From Secret Clan to the Divine Dynasty

Byrne's gaze was icier than it had ever been as he stared at the mad old man in the white fog.

He slowly stepped back, maintaining a distance that was conducive to both attack and defense.

The man with streaks of gray in his hair was extremely vigilant, constantly on guard, observing his surroundings with almost no blind spots.

Viscount Bast's power of Bloodline was the "Bronze Lion," which was far superior to his own in close combat, so he must keep a sufficient distance.

The deputy leader of the Stars Embrace Order also kept his distance, his voice betraying confusion.

"Eh? Infighting?"

The three of them stood in a triangular formation in the dense white fog that severely limited visibility.

Any rash move by either party would lead to a significant shift in the situation.

Viscount Bast laughed heartily and said slowly with a cold face, looking in Byrne's direction, "You betrayed me, Byrne, I knew long ago that you would betray me!"

His facial muscles twisted in rage as he bellowed, "You damned fool, to think I trusted you for so long! Byrne! Are you not a man of loyalty and honor? How dare you stab me in the back?"

Byrne's Body Double still stood not far from Viscount Bast, who paid it no heed, having long known that it posed no significant threat.

Moreover, since it was within his line of sight, it actually made him feel more at ease.

The Body Double, identical to Byrne, spoke calmly, its cold eyes betraying the gravity of the revelation it was about to make.

"The one who opened the barrier and helped the Meyer family invade Nasir Town was you!"

The moment the Body Double uttered these words, the madness in Viscount Bast's eyes disappeared entirely, and his expression became extremely solemn.

"Ah, you really are too foolish, Byrne, to think like that... I've said it was Zavier who stole the Spell, who helped the Meyer family. Didn't you find his diary too?"

Viscount Bast paused briefly, then smiled and continued in a softer tone, "Byrne, could it be that Black Hawk Zavier left something that misled you?"

He slowly extended his hand towards Byrne's actual location, musing aloud, "It's alright, I can forgive your stupidity, Byrne. Come and help me."

However, Byrne did not move closer, instead, he continued speaking.

"That diary left by Black Hawk Zavier, it was also pre-forged by you, wasn't it, Bast? To mislead me, you deliberately assigned me the task of searching for Zavier's so-called fallback plan."

"If you had told me outright that everything was Zavier's doing, I would certainly have become suspicious. But discovering the diary on my own is entirely different because everyone tends to believe the 'truth' they find for themselves."

Viscount Bast's eyes gradually turned colder.

In fact, Byrne had nearly been deceived, truly thinking the one who had stolen the Spell, briefly opened the big barrier, conspired with the Meyer family, and allowed them to invade Nasir Town was Black Hawk Zavier.

But one day, out of habitual caution, he decided to test whether the letter was a forgery, so he analyzed "Zavier's diary" with the Deconstructive Perspective.

Through the power of the Deconstructive Perspective, Byrne discovered something odd: the ink on the diary was of a type commonly used by the nobility in Fein City, not the specialty ink produced in Phelps Port.

That wasn't necessarily a big deal; maybe Zavier just happened to use that ink.

But just to be safe, he compared the handwriting in the diary and quickly discovered more discrepancies.

Although the handwriting was disguised very well, almost ninety percent similar to Zavier's own, it still wasn't right. Only Byrne, who possessed "Profound Memory," could detect that ten percent difference.

Bast's tone became very icy, devoid of any emotion, like a demon masquerading as a human.

"You really are a dog that won't be tamed, Byrne."

Byrne took a deep breath and slowly shook his head, "I've always been hesitant, until... you sent someone to infiltrate the Fischer family."

Viscount Bast gave a sinister smile and said:

"Exactly, that was Renzo's idea. Can't I be vigilant against you heretics?"

Byrne remained silent without answering immediately; indeed, he had not been mistaken. Although that man didn't know everything, he had pieced together clues and guessed the Fischer family's most significant and closely guarded secret.

So he could not let him go!

"Heretic, it's really unexpected, your Fischer family seems like the foolish offspring of false gods, yet you actually worship some deceitful being..."

Elsewhere, the deputy leader of the Stars Embrace Order murmured to himself, not expecting the Fischer family to actually worship some deceitful being.

However, he was well aware that anyone who didn't worship the Chaos Constellation was undoubtedly just an ignorant fool yet to understand the true nature of the world.

There was an icy resolve in Bast's eyes. Renzo had once said that no matter how good his relationship with Byrne might be, their offspring might not feel the same way.

