Lavat would obviously deal with the Cloak Gang in secret.
“Cyprus, I have something to discuss with the Patriarch Lombardo. You can retreat first.”
Lombardo understood and also asked Ronald to leave. Then, he took Chen Rui through the hidden room and reached the Aurora Frost underground cave.
Compared with 3 days ago, the fruit looked a lot clearer. It was exuding a strong breath.
Lombardo handed over a magic jade box and said respectfully, “The seven-leaves realm king fruit is the best among realm king fruit. Even those icy leaves have great functions.”
According to Paglio’s instruction, Chen Rui first picked the leaves then the fruits. After the last fruit was picked, the plant-like ice turned into mist and disappeared into the air.
Chen Rui secretly thought that it was wasteful. It’d be so great if I could keep it in the galaxy garden and plant it repeatedly. He kept the jade box into his storage and asked, “Who knows about the secret of the realm king fruit?”
Lombardo patted his chest and reassured, “Sir, please rest assured. Except for the last patriarch who has passed away, only I know about it..”
Chen Rui nodded, “By the way, your son… that …”
“William.” Lombardo immediately replied.
“How long has William been to the Bloody Empire?”
“It’s been almost ten years. It was you who brought him there personally.” Lombardo smiled pretentiously.
“……”
“…”
As they walked and talked, they soon returned to the study room. Soon, Chen Rui brought Cyprus and left the Northwest Block.
Lombardo originally planned to discuss with Ronald about disrupting Cloak Gang’s night market. Noticing that the patriarch hadn’t summoned him long after “Lavat” had left, he went to the meeting room and saw the patriarch contemplating from afar.
He didn’t receive any response after calling for a few times, and a bad feeling rose in his heart. He hurried forward to take a look and suddenly panicked. It turned out that the “contemplating” Lombardo had completely lost his lifeforce.
A major incident spread across the Dark Moon – the patriarch of the Mellon Family, Lombardo died of illness in his residence.
The news of Lombardo’s death was actually released after two days, and it was the result of discussions between the elders of the Mellon Family. The interim patriarch was delegated to an elder named Sukh. As for the former patriarch’s aide, elder Ronald was under control secretly because he was seen as the one who killed Lombardo.
Although Ronald explained everything about Lavat and others, several Elder knew of the “relationship” between the family and the Blue Lava Estate. However, they couldn’t possibly blame Lavat directly. Therefore, Ronald became a scapegoat unfortunately. Certainly, these were all handled internally. To the outsider, they had only announced that Lombardo died of illness.
However, it was only the beginning of a nightmare for the Mellon Family. Soon, Princess Royal sent out imperial guards to control some important places under the Mellon Family. Most critically, these places were keeping the demons who were kidnapped initially for trafficking to the Blue Lava Estate.
Before the incident was publicized and expanded, Sukh, the interim patriarch of the Mellon Family, immediately went to the palace to plead guilty. Shea furiously presented him with a series of information, which described the evil deeds of the Mellon Family in detail, including setting spies into the palace, secretly colluding with the Blue Lava Estate, assassinating the leader of imperial guards’ reserved forces, Aguile and the garrison’s instructor, Arux, demon and resources trafficking etc.
According to Shea, these information were provided by a mysterious person the day before yesterday. Initially, she couldn’t believe it. After sending out the Imperial Guards for investigation, she really found those missing people, and she was furious.
Sukh was already guilty, but he didn’t expect that Princess Royal had such complete information in her hands. He quickly thought and pushed all the blame to the dead, unlucky Lombardo. Also, he brought up the previous contributions of the Mellon Family. He expressed his willingness to atone and asked Princess Royal for leniency.
Shea knew that the Mellon family was deeply rooted and had a wide network, so it was difficult to truly uproot them. More importantly, the current Dark Moon couldn’t have too many changes to avoid civil war arising from uncertainties. She followed Chen Rui’s idea and went along Sukh’s line to propose two conditions.
First, the Mellon Family’s old residence in the Northwest Block would be given to the reserved forces, Cloak Gang as compensation.
Second, the Mellon Family would be responsible for the procurement and supply of food. No matter what method they used, food for the Dark Moon residents during the capital’s sanctions must be guaranteed.
The first condition was still fine, but the second condition made Sukh look troubled. With the reputation and means of the Mellon Family, it wasn’t impossible to get food. Yet, in this case, it would offend the capital. It was just that this time Shea had deadly evidence in her hands. Once released, the Mellon Family would be hated in the Dark Moon while Shea would have enough reasons to deprive all the glory represented by the family name, Mellon.
Sukh couldn’t help but curse at that mysterious person who provided the information in his heart. By the way, the mysterious person who provided the information coincided with the time when Lavat left, could it be…
If it was really Lavat who killed Lombardo, why would he betray us and expose the Mellon Family? Although he was puzzled, the most important thing for Sukh wasn’t to think about that but to make a decision.
After considering for a long time, the new Mellon Family patriarch reluctantly chose to accept the two conditions.
After Sukh left, Shea’s eyes showed appreciation. Obviously, it wasn’t for Sukh but to the plotter, Chen Rui. This strategy of finding a scapegoat was indeed brilliant. The Mellon Family had shouldered the key task of solving the food problem. Along with the “trade” in the west, the food issue could be solved without exposing the food base.
Chen Rui was the absolute winner this time. Not to mention he obtained the realm king fruit, he also killed Lombardo and severely schemed against the Mellon Family. As for the old mansion in the Northwest Block, it was for Paglio.
According to Paglio, the strength of Aurora Frost was very wonderful. It could help him further restore his strength. Although he still couldn’t break through the ancient runes seal, it could improve his strength in the existing early Demon Emperor. Not only that, the Aurora Frost Cave was also good for training, especially for Delia who had [Water Mastery].
However, it wasn’t urgent. The Blue Lava Estate or other places would definitely send someone to investigate this place secretly. So, they would wait for others to visit first.
The value of the Mellon Family was more than that. Under the cover of the Double-headed Dragon’s badge and the elder of Mellon Family as bait, Kaguron led the imperial guards that pretended to be demon-trafficking to launch a large-scale attack on the “bandits” at the south of Dark Moon.
The bandits suffered heavy casualties from the fierce attack. Fortunately, they were mostly well-trained elites, so they didn’t become disordered in a critical situation. Under the leadership of their leader, they successfully evacuated and avoided being eliminated entirely.
As a result, the Mellon Family had become famous for eliminating the southern bandits. In contrast, their old rival, Saiful Family was much worse. They were still troubled with Cloak Gang’s protection fees.
As the popular “celebrity.” Sukh, the new Mellon Family patriarch, had to endure his anger and smile forcefully.
As for the realm king fruits, it was related to a Demon Emperor powerhouse. The Mellon Family couldn’t afford to take such a blame, so he had to find someone else to take it.
Therefore, the puppet, Cyprus didn’t stay in the Dark Moon. Instead, he took the smoke screen of “Lavat” all the way to the north where Red Spirit Estate was located.
At that moment, there was nothing more for Chen Rui nor the Dark Moon. So, he didn’t bother anymore.
Get famous for ruining its own business xD. It’s fine…