LIGHT NOVEL Chapter 217 - Father and Son
“Everyone had discussed whether the dark market had done something to anger Prince Arthur, prompting him to take drastic action against it, but it turns out he did it to avenge Mai Dongzi,” Wu Yiding suddenly realized.
“By doing this, he did manage to clean up some of the chaos in the dark market, but he also touched the interests of certain people, which is why he got impeached,” Wu Youqi said.
Over the past half month, a third of the members of the National Congress had submitted petitions to King Guga, impeaching Prince Arthur for abuse of power and trying to take military authority away from him.
“Prince Arthur’s actions can be seen as cleaning up the chaos in the dark market, a win-win situation. However, during the process, a few people were sacrificed, and the current queen’s people seized the opportunity to impeach him,” Wu Yiding said, sneering.
“It doesn’t matter if she pushes for more impeachments. She can’t influence King Guga. Her two sons are no match for Prince Arthur. She’s just too stubborn, constantly making a fuss,” Wu Youqi said dismissively.
The second prince, Adi, had always shown a different kind of affability compared to Prince Arthur, and had indeed managed to win over a number of nobles.
But what use is it? The two brothers are four years apart. Prince Arthur is already an eighth-level martial artist and a third-level Earth-type ability user.
On the other hand, Prince Adi is only a fifth-level martial artist.
Not to mention that Prince Adi’s cultivation potential is nowhere near that of Prince Arthur’s; even if their potential were the same, with Prince Adi’s cultivation attitude, it would be good enough if he reached level seven in four years.
In the past, a prince whose cultivation wasn’t high enough could still rise to power as long as he managed to recruit higher-level cultivators to assist him.
However, now their entire country is likely facing a catastrophe, and no one knows what will happen. Everyone has a vague sense that, when the catastrophe arrives, the higher a person’s cultivation, the more likely they are to survive.
“Prince Adi is no match for Prince Arthur. The people around Prince Adi are only there for their own interests,” Wu Yiding said.
In fact, more people were gathered around Prince Arthur. He was extremely capable, had power, and anyone with real ability who followed him would have a good future.
But Prince Adi was different. He had little power and couldn’t offer much opportunity to those around him, so people with real ability wouldn’t follow him.
“Father, I heard someone say that Prince Arthur’s cultivation potential wasn’t as good as it is now. They said that six years ago, he was attacked. At that time, Prince Arthur wasn’t seriously injured, but when he took a healing potion, it was swapped with a cultivation potential-enhancing potion. He almost didn’t survive the danger period, and after he woke up, he was in a coma for several days. His cultivation potential then went from 3A to 2S. Is that true?” Wu Yiding asked, still not willing to let go of the rumor.
Every time he had asked this question before, his father had firmly denied it. Back then, he was young, so when his father said it wasn’t true, he believed him.
But so many people were talking about it, and Prince Arthur’s cultivation also seemed to confirm the rumor.
A person with less than double-S cultivation potential wouldn’t be able to reach the eighth level at only twenty-seven years old.
Most cultivators with 3A potential couldn’t even reach level eight in their entire lives.
“Apparently, that’s what happened,” Wu Youqi finally gave a different answer.
Wu Yiding’s eyes widened in surprise, and he looked at his father in confusion, asking, “Why did you always say no before when I asked you?”
“If I had said yes, I guarantee you would have gone and secretly taken the cultivation potential-enhancing potion,” Wu Youqi said, looking at his troublesome younger son.
Now that his son had already surpassed the age when he could take such potions, Wu Youqi felt free to admit it.
Wu Yiding: ‘So frustrating!’
The father and son of the Wu family were gossiping without any concern until they saw through the surveillance video that Wu Bo had brought Mai Dongzi to the captain’s office. Only then did they compose themselves and sit there seriously.
When Mai Dongzi entered the captain’s office, she saw the father and son sitting upright with serious expressions on their faces.
Before this, Mai Dongzi had never met Wu Youqi, and with her level of clearance, she couldn’t access his photo on the star network.
So when she saw Wu Youqi under the guidance of Wu Bo, her eyes flickered slightly.
“Miss Xi, please sit down. We asked you and your cousin to come over just to ask a few questions. There’s no need to be nervous,” Wu Youqi said, indicating the chair across from him.
Although his attitude was a bit formal, there was a hint of kindness in his gaze.
The young man beside Wu Youqi was eyeing her strangely. He looked somewhat like Wu Youqi, and Mai Dongzi guessed that he was probably not Wu Youqi’s son but might be his nephew or a relative.
When Mai Dongzi noticed Wu Bo’s good attitude toward her, she became less worried about meeting Wu Youqi.
From Wu Bo’s attitude, she could infer Wu Youqi’s attitude. No matter what Wu Youqi thought right now, his attitude toward her shouldn’t be too bad.
If it’s not bad, there will be more room for negotiation.
After Mai Dongzi sat down, Wu Youqi asked her about the conflict with the mercenaries.
Mai Dongzi briefly explained the modified version of the process, omitting details about her use of spiritual power and the parasitic beasts, and framed the mercenaries’ motives as possibly trying to kidnap the two military academy students, or being motivated by lust.
Wu Youqi pondered for a while after hearing this.
Because he didn’t ask any further questions, Mai Dongzi couldn’t tell from his expression whether he believed her story.
The only thing she was sure of was that Wu Youqi didn’t harbor any ill intentions toward her. However, the young man beside him, after hearing her account, seemed to be filled with anger.
“After discovering the conflict between you and this mercenary group, I looked into their background. They are members of the Dark Gold Mercenary Group,” Wu Youqi said.
Mai Dongzi’s gaze momentarily blanked out, as she didn’t know the Dark Gold Mercenary Group. But from Wu Youqi’s words, it was clear that the Dark Gold Mercenary Group was not ordinary.
“The Dark Gold Mercenary Group’s backers are the Du family, and the current leader is the younger brother of Empress Du.”
Wu Yiding, seeing the expression on the young woman’s face and considering her background, guessed that she might not know the implications of this and kindly decided to provide some information.
Mai Dongzi immediately understood.
The current Empress was indeed from the Du family, but at the time she became Empress, she was still from the direct line of the Du family.
Since Empress Du’s father passed away, her brother, although capable, was not as highly valued by the Du family as Prince Arthur. As a result, Empress Du didn’t receive much support from her family.
Meanwhile, the Wu family supports Prince Arthur. After the Great Purge of the apocalypse, a direct descendant of the Wu family joined Prince Arthur’s team.
Mai Dongzi glanced at the young man, who was around the same age as Prince Arthur and had late-stage sixth-level cultivation. It was very likely that this young man was the one who was the male counterpart in the team.