Chapter 676: The Three Gather Together

Chapter 676: The Three Gather Together

Larry glanced at Paisley with a hint of approval. "You're right. But pulling that off takes time, resources, and people we can trust inside the Guild."

Frank had always followed Larry. They'd been brothers-in-arms for ten years — comrades who'd faced life and death together. Frank knew Larry inside and out, yet he never saw it coming: Larry had quietly awakened and become a supernatural martial practitioner. The year before, during their time at the Heavenly Mountain sacred grounds, Frank had been wounded by Chloe's energy. He was then transferred to Mist Hollow Sanctuary for genetic repair and treatment, spending even the Lunar New Year there. It was during that time that he first truly encountered the world of supernatural martial practitioners and got a real taste of just how terrifying high-level individuals could be.

"Boss..."

After draining their glasses in a toast, Frank hesitated, his eyes fixed on Larry.

"That's not like you, beating around the bush," Larry teased. "Just say it straight."

Frank lowered his voice. "Boss, what level are you at now?"

During his recovery at Mist Hollow Sanctuary, he'd had plenty of conversations with the medical trainees caring for him, picking up a lot about the supernatural martial arts world — including how power levels worked. Practitioners were ranked from Level One to Level Nine, lowest to highest. Level Nine, however, existed only in theory and legend. Even in ancient records, there was no confirmed case of anyone ever reaching it.

"Barely crossed into Level Eight," Larry said, his tone casual.

Frank shot to his feet, staring at Larry in disbelief. "Level Eight?!"

"What are you getting so worked up about? Sit down."

Frank settled back into his seat and took a deep breath. "Boss, you've got to teach me sometime. I heard that supernatural practitioners have far greater cell vitality and lifespan than normal people. Even at Level Three or Four, as long as there's no genetic collapse or serious accident, living past a hundred is easy. And at Level Seven or Eight, you can actually push past human limits — live to a hundred and fifty or more."

Frank was only human, and like anyone, he wanted to live longer. As a career soldier, he also craved the kind of overwhelming individual combat power that came with being a practitioner.

"No problem." Larry smiled.

Frank was a brother who'd stood by him through the hardest times, never once walking away. If Frank wanted to step into the supernatural world, Larry wasn't going to hold anything back.

"I'll put together a copy of the internal energy circulation algorithm I've been training with. Things are pretty turbulent right now though, so I can't be hands-on with your training. I'll explain the key principles when I get a chance."

Frank's face lit up. "Thank you, Boss!"

Larry waved it off. "We're brothers. Don't mention it. Actually, I can introduce you to a senior mentor — someone you can go to with questions when you have time."

He was thinking of Vaughn. Vaughn had already taken on Esmeralda, Abigail, and others as core students. One more wouldn't make a difference.

"That's great!" Frank broke into a wide grin.

They finished their meal, and Larry headed straight to the secluded courtyard house Chloe had purchased. Abigail had arrived in Aurora Citadel, and he needed to sit down with her behind closed doors to map out their next move. Frank, for his part, headed back to military headquarters.

In the manor's living room.

Larry walked in to the sound of laughter. Chloe and Abigail were deep in conversation, clearly hitting it off.

"What's so funny?" Larry came over, tossed his jacket onto the sofa, and sat down next to Chloe.

Abigail looked up at him with a teasing smile. "Talking about some things from ten years ago. Chloe was just asking me why she had no idea you and I were together back then."

Larry felt his face go awkward.

"I really had no clue," Chloe said with a laugh. "Abigail and I were so close back then. She was in a relationship and I didn't even know about it."

Larry cleared his throat a couple of times. He hadn't expected them to joke about it so easily together — this wasn't the cool, distant Chloe he knew. To cover his discomfort, he cut straight to the point. "Alright, let's pause the trip down memory lane. I got some important intel today."

He then laid out everything — what Brad had let slip, and what Ernest had explained — without leaving anything out.

"The power struggle at the base of Aurora Citadel is basically a deadlock. Every conflict traces back to the Eastern Trade Guild. Its internal faction interests are incredibly tangled — horizontally tied to countless senior political figures and monopoly conglomerates, vertically connected to the four ancient families led by the Bennett family, the entire supernatural martial arts world, and even the Guild's shadowy leader, Chairman Watson."

"It's really that complicated?" Chloe blinked.

Abigail's brow furrowed. She zeroed in on the core problem. "The first king's old guard, the four ancient families, Aurora Citadel's century-old entrenched officials and capital groups... it's almost like a net you can't escape. Any attempt at a full purge would mean tearing down Aurora Citadel's entire upper structure from the roots. But force it through, and the federation's core would collapse into chaos."

"Exactly." Larry looked troubled. "And from what I can tell, the current king isn't entirely clean either. He's been abusing his position — quietly building up ties with key business groups. The BlueTech Corporation fallout was started by the Ward family, but at a deeper level, the king's political interests are wrapped up in it too."

Larry rubbed his throbbing temple. Even he felt out of his depth facing something this sprawling and complex.

Chloe thought for a moment. "What's your plan for breaking through this? Where do you even start?"

Larry shook his head slightly. "There's no clean entry point right now. Everything's connected — once you light the fuse, there's no stopping it. We need to think this all the way through before we make a move."

Chloe said slowly, "Maybe we should bring Paisley in on this. She's running the Bennett family now. She'd know the inner workings of the Eastern Trade Guild better than anyone."

Larry glanced at her, a little surprised. That morning she'd been quietly upset over the whole Paisley situation. Now she was setting that aside for the bigger picture.

"I'll call her." Chloe caught the hesitation on Larry's face and pulled out her phone, dialing Paisley directly. She gave a brief rundown of how serious things were. Paisley's response was immediate: "Understood. I'm on my way."

She hung up, dropped everything she was handling for the family, and drove straight to the courtyard house. Meanwhile, Larry, Chloe, and Abigail gathered around the situation board, working through the scenarios — what systemic risks a full purge would create for the federation's leadership and business world, and what contingency plans they'd need.

Paisley moved fast. She arrived in under an hour.

As she walked into the living room and took a seat, Larry felt a flicker of awkwardness. The two women, however, were completely at ease — as if there'd never been any tension between them — and got straight down to business.

Chloe opened. "Paisley, given what you know about the situation, how do you think we should play this?"

Paisley's brow furrowed slightly. "I know the Eastern Trade Guild exists. But I've only been running the Bennett family for just over two months, so my access to the deepest secrets is limited. Honestly, I didn't realize how murky the waters behind the Guild really were. I always thought it was just an interest bloc the four families put together when they returned to civilian society a few decades ago. I never imagined the whole thing traced back to the first king at the founding of the nation."

It was true — even as head of one of the great families, Paisley had limited exposure to the Guild's century-old core history, which was rarely shared with outsiders. And since taking power, she'd been focused on building cross-faction alliances and consolidating her position. She simply hadn't dug that deep.

"I may not know all the details, but I can tell you this — the Eastern Trade Guild is not a unified bloc." Paisley cut right to the weakness. "Every faction in it is bound together purely by financial interests. If you want to bring it down, the best play is to get inside it, drive wedges between the factions, and pick them off one by one."

This kind of scheming — the layered, calculating game of capital and power — was genuinely not Larry's territory. Leading the Legion of Flame Surge in a full assault on a fortified position, he could do in his sleep. But navigating the shifting currents of cross-border business warfare and factional infighting? That was a completely different world.