Chapter 3060: Wu Tian Observatory
Mu Ji still continued trying to convince Lu Yin. "We just need to cooperate. There are three ultimate techniques hidden beneath the rivers and lakes of divine energy. You helping me means that I am also helping you. Don"t you also want to obtain those techniques? Haven"t you heard of the legends? You’ve already cultivated divine energy, which means that any one of the ultimate techniques will be more helpful to you than to me."
Lu Yin ignored nearly all of what Mu Ji said, only paying attention to the mention of legends. "Are you referring to the rumor that one of the Seven SkyG.o.ds obtained one of the ultimate techniques?"
Mu Ji shook his head. "No. There’s a legend that says that True G.o.d has three ultimate techniques and that mastering any one of them can lead to transcendence, allowing a person to become the strongest in all of history."
Lu Yin lost all interest. "Not interested."
"You don"t believe it?"
"If True G.o.d were the strongest of all time, the Sixverse a.s.sociation wouldn"t even exist."
"True G.o.d isn’t the only one who has transcendent techniques. You should already understand that humans are unmatched when it comes to creation. They also have the means to transcend. That means that it’s all a race to see who"s fastest. I want to get involved in that race as well. My innate talent already destines me to be extraordinary. I survived one of Progenitor Xi’s attacks, and let me tell you, that was terrifying.”
Lu Yin stared at Mu Ji. "Not interested."
The man was rendered speechless. "Can you only say those two words?"
Lu Yin started to walk away, having decided that he would return to the Heavens Sect, regardless of whether or not Mu Ji exposed Ye Bo as an imposter or not. Lu Yin could not take the risk.
"Hey, have you ever heard of the name ‘Hui Wu?’"
Lu Yin suddenly froze in place. His eyes started darting about.
"There’s also something wrong with Marquis w.a.n.g—she"s not particularly evil. Hehe, it’s interesting, isn"t it? A True G.o.d Guard Captain, as well as one of the greatest traitors in the history of the Fifth Mainland, but she"s not that evil. Brother Ye Bo, don"t you find that odd?"
Lu Yin turned around to look at Mu Ji. "None of these things concern me."
Mu Ji"s smile grew wider. "I"m afraid that I might offend some people, so why don"t you share all of this with Progenitor Xi?"
Lu Yin stared at Mu Ji. Laughter filled the man’s eyes.
"None of this concerns me," Lu Yin stated again.
Mu Ji was stunned. "Is it fun to just keep repeating the same thing?"
"Who is Hui Wu?"
"That’s Marquis Wu"s name."
"Is there a problem with him?"
"There’s no problem." Mu Ji hesitated, and then slapped his forehead. "Right! I almost forgot! After the Sixverse a.s.sociation invaded the Scourge, Marquis Wu left one time. No one else knows about that aside from me. Hehe, just a little after that, Corpse G.o.d almost died.
"Corpse G.o.d is one of the Seven SkyG.o.ds, and yet the Sixverse a.s.sociation nearly killed him. That incident shook the entire First Scourge, and it prompted Progenitor Xi to reach out to the other Scourges. That’s why those of us who were injured were sent out of the First Scourge, so that we wouldn’t be completely unlucky.
"Brother Ye Bo, do you see any connection between the two?"
Lu Yin"s expression remained frigid. "This doesn"t concern me."
Mu Ji chuckled and leaned close to Lu Yin in a confiding manner. He whispered something in Lu Yin’s ear before walking away.
Lu Yin stood there, stunned. Mu Ji had just cursed True G.o.d in Lu Yin’s ear, and a shockingly harsh insult at that.
Lu Yin stared at Mu Ji"s retreating figure. The man never turned around, but he waved a hand. "The Wu Tian Observatory!"
Cursing True G.o.d did not guarantee that Mu Ji would not expose Lu Yin, nor did it give Lu Yin any leverage on the other man. After all, Lu Yin had no evidence proving that Mu Ji had cursed True G.o.d. However, the act did signify that Mu Ji definitely did not consider himself a part of Aeternus.
No one who cultivated divine energy would ever curse True G.o.d.
This was much like how an ordinary human would not curse the G.o.d they prayed to, even if they did not personally believe that divine ent.i.ty truly existed.
