Chapter 127: The True Power of the Vance Family

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: The True Power of the Vance Family

The low voice carrying an icy coercion had barely faded when the sky above the industrial zone suddenly darkened.

Three heavily armed medical battleships bearing the Vance family crest of a silver serpent coiled around a scepter tore through the cloud layer, hovering directly above the twelve tiny spaceships of the Research Institute. The ion cannons on the bows of the battleships unlocked, locking tightly onto the coordinates of the fleet below and causing the warning system inside Victor’s spaceship to let out frantic "Beep! Beep!" sounds.

The hatch of the lead battleship opened, and Theodore Vance alongside the incumbent head of the Vance family - Lincoln Vance - stepped down the gravity ramp together.

Walking right behind the two of them was Liam wearing a long milky-white cloak; the youth’s usually gentle face was now covered in a layer of frost, while beside him a tall, broad man in a black coat held the soundly sleeping baby Sane with one arm, his other hand escorting closely by Liam’s waist.

The man had an exceedingly ordinary appearance on the outside, yet when his ice-blue eyes swept across the crowd from the Research Institute, every one of them felt an invisible pressure along with a towering murderous intent shooting straight into their mental seas. The entire group was terrified, their calves trembling unconsciously.

"Eldest Uncle! Second Uncle! Liam!" Isabella and Benjamin saw the three appear and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The enforcement squad captain Victor saw both Major General Theodore Vance and family head Lincoln Vance present in person, feeling slightly guilty as he stepped back half a pace, yet remembering the instructions from his biological uncle, Director Wagner Thorne, before departing that "the Vance family are merely medicine merchants and military doctors, holding no direct political power within the Science Council", he puffed out his chest to regain his arrogant demeanor:

"So it is family head Lincoln and Major General Theodore. You two have come at just the right time! Even though the Vance Military Medical Group is a distribution partner of this weaving mill, today’s order to retrieve the Cryomollis technology is a resolution signed by nine permanent Academicians of the Central Research Institute! Although the Vance family is a third-ranked aristocratic family, according to Imperial law, merchants have no right to interfere with the official scientific survey duties of the Research Institute. I hope you two will not make things difficult for us!"

Lincoln Vance stopped in his tracks upon hearing that sentence. He slowly took off his black leather gloves, handing them to the assistant beside him before letting out a soft laugh. The laugh was very light, yet it made every single person who knew this old fox of the business world shudder.

"A third-ranked merchant has no right to interfere with the official duties of the Research Institute?" Lincoln stepped forward two paces, his knife-sharp eyes looking straight at Victor while simultaneously looking straight into the surveillance camera lens transmitting live images back to the meeting room of the Research Institute Council on the Capital planet:

"Wagner Thorne, have you sat in that Director’s chair for so long that you have developed senile dementia, old man? Or should I remind the nine old men in your Council of what our Vance family actually is?"

In the supreme meeting room on the Capital planet, old Director Wagner Thorne and the eight Academicians sitting watching through the live broadcast screen from the scene all furrowed their brows slightly upon seeing Lincoln call out his name directly through the lens.

The very next second, Lincoln raised his hand, opening the family head smart watch holding the supreme authority of the Vance clan, inputting a sixteen-character bloodline password sequence that had never once been activated throughout the past century:

"You people always think the Vance family is merely a third-ranked commercial aristocratic family because we neither hold military power like the Hall family, nor participate in vying for Parliamentary seats in the National Assembly. Yet have you ever asked yourselves why, throughout the past five hundred years, regardless of how many generations of Emperors the Royal Family has changed through, the Vance family has always remained the sole clan holding the monopoly over the lifeblood of this entire Galaxy?"

Lincoln’s voice echoed across the factory plaza and transmitted straight into the meeting room of the Research Institute:

"First, eighty-five percent of all refined raw medicinal herbs, stem cell culture solutions, S-grade experimental chemicals, and the microchip cores inside all the quantum analysis scanners that your Central Research Institute uses every single day... are supplied free of charge or subsidized by 90% from the founding endowment fund of the Vance clan since the time of my great-grandfather! In the founding charter establishing the Research Institute three hundred years ago, Article 01 is clearly written: The Vance clan is the Supreme Patron holding the right to revoke all core infrastructure if the Research Institute goes against scientific principles!"

