Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 1029 72-Hour Cleanup Operation V: Lady Mirror Trying to Be a Dog
Far East City Financial District
If the Rift Market is a gray behemoth feeding off marginal forces, then the financial district of Far East City is the beating heart of the entire city.

The dense flow of capital, the nervously fluctuating trading information, and the 24/7 bustling commercial districts constitute the most sensitive area of ​​Far East City—the hub of information dissemination and the breeding ground for emotions.

Now, my heart is inflamed.

On the surface, it remained a prosperous financial district, with junior priests and clergy accountants recording the flow of gold coins and interest on spiritual bonds as usual, and merchants hawking molten silver bracelets and church bonds on stone streets paved with sacred marks.

But in secret, the infiltration forces of the three Storm Kings had already laid a heavy net here.

They set up multiple fake credit offices, interest mutual aid societies, and ascetic fundraising halls on the seventeenth metal staircase as cover, and incited civilians, craftsmen, and lower-class war slaves to form fake organizations such as the Golden Law Guild, Red Believers, and Debt Tribunals, stirring up anti-Horizon and anti-Terrorist Mobile Company sentiments among the people.

The real hub is located in the sunken temple on the seventh floor of the financial district.

It was an abandoned "alchemy tribunal" with walls made of reflective mercury and a floor made of a refractive array used by the ancient church for purifying souls.

Now, it has a new owner:

Lady Mirror – The ghostly witch of the Silver Chain Society, the queen of faceted refraction.

She sat on the half-melted prism throne, with hundreds of floating mirrors behind her, which slowly rotated, reflecting the past, present, and a fictional and distorted future.

She wore a cracked silver mask, the broken edges causing her face to constantly reconstruct in the light, as if countless faces were superimposed and overlapping, never revealing the truth.

Her voice was embellished with a special refraction tone, each word echoing and emanating synchronously from mirrors in different directions, sending chills down the spine of anyone who heard it.

She is not alone.

Around her gathered the remnants of the Church of St. Cuthbert. They wore silver robes, mirrored helmets engraved with the Atonement Cross, and carried ash-cracking hammers symbolized by the purifying fire.

In the name of the old gods, they restarted oracle preaching, inciting the people to return to "original purity" of faith and attacking the "corrupted technology" represented by the horizon.

With the financial support of the Silver Chain Society as its foundation and Saint Cuthbert as its local faith, Madam Mirror quietly controlled more than 70% of the transactions in the financial district.

Her ability—[Illusion Refraction System - Prismatic Projection]—was amplified to a terrifying degree within this temple composed of mirrors, metal, and glass.

She can create "prismatic planes" on any transparent material, releasing dozens of phantom substitutes to launch synchronized reflective attacks.

She can create visual and logical illusions, causing enemies to be "devoured" in their minds before they even come into contact with her.

Even more terrifying is that her illusions can be embedded in cognitive structures, making enemies believe they are "fighting with lucidity" when in fact they have already entered a nightmare labyrinth.

This is her—Madam Mirror, a rising star in the financial district, and a newly minted Devil Fruit user.

She observes the light, traffic, and the path of faith transmission throughout the area through the mirror, thus controlling the operating rules of the entire financial district.

Before becoming a power user, Madam Mirror was at the top of the underground capital pyramid in Far East City.

Those ordinary people who thought the Church of St. Cuthbert was the core of the local faith did not know that the legendary St. Cuthbert Cathedral was also built with her funding.

After the Daylight Chasing Incident, she gained Devil Fruit powers, which made her control over the Financial District even more secure.

However, Lady Mirror deeply understood one thing: Far East City was no longer the Far East City it used to be.

The Great Lord of the Horizon took over this place, and he initially left these underground rats to their own devices in order to build that awe-inspiring, magnificent black wall.

She knew that the Black Wall had stopped expanding a month ago.

This means that the Lord of the Horizon is no longer busy building walls, but is preparing to begin the reckoning.

The First Child has repeatedly raised the issue of corruption and faith alienation in Far East City in countless public council meetings. She is certainly aware of the intelligence that the Wolf Pack Force began to expand a month ago—which means that Horizon has begun to clean up the city.

But she said nothing.

She did not inform the three Storm King's spies, nor did she notify the ground branch of the Saint Cuthbert remnants, nor did she communicate with the Silver Chain Society she had built.

Madam Jing was acutely aware that she was merely a pawn in the hands of those powerful figures, and that her Silver Chain Society had already been largely infiltrated by them. However, she dared not openly rebel against them.

She was simply observing, waiting, and choosing the optimal exit path from the myriad possibilities reflected in the mirror.

She understood that true businessmen never go against the tide; what businessmen want is never confrontation, but rather to change course.

