Prince Benjamin was attacked by an unknown assailant and suffered serious injuries.
The news quickly shook the entire Kakin royal family to its core.
All the princes and princesses had strange suspicions about the incident. Something about it felt off, as if there was more beneath the surface than what they were being told.
Several of Benjamin's private soldiers had also suffered heavy casualties. The few who survived gave consistent accounts after interrogation: the attacker was likely influenced by radical elements within the kingdom, intent on undermining royal power by targeting the princes first.
This was only the official story. In reality, most people believed that Benjamin's misfortune was the result of secret machinations by the other princes. Why else would King Nasubi ask Hui Guo Rou about the cause and procedure before dropping the matter completely? The only explanation was that the shadows of other princes were lurking behind this attack.
The war of succession had begun early, and the princes had been secretly orchestrating their opening moves.
Only the Ninth Lord knew the truth.
He knew exactly who had injured Benjamin. There was no other culprit but Oboro, for it was he who had pulled the strings and lured Benjamin to the hotel under the pretext of discussing the war of succession.
Kenbuglu felt consumed by guilt and self-blame.
Now that his girlfriend, the honeypot of the Fells family, was out of danger and beyond the gangsters' control, he no longer had to worry about them. He was ready to reveal the truth to the king, to explain how the Fells family was trying to manipulate Kakin's power structure, but before he could approach the king, Li Han arrived with several private soldiers representing various princes. They strictly forbade the Ninth Lord from revealing Oboro's existence to anyone.
Kenbuglu was not allowed to reveal that Oboro was the attacker.
The serious expressions on Li Han and his companions made Kenbuglu suspect that even the eldest prince was being coerced and controlled by the Fells.
"If you tell anyone," Li Han had said, leaving only one meaningful sentence, "the eldest prince will be killed."
This warning left the guilt-ridden Ninth Prince at a complete loss.
He was certain that Benjamin was somehow under the gang's control.
"Damn it!" Kenbuglu roared, driving his fist into the wall until blood flowed from his knuckles.
The leader of the Fells was incredibly cunning. It was no wonder they had chosen him, knowing that he valued brotherhood more than any other prince. Even after they'd freed his girlfriend, they could still control him by threatening the lives of his brothers. He wouldn't dare act recklessly while they had such leverage.
Too thorough The enemy considered every angle when executing his plans.
He had thought that after helping his girlfriend out of her predicament, he would be free from the influence of the Fells family. But now, despite the serious injuries to the eldest prince, the suspicion of the royal family fell on the princes themselves-one of them had to be the real culprit. Fortunately, Benjamin's life was not in immediate danger, which was probably why the king had not pursued a deeper investigation.
"Your father is a wise man who believes in the law of the jungle. The power of the Kakin Empire exists today because of this principle, which is written in his bones! If you ally with us, it will be best for you. Otherwise, when you two brothers finally clash, your father will just stand back and watch. He can be extraordinarily ruthless," Kenbuglu remembered Oboro's words, delivered with that disturbing smile.
At the time, he hadn't believed it.
But judging by the aftermath of the eldest lord's attack and the king's reaction, there might have been some truth in it after all.
Meanwhile, in the bedroom where Prince Benjamin lay recovering from his injuries, a private soldier was using his Nen ability to detect foreign presences. Through his power, he saw Benjamin's body on the hospital bed covered in densely packed, wriggling little bugs; these creatures seemed to be gnawing at something unseen on his body.
Benjamin's breathing remained steady and his physical wounds had been treated, but consciousness still eluded him.
"Nothing found," the private announced after a long examination, withdrawing his ability with a deep sigh. "This doesn't seem to be any kind of Nen applied externally to the target's body, I searched both outside and inside, there's no foreign aura attached."
"Even curses leave traces that can be traced, but I've never seen anything like this before."
"It's not something added, it's something missing," Li Han crossed his arms and remembered the horrible scene when Oboro had put his hand into the lord's body, extracted his soul and ripped off a piece. He carefully analyzed this memory.
Li Han's specialty was analyzing and reading telepathic abilities. His subordinates could use their abilities more effectively based on his insights.
"He took a piece of the prince's soul and locked it in that little lantern," Li Han concluded with a heavy sigh and closed his eyes. "Currently, we don't know what effect this will have on the eldest prince. From what we can observe, he seems physically stable. For his safety, we should avoid rash actions."
"Understood," the others nodded solemnly.
In the darkness, Benjamin's soul curled up in a corner of his sea of consciousness. The pain was so excruciating that he could barely breathe.
In this mental space, his soul appeared mutilated, as if a large chunk of his essence had been carved out. Strangely, there was no blood.
Occasionally, he could hear the whispering and laughter of a man echoing around him.
The voice was eerily familiar.
After what seemed like an eternity, the darkness enveloping him finally dissipated. Great clouds of sickly green mist poured into his consciousness. One by one, hideous apparitions floated toward him, circling his form, howling and taunting him, looking upon his wounded state as if he were a pitiful creature.
