Chapter?C.2625 – Knowledge Nexus

The Sixverse Association was not merely a name, but rather a colossal union. It did not consist of only six parallel universes, but also encompassed all known, conquered, or allied universes as well. The entire collective was referred to as the Sixverse Association.

One could see what the Sixverse Association truly was through the Endless Frontier.

The Endless Frontier was a battlefield that consisted of numerous interconnected parallel universes. It was a massive battlefield that formed a massive barricade. After catching glimpses of the Endless Frontier from several Possessed people’s memories, Lu Yin had developed a decent understanding of the place.

All battlefields had commanders and leaders. The Sixverse Association itself acted as the supreme commander of the Endless Frontier, and they issued orders to every human on the battlefield. However, it was far from easy for people to receive their orders. Aeternus had no desire to allow humans to freely communicate with each other, and this had forced the Sixverse Association to develop a special means by which to communicate on the battlefield.

The Sixverse Association sent information to the Endless Frontier, and the Endless Frontier then returned information back to the Sixverse Association, and through them, to other parallel universes.

Every parallel universe in the Sixverse Association had a a specific location where information was received and relayed. In the Voidforce Universe, that location was called Knowledge Nexus.

No one knew where Knowledge Nexus was located, as that was one of the greatest secrets of the Voidforce Universe. Despite all the various people that Lu Yin had Possessed, he still didn’t know where Knowledge Nexus was.

He doubted even Xu Wuji knew.

However, after speaking with Cheng Feng, Lu Yin learned where Knowledge Nexus was located. Lu Yin had just learned one of the Voidforce Universe’s most closely guarded secrets.

Shaman God had given Cheng Feng the task of infiltrating Knowledge Nexus and intercepting any information received from the Endless Frontier.

Yi Jun had not obtained her information from Knowledge Nexus, but rather from several families who had been working on sending messages to and from the Endless Frontier for many years. Such communications were a trivial problem that could be easily dealt with, whereas Knowledge Nexus was the only source of truly important information.

Anyone who gained access to Knowledge Nexus could obtain intelligence regarding the entire Endless Frontier. That was what Shaman God wanted.

Lu Yin exhaled. "Rumors claim that no one in Knowledge Nexus is able to betray humanity, so how did you learn of its location? How were you able to join?"

Cheng Feng was still seething in his hatred for the villagers. As long as he had any chance to survive, he would put forth his full efforts. "Shaman God told me. I was told that, as long as I sang, I would eventually be able to join Knowledge Nexus. Other than that, I never needed to do anything else."

"But you've recruited other spies," Lu Yin coldly stated.

Cheng Feng was taken aback. "How did you know about that?"

Lu Yin did not respond.

Cheng Feng quietly replied, "I never exposed my identity when recruiting other spies. How could you possibly know about that?"

Lu Yin laughed. "Do you really think that you didn’t make any mistakes?"

Cheng Feng quickly understood. "You learned about me through one of those spies, didn't you?"

Lu Yin stared into the man’s crazed eyes. "I don't believe that you would mess around behind Shaman God's back. Joining Knowledge Nexus was your top priority. You pursued fame and maintained your facade at all times, just for the opportunity to join Knowledge Nexus, but you still recruited spies. Why?"

Cheng Feng's eyes flickered, but he did not answer.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. "I'll ask once more: why?"

Cheng Feng looked over at Lu Yin. "Someone asked me to."

"Who?"

"I don't know, but they’re definitely in the upper echelons of Aeternus."

"Why did they ask you to recruit spies?"

"I don't know. All they told me was that they needed more spies and that it was inconvenient for them to expose themselves. So, I was asked to do it. I was assured that my identity would be kept secret."

"What tasks did you assign the spies that you recruited?"

"None," Cheng Feng hurriedly replied.

Lu Yin looked away. He had peered into the memories of a spy who had figured out Cheng Feng’s identity, which was why Lu Yin knew that Cheng Feng was not lying. The man had recruited a number of spies, but he had never asked any of them to do anything.

