欧美亚洲日产综合新一区

Inside the luxurious lounge, stocked with drinks and food, the bartender prepared drinks, and the chef cooked for their guests. This Atlantean carryall had been modified, stripped of military equipment except for a portable teleportation gate, communication, detection and the system for optimum flight. Daniel had added rooms and amenities for entertaining guests.

"You certainly know how to enjoy life," remarked the Kim patriarch, sipping his tea as his granddaughter enjoyed pancakes.

"What\'s the point of life if we don\'t enjoy it?" Daniel replied. "Patriarch Kim, the rumors might give you the wrong idea, but I\'d rather live and enjoy my life with my family than sit on a high throne as the chairman of a mage\'s organization."

"Then why did you build that organization?" the patriarch inquired. "That Order of Ember of yours?"

Daniel chuckled. "Envy convinced me," he explained. "She said we needed an organization to govern the Curtained World, outside of Hightower\'s influence. Things could get chaotic with mage families vying for power left behind by the Hightower. And there\'s the issue of rogue mages. Someone had to step up."

"True..." The patriarch sipped his tea again before setting down the cup. "Why have you brought me and Yuna here, though? Is there something at our estate? Are you waiting for something? It\'s been hours."

"Patriarch Kim," Daniel said with an air of mystery, "I want you to see something. Let\'s just wait a little longer."

A few minutes passed, with Patriarch Kim and Daniel chatting occasionally, and Kim Yuna chiming in now and then. Suddenly, an announcement blared from the command room into the lounge.

"Mr. Emberweave, we\'ve detected a strange anomaly at the Kim Family Estate. We\'ve sent drones for scouting and the ground team is ready," the voice announced.

"Oh, it\'s begun," Daniel said. "Patriarch Kim, please follow me." He led the confused patriarch and Kim Yuna to the control room.

Entering the command room with the two Kims, Daniel saw Cao Cao and Gua Jia sitting at the commander\'s station.

"How are things going, Mr. Cao?" Daniel asked.

Cao Cao nodded at Daniel and displayed the situation below on the main screen. It showed the Kim family estate under attack, with assailants wreaking havoc.

"What is this!?" roared Patriarch Kim, drawing his sword. But he was stopped by the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun pointed at his head.

"Freeze, human, before I blow your brains out," said a cold voice from a large, 1.9-meter tall man wearing sunglasses and a black jacket. His face was expressionless.

"It\'s alright, Will," Daniel reassured the man. "This is just a misunderstanding." He turned to Patriarch Kim and Yuna. "Please look at the screen carefully. What do the assailants resemble?" Daniel gestured toward the screen.

Will, the expressionless bodyguard, lowered his gun. Patriarch Kim slowly calmed down, sheathing his sword and studying the screen closely.

On the screen, assailants attacked the Kim family warriors defending their home. The patriarch noticed that many of the assailants looked familiar.

"Grandfather... isn\'t that... our ancestor? The Blade Demon of Seojeon?" Kim Yuna pointed at one of the figures attacking a group of warriors protecting the residential area of the estate.

The screen displayed the drone\'s video footage. Although the Kim family warriors weren\'t as powerful as the reanimated undead swordsmen, they were resilient. After three minutes, no one had died in the attack.

Suddenly, on one of the screens, a warrior was about to be struck down. But just before the blade connected, it was abruptly redirected, missing its target by a wide margin, as if something had pushed it aside.

"What... What happened? Why was that... thing\'s blade redirected?" Patriarch Kim asked. He didn\'t want to call the corrupted body of his ancestor name, and called things instead.

Daniel smiled. "Since I set this up to catch someone red-handed, I naturally took measures to ensure the safety of the Kim family," he explained.

He, Cao Cao, and Gua Jia had prepared Billy the Kid, the infamous outlaw and mage who shook the Wild West. Billy had been stubborn and reluctant to accept Daniel\'s deal, but after being handed over to Albert, he became as docile as a house pet.

Daniel didn\'t know what Albert had done to Billy, and he didn\'t want to know. But right now, Billy who was standing on the highest watch tower of eh Kim estate using his special magic, "the magic bullet," to shoot at any blade that threatened a fatal blow, disrupting its path and redirecting it. His shots never missed, protecting the lives of the Kim family warriors.

