It was rather sad, when you thought about it.
A husband and wife ought to be the closest companions, bound even more tightly than by blood.
Yet when one of them went missing or was murdered, the other always became the first and foremost suspect.
The bond between father and son, blood of one's blood, ought to transcend everything as well.
As the saying went, "Filial piety comes first among all virtues; even a vicious tiger does not devour its cubs."
But before supreme authority and unparalleled power, the love between father and son seemed as fragile and powerless as a mantis trying to stop a cart.
Shen Yuanbao had been famously dashing and romantic in his youth.
Between fierce battles with monsters, he had also sown his seeds all over Dragon City, striving to pass down his bloodline and perpetuate human civilization.
By now, he had acknowledged more than a hundred descendants.
Several of his exceptionally gifted biological children had indeed inherited his talent for cultivation. Backed by vast resources, they had all broken through to a level comparable to the God Realm.
There were also several adopted sons who had sought refuge with Shen Yuanbao during those war-torn years, when the futures of both Cosmos Group and Dragon City Civilization had been at their bleakest. They had fought at his side all along, never leaving him nor abandoning him.
By now, these adopted sons had also become regional lords commanding strategic sectors, key technologies, and vital lifelines of Cosmos Group. Their forces were strong, their systems self-contained.
By Shen Yuanbao's reckoning, within Cosmos Group and the Shen family, at least ten of his descendants possessed the qualifications, ability, and ambition to inherit his position.
In other words, all ten descendants were suspects in the attempt on his life.