Chapter 3322: Hatred And One’s Bottom Line

I can’t say how much time passed. It’s possible that it was only a short time for the rest of the megaverse, but several years quickly passed in the Five Spirits Alliance’s universes. People around me started talking about Nests. What are Nests? I had no interest, but I slowly came to realize that the Nests they were talking about sounded a lot like the jade-colored orb that I had obtained. Was that a Nest?

I listened quietly and soon confirmed that I indeed had a Nest. Lord Lu and the Heavens Sect had ordered the entire megaverse to destroy all Nests, and they were offering tremendous rewards for turning Nests in. I had no interest in those rewards—I wanted revenge. The Cloudflow Universe, the Yu family... Would Lord Lu help me get revenge on those groups? Impossible. Those people are his subordinates. He would simply side with them, which means that I must seek revenge on my own.

Nests can spawn powerful insects, so powerful that even Lord Lu fears them, but I can’t be careless, and I couldn’t rush. I needed to take things slowly. If too many insects appeared, they would be discovered. Step by step. No rush, none at all.

...

Lu Yin could not believe the results as he stared at a familiar portrait.

"That’s your brother?"

Zi Jing stood behind him, and beside her was Cang Xiaoxue.

Lu Yin had taken action the moment he had learned that Cang Xiaoxue had been hiding a Nest. Both the woman and her Nest were seized. He then proceeded to ask why she had been hiding the Nest and producing insects. Cang Xiaoxue’s answer was both what he had expected, as well as rather surprising. She sought revenge, which was expected, but her enemies turned out to be the Cloudflow Universe and the You family.

This was a surprise. How could the Cloudflow Universe and the You family have a common enemy? At first, he was reminded of Lord Wei, the former ruler of the Transcendent Universe. He had been the enemy of both the You family and the Cloudflow Universe.

However, Cang Xiaoxue had led Lu Yin and Zi Jing to a room, where they saw a picture.

Xiao Hai, who had been part of the Energy Research Group, had turned out to be Cang Xiaoxue’s brother. His full name had been Cang Xiaohai.

The spy within the Energy Research Group who had tried to negotiate with Aeternus to obtain a new body so that he could take control of the research group had ultimately died at a research facility. Lu Yin had forced the man to help him search for a black energy converter.

Lu Yin had never expected that such a minor figure, whom he had forgotten long ago in the depths of his memory, would become relevant again.

"You knew my brother?" Cang Xiaoxue asked, puzzled.

Lu Yin stared at the picture of Cang Xiaohai. The man had betrayed Lu Yin and all of humanity. He had fully deserved to die. However, his death had incited another heart to pursue vengeance. That heart had laid dormant for a long time, but that spark had reignited with the appearance of a Nest.

Nests were not only a threat because of how their insects could destroy entire civilizations and erase inheritances and legacies, but also due to how Nests helped incite hatred between people. They granted power to people who had previously been helpless and powerless. Nests were able to grow and spread their insects due to how the weak sought revenge.

If there was no hatred or greed in the megaverse, then all of the Nests would have been destroyed long ago. Why would Cang Xiaoxue have felt the need to hide such a thing? Would it not have been better to turn it for a reward? Unfortunately, this was the reality of civilization, and more specifically, of human civilizations. Greed and hatred would never fade away. Despite humanity's noble virtues and fearless spirits, they also possessed complex emotions, and their innate flaws could not be hidden.

The Nests were tools made for the purpose of destroying civilizations. As long as a Nest could grow and develop, an entire civilization would eventually be destroyed.

This was the intent behind the Nests.

"You’re the one responsible for my brother's death, aren't you? It was you, wasn’t it? It was you..." Cang Xiaoxue suddenly understood. Behind both the You family and the Cloudflow Universe had stood this one man, Lord Lu. It had been him. He was the one who had killed her brother. How else could Lord Lu have recognized her brother? Cang Xiaohai had been nothing more than a minor member of the Energy Research Group. How could he have met someone like Lord Lu?

The rescue operation that had led to Cang Xiaohai’s death—this man had been the one behind it.