Gradually, Benjamin lifted his head to discover enormous railings surrounding him. He was imprisoned in a cage that, upon closer inspection, resembled a lantern.
As he watched, the clouds above parted to reveal a colossal face, blocking out all light as it looked down upon him.
The scene resembled a giant examining an ant beneath his feet.
"AHHH!"
In the physical world, Benjamin, his body wrapped in bandages, suddenly awoke with a terrified scream.
His clothes were soaked with sweat, as if he'd been dragged from the depths of the water.
"Great Prince!" The private soldiers standing guard rushed over, their faces bright with relief.
"I am," Benjamin panted heavily, looking around in disorientation.
"Prince, are you all right?" Li Han asked cautiously.
The Fells family, foggy!
Benjamin's memories suddenly crystallized. His eyes sharpened with focus and anger. "What happened?!" he demanded.
The private soldiers exchanged glances before explaining the events of that day at the hotel.
As strong as Benjamin was, he had been knocked unconscious by a single kick.
That aura!
"Mobilize the troops, I" Benjamin clenched his fists, the veins on his forehead bulging, his voice trembling with rage.
He threw off the blanket and tried to rise from the bed.
But as he struggled to stand, his limbs betrayed him. They moved lazily, as if disconnected from his commands. He staggered and suddenly collapsed.
Fortunately, his men reacted quickly and caught him before he hit the ground.
"Great Prince!"
"I?" Benjamin stared at his own body in shock.
He realized that his movements were extraordinarily slow, as if his brain could no longer properly control his body. This flesh and blood vessel now felt foreign to him.
"Great Prince, according to what happened, a part of your soul was taken by him," Li Han explained gravely.
"Soul?" Benjamin's eyes widened in surprise.
The concept of souls remained a mystery in their world, but Nen's abilities were diverse and could manifest in countless ways, causing phenomena that defied explanation.
Instinctively, he tried to channel his aura as he normally would.
To his horror, he discovered that his energy had diminished dramatically, to a mere shadow of its former strength.
Outwardly, he appeared intact, but since his soul had been fragmented, the effect was devastating.
"Bastard! BASTARD!" Benjamin roared in anger, his voice echoing through the room. "I'll kill him! KILL HIM! Follow my orders and mobilize the army. Go! GO NOW!"
For Benjamin, losing his power was utterly unbearable.
"Great Prince!" Li Han urgently tried to advise caution.
They still didn't understand the full effects of Oboro's Nen ability. If their enemy had allowed them to leave the encounter alive, he surely had reasons for doing so.
A rash attack could easily lead to worse consequences.
Li Han opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly, all of their pupils dilated in horror and they fell silent.
"What is it? Hurry up and obey!" Benjamin snapped, noticing their frozen expressions as they stared at him in terror. His face darkened.
"My Great Prince, you," a private soldier raised a trembling finger and pointed behind Benjamin.
Benjamin turned his head slightly and his pupils constricted in shock.
A ghostly figure had emerged from his body, a blurry ghostly face smiling maliciously at him.
"Behave or I will devour your soul," the ghost whispered, though its mouth was not visible.
It was Oboro!
The Nen Exorcist reacted instantly. He waved his hand and summoned a swarm of insects that descended on the ghost that had manifested from Benjamin. They quickly enveloped the ghost, consuming it completely.
"How is that possible? I didn't sense any external aura just now," the private gasped.
How did this ghost appear out of nowhere? It couldn't be parasitic in nature.
"Are there more?" Li Han asked urgently, regaining his composure.
"Not sure," the Nen exorcist swallowed hard.
Moments later, while the group was still processing what had happened, Benjamin's face contorted in agony as he let out a blood-curdling wail.
Rivers of ghostly entities erupted from his body. As the Nen exorcist tried to command his insects to attack them again, the ghostly shadows suddenly surged back into Benjamin's body and vanished.
The eldest prince turned deathly pale and lost consciousness again.
"Didn't you say there was no foreign nen affecting the prince?" a soldier accused his companion.
"I checked thoroughly, and there were none." "But these spirits are clearly manifestations of real Nen. Where did they come from?"
"How should I know?! I'm just as confused!"
"Enough! Stop arguing!" Li Han's voice cut through their bickering.
He continued coldly, "Every Nen ability follows logical principles in its development and application. I suspect that our enemy is using the Prince's stolen soul fragment as a medium for this technique. In other words, we're powerless unless we recover that piece of his soul."
Dozens of miles away in the hotel, Oboro sat on a sofa as green mist swirled throughout the room. In his hand he held Thresh's Rig's Lantern, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Clever," he murmured.
His eyes focused on a ball of soul fire contained within the lantern.
Through the part of Benjamin's soul that remained connected to its owner, Oboro could now see and hear everything that happened around the lord.
Li Han's assessment had been remarkably accurate, he was indeed experienced.
A true veteran.
The reason why Benjamin was breeding ghosts was because Oboro had placed those ghosts in the lantern here.
Instead of attaching some form of Nen to Benjamin, this soul fragment remained attached to the prince's original essence.