A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings

"Parricide is a timeless theme." Adams paused for a long time, without leaving even a long pause in the sentence: "It's about breaking down authority and becoming authority. It has absolutely nothing to do with specific blood relations."

Sometimes breaking free leads to closer proximity, and resistance is another form of following. The opposite of fear is not rejection, but forgetting.

Swire finally confirmed his judgment: her "rebellion" against the family atmosphere was also within Adams's expectations.

"Existence is everything? Huh?"

Adams, after much preparation, uttered a fluent sentence. "The complete change of ownership of Lungmen was already destined, but a Swire will be truly accepted by the Yan tomorrow."

"This wasn't what you originally planned."

After a while, the sick tiger spoke up, "I don't deny it."

The little tiger has made her decision: she loves this job and will never give it up because of her reversal with Adams.

"I like this job, not because I hate you."

Adams neither confirmed nor denied it. "It wasn't intentional, but it happened by chance."

Swire's fondness for the Lungmen Guard Department stems from a childhood kidnapping incident where a tall "hero" rescued her from danger.

"You've been fighting him for so long, but you never expected Ursus to cause such a lapse in the court's standards, giving him an excuse to control the army."

Swire's perspective naturally had its limitations.

For example, she couldn't see the logic behind Wei Yenwu's actions clearly, and she misjudged the relationship between Wei Yenwu and the Yan court.

"The army? No, he's panicked." Adams pointedly added, "More panicked than I am."

This kind of riddle-like dialogue somewhat annoyed Swire.

As Wei Yenwu's biggest rival in Lungmen, Adams has one minor flaw: he doesn't have long to live.

He's not going to live much longer, maybe three hundred years?

Although he clung to life for quite some time, Wei Yenwu did not believe he could possibly outlive Adams. Therefore, in his original power struggle logic, his strategy towards Adams, the Swire Family, and the Commercial Union was primarily cooperation—essentially, "Outlasting the old man."

However, what was originally a long-term struggle erupted in a short period of time due to the Chernobog incident.

Because they had more information than in the original timeline, they had more time to make decisions, and Talulah even had a chance to survive and regain her sanity...

That one gamble could almost make up for all the mistakes Wei Yenwu made in the first half of his life.

No, in the first half of your life, you've wronged more than just your sworn brother and your sister.

And what about the debts I owe in my later years?

In short, all of this only strengthened Wei Yenwu's resolve to "die for his country," and he even began to plan and lay the groundwork for Ch'en and Talulah's future.

All he could leave these two "girls" was Lungmen.

However, the commercial attributes of Lungmen will be weakened in the future, while its role as a logistics hub and production hub will be strengthened. As a result, both the overly powerful Adams Commercial Union and the incompetent Commercial Union without Adams will pose a threat to the two girls.

In the short term, actively and completely expelling or eradicating the Swire Family's influence would be too risky and yield minimal benefits. Promoting Beatrix Swire removing the glass ceiling for her would largely eliminate this... threat.

After all, Adams didn't leave Victoria to become a local tyrant in Lungmen.

The little tiger turned and left the luxurious hospital room, leaving behind his last words. "Just as you guessed, I won't take care of the Swire Family."

Behind the door she casually closed, the sick tiger's deafening laughter, a sound born of his illness, drifted out.

That would be excellent.

Chapter 166 The Butterfly's Wings

January 1, 1097, early morning.

Wisps of smoke occasionally rose from the mugs, the astringent aroma of instant coffee wafting through the command center.

A seemingly frail hand brushed across the rim of the cup, and the nun, with satisfaction, offered Oute this inexpensive cup of coffee—a breakfast-and-midnight snack—with impeccable manners.

"My Lord."

On the personal terminal, several soldier cards representing Squad W were moving, while in Lungmen, the Earthspirit, wearing a "Dream-Sleep Device," was constantly searching for real-time business intelligence.

Number Fourteen Facility is quite a distance from Lungmen. To accurately grasp the market at this scale using an intercity network with extremely high latency... this will severely test Oute's predictive abilities.

But he was absolutely unwilling to waste his brainpower on such a thing.

So you're just wasting people's Earthspirit brainpower here, huh?

"Just leave it there for now," Oute ordered casually without even thinking.

Specter had no objections; she immediately retreated to Oute's side.

Oute's gaze, though unfocused, was now fixed on the girls far away.

Specter leaned down, a few wisps of chilling fragrance drifting into Oute's ear. "My lord, would you like a shoulder massage?"

Oute simply mumbled an "uh-huh" without thinking.

