Plans in the Shadow

"Goddam it, that stupid brat really did damage to our finance and reputation. He must be eliminated from this world!"

Inside the Hopkins residence, Forest Hopkins conducted a meeting with all the higher-ups of the family. Ever since the incident at the assessment ceremony, he had been under a lot of pressure from his ancestor to fix everything.

His son, Jonathan Hopkins, was still on bed rest. The emotional damage inflicted by Bruce Stellae on his son was much greater than he had anticipated.

Jonathan lost his motivation when people around him stopped praising him as a prodigy. Instead, all of the spotlights were given to Bruce Stellae. Even the Imperial Academy had sent out the Imperial Guardians to ensure his safety.

"I already put a plan in place to kill that brat. If he's allowed to grow, our family will be finished"

"It's not exaggerated to say that a Diving King with four elemental affinities has a massive advantage in combat over others" Next to Forest was Alizah Hopkins, the mastermind of the Hopkins family.

Forest is the brawn while Alizah is the brain. With Forest's charisma and Alizah's schemes, the Hopkins family was able to rise to prominence.

Though, schemes and charisma were not enough to rise in this world. Thankfully, the ancestor of the Hopkins family is a peak Divine King expert which allowed the Hopkins family to gain influences in Meropis smoothly.

"What plan do you have in mind Alizah? I've just been informed that the old hag Jennifer Blackthorne just arrived at the Stellae castle. Even the ancestor can't take her on."

"Furthermore, the Imperial Guardians, who are all Divine King experts can easily wipe us out before we could do anything."

All schemes and tricks are useless against absolute powers. Forest knew this very well. But he was not stupid enough to think that Alizah didn't consider the situation carefully.

"Obviously we can't take out the brat with just our strengths"

"I've provided all information about the Stellae family's strengths and Imperial Guardian to the Twilight Tower as an anonymous tip."

The Twilight Tower is one of the three controlling organizations in the Dark Forces faction. It was impossible to kill Bruce Stellae without involving the dark forces. Given the tremendous potential of Bruce, the dark forces would love to eliminate him before he gets the chance to grow.

"Alizah, I hope you know that if the Alliance of Kingdoms knows about this, our family will be wiped off the continent" Though Alizah's plan is quite risky for the Hopkins family, Forest had to admit that it was the only way to eliminate that bastard from Stellae family.

Alizah did not reply and looked at everyone around him to gather their reactions. As expected, everyone agreed with his plan.

"Alright, let's leave it at that. Since the dark forces will handle the attack, all we have to do is keep feeding information to the Twilight Tower"

The meeting concluded with Forest feeling more hopeful. After all, it doesn't matter if the Stellae has a four-elemental affinities prodigy, because he'll be dead soon enough. After he dies, Jonathan will be given the spotlight once again.

While plans to assassinate him are being cooked up by various influences, Bruce was having a talk with Lisa about his departure.

"Lisa, I'll be leaving for the imperial academy quite soon. Due to the circumstances, I won't be able to return to visit everyone until I'm strong enough to defend myself"

Lisa was extremely saddened by the news, but she knew he didn't have any other choice.

"Bruce, you have to take care of yourself when you go there. When you return, I'll make you anything that you want to eat."

"Obviously I won't make any trouble when I'm at the academy. You know me right, I'm extremely low-key! Though my handsome face always attracts the attention of the ladies."

Bruce narcissistically replied as he saw Lisa tearing up thinking about his departure.

"Lisa, before I leave, I want to test something with you."

"Test something? What do you mean Bruce?" Lisa wondered what sort of tricks Bruce want to pull on her before leaving.

Bruce took out a box with runes surrounding it. The box looks quite new and expensive. Then, he took out a crystal with a dark core inside.

"This is an elemental crystal embedded with darkness energy. As you can see, when I took out this crystal, the fire near us went out and the air started to be sucked in"

"The main property of the darkness element is to diminish the effects of the other elements, the element is quite overpowered in my opinion.

It is also quite rare for people in this continent to have an affinity with the darkness element, which is why most elemental assessments don't even test for the Darkness element."

Lisa looked at the crystal curiously but couldn't figure out what Bruce wanted to do with it.

"Are you giving me this crystal as a farewell present Bruce?" Lisa thought the crystal looked quite pretty and was good enough to be a farewell present from Bruce.

"You're joking, right? Why would I give you this lame-ass crystal as a present? I requested grandma to bring this crystal to me months ago. I want you to imbue your energy into this crystal for me."

Lisa nodded and sent her energy into the crystal. After the crystal interacted with her energy, it grew stronger, and the air became extremely thin. Bruce quickly used the rune box to contain the crystal.

"Heh as I expected. Lisa, you have an excellent affinity with the darkness element. Congratulations!" After taking the rune box away, he smiled at Lisa.

"What do you mean Bruce? What did I do just now?"

Lisa couldn't believe what Bruce just said since she has mediocre cultivation talent, which is why she's been stuck at Peak Body Refinement for the past couple of years.

"Basically, I just performed an elemental assessment test on you. How the test works is that inside the crystal, there is an attribute energy inside"

"The energy of the attribute will amplify or remain the same depending on the affinity you have with the elemental attribute"

"From what I've seen, you definitely have an affinity with the darkness element. You have been stuck at Peak Body Refinement because you need to convert the world's energy into darkness energy to advance in cultivation"

"I'm sure you can easily reach elemental refinement in no time. Since affinity with darkness element is so rare in today's world, the methods to convert the surrounding energy into darkness energy are not available anywhere except for peak institutions such as Imperial Academy."

Looking at Lisa's stunned face, Bruce touched her cheek and continued.

"I have also requested grandma to find me a manual to convert the world's energy into dark energy. As a farewell present, I'll give this to you."

Bruce handed her the cultivation manual that would change her life forever.

"Bruce… I don't know what to say"

"Don't say anything. We're family remember? Now, even if I'm a dragon soaring through the sky, you can be right beside me"

Lisa hugged Bruce tightly and the two looked at the cultivation manual. It seemed to be a low-quality cultivation manual regarding the dark element, but it should suffice for now. Lisa just needed to get started on the road of cultivation so that she wouldn't fall behind.

"I'll inform my parents of what we learned today. You will no longer be a maid to the Stellae family. Instead, you'll be a member of the Stellae family, and the family will support your cultivation"

"Okay. I'll do whatever you say"

While the two are enjoying the moment, Bruce knew this feeling of peace wouldn't last for long. It's time for him to break into Elemental Profound.