Chapter 3940: Silence

Lu Yin looked over at Lian Shuang. “It appears that you lied to me when you said that you could get me the Spirit Coalition’s protection.”

Hui also looked at Lian Shuang.

The woman grew pale and lowered her head. “I didn’t realize how powerful you are, Senior. I beg your forgiveness for my deception.”

Lu Yin just shrugged. “You didn’t deceive me. I simply intended to release you in order to offer a favor to the Spirit Coalition, but that’s no longer possible.”

Hui quickly said, “I’ve taken quite a liking to this girl and wish to adopt her as my daughter. If you are willing to release her, Senior, then my Spirit Coalition would be deeply grateful.”

Lu Yin looked at Hui, only to see that she was being completely sincere.

He looked away and nodded. “When will the Spirit Coalition’s people arrive? Have all of them gather at Five-Palm Mountain. I’ll depart with everyone on a green lotus leaf to support the Consciousness Megaverse.”

“The first group will arrive in about two months, since the Nine Odysseys Megaverse is so enormous. The second batch should take around another month.”

“The second group isn’t needed. The first will suffice. There are also people from the Five-Palm Sect coming.”

Hui was taken aback. “Is the Five-Palm Sect also sending people?”

Lu Yin smiled, but he did not elaborate. He released the rest of the Nine Odysseys cultivators that he had imprisoned in the Zenith Mountain, instantly filling the courtyard. Like Lian Shuang, everyone who was released immediately bowed to Lu Yin, not showing even the slightest hint of resentment.

“Let them return on their own,” he said before simply vanishing.

His former hostages finally relaxed in the courtyard after they saw that Lu Yin was gone. Only then did they start to survey their surroundings.

Lian Shuang offered Hui a deep bow. “Thank you, Senior.”

Hui smiled. “I told Mr. Lu that I wanted to adopt you as my daughter, so why are you still calling me ‘Senior’? Do you not wish to accept my offer?”

Lian Shuang looked thrilled, though also nervous. “I know that that was only said so that Mr. Lu wouldn’t feel indebted to the Spirit Coalition, Senior. I don’t dare overstep.”

Hui shook her head. “That was merely part of it. The other reason is fate—I genuinely like you. Would you feel wronged in becoming my daughter?”

Lian Shuang quickly bowed, tears of joy filling her eyes. “Your daughter greets you, Mother.”

Hui smiled as she helped the other woman stand up. “I never anticipated gaining a daughter so late in my life. I have nothing more to offer you, so I’ll pass along everything I’ve learned. In that way, I’ll also have gained a successor. Now, tell me what happened with Mr. Lu in the Consciousness Megaverse.”

“Alright.”

Hui’s expression quickly turned serious. From what Lian Shuang shared, when her group had first seen Mr. Lu, he had not even been a match for the High Seraph, Mo Shang. His progress since then was absolutely astonishing. Lian Shuang might not understand Lu Yin’s current strength, but Hui did. That man was the most powerful being beneath the Immortal Greater Sancti.

The High Seraph might be powerful, but he was only close to that level of power.

And how long had it taken Lu Yin to reach that level? Very little time. In fact, it had been short enough that even a mortal with an above-average life could have witnessed the change.

Mr. Lu’s speed of improvement was beyond terrifying.

Lian Shuang’s interactions with Lu Yin in the Consciousness Megaverse had been extremely limited, but even that was enough to completely change Hui’s impression of the man.

An incredibly powerful individual was not frightening; rather, what was frightening was someone who was strong, improved rapidly, acted without restraint, and was also extremely intelligent. That was the most dangerous type of person.

Hui sighed in relief, grateful that she had aligned herself with Mr. Lu from the very beginning. If she had done otherwise, her Spirit Coalition would have been doomed.

The Autumnspring Slip had been far stronger than the Spirit Coalition. As a loose alliance, the Spirit Coalition would instantly disintegrate if Lu Yin merely voiced his intent to destroy it.

