Chapter 1445: Family Extermination!
A group of black-clothed individuals infiltrated Jiang Chunyun’s home in the middle of the night.
As the owner of Beacon City’s Jiang Company, Jiang Chunyun had more than ten mansions in Beacon City, as well as two luxury yachts.
In order to defend against potential attacks from rivals, the Jiang family would spend only three days at most in a single residence, after which they would move to another one. In that way, it was difficult to get the exact position of the Jiang family.
But this group of frightening criminals made all those security measures seem insignificant.
!!
They invaded the Jiang home in the night, first silently eliminating all the guards on the perimeter. They then entered the three-floor villa built in the ancient style and killed all the servants and security. Finally, they threw all the members of the Jiang family into the living room like they were beasts, the entire family trembling as they curled up in the center.
These black-clothed killers wearing masks didn’t make a single noise as they surrounded the Jiang family, not letting them leave. It seemed like they were waiting for someone.
Jiang Chunyun was shaking. He saw blood slowly trickling into the living room from the hallway. It was in that narrow hallway where the special ability warriors he had hired at high wages had been lined up and then butchered, powerless to resist, like they were just pigs.
It was absolutely callous. The methods of these black-clothed killers had Jiang Chunyuns’ young grandsons and granddaughters screaming. They had lived lives of luxury, but now they were seeing cruelty the likes of which they had never seen before.
“Why…why are you doing all this!?” Jiang Chunyun’s throat trembled as he roared out like a cornered beast.
His long life and many years of experience told Jiang Chunyun that there was probably no escaping this disaster.
The style of these criminals implied that they wouldn’t be letting him or any member of the Jiang family get away. All that awaited them was death.
Since he knew that he was going to die, his heart erupted with immense courage. As death neared, he threw aside all apprehensions and began to roar, his eyes turning red.
“It’s very simple. Because of the Wine of Immortality!” a raspy voice came from the distance.
Jiang Chunyun raised his head and saw a masked and muscular black-clothed finger walking through the blood-drenched hallway into the living room.
Jiang Chunyun raised his head and met that man’s gaze. “But the Wine of Immortality isn’t here! It’s already in the hands of that lucky Xia Fan! All of Beacon City knows that!”
The man stopped in front of Jiang Chunyun and looked down at him.
Behind the mask was a pair of black eyes, bone-chillingly cold; the man’s entire body exuded an indescribable aura of death.
“The Wine of Immortality is gone, but WHY is it no longer here? Why is it that when I wanted to find you to get that bottle of wine, it would suddenly be gone?” the man asked in an icy voice.
Jiang Chunyun was stunned, but before he could say anything, the man in black ordered in his raspy voice, “Bring him in!”
It wasn’t long before two men in black came inside, a blood-drenched man held between them. He was dragged into the living room and up to Jiang Chunyun.
The man in black grabbed the head of the mangled man and lifted it up so that Jiang Chunyun could look him in the face.
Although his flesh was mangled, when Jiang Chunyun saw that face, he froze in shock, his face turning ghastly pale and his lips trembling.
The man in black asked coldly, “You should recognize him, right?
“I suppose that should be expected of the biggest company in the Char Star Region. You didn’t know to stay put in your business and extended your feelers to our Murder Shrine?
“You paid prost.i.tutes a high price to bribe my subordinate and have him provide you intelligence.
“Jiang Chunyun, just who made you so gutsy?
“If it was just that the Wine of Immortality wasn’t with you, to tell the truth, I wouldn’t have done much to you. Our Murder Shrine has never had a habit of making things difficult for insignificant figures like you.
“But, you shouldn’t have arrogantly planted a spy in my Murder Shrine.
“By doing this, you’ve not just killed him, you’ve also killed your entire family!
“All of this has happened today because you brought it in on yourself. Your son and grandchildren didn’t need to die, but you, you killed them all.”
The man in black’s words were like cold knives, plunging into Jiang Chunyun’s heart. He felt like his chest was about to crack open!
The reason Jiang Chunyun had planted a spy in the Murder Shrine was fear.
The ordinary people of the Outer Frontier might not have realized it, but Jiang Chunyun knew very well that the most terrifying existence in the vast Outer Frontier wasn’t the pirates, warlords, or local tyrants, but the group of special ability users who called themselves the Murder Shrine!
The special ability users of the Murder Shrine were all traitors from the public security organizations of the Inner Territories.
There were five-star generals of the three great federations, former high-ranked investigators, and even bureau chiefs among their ranks.
No one knew why these Inner Territory people had betrayed their organizations, giving up their reputations and high-cla.s.s lifestyles to come to the impoverished Outer Frontier and set up a strange and mysterious organization in this savage land.
But the Murder Shrine had truly become a powerful faction of the Outer Frontier. Not only did it pose a major threat to all the people of the Outer Frontier, it even threatened the three great federations of the Inner Territories!
The three great federations seemed to go crazy about that, putting bounties of unprecedented value on the traitors of the Murder Shrine. Whether dead or alive, anyone who could kill a person of the Murder Shrine could receive an immense reward from the three federations.
Alas, the Murder Shrine primarily operated in the Outer Frontier, and the three federations weren’t strong enough to control such a vast and untamed region.
The spies, investigators, and intelligence professionals dispatched by the three great federations were constantly killed. They had yet to make any progress in their efforts to eliminate the Murder Shrine.
The Murder Shrine was a cruel and powerful organization, and it was only getting stronger and stronger!
Out of fear, Jiang Chunyun had worked up the courage to mobilize all his resources and finally bribed a squad captain in the Murder Shrine. Although the man didn’t have much authority, that sort of spy was enough for Jiang Chunyun.
