Joseph was a ruthless man.
In the Black Robes, you couldn't survive without being ruthless.
To have risen to his current position from an unknown Black Robe over several centuries, Joseph relied not only on brute force but also on his wits!
"Joseph!"
Upon seeing Joseph enter, Devante immediately stood up to greet him, and Evan also rose at once.
The relationship between the three brothers was quite good; the two younger ones had often helped Joseph with his dirty work.
After exchanging smiles, Joseph sat down and got straight to the point.
"What exactly is the situation? Tell me in detail."
Diona's parents' deaths were also linked to him.
After all, he was the one who had sent his brothers to snatch that quest item back then.
For Joseph, whether Diona lived or died was secondary; the exposure of what happened at the time was also not a major concern.
However, the quest item he had obtained absolutely could not be exposed to public view!
Devante was not one to beat around the bush and recounted the entire incident of the anonymous message.
During his explanation, he also presented the two possibilities he had speculated.
After listening, Joseph frowned and leaned closer to Devante, examining the anonymous message.
Then, Joseph took out a small device and plugged it into the terminal's interface.
This was a rare item capable of tracing the origin of any information.
However, this time Joseph was destined to fail.
The capabilities of the mechanical lifeform race in the digital world were far beyond their estimations.
Joseph obtained no useful information. He put the device away, his expression growing even more somber.
"Devante did well. We definitely shouldn't confront Diona directly."
Evan seemed somewhat taken aback and misinterpreted Joseph's meaning.
"No way, big brother? Are you actually afraid of that Shan Hai?"
"Shan Hai is just the Fifth Force. We are the Third Force."
"In terms of your combat power and the overall strength of our force, you should be superior to him. What are you afraid of?"
Evan had assumed that his eldest brother would directly reprimand Shan Hai upon his arrival.
He hadn't expected his eldest brother to be afraid of Shan Hai!
Joseph's face darkened.
"What does this have to do with whether we can win or not?"
"I've told you to learn from Devante more often. Where has your attention been?!"
"Let me ask you, if the two of us were to fight, what benefit would we gain, hmm?!"
Joseph's tone suddenly became stern, and Evan instinctively shrank his neck, though he still felt a little unconvinced.
"Perhaps if we threatened him, Shan Hai would voluntarily hand her over..." Evan retorted in a low voice.
Idiot!
Joseph couldn't help himself and kicked Evan, sending him stumbling.
"You pig, you're a complete pig!"
"Didn't you see the battle between Shan Hai and Jin Henli?"
"He didn't even use his full power fighting Jin Henli!"
"Jin Henli self-destructed, and he wasn't injured. Do you think he's weak?"
"Diona being transferred to the Fifth Force is clearly Shan Hai's doing. Do you know what that signifies?"
Evan rubbed his backside. It didn't hurt much; his brother still cared for him.
When Joseph asked him, Evan pondered for a moment.
"It means Shan Hai is interested in Diona?"
Evan thought about it and felt it was highly likely.
Some people had peculiar preferences, perhaps they liked holding a cat by its ears while doing certain things!
That's right, Evan thought he would also enjoy that feeling immensely.
Joseph let out a cold laugh.
"Whether he's interested in Diona or not, transferring her means she's useful to Shan Hai, understand?!"
"So we can't touch Diona for now, at least not directly bypassing Shan Hai to do so!!"
"As for starting a war, I'm not going to create a powerful opponent with a terrible personality for myself over a mere demi-human."
"Behave yourself, understand?!" Joseph's eyes were filled with warning, making Evan shiver and nod repeatedly.
Only then did Joseph let him off with satisfaction.
"As for what Devante mentioned, the Seventh Force, it does carry a strong suspicion."
Bringing the topic back on track, Joseph also felt this was the most likely suspect.
"Indeed. After all, if we were to fight, the Seventh Force would be the biggest beneficiary."
"But could it also be part of Diona's plan?"
"In any case, forget about Shan Hai. It's definitely not him!"
Devante chimed in, analyzing with certainty.
Joseph nodded in agreement with this assessment.
To the three of them, Diona was a minor character. It was only because she was now involved with Shan Hai that she had become troublesome.
Normally, the three brothers would have ignored it and dealt with it simply.
But now, an anonymous message had arrived, and it was unlikely to be the end of it.
Diona had just been transferred into Shan Hai's hands when the message came. This was definitely not a coincidence.
Although it was highly probable that the Seventh Force wanted to target Shan Hai, it was not impossible that someone wanted to mess with their trio.
Over the years, the three brothers had no shortage of enemies, which was why Joseph was being so cautious.
Diona was merely a trigger. No matter how they looked at it, she couldn't be killed now.
Because whether this scheme was aimed at their trio or at Shan Hai, killing Diona would put them at odds with Shan Hai. This was the worst possible course of action.
"How about this, I'll send a message to Shan Hai to gauge his reaction."
After pondering for a long time, Joseph made a decision.
He wanted to know Diona's importance to Shan Hai before making any further decisions.
"Go ahead and try!" Devante agreed.
His goal was also for Joseph to contact Shan Hai.
To put it bluntly, but realistically, among the three brothers, only Joseph was qualified to be on equal footing with Shan Hai.
Without further ado, Joseph took out his terminal and initiated a voice call to Lin Feng's terminal.
Soon, a response came from the other end.
The person you have contacted is not in this universe and has set their messages to be temporarily rejected (will automatically expire in 43 hours and 10 minutes). Do you wish to use the message leaving function?
Joseph frowned and hung up the call.
"What's wrong, Joseph?"
Devante's heart skipped a beat, sensing that something was amiss.
"Shan Hai is no longer in this universe, and he has set a temporary message rejection function."
Joseph said this and exchanged a look with Devante. The implication that something was suspicious was self-evident.
Evan, on the side, couldn't keep up with the pace and simply remained where he was, not getting involved.
After all, his two elder brothers would handle whatever happened.
"Just took office and went missing? Or went on a mission?" Devante kept speculating.
"What should we do? Wait a couple of days?" Devante said with some reluctance.
There was no other way. If they couldn't contact him and didn't want to offend him, they could only wait.
Joseph mused for a moment.
"Have you tried contacting Diona?"
Huh? Contact Diona?
Devante was momentarily stunned, and then a gleam flashed in his eyes.
Right, how could he have forgotten about this?
Contacting Diona was also a viable option!