Chapter 3235: The Shadow Ruling Group

In Iolum's view, the Darkness Society might be closer in nature to the Northland Alliance, yet it remains hidden behind the scenes, acting as a deeper ruling group behind the Elf World.

They might not directly hold power, but they control everything within the Elf World through various means, including but not limited to the flow of resources, the rise and fall of commodity prices, and the rise and decline of Upper Families.

Even the succession of Crown Kings and the life and death of Elders.

However—

If such an organization remained hidden behind the scenes, the Elves who actually hold power in each country might not have any strange thoughts; but once such an organization is exposed, it would conflict with the actual power-holders.

First, it is certain that the Darkness Society cannot control all Elf power-holders, because if they could truly achieve that level, the so-called Time-Involving Ritual might have been completed long ago.

Therefore, it is highly probable that only individual power-holders are members of the Darkness Society, while others are influenced through indirect means, such as influencing or even providing Guidance for the Crown King's decisions through the Crown King's Consultants.

The same applies to the Council; if they cannot directly control the Elders, then controlling the people around the Elders is the same, for as long as they are beings of Wisdom, no one can live in a social vacuum.

As long as there is social interaction, influence can inevitably be exerted.

But the premise for this entire system to function is secrecy; once exposed, the actual power-holders cannot tolerate having this group of shadow rulers manipulating them from behind.

If there were no common interests, it might have fallen apart the very same day; it is impossible for them to have united to conspire to rule the world.

Hearing such a conclusion, Xia Shao could not help but marvel; to a certain extent, it coincided with his own judgment, as the Seer families are undoubtedly ancient families.

And this list undoubtedly includes the Seer families; even if one were to tamper with the investigation, as long as there is even a slight degree of targeting, there is a high probability of making a certain Seer reveal a flaw.

Although Xia Shao cannot directly reveal the suspicion of the Seers to the Alliance, he can participate in it himself; he does not believe the Darkness Society can disguise itself flawlessly.

If it weren't for Xia Shao catching a living member of the Darkness Society, perhaps the Darkness Society would still be unknown to this day!

So it looks like they possess noble bloodlines, but in reality, it is all hollow.

The Darkness Society probably cannot imagine that regardless of whether this incident happened or not, he was already suspicious of the Seers; this incident just gave him an opportunity to participate in the investigation legitimately without arousing suspicion.

However, the threat of the Darkness Society as a shadow government did not amount to much, and because the matter was later left unsettled, it made the power-holders of various countries even more vigilant.

The Upper Families were already the true rulers of the Elf World, so there was no need for such a superfluous act; the shadow ruling group that Iolum believes in is actually closer to an alliance brought together by certain interests.

Iolum might be very familiar with the style of conduct when Elves deal with humans, but when it comes to the secrets of past history, Xia Shao is far more proficient.

Elf bloodlines do not possess special power, and one will not necessarily achieve more than others just because they are from an Upper Family; it still depends on later cultivation. It is just that Upper Families have abundant resources and competitive achievements, so their actual success rate is far higher than those at the bottom.

In fact, most Upper Families wish their bottom-tier compatriots had never existed.

Iolum cannot think of these two questions; if he could, he would not be here, but on his way to eliminate the Darkness Society.

Moreover, such a judgment is also beneficial for the subsequent thorough cleanup of the Darkness Society; if everyone thinks this way, many ancient families will be included in the investigation list.

Some cling to ancient heroes, some to ancient kings; of course, those directly fabricated are few and far between, almost non-existent, after all, if your family had never appeared in ancient literature, how embarrassing that would be!

A very important reason why countries did not spare any cost to track down the Darkness Society before was that the Alliance discovered the drawbacks of the Darkness Society's Time-Involving Ritual through research into time-related Magic, allowing the Alliance to lock onto the ritual location within a very short time after the ritual was completed.

After all, the Alliance General Assembly has been held more than once, and this mechanism is already quite mature.

The Darkness Society is proficient in clearing traces, not disguising them; under the condition of suspicion, any anomaly will be infinitely magnified.

It is conceivable that the secret passed down by true Upper Families does not lie in bloodlines, but in Knowledge and resources, so those latecomers who mastered Knowledge and resources could artificially shape their own noble bloodlines.

The problem now is—who is the shadow, and who around them is a pawn controlled by the shadow!

As long as one knows the special significance of Ailan to the Darkness Society, then no matter what, Iolum would not have made the judgment of a shadow ruling group.

In very rare cases, an Upper Family does not care about their background, and even takes pride in rising from the bottom through hard work, but such cases are, after all, in the minority.

"I think this incident could also be an opportunity, an opportunity for the actual power-holders of various countries to make up their minds to eliminate the shadow rulers!"

But the actual power-holders of various countries still went to Evereska in person; when they clearly could have avoided being there in person, they went anyway, and the implications of this are hard not to speculate about.

Of course, Iolum's judgment is not without value; at least it let Xia Shao know how others who do not understand the truth of the Darkness Society think.

Iolum shared his guesses with Xia Shao; he suspects everyone but could not possibly suspect Xia Shao, not because Xia Shao is his student, but because Xia Shao played a very critical role in the exposure of the Darkness Society.

"Therefore, I believe that behind the Darkness Society as a shadow ruling group, it is highly likely to be the ancient Upper Families of the Elf World; those families are long since not limited to one country, but have Branching in multiple countries, which is simply a natural bond."

The Magic world is the same; Elves value bloodlines, but to say that all current Upper Families are directly inherited from ancient times is also impossible.

In the past, the Northland knew almost nothing about the Darkness Society; the only thing known was that there might be another force behind the Demon Descendant, but no one could confirm what this force was or even if it existed.

However, Iolum was not wrong; Seers are indeed ancient families, even true ancient families that have been passed down from ancient times to the present without interruption, but to say that these ancient families joined together to form a shadow ruling group is actually quite unnecessary.

Such an opportunity to openly investigate the Seers is one I absolutely cannot miss! The most critical thing is that my participation is well-founded, precisely because my interests were damaged by this Darkness Society attack incident.

Otherwise, why is the scale of this Alliance General Assembly so high, with the actual power-holders of various countries attending in person? Logically, it would be perfectly fine for a Plenipotentiary Representative to participate.

This is similar to the ruling class in the ancient times of Xia Shao's hometown; once they came to power, they would always find themselves a noble background. Anyway, counting back a few thousand years, who wasn't of noble blood? If one were ruthless enough to trace it back to the mythological era, who wasn't an ancient god-descendant!

Even if they weren't, they could cling to those ancient families that had long since lost their heritage; anyway, counting back tens of thousands of years, they might all have been the same ancestor.

The reason Iolum failed to touch the essence lies in the fact that he lacked the two most critical factors—one is Ailan, and the other is the Seers.

Such a discovery greatly reduced the danger of the Darkness Society on the surface.