Chapter 2805: Various Factions Gathered
During his time in Aeternus Nation, Luo Lao"er had longed to become Lu Yin"s brother-in-law, and he had continued to call him brother-in-law. He had asked Lu Yin to help him find a peak powerhouse to be his master, but that had never happened.
The task that Lu Yin had a.s.signed to Luo Lao’er allowed him to finally see a path forward. As long as he succeeded, he would no longer be a random minion of the Heavens Sect, but rather someone who could be useful to Lu Yin.
Even if the mission only had a narrow chance of success, Luo Lao’er was willing to fight to receive this opportunity.
He had been bullied in the Three Monarchs Universe, and then looked down upon in the Transcendent Universe. He was fed up with that, and he wanted to stop being a waste.
Lu Yin stepped out, and Shao Gu looked over. "You look better."
Lu Yin nodded, looking rather disturbed. "I didn"t expect a moment of greed to trigger a backlash from Extreme Yin power. It"s really not an easy energy to cultivate, and I won’t be able to do anything for some time."
Ridicule flashed across Shao Gu’s eyes, though she smiled as she replied, "Of course. Master is one of the three Sovereigns, so how could it be easy to cultivate his power of Extreme Yin?"
Lu Yin rubbed his face. "Senior Xu Wuwei asked me to reveal my true face, so I"ve been a bit rude."
As he spoke, his face twisted and quickly transformed into Luo Lao"er"s appearance.
As soon as the transformation was complete, Lu Yin stared into Shao Gu"s eyes, trying to discern whether or not she recognized the face.
Shao Gu"s expression never once changed. "So this is what you really look like, Xuan Qi."
Lu Yin smiled. "No matter how talented I may be, I still worry about being targeted, so it’s important to remain cautious."
Shao Gu hummed and gave a sweet smile. "Let"s go."
The two took off. As they traveled, Lu Yin and Luo Lao"er rarely exchanged words. From this point forward, Luo Lao"er would be Xuan Qi. If he was ever recognized or exposed, he would die. Even so, he had chosen to walk this path. If he was not recognized and everything proceeded according to plan, then Lu Yin would be able to attend the Great Sovereign"s tea ceremony without issue, and he would even be able to counter his enemies’ scheme, as he would already know the evidence that Sovereign Shao Yin had prepared to frame Lu Yin. This was killing two birds with one stone.
Success or failure would be determined the moment Luo Lao’er made contact with the four ruling powers.
Lu Yin did not actually leave, but rather watched Luo Lao"er with Heaven’s Sight.
Heaven"s Sight had myriad uses. According to the Voidlord, Heaven"s Sight could even peer through parallel universes, though Lu Yin had not reached that level of mastery yet. Even so, it was not difficult to see through the Higher Realm without being discovered.
Half a day pa.s.sed before Shao Gu and Luo Lao"er finally met Bai w.a.n.gyuan and w.a.n.g Fan.
Xia Shenji was not present. He had been injured very badly, and only two months had pa.s.sed. He avoided showing himself to ensure that Bai w.a.n.gyuan and the others did not notice anything.
"This is Xuan Qi. He will help you with your investigation into Lu Yin," Shao Gu introduced.
Bai w.a.n.gyuan and w.a.n.g Fan stared at Luo Lao"er. They had been a bit traumatized by Lu Yin, and they had developed a habit of staring at everyone they saw, checking for disguises to ensure that they were not dealing with a hidden Lu Yin again.
After staring for a while, the two men grew much more relaxed. This man was not disguised and was showing his true face.
Luo Lao"er remained calm. He had already survived several life and death crises, and his father was Luo Shan, which meant that this was not the young man’s first time meeting a peak powerhouse. His experiences allowed him to remain very calm.
This was another one of the reasons why Lu Yin had chosen Luo Lao’er; the man had the necessary knowledge and experience.
"Didn"t you say that they’re called the four ruling powers? Why aren’t there four of them?" Luo Lao"er asked.
Shao Gu did not answer, and instead, Bai w.a.n.gyuan spoke up. "That doesn’t matter. You are Xuan Qi, right? Your only task here is to cooperate with someone in order to confirm that the descendant of the Lu family is indeed a spy so that the gathered evidence will be enough."
