The Glorious Evolution

Some time later...

The east court of the Targon estate was built for one purpose... to serve as a teleportation anchor.

Simon materialized in a bloom of spatial pressure, and the four attendants were already bent at the waist before the light finished fading around his boots.

Simon had the anchor moved twice just to get this angle right... so that any man stepping out of the light would emerge with the entire House rising behind him, all forty spires of black stone towering against the colorful void.

"Young Master."

"Is he in?"

"The Patriarch is at the table, Young Master. He asked for you."

Simon straightened his cuffs and walked toward the eastern gate of the mansion... Above it, a small ghostly spider sat at the center of a web.

The moment Simon reached the gate, the spider dropped down and slipped inside his soul, scanning every inch and corner at an unprecedented speed.

A few moments later, the spider emerged from his hair and climbed back onto its web... no reaction.

Only then did Simon enter the mansion... He knew that his father didn’t play around when it came to privacy.

This small, harmless-looking spider had cost him a fortune, as it was capable of reading blood, metal, the shape of one’s soul, spiritual aura, and dozens of other things his father paid to ensure they were protected against espionage.

This was a must-have Ward Array for anyone daring to play dirty inside the Boundless Expanse.

Although it wasn’t as foolproof as those sold by the Administration, which covered an entire territory, Silas couldn’t afford to spend millions of credits every year on an anti-espionage protection subscription.

For a Barony... this was enough to protect them, as not even Tier 8 spyware could pass through it undetected.

Soon, Simon arrived at the table and found his father and the rest of the family already awaiting his arrival.

He took the empty seat on his father’s right... a seat reserved for the Heir.

"So?"

"He accepted the offer, but he told me he needed to check with his superiors first," Simon updated calmly.

"In other words, no contract signed?" His little brother scoffed.

"I can’t twist his arm." Simon gave him an indifferent glance. "If I pushed too hard, he might reject it outright, and then we’ll have to deal with an unknown variable during the endgame. At least now we know he’s open to being bought out."

"You did well."

Silas supported him, as he also understood that such a decision likely wasn’t Mr. Problem’s alone to make, but belonged to the people supporting him... He was quite certain that a serious background backed the man, as no one was foolish enough to make such a move against House Targon alone when it was common knowledge among the nobility who supported them from the shadows.

Hearing their father’s approval, the second brother closed his mouth... He was waiting patiently for his older brother to drop the ball and increase his own chances of becoming the Heir, but it didn’t seem like that would happen anytime soon.

"Now that the vermin has been dealt with temporarily, let’s move on to our next agenda." Silas interlocked his fingers above the table. "We have six weeks... I want an update on everything we’ve done against House Zen and how you’ve dealt with the paper trail. I’m certain Brahmin will still file the suit even if he knows he has no chance of winning it... But still, we can’t give him any leads. Not even a loose thread."

The family members nodded with solemn expressions.

"Marek."

Marek Fenn, the House Steward and one of Silas’s most trusted subordinates, straightened slightly.

"The House ledger has been clean for nine days... Every relevant entry from the previous years now sits in the -Rhode- accounts, under a shell registered to a merchant collective in the Desolate Void that doesn’t legally exist." He folded his hands. "Two hundred and eleven entries. Thirty-eight years... All of it belongs to a company nobody can serve."

"Good. What about Sarn?"

"Invoices go through Ilena’s import house, then through a haulage firm in the Sixth Sky Province... Three steps. Nothing on paper connects a Targon to a reinforcement core." Marek paused. "And Sarn is old, frightened, and paid handsomely. If the Court ever calls him, he’ll perjure himself out of self-interest, not loyalty... which is far more reliable."

"Good work... Ilena." Silas gazed toward Ilena Targon... his blood sister and the one responsible for the family’s network business and social presence.

"Four decades of network work, nine hundred thousand credits, all of it through the Black Slime Syndicate Board... Two thousand commissioned posts, sixty-one paid reviewers, and eleven forum moderators on retainer who bury Zen’s rebuttals within the hour." She showed a thin, cruel smile. "The Board doesn’t keep client identities... We’re untouchable on this front."

"Good... Cassian." Silas nodded and turned toward his daughter.

"All three contractors were terminated and pushed out to the Border Provinces... Father. The weapons were destroyed after the fact, and the bodies of House Zen’s Rifters were left near national Boundless parks, where wild beasts could reach them." Cassian hesitated, but then continued, "Eleven of the nineteen assassinated heirs are logged as expedition deaths by the Administration itself."

"Not good enough... Nineteen." Silas repeated sternly, refusing to leave even a single possibility of any of this coming back to bite him.

"Nineteen."

Cassian assured him, even though she knew it wouldn’t be easy... But this was what made her father so highly regarded in the eyes of their patrons.

He was meticulous to perfection.

Alas... he might have been meticulous, but the same couldn’t be said for his son.

In the neighboring territory, while the Targons discussed House Zen’s demise with such comfort, Levi sat on a cushion inside the Samsara Temple... his expression a mixture of slight anger and relief.

He was relieved because the planted Wire parasite was doing its job, feeding him everything being said at the table without getting detected.

And angry because he hadn’t expected Silas to have ordered hits on nineteen Zen children across four decades.

’Nineteen children...’ the Titan sighed. ’Every one of them raised to become the noble who would save their House.’

Levi remained silent and continued recording everything on a dimensional screen... They might not be humans, but they were still children, and children belonging to a race that had never actively harmed anyone.

How could Levi not feel for them?

And yet... the report had only just begun.

The more Levi listened, the wider his sinister smile became.

’Two weeks of painstaking effort and a million credits gone... yet, it’s worth every penny.’

Levi could never forget the crap he went through to create this parasite... It was the tiniest creation in his possession, and yet it had demanded the most time, effort, and every percentage of his Nine Senses Seed Resonance Access.

A whole 25% for a single parasite!

***

Fourteen Boundless Days Earlier... The Deserted Kingdom. (Jasmine’s territory)

Levi sat cross-legged on the blue grass, tens of kilometers away from the camp... He was practicing the Harmony Breathing Technique to enter a Resonance State with the Nine Senses Ancestral Tree.

In through the nose, five. Hold for three... and out through the mouth, seven.

He repeated this breathing technique over and over again until the Crimson Ancestral Tree manifested before him in all of its glory.

’How are you doing on this fine evening?’ Levi greeted the tree with a gentle smile.

The Crimson Tree waved its branches slightly and sent a breeze carrying a river of leaves in Levi’s direction... The beautiful crimson leaves circled Levi like a string of fate, making him chuckle softly in amusement.

He could feel that the Nine Senses Tree was in a good mood and wanted to share it with him.

After giving the Crimson Tree a few minutes of his time to chit-chat, even though it couldn’t speak, he finally focused on the main task at hand.

’I have 25% Resonance Access... twenty-five major components, and I’m still struggling...’ Levi tapped a finger against his chin thoughtfully. ’What to do?’

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