Chapter 2641 – Futile
According to Lu Yin’s current understanding of the Transcendent Universe, the You family would not be able to shake the ruler"s position even if their strength was multiplied a dozen times over. It was fundamentally impossible for them to ever be on equal footing for one simple reason: the You family still held a seat on the Ruling Council.
If You Fang was truly equal to the ruler of his universe, then no one from the You family would be on the Ruling Council.
In the Sixverse Academy, You Teng had shown that he was wary of He Ran. If the You family really had the same status as the Transcendent Universe’s ruler, then he would have never had such an att.i.tude.
The political landscape of the Transcendent Universe was like a sea with unseen depths. The intricacies of the power struggles taking place seemed far more complex than those of the Voidforce Universe.
You Fang did not say much to Tu Ying. No matter how little the patriarch cared about the Ruling Council, no member of the Ruling Council could be forcibly questioned. To do so would be no different from slapping He Ran and the universe’s ruler in their faces.
Uncle Mo arrived and asked the You family to release Tu Yin, and You Fang took Lu Yin with him to meet with Uncle Mo.
"So, Tu Ying is only suspected of being a spy?" Uncle Mo asked Xuan Qi.
Lu Yin replied, "That’s right. We don’t have any real evidence."
Uncle Mo then turned to You Fang, and he addressed the man in a respectful manner. "Patriarch You, Tu Ying is a member of the Ruling Council. Arresting him without evidence will lead to some undesirable effects. Madam He Ran hopes that you will let him go."
You Fang stared back at Uncle Mo. "Are these undesirable effects more important than catching spies?"
Uncle Mo hesitated. Regardless of how big the repercussions of Tu Ying’s arrest might be, they could never outweigh the potential harm that a spy could cause. However, if Uncle Mo said that out loud, he would be summarily dismissed by You Fang. Tu Ying had to be taken back.
"Uncle Mo, how about this? We"ll turn the investigation into Tu Ying over to you. What do you say to that?" Lu Yin suggested.
"To me?" Uncle Mo was caught off guard.
You Fang"s eyes flashed as he looked at Xuan Qi.
As for You Lele, she inched her way closer from behind Lu Yin. It was clear that he was plotting something.
Lu Yin laughed. "I believe that Madam He Ran, the You family, and also the Ruling Council will never tolerate the existence of any spies. If Tu Ying is a spy, then I’m confident that Madam He Ran will be the first to deal with him. So, it"s better to let him go. Even if we keep him locked up here, we won"t be able to get any information out of him."
"You"re the one who wanted to catch him, but as soon as one of Madam He Ran"s people shows up, you"re telling us to just let him go? Xuan Qi, you-"
Lu Yin cut You Lele off. "I told you that I needed you to use your You family’s influence to investigate Tu Ying. Since we can"t get any answers out of him so far, it’s only a given that we have to let him go."
You Fang nodded. "I"ll leave matters regarding the Bureau to you. If you want to release him, I won’t object."
Uncle Mo sighed in relief. When it came to dealing with the You family, even a peak powerhouse like Uncle Mo had no confidence that he could take Tu Ying away. Only members of the You family had any real idea of the extent of the family’s full strength. You Fang was able to use a black energy converter, and the You family had at least one black energy converter that they were keeping hidden as well. Without You Fang showing Uncle Mo some respect, the man knew that he would never be able to accomplish his task.
"Don"t worry. If Tu Ying is truly a spy, Madam He Ran will not let him off," Uncle Mo rea.s.sured everyone. Before long, he left with Tu Ying.
Even though Tu Ying resented the You family, he did not dare to act on his grievances. He knew that his only choice was to bury those feelings deep in his heart.
After the two men left, You Lele started mocking Xuan Qi. "Just as I expected of a good little brother. You can"t even stand your ground!"
"Lele, go check on how the fifth experiment is proceeding," You Fang said, bluntly dismissing You Lele.
Lu Yin similarly sent Boss Guan and the rest of the Bureau members away, including Xu Ji and Xu Yue. Once everyone was gone, Lu Yin asked, "Senior, are you certain that we will be able to monitor Tu Ying?"
You Fang confidently replied, "Unless that person stops me himself, I can monitor whoever I wish in the Transcendent Universe."
