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 the latest 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 accept the reality that confrontations between Asura’s Office and the respectable families were unavoidable.
Since the establishment of Asura’s Office, they had been laying the foundation of a new Chanaea, one whereby there was no monopoly.
They didn’t mean the monopoly of the market in a commercial sense. They were against the monopoly of power. Asura’s Office wanted to build a Chanaea whereby the common 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 you come 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 off completely 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 black attire, wearing a black 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?
The last 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 and come 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 place is…
Torkild’s message was incomplete. It would most likely be because he was in the midst of a fierce battle.
Jonathan was following all the messages, and he was glad 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 successfully stopped the flow of communication 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 had come 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 become very confusing and complex.
Other than himself and Lauryn, any of the other four men could be that mysterious man in black.
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.
Similarly, 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 successfully caused misgivings among the six.
The bronze mirror was a gift from Sofus with the intention of keeping them connected while they were in Summerbank Abyss.
However, it had become 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’t come up with a good explanation for this mess, I’m going to take it that you are the man in black, and I’ll come after you!
At that moment, Irving was taking shelter under a huge tree, and his face fell when he saw the latest 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 to communicate with the group as yet.
Other than Irving, four other people also had their eyes fixed on their respective mirrors, waiting for Sofus’ reply.