So he followed Renzo's advice and used the method he had always used most frequently: sending trained subordinates disguised as orphans, merchants, and servants to infiltrate the Fischer family from within.

Soon, Viscount Bast began to notice some strange clues, which were substantial enough to be used as leverage to destroy them.

He was smart and had long noticed that something was very wrong with the Fischer family—for instance, the destiny's trajectory of every single person in the family seemed to change.

Combining this with past events, Viscount Bast gradually formulated a guess in the depths of his heart that was ever nearer to the truth. Continue reading at m|v-l'e m,p| y- r

Then, the subordinates he sent out began to die one after another.

For a time Viscount Bast suspected whether Byrne had discovered he was testing them and whether Byrne had decided it was time to turn against him.

So not long ago, he self-directed and acted out a play, pretending to suffer from a demon's backlash, in excruciating pain, and completely unguarded.

In reality, as long as Viscount Bast's demons were fed the corpses of extraordinary exponents in time, they would never riot or backlash.

At that time, he deliberately pretended to be weak and put on a show, but Byrne was always wholeheartedly assisting him, without any intention of harming him, which made Bast feel relieved once again.

Add to that the fact that Byrne later took the initiative to reveal the forged journal of Zavier and completely believed in his own inducement, so he trusted the man once more.

"Who would have thought, Byrne, you've become smarter and better at disguising yourself since before!"

He burst into laughter and continued to say:

"Renzo was right, loyalty isn't eternal, even if you can be loyal to me for the time being, your descendants, your family, may not necessarily be loyal to the Lion clan!"

"And you yourself are a betrayer! Byrne, you actually colluded with the people from the Stars Embrace Order, huh huh, so for the sake of killing me, you don't care about Zayne's life either, do you?"

Byrne remained silent and did not respond.

The person who brought the followers of the Stars Embrace Order was not him.

Taking a deep breath again, since he found out that Zavier's journal was a forged item, he actually felt enormous unease and confusion.

In fact, combining the fact that the journal was led to by Viscount Bast for Byrne to find, Byrne had already sensed that the person colluding with the Meyer family might be that old man.

But he didn't want to believe it, so he asked Chris to carefully investigate the whole truth.

The investigation wasn't very difficult because the scope was very small; the only people who had initially mastered the kingdom-protecting barrier spell were Earl Hovern and Viscount Bast.

Now, Earl Hovern was dead, and the last direction of the investigation was only…

As a result, Chris brought back the truth.

Indeed, decades ago, a caravan from the Meyer family had secretly arrived in Fein City and Viscount Bast had been missing for a full month afterward, with no clue as to where he had gone.

Now in hindsight, he very likely went to Rhea and subsequently made some sort of deal with the Meyer family.

It became apparent, therefore, that later on, Viscount Bast kept his oath and helped Meyer invade Nasir Town.

"I've been in great pain recently because your collusion with the Meyer family indeed indirectly led to my father's death, but afterward, the Fischer family indeed rose to power with your help."

In Byrne's eyes were the most sincere emotions—complex, conflicted, and not easily clarified.

"Debts of gratitude and hatred, I can't discard either end... but your recent actions have finally made up my mind, Bast Leone, since you've touched the core secret of the Fischer family, I can no longer hesitate!"

Bast's expression was calm, but within that calm seemed to be an anger like raging waves, startling many.

"Whether it's you, or gold, or certain others, you've all betrayed me one after another."

"Yet I'm not afraid of betrayal, because from the beginning to the end, I've always been alone."

He swung his giant sword, his words filled with the most terrifying malice; his tone was very calm, but it still made Byrne sweat on his forehead.

"Rest assured, Byrne, once you're dead, I'll smoothly reach the Monarch Level, and I myself will end all the grievances between us."

The silently hiding follower of the Stars Embrace Order suddenly transformed into black smoke to approach and launch a surprise attack at an astonishing speed, while the originally berserk Viscount Bast instantly became utterly calm.

He was prepared and violently swung his blade, the next moment unleashing a terrifying Sword Qi, astonishingly powerful and precisely cutting the black smoke in two.

"Ah!"

The follower of the Stars Embrace Order screamed in terror, half of their body falling to the ground, struggling for a moment before dying completely.

In just an instant, Bast had easily killed a top-tier Transmutated enemy!

Byrne watched the scene quietly, his expression icy, maintaining the highest level of vigilance.

The old lion suddenly turned his head and looked coldly at Byrne, who was summoning a large number of fire birds. His gaze was sharp, crazed, and ruthless, as if to say, the next one would be you!