Luo Lao"er nodded. "The Sovereign explained things to me. Don’t worry, I know what to do."
"Very well." Bai w.a.n.gyuan looked to the side. "Come out!"
A person stepped out In the distance, and then slowly approached the group.
Far away, Lu Yin saw the person who was approaching, and his eyes grew cold as a vicious smile appeared on his face. "So, it"s you."
Lu Yin soon left. He had already seen all he needed to. Whatever happened to Luo Lao’er next would depend on him alone. As long as he completed this mission, Lu Yin would make sure to find the man a good master.
For the time being, Lu Yin would enter into seclusion.
There was still one month left before the Great Sovereign"s tea ceremony. Lu Yin did not intend to cultivate or train during this time, but rather adjust his mental state to the peak. He intended to use his die’s Timestop to prepare himself for the tea ceremony.
...
There was a parallel universe on the Endless Frontier that was known as the Gourd Universe. While the name was cute, it was one of the most dangerous universes in the entire Endless Frontier.
It was called the Gourd Universe because anyone who entered the universe would be surrounded by a gourd-shaped barrier. Supposedly, the universe had been altered with this rule by an extremely powerful cultivator known as Hu Guiren. Rumors claimed that Hu Guiren had been one of the most powerful cultivators in existence, and no one knew why such a powerful individual had died. All that was truly known was that the man had altered the entire Gourd Universe, and even the Three Sovereigns would find themselves within a gourd if they visited the universe. Even individuals as powerful as Lord Xu would experience the same thing, and the barriers that appeared were all known as gourds.
Every cultivator who entered the Gourd Universe would find themselves wearing a gourd. Fighting in this universe was also very simple: one merely had to infuse power into the gourd that appeared. Physical strength, spiritual force, a Progenitor’s world—any sort of power could be infused into the gourd, and the more power that was used, the stronger the gourd would become. Battles consisted of smashing one’s gourd into an enemy’s gourd, and whoever’s gourd broke would die.
More than four peak powerhouses had died in this particular universe, amply demonstrating just how dangerous it was.
The Aeternals frequently sent one of the Seven SkyG.o.ds to the Gourd Universe, while the Sixverse a.s.sociation often responded by sending people whose strength equaled that of the Three Sovereigns.
Whenever such powerful individuals appeared in the Gourd Universe, countless gourds would shatter, causing countless deaths.
Battles consisted of direct clashes of force between peak powerhouses.
At the moment, two gourds collided in the Gourd Universe, with one belonging to an Aeternal. It was actually a female corpse king with a lovely, if vicious, appearance. An energy that looked like blood was constantly merging with her gourd, reinforcing it and making it stronger. A layer of blood-red color covered her gourd.
Across from her was a transparent gourd. Within it was an old man with a mustache who was constantly waving a wooden sword to strike the inside of his gourd. Peach trees appeared and bloomed around the gourd, and they produced ma.s.sive peaches that occasionally fell to the ground where they slowly melted.
Every time a peach melted, the gourd rippled. It looked fragile, but it was never crushed or destroyed by the blood-red gourd that smashed against it.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Each clash tore the void apart, scattering spatial tears everywhere. Other gourds fled into the distance, as all the occupants were terrified of getting caught up in the clash between two peak powerhouses. Those fleeing gourds contained cultivators from the Sixverse a.s.sociation, as well as corpse kings, and even the universe’s native astral beasts.
Another gourd approached from a different direction and suddenly slammed into the blood-red gourd.
This new gourd was actually Xiu Ci. He was a master from the Voidforce Universe and was quite powerful. After Xu Heng and Xu Leng had broken through to the Void Suprema realm together, even when they worked together, they had only been able to reach a draw with Xiu Ci.
The arrival of the new gourd caused the blood-red gourd to retreat.
"Bearded freak, why are you here?" The old man in the transparent gourd asked in surprise.
Xiu Ci replied, "Little Mustache, the Great Sovereign"s tea ceremony will be held very soon. Why aren’t you attending?"
"You aren’t trapped, so why don"t you go?"
"I came to help you out."
"Ha, help? Once I can afflict her with Rootless Water, my gourd will crush her in one attack!"
"Stop bragging. You two have been fighting each other for thousands of years, but you have never been able to determine a victor. You must have developed feelings after fighting for so long."
