(Prince Bei Ji Xiong POV) [The third Prince]
*A few hours ago*
I tapped my foot near the side entrance impatiently, why is Master Lin taking so long to come back from a trip to the washroom? Is he relieving himself in the other sense of the word there?
Just when I began to think that he might have gone back to the banquet hall via teleportation, I saw him appear from around the corner.
"He's here, go," I ordered.
The doppelganger monster stepped out into the corridor, heading towards Master Lin.
These were personally created by the Dark Cardinal of Deception so even Master Lin would have trouble recognising a fake when he's unfamiliar with the real person.
The only issue is that I have to control them myself through a partial implantation of my consciousness.
Unlike the Cardinal, I'm not good enough to be able to control so many at once while also moving around. My limit is at one and I will need to remain still to use them, such is my limitation of not being a natural Practitioner.
I do have alternative ways to get around this, but that will be revealing my cards too early. Besides, this doppelganger is meant to be disposable.
Using the doppelganger, I did the usual act of being full of myself to antagonise him, pulling out the poisoned blade to just try and land a lucky hit on him.
Of course that fails splendidly but it was still within my expectations. The main goal was to at least incriminate him in some way to make everyone else lose trust in him.
He may be the strongest Practitioner, but if he is unable to extend his influence upon others without the usage of force, he would be seen as nothing but a tyrant.
I don't expect him to be defeated, but if this can at least isolate him for the next few days to come, it would be a win for me.
Since hitting him failed, I activated the inscription that was hidden within the doppelganger's body, creating a wind blade that sliced its neck off from the inside.
Retrieving back my consciousness, I implanted it into the next doppelganger with the body of my eldest brother. The real one is probably on his way to the banquet hall already so I need to time his arrival perfectly.
I nodded to the guards near the doppelganger, they were the people who have chosen to follow me instead of the main branch's self-destructive ways. They know what they signed up for and would give their life to the cause.
With the crown prince's fake body, I appeared in the corridor to 'discover' my murder, shouting out an alarm that will 'alert' the guards.
Once again, I engaged him in combat, trying to at least land a hit with my second poisoned blade.
Should he actually choose to kill the crown prince, I would initiate the assassination plan on the real one right away. His guards had already been replaced with those of my own recently and he shouldn't suspect a thing.
None of the fakes yet know that I know who they are, there's a reason why I've been acting like a spoiled, dumb brat all this while after all. If they had been the real ones, they would not have let me act this much of a jerk to everyone.
That was also how I confirmed Master Lin to be one of them back at the Merchant's Guild.
We had never met before as far as I know, but he recognised me and even knew my name at first sight. That overbearing attitude he had and the way he handled my tantrum with the absolute calmness was a clear indication he knew it was all an act.
I may have fooled everyone but it seems I still was not yet up to par in regards to him.
This is why I made up a priority plan to get rid of him first and his so-called 'Church' second.
I believe his 'disciples' are the main branch's elite Templars, sent here to aid him in destroying my followers and paving the way for their summoning of Lilith.
Master Lin should definitely be one of the higher ranking members of the main branch, maybe even a Cardinal himself which is quite surprising since the Cardinals of the main branch usually stay out of sight and avoid field work.
But if I can somehow manage to kill him here, that would be a major blow to them.
Of course, it was not that easy and I do not expect to succeed. Although it seems I was right about my suspicion that he did not want to kill unnecessarily to draw attention, thus I thought I had him cornered there with my crown prince act.
That had been naive thinking on my part.
Instead of being captured, he chose to escape in a puff of smoke and literally leave us with nothing.
At least this managed to keep him away from the palace for now, but I do not know if he will return.
With that plan absolutely screwed, I had to push forward with the next phase of the plan before he came back.
My followers and I had already planned and risked too much to get this far, there was no going back now.
I got rid of the doppelganger and intercepted my eldest 'brother' in the corridor, giving him some excuse about feeling unwell to escape from the reception.
He would be the first to enter the hall before the rest of the family in order to 'establish connections'.
