Chapter 2686 – A Game Within A Game
You Fang immediately thought of Xuan Qi, but that boy should already be dead. The power of the attack that had appeared could not be faked, and Xuan Qi lacked the strength needed to stop such an attack. If Xuan Qi still lived, he would be You Fang’s primary suspect, but with him dead, who else was there?
The You patriarch had felt that there was something off about how things had unfolded throughout the day. While his plan had succeeded, others had also succeeded in framing his You family for acting against Monarch Mu. Whose plan was it? Who had carried it out? Was He Ran behind this?
At this thought, You Fang instantly looked back at Uncle Mo.
For some reason, recent events made You Fang feel as though there was a hidden hand controlling things.
"You Fang, does your You family have anything to do with Monarch Mu"s disappearance?" Lord Wei asked, though in a much harsher and demanding tone than before.
You Fang looked back at Lord Wei. "Lord, Luo Shan is cooperating with others to frame my You family. Do you intend to help them act against my You family?"
"Arrogant!" Wen Shi angrily shouted.
Uncle Mo also shouted a sharp reprimand. "You Fang, you are going too far!"
Countless people commented on how inappropriate You Fang’s behavior was.
Lord Wei frowned. "It appears that your family is unhappy with me."
You Fang replied, "I wouldn’t dare to be so presumptuous, but Lord Wei, you are helping Monarch Luo oppress my You family, which does not make sense."
"What would you consider reasonable?" Lord Wei calmly asked.
You Fang"s eyes suddenly turned cold. "Don"t ask me."
The moment those words were spoken, all of the remains of the scattered and destroyed bestowal art carriers moved together and connected. The void warped and twisted around Lord Wei to form a cage. The man did not react slowly, and there was a burst of black energy when he raised his hand, but the attack was actually locked down by the twisted cage of the void.
Lu Yin stared at the image on the display in shock; why did this formation look so similar to the sourcebox array As If Closed?
Lu Yin had been very impressed by that particular sourcebox array. He had first encountered it during the finals of ZENITH when Shang Qing had summoned a copy of Progenitor Hui with the Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique, and that summon had used As If Closed. The sourcebox array had rendered Lu Yin helpless, and if not for the G.o.d of Death Transformation, he would have undoubtedly lost that match.
What Lu Yin was seeing around Lord Wei looked exactly like As If Closed.
Even so, that was not the important part. More surprisingly, the You family had attacked Lord Wei, the ruler of the Transcendent Universe, and it was also clear that this attack was premeditated.
The cage that trapped Lord Wei was formed from the broken remains of the nearby bestowal art carriers. The carriers had been broken apart by Luo Shan, and they should have been leftover sc.r.a.ps of the battlefield. But at this moment, they actually worked together to trap Lord Wei. This should have been impossible, even if the You family had planned everything out. There was also clearly something off about Luo Shan.
Uncle Mo, Wen Shi, and the others did not immediately react to Lord Wei being trapped.
When they did finally start to move and tried to rescue Lord Wei, You Teng and Luo Shan both took action, and they each blocked one of the opposing powerhouses.
Uncle Mo stared at Luo Shan in disbelief. "Monarch Luo, what are you doing?"
The Monarch did not respond.
Further back, both You Fang and You Teng attacked Lord Wei. "It"s time for this Transcendent Universe to change!"
The abrupt change on the battlefield left the entire universe silent.
He Ran stood at the foot of the stairs in her s.p.a.ce, staring as the You family trapped Lord Wei. Instantly, she figured everything out.
Suddenly, she understood why the You family had announced their support for Bai Qian over He Ran; they had wanted to force out Lord Wei so that they could attack him. It was no wonder why Luo Shan had been so cooperative and had immediately agreed to help her frame the You family. Clearly, he had merely been putting on a show while actually cooperating with the You family. The goal was to block the other powerhouses while the You family dealt with the ruler of the Transcendent Universe.
Even the fact that Monarch Luo had kidnapped You Lele had been part of the act put on for He Ran and Lord Wei.
However, why was Luo Shan cooperating with the You family at all?
Lu Yin stared at You Fang on the display he was watching. This entire situation was a ma.s.sive game of chess. He Ran had been deceived from the very beginning. The You family had announced their support of Bai Qian, while manipulating He Ran to think that she was working with Luo Shan to create the current situation. Out of everyone involved, He Ran and Bai Qian were nothing but p.a.w.ns that the You family had used to deal with Lord Wei.
