The Legendary Man

Chapter 848 Identity
Jonathan stopped dead as he stared at the trail before him, finally understanding why Zachary had hesitated so much earlier.
Previously, because of the incident in Northern Crimson Prison, Jonathan had wanted to kill Karl to avenge his dead comrades.
However, Karl claimed that Eshistan had a complicated defense formation, and he was also holding on to many top secrets
regarding the country's missile defense system.
If Jonathan were to kill him immediately, his successor would need several months at least to familiarize himself with the
immense amount of information.
Karl's absence during those few months would also mean that any long-range missile threat Eastern Army had toward the
surrounding countries would disappear.
Hence, he pleaded with Jonathan to let him find a suitable candidate to become the next Prince of Diyouli.
More importantly, Karl had also promised to be dealt with by Jonathan once the handover was completed.
Now that everything was done and dusted, it was time for Karl Hamilton to die.
As Jonathan thought back to how he and Karl had fought so valiantly together in some of the bloodiest battles, he couldn't help
but feel his heart clench.
“Shut down any news of me leaving Edenic Heights. I'm making a trip to Doveston.”
After glancing at No. 1 Villa at the foot of the mountain, Jonathan promptly turned around and headed back toward the peak.
Just then, Zachary stepped in front of Jonathan and bowed.
“Mr. Goldstein, must Karl really die?”
“How else would I avenge the seventy thousand comrades who died in vain?” Jonathan replied flatly. “The title of Prince of
Diyouli can't even save him, so what makes you think you guys can? I know Hades and the rest of you are in constant contact,
so let them know that if anyone dares to intercede for Karl, they're to leave Asura's Office immediately.”
After saying that, Jonathan lightly tapped his foot to morph into an afterimage and teleported to an opposite trail.

Zachary gazed at the man's retreating figure and let out a heavy sigh.
The next second, he brought his phone up to his ear and mumbled, “Well, you guys heard it yourselves. There's no use trying.
We can't protect Karl.”
...
Back in Zedfield, Yaleview, Wilbur sat in a rocking chair in his yard as he flipped through a book on military strategy.
When he was still the chief of Yaleview Army, he couldn't understand why he'd always find Joshua sitting in the yard, buried in
books.
He used to think that Joshua was up to no good and that the latter was only trying to find ways to one-up him.
When Wilbur took over Joshua's position, though, he finally had an epiphany—a chess player would never stop thinking about
the game outside the chessboard.
In the past, no matter how much power Wilbur had, he was still nothing more than a pawn that Joshua used to keep the balance
between Asura's Office and the eight respectable families.
Whether pawns like him got to live or die depended solely on the chess player's decision.
It didn't even matter if one was powerful or not; anyone was disposable if it meant being able to win the game.
Now that Wilbur had jumped out of the chessboard, his survival was entirely in his own hands.
At that moment, the person opposite him wasn't any of the famous Eight Kings of War but the ultimate chess player—Eva
Salladay.
“Are you just going to sit around and drag things out with us, Wilbur?” Eva mumbled as she sat casually on the table.
Despite the slight displeasure in her tone, the carefree smile on her face never wavered.
Wilbur turned to Eva and slowly set his book aside.
“I've already told you, Eva. As long as the battle hasn't started, we can't do anything to stir up trouble in Asura's Office. We can
only take action once they're in a state of disarray. Do you understand?”

“To hell with that!” Eva scoffed before fishing out a shattered spirit stone. “Feel this stone. How much spiritual energy do you
think there is?”
After holding the spirit stone fragment to gauge its spiritual energy level, Wilbur returned it to Eva.
“The amount of spiritual energy in this is only sufficient for those in the Precelestial Realm and below.”
“Hmm... But what if we have five thousand tons of it?”
Upon hearing that, Wilbur furrowed his brows.
“Five thousand tons? That'd be enough to produce a group of low-level cultivators! What are you getting at?”
Now, this is interesting... There are more and more cultivators in Chanaea these days, which means battles in the future are
likely to shift to a greater reliance on cultivators than technology. After all, everyone's weapons have become pretty similar. If
they were to go all out with their high-tech artillery or even fire their special missiles, the sheer destructive power would raze
Chanaea and the rest of the world into the ground. When that happens, the forces will have no choice but to develop new ways
to win, and I'm sure the most popular method would be to hunt down the leader! Of course, that doesn't mean the highest
commanding officers will always be killed. Military bases and command centers will also be targeted because they play pivotal
roles in battles. Needless to say, high-level cultivators would be the best people to carry out those covert operations!
A cold glint flitted across Eva's eyes as she played with the spirit stone.
“I received intel that five thousand tons of spirit stone fragments were withdrawn from the Blackwoods' storage yesterday. The
only ones who'd need such a vast amount of spirit stones are Asura's Office and Yaleview Army. I'm sure it can't be you, so
where do you think those five thousand tons of spirit stones have gone?” she asked while gently twirling the spirit stone in her
hand.
The crystal clear spirit stone sparkled like a gem under the sun, and anyone who saw its beauty would undoubtedly develop a
fatal attraction to it.
Meanwhile, Wilbur pondered over Eva's words. Hmm... Five thousand tons of spirit stone fragments are enough for Jonathan to
train a group of Precelestial Realm cultivators. Then, it'd only be a matter of time before someone achieves Superior Realm.
What's scary is that, to the average person, a Superior Realm cultivator is already invincible. From the looks of it, Asura's Office
is already gearing toward deploying cultivators in battles.

Upon seeing the frown on Wilbur's face, Eva couldn't help but break into a smile.
“You can continue to waste our time if you like, Wilbur. I can more or less guess what your course of action is, anyway. You plan
on inciting a fight between the strongest players, which in our case, would be Asura's Office and the eight respectable families,”
she said calmly. “Don't forget, though... When Jonathan becomes powerful enough to wipe out the Eight Great Families, do you
think he'd spare your puny Yaleview Army?”
With that, Eva turned around and strutted off.
When the Salladay family first agreed to cooperate with Wilbur, they were both on an equal footing.
However, since the Salladays needed Yaleview Army to balance out the threat from Asura's Office, they soon found themselves
being led by the nose when Wilbur took over the army.
Because of that, Eva had been feeling frustrated for a long time. She even proposed to Gregory to kill Wilbur so they could
promote someone else to take over the latter's position and do their bidding. Alas, Gregory shot down the idea without a second
thought.
Yaleview was a complicated city with people from all walks of life, and the Eight Great Families had majorly invested in it.
Even though the Salladay family had a part to play in Wilbur's ascension, the more important reason was that the latter had
impressive management skills.
If Wilbur were eradicated to make way for someone new, would the remaining seven respectable families let the Salladays get
their way that easily?
Furthermore, even if they succeeded in letting one of their own become the new commander, he'd still risk getting killed off by the
other seven families if his cultivation level wasn't as powerful as Wilbur's.
Needless to say, losing support from the Yaleview Army would spell doom for the Salladay family.
Eva had been troubled by that situation for a while, but now, she believed she had found a perfect plan.
Thanks to the spirit stone fragments, she was sure she could help the Salladays regain the upper hand over Wilbur!