Wielding the Thunders Across Two Worlds

"Lawrence! Did you do this on purpose?"

Across the ocean, Frank slammed his hand on the table, facing Lawrence. "You deliberately brought up Xiao Ya’s boyfriend in front of me to lure my nephew to his death in Celestial Xia!"

"Deliberately my ass!" Lawrence didn’t back down an inch. "I said it during the meeting, not to you privately. You’re the one with ulterior motives who sent Aaron to seduce Xiao Ya. What does that have to do with me?"

Lawrence gestured to the others in the conference room. "Why didn’t they send anyone?"

Frank glared at Lawrence. "Erin and Xiao Ya are friends. You clearly had the biggest advantage, so why didn’t you go?"

Lawrence rolled his eyes. To be honest, he was secretly relieved, because he had actually been tempted.

’Thanks, Aaron!’

"Because I’m the first-in-line heir to the Lawrence Clan!" Lawrence declared self-righteously. "I’m one of the Huaqi People. If I were the one pursuing Xiao Ya, would any of you still be able to sit here and chat with me so casually?"

Frank was just disgusted. He didn’t believe a word of Lawrence’s bullshit.

The existence of Extraordinary Beings had become something of an open secret, so the news that eight soldiers on the Eastern Mediterranean coast had been struck dead by lightning landed on the desks of world leaders almost instantly.

Aaron’s death, however, was only noted by those on both sides of the ocean who were paying close attention to the matter.

A photo of the deceased Aaron was lying on the table in front of Frank, so it was no surprise that he had immediately lashed out at Lawrence.

"Honestly, I find it hard to imagine what the Frank Clan was thinking."

Lawrence retorted, "Sending a first-in-line heir to Celestial Xia would breed distrust among everyone here. That’s why none of us, myself included, made a move."

Lawrence gestured to the others in the conference room.

The others all nodded. Whatever they might have been thinking privately, they all showed their agreement with Lawrence.

"But if you send the second-in-line heir and he succeeds, he’ll have a human strategic weapon on the level of a nuclear bomb backing him. What’s the first-in-line heir supposed to think then?"

Lawrence paused mid-sentence, giving Frank a strange look. "Besides, Aaron was your older brother’s son, not yours. Why are you so furious? Unless..."

All eyes in the room turned to Frank, filled with intrigued speculation.

A flicker of panic crossed Frank’s eyes before turning to rage. "Aaron was my nephew! Am I not allowed to be angry?"

"Enough!"

Seeing the topic was about to devolve into a family melodrama, Rockefeller, seated at the head of the table, finally spoke up. "The purpose of this meeting is to discuss whether the Extraordinary Being from Celestial Xia is intervening in the Eastern Mediterranean conflict and to formulate a potential response. We’re not here to watch a soap opera."

"Clearly, that young man, Gu Zhao, was simply punishing Aaron. He just happened to come across a few soldiers up to no good and killed them as an afterthought," Lawrence said, his composure restored.

Someone looked at Lawrence. "Did you get that from your cousin?"

Lawrence shot the man a sidelong glance. "Isn’t it obvious? If he really intended to stand up for those two million people, would he only have killed eight soldiers who were raising their guns?"

The room fell silent.

Frank said through gritted teeth, "He still killed Aaron."

"Aaron was killed by soldiers." Another elderly man looked at Frank. "This meeting is not about Aaron. If you want revenge, don’t drag us into it."

Frank’s eyes widened, and then his phone suddenly rang.

But before he could check his phone, the meeting facilitator, who had just received the same message, looked up abruptly. "Granville Frank is dead."

Everyone in the conference room looked up in unison.

"He was... ’exercising’ with his secretary in his office when a thunderbolt shattered the building’s glass and struck him directly." The facilitator swallowed. "He was turned to charcoal, but the secretary is completely unharmed."

The room fell silent again.

"There’s also Granville’s eldest son, Aaron’s older brother, Dennis Frank."

"He’s dead too?"

"Yes. He and his precious car were melted together."

The moment the facilitator finished speaking, everyone saw a flash of white, and a deafening roar exploded in their ears.

"BOOM!"

"AHH!"

In the conference room, tables and chairs were overturned as everyone scrambled for cover in a chaotic mess. Some dove under the tables, others tried to hide in the corners, some wailed as they ran for the door, and a few simply dropped to the floor, covering their heads.

A long time passed...

Hearing no further noise, they all slowly raised their heads.

The conference room’s windows had been shattered to pieces. The office was in disarray, with papers scattered everywhere. The large screen, apparently affected by the high-intensity ionization, was flickering between black and white—clearly broken.

However, as they slowly peeked out and looked around, they saw that no one had been killed. Even Frank, the focus of their attention, was still alive. He was trembling as he held onto a table, half-crouched on the floor, his face pale and his eyes wide with terror.

"He knew we were in here talking about him?" Frank asked in terror.

"No, he came for you." Rockefeller, at the head of the table, was still sitting calmly in his chair. He looked completely composed, drawing looks of respect from the others.

However, a few people near him caught a faint, strange smell. Lawrence, walking back from a little farther away, noticed a puddle forming beneath the old man’s chair.

"For me?" Frank repeated, then it immediately dawned on him. "How did he know I was here?" he exclaimed.

"Superman has super-vision and super-hearing. What makes you think he couldn’t find you?" Lawrence said, sitting back down in his seat. "Look on the bright side. At least now we know our so-called ’secret’ meetings aren’t secret at all to an Extraordinary Being."

Frank gritted his teeth and sat back down. "But he didn’t kill me."

"CRUMBLE—"

Hearing the sound, Frank whipped his head around. He saw a marble sculpture behind him disintegrate into a pile of fine powder, which cascaded from its display stand and settled all over the floor.

"..."

Frank’s lip twitched. Then he heard Lawrence’s mocking laugh. "You don’t actually think he missed, do you?"

"You—!"

"Let me tell you, this is about psychological warfare, not just killing. Do you dare to retaliate now?" Lawrence said coolly. "You should feel lucky. He spared you because he thinks you’re not one of Aaron’s immediate family, so you aren’t a future threat."

Lawrence looked at Frank, his voice low and full of insinuation. "Your brother’s entire family has been wiped out. That makes you the new Patriarch of the Frank Clan. And as I recall, you have two sons and two daughters of your own."

Frank’s face flushed red, then went deathly pale. A moment later, it was as if all his Essence, Qi, and Spirit had been drained from him. He slumped into his chair, a dull, vacant look in his eyes.

The others, however, all breathed a collective sigh of relief. One man on good terms with Frank came over and patted his shoulder comfortingly.

But before he could say anything, someone else suddenly asked, "Is he gone?"

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly tensed.

They had been in the middle of discussing how to deal with him, and he had come right to their doorstep. A fair amount of time had passed since the lightning strike, but who knew if he was actually gone?

"We give ourselves too much credit." Lawrence suddenly spoke up, gathering the papers and files in front of him. "He doesn’t even consider us to be on his level."

"..."

At the head of the table, Rockefeller couldn’t help but clench his fists. He then rapped on the table. "The objective of this meeting has been met. Adjourned!"