Chapter 2234: Confrontation
Memories surged into Lu Yin’s mind. He could not find any detailed information in Long Ke"s mind regarding the orb of light above the w.a.n.g family’s hand-shaped landma.s.s. Long Ke only knew what Lu Yin had already learned from Elder Qing Xing and a few others. The patriarch had heard that the orb had once incinerated a Progenitor, but both who and how were mysteries.
However, Lu Yin did find some memories regarding the sourcebox array that protected the w.a.n.g family’s headquarters.
Just like Dragon Mountain, the w.a.n.g family’s homeland was surrounded by a powerful sourcebox array, though only the hand-shaped landma.s.s was protected. The cl.u.s.ter of cities below were not included in the protected area.
Lu Yin also checked for any memories concerning the w.a.n.g family’s powerhouses. Long Ke knew that there was an outsider who had joined the w.a.n.g family. This man was a powerful Semi-Progenitor, and he was the guardian of the w.a.n.g family’s homeland.
Each of the four ruling powers accepted outside powerhouses into their organizations. The White Dragon Clan had two outsider Semi-Progenitors who had joined the family. One had been sent to the rear battlefield, while the other had gone to Dragon Mountain to hide. Not even Long Ke knew who that hidden Semi-Progenitor was, so Lu Yin could learn nothing from the patriarch’s memories. Naturally, the outsiders who had joined the other three ruling powers must have similarly been sent to the rear battlefield or stayed at their headquarters.
Lu Yin scanned Long Ke"s memories as quickly as possible, but w.a.n.g Zheng soon spoke up again. "Brother Long, my w.a.n.g family will be sure to properly apologize for this matter."
Lu Yin ended the Possession, pulled the slipper out of his own cosmic ring, threw it to Long Ke, and then Possessed the patriarch again. The slipper was grabbed, and the Possessed Long Ke slapped w.a.n.g Zheng in the head with the footwear. The w.a.n.g patriarch crumpled to the ground before he could even react.
If Lu Yin could attack himself, then things would not have needed to be so complicated, as a single punch would have been enough to incapacitate the man. w.a.n.g Zheng could not resist Lu Yin’s physical might, but the man would have had time to react if Lu Yin had tried to attack him. w.a.n.g Zheng was a true powerhouse of the w.a.n.g family, but the man had never even considered the possibility that Long Ke would attack. The only obstacle was that Long Ke was not strong enough for what Lu Yin needed, so the slipper had been needed to be used to compensate for the lacking power.
Long Tian stared blankly at his father.
Lu Yin controlled Long Ke"s body to smile at Long Tian before grabbing the unconscious w.a.n.g Zheng and fleeing.
Long Tian was still supporting the wounded White Dragon Clan Envoy, and the young man stared blankly into s.p.a.ce, unable to understand why his father had suddenly attacked w.a.n.g Zheng. Suddenly, a single word occurred to Long Tian: control.
Instantly, Long Tian’s eyes grew bloodshot, and he shot after his father. “Stop!"
A powerful pressure descended from above, and a stranger suddenly appeared. The void was sealed, and countless white figures appeared. They all looked somewhat like humans, and like flowing water, they charged after the fleeing Lu Yin.
Lu Yin"s eyes grew cold. This person was a Semi-Progenitor. He had already known that it would not be easy to escape, but luckily, Progenitor Smoke was still accompanying Lu Yin.
Lu Yin returned to his own body, which allowed Long Ke to regain his wits for a moment, only to fall unconscious to Lu Yin"s fist. Lu Yin pulled out the mirror and said, "Senior, I’m in trouble!"
Progenitor Smoke appeared and looked behind Lu Yin. "A Semi-Progenitor? What an interesting inner world. This person’s quite curious."
After that, while Lu Yin could not see what the woman did, he was. .h.i.t by a wave of dizziness. The next thing he knew, all the cities in his sight vanished. They were instantly gone.
Beneath the w.a.n.g family’s homeland, the pupils of the Semi-Progenitor who had used their inner world to capture the three fleeing people shrank sharply. Where had they gone?
Further down, Long Tian was feeling similarly confused. Where had those three people gone?
Let alone the people left behind, not even Lu Yin could understand what Progenitor Smoke had just done. "Senior, what did you just do? Have you regained the strength of a Progenitor? You have, haven’t you?!"
While Lu Yin had watched Progenitor Smoke use the Enhanced needle-like weapon to break through more of the fog that trapped her, Lu Yin had not known just how much of Progenitor Smoke’s strength had been freed. He only knew that she seemed a bit too strong, as the Semi-Progenitor who had been trying to capture Lu Yin had not even been able to see them leave.
Progenitor Smoke proudly replied, "Take a guess."
She then turned around and saw Lu Yin’s newest prisoners: w.a.n.g Zheng and Long Ke. "You’re kidnapping more people? Who are these two?"