Inside the meeting room, the camera flashed red.

The near-ground aircraft traced a graceful arc, and including W, this group of Sarkaz dressed in Rhodes Island uniforms drifted towards the Core City like dandelions.

In mid-air, W threw an Originium Bomb into the air and excitedly detonated it. The unique bomb kicked up a large plume of smoke and dust, creating a thick cloud of smoke.

Soon, stars lit up the Core City, and sporadic defensive weapons attacked from Core City.

If these weapons are dense enough, it is not entirely impossible for them to withstand the interference and damage from smoke to near-ground aircraft, although it may not be entirely possible.

Oute glanced at the Sarkaz girl and immediately deduced that, under the current circumstances, the mathematical expectation of those "thugs" who "inexplicably" could operate the city's defense weapons hitting the near-ground aircraft was almost zero.

This series of plans began before Oute even awoke; neither Black Snake nor the Third Army Group anticipated that the Core City would have to fight an air defense war...

Currently, there are two main problems: firstly, they lack the number of elite sorcerers capable of operating the city's defensive weapons; and secondly, there are even fewer personnel positioned near these weapons.

The "operators" descended from the sky, and after breaking through the Core City's anti-aircraft firepower with lightning speed, these Sarkaz wielded Thermal-Driven Axe, quickly using airflow to correct their orientation and slow down with the assistance of Oute.

"Boss! Achoo! Team A can't find the landmark!"

"The Gossip Squad (β) has been found!"

"... Sizzle... Quacker (γ)... Sizzle... Start the killing!"

Even for Oute, getting these Sarkaz, whose cultural level was so low as to burn books and bury scholars alive, to accurately parachute into a designated location... would take quite a bit of effort. And their job was actually to draw enemy fire for W, as long as they didn't miss their target.

"Attention, you will now be enhanced by me, and your damage output will be greatly increased. In brightly lit environments, this enhancement will be further amplified, and your accuracy will also be significantly improved."

"Then?"

"Be careful, don't get hurt."

Because "Dismas's Head" also has a negative effect: "-10% maximum health".

"Snort."

The Sarkaz girl responded in this way, but a smile crept onto her lips.

She threw bombs at the bewildered white-masked thugs in front of her, her shy smile masked by her frenzied performance, "Surprises everywhere, take as you please~"

W seems to have completely misunderstood.

Oute looked up, slightly relaxed his muscles, and then stuffed the bread and coffee into his mouth together.

While not quite as abstract as eating instant noodles, this method of eating is still somewhat...

A few drops of coffee spilled out naturally, hanging on the corner of Oute's mouth.

The nun extended her slender finger and boldly wiped the coffee from the corner of "Lord's" mouth.

Oute looked at her blankly, which seemed to encourage the nun.

Specter's mouth was slightly open, and a few strands of saliva clung to her tongue and oral mucosa. Sure enough, she stared at Oute and slowly put the drop of coffee into her mouth.

Suck.

Oute shook his head sharply again, waking himself up.

He chewed quickly, grinding a portion of the bread into a paste, and swallowed the sweet-tasting blood sugar supplement.

Lungmen Office.

"... But our market value..." a Kuranta argued forcefully.

The Earthspirit coldly interrupted her, "What we need are supplies, not the numbers in our accounts."

"Besides, your businesses were never on the acquisition list from the beginning."

Caprinae's icy voice sounded utterly sarcastic to Kuranta: "If stock prices and market capitalization mattered, you'd still be in Victoria."

Kuranta swore, "You just wait! If you don't buy it, plenty of others will!"

After saying that, she fled the office as if she were escaping.

But as soon as she opened the door, she saw her competitor waiting to come in...

The office door was quickly and warily closed by the competitor.

They're not Swire Family business, so why are they in such a hurry to run away?

She stared blankly at the gate, lost in thought for a long while.

Somewhere deep inside her, she vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

Just as Kuranta was in a daze, the door opened again.

Her competitor... has already reached a contract.

Something must have happened again.

As a competitor passed by Kuranta, he cursed, "You're even coming here? Haven't you Swire family sold us off enough already?!"

Kuranta suddenly realized.

After seeing off the last customer of the morning, Earthspirit slumped wearily into Oute's simple office chair, like a lump of mud.

Dobermann burst through the door and immediately called out, "Doc Otter, the Deepwinter Soldiers' training needs to add one item..."

"..." Dobermann looked at the exhausted Earthspirit, then carefully examined the Dream-Sleep Device before exclaiming in surprise, "Earthspirit? Did Doc Otter leave?"