Lu Yin turned around and looked at Cang Xiaoxue. Hatred filled her eyes. She looked as though she wanted to devour him.

Behind the woman’s ordinary appearance lay what should have been an ordinary life. However, just one act of hatred, one Nest, had completely transformed that ordinary life.

"Your brother was a spy. He worked for Aeternus," Lu Yin calmly admitted.

Cang Xiaoxue broke down, and she shrieked, "It was you! It was you! You killed my brother! Give me back my brother! Give him back!"

"Your brother was a spy, and he deserved to die!" Zi Jing shouted as she grabbed Cang Xiaoxue.

"I don't care! He was my brother! My only family! You killed him! Give my brother back! Give him back to me!" Cang Xiaoxue continued to scream.

Zi Jing looked at Lu Yin. "Dao Monarch, I've known Xiaoxue for many years. She is an introverted person. The only one she’s ever cared about was her brother. This isn’t a grudge that can be resolved."

Cang Xiaoxue’s screams continued. Her eyes blazed with hatred as she glared at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin observed the woman. "I didn’t kill your brother."

Cang Xiaoxue froze, though she still stared at Lu Yin with eyes burning with hatred. "You didn’t kill him?"

"He died in the research facility that belonged to the Energy Research Group's previous lead researcher. While I didn't kill your brother myself, he certainly died because of me. On top of that, I feel no regrets regarding his death. Traitors deserve to die," Lu Yin stated indifferently.

Hatred flared back up in Cang Xiaoxue's eyes, and she started screaming again. She refused to accept what she was hearing.

She had had no idea that her enemy all along had been Lu Yin. She had hated the You family and the Cloudflow Universe for so many years, never knowing the truth. All along, she had been working for her enemy himself.

She collapsed to the floor. What did knowing the truth matter? It just meant that her enemy was different, though Lu Yin would be even more difficult to go after. He was too powerful, and his influence surpassed anything she could comprehend. Even with her Nest, she could not pursue revenge. It was simply impossible.

She sat on the floor, her expression vacant as she mumbled to herself.

Lu Yin stared at the Nest in his hand. "You never produced any Sky Orchids or Ghost Orchids? It's been three years and seven months since you came to the Five Spirits Alliance’s universes. Those first three years don’t count, as the Nests hadn’t been discovered yet. Only after you were here for three years was the Sixverse Academy slaughtered and the Nests discovered. You couldn’t have produced any insects before that, or they would have been reported earlier.

"It was only after news of the Nests spread that this place received any information, so that must be when you started producing your insects. At most, you've been working on it for seven months, which, in this universe, is less than sixty years.

"If you focused on cultivating your Nest, you could have spawned Scrollbane Centipedes in less than a decade. Following the time it took someone in another universe to produce Sky Orchids, you could have done so within no more than a decade, yet it took you almost sixty years. You must have been worried about being discovered, which is why you never released the Sky Orchids or Ghost Orchids, despite spawning them.

“In that case, why did you release the Scrollbane Centipedes?"

Cang Xiaoxue slowly looked up. She smiled at Lu Yin, but it was a poisonous smile. "You think that I’ll answer you?"

Lu Yin stared at the woman. "Given how cautious you were being, you wouldn't have exposed yourself rashly before getting revenge. Either you weren’t able to control the Scrollbane Centipedes, or... Or you aren't the only one who could control them."

He crouched down, his eyes locked with Cang Xiaoxue’s. "You’ve managed to produce a Verdant Sage, haven’t you?"

"Hahaha!" Cang Xiaoxue cackled loudly, clearly content.

The sound caused Lu Yin’s heart to drop.

"Lord Lu, you’re quite clever! Fine, I might as well tell you. Yes, my Nest produced a Verdant Sage!" Cang Xiaoxue laughed. "That Verdant Sage took control of the Scrollbane Centipedes, making them leave and serve as her scouts. She wanted to understand the Origin Universe, and I couldn’t stop her."

"Where is the Verdant Sage?" Lu Yin shouted sternly.