This was quite strange. What was the point of recruiting spies, only to leave them without any tasks? Recruiting spies would only increase the chances of Cheng Feng being exposed. A high-ranking Aeternal would never sabotage Shaman God's plans. In that case, had the Aeternal truly been unable to recruit spies themselves, or had there been some other reason?

"What does this high-ranking member of Aeternus look like?" Lu Yin asked.

"I truly have no idea," Cheng Feng replied, "At first, I refused to even admit that I was a spy, but they insisted that I was, and they even threatened to place a scarlet eye in the village. If that happened, I would have had no way to argue my innocence. Even if I wasn’t labeled a spy, Shaman God's plan would still be guaranteed to fail.”

"I couldn't afford that risk, as that would cost me everything. Failure would mean becoming worthless, which meant that I had to do as I was told."

Lu Yin frowned, confused. Why had this happened? Cheng Feng had been given no specifications for who he was supposed to recruit, nor were the spies given any tasks. It seemed that a great deal of effort had been put into forcing Cheng Feng to recruit a few spies, but it had not mattered who the spies were or what tasks they had been given. The sole purpose of the entire endeavor seemed to be to expose Cheng Feng.

Wait a minute… Lu Yin suddenly remembered something. He carefully went through the memories of the spy that he had Possessed.

While doing so, Lu Yin pinpointed the detail that had triggered his memory. There had been something rather suspicious about the spy who had identified Cheng Feng. How had he managed to identify Cheng Feng? While the spy seemed to have drawn a reasonable conclusion given certain deductions, the entire process had been unnaturally smooth. That should not have been the case.

Cheng Feng had always been extremely cautious. Even when Lu Yin had disguised himself as Tu Shuangshuang, he had been forced to retreat. How could some lowly, recently recruited spy uncover Cheng Feng's identity? It seemed as though someone had intentionally led that spy to the discovery.

Yes, it all seemed quite intentional.

Lu Yin formed a crazy hypothesis. Despite its absurdity, it started to take root in his mind: it was possible that humanity had a spy within Aeternus.

If Cheng Feng had successfully joined Knowledge Nexus, Aeternus would have gained full access to enemy intelligence concerning the Endless Frontier. Why had Sage Stone died? Because his location had been exposed. If Aeternus was able to obtain key information regarding the Endless Frontier, humanity would suffer terrible losses. Given the catastrophic risks involved, someone had not been able to sit still any longer.

Was it really possible?

Lu Yin mulled over the idea. The possibility of humanity having spies within Aeternus was laughable. He had never heard of such a possibility, but that did not mean that it was impossible. Aeternus had more than just corpse kings, as there were also a number of humans who had been convinced to switch sides. Yi Ren was a prime example.

Lu Yin buried his suspicions deep in his heart. He returned to the Red Zone with Cheng Feng. Next, he intended to carefully go through the memories that he had obtained from those who he had Possessed in order to uncover any other spies. Still, before that, there was a duel he needed to watch.

…

The powers of the Scorching Sun and the Heart Frost met in outer space and then fused together to stop an overwhelming surge of voidforce energy.

Two days had passed since the battle between Xu Heng, Xu Leng, and Xiu Ci had started. Many spectators watched from the distance, all of them eager to see the final outcome of the duel.

The three had started their match before Lu Yin arrived, two days earlier. The first confrontation was two massive waves of voidforce energy crashing into each other.

Xiu Ci possessed much more voidforce energy than both Xu Heng and Xu Leng combined. Even with the Yin Yang Sword, the two were barely able to endure for two days.

Xiu Ci was an old man with a beard so long that it wrapped around his neck three times. It looked odd, but the beard was actually the old man’s voidforce puppet.

The phrase “Who needs a voidforce puppet when I have my long beard?” was only spoken by Xiu Ci.