The You family was certainly ruthless enough.
Even so, could the ruler of an entire universe really be defeated so easily?
Plans had been put into action, and the final outcome depended entirely on whether the You family could defeat Lord Wei.
The ruler of the Transcendent Universe had developed energy converters and raised up the Transcendent Universe by himself. He had then continued to develop various cultivation technologies, which allowed the Transcendent Universe to rise up and become one of the six member universes of the Sixverse a.s.sociation with a standing no worse that the Voidforce Universe or the Arboreal Realm. What sort of ability did such a man possess? At this moment, Lu Yin would finally be able to see for himself.
While You Fang and You Teng worked together, Lord Wei was able to easily block both of them with his black energy converter. "Your You family is really a group of ravenous wolves."
You Fang shot back, "My You family pioneered the Bestowal Art! While you act like you respect us, the truth is that, as long as a truly gifted person appears in our family, you kill them. Do you really think that we never knew how our founding ancestor died? Seriously? You think that we don’t know how you will soon target Lele?
"Lord Wei, you were the one who forced us to be responsible for the Bureau, and you have continuously undermined my You family"s rights for the Bestowal Art. You were also the one to transfer away the most powerful bestowal art carrier as a means of weakening my family and reducing our influence. You’ve continuously forced us into becoming nothing more than your puppets!"
Lord Wei remained indifferent in the face of the accusations. "There can only be one ruler of the Transcendent Universe."
"Well said!" With a deafening shout, the void tore open, and an old man stepped out. "It’s time for that ruler to change, and it’s time for me to come home!"
Uncle Mo exclaimed, "You Xian?"
He Ran stared at her display in a daze. You Xian? The You family’s disgraced prodigal son? How was that possible? How was he not dead?
No one had expected a known dead man like You Xian to suddenly appear.
Everyone knew the story of how You Xian was a disgraced member of the You family who had squandered the family’s wealth and caused the family to decline for two generations. In the end, the man had died of depression.
You Xian’s appearance left everyone who saw him terribly confused.
Even Lord Wei was shocked. "You Xian? You"re not dead?"
You Xian laughed. "If I wasn’t dead, how would you ever lower your guard? If I hadn’t led my family to ruin, we would have been destroyed long ago. Lord Wei. Today, I, You Xian, will change the world as you know it."
As soon as the man finished speaking, black energy surged from his body and formed a ma.s.sive energy blade that slashed at Lord Wei.
The You family possessed three black energy converters, and the most powerful of the three had been in You Fang’s possession, but at this moment, it was turned over to You Xian.
The black energy converter that You Fang had once used to fight against Luo Shan was pa.s.sed over to You Shan, and the patriarch asked his ancestor to attack.
Lord Wei shook his head. "I am the one who created the energy converters. It is impossible for you to defeat me with them. How long can your Bestowal Art keep me trapped for?"
The blade of black light fell upon Lord Wei through the cage formed from the distorted void. The man’s indifferent expression suddenly and drastically changed as the blade fell, and cracks appeared across You Xian’s upper body. Lord Wei’s pupils shrank sharply, and he stared at You Xian. "You?"
You Xian laughed. "This body is nothing more than a spare. The person you were after all those years ago escaped, which created a loophole that we were able to exploit. If not for that, no matter how much my You family hated our situation, we would have never turned against you. At my family’s peak, you could not compare to us. Do you believe that we don’t know your true power level?"
No one knew Lord Wei’s true strength aside from the You family. They had never underestimated Lord Wei over the countless years and had always regarded him as a very powerful individual. How else could he have created the energy converter cultivation technology?
Only the You family could understand the difficulty in creating such a cultivation technology, and that was because they knew how difficult it had been to develop the Bestowal Art. Energy converters were even more complicated, which meant that Lord Wei was an unfathomable individual.
It was just a pity that such a powerful person had such lofty ambitions, as those ambitions had created even greater flaws.
Lord Wei roared, "You are seeking death!"
As he shouted, the Transcendent Universe itself trembled, and an indescribable feeling fell upon everyone. Despite suddenly feeling extremely uneasy, no one was able to see a thing. It was a difficult sensation to explain.
Lu Yin looked up in utter amazement; this was manifested thought!