However, Mu Ji had indeed cursed True G.o.d, and he had done so with such venom that Lu Yin was completely shocked. This had given him a new perspective on boldness. Mu Ji was a vicious man.
What was going on with Mu Ji? He had betrayed the Arboreal Realm, which Lu Yin had learned about from Senior Brother Mu Ke, and joined Aeternus. However, once he joined Aeternus, Mu Ji had tried to take control of Zhong Pan, and for that attempt, Mu Ji had been thrown into a lake of divine energy. After hundreds of years, he had emerged unscathed.
There was very little chance that the man was a spy that the humans had planted within Aeternus. To begin with, Mu Ji was too obvious a choice for a spy, and Progenitor Xi was not dumb. Hui Wu had made incredible sacrifices to infiltrate Aeternus, none of which Mu Ji could compare to. However, if Mu Ji had actually betrayed humanity and joined Aeternus, then he had simply been courting death within Aeternus, especially since he even dared to curse True G.o.d.
Mu Ji also had not shared what he knew about Hui Wu with Progenitor Xi. The moment anything was said, Hui Wu would be doomed.
Finally, there was also the matter regarding w.a.n.g Xiaoyu and Mu Ji’s suspicions about the woman, which he also had not shared with anyone. Just what was Mu Ji trying to do?
Was everything really just so that he could obtain True G.o.d’s ultimate techniques?
Lu Yin felt terribly confused.
Dual Bladeform approached. "Ye Bo, you look stunned. Mu Ji must have said something to you. You need to be careful around him. He’s an absolute b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Lu Yin agreed completely. "He certainly is."
"What did he say to you?" the pink-haired woman asked.
Lu Yin told her, "He mocked us for getting caught."
"Jerk."
Lu Yin suddenly felt a sense of relief. If Mu Ji had wanted to do anything to harm Ye Bo, he would have done so by reporting everything to Di Qiong before he revealed himself to Ye Bo and the others. Lu Yin would have already been captured by Di Qiong if Mu Ji had said anything, which meant that Mu Ji had kept everything to himself. Lu Yin really could not understand Mu Ji’s goals or intentions, but at the very least, there was no need to worry about being exposed for the time being.
There had to be a reason why Mu Ji was staying silent for the moment, but Lu Yin’s first priority was to learn more about Wu Tian as quickly as possible.
Mu Ji’s last words had been "the Wu Tian Observatory." What did that mean?
The lesser giant Xin Wu left as well. Apparently, he had only been interested in teaching Chong Ghost a lesson, and he had completely ignored Dual Bladeform and Ye Bo.
Days pa.s.sed, and Lu Yin finally managed to shake off Dual Bladeform and Chong Gui. He traveled on his own and covered a great distance.
He had learned where the Wu Tian Observatory was located.
The Third Scourge was home to eighty-one Aeternus Kingdoms which were arranged in a circular formation. If a line was drawn between the black Mother Tree and the Corpse King Monument and then extended further out in the direction of the Aeternus Kingdoms, it would eventually intersect with the very center of the eighty-one Aeternus Kingdoms. That was where the Wu Tian Observatory was located.
Lu Yin started to pa.s.s by multiple Aeternus Kingdoms. The further he moved from the black Mother Tree, the weaker the corpse kings were. All the Aeternus Kingdom here were very different from the Aeternus Kingdoms that he had seen in the Fifth Mainland. No one was being killed or tortured by the corpse kings, and the two species truly did appear to live in harmony with each other.
However, Lu Yin genuinely did not believe that humans could coexist with corpse kings. He carefully observed each Aeternus Kingdom he pa.s.sed through, only to see that the humans living in them were truly coexisting with corpse kings, though each species had their own way of doing things.
For example, there had been the Aeternus Kingdom that had sprouted up on the ruins of the Sea King"s Dome. There, humans and corpse kings had lived on opposite sides of the Aeternus Kingdom. While they had interacted, each side had their own reservations. What had maintained some sense of coexistence was the lack of violence from the corpse kings directed towards the humans, which made the humans less afraid of the monsters.