“Mother, does Mr. Lu have a high status in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse?” Lian Shuang asked. She had heard from Zhang Yushu how powerful Lu Yin had become: powerful enough to destroy a monstrous faction like the Autumnspring Slip. However, Hui’s earlier behavior had completely changed Lian Shuang’s perspective.

Hui was no ordinary powerhouse. Even if the Spirit Coalition was not as mighty as the Autumnspring Slip, it was still a powerful faction in its own right. Despite that, Hui had been completely deferential, to the point where she had not even dared to have Lu Yin owe them the smallest of favors. That was not fear alone.

Hui murmured, “That man is the most powerful individual beneath the Immortal Greater Sancti. That is known by the entire megaverse.”

Lian Shuang was shocked. “Number one beneath the Greater Sancti?”

Hui looked at Lian Shuang. “Only one person held that title in the past, and he was a disciple of the late Immortal Greater Sancte Mi Jin, who was said to have reached the limit of power beneath the Immortal realm. However, after Mi Jin’s death, his disciple has been drowning himself in alcohol, so much so that no one even knows where he is now. Few remember him, as it’s been too long.

“Just know that, in the current Nine Odysseys Megaverse—no, throughout all of the megaverses and universes that our megaverse oversees, only the three Immortal Greater Sancti and the Spirit Nidus’s invincible being stand above him. Mr. Lu is beneath only them.”

Lian Shuang had never imagined that Lu Yin’s status would have risen so high.

“Oh, and there’s also the Great Master, who’s equally unfathomable. However, no matter how powerful the Great Master might be, unless they break through to the Immortal realm, they are at best Lu Yin’s equal. He is a man who cannot be crossed.”

Lian Shuang’s face grew pale as she remembered her actions in the Consciousness Megaverse. She had offended Mr. Lu, but thankfully, he did not hold her actions against her. If he had, she would not be standing there.

Never cross him. Absolutely never.

...

Lu Yin returned to Five-Palm Mountain. All that remained was to wait. Both the Five-Palm Sect and the Spirit Coalition needed to complete their tasks.

Soon, half a month passed.

Five-Palm Mountain was bustling. The Five-Palm Sect was truly amazing at provoking others, and many furious people had arrived at the base of the mountain range, all of them cursing, swearing, and ready to fight to the death.

The Spirit Coalition gathered elsewhere near the mountain range, though they watched all the commotion with amusement. Only a few members of the Spirit Coalition had been affected by the Five-Palm Sect’s antics, and they understood how the others must feel. Most had no clue, simply because of how few Five-Palm sect members there were.

Just like when Lu Yin had first visited, many people watched in amazement.

They had never heard of a faction being cursed by so many right in front of their own gates. How was Lord Ting Chao able to endure this?

More and more people arrived. After just a month had passed, over 100,000 cultivators had gathered around Five-Palm Mountain. Tens of thousands had been drawn over by the Five-Palm Sect, while most of the rest were members of the Spirit Coalition, which meant that they were cultivators with strange, non-human appearances.

In addition to the various cultivators, there were over 200,000 otherborn, which had even more bizarre appearances.

Everyone who had gathered was capable of moving through outer space without assistance, which meant that they were all at least equivalent to the Tianyuan Megaverse’s Explorers.

When Lu Yin had first started cultivating, he had believed Explorers to be rare. As his horizons expanded, he had ventured past Frostwave Weave to start exploring the Outerverse, then the Innerverse, the Neoverse, followed by the Perennial World, as well as parallel universes later on. He had come to see just how many cultivators possessed the strength of Explorers.

In the cosmos as a whole, the ability to move through outer space without assistance was what truly marked the beginning of cultivation. Cultivators below that level did not even qualify to participate in most battles.

That was also only within the Tianyuan Megaverse.

After moving beyond the Tianyuan and encountering the Spirit Nidus, the Consciousness Megaverse, and most recently, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, it had become increasingly clear to Lu Yin that the strength of an Explorer was the minimum requirement to step onto a real battlefield. If one was incapable of even moving freely, how could they speak of battle?

There were many ways to help weaker cultivators move about through outer space. Lu Yin had once taken advantage of such means in the Tianyuan.

By Enhancing materials with his die, he had created powerful armors and many other tools.

