Under the Veil of Night

Somewhere Far Away

"The plan fails, he's dead," the receiver suddenly sounded out. Besides the small device, a man was sitting calmly. From the message, he knew that his plan to eliminate Kevin had failed. However, he stayed calm as he had already expected that Kevin might be able to get out alive.

"How's is his condition?"

"Clan Head is wounded hard, but he's summoning all of us to the hall. What do you think he will do?"

The young man narrowed his eyes. The cold glint behind his dark iris caused the people around him to tense up. Although they have been following after this man for quite some time, they were still afraid of his change of mood. Whenever his eyes showed cold glints like that, someone was bound to die.

"Destroy the device, Neo can trace back to us if you don't," the young man answered. "Also, if you try to report about our movement, your entire family will follow your steps."

"Sir?" the man on the other side sounded rather terrified. From that ruthless tone, he could already guess what Kevin was planning to do. This caused fear to seep out from the bottom of his heart. His life would last only for several more minutes.

The young man snorted and cut off the line. He leaned back on his chair. As he still stayed far away from the clan, there was no need for him to come to the gathering. This allowed him to stay calm.

"Sir, please calm down. Even if Clan Head knows you're behind all of this, he won't be able to touch you."

The young man snorted. "During the time he's disabled, find a way to take over those hidden clans' head. I want more than 50% to choose to not pick Kevin as the clan head."

"Yes."

As his gaze followed after his right hand, the cold glint became more apparent. "In the meantime, find me some plaything. I'm bored."

The man stopped on his track and turned around. He bowed down formally. "I understand. I'll prepare them right away."

…

Ryukalin Clan's Headquarters

From the moment the transmission cut off, the man knew that his movement was no longer invisible. At this moment, Kevin gathered the men precisely because he wanted to eliminate them.

Gripping the device on his hand harder, he trembled slightly. 'No, there must be another way. I don't want to die.'

"Elder, everyone has to gather in the hall," one of the lower rank members informed carefully.

"I know, get out!"

The lower rank member immediately ran out of the room. He didn't understand what made this elder moody like this today. It seemed that the gathering today was of great importance.

The elder was battling inside his mind about his decision. If he rattled on, his family would disappear and he would die. If he didn't, he would die, but his family lived. No matter what choice he made, he would die.

Forcing his feet to move, he made his way to the hall. Seeing the expressionless young man on the seat, he felt like thousand kilos of pressure were pushing him down. The gaze that the young man gave him seemed to be an endless abyss.

"Has everyone gathered here?" Kevin asked calmly.

Neo nodded his head. "Yes. You can start now, Boss."

Because the doctor was still busy tending on his wound, Kevin didn't move from his seat. Even when his hand was feeling searing pain from the medicine, he didn't flinch. The only thing he did was gripping the chair handle a bit harder.

"I remember that a part of you should know about my important journey today," Kevin started. "There are a few of you who can get a hold of the information easily as I don't go covertly."

The elders were looking towards each other with surprise. Those who knew about Kevin's personal matter would be those from high rank. Could it be Kevin wanted to blame someone from high rank right now?

"And then, I suddenly get attacked with the leader being one of the elders."

The moment Kevin said this, the elders kicked up a ruckus in surprise. It was a forbidden thing for clan member to fight with each other, much less plotting to kill someone. More importantly, Kevin was not an ordinary member. He is the unofficial clan head of Ryukalin Clan and also, one of the strongest members in the clan.

"Quiet."

Hearing the calm and solemn tone, the elders immediately closed their mouth. Their eyes were looking towards Kevin with full attention. No one wanted to miss out his words right now.

Kevin swept his glance across the room. "I make a quick investigation using Neo's skill. From them, I found out that there are some secrets dealing happen in the clan during the time I'm away. What do you think I should do about it?"

The elders stayed quiet. Many of them have some secret deals here and there. The sole reason they dared to do it was because Kevin didn't have full authority of the clan yet. In addition, his young age made them thought of him as a rather inexperienced person. This caused them to step up on their own and tried to take advantages of the situation.

Unfortunately, Kevin was not as they expected.

"It's an unforgivable crime to attempt assassination to you, Boss," one of the elders stood up and answered calmly.

The others looked towards the man with fearful glance. This man was the current strongest member of the clan, so his words weighed more than the others. Usually, this man preferred to stay quiet, but today, things were different.

"I agree, they should not be left unpunished, Boss," Lou answered politely. As someone close with Kevin, he would never let anyone hurt him.

"Those who make contact personally with him will be executed along with his family. Those who make contact indirectly will be banished from the clan. Their name won't be written in the records anymore," Kevin said with a solemn tone.

The elders were stunned speechlessly when they heard Kevin's order. It was basically the worst punishment available in the clan. To have their name erased from the records meant that they wouldn't be able to return to the clan anymore in the future.

However, no one dared to say anything to counter Kevin right now. They already knew that trying to anything behind the clan's back was akin to betray the clan. Betrayal was something those who stayed in the clan hated the most because here, they learned how to trust each other as part of the same clan.

"We understand, Boss."

As they answered, they started moving. Those without a clear conscience would be apparent, and Neo immediately read out their name to receive their punishment.

The elder who received the call earlier has his face turned pale from the moment he heard about the punishment. By the time, his name appeared, his heart collapsed as he knew that he wouldn't be able to escape punishment.

Panicking, he stood up abruptly and turned to the door. There should be enough time for him to get out. In front of him, only Mike was guarding the door.

"Get out of the way!"

Mike casted a cold glint. His usual smiling face has long gone, and replacing it was a deadpan cold expression, causing him to appear scary as his built was indeed rather big.

As the elder pounced towards him, he raised up his hand and caught the elder's hand. Switching his feet, he pulled the elder up from the ground and slammed him to the ground, causing the floor to crack from the force.

"Whoever tries to get out, they'll receive the same treatment," Mike said coldly as he glanced to the others.

No one dared to move anymore.