The first generation of humans who were forced to coexist with corpse kings in an Aeternus Kingdom were always terrified. The greater their fear and the more they revealed it, the more they triggered the corpse kings’ violent tendencies. As time pa.s.sed, the humans in the Aeternus Kingdoms were gradually replaced by those who had been born there. The Aeternus Kingdoms were their homes, and corpse kings were seen as nothing more than another type of human. Such things did not rouse any fear in them.
As Lu Yin traveled, his heart grew heavier. Just what did the Aeternals hope to achieve with these Aeternus Kingdoms? What could they gain by erasing humans" sense of belonging to their own species?
Objectively speaking, how was it not better and more efficient to simply transform all of these people into corpse kings and use them that way? What was the point of all these Aeternus Kingdoms?
Lu Yin had so many questions he wanted answers to, and those answers could only be found within Aeternus.
Suddenly, the landscape opened up before him. He had reached the border of a Aeternus Kingdom, and just up ahead of him was the midpoint between all eighty-one Aeternus Kingdoms. It was the location of the Wu Tian Observatory.
Mu Ji must have his own reasons for mentioning the Wu Tian Observatory to Ye Bo.
Lu Yin soon caught sight of the Wu Tian Observatory, and his pupils instantly shrank. His mind went black. Was that really the Wu Tian Observatory?
Equidistant from all eighty-one of the Aeternus Kingdoms stood a cylindrical platform. There were chains that stretched into the void, and they bound a man in tattered clothes. He looked completely wretched.
There was no way to know how long the man had been bound to that place. The chains and the platform reeked of age, and there were even crows circling overhead, letting out mournful cries.
What truly stunned Lu Yin was that the chains binding the man created two characters: Wu Tian.[1]
Was this man Wu Tian?
Lu Yin felt a chill run down his spine as numbness covered his entire body. Wu Tian... Is he really Wu Tian?
Lu Yin was at the Wu Tian Observatory, so this had to be Wu Tian. The purpose of the platform was to look at Wu Tian, which was why it was called the Wu Tian Observatory. This man was undoubtedly Wu Tian.
Lu Yin slowly approached the platform, step by step. People around him rushed past. There were elderly people, children, corpse kings, and even various bizarre lifeforms.
These people moved around the platform as though doing so was completely normal. None of them gave the platform so much as a second glance. Everyone avoided the platform, clearly disgusted by it. The surrounding area reeked of decay.
The platform was enveloped by a foul stench.
Lu Yin could not see anything but the man on the platform. Was he truly Wu Tian?
Laughter rang out, and a child b.u.mped into Lu Yin. The child fell and started crying, which drew the attention of an adult.
"Who are you? Didn"t you see the child? Why aren’t you helping him up?
"Kid, are you looking for a beating? Turn around and face me!
"I"m talking to you! Answer me!
"Brat..."
Lu Yin continued forwards, approaching the platform that he was intently focused on. He completely ignored the man behind him who was shoving him.
"Forget it, he"s just a madman, let"s go."
"Wait." Lu Yin finally spoke, though his back still faced the people.
"What? You want some trouble?"
"Who is that person?"
"Wu Tian. Can"t you see?"
"Do you know who he is?"
"Know who he is? The sign says that he"s a criminal who threatened the peace of our Aeternus Kingdoms. Kid, who are you that you don’t even know this? You’re not from our Aeternus Kingdoms, are you?"
Lu Yin"s eyes flickered. Did these people not recognize Wu Tian? These Aeternus Kingdoms had lost all records of human history, and their past had been forgotten. Were they still even the same species as Lu Yin?
They could not be blamed for their condition. They had been born in the Aeternus Kingdoms and only knew this life. If there was any blame to be a.s.signed, it would lie with those who had failed to protect humanity.
Why did people cultivate? To achieve transcendence? For immortality? None of those things. The purpose of cultivation was simple: to protect history and to protect one’s own people. There was nothing more to it.
The people of these Aeternus Kingdoms were all revolted by the Wu Tian Observatory, and they clearly regarded it as a place of filth. Disgust covered their faces any time the platform entered their sight.
Lu Yin alone stood beneath the Wu Tian Observatory and stared at it. He had no concerns of being noticed by Di Qiong; divine energy was the best protection.
No one who had cultivated divine energy would be suspected of being a spy.
At least, not for the moment.
1. The chains are forming 武天, somehow or other... ☜