Chapter 619 Bound By A Treaty
Jonathan activated his spiritual sense and surrounded Lauryn with it while listening to her.
He did that in order to detect changes in her movements which could indicate that she was lying.
Being a fellow cultivator herself, Lauryn could clearly sense what Jonathan was doing.
As Asura’s Office and the respectable families have always been enemies, she had expected Jonathan to react like this when she came to see him.
Even so, she had no choice but to put up with it to avoid marrying Jay.
Jonathan frowned in frustration when he saw that Lauryn was indeed telling the truth.
“Are you saying that I’ll only be able to find out about that after attacking the respectable families?”
Lauryn nodded helplessly in response. “That’s right. The battle from ten years ago was simply far too chaotic. All the Divine cultivators held back in battle as they didn’t want to reveal their hand. In doing so, they provided the three Divine cultivators from the Whitley family some breathing room. Grandpa once said it’s impossible for all eight Divine cultivators to survive that battle. However, the respectable families all had tons of methods to hide the truth from each other, so we couldn’t tell if they survived simply by looking at the extent of their injuries.”
The look on Jonathan’s face turned gloomy when he heard what she said.
How am I supposed to eradicate the respectable families like this? Do I just attack the Osborne residence with a bunch of underlings? Even if we manage to make it to the front door, a Divine cultivator could just show up out of nowhere and destroy us all!
Jonathan rubbed his forehead as he racked his brain to come up with a strategy to deal with the Divine cultivators.
“By the way, someone from one of the Whitley family’s branch families has recently risen to power. Apparently, he has gotten so powerful that none of the respectable families dared make any sudden moves,” Lauryn added.
Jonathan looked up at her in surprise.
“A member of the Whitley family… Are you referring to Joshua?”
“Yes, that’s him,” Lauryn replied with a nod.
“How could it be Joshua?” Jonathan still found it unbelievable even though Lauryn had confirmed his guess.
Joshua’s identity is far too special. If Lauryn knows he’s a Whitley, then the other respectable families must know that too. There’s no way they’d just sit by and let him become a commander-in-chief!
“Actually, Joshua is the real hero here.”
Lauryn let out a sigh as she recalled Joshua’s past.
“While going through the Whitley family’s remaining properties, the eight respectable families found out that someone from one of the Whitley family’s branch families had become a section chief in Yaleview. That person was none other than Joshua Whitley himself. Right as they were planning on killing him, they realized his family had been ostracized so much that he didn’t even know he was from a respectable family. Since the order they received was to kill all direct members of the Whitley family, Joshua was spared as he didn’t fit that classification. Since all of Chanaea was plunged into chaos after the Whitley family’s annihilation, the country desperately needed a commander-in-chief to maintain order. Whoever obtained that role would be able to benefit their family greatly, so the eight respectable families argued over who it should belong to. Eventually, they decided to have Joshua take the role because of his unique identity. They figured he would make the perfect candidate as he couldn’t possibly collaborate with any of the eight families. Despite being constantly monitored by them, Joshua was able to free himself from the eight families’ clutches and become the true commander-in-chief of six hundred thousand soldiers.”
What? Joshua rose to power with the help of the eight respectable families? I feel like something is off about Joshua’s past, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. He relied on the resources from the eight respectable families to quickly rise to power, only to kick them all aside after gaining a foothold in Yaleview. A man with such schemes can’t possibly have gotten this far with sheer luck alone. Was it something the Whitley family left behind? Joshua may be from a branch family, but the others must’ve really hated the Whitley family to the bone if they wanted to wipe it out completely. I might be able to use this to my advantage in the future.
“Lauryn, you said the eight respectable families would also plot against each other while supporting each other. Is it possible to drive a wedge between them?”
Since Jonathan wasn’t powerful enough to take the eight respectable families out himself, he decided to change up his strategy and have them fight each other instead.
However, Lauryn simply told him, “Absolutely impossible.”
Jonathan was a little surprised at how confident she sounded. “Um… Shouldn’t you at least give it some thought before answering my question? Why are you so confident in their unity?”
“This has nothing to do with confidence. The respectable families are bound by a treaty. Since the annihilation of the ridiculously powerful Whitley family, everyone was afraid that they would someday receive the same fate. As such, the eight respectable families came up with a rule to prevent that from happening. If one of the respectable families makes a move, the other families will team up unconditionally and annihilate said family completely. Those who try to take a neutral stance will also be annihilated unconditionally,” Lauryn replied helplessly.
Jonathan couldn’t help but gain a newfound respect for the eight respectable families when he heard that.
They teamed up to take out the Whitley family and signed a peace treaty afterward to keep themselves unified against both internal and external forces? Well, I can’t say for sure if they won’t backstab each other, but I know it’s definitely impossible to drive a wedge between them. Now I see why Lauryn was unable to talk Anderson out of it. With a treaty like that, there’s no way he’d agree to stand with me! D*mn… Is there really nothing else I can do about this? Do I really have to wait ten years or so for them to start another war? Must I become a Divine cultivator for this to work? There’s no telling how long that would take!
His train of thought was interrupted when Harry came over.
“Did you need something?” Jonathan asked.
“Mr. Goldstein, someone by the name of Colton Blackwood has just barged in. He says he’s looking for Lauryn.”
