“So they all took the bait?” King Han asked in a slow voice.
Lin Fan gave a slow nod in response before saying, “They all couldn’t wait to take the bait that was offered to them. Even if they are smart, it seems that they are quite willing to take this risk. It seems that they can’t control their greed at all.”
King Han revealed a faint smile before saying, “How do you think that I’ve been able to control them this entire time?”
This was the plan that Lin Fan had come up with after listening to what King Han had said about the heads of the three founding families.
He knew what kind of personality that they had, so he had been able to manipulate them into not going against the royal family as much as they could during this time. It was just that King Han hadn’t been able to stop them completely as they were determined to see this matter through to the end.
Since Lin Fan knew their personality as well, he created this trap for the three family heads.
He would lay the seeds of doubt between them and pit them against each other.
His position allowed him to perfectly manipulate them into going against one another, which was what he chose to use as his plan to deal with the three founding families.
Lin Fan had met with each of the three family heads and had sold them the same story.
Since they were greedy, they had all jumped at the offer that he had given them.
Since they were greedy, they wouldn’t reveal this offer that they accepted to the others.
That meant that from now on, there should be a decrease in communication and cooperation between the three founding families.
They would normally have to work together to take down the royal family, but now that they thought that they had found a backer, they would scale down that cooperation. They would trust that backer to have their best interest and work with them to take down the royal family, putting them in that royal family’s place.
Sometimes, the greed of people was just too easy to stoke, especially when they were exceedingly greedy.
After a moment of silence, Lin Fan said, “For now, just wait until they bring their funds willingly to me. That will be considered a form of compensation for everything that they’ve done to her.”
King Han slowly nodded in agreement even though it was clear by the look in his eyes that there was something else that he wanted to say.
As the ruler of this kingdom, it was only natural that he would want to solve this issue that was plaguing his kingdom as soon as possible. It was just that I didn’t want to give them a swift release from all of this.
I wanted them to suffer for as long as possible before putting them out of their misery.
That was the least that I could do to take revenge for Duanmu Ming Xue.
Though he didn’t say anything about the matter of stalling it out, King Han did have something to say in the end.
“How far are you going to take it?”
This might sound like a strange question, almost as if he was having doubts about this plan. However, I knew that this wasn’t the case.
It wasn’t that his conscience was suddenly telling him to worry about the three founding families, it was concern for his kingdom that made him suddenly say this.
After all, even if the three founding families were currently trying to replace him as the king, it was still a fact that the three founding families were a powerful force that had supported the Han Kingdom since its inception.
If the three founding families were to be suddenly removed from the Han Kingdom…
The Han Kingdom was a kingdom after all, so there were other kingdoms and smaller countries that had their eyes on the Han Kingdom.
Losing the three founding kingdoms completely would be a large blow to the Han Kingdom, even if they were backed by the Five Great Sects and would soon be allied with the Mu Empire.
There were other countries out there that were also backed by the Five Great Sects.
The Five Great Sects only cared about the tribute that they received, they didn’t care about who they received them from.
Even if the Han Kingdom were to disappear, as long as there was someone who kept paying the tribute, they didn’t really care about what happened in the secular world. All they cared about was the resources that they needed for their own cultivation.
So that was why King Han had to ask this question.
Lin Fan looked at King Han, but he didn’t say anything.
The calm look that was on his face made King Han worried.
Lin Fan naturally knew what King Han was asking about, but there were traces of hesitation that were in him as well.
There was a part of him that wanted to make the three founding families disappear completely for what they had done. However, there was a bigger part of him that knew that this would be a bad idea, both for the Han Kingdom and the Mu Empire.
It was just that sometimes it was hard to let things go when they touched a sore spot.
If someone came after the things that he cared about, it was only his duty as a man to take care of them.
If he were to let them go that easily, there would be others that would have ideas towards the people that he cared about.
So in a sense, it would only cause future trouble if he were to leave this matter be.
As Lin Fan was debating on how to settle this matter, he suddenly felt someone pulling at his sleeve.
He turned to see that it was Duanmu Ming Xue who was pulling on his sleeve.
When he saw the way that she looked at him as she pulled on his sleeve, he immediately guessed what she wanted from him. Or rather, it was what she wanted to do with the Duanmu Family.
With a shake of his head and a faint smile, Lin Fan patted her on the head before turning to King Han to say, “I don’t have to go that far, but there are some conditions that have to be met.”
King Han was surprised to hear this, but then he shot a grateful look to Duanmu Ming Xue before saying with a serious look, “What are your conditions?”
“Those that put her in that situation will be handled by me, that is the bottom line that I can’t back down from.” Lin Fan said in a cold voice.
Hearing him say this sent a shiver down King Han’s spine, but he nodded in agreement to this.
King Han was already prepared for this since he knew that he wouldn’t bend on this. After all, this was the reason that Lin Fan was doing all of this in the first place, so naturally he wouldn’t back down on this.
Though it was a bit painful since the ones that were responsible for this were the ones that actually held power in the founding families…
If they could keep them as slaves for the royal family, then it would surely raise their Han Kingdom to a new level. But he knew that it was impossible, so he didn’t think too much about it.
The other reason was because those people had done quite a few terrible things in the past.
They were not clean, so as the ruler of this kingdom, King Han didn’t actually want to keep them around.
Being able to punish them for their crimes was a good enough consolation prize.
After seeing this nod, Lin Fan continued by saying, “If they aren’t related, then they will be turned to you to manage. If you don’t watch them properly and let them do what they want…”
He didn’t finish his words, but the threat that he was making was very clear.
King Han also knew that this would be the case, so he once again nodded in agreement.
Lin Fan paused for a moment before lowering his voice to add, “In addition, there might be the chance that you’ll get involved with the Five Great Sects if you ally with us. So be prepared when the time comes.”
This time, King Han couldn’t remain as calm as he had been before.
When he heard this, he deeply knitted his brows.
Getting involved with the Five Great Sects was something that was completely different from just solving the issue of the three founding families.
The Five Great Sects were at the peak of their world and anyone who got involved with them wouldn’t have a good ending. Especially since it didn’t sound like this involvement with the Five Great Sects was a good thing.
King Han looked at Lin Fan with this look on his face, but Lin FAn just calmly looked back at him as if there was nothing wrong.
This made King Han knit his brows even more.
But in the end, he said with a sigh, “It’s in the future, right? Right now, the most important thing is taking care of the blight of our country and stabilizing our power. So for now, I’ll work with you.”
Then after a pause, he felt like he had to add, “Of course, if I betray you in the future, I hope that you won’t take it personally.”
Lin Fan gave a chuckle before giving a nod.
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