【Drip drip-】

Now, the alarm bells are beginning to ring.

Blue flames ignited atop the clock tower, a signal representing the divine decree of punishment.

She squinted, her gaze fixed on the distant sky.

There, a military unit is quietly descending.

The leader, clad in a black and gold cloak and bearing two holy emblems, was Monford, a high-ranking member of the Imperial Guard who had completed the forging of twenty-four holy symbols.

He represents the will of the Lord of the Horizon, and with the iron boots of judgment from the Shepherds, he is about to crush the Financial District.

Lady Mirror had already made her choice.

At this moment, upon seeing the arrival of the main force of the pastors, the remaining members of the Church of St. Cuthbert looked at each other with fear behind their cross helmets.

"Damn Horizon, how could they move so fast? This is different from the intelligence we received. We didn't gather any intelligence about Horizon's large-scale deployment."

"Wasn't the Black Wall just completed? Weren't they still busy securing the border? This operation is too fast..."

A remnant who appeared to be in command cursed, even tearing the holy emblem off his armor. He looked around; the remaining members of the Church of St. Cuthbert were cursing, panicking, and frantically rewriting their battle plans.

"Quickly, take the Oracle Stone with us. We'll retreat to the ninth floor of the financial building. There, Lady Mirror has set up a backup mirror network. We can use her mirror image teleportation to escape!"

The chaos continued to escalate, and faith crumbled amidst despair and curses. One by one, believers who had once sworn to purify heresy now plotted their escape routes like stray dogs.

Madam Mirror remained seated.

She neither denounced the shepherds' decision, nor summoned the guards, nor initiated any countermeasures.

She watched the people in the church chattering away like an elegant lady watching a play.

"Hey, why aren't you moving yet?" At this moment, a member of the Church of St. Cuthbert, who had just realized what was happening, scolded Lady Mirror with dissatisfaction.

Lady Mirror slowly turned her head, and a silvery laugh rang out from beneath the mask made of prisms and crystal fragments.

"Hahaha~~~"

The smile carried a hint of mockery, pity, and even... the cruelty of a harvester.

"And here I am, taking action now?"

In an instant, the light broke.

All the mirrors behind her instantly transformed into an optical labyrinth, with prism projections scattering out like a cracked net, illuminating the square.

Every mirror reflected her image—or rather, more than one of her.

Click click click click——

"Damn it, do you know what you're doing..." someone exclaimed.

But the next second, the sound was completely cut off. *Bang! Snap! Thud!*
But the next second, the sound was completely cut off.

Thud! Smack! Plop!
The air seemed to shatter, and the light refracted violently. Three, five, nine mirror images pierced through the crowd from all directions without warning—like beams of light cutting through, or like divine judgment. The remnants of the Church of St. Cuthbert had no time to react before they were beheaded.

Some people's heads were misaligned by a foot from their bodies, and their blood seemed to have been instantly evaporated by the light, leaving only an upright empty shell.

Some people had their chests pierced by prism beams, and before they could even scream, they fell straight down.

Some people, during the mirror reflection attack, saw their own reflection—that reflection suddenly twisted and grinned, reaching out and piercing through their bodies, like a tangible illusion, yet delivering a real and fatal blow.

In the interplay of light and shadow, the dead are left without a complete corpse.

They were like candles waiting to be extinguished, but Lady Mirror—with just a casual snap of her fingers—caused countless mirror images to descend like judges, extinguishing those flames one by one.

In less than ten seconds, 90% of the remaining members of the group collapsed to the ground.

Blood flowed down the broken stone slabs, and the church emblem rolled on the ground, covered in dust and blood.

Those remaining members of the comrade-in-arms, not quite dead yet, lay on the ground, riddled with wounds, bleeding profusely, their gasps filled with hatred and curses.
"You have betrayed the path of God... Lady Mirror, you greedy witch...!"

"The great Saint Cuthbert will not let you go! You will fall into the fire of hell! Our church will return one day—we will return to settle all scores!!!"

Madam Mirror slowly approached, her silver high heels clicking on the blood-stained stone slabs like the ticking of a pendulum.

She looked down at them, her tone gentle as a mother soothing a crying child, yet every word was like a knife:

"The Grand Patriarch of the Church of Saint Cuthbert has long since had his head ripped off by the Lord of the Horizon..."

She smiled slightly, her tone light and cheerful:

"So why are you still spouting such delusional nonsense?"

"Times have changed, and I... just went with the flow."

"Horizon is destined to take over the whole of Abelio."

The remaining member's eyes widened suddenly, blood gushing from the corner of his mouth, as he roared in a trembling voice, "You—"

Before he could finish speaking, a reflection in the mirror flashed by.

"puff."

