"Patriarch, what’s wrong?" Watching the Patriarch pacing nonstop in the room, this member of the Alben Family also started to panic a little.

Could it be that his own men had failed to get things done?

"Every time I tell you to study more of the family’s collection and knowledge, you don’t listen. Now in a situation like this, all you can do is stare blankly." The Patriarch let out a cold snort, clearly very displeased.

"The Alben Family has a collection of a hundred thousand volumes; we can practically learn all the knowledge in the world. Any one of those books would fetch a sky‑high price outside. Yet you, this good‑for‑nothing, refuse to study at all. You’re rotten wood that can’t be carved."

Patriarch Alben snorted twice in deep dissatisfaction, making this main‑branch intelligence officer shrink his neck.

In this world, knowledge has value, and it is very expensive.

For those gangsters, they basically only know a hundred or so everyday characters. The books they see at most are some gang rules and slogans about loyalty; they simply have no right to education. The little everyday literacy they do have is only because the nobles need them to keep accounts and do arithmetic.

And this knowledge that would cause countless people outside to fight over it—especially the knowledge of Mysticism—is actually gathering dust in the family’s library.

"How did our Alben Family rise up, how did we become the world’s number one noble clan? You at least know that much, right?" the Patriarch said.

"It was the main family’s Patriarch, Miss Harley Alben, who in her youth invested in that one True God in the world, and thus gave our Alben Family a four‑hundred‑year legacy..." He slowly recited the contents of the book.

"So you do remember?" the Patriarch said with great displeasure. "And now, this throw of the dice of mine is very likely to let our Alben Family flourish for another 400 years. Our Roland City branch might even replace the main family and become the true main family of Alben."

Within the Alben Family, the main family is located in Yujin City, more than 200 kilometers away from Roland City.

And in basically every other surrounding city, there is a Patriarch formed by members of a branch of the Alben Family; first, to spread the bloodline, and second, to control more resources.

Only with more resources can the family grow strong and vigorous.

And they themselves are merely members of the Roland City branch; there are dozens of such Alben branches.

He wanted to return to the main family and become one of the figures holding real power there. At the very least, he had to see this branch under him develop more prosperously.

Instead of getting mocked by the other branch Patriarchs every time he went back to the main family to perform the divine sacrifice ritual.

Previously, he had thought the Xiao Organization’s upper limit was only around ten thousand people, and that the power granted by the Engravings capped out at Hero Level at best. So he was merely interested, and casually sent someone from the family over for a political marriage.

In truth, he was just treating Xue Dili as a high‑grade enforcer.

But now, the situation was completely different, because the number inside the Xiao Organization had already risen to the level of a hundred thousand, and the Engraving’s power had not weakened; instead it kept growing stronger. Some of those first‑wave, Legendary elder members were faintly approaching quasi–Tier Four.

This was completely different from what he had previously assumed. Just awakened, and in only a bit more than a day, they had already developed their abilities to this degree—this was something even Patriarch Alben had never dared to imagine.

So in an instant he thought of the story from 400 years ago of the Patriarch Harley Alben and the God of Tricks, Mephisto.

On this leader of the Xiao Organization, he seemed to see the shadow of that former God of Tricks. That was why he was now saying their sincerity was not enough—randomly sending some family member over for a political marriage was far too reckless.

"Have Belie come see me." He directly spoke his daughter’s name. At this point, he was preparing to place his most important bet here: to sell off his own daughter in exchange for future development.

Even if the gamble failed, he still wouldn’t lose out. At the very least, having a force of a hundred thousand at Hero Level was already a combat strength not to be underestimated.

Even sacrificing his own daughter in exchange for the allegiance of these hundred thousand people would still be pure profit.

...

At the same time, the gang war in Roland City was still raging on.

The Young Ladies held sweet bread in their hands, with cream on top. Even though it had been stuffed in their pockets for a long time and had gone hard, the taste of this bread still intoxicated them.

"Big sis, is this really bread for us to eat?" A few little girls they had just rescued asked timidly.

These members of the Xiao Organization fell silent.

They were a nine‑person squad, 8 girls and 1 boy. Yet just yesterday, they had still been nine all‑male good brothers—the kind of kids who survived by picking trash on Flower Street, stealing things, and rummaging through garbage cans.

Even though the oldest among them was only sixteen, in order to survive they had long since honed a set of nimble, unblinking techniques for stealing money in this world.

In a life like that, if they could have a piece of black bread mixed with sand and wood shavings in a day, that was already the most luxurious meal.

But in an instant, their lives underwent an earth‑shattering change. This whole group of petty thieves had been caught by the gang, then all of them were forcibly castrated and fed Gender Transformation Potion, turned into girls.

Even the one who hadn’t been fed the Gender Transformation Potion—his thing down there was gone too; he had only been rescued before they had time to pour the Gender Transformation Potion down his throat.