According to Ronnel, after Zhang Lei was summoned to the king room, he waited quietly for a while—until he saw Nasubi enter with several figures dressed in ceremonial attire.
They were elders of the royal clan, the ones from the ancestral hall of the Kakin Empire.
All of them were Nen users, though the techniques they used to verify bloodlines and heritage varied.
Originally, they had boarded the Black Whale to support the new king's ascension and carry out the necessary rituals during the upcoming coronation ceremony two months later. But today, it seemed they had another purpose altogether.
The fact that Nasubi had summoned so many elders at once showed just how serious the matter had become.
After several rounds of testing, the results left Nasubi momentarily speechless. He took a long, deep breath.
Whose bloodline did Zhang Lei belong to? It didn't matter. What mattered was that it wasn't his.
That alone was enough.
...
Zhang Lei hadn't known why he was brought here. But the moment he saw the clan elders preparing their bloodline testing rituals, a sick feeling twisted in his gut.
As soon as they began examining him, he knew—Nasubi had found out.
He clenched his fists in hatred. While he desperately searched for a way out of the situation, the coins from his guardian spirit beast began to activate.
The effect of those coins only triggered under specific conditions, in certain locations, and at particular moments—after which a miraculous Nen ability would manifest.
Apparently, Zhang Lei had met the requirements. He was in danger, and the coin responded.
However—
"Nothing can escape my eyes... !"
Nasubi was not someone easily fooled. The instant he noticed the coin stirring in Zhang Lei's pocket, he narrowed his eyes.
In a flash, his beast manifested behind him—its grotesque, pimple-covered body filled with unidentifiable organs—exerting an oppressive aura that forcefully suppressed the coin's activation.
Zhang Lei's last shred of hope was gone. There was no turning this around.
...
When the final test results were revealed, Zhang Lei first went pale. Then, realizing that no amount of resistance would save him, he erupted in a fit of curses—screaming slurs at the ancestors of Nasubi and the entire Kakin royal family.
He'd snapped completely.
And Luzurus? He knew exactly how it all played out afterward.
...
"What a pity about the third prince. He had a solid following and a real shot at the throne. A strong contender," Luzurus sighed, though his eyes twinkled with barely hidden amusement. "Who would've thought... tsk, tsk."
He spoke of regret, but the smirk on his face betrayed nothing but schadenfreude.
Right then, new intel came in from Basho:
After the third queen, Tang Zhao, learned of her only son's execution, she was so grief-stricken that she took her own life by ingesting poison.
"She poisoned herself?" Luzurus scoffed, unimpressed. "Sounds more like she was silenced."
He had deep insight into the royal family's schemes.
For a queen to have carried on an affair with an outsider for so many years without detection, and to have nurtured Zhang Lei into such a talented prince... someone like that wouldn't just roll over and die. Revenge, escape—those were more likely paths.
Suicide? Unbelievable.
It had the fingerprints of Nasubi all over it.
Still, Luzurus couldn't entirely blame him. Any man would be furious after being cuckolded—let alone the king of an empire.
...
Along with the news of the queen's death, Luzurus also received a message from Nasubi: he was to report to him immediately.
"It's a blessing, not a curse. A curse can't be avoided," Luzurus muttered to himself. "Can you guarantee my safety?"
"Relax," Ronnel replied calmly. "He won't kill you. The Succession War is a battle between princes, and there are rules. Killing one prince was already pushing it."
Feeling slightly reassured, Luzurus went alone to the king room.
As expected, the king only asked a few token questions about the source of the intel, then sealed Luzurus's mouth with Nen and medicine.
The condition was simple: if he dared to speak a word of it, the Nen would activate, and he'd suffer the consequences.
There was nothing Luzurus could do.
...
Nasubi executed Zhang Lei, summoned Luzurus, and arranged the queen's death—all in one swift sequence. The message was clear, and the other princes got it loud and clear.
The third prince's guards were dismissed, hunted down, and disbanded. Zhang Lei's faction completely crumbled.
One of the most visible signs of this collapse was the absence of any of Zhang Lei's men at Kurapika's next telepathy teaching session.
...
Meanwhile, another quieter, but no less significant incident occurred.
The Xi-Yu family, stationed on the lower levels of the Black Whale, engaged in a brutal war with the Cha-R family—one that left both sides devastated.
The Xi-Yu family was annihilated. Their patriarch—Zhang Lei's biological father—was found dead, his body mangled, bearing signs of extreme torture.
The person backing the Cha-R family? Luzurus.
And Luzurus had just come from a meeting with Nasubi.
Coincidence? Not a chance.
Luzurus claimed he got the intel about Zhang Lei from the Cha-R family. So, to erase the evidence, it only made sense to wipe them out.
Nasubi made the call. Trade one family for another.
Luzurus didn't protest. He understood the logic. Even so, it still stung a little.
...
Naturally, this turn of events alarmed the Heil-Ly family.
While they were still scrambling to piece together what had happened, Chrollo—armed with intel from Ronnel—led the Phantom Troupe in a sudden, devastating ambush.
The Phantom Troupe, who had struggled to contend with the unified forces of the three lower-level families, had no problem crushing a lone faction.
Just like that, the three major Kakin families on the lower deck of the Black Whale were erased from history.
The underworld's triple power structure collapsed, and order finally began to return. Mizaistom Nana and the rest of the Zodiacs, exhausted from constant crisis control, could finally catch their breath.
...
Despite the chaos down below, the upper decks remained largely undisturbed. Not even the fourth prince, who had once supported the Heil-Ly family, showed any interest in intervening.
He was too deep in the world of Nen—obsessed, isolated, unreachable.
...
And yet, the unrest on the lower decks was only a ripple. Tension continued to mount on the upper levels in the days following Zhang Lei's death.
Something darker was stirring, just beneath the surface.
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Fanfic is completed on patreon.com/FanficsHub (799 chapters in total)