He didn’t dare to make an enemy of the Murder Shrine. He had just acted on a businessman’s instinct, hoping to gather information that would allow him to avoid any potential disasters.
The Murder Shrine had somehow found out that the Jiang Clan was holding a precious bottle of the Wine of Immortality and was planning to seize it. It was this mangled man who had tipped Jiang Chunyun off.
Thus, Jiang Chunyun had hastily put up the Wine of Immortality as a prize in his treasure chest activity, pa.s.sing the wine off to Xia Fan.
Jiang Chunyun felt like that was a smart move that would let him avoid disaster. The Murder Shrine wanted the Wine of Immortality, so it should be fine if he just gave up on it, right?
If the Murder Shrine wanted to make trouble for the wineholder, that was Xia Fan’s problem and would have nothing to do with him.
But things didn’t go how he planned. Jiang Chunyun had not only failed to avoid the Murder Shrine, his actions had brought calamity down on him and his family.
Jiang Chunyun’s mental state completely collapsed. His body trembled, and he felt like a knife was twisting in his heart. His mind was in a state of shock, completely blank.
“You can take it, take everything!” Jiang Chunyun was like a caged beast, loudly begging, “I don’t mind my death, but the children are still young. Just let them go and you can have everything. My company, my fleet, my warehouses, my wealth, the Murder Shrine can have it all!”
“Hahaha!” the men in black all laughed. They obviously had no interest in Jiang Chunyun’s proposal.
The muscular man in black leading them waved his hand, ordering his men to drag the traitor away. He said to Jiang Chunyun, “Sure enough, down to your bones, you’re still an ignorant businessman.
“Money? You think we care about money? That is a low-cla.s.s thought that only a businessman like you would have. No matter how much wealth you have, in our eyes, you would still be an ant that we could crush at any time.
“Your Jiang Company’s scale truly was rather large, but alas, starting today, it will cease to exist in the Outer Frontier.”
The man in black looked out the window.
Jiang Chunyun followed his gaze and saw thick smoke rising from the direction of the Red Fort, the fire lighting up the darkness of the night. There was also fire in the direction of Beacon City; the stores, warehouses, and bases of the Jiang Company were blazing in the night.
The Murder Shrine had already made its move. This mysterious group of special ability users that spoke about how new G.o.ds would rise up when old G.o.ds died didn’t think the same way as businessmen like Jiang Chunyun at all. Everything that Jiang Chunyun cared about were things that they didn’t care about in the slightest!
Jiang Chunyun only felt a bone-piercing chill and despair.
He remembered some lofty person saying, “Murder Shrine? Those guys have big ambitions.
“Back when the Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon dominated the universe, they were actually made up of two special ability armies. The Ashen Dragons were in the light, while the Hidden Moon were in the dark. The style of the Murder Shrine seems to be rather similar to that of the Hidden Moon’s army.”
Jiang Chunyun finally understood that the Murder Shrine was the Murder Shrine because they were driven by ambition and power, not by profit.
The man in black turned around, no longer looking at the ashen-faced Jiang Chunyun and the frightening members of the Jiang family who had wet themselves in fear. In his cold and raspy voice, he said, “These ordinary people have no understanding of what we want.
“But that’s fine. Since we can’t make them understand, we can make them fear.
“Kill them all.”
With wet splats, heads dropped to the ground.
One hundred and thirty-seven heads, all the members of the Jiang family, old and young, would appear on the highest tower of Beacon City when the sun rose the next morning.
In one night, the several hundred properties of the Jiang Company would go up in flames.
…
Xia Fan quickly found out that the Jiang Company had been wiped out in a single night. The day after he left Beacon City, he received a brief message from Tony.
Even though the signals in the Outer Frontier were very bad, with the vast majority of regions not covered by the interstellar net, Xia Fan just so happened to be pa.s.sing by an inhabitable star system, where he received Tony’s message.
Tony had sent the message several hours ago, and after pa.s.sing through countless relay stations, it was finally delivered to Xia Fan.
The picture and words were enough to show how demented the perpetrator of that ma.s.sacre was. Xia Fan found it impossible to imagine what sort of person could completely wipe out such a deep-rooted organization like the Jiang Company in a single night.
It couldn’t be done by a single person or group. It would need a small army.
“It’s truly quite gruesome.” Traveling Buddha stood behind Xia Fan, shaking his head as he looked at Xia Fan’s handphone. “Why did Tony send you this message?” Traveling Buddha asked him.
“Perhaps it was out of good will.” Xia Fan frowned. “After all, we just won the Wine of Immortality from the Jiang Company, and then this happens.”
“I mean, this is the Outer Frontier.” Traveling Buddha grabbed Xia Fan’s handphone and flipped through the pictures, before giving the phone back. “Since the Jiang Clan decided to set up a business in the Outer Frontier, they should have already prepared themselves for the risks, right?”
“Maybe.” Xia Fan hooked the device back onto his wrist. “Regardless, this isn’t some simple family extermination. The Jiang Company’s bases were all destroyed as well, burned up in flames. The people behind it weren’t just ruthless, they were also extremely strong. If this case had happened in the Union, even if our Special Bureau was directed to handle it, it would still be hard to resolve.”
—
After the conversation was over, Traveling Buddha went to the hold to cultivate.
His cultivation was rather simple and monotonous. Using the power in his seventh brain region, he drew out the Golden Buddha Light. Unlike Xia Fan, he didn’t need a large area to practice.
Xia Fan glanced at the marker on the star map. The Disaster was operating on complete autopilot and was making its way toward the location that Gerry had indicated, the cosmic storm region where a Skywing wreck might be located.
There was still one day and five hours until they arrived.