The Legendary Man

Chapter 845 The Unrevivable Flaming Tree
Upon receiving the order, Zachary left with his men, leaving Jonathan and Emmeline to themselves in the living room.
Even though Jonathan fully grasped the information given by Josephine, he chose not to make a move.
Considering the vast intelligence network and the number of soldiers he had, he would have needed at most three days to scout
out where the Osborne family had been hiding in Quadfield.
That large-scale search, however, would only serve to tip off the Osborne family.
To top it off, the Osborne family would surely relocate themselves as soon as Jonathan's course of action was exposed. More
importantly, Josephine would also be in great danger.
Truth be told, Jonathan could have spread the word of the Osborne family's ancestral land being in Quadfield without actually
getting himself involved in the hurdle.
Once the other seven respectable families got ahold of the news, they would definitely assemble to get rid of such a formidable
force like the Osborne family, repeating history akin to annihilating the Whitley family bloodline a decade ago.
Sure enough, that would bring about a reduction in the number of respectable families. Still, taking down the Osborne family
would mean strengthening the other seven respectable families and increasing their influence just as well.
Should Jonathan be relying on the strength of a third party to have his enemies up against each other's throats, he might be
indirectly fostering the emergence of one to three ginormous respectable families in Chanaea.
When that happened, they might even come to terms with one another, not to mention form an affiliation. It would then be difficult
for Jonathan to find their weak spot.
In time, it would be the end of the road for Asura's Office.
To prevent that outcome, all eight respectable families had to be obliterated as a whole once and for all.
Vexed, Jonathan leaned against the couch and massaged his forehead.
Seeing how the situation in Chanaea had gotten more and more complicated, he could already feel quite a headache.

Whatever call he was to make, there would be no room for error. It was as though he was treading on thin ice as he faced
covetous, hostile forces looking for an opening.
At that very juncture, an image of Leslie from Summerbank popped into Jonathan's head all of a sudden.
From an operation standpoint, there were simply way too many external factors to be considered for every decision he made.
Leslie's cold, insensitive temperament was the answer Asura's Office needed.
Nevertheless, Jonathan had always loathed the way Leslie deploy the soldiers on the battlefield.
In his opinion, his soldiers weighed more than just numbers. As all men were born equal, he would never allow his people to be
mere cannon fodder in war.
The last thing Jonathan wished for was to have a person like Leslie become one of the higher-ups in Asura's Office.
If she were ever put in control, it was no doubt Asura's Office would triumph over its enemies but at the same time suffer greater
losses.
Right then, a cup of coffee landed on the coffee table in front of Jonathan.
He looked up, only to be greeted by Emmeline's grace.
“Stop brooding over it, Jonathan. You hardly ever make a trip back here. Take a break, will you?”
A faint grin appeared on Emmeline's face as she spoke.
Jonathan, in turn, was sort of startled by the woman's thoughtful gesture.
As far as he could remember, Emmeline had always been a mischievous, feisty one. Although she might not have done anything
outrageous, there had not been a single moment she had failed to exasperate the people around her.
Since when did she learn to care for others?
While Jonathan pinned his gaze on Emmeline, he picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip.
Emmeline let out a snort upon catching sight of the man's demeanor.
“Why that look? Are you scared that I may have spiked the coffee?”

“Nah, I wouldn't think that. After all, the last time you tried cooking, the food tasted like–”
“Jonathan!”
Emmeline took the pillow beside her and tossed it right at Jonathan.
Of course, the latter managed to grab the pillow. A chuckle escaped from his lips.
“Your puny trick can never touch an expert of God Realm like yours truly.”
“You're so annoying.”
Emmeline went and sat opposite the couch, wrapping her arms around her legs and sighing.
“I wonder if Josephine even sleeps well at night. I guess she must be thinking about whether we'd notice the signal she's sent
out.”
As she dropped that remark, she raised her chin and directed her line of sight to Jonathan.
“My sister must be hoping so badly that you'd appear right before her to take her home, Jonathan.”
Those words left Jonathan's hand frozen in mid-air momentarily before he gradually put the cup of coffee down.
“Do you blame me too, Emmeline?”
“No.”
Emmeline shook her head slightly.
“You and Zachary's squad are all meant to achieve great things. I've been paying attention to your conversation, so I know you
must have your reasons. Either way, Josephine will definitely be back, right, Jonathan?”
“For sure.”
Jonathan's eyes glinted as he looked at Emmeline.
“I promise to bring your sister home safe and sound. I won't let anyone lay a finger on her.”
“Okay, I'll take your word for it.”

Emmeline rubbed her eyes and rose to her feet.
“I'm going to bed now. You should also rest early, Jonathan.”
Then came Jonathan's reminder. “Emmeline, don't tell Mom and Dad about this. There might be more trouble if Mom were to
know about this.”
“Mm. I won't mention a word to them,” agreed Emmeline in a low voice before she went upstairs.
Halfway through the stairs on the second floor, she sneaked a peek toward the living room downstairs. The cup of coffee was still
on the coffee table, but Jonathan was nowhere in sight.
Later that night, Jonathan was stargazing atop the gazebo at the observation deck in Edenic Heights. His mind was in turmoil.
Every agonizing moment he spent suppressing his wrath was due to his own powerlessness.
Had he already mastered Divine Realm, nothing in the world could have gnawed at him, let alone the eight measly respectable
families.
If given the capability, he would have stormed the ancestral land of the Osborne family and made every single one of them pay
for abducting Josephine.
None of them would have had the gall to pull any tricks on him.
Sadly, Asura's Office was simply not strong enough.
A pucker formed between Jonathan's brows as he devised a plan in his head. At that point, Jonathan had yet to receive word
that the Blackwood family was gifting Asura's Office five thousand tons of scrapped spirit stones.
The only thing he had in mind was how he could train his very own army of cultivators and bring them to Summerbank Abyss.
The reason behind his intention stemmed from the extraordinarily concentrated spiritual energy in Summerbank Abyss, which
was more than a hundredfold denser than that in the outside world. A place like that would be the perfect cultivation ground for
all cultivators who had not attained Grandmaster Realm.
Not only that, but the land also abounded with excellent cultivation resources, including spiritual fruits and demon beasts.

Yet, there stood the biggest roadblock to reaching that goal–the ancient beast, Joselle.
Her strength alone had far exceeded what could have been achievable in Divine Realm. Despite not pulling any Precelestial
Pryncyp moves thus far, she still posed a threat to Jonathan.
Restoring the seal formation to its full strength was the only option to contain Joselle.
Unfortunately, even with the legendary Ancient Sacred Dragon Technique sitting in Jonathan's possession, it was nothing more
than wishful thinking for him to work out a seal formation that could incapacitate an ancient beast.
His last hope of mending the said formation would be to get his hands on an identical Flaming Tree and plant it anew as a
foundation.
Be that as it might, a tree that had aged thousands of years must have long gone extinct, so there was no telling as to where or
how he could even come by one.
The life force in me...
Jonathan frowned slightly upon sensing the scarce life force he still had within him.
The fact that his own life force was a gazillion times more refined than that in Flaming Tree, reality forbade him from expending
life force to revive Flaming Tree.
That would make sense, for the ancient beast had already ravaged and rooted Flaming Tree up for fear that it might come back
to life and haunt it once again.
How can I ever make Summerbank Abyss my own backyard?
Just when Jonathan was deep in thought, the storage ring on his finger shone with a green ray of light.
In a split second, his surroundings changed before his eyes.
Before he realized it, he found himself standing in the mountains.