Chapter 514

Chapter 386 – Preparation

Complete silence… waiting for the storm to subside.

This was the final instruction that Gregor, still bearing the identity of “Adeline,” received from the Eight Pinnacle Nest two days after the Duke’s assassination. In this order, the Eight Pinnacle Nest instructed Gregor to terminate all active espionage activities and switch to passive silence to withstand the intense search by the Prit Kingdom government.

The Duke’s assassination shook the upper echelons of the Prit Kingdom, including the King. Soon after the incident, they joined forces with the Church to launch a stringent search targeting all members of the Eight Pinnacle Nest in Tivyan.

Originally, the Eight Pinnacle Nest was one of the numerous evil secret societies the Anonymity Headquarters had to deal with within the capital. Their main crimes included… illegal associations spreading secret knowledge… worship of dark deities… human trafficking for making slaves… intelligence theft and sale against the Anonymity Bureau, among others…

These charges led the Anonymity Headquarters to list the Eight Pinnacle Nest as a high-threat target, alongside several other societies. However, after the wave of the Duke’s assassination, the threat level of the Eight Pinnacle Nest not only escalated infinitely but their information also appeared at an important imperial court meeting attended by the King and the Archbishop.

At this imperial court meeting, the entire upper echelon of the Prit Kingdom unanimously agreed that the Eight Pinnacle Nest was the most severe threat currently facing the kingdom and must be severely cracked down upon with combined forces. Thus, the enemies of the Eight Pinnacle Nest rose from just the Anonymity Headquarters to the entire Prit Kingdom, with the Church fully supporting on the side.

Starting from the third day after the assassination of Duke Barret, a massive force led by the Prit Anonymity Headquarters, comprising the Prit Army, the Prit Royal Navy, the Prit Royal Guard, the Church’s Holy War Knights, and many other forces, began a thorough sweep of the entire secret world in Tivyan, aiming to completely eliminate the influence of the Eight Pinnacle Nest from Tivyan.

With the full cooperation of numerous “Lamp” Extraordinary Beings from the Church, countless joint search teams swept through Tivyan. Within a week, over eighty major and minor secret societies’ bases across Tivyan were eradicated. Among them, only six or seven could be confirmed as belonging to the Eight Pinnacle Nest, while the rest belonged to other societies.

In this extremely strict search, almost every secret society in Tivyan was affected. With a large number of society members arrested and numerous bases destroyed, all secret organizations in Tivyan had to temporarily halt their activities, leaving everyone in a state of fear.

The actions of the Eight Pinnacle Nest deeply impacted the entire secret world in Tivyan. Even the Wolf bl**d Association warned Vania in a letter to proceed cautiously in recent times. Their already weakened power in Tivyan suffered another blow during this massive crackdown, losing several bases. Dorothy, while visiting neighbors, also heard some automaton complain that the activities of the Kingdom government and the Church had significantly reduced secret activities in Tivyan, causing a significant drop in business.

Due to the large-scale official searches, many non-heretical societies were also affected. Some law-abiding Extraordinary Beings and researchers were unjustly imprisoned, leading to overcrowding in the Anonymity Bureau’s prison. Gregor worked overtime daily in various arrest operations. On the other hand, Adele’s Scarlet Heart, due to its church background, did not suffer much impact and even gained strength by accepting some Extraordinary Beings seeking protection amidst the chaos.

In summary, because of the Eight Pinnacle Nest, the entire secret world in Tivyan was thoroughly disrupted. The secret of the Eight Pinnacle Nest’s attempt to assassinate the Prit Duke spread rapidly within the secret world. Many societies affected by this search developed resentment towards the Eight Pinnacle Nest. Despite this, the Eight Pinnacle Nest had anticipated these outcomes and had already initiated evacuation plans. Most of their main forces in Tivyan withdrew before the major crackdown began, minimizing the importance of the bases lost during the search.

For over a week, Dorothy, wearing thick pajamas, sat by the fireplace at her villa in Green Shade Town, analyzing the intelligence she had gathered through multiple channels such as Adele, Misha, Gregor, Vania, Beverly, and others. Upon learning about the turmoil caused by the assassination, Dorothy couldn’t help but reflect that her decision seemed to have caused such significant ripples in this world for the first time.

‘It is clear that the Eight Pinnacle Nest had anticipated the government’s reaction after the assassination of Barret, which is why they designed to frame the indigenous people of the New World. However, due to my covert planning, the indigenous people abandoned their original revenge plans, leading to the Eight Pinnacle Nest’s success in the assassination but also exposing themselves.

‘Imagine if the Eight Pinnacle Nest’s plan had succeeded entirely. Today, instead of the current large-scale search in Tivyan, there would be a Prit recruitment campaign in the New World, where Prit’s expeditionary forces would ignite conflicts with numerous indigenous tribes.

‘Now, with the framing plan by the indigenous people failing, the Eight Pinnacle Nest has no choice but to strategically withdraw under Prit’s wrath, possibly even withdrawing from Tivyan.

‘This will undoubtedly have a significant impact on their long-term plans. However, judging by their insistence on carrying out the assassination despite knowing the indigenous people were problematic, in their eyes, as long as Duke Barret’s research does not progress and their core secrets remain undisclosed, they can tolerate this suppression. Perhaps they believe that as long as the core secret remains undisclosed, they still have a chance to turn things around.

‘No matter what the core secret of the Eight Pinnacle Nest is, given the current situation, they will certainly need to lay low for some time. For the time being, the secret world in Tivyan will see no more waves stirred up by the Eight Pinnacle Nest.’

In the villa in Green Shade Town, Dorothy, dressed in thick pajamas, sat by the fireplace, analyzing the intelligence she had gathered over the past week and pondering her thoughts.

As she pondered, she raised her hand and looked at it seriously, contemplating further.

‘The Eight Pinnacle Nest poses no immediate threat to Prit… But to me, that potential threat cannot be ignored.’

“I never expected that the Spider Fang Priest’s derivative body would actually hold back…”

Looking at her hand, Dorothy muttered to herself. At this moment, she could sense an extremely faint spiritual thread connected to her, extending to a distant and vague place.

Dorothy currently had a spiritual thread connected to her, but she wasn’t controlling any puppets or living automatons.

This spiritual thread was linked to one of Dorothy’s discarded bird-shaped zombie puppets. This was the bird puppet she sent to investigate Barret’s manor on New Year’s Eve!

On that night, when this bird puppet returned with the “Shadow” Holy Emblem, it was discovered by the pursuing Spider Fang Priest and captured, leading Dorothy to feel that the bird puppet’s spiritual thread was severed, believing it had been completely destroyed. Therefore, she didn’t pay any attention afterward.

However, the reality was not as Dorothy thought. More than a week after New Year’s Eve, early in the morning, Dorothy sensed a faint spiritual thread connecting to her. After verifying, she was shocked to find that the spiritual thread was connected to the bird puppet she had assumed was damaged!

This discovery immediately stunned Dorothy. She then immediately checked the state of the spiritual thread, finding it very unusual.

The connected spiritual thread was extremely weak, so weak that Dorothy could barely detect it without careful observation. Moreover, its state fluctuated unpredictably, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, so weak that she could hardly feel it.