The smile on the face of old Director Wagner Thorne on the Capital end of the line froze solid immediately. Several younger old Academicians looked at one another in bewilderment, because the original charter document from three hundred years ago was held solely by the previous generation’s Director; they had enjoyed the cheap supply of materials from the Vance family for so long that they thought it was an obvious obligation of the Empire!

Not stopping there, Theodore Vance standing beside his younger brother also coldly stepped forward a pace, raising the dark-purple Supreme Military Medical badge engraved with an eight-pointed star up in front of the lens:

"Second, you pack of parasites have sat enjoying yourselves in the laboratories on the Capital planet for so long that you have forgotten who actually holds your lives in their hands! The entire system of S-grade treatment medical pods, spinal cord recovery fluids, and especially the cellular longevity-extending serum that your nine nearly two-hundred-year-old bodies must be injected with periodically twice a month to maintain your lucidity and your lives... all fall under the exclusive approval authority of the Vance Medical Council headed by Lincoln and myself!"

Theodore ground out every single word, the murderous aura from a general who had stepped across mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the front line erupting, terrifying captain Victor standing opposite until both of his knees went weak, cold sweat breaking out to drench the back of his shirt:

"You are not afraid of the power of the Hall family, not afraid of Umbra, because you think they do not dare kill scientists, is that right? However, our Vance family does not need to kill anyone at all! We only need to stop supplying medicine and materials!"

Right on the spot, Lincoln Vance pressed the confirm button on his smart screen, issuing a direct order to the headquarters of the Vance Group before the eyes of hundreds of lenses:

"From this very second, the Vance Group officially activates Article 01 of the Founding Charter! Immediately lock all usage rights to the biological analysis server system funded by the Vance family at the Central Research Institute! Indefinitely suspend the supply of all experimental chemicals and stem cell solutions, while completely cutting off the supply of longevity-maintaining serum for the nine Council members who signed their names to Enforcement Order No. 409 today!"

Lincoln braced both hands atop his silver-mounted cane, raising his head to look into the camera with an icy gaze as though looking at a pile of corpses:

"If the Central Research Institute already feels it is so useless that hundreds of years of research cannot even produce a single thread, knowing only how to use administrative power to go rob the achievements of a twenty-two-year-old young girl... Then there is no need for that rotten Research Institute to exist any longer! Since our Vance family could single-handedly build up this Research Institute three hundred years ago, today we do not mind personally wiping it off the map of the Lumina Galaxy forever, before tearing it down to rebuild a cleaner new Research Institute right here in the Polaris star system!"

Boom!

The domineering and ruthless declaration of the two Vance brothers was no different from an atomic bomb thrown straight into the middle of the meeting room of the Central Research Institute on the Capital planet!

Merely ten exact seconds after Lincoln’s order was transmitted.

At the white tower of the Central Research Institute on the Capital planet, over eighty percent of the quantum analysis computer systems and biological culture chambers inside the key laboratories simultaneously sounded the remote copyright lock chime of the Vance Group, their screens darkening as they ceased operating immediately!

Most terrifying of all was that the personal smart watches of the eight old Academicians in the meeting room simultaneously received an official notification from the Vance Central Hospital:

[Notification: Your VIP medical account has been placed on the permanent blacklist of the Vance clan. The periodic cell-regeneration serum injection scheduled for this Friday along with all S-grade medical pod services for yourself and all direct relatives have been completely canceled!]

"What... what?!"

An old Academician who was one hundred and eighty-four years old this year, suffering from chronic bone marrow failure that required relying on the exclusive serum of the Vance family every month to keep his life, had barely finished reading the notification line on his watch when his face turned as deathly pale as a corpse, his entire body trembling as he collapsed with a thud into his chair:

"No... You cannot cut off my serum! If the injections of the Vance family’s serum are stopped for over a month, my internal organs will fail completely within three weeks! Other hospitals do not have the formula for this S-grade serum! Director Thorne! Quickly... quickly cancel that crazy enforcement order at once! I do not want to die!"