On another screen, a drone captured a video of Kim Tae-sung. Initially struggling against an undead swordsman\'s strength, he switched to using his skills, demonstrating the Kim family\'s secret sword arts and achieving a state of extreme concentration. The patriarch nodded in satisfaction at Tae-sung\'s growth.

Then, as Tae-sung walked toward his older brother, intending to guide him to safety, Kim Chang-wook suddenly pulled out a necromancer\'s dagger, poised to stab Tae-sung. Tae-sung seemed oblivious to the threat.

"Tae-Sung!" the patriarch shouted in alarm, hoping to warn his son of the impending sneak attack.

At the last moment, before Tae-sung was stabbed, a strong hand materialized out of thin air and stopped the dagger, pinning it between two fingers.

The hand belonged to Guan Yu who just came out of the cloaking field, clad in an armored black trench coat and military green tank top. He was dressed like a biker, but his bulging muscles, iconic beard, and large guandao in his right hand left no doubt as to his identity.

Seeing his son safe, Patriarch Kim let out a sigh of relief. But as he calmed down and took in the appearance of the warrior who had saved Tae-sung, he was stunned.

"Isn\'t that Guan Yu!?" he uttered in disbelief. Despite the shades, leather trench coat, and biker attire, he was certain this was the legendary warrior from the Three Kingdoms era.

On screen, Guan Yu immediately slashed his guandao at Kim Chang-wook, who nimbly dodged the attack. Patriarch Kim was shocked. He knew his son Chang-wook was physically weak and focused on business. How could he so easily evade Guan Yu\'s guandao?

It wasn\'t that he wanted his eldest son dead, but he couldn\'t believe Chang-wook had hidden this from him! After all, the only reason the patriarch hadn\'t named Chang-wook his heir was due to his weakness in swordsmanship and his frail physique.

If he had known Chang-wook was this formidable, he would have made him the heir long ago!

"What... What is the meaning of this? Mr. Emberweave, can you explain?" Patriarch Kim asked. He had a suspicion, but it was one he didn\'t want to accept.

"As you can see, Patriarch Kim," Daniel began, turning towards him, "I had a hunch he wasn\'t what he seemed. So I investigated and found he\'s associated with the Lucifer cult in Greece, the one aiming to bring Lucifer into the mortal world."

"Why did you suspect him?" the patriarch inquired.

Daniel smiled, then explained his initial suspicion upon meeting Chang-wook. Chang-wook had recognized Envy, even though Yuna hadn\'t, and the patriarch himself hadn\'t mentioned Envy\'s features to Chang-wook.

He had Albert investigate further, confirming that Chang-wook couldn\'t have seen Envy\'s appearance anywhere else, neither within the Kim estate nor among his acquaintances, who consisted of business owners and influential businessmen, none of whom were mages.

Daniel had gathered enough evidence to suggest Chang-wook might be connected to the assassination attempt on him. Chang-wook knew Daniel would do anything to hunt down the assassins, and had used that to his advantage.

Daniel continued, "It seemed Chang-wook had planned this for some time, initially intending to simply kill his brothers. But for some reason, he changed his plan and added the part where he wanted to frame me."

"Frame you!? How? And why?" Patriarch Kim inquired.

"Do you remember the sword from the man in the demon mask that I gave you?" Daniel asked, and the patriarch nodded. "It seems someone used that sword as a medium to reanimate your deceased clansmen and create chaos," Daniel explained.

Upon hearing this, the patriarch immediately realized that if this plan had succeeded, with his clan devastated and his sons dead, he would have blamed Daniel and seen him as an enemy. He was certain he would have reacted that way.

"As for why... I wanted to ask him myself. But I have a guess... Who would gain the most if our friendship turned into enmity?" Daniel left the puzzle for the patriarch to solve.

"That\'s impossible! Chang-wook would never! He might be greedy, but he\'s not a traitor to his homeland!" Patriarch Kim roared, refusing to accept the notion.

Indeed, Patriarch Kim knew that the one who would gain the most from their enmity was undoubtedly the Qing Dynasty, their enemy. That\'s why he didn\'t want to believe it.

"That... remains to be seen," Daniel said, his eyes fixed on the screen.