"Bureau Director, who do you feel has the upper hand?" Lu Yin asked. Xu Wuji had led Lu Yin to the site of the battle. Lu Yin asked the question because he remained somewhat unfamiliar with the strength and fighting style of the Voidforce Universe's Void Supremas.

Xu Wuji adjusted his glasses. "Senior Xiu Ci."

Lu Yin was surprised. "Are you completely certain?"

Xu Wuji explained, "So far, the two sides have been competing to see who has more voidforce energy. Do you know why Xiu Ci always lost to Venerable Xuyi? It was because he possessed less voidforce energy.

"Xiu Ci is unique. He's always been unwilling to cultivate voidforce puppets, and he instead prefers to use his own voidforce energy reserves to use battle techniques. Venerable Xuyi was an orthodox cultivator of the Voidforce Universe. One of them used voidforce puppets to unleash twenty times more voidforce energy than what his own body possessed, while the other used nothing more than his own strength and battle techniques. Which do you believe would be stronger?”

"However, that previous gap has now disappeared. Since Xiu Ci last lost to Venerable Xuyi, he has decided to nurture a voidforce puppet. While he still refuses to use any outside power or puppet, he nurtured his beard into his own voidforce puppet. Theoretically, he is able to control up to ten times more voidforce energy than what he possesses.”

"In doing so, he has eliminated his only disadvantage in comparison to Venerable Xuyi, while retaining his advantage in battle techniques. If Xu Heng and Xu Leng had managed to seize the upper hand at the start of their match and overwhelmed him with their voidforce energy, then the outcome of their fight would have been unpredictable. However, given what we’re seeing now, anyone with some knowledge of Xiu Ci’s past with Venerable Xuyi can already predict the outcome."

Lu Yin nodded. "So, Senior Xiu Ci has been just testing his voidforce energy against them so far. Why would he do that?"

"To save time. He's telling Xu Heng and Xu Leng that they have no hope of winning," Xu Wuji stated.

Lu Yin watched. He had believed that his two senior siblings would be able to gain the upper hand by working together, but there was still a gap between them and Xiu Ci.

How could the Sixth Mainland’s Yi Ren contend with someone like Xia Shenji, who was comparable to the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas? Even if two Yi Rens joined forces, the outcome of that battle would not change. According to Lu Yin’s understanding, Xiu Ci was even more powerful than Xia Shenji, but voidforce energy was too tricky for him to be completely certain.

Xiu Ci and Xia Shenji seemed to possess nearly equal levels of power, but the moment that Xiu Ci used his beard, he would gain ten times more voidforce energy, which would allow him to completely suppress Xia Shenji. This was the strength of the Voidforce Universe.

At this moment, Xu Wuji's expression changed, and he spun around to discover Xu Wuwei standing there. "Senior Xu Wuwei?"

Lu Yin quickly turned around and paid his respects. "Greetings, Senior."

Xu Wuwei ignored the two and focused on the distant duel. "Two Void Supremas have risen at the same time. Not bad, not bad at all, hehe."

"Senior, have you returned from the Endless Frontier?" Xu Wuji asked.

"I nearly died there. Stay as far away from that place as possible." Xu Wuwei then looked at Lu Yin and praised him. "I’ve heard that you’ve arrested a bunch of spies, including one of Sovereign Ninth Lotus’s disciples, right?"

Lu Yin gave a very short accounting of recent events, and Xu Wuwei let out a long sigh. "For many years, the Bureau has struggled to make any progress at all, but you’ve managed to accomplish something huge so quickly after joining. It makes it hard for anyone to believe that you're not a spy yourself."

The comment startled Lu Yin. "Senior, that is not a funny joke!"

Xu Wuji was also taken aback by the comment. "Senior, what are you suggesting?"

Xu Wuwei replied, "Aeternus has done things like this before. They intentionally allow one of their people to expose other spies and create a name for themselves. Have you forgotten how the war in the Origin Universe between the Fifth and Sixth Mainlands began? Unfortunately, back then, we lacked the power to intervene. If we had, things would not have reached their current state."