That had worked in the Tianyuan Megaverse. Given the megaverse’s internal wars, those weak people had still been qualified to step onto the battlefield, and when wielding weapons like micro-array weapons, they were even able to fight.

However, that level was completely insufficient for the battlefields where the Nine Odysseys Megaverse fought.

A single Dukkhan could casually destroy vast swaths of a battlefield, and even if those attacks’ aftershocks did not directly land on a cultivator, it could still interfere with technological equipment. Even astral phenomena or stray meteors could shatter the universal armor used in the Tianyuan. On the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s battlefields, losing one’s mobility meant certain death.

Even peak powerhouses were considered weak, and only luck could enable their survival, let alone those as weak as Explorers.

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse and Spirit Nidus were able to survive these large-scale wars thanks to their countless years of development. However, if the Tianyuan was forced to join such a war, all of its Explorer-level cultivators would be exterminated after a single battle.

The fact that so many cultivators had gathered at the base of Five-Palm Mountain drew the rest of the West Domain’s attention, and many major families and even Skyveil City sent their people to investigate.

Members of the Jue and Yu clans were also watching, as they were baffled by the massive gathering. That was exactly what Lu Yin had hoped for. The bigger the commotion, the better. He would have the Five-Palm Sect throw the entire West Domain into chaos.

As the Spirit Coalition spread knowledge of the Nest civilization, many doubts were answered.

The Five-Palm Sect and the Spirit Coalition would join Mr. Lu to defend the Consciousness Megaverse. Any cultivator who wished to fight with them could board the green lotus leaf, which would leave in ten days.

News of the external war prompted some cultivators to leave Five-Palm Mountain. They refused to participate, despite the threats and antagonism of the Five-Palm Sect. However, there were others who eagerly volunteered.

The commotion spread across the entire West Domain.

Ten days later, a green lotus leaf arrived. They were able to grow or shrink at will and could easily become large enough to accommodate all the gathered cultivators.

At Lu Yin’s command, countless cultivators stepped onto the green lotus leaf, and as the entire West Domain watched, the leaf shot into the distance, instantly disappearing.

The West Domain fell silent.

Almost all of the people who had gathered outside of Five-Palm Mountain were gone, with only a few scattered stragglers remaining.

Most of the members of the Spirit Coalition had also departed.

The world of the West Domain’s cultivators instantly grew much quieter.

In Skyveil City, Jue Qing stared off into the distance. He’s gone.

The Consciousness Megaverse battlefield would be mostly fought by those from the West Domain, many of whom were from the Jue and Yu families.

Jue Ling and Yu Jing had gone, as had their younger members like Jue Rou and the youths of the Yu family.

Jue Qing had not gone, as she had no interest in war.

Jue Rou had to go. While she was soft and delicate, she was also the next matriarch of the Jue family. Her path was in the battlefield. The fact that she had not already joined one of the Nine Odysseys’ expeditions was already a stroke of luck.

As for the upcoming war, no one knew what would happen.

Two of the three Immortal Greater Sancti were gone, which made the Nine Odysseys Megaverse uneasy.

The Immortals were the megaverse’s greatest confidence, as well as humanity’s foundation.

The green lotus leaf left the noise of the West Domain behind, carrying Lu Yin with it.

Right after the leaf vanished, a pair of eyes opened beneath the West Domain’s yellow sands. They were initially emotionless, but then they gleamed with life. The eyes rolled about, glancing to either side.

Above, the sand trembled. A hand stretched out and grabbed the owner of the eyes. “Huh? What is this? Feels a bit like hair. Master, I think I found something!”

The eyes turned and stared at the hand.

Shortly after that, a figure rose from beneath the sands. Long, withered hair drifted in the breeze as grit fell from the figure’s clothes and hair.

It was an old man, whose face was weathered and deeply wrinkled. He looked ready to enter his grave. His clothes were in tatters and almost entirely rotted away.

The old man looked up at the stars. “Gone? Finally. It’s time to move.”

With that, he turned to face Skyveil City and started walking.

Once he was gone, blood began to seep up through the sand.

...

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