I will leave him alone for now to avoid arousing suspicion from the other Houses and just get rid of him after the reception.
That left the fake king and queen which was easily dealt with. They never suspected a thing when I went up to them with my usual stupid smile and haughty attitude, demanding them for some inane thing.
A few stabs from the back when they turned away to dismiss me was enough to permanently put them down.
At the same time, my followers would also be getting rid of the other spies we had identified over the years. Everything was planned with the utmost detail for this very day.
If today goes without a hitch, we would be able to fully devote all our resources to stopping the main branch.
They will try to summon the monster known as Lilith in this continent, believing her to be our first ancestor. Someone managed to find notes about her temple being located here and by granting her existence, she will bestow her followers with unimaginable power.
But I knew the truth.
It was true she might grant her followers power if she was as powerful as what those records said, but there was always a catch: The blood of five hundred thousand willing souls must be the price of such a 'blessing'.
She will bring to this Plane nothing but death.
The main branch had thus incited the Dong country to invade Bei Yang during the time of her summoning. The soldiers who perish on the battlefield will be the 'willing souls' and every single member involved in her summoning will also contribute to that number.
In the end, only the upper echelons will get to taste this power.
Once I knew about such a plan, I secretly brought all those who would not want such an ending with me to break off from the main branch, forming our own secret branch here and hoping to set up a form of defense before the day of summoning.
Our time limit was however long it took for the country of Dong to excavate that damned tunnel. We tried all we can to delay it but they had already taken over Death Pass town way before the execution of their plan.
Even the King, Queen and my eldest brother had been replaced with fakes.
I had to pretend I was still one of them to continue getting the critical information needed to prepare for the eventual day, but that also meant I could not act against them too openly.
I still acted like I was true to their cause, but I knew it was a matter of time before they figured out I was the instigator for the sudden large number of deserters that day.
Over the years we tried to find every way we could to either prevent, delay or even get rid of Lilith if all else fails.
Our experimentation on a group of Wendigoes we captured showed that we could control monsters with a certain Technique. This led to the idea of forming a monster army that we could use to 'invade' the capital city to take over it and eventually giving us more freedom of movement after the fakes are killed in the chaos.
We even tried to see if we could summon Abaddon and what was named a 'Great One' just to go against Lilith.
The single parchment we found that read 'The blood of a Royal from the fairer brood shall send her back to her promised land' gave us a little hope. As much as I hated it, I ordered the experimentation on my own sister as she was the only female of Royal blood left.
That was when Master Lin came into the picture, breaking my sister out and destroying that hideout.
I gave the order for him to be assassinated during their New Year festival, but that plan was an absolute loss for us.
We somehow managed to recover the missing piece to summon Abaddon but he was instantly banished again by Master Lin.
I took heart in the fact that if Master Lin could stand up to Abaddon, then Abaddon wouldn't have stood a chance against Lilith in the first place.
But it was clear that the main branch was accelerating their plans when many of our hideouts started being torn apart, especially those that we hid in the capital's slums.
We got wind of a group that called themselves 'Master's Church' and I knew immediately they were members of the main branch that were causing it.
All of our preparations began falling apart because of them but we still managed to salvage one thing.
My sister's blood that we had spent so long in researching and experimenting on. We believe we have finally got the answer to the prophecy but we only had enough time to create one vial of it.
Everything now hinges on that one vial of blood we had, but we did not know where the summoning will take place.
That was why for this little ceremony, I had the great idea to follow Master Lin as surely, after an incident like this, he would definitely go back to the headquarters to report.
When I had the doppelganger attack Master Lin, I managed to get close enough to plant the tracking talisman on him while he was distracted.
Now all we need to do now is wait for him to lead us there.
With everything else prepared, I used the doppelganger on myself to transform into the King, then the two controlled Wendigoes will transform into the Queen and later also my eldest brother after we get rid of the fake.
It is a miracle that my second brother was still himself.
I can only hope that there won't be any more unexpected encounters later on and we can finish this without a hitch.