"Good." Lu Yin nodded. "After all, Tu Ying is a member of the Ruling Council. Not only has he denied everything, but we also don"t have any evidence against him. Additionally, we can’t force him to talk. This is really the only path that we can take, so hopefully, we’ll be able to gain something from this."
"Uncle Mo has taken him away, which means that the first person Tu Ying will see is going to be He Ran. I can listen in on that conversation. Do you have any problems with that?" You Fang asked.
Lu Yin laughed. "Senior, you’re testing me."
"This is about He Ran." You Fang met Lu Yin"s gaze.
Lu Yin shrugged. "When it comes to catching spies, nothing else matters, not even He Ran."
You Fang chuckled. "Just what is your relationship with that woman?"
"She is Sister Ran," Lu Yin answered with a smile.
You Fang could not understand the young man’s thoughts at all. Xuan Qi had casually exposed his relationship with He Ran, but he was also letting You Fang monitor the woman unmolested. Did the man really want nothing more than to catch spies?
After leaving the You family, the first person that Tu Ying met with was indeed He Ran, and You Fang and Lu Yin eavesdropped on their conversation.
There was absolutely nothing strange about what was said between He Ran and Tu Ying, and the outcome was completely within Lu Yin"s expectations. Tu Ying was forced to step down from the Ruling Council.
Lu Yin’s comment had been completely accurate; if Tu Ying was a spy, then He Ran would be the first to deal with the man. She would never allow anyone to tarnish her image, and if it became known that she was supported by a spy, then she would be ridiculed. Since there was no proof that Tu Ying was a spy, He Ran could not take any overt measures against the man, which meant that she could only remove him from the Ruling Council and strip him of all authority. In this way, even if he was a spy, he would not have enough influence to accomplish anything.
Tu Ying could not accept his fate. He could not understand why the consequences of merely being suspected of being a spy were so drastic.
All that could be said was that the man did not understand the thinking of those who were truly in power.
Regardless of whether Tu Ying remained a member of the Ruling Council, the You family intended to continue closely monitoring him.
For the moment, Lu Yin could take a break. After they captured the woman who had destroyed the research data, she had naturally claimed to be under Cheng Kong’s control. They were in the Transcendent Universe, so her judgment was up to the You family, and Lu Yin had no say whatsoever.
What Lu Yin really needed to do now was roll his die.
The quickest way for him to find spies was always to roll his die.
He had only needed half a year to find and arrest hundreds of spies in the Voidforce Universe, and it had all been because he had continuously rolled his die. Even if Possession was a rare roll, and Possessing a spy was also a rather remote possibility, every time that he succeeded in doing so, he was able to expose an entire network of spies.
More often than not, spies functioned as part of a large, interconnected web, and many of them had various connections to each other. Possession was truly the most efficient course of action.
Lu Yin had a reputation to uphold, and he knew that he could achieve his goals as long as people had faith in his ability to catch spies.
The Transcendent Universe used a form of currency known as transcendent crystals, and Lu Yin easily acquired some of them.
He then spent a good half day studying a transcendent crystal, but by the end, his optimism had completely disappeared.
Transcendent crystals were actually nothing more than pieces of some metallic material that was used to craft energy converters and bestowal art carriers. In fact, the metallic substance was extensively used throughout the Transcendent Universe, and it was the most in demand resource. It was precisely because it was an essential resource that the universe valued and used it as their currency.
The problem was that the material was of absolutely no use to Lu Yin.
Possession had to be powered by the predominant energy of a universe, and Lu Yin could also only Possess individuals within the same universe who interacted with that energy. However, transcendent crystals were nothing more than a simple material. What sort of energy did they possess?
The Transcendent Universe was not filled with a unique energy that existed everywhere. Instead, the people of the universe had developed cultivation technologies and made full use of the universe"s resources, which was fundamentally different from how cultivation civilizations worked.
The Three Monarchs Universe used flourishing crystals that contained monarch essence, and as long as Lu Yin used monarch essence, he would theoretically be able to Possess people in the Three Monarchs Universe. However, there was no comparable energy in the Transcendent Universe. Such a thing simply did not exist.
Lu Yin had never even considered this issue before, and his own negligence had become an obstacle for him. Realizing what he had overlooked, he felt rather lost as to how to proceed.
