On top of the city wall entrance that divided the Lower and Upper North District, the father and son, Lord Weld and Marquis Gregory hid. Since no one has yet to arrive on their side and no signal has been received from the other side, the duo conversed under the rain in waiting.
"Aren't we already giving them the opportunity to make a comeback by dividing our forces, father? What is really going on here?" Gregory Weld questioned his Old man.
Lord Weld was in his mid 60s but his hair was already fully grey and skin wrinkly beyond belief. If people didn't know who he was then then with the bloody and deathly aura exuded from Lord Weld, people would think he was a hundred year old man with a half a step in the coffin.
Lord Weld might have handed over his noble status to Gregory, but he was still the real decision-maker of the family.
There were some suspicious points Gregory found in the arrangement made by his father and the other Lords.
Although the other three family's combined force should be sufficient to deal with the Duke's group, it was only by small margin. This is also under the assumption that the information they had on hand was accurate, otherwise the results could be disastrous. They should not have divided their forces. One misstep and it could spell the end of their alliance.
Lord Weld did not answer his son's questions. Instead, he asked a question of his own.
"What do you think the goal of the 4 Great Family Alliance is?"
"Isn't it to topple the Royal family and replace them as the new ruler?"
Lord Weld shook his head at his son's answer. "The minor noble families join our alliance because they believe in such cause because they either hate the Royal family or they simply wish to protect the titles and privilege they hold. We oppose Royalty for a different cause. Seizing the throne is just a means to an end."
"Then if we are not fighting for the throne then what are we fighting for?" Marquis Gregory was perplexed.
"What does the Royal family have besides their throne that is a great temptation to the heart of men, who walks the awakener's path? The answer is Transcendence. Do you understand what being a Transcendent means?" Greed and desperation burned in Lord's eyes as he asked his son.
Becoming Transcendent was the first step to breaking away from mortality. 100 years had been the maximum natural lifespan of a human, but a preliminary-stage Transcendent could live up to 200 years.
"Unrivaled power and long lifespan." Realization dawned on Gregory. His father had fought hard to raised their family status to where it was today, but he had long overdrawn his lifespan and should have returned to the earth.
However, his father had relied on a secret method he had obtained from a past expedition to extend his life. While the method could extend his life, the requirements was so diabolical it should never be known by the mass. It was more than enough to make the Weld family, public enemy number one. The other 3 should also be using a similar, if not the same method to extend their lives.
There was a limit to the life extension method and the only way for Lord Weld to live longer was to become a Transcendent. However, they did not know the method to attain it.
The Hero King was the first ever Transcendent and would have surely left behind the method to attain it for his descendants. Otherwise, it couldn't explain how royalties could improve their strength so quickly.
"Correct." Lord Weld didn't want to die. He was willing to resort to any methods to cling to life.
"Where is Alf?" Marquis Gregory asked, having realized something. Alf was their family's steward and his right-hand man and should've been by his side, but he was currently nowhere in sight.
"I've sent Alf to sneak into the Lancaster mansion." Lord Weld answered.
Marquis Gregory wasn't surprised by his father's answer. He had expected as such after what he had learned.
This was the time where the security of the Lancaster mansion was at their weakest. It would not be a problem for the 6th step Alf to infiltrate and search the mansion.
If it weren't for the eyes of their allies watching their every action, Lord Weld would have brought his entire force with him to ransack the mansion and turn it upside down in order to find what he was looking for.
The Lancaster family should also be in possession of a superior-grade training method to not be falling far behind the Royal family in cultivation speed.
Even if he the Lancaster's training method doesn't have the way to attain transcendence, it was still very useful in bolstering their own forces.
As such, Lord Weld had volunteered to guard the North. He knew the chances of obtaining the Lancaster's training method from their mansion was slim as something that important would be memorized by heart and taught orally. Physical manuals of high-level training methods were very rare. However, he still had to take the chance even if it turns out to be a fool's errand. It didn't cost him much to do so.
He would never expect the Duke's group to really rock up on his side.
...
"Where are you taking us, Sebastian? This isn't the way back." The Duke questioned the driver.
"My Lord, weren't you all concerned that there would be trouble waiting for us if we take the Upper West District's route back? I have chosen to take the route through the Lower North District."
Sebastian had made the decision without consulting his lord because he thought there wasn't a need to. His task was to take them back to the Lancaster mansion and it shouldn't matter which route they take as they would end up at the same destination.
"Mmm, good thinking. Continue driving." Duke Ignis said with a forced smile and kept his silence.
"Yes, my Lord."
Duke Ignis wasn't happy with the route they took, but he didn't dare voice his dissatisfaction. Since he already agreed to take Robert's warning seriously in front of his wife, it show how perfunctory he was if he acted otherwise.
In the Crawford Kingdom, there was only 5 publicly known figures at the 9th step; The king, queen, himself, his wife and the General Marquis Hendrick at the frontier. There was one more figure,who Ignis believed to have also reached the 9th step, but he was not able to confirm; the Dean of the Royal Crawford University.
The Dean was a mysterious old man, who he could not see through. He had only met the person on a few occasion, but the person had left a deep impression on him by the invisible pressure he felt whenever he was interacting with that person.
But simply said, there was very few figures at the 9th step in the Crawford Kingdom. The heads of the 4 hostile Marquis-rank noble families weren't on that list.
Ignis had also attended the funerals of the previous heads of the 4 great families before and knew that the current heads should be the strongest of their family. He believed they wouldn't be able to do anything to him with their paltry 7th step abilities. He might be arrogant to think that way, but he had the right to be arrogant.
As the group of cars travel through the Lower North District, they took some smaller roads as shortcuts. The difference in the building conditions along the main roads and the small roads startled them.
Although they couldn't see too much details on the rainy night, they could still spot the alarming difference, which was like heaven and earth.
The buildings along the main road was kept in good conditions, but the small roads were filled with rubbishes lying around. The buildings were crumbling and dilapidated. Few people were occasionally seen lying on the side of the road motionlessly, uncertain whether they were dead or alive. They have the impression of going through a ghost town. They quickly passed the area with heavy hearts.
"The state of the Lower North District is even worse than the west." Robert made the comment with a sigh.
"Those corrupted nobles must be eliminated! They are a tumor!" Duke Ignis was in disbelief of what he saw.
"Yes, but we can't act rashly." Robert warned once more.
Leon said nothing since already knew about the Lower North District and already uprooted the gang occupying the district.
The people was the foundation of the kingdom. Without the people, there would be no kingdom. How could they allow such a thing to happen right under their noses? How many people have been exploited and killed during all this time they were unaware?
Duke Ignis was prepared to ignore the laws and go execute all those corrupted nobles without trialing them.
Normally when nobles commit a serious crime, they had the right to be trialed before being executed.
The corrupted nobles were different to the rebels the Queen executed. There was no right for trial to those who commit treason.
The corrupted nobles were different. They require trialing and evidence against them.
However the Duke wasn't planning to follow the law after seeing what happened to the lower district. As the saying goes; rules were made to be broken.
When the group was about to pass the city wall entrance and enter the Upper North District, their car was shot by numerous bullets and many figures dropped down from the wall onto the roof with a bang.
The sudden attack caused Sebastian to swerve the car and slam into the city walls.