His words and his life were severed by a precise, silent beam of light.

Lady Mirror lowered her eyes to look at their last corpses, casually wiped the blood from her palms, and turned to step into the mirror door that was about to open.

To be or not to be?

This is an ancient, almost moldy question, a dilemma that countless gods, empires, and ambitious individuals have repeatedly weighed throughout history.

But in Mrs. Mirror's mind, it was never a philosophical question—but rather a question about interest rates.

Destruction means zero assets, bankruptcy of credit, broken capital chain, and no place to be buried.

As for survival... even if she has to kneel, crawl, or become a boot-licking dog, as long as she can keep those few invisible financial channels, she will always have a chance to make a comeback.

This is not betrayal; it is the flow of capital, the logic of the market, and—the instinct of a traitor.

So while all the remnants of St. Cuthbert's faction in the financial district were still indulging in the delusion of "purifying heresy and rebuilding the Kingdom of God," Lady Mirror had already packed up a thick booklet and made a list.

This includes, but is not limited to: all nodes of the money laundering network in the financial district, the weapons inventory of the underground organization of the Church of Saint Cuthbert, the list of five undercover agents of the Storm King in the crowd, and the assets controlled by Lady Mirror herself.

She was just a businesswoman who sincerely admitted her mistakes, and a collaborator trying to save herself.

Lady Mirror will appear incredibly humble before the Horizon, bowing down to the great Lord of the Horizon, and she has already prepared her surrender lines.

"I am willing to hand over all my assets and assist in purging all lurking forces in the financial district. I only ask for... a pardon."

Look, what a devout penitent!

She believed that the merciful Lord of the Horizon would forgive her sins.

……

……

As night fell, the blue flames on the clock tower of the Far East Financial District still burned, but the streets were already deserted.

Inside the temporary frontline command post, Monford was flipping through the combat report in his hands with a look of astonishment on his face, his brows furrowed so deeply they could have crushed a mosquito.

"You mean... Lady Mirror has surrendered to us?" His tone was clearly surprised.

The intelligence officer sitting opposite him, holding a light panel, nodded.

"Yes, Your Excellency. Not only did she voluntarily relinquish control, but she also provided a map of the faith dissemination nodes of the Church of St. Cuthbert, a report on the flow of funds of the Storm King's hidden operations... as well as a complete set of intelligence maps targeting the Financial District. She even personally participated in this purge operation."

"...?" Monford was completely bewildered.

“Even more outrageous, she volunteered to become a witness and practical advisor for the financial district reform plan afterward, and applied to join the external supervisory structure of the pastoral council.”

The intelligence officer adjusted his glasses and continued calmly, "In addition... this is the original text of Madam Mirror's personal statement when she submitted her application for a pardon."

He paused, then began to repeat himself sentence by sentence in an extremely formulaic tone:

"Under the divine rule of the Lord of the Great Horizon, Far East City has finally ushered in the true Spring of Abelio. This is a historic baptism, an inevitable step for the corrupt old world towards a new era."

"As an ordinary merchant, I am aware that I have made mistakes in the past. To have witnessed the great feat of the Lord of the Horizon building the Black Wall was like a divine revelation, a divine inspiration. It was truly one of the three great fortunes in my life."

"The First Son, like the iron cavalry of heaven, wields the scales of justice, representing the supreme will of the Lord of the Horizon. He is the true savior of this land, the sower of order, and the builder of faith..."

"I am willing to dedicate the rest of my life to becoming the Lord's financial spark, assisting in cleansing corrupt capital and spreading the will of the Black Wall—we have been oxen, horses, paper, pens, numbers, and ink for generations..."

"--stop."

Monford raised his hand to interrupt, his face grim. Even with his discipline and willpower, it would be difficult for him to remain unmoved by this pile of exaggerated and obsequious words that even a church priest couldn't write.

It was just too... disgusting and obsequious. Such a show of surrender really left Monford with a bad impression.

Such people have no faith, no principles; their only loyalty lies in self-interest and the prevailing winds. Today they might prostrate themselves before the Lord of the Horizon's footprints, but tomorrow, if the situation reverses, they could crush your statue and use the fragments to exchange for the next master's pass.

Lady Mirror is not someone who surrenders, but rather someone who is opportunistic.

"She hasn't reformed; she's shifting her leverage." Monford's assessment of Mrs. Mirror was spot on.

For a moment, the entire command center was so quiet that only the sound of breathing could be heard.

The intelligence officer coughed lightly: "Should we reject her application immediately?"

Monford shook his head and said in a deep voice:

"No...accept it for now. This is a matter that can only be decided by His Majesty Abraham. If you want to be a dog of the horizon, you have to consider His Majesty's mood."