Female Novel
Chapter 617
Chapter 617 The Whitley Family
Still, I have to admit, what the respectable families and Paradise Island did was useful in solving theproblem. Children are too weak-minded to keep secrets, so it’s best to not let them know any secrets.
That way, it would be pointless to target them when going after the respectable families. If I’m notmistaken, the core members around the age of seventeen and eighteen have all been brainwashed bytheir families. It’s just like with Yasmin and the other assassins from Xiara.
Even Agent 99, who practically grew up with Yasmin and treated her like an older sister, pulled a knifeon her without any hesitation. It seems the many years of brainwashing are powerful enough to makethem prioritize Paradise Island’s safety over that of their family and friends. I’m guessing it’s the samefor Lauryn over here.
I may be able to have a decent conversation with her right now, but I know I can’t ask her anythingabout her family’s location. I bet she’d rather kill herself than risk revealing any information about them.By brainwashing them to place their family’s interest above everything else, the families are able tokeep them under control for the rest of their lives.
With that in mind, Jonathan flashed Lauryn a smile as he asked, “I’m curious. If all eight respectablefamilies see Chanaea as a cake, then you would definitely see each other as competitors. TakeJadeborough for example. Given how large the total market share is, there’s no way the families will besatisfied with occupying just a portion of it.
Someone will likely get greedy and start plotting against the other families. I know there’s an alliancebetween the respectable families, but I doubt you guys are all that honorable.
Surely, there must’ve been a lot of backstabbing going on in secret. With the amount of power therespectable families have acquired after being around for thousands of years, it shouldn’t be a problem
for them to investigate each other, right?”
Lauryn frowned when she heard that question.
“According to the archives, there were fifteen respectable families in Chanaea about three hundredyears ago. However, the Chanaean market took a huge hit when the involvement from the westerncountries increased about two hundred and eighty years ago.
That resulted in a complete makeover for all the respectable families. No one knows what happenedthroughout the twenty years, but only nine respectable families remained after that.”
Jonathan paused in surprise. “Nine? Hold on, didn’t you say there were eight respectable families justnow? Where did this ninth one come from?”
“There’s one more that got wiped out ten years ago. It’s the Whitley family,” Lauryn replied.
The look on Jonathan’s face turned solemn when he heard that.
The timing matches perfectly!
“Ten years ago? That was when Chanaea was in chaos, right? The respectable families were in controlof the armies, but all the commanders disappeared mysteriously all of a sudden. Everyone thinks theywere called back by the respectable families. Was it because of this?”
“Yes, it was precisely because of the Whitley family. I was only twelve at the time, so I didn’t knowmuch about the relationships between the respectable families. The only reason I know this is becauseI heard my elders talking about it after the Whitley family was wiped out,” Lauryn replied with a nod.
She frowned as she tried to recall what she heard from her childhood.
“My grandpa was the head of the Blackwood family at the time. He told my father that the Whitleyfamily from ten years ago was a lot more powerful than the Salladay family today. In case you didn’tknow, the Salladay family is currently acknowledged as the most powerful of all the respectablefamilies.
According to one of the theories, Chanaea used to be split into ten parts, four of which were owned bythe Whitley family alone. The remaining six were shared among the other eight families. That shouldshow you just how terrifyingly powerful the Whitley family used to be.”
Jonathan felt his heart sink when he heard that.
I first came into contact with the respectable families during the three-year battle. I tried to gather asmuch information on them as possible after Asura’s Office was established, but there wasn’t much Icould find. When I went to Lumonburg a while back, Philip handed me a chip right before he died.
That was when I made official contact with the respectable families. That was especially the case whenthe Goldstein family got involved. I got a taste of the power of the respectable families when I foughtGarrison of the Osborne family. It wasn’t until I met Lauryn and Irving that I truly learned the truthbehind the respectable families.
The Goldstein family’s influence can be found in pretty much every field, and they also have tons ofbusinesses all over the world. Even so, it is nothing compared to the respectable families. The Osbornefamily was able to drive the Goldstein family out of Yaleview simply by sending one of its elders afterthem, and that happened while I was backing them up too.
Ordinary prominent families wouldn’t even stand a chance against the respectable families. I thoughtthe Osborne family was powerful, but the Salladay family turned out to be even more powerful.
Given all of that, it’s really hard to imagine the Whitley family owning four parts of Chanaea ten yearsago. I bet they could squash the Osborne family like a bug if they so much as wanted to! How the hecknovelbin
does a powerful family like this get wiped out?
With that in mind, Jonathan asked, “Who wiped out the Whitley family?”
He was really curious as to who could possibly eliminate the Whitley family, who owned almost half ofChanaea.
Lauryn looked him in the eye as she replied, “The eight families teamed up to wipe them out.”
A combined effort from the eight families, huh?
Jonathan was a little shocked when he heard that, but he shook his head and let out a chucklemoments later.
“One has to be very careful when at the pinnacle of success. It makes perfect sense that the otherfamilies would try to take them out. After all, no one likes being suppressed and dominated forever,” hecommented.
Lauryn nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. The Whitley family was far too powerful, so they had to get rid of it. But that incident also took atoll on the eight respectable families. It took five years of planning, three of which were spent cautiouslylocating all the Whitley family’s members. The eight respectable families then spent the next two yearshunting down and killing all core and direct members of the Whitley family.
The Whitley family had three hundred and ninety-eight core members and eleven thousand and sixty-two members who shared a direct bloodline. All of them died tragically in those two years, and that’snot including the countless guards and underlings they had trained.”
Jonathan felt a shiver down his spine when he heard those numbers.
I wiped out the Turner family when they kidnapped Josephine back then, but they only had a fewhundred members. The Whitley family had over ten thousand direct family members, and we haven’teven included those from their branch families…
Now that I think about it, the Goldstein family is nothing but child’s play compared to the respectablefamilies. It makes sense why the Osborne family never took me seriously.