Arcus shrugged. "Don''t worry. I''m just discussing the prospect of a partnership with Mr. Derek. All we want to do is make money, and we have no interest in anything else.


    "Moreover, if Mr. Frankton wanted to act, he would already have. Why wait until now?"


    While Arcus already had a n on what to do against warhawks like the geezer, he decided to be reasonable for the time being-it was never toote to move against himter.


    And the geezer was a sly old fox who would never believe Arcus either. He pretended to buy it nheless, as the purpose was to distract.


    Nheless, as Arcus returned to the mansion, he quickly had his people look into the geezer and other people of interest in the Costner family.


    In a day, a full stack of data was in front of him.


    As it turned out, several elders of the Costner family carried considerable influence in the family-one of whom was Walt Costner, the geezer who showed up to warn Arcus. He was a strong martial artist and used to be the head of the family but overestimated his importance and made too many enemies.


    The family ended up in shambles because of that, and Walt was forced to step down. Even so, he never deferred to Derek since he was younger and was constantly sabotaging Derek, even once nning to leave and establish his own family.


    However, while that was not against the rules, it was a family doctrine to not put all their eggs in a single basket. While the Costner family retained overall control, they had other adopted members and vassals. In fact, certain small factions who were concerned about being bullied or lone martial artists would swear fealty to them, even marrying into the family.


    As such, if one wanted to establish another branch of the family, the new family head must establish a simr foundation of outsiders beforehand. Not even the new family head would be allowed to vite that rule and must invest all their resources into helping those outsiders.


    On top of that, leaving the main family also meant no chance of essing the base of the family''s power and wealth, so Walt quickly gave up on the idea.


    Now, even as Arcus wondered what he should do to deal with that geezer, a BM Group member suddenly ran in his room and eximed, "We have a problem! Someone attacked one of our safehouses and wrote in blood that it was Derek Costner''s doing!"


    Arcus frowned, as he already had a good read on Derek.


    Even if the kid wanted to attack them, he would not draw attention to himself, though he would not want to make enemies of Frank in the first ce!


    The only exnation for this was that Walt was responsible and tried to pin the me on Derek. Hence, after the Costners went to war against Frank, Walt could just sit back and im the spoilster.


    "It''s just a cheap shot." Arcus snorted. "We can retaliate-but make sure that we are only targeting Walt Costner''s cronies!"


    "Alright!"


    Arcus'' n was simple.


    would


    His attacks would hint to Derek who really was responsible and what the


    true culprit''s purpose was.


    Moreover, Arcus would not embarrass Frank, while he would


    also get Walt to understand what he was dealing with.


    And just a dayter, Walt arranged a meeting with Arcus.


    Still, knowing it was an ambush, Arcus had his peopley in wait before going.


    As both men took their seats, Walt asked coolly, "What is the meaning of this? Why did you attack my men?"


    Arcus spoke bluntly, because that


    was necessary with people like Walt. "Come on, Mr. Costner. Can''t we


    skip the y-acting already? Any


    fool could tell that you''re the on


    who attacked our safehouse and


    tried to frame Derek for it. So''ll be frank-we won''t make enemies of the Costner family, but we''re not about to let you off the hook either."


    "So you''re saying you''re going to stand in my family''s path to glory?!"


    Arcus shrugged. "Mr. Frankton has already made it very clear that you should keep things strictly business. Everyone needs to eat, after aff... but as the saying goes, the nail that sticks out gets hammered!"


    Walt was incensed. "Lugh Frankton is just lucky enough to gain the power of the spiritron vein! What is so impressive about that?!


    "Also, he should know never to mess with a lion in its den. If hees to Shanton again, he won''t be leaving anytime soon!


    "As for you, I will have your head on a spike, to show Lugh that the Costners are not to be messed with!"