Chapter 617


    Chapter 617 The Whitley Family


    Still, I have to admit, what the respectable families and Paradise Ind did was useful in solving the


    problem. Children are too weak-minded to keep secrets, so it’s best to not let them know any secrets.


    That way, it would be pointless to target them when going after the respectable families. If I’m not


    mistaken, the core members around the age of seventeen and eighteen have all been brainwashed by


    their families. It’s just like with Yasmin and the other assassins from Xiara.


    Even Agent 99, who practically grew up with Yasmin and treated her like an older sister, pulled a knife


    on her without any hesitation. It seems the many years of brainwashing are powerful enough to make


    them prioritize Paradise Ind’s safety over that of their family and friends. I’m guessing it’s the same


    for Lauryn over here.


    I may be able to have a decent conversation with her right now, but I know I can’t ask her anything


    about her family’s location. I bet she’d rather kill herself than risk revealing any information about them.


    By brainwashing them to ce their family’s interest above everything else, the families are able to


    keep them under control for the rest of their lives.


    With that in mind, Jonathan shed Lauryn a smile as he asked, “I’m curious. If all eight respectable


    families see Chanaea as a cake, then you would definitely see each other aspetitors. Take


    Jadeborough for example. Given howrge the total market share is, there’s no way the families will be


    satisfied with upying just a portion of it.


    Someone will likely get greedy and start plotting against the other families. I know there’s an alliance


    between the respectable families, but I doubt you guys are all that honorable.


    Surely, there must’ve been a lot of backstabbing going on in secret. With the amount of power the


    respectable families have acquired after being around for thousands of years, it shouldn’t be a problem


    for them to investigate each other, right?”


    Lauryn frowned when she heard that question.


    “ording to the archives, there were fifteen respectable families in Chanaea about three hundred


    years ago. However, the Chanaean market took a huge hit when the involvement from the western


    countries increased about two hundred and eighty years ago.


    That resulted in aplete makeover for all the respectable families. No one knows what happened


    throughout the twenty years, but only nine respectable families remained after that.”


    Jonathan paused in surprise. “Nine? Hold on, didn’t you say there were eight respectable families just


    now? Where did this ninth onee from?”


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    “There’s one more that got wiped out ten years ago. It’s the Whitley family,” Lauryn replied.


    The look on Jonathan’s face turned solemn when he heard that.


    The timing matches perfectly!


    “Ten years ago? That was when Chanaea was in chaos, right? The respectable families were in control


    of the armies, but all themanders disappeared mysteriously all of a sudden. Everyone thinks they


    were called back by the respectable families. Was it because of this?”


    “Yes, it was precisely because of the Whitley family. I was only twelve at the time, so I didn’t know


    much about the rtionships between the respectable families. The only reason I know this is because


    I heard my elders talking about it after the Whitley family was wiped out,” Lauryn replied with a nod.


    She frowned as she tried to recall what she heard from her childhood.


    “My grandpa was the head of the ckwood family at the time. He told my father that the Whitley


    family from ten years ago was a lot more powerful than the Saday family today. In case you didn’t


    know, the Saday family is currently acknowledged as the most powerful of all the respectable


    families.


    ording to one of the theories, Chanaea used to be split into ten parts, four of which were owned by


    the Whitley family alone. The remaining six were shared among the other eight families. That should


    show you just how terrifyingly powerful the Whitley family used to be.”


    Jonathan felt his heart sink when he heard that.


    I first came into contact with the respectable families during the three-year battle. I tried to gather as


    much information on them as possible after Asura’s Office was established, but there wasn’t much I


    could find. When I went to Lumonburg a while back, Philip handed me a chip right before he died.


    That was when I made official contact with the respectable families. That was especially the case when


    the Goldstein family got involved. I got a taste of the power of the respectable families when I fought


    Garrison of the Osborne family. It wasn’t until I met Lauryn and Irving that I truly learned the truth


    behind the respectable families.


    The Goldstein family’s influence can be found in pretty much every field, and they also have tons of


    businesses all over the world. Even so, it is nothingpared to the respectable families. The Osborne


    family was able to drive the Goldstein family out of Yaleview simply by sending one of its elders after


    them, and that happened while I was backing them up too.


    Ordinary prominent families wouldn’t even stand a chance against the respectable families. I thought


    the Osborne family was powerful, but the Saday family turned out to be even more powerful.


    Given all of that, it’s really hard to imagine the Whitley family owning four parts of Chanaea ten years


    ago. I bet they could squash the Osborne family like a bug if they so much as wanted to! How the heck


    does a powerful family like this get wiped out?


    With that in mind, Jonathan asked, “Who wiped out the Whitley family?”


    He was really curious as to who could possibly eliminate the Whitley family, who owned almost half of


    Chanaea.


    Lauryn looked him in the eye as she replied, “The eight families teamed up to wipe them out.”


    Abined effort from the eight families, huh?


    Jonathan was a little shocked when he heard that, but he shook his head and let out a chuckle


    momentster.


    “One has to be very careful when at the pinnacle of sess. It makes perfect sense that the other


    families would try to take them out. After all, no one likes being suppressed and dominated forever,” he


    commented.


    Lauryn nodded in agreement.


    “Yeah. The Whitley family was far too powerful, so they had to get rid of it. But that incident also took a


    toll on the eight respectable families. It took five years of nning, three of which were spent cautiously


    locating all the Whitley family’s members. The eight respectable families then spent the next two years


    hunting down and killing all core and direct members of the Whitley family.


    The Whitley family had three hundred and ny-eight core members and eleven thousand and sixty-


    two members who shared a direct bloodline. All of them died tragically in those two years, and that’s


    not including the countless guards and underlings they had trained.”


    Jonathan felt a shiver down his spine when he heard those numbers.


    I wiped out the Turner family when they kidnapped Josephine back then, but they only had a few


    hundred members. The Whitley family had over ten thousand direct family members, and we haven’t


    even included those from their branch families…


    Now that I think about it, the Goldstein family is nothing but child’s ypared to the respectable


    families. It makes sense why the Osborne family never took me seriously.