"My key laboratory too! All the gene culture data from the past five years is sitting inside the servers of the Vance Group; now remote access rights are locked and the material transport team of the Vance family just turned around to withdraw all the preservation chemicals! Without the preservation solution of the Vance family within the next two hours, all the specimens of the Institute worth two hundred billion silver stars will die completely!"

The entire supreme meeting room of the Research Institute, which only a moment ago was still arrogantly beating its chest claiming "even Kings and Lords must give way", was at this very moment thrown into frantic chaos like an anthill doused with boiling water!

Only at this moment did they realize in horror: The true power of a top aristocratic family did not lie solely in guns and bullets on the surface! The Vance family modestly stood in the third position throughout the past several hundred years not because they were weaker than anyone else, but because they were the very ones holding the "oxygen tank" of the entire upper class and academic circle of the Empire! Normally the Vance family supplied oxygen steadily, so the crowd at the Research Institute grew used to being arrogant, thinking they could breathe on their own; only when the Vance family coldly pinched the air tube shut did the entire group thrash about convulsively because they were about to suffocate to death!

Old Director Wagner Thorne at this moment also had cold sweat streaming down to drench his entire forehead. He himself was also having to take S-grade cardiovascular stabilizing medicine personally formulated by Theodore Vance. Moreover, right as the systems of the Research Institute were paralyzed, from the side of William Hall’s Ministry of Internal Affairs an official dispatch was also immediately sent over for a comprehensive financial inspection of the Research Institute Council over the past twenty years, due to receiving a corruption complaint from none other than its largest patron, the Vance Group!

Not daring to hesitate for another single second, the eight Academicians who were scared out of their wits immediately lunged forward to snatch the control privileges on the conference table, simultaneously pressing the buttons to cancel Enforcement Resolution No. 409 right on the spot, while at the same time voting... to suspend the Director position of Wagner Thorne to push the old man out as a scapegoat in order to appease the wrath of the Vance family!

At the gate of the Passing Shower weaving mill in the Polaris star system.

Enforcement squad captain Victor was still standing trembling violently without knowing what to do when the official smart watch on his wrist rang out with the panicked screaming roar of the Academician who had just taken over temporary command from the Capital:

"Victor! You idiot, what are you still standing there for?! Enforcement Order No. 409 has been completely canceled, and your biological uncle has just been dismissed from his position as Director for investigation! Quickly kneel down to apologize to family head Lincoln, Major General Theodore, and Miss Isabella Martinez immediately, then roll back to the Capital to take your punishment for me! If Miss Isabella and the Vance family refuse to forgive us today and withdraw all material sponsorship, this entire Research Institute will skin you alive!"

Victor heard that as though struck beside the ear by lightning, his face drained of every last drop of blood. Before the cold gazes of Lincoln, Theodore, and dozens of mech gun barrels pointing straight at his head, the Alpha who just a moment ago was still cockily tilting his chin demanding to seal the weaving mill immediately dropped both knees straight down onto the concrete road in front of the factory gate, stammering as he kowtowed to apologize to Isabella and the Martinez family until his forehead was swollen and bleeding, only daring after that to lead the enforcement staff with their tails between their legs to climb onto their spaceships and flee from the Polaris star system as fast as stray dogs!

Watching the fleet of spaceships of the Research Institute flee out of sight behind the cloud layer, all the weaving mill workers along with Daniel and Sebastian standing behind erupted into resounding cheers in unison.

Isabella and Benjamin looked at their two biological maternal uncles, who had just decided the survival of the entire Central Research Institute with a single word, with eyes overflowing with worship.

Only at this moment did Lincoln Vance put away his sharp, cold expression, turning around to smile kindly as he patted lightly on the shoulders of his niece Isabella and youngest nephew Liam:

"You children just set your minds at rest to do whatever you like. So long as these two old bones and the Vance family are still here, across this Lumina Galaxy, not a single person is permitted to bully the descendants of Asher Vance!"

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