"Hahaha, I never thought that I'd see the mighty Lord Lu lose his composure! Hahaha, brother, did you see? Brother, hahaha!" Cang Xiaoxue continued to cackle. Years of pent-up emotions were being released all at once. Her laughter sounded like the satisfaction of a long-awaited revenge. The more that Lu Yin lost his composure, the happier she was by the sight. Slowly, her smile faded away, and her expression fell. The light in her eyes dimmed until she slowly fell over, dead.

Once Cang Xiaoxue was dead, Lu Yin stood up. His loss of composure had been nothing more than an act. The woman had kept a Nest hidden and spawned Scrollbane Centipedes, which had then killed many people. She deserved to die. However, she was also quite pitiful. Pity was not justification enough to spare the woman’s life, but Lu Yin was at least capable of fulfilling Cang Xiaoxue’s last wish.

She had been truly happy at the moment of her death.

Zi Jing stared at Cang Xiaoxue's corpse, feeling some sympathy. While He Ran had succeeded in instigating a bit of ambition in Cang Xiaoxue, at her core, the woman had never been a true cultivator. "Dao Monarch, with Cang Xiaoxue dead, what about the Scrollbane Centipedes?"

Lu Yin responded, "Was I too soft?"

Zi Jing was taken aback, and she looked at Lu Yin with a conflicted expression. Soft? Was Lu Yin soft-hearted? She considered what she knew of Lu Yin's life. His history was not some private story, but rather a legend that was treated as public record. Everyone knew Lu Yin’s story.

The moment that Lu Yin had first started cultivating, there had never been a moment free of bloodshed and slaughter. From Earth, he had gone to the Outerverse, the Innerverse, the Cosmic Sea, the Neoverse, and eventually the Perennial World, the Sixth Mainland, and the Sixverse Association. Just how many deaths was he responsible for, either directly or indirectly? Many people had died for various reasons, but had all of them truly deserved to die?

How many cultivators would question such a thing? An answer as simple as "survival of the fittest" justified everything. Still, how could humans not consider such things? Such questions were fundamental to being human.

In the past, Lu Yin would never have considered fulfilling Cang Xiaoxue's dream of revenge. Her death would not have factored into any part of his decision-making. Instead, he would have found a way to use her to deal with the Scrollbane Centipedes.

At present, Lu Yin had watched as a woman ended her own life, laughing joyously before her death. There was no doubt that this was the best outcome Cang Xiaoxue could have had, but Lu Yin and the Origin Universe were suffering from the presence of the Scrollbane Centipedes, and the situation was not good at all.

When would a cycle of revenge end? Hatred was a theme that never changed, no matter how many years passed. It was only recently, after becoming the ruler of all humanity, that Lu Yin had started to consider such things.

What right did a person who had no reason to fear being targeted by others’ revenge have to guide others towards goodness? Lu Yin looked at the picture of Cang Xiaohai. The hatred that had been created by Lu Yin had ended with Cang Xiaoxue's death, but what about the others?

Zi Jing did not disturb Lu Yin. Instead, she remained silent as she stood behind him.

There were certain questions that could only be considered by someone in Lu Yin's position.

A long time later, Lu Yin gave orders for all peak powerhouses to gather in the Origin Universe and release their Progenitor’s worlds throughout the Origin Universe in order to search for the Scrollbane Centipedes.

Doing this was no different from waiting for a rabbit to enter a trap, but there was no other way.

Scrollbane Centipedes were creatures that moved across dimensions, which made it extremely difficult to find them directly.

Lu Yin had allowed Cang Xiaoxue to die in part because the Scrollbane Centipedes did not obey her. If the insects had listened to the woman, they would have never left the Five Spirits Alliance’s universes. The bugs only listened to the Verdant Sage.

Finding the Verdant Sage was more important than anything else.

However, not even Cang Xiaoxue had known where the Verdant Sage had gone. Nests were nothing more than a breeding ground for the insects, but there was no reason why they had to return to the Nest that had spawned them. They could instead seek out the nearest Nest. Lu Yin had learned this from Great Elder Shan Gu.