Chapter 569
Chapter 569 Suspicions
Lauryn did not answer him, but she moved away from him warily with her sword in her hand. When
Jonathan set up Asura’s Office, his aim was to stabilize Chanaea. After he achieved that, he stopped
the expansion of the organization.
By that time, all the respectable families had also recovered from the setback they had suffered ten
years ago during the Whitley family incident. They were once again ready to fight for power.
However, the situation had changed. Instead of fighting with each other for territories as they did a
decade ago, they were targeting Asura’s Office in thetest round of their power grab games.
Other than Yaleview, the rest of Chanaea was under the control of Asura’s Office. As such, whoever
took over Asura’s Office would gain control over the majority of Chanaea. That was the reason the
Osborne family began to pick on Jonathan and became his arch-enemy.
Although the rest of the respectable families had not gotten involved in the battle for Asura’s Office, it
was an unspoken understanding among the families that controlling Asura’s Office would be their
ultimate aim.
The rest were merely waiting by the side, hoping others would go on to weaken Asura’s Office first
before they step in to take advantage of the chaos.
They all knew if they had Asura’s Office under their control, their family would be more powerful than
the exterminated Whitley family. They would rise above the other respectable families.
The family behind Asura’s Office would be the de facto ruler of Chanaea and, without a doubt, the
ultimate winner in the power game.
Jonathan, as the founder of Asura’s Office, had no choice but to ept the reality that confrontations
between Asura’s Office and the respectable families were unavoidable.
Since the establishment of Asura’s Office, they had beenying the foundation of a new Chanaea, one
whereby there was no monopoly.
They didn’t mean the monopoly of the market in amercial sense. They were against the monopoly
of power. Asura’s Office wanted to build a Chanaea whereby themon Chanaean had a say in their
country. Power should not rest in the hands of those respectable families.
Although Lauryn was a descendant of a respectable family, she had to admit that, in a way, the demise
of respectable families would be for the good of the general public.
With that thought in mind, Lauryn instinctively bore with the pain from her injuries and backed off from
Jonathan. “I don’t know if it was you, but be forewarned that I will not hesitate to fight back if youe
near me.”
With the talisman in her hand, she slowly retreated backward until she was around the mountain. As
soon as she was certain Jonathan could not see her, she immediately turned around and fled.
As Jonathan turned to inspect the huge craters in the valley, he began to analyze the situation.
Although he had not fought with Lauryn before, during their tedious journey there, she had proven to
everyone that she was no weakling. However, judging by the damage on the site left by her battle with
the mysterious man and the injuries he saw on her, Jonathan could tell her opponent had defeated her
easily.
Irving and Sofus definitely possessed that capability to do so.
As for Bertel and Torkild, they had been mediocre. However, there was a chance they merely had not
shown off their true skills, so Jonathan could not write them offpletely as well.
Strange fauna, unique flora, and now the appearance of a killer! This trip is getting interesting!
Jonathan fished out the broken bronze mirror and saw a new message written in neat handwriting on it.
The message was: I’m Lauryn. A mysterious man tried to kill me. He’s in ck attire, wearing a ck
mask, and uses an axe as his weapon.
Someone replied: Where are you?
Another wrote: Any other special features about that man? How’s his skill?
Thest message read: Something fishy is going on in Summerbank Abyss. Be careful, everyone…
Messages popped up continuously, but as usual, no one knew who was sending those messages.
A new message came: Hey everyone, we can’t tell who’s behind which message, so can I suggest we
prefix our initials to our messages?
L: Like this!
Two messages from Lauryn appeared in the mirror consecutively.
I: I’ll light up a tree as a signal so you can find me. Although I don’t really like you, we’re both from the
Phantom Sect. You can trust me ande to me.
That was obviously a message from Irving.
After that, another two messages came in.
B: Torkild, we should assemble as well.
T: I’m busy fighting off a group of monkeys. This ce is…
Torkild’s message was iplete. It would most likely be because he was in the midst of a fierce
battle.
Jonathan was following all the messages, and he was d they had finally found a way to
communicate properly. However, his eyes narrowed when he read the next message.
L: I’m the real Lauryn. I was being attacked earlier on and only managed to get to safety now. Who was
impersonating me just now?
That message sessfully stopped the flow ofmunication in the mirror.
That mirror enabled a user to write on it using his or her spiritual energy, and other users holding
shards of the same mirror would be able to read the message.
Unfortunately, there were no in-built security features to vet the identity of the users, so even though
they hade up with the idea of adding a prefix of their name as a means to identify one another, it
was not a fool-proof method.
Just like the forged message, by adding an L in front of his message, Jonathan could easily make it
look as though it was a message from Lauryn.
As for the handwriting, as Grandmasters with a good eye for details, it would be an easy feat for them
to forge another person’s handwriting.
The situation had be very confusing andplex.
Other than himself and Lauryn, any of the other four men could be that mysterious man in ck.
As anyone could impersonate any of the users on the mirror messaging system, the trust that everyone
had for each other totally vanished. Once suspicion set in, it would be difficult to salvage the trust.
With the appearance of the forged message, the real Lauryn would be on high alert. She would wonder
if the message from Irving was really from him. Even if she saw the lit-up signal sent by Irving, she
would not dare to go over to meet him, for fear that she would find that mysterious killer there instead.
Simrly, Irving would not dare to light up the tree and announce his location for the world to know. He
had to take precautions to protect himself so the killer would not go after him.
A simple message had sessfully caused misgivings among the six.
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The bronze mirror was a gift from Sofus with the intention of keeping them connected while they were
in Summerbank Abyss.
However, it had be the cause of rising suspicion within the group.
No one knew if that was Sofus’ original intention, or if someone else had made use of the loophole to
stir up the mistrust.
Jonathan frowned when he recalled that youthful face of Sofus.
After some deliberation, he focused his spiritual energy on his finger and started writing a message.
I: Sofus, this mirror is a gift from you. If you don’te up with a good exnation for this mess, I’m
going to take it that you are the man in ck, and I’lle after you!
At that moment, Irving was taking shelter under a huge tree, and his face fell when he saw thetest
message in the mirror.
“Darn it! I’m sure it’s Jonathan trying to sow discord between Sofus and me!”
Although he was cursing and swearing over that forged message written in his name, he did not reply
with a refute. The question asked in the forged message was valid, and he was anxious to hear from
Sofus as well.
The usage of the bronze mirror was being abused, but its owner, Sofus, had not uttered a word about
it. In fact, among the six, he was the only one who had not used the mirror tomunicate with the
group as yet.
Other than Irving, four other people also had their eyes fixed on their respective mirrors, waiting for
Sofus’ reply.