"Bearded freak, don"t spout bulls.h.i.t! Watch out, or else I’ll smash you."
"Fine. The tea ceremony is about to start, so let"s go."
"What about this universe?"
"You must have forgotten that Aeternus also rests during this time. The two sides have a tacit agreement, and there will also be some people from the Cyclic Universe keeping an eye on things here, so you don’t need to worry about it. There will be time to return after the tea ceremony."
"True. If Aeternus dares to provoke a battle at such a time, the Great Sovereign will personally face off against True G.o.d in an earth-shattering battle."
...
In another universe of the Endless Frontier, s.p.a.ce was filled with cubes, and the cubes were filled with stars and planets. This phenomenon stretched as far as the eye could see. Each cube was at least as big as a planet, and people filled many of the cubes.
Some of the adjacent blocks could be entered, while others could not. It depended on the arrangement of the cubes.
Outside of this s.p.a.ce, two ma.s.sive powers were playing chess with each other. They constantly rearranged the blocks, as though playing a game of chess.
If one side gained the advantage, they could send their powerful combatants to ma.s.sacre their opponent’s weaker forces within a cube, gaining the advantage. Whoever gained an advantageous position would then be able to easily seize victory.
"I’m not that good at playing chess, and if I play with you, I’ll suffer a loss."
"Fair enough, but how could I forget about Shaman G.o.d’s ability to plot and scheme?"
"Scheming is easy, while strategizing is difficult. Sovereign Ninth Lotus, aren"t you in a hurry?"
"A hurry?"
"Your Great Sovereign"s tea ceremony is about to begin."
"It’s fine. This war is more important. There are people who are forced to remain in the Endless Frontier during every tea ceremony and are unable to attend. I’ll stay here to play with you."
"Haha, forget it. I’m no longer interested in this game. You can play by yourself." With that, Shaman G.o.d left the universe.
On the opposite side, Sovereign Ninth Lotus’s eye twitched. Why had Shaman G.o.d left? The Sovereign could use the given opportunity to increase her advantage and purge the Aeternals from the universe, but what would be the point in doing so for such a small portion of the battlefield? There were only two corpse kings with the physical strength of a peak powerhouse in this particular universe, and they were no real threat. The Sovereign would much rather attend the tea ceremony and listen to the Great Sovereign’s teachings, which might provide her with the necessary insight to take another step of improvement.
With but a little thought, Sovereign Ninth Lotus also left the universe.
No one was completely selfless, and it all depended on what their particular selfishness affected.
For a powerful cultivator like Sovereign Ninth Lotus, a single step of improvement in her cultivation was what she lived for.
...
Similar scenes played out across the entire Endless Frontier, with some people leaving and others arriving.
Not all peak powerhouses attended the tea ceremony. There were times when there were more, and times when there were less. At the least attended tea ceremony, not even a fifth of the ninety nine seats had been filled, and even the most attended ceremony had only seen two thirds of the seats be occupied.
Each tea ceremony gave the attendants an opportunity to receive advice from the Great Sovereign. Whether a person was able to attend, as well as whether or not they could glean anything from the tea ceremony depended only on themselves.
It also seemed that the Aeternals followed the same sort of routine, as the Endless Frontier would become significantly quieter during each tea ceremony.
The Sixverse a.s.sociation settled their own affairs, while the Aeternals did the same for Aeternus.
...
In the Cyclic Universe’s Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, people were constantly arriving just outside the Heavenly Gate and pa.s.sing through the gate.
Bells constantly tolled throughout the Cyclic Universe.
Countless people arrived in the Cyclic Universe to pay their respects at this time. Flowers rose up from the earth and stretched into the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, forming an impressive sight.
Fate aura could be seen flowing, and transparent chains hung in the air as rings formed from particles flew through the air. Only cultivators who had touched upon the fundamental rules of the universe knew that these things were the universal laws that the Great Sovereign had mastered, and they were being made visible for all to see. This was the Dao of the Great Sovereign.
For those who were ignorant, they believed that the display was merely similar to a flower arrangement and a simple decoration.
Children played outside the Heavenly Gate, and one of them had an innate gift related to vision.
People needed to work hard to even qualify to serve outside the Heavenly Gate, and they watched with envy as people pa.s.sed through the Heavenly Gate.