What should he do? If he could not use Possession, how could he quickly find and arrest spies? If he could not achieve the same success that he had enjoyed in the Voidforce Universe, how would he be able to sway the You family? How could he build up an ideal image of Xuan Qi within the Sixverse a.s.sociation?
His head started to hurt.
Other than his die"s Possession, what other methods were available to him?
Spies were notoriously hard to expose, and without Possession, Lu Yin would not have been able to discover Yun Wu, expose Yi Jun, or practically purge the Voidforce Universe of all spies.
If he was forced to hunt for spies in the same manner as everyone else, Lu Yin did not believe that he could do any better than others. He knew that he was not smarter than other people.
The Bureau had been established with the sole purpose of finding and eliminating spies, but their success rate was beyond pathetic, even with multiple Progenitor-level powerhouses within the organization. If all things were made equal, Lu Yin did not believe that he held any particular advantage over anyone else in the Bureau.
Lu Yin racked his brain, trying to think of various strategies that would allow him to uncover spies. For the moment, he only had one option: Luo Lao"er"s information broker.
Since this person had been able to locate the spy who had destroyed the research data, they most likely had information on other spies as well.
However, the fact that the information broker knew the ident.i.ties of various spies but had chosen not to disclose anything showed that they were similar to the Perennial World’s Realmless. Such people had no consideration for the overall good of mankind, and they only acted out of self-interest.
Lu Yin did not trust such people.
Also, Lu Yin had a very simple way to interact with those he did not trust: find them and deal with them.
Xia Shenfei had obtained incredible amounts of information by infiltrating Realmless, and that had allowed him to uncover a large number of Redbacks all across the Perennial World, as well as people cooperating with those Redbacks. If Lu Yin could locate this information broker, it was possible that he would enjoy similar success.
Lu Yin felt no sympathy for such people, and despite the pressure on him, he could not come up with even a single alternate plan. It was worth a shot.
Lu Yin returned to Aeternus Nation and then took Luo Lao"er back to the Transcendent Universe to make contact with the information broker.
"Brother-in-law, what kind of information do you want this time?" Luo Lao"er asked cheerfully. He felt like he was contributing whenever he helped Lu Yin, and it also gave him an opportunity to distinguish himself. If he could accomplish something of note for Lu Yin, it would improve Luo Lao’er’s situation, even if it was only in Aeternus Nation.
He had not been able to get revenge for his mother yet. His enemy was literally beneath his feet, but he was powerless to act against her. It was a suffocating feeling.
Lu Yin had already prepared his response. With a stern expression, he stated, "I want information on Zi Jing."
Luo Lao"er thought he must have misheard. "Who? Sister Zi Jing?"
"Get in touch with your informant," Lu Yin ordered, "Buy any and all information that they have on Zi Jing. Most importantly…" Lu Yin paused as he fixed a level stare at Luo Lao"er. "Make sure that your contact learns that the information is going to be delivered to the Ziyou Realm."
Luo Lao"er was stunned. "To the You family? Brother-in-law, what are you doing?"
"Just do as I say, unless there’s a problem?" Lu Yin furrowed his brows.
Luo Lao"er was quite fl.u.s.tered, but seeing how Lu Yin"s expression had fallen, the young man was instantly reminded of Monarch Mu"s tragic fate. "I can do that. Even if I don’t know who I’m buying information from, they definitely know who I am. As long as we make contact from within the Ziyou Realm, they’ll be able to find my exact location. However, the Ziyou Realm is the You family"s territory, so we’ll most likely be found."
Lu Yin immediately took Luo Lao"er to the Ziyou Realm.
No matter how advanced the Transcendent Universe’s surveillance system was, it would be impossible to spy on Lu Yin. It was a large universe, and Lu Yin was nearly as strong as a Progenitor. The surveillance systems in place were completely unable to track Lu Yin.
On the first day, they were not able to make contact.
"This is perfectly normal. I once needed to wait for a whole month before I was able to buy any information," Luo Lao"er stated.
Lu Yin was not in any hurry, and he waited patiently.
After six days pa.s.sed, Luo Lao"er suddenly shouted, "I got it!"
Lu Yin looked over and silently stared at the dark green lens that covered one of Luo Lao’er’s eyes.