How could there be manifested thought in the Transcendent Universe? This was supposed to be Progenitor Hui’s power. It was something that he had left behind for the Technocracy, and it had been powerful enough to trap even Semi-Progenitors, while also granting the Technocracy the ability to observe everything within its domain. It was undoubtedly the power of Progenitor Hui, so why was Lu Yin seeing it in the Transcendent Universe?
What was the connection between Lord Wei and Progenitor Hui?
Lu Yin had never even considered the possibility of encountering manifested thought in the Transcendent Universe.
When Lu Yin had learned the truth about the Technocracy, he had also learned that manifested thought was Progenitor Hui"s innate gift. Progenitor Hui had left his manifested thought behind for the Technocracy much like how the Rune Progenitor had left his runes behind. At humanity’s most desperate moment, those powers had activated to help them survive. What Lu Yin was currently looking at looked like the exact same innate gift that Progenitor Hui had possessed.
Was it possible for there to be duplicate innate gifts? Absolutely. The direct descendents of the Lu family’s main line possessed the Champions’ Stage innate gift, but that was an inherited innate gift that had been pa.s.sed down from a common ancestor. What could the connection between Progenitor Hui and Lord Wei be? How could they be related or share common ancestry? However, how else could they possess the same innate gift?
On top of that, the cage formed from the Bestowal Art appeared to be practically identical to the As If Closed sourcebox array. With so many coincidences, Lu Yin was becoming increasingly convinced that Progenitor Hui had visited the Transcendent Universe in the past.
Lu Yin’s hesitation only lasted for a single moment. Seeing that Lord Wei was physically trapped within the Bestowal Art cage for the moment, Lu Yin took advantage of the opportunity to fill the old man’s laboratory with countless runes in order to search the place.
There was an explosion, and the old man’s lab was completely destroyed. The bestowal art carrier continued to devour a sourcebox and release attacks that would threaten even the most powerful experts.
Lu Yin used the spatial lines to move about,and he instantly appeared right next to the bestowal art carrier. A single palm strike shattered the weapon.
As long as a bestowal art carrier was not protected by a powerhouse, it was nothing more than another target.
At this moment, Lord Wei suddenly turned to look in the direction of the old man’s lab, a fierce glint flashing across his eyes. He had always kept an eye on that laboratory, as nothing could be allowed to happen to that old man. The lab had just been attacked, but fortunately, the old man was no longer there, which meant that the matter could be ignored for the time being.
Manifested thought was like giving consciousness to the universe itself. The moment it appeared, an invisible force continued to wear away at You Xian, You Fang, You Teng, and even Luo Shan. At the same time, all of the You family’s bestowal art carriers shattered.
Luo Shan was shocked; was this Lord Wei’s power?
This was something that made even Luo Shan wary. This was a power worthy of the ruler of the Transcendent Universe.
The manifested thought made it difficult for people to move, and the Bestowal Art cage that had trapped Lord Wei cracked. The man would soon break free.
"How long do you intend to wait?" You Xian bellowed.
Lord Wei"s expression changed, and his heart dropped. There was someone else partic.i.p.ating in this attack, and they had to be a truly powerful individual. Otherwise, You Xian would not have called out. Who could it be?
Lord Wei did not notice that, behind him, the shadow of one of the broken shards of a bestowal art carrier suddenly moved. It transformed into a beam that struck the man’s back before he could sense anything. Lord Wei’s pupils constricted as the shadow spread out across his body, looking like a spider. The shadow spread from his shoulders, down to his waist, and then on to his legs. Quickly, the claws of the shadow covered Lord Wei’s entire body.
Lord Wei grew furious, and he shouted, "Sovereign Shao Yin!"
Wen Shi and Uncle Mo both rushed forward to save Lord Wei, but they were already too late. They could not even get close to the man, let alone save him.
You Xian lashed out once more with black energy.
More and more cracks appeared across Lord Wei"s body.
"The Cyclic Universe is actually interfering in the internal affairs of my Transcendent Universe? You are violating the treaty of the Sixverse a.s.sociation! Sovereign Shao Yin, this will not end well for you!" Lord Wei roared.
You Xian instantly shouted, "Lord Wei, have you gone insane? Who has seen Sovereign Shao Yin here?"
At the bottom of a staircase, He Ran"s body grew weak. Sovereign Shao Yin? Why was he working with the You family? Why? Why were both Monarch Luo and Sovereign Shao Yin cooperating with the You family to attack Lord Wei? Everyone who had been collaborating with He Ran was actually helping the You family eliminate Lord Wei. Had everything been staged from the very beginning?