"The patriarchs of the four ruling powers. That one’s the w.a.n.g family’s patriarch, and he’s the White Dragon Clan’s patriarch," Lu Yin replied. As he spoke, he pulled out Zenith Mountain and imprisoned the two men.
Progenitor Smoke was utterly speechless, and she gave Lu Yin an odd stare. "You are certainly ruthless enough! You actually captured the leaders of all four ruling powers? There really aren’t any left."
Lu Yin actually felt a bit proud of himself. If he was being honest, most of what he had done was sheer coincidence. He had only truly orchestrated Xia Xing’s capture. Bai Teng had simply been too convenient to let pa.s.s, w.a.n.g Zheng had also walked into the perfect situation, and Lu Yin had simply been unbelievably lucky to Possess Long Ke. Without so many incredible coincidences, he had no idea what it would have taken to capture these four men.
"You really are sneaky enough to compare to Hui Wen," Progenitor Smoke mocked.
Lu Yin replied in a stern tone, "This junior just wants to rescue his own people and those in Star Alliance. I never actually intended to attack these men."
"What if the Lu family has already been destroyed by Aeternus?" Progenitor Smoke shot back.
Lu Yin fell silent. He firmly believed that the Lu family had only been banished, and that they were still alive and safe. However, if his family had been wiped out by Aeternus, then that would completely change the severity of the four ruling powers’ crimes. Exiling and killing the Lu family were two completely different matters. If his family was dead, would Lu Yin still be able to stay his hand for the good of humanity?
Would he really be able to maintain his current att.i.tude towards the four ruling powers?
When Lu Yin had first learned that the four ruling powers had destroyed the Lu family, hatred had filled his heart. Shaman G.o.d had seen that, and it had developed a plan to take advantage of it, even going so far as to help Lu Yin. As time pa.s.sed, Lu Yin had become convinced that his family was still alive and merely exiled. His faith in their survival had greatly diminished Lu Yin’s hatred towards the four ruling powers, and he had been willing to reduce his desires for revenge more and more. Now, he was no longer as determined to eliminate the four organizations.
However, if the Lu family was all dead, could he still remain so indifferent?
Progenitor Smoke stared off into the distance. "It’s impossible to truly ignore hatred. You can take your revenge and do whatever you want to those who wronged your family. However, you must always remember one thing: the bigger picture is still the most important thing. Those words were first spoken by Hui Wen."
Lu Yin turned to look at Progenitor Smoke. Prioritize the bigger picture? That was something that he could do.
If the entire Lu family had been killed, then Lu Yin would bury the four ruling powers alongside his family. That was indisputable. However, the four ruling powers were also the primary force holding back the Aeternals. This created a true conundrum for Lu Yin.
The four ruling powers had ignored what was best for humanity by banishing the Lu family, and if Lu Yin treated them in the same way, then would he not be as great a traitor to humanity as the four ruling powers? The only caveat was if he could replace the four ruling powers and take over their fight against Aeternus.
Determination filled Lu Yin"s eyes. It would not be an easy task to replace the four ruling powers. Simply becoming a Progenitor would be completely insufficient.
Regardless, this was not the time for such thoughts. Whether or not the Lu family had survived or been wiped out remained a mystery, and Lu Yin’s current goals were to save the members of Star Alliance and the prisoners in Crimson Garden. While doing so, he also wanted to create as much trouble for the four ruling powers as possible. That was what he could do for the time being.
No other goals could be achieved during Lu Yin’s current visit to the Perennial World.
Lu Yin had kidnapped both w.a.n.g Zheng and Bai Teng, and their disappearance should startle the four ruling powers. Anyone who heard the news would struggle to believe it.
Who could kidnap the patriarchs of both the w.a.n.g family and the White Dragon Clan right beneath the w.a.n.g family’s homeland? Not only that, but the culprit had also escaped.
The four ruling powers immediately connected with each other through communications crystals, and Long Tian truthfully recounted everything that he had seen, including the fact that Long Ke had attacked w.a.n.g Zheng. The attack had happened in plain sight of the w.a.n.g family as well as a Semi-Progenitor’s vision. Thus, Long Tian did not dare to try to cover anything up.
"Long Ke attacked w.a.n.g Zheng? He slapped him unconscious with a slipper? Are you sure that this isn’t a joke?" The Celestial Frost Sect’s acting sect master Bai Su was stunned. Could this be real?
More importantly, a slipper? Even if Long Ke wanted to attack w.a.n.g Zheng, where had he gotten a slipper? How could a slipper knock w.a.n.g Zheng out cold?
"It’s quite clear that someone was controlling my father: Xia Yuan. He controlled my father, made him capture Patriarch w.a.n.g Zheng, and then knocked my father unconscious," Long Tian explained.
Xia Xing spoke up. "Xia Yuan was with you?"
"It’s true that Xia Yuan is the most suspicious person involved," the w.a.n.g family’s Semi-Progenitor guardian replied, "Patriarch w.a.n.g Zheng told me to secretly monitor Xia Yuan before he left our home. It’s possible that the patriarch expected something, but he did not tell me anything specific. I saw the man from the Xia family move closer to Patriarch Long Ke, pull out the slipper from his cosmic ring, and throw it over to Patriarch Long Ke. Later, while escaping, Xia Yuan attacked Patriarch Long Ke and struck him unconscious."
"How could Xia Yuan take out a slipper to deal with w.a.n.g Zheng?" Xia Xing was puzzled.
Long Tian was the White Dragon Clan’s only representative. There was no denying that the White Dragon Clan had the weakest foundation of any of the four ruling powers. Their Grand Elder Ni Huang was still in the Fifth Mainland, Long Ke had been captured, Long Quan was dead, and Long Laobui was fighting on the rear battlefield. There had never been many powerhouses in the White Dragon Clan, which meant that the only person who could fill in for their missing patriarch was Long Tian.
"If someone can control my father, then they can also control Xia Yuan. Or, is it possible that someone was disguised as Xia Yuan?" Long Tian asked.
The w.a.n.g family’s Semi-Progenitor answered, "There was no evidence of any disguise."
"This is impossible," Xia Xing declared, "Xia Yuan has no reason to cooperate with Long Ke to attack w.a.n.g Zheng."
"My father did not attack Patriarch w.a.n.g Zheng. He was being controlled. Xia Yuan also attacked my father. Before the attack, we were all discussing-" Long Tian stopped suddenly in the middle of his sentence.
Bai Su was surprised by the hesitation. "What were you discussing?"
Long Tian and Xia Xing both remained silent. Their conversation was something that not even the w.a.n.g family’s Semi-Progenitor knew about.
"There"s no need for a secret alliance at this time. Bai Su, everything has been orchestrated by your Celestial Frost Sect! My clone, Long Ke, and w.a.n.g Zheng were all captured by your Celestial Frost Sect!" Xia Xing directly stated. He was clearly accusing the Celestial Frost Sect.
Bai Su was beyond confused at this moment. "What are you talking about?"
Long Tian jumped in and sternly said, "Your Celestial Frost Sect sent someone to observe the w.a.n.g family long ago. After discovering Xia Yuan and learning about our goals, you had someone impersonate Xia Yuan and accompany my White Dragon Clan to lure out w.a.n.g Zheng so that he could be captured along with my father. The Celestial Frost Sect is doing all of this in order to seize control of Star Alliance."
Bai Su started to understand the accusations, which only upset him. "Don"t be ridiculous! My Celestial Frost Sect’s Sect Master Bai Teng has also been taken."
"That"s nothing more than a show put on by you. If not for your Celestial Frost Sect taking action, then how could Bai Teng have disappeared without the G.o.d of Food seeing anything? Long Ke was just controlled and made to attack w.a.n.g Zheng. You can claim that your Celestial Frost Sect is innocent, but you are clearly behind all of this," Xia Xing said in a deep voice. He was almost entirely certain that Long Ke had been controlled by someone and that that “Xia Yuan” was an imposter. The real Xia Yuan had neither the motivation nor the strength to accomplish what had been done. For starters, Xia Yuan was completely incapable of knocking Long Ke unconscious.
Bai Su was beyond stunned. He could not comprehend why everyone was suddenly leveling their spears at his Celestial Frost Sect.
However, as Bai Su listened to Xia Xing and Long Tian’s conjectures that explained the recent events, the acting sect master could not deny that everything sounded quite reasonable. In fact, if the Celestial Frost Sect was not behind everything that had happened, then who did have the abilities to do it?
"Wait," the w.a.n.g family’s Semi-Progenitor suddenly interjected, "I am not aware of all of the facts, but there is one thing that is undeniable—they were allowed to escape because of the a.s.sistance of a Progenitor. If that person was not a Progenitor, then they definitely wield the strength of one."
Xia Xing shouted at Bai Su, "Your Celestial Frost Sect has a hidden powerhouse! Did Bai Xian"er do this?"
Bai Su shouted back, "You have no evidence, so don"t spout nonsense! If you push this, I will bring in our Progenitor!"
"I’ve already reported everything to our Progenitor, telling him that the situation is spinning out of our control. Whether your Celestial Frost Sect is the one scheming to gain control of Star Alliance to gain an advantage over the rest of us, or someone else is secretly manipulating events, the Progenitors will find out. However, if your Celestial Frost Sect is indeed behind everything, then prepare for war!" Xia Xing threatened.
Long Tian chimed in as well. "You had best hope that my father remains safe! If he’s been harmed, then my White Dragon Clan doesn’t mind causing the White Dragon Rolls Over again!"