Chapter 4103: Crimson Starshade

“Even though I believe you, there are others who don’t,” Lu Yin added.

A flash of bloodlust appeared in Astral Anura’s eyes. “Who? Who’s slandering me?”

“Greater Sancte Green Lotus.”

The bloodlust instantly vanished. Astral Anura fell silent.

“He can’t understand it. The ‘familiar aura’ that you sensed belongs to the Tricolor Skyborne, and you felt them on the far side of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. That’s so far away that it’s essentially twice as far as the distance between the Tianyuan and the Spirit Nidus. You’re not an Immortal, so how could you have sensed the Tricolor Skyborne from here?”

Astral Anura wanted to explain, but there was nothing to say. It was a valid question; how was it possible?

That distance was so vast that not even an Immortal might sense something from that far.

Lu Yin stared at the toad. “You enabled us to quickly find those giant snails, which is a great accomplishment, and in our human civilization, accomplishments are rewarded. You can rest easy that the credit from this alone will be enough for you to hold your head high until you die. Still, you need to first convince Greater Sancte Green Lotus of your loyalty.

“He suspects that you’ve joined Obscura and that you said what you did for the purpose of scheming against me. He also suspects that you colluded with the Nest civilization to trigger a war between humanity and the Tricolor Skyborne.”

Astral Anura was about to burst into tears. He wanted nothing more than to curse his accuser, but he did not dare to say such things about Greater Sancte Green Lotus. That man was an Immortal and also the mightiest cultivator in human civilization.

“Lord Lu, I truly didn’t! I just sensed an aura that felt both familiar and unlike anything I’d ever felt before, so I went straight to you about it.”

“Straight to me?”

“Uh... Maybe I waited half a year? Anyway, it wasn’t long. Lord Lu, please believe me. I really didn’t!”

Lu Yin raised a hand. “I know that you didn’t. The Tianyuan trusts you. Back when we fought against Aeternus, you did business with us a number of times, and your word was always reliable. But Greater Sancte Green Lotus doesn’t know you, and the people of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse know even less about you. You know how it is. Awe Gate has a temper.”

“Please, Lord Lu, stand up for me!” Astral Anura pleaded, prostrating himself.

Lu Yin exchanged glances with Long Xi. It was almost the right time. He would have Astral Anura meet with the Tricolor Skyborne to see if the toad could bluff some information out of the snails. If Lu Yin tried to force Astral Anura, the damned toad would likely bungle the entire task. Only if he came up with the idea on his own would it be possible to glean anything from this plan.

The toad was certainly clever and wily, while the Tricolor Skyborne seemed guileless. It was possible that they would not be able to withstand Astral Anura’s probing.

The premise was that Astral Anura was important enough for the snails to care about him.

Lu Yin had not been purely bluffing while talking to the toad. It was true that neither he nor Greater Sancte Green Lotus could understand how Astral Anura could have sensed the Tricolor Skyborne's arrival from such a vast distance. It was hard to accept.

It was also precisely this unprecedented event that made it clear that Astral Anura’s species had an unusual connection to the snails. They needed to have the toad bluff. Anything that he could learn would be helpful.

The air fell silent.

Astral Anura lay prostrate. Even his lotus leaf seemed to wither.

Lu Yin exhaled. “As I already said, I believe you. However, with how human civilization has unified, if others don’t trust you, your future here with us will become bleak.

“So... go meet with the Tricolor Skyborne and dispel those doubts.”

Astral Anura looked up. “Meet... with the Tricolor Skyborne?”

Lu Yin nodded and reached out to help the toad stand.

“Meet with them and learn whatever you can about their civilization, or whoever’s behind them. Only then will Greater Sancte Green Lotus and the others be convinced that you’re one of us.”

Astral Anura was not stupid. On the contrary, he was quite quick-witted. He clearly understood what Lu Yin was getting at. The toad was being pushed to get information from the giant snails. Also, precisely because he was clever, Astral Anura also understood Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s suspicion.

Who could sense the aura of another species from so far away?

Doubts about such a thing were perfectly reasonable.

The only thing that Astral Anura had no insight towards was Lu Yin and the Immortals’ stance towards him. He could not tell if Lu Yin was bluffing or if the Immortals truly suspected that the toad had betrayed humanity.

Astral Anura just stared at Lu Yin for a time, hoping to read something from the man’s face.

Lu Yin calmly drank his tea, expressionless.

A long time passed without Astral Anura saying anything at all.

Lu Yin finally set his cup down on the table. “If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. I’ll deal with the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. You can leave now.”

Astral Anura blinked, but he continued to stare at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin met the toad’s eyes and smiled. “Sip some tea. She worked hard to prepare this.”

He then picked up Astral Anura’s teacup and handed it over.

Astral Anura accepted the cup and stared into it. After a moment, he swallowed and said, “I’ll go.”

Lu Yin offered a faint smile. “Don’t force yourself. You can relax. I’ll handle the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. I won’t allow you to suffer. You’ve accomplished something great for us.”

Astral Anura felt bitter. A great accomplishment? Yes, he had done that, but an accomplishment had to be carried through to the end.

Finding the Tricolor Skyborne was only the beginning. Dispelling humanity’s suspicions would be the end.

Only after completing the entire task would his accomplishment truly be complete.

“I’m not forcing anything. I’ll go meet the Tricolor Skyborne. Maybe they can tell me something about my own species,” Astral Anura said.

Lu Yin considered that. “That’s a fair point. Very well, go. Don’t worry, an Immortal from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse will be protecting you, so you won’t come to any harm. I can promise you that.”

Only then did Astral Anura relax. Everyone who was familiar with Lu Yin understood that going against him only led to absolute misery. He was ruthless and cunning and could make his enemies wish for death. On the other hand, if he made a promise, he meant every word of it.

“Then I’ll be off?” Astral Anura asked.

Lu Yin nodded, smiling as he tipped back his teacup.

Astral Anura eyed the cup.

More tea? To hell with tea! I never even got to enjoy a single sip!

“This tea is her way of showing affection, and it’s also quite good.”

Astral Anura’s eyes slid past Lu Yin to look at Long Xi, who responded with a gentle smile.

Resigned, he lifted his cup yet again. “Thank you, Lord Lu. Thank you, Miss Long Xi.”

Just then, a green lotus leaf appeared. Astral Anura took his teacup with him as he stepped onto the leaf and left.

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered as he watched the toad travel out of sight. He could only hope that the damned toad would bring back some good news.

“Wasn’t that a bit too much pressure? He did find the Tricolor Skyborne,” Long Xi asked.

Lu Yin’s expression grew solemn. “That’s all the more reason to learn what sort of connection there is between his species and the Tricolor Skyborne. Our doubts aren’t baseless, and I meant what I said. I do trust the toad, if only because he knows that, if he plots against me, he’ll die. Not even Immortals can escape from the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, let alone Astral Anura.

“He values his own life too much to scheme against us.”

Long Xi shared her worries aloud, “But if word of what’s happened gets out, others might not be willing to report problems.”

Lu Yin sighed. “Our situation is so grave that we can’t afford to worry about that for now. We need to resolve our immediate problems first.

“That toad is clever, and he won’t talk about things he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t let anything leak. As for his resentment, Greater Sancte Green Lotus will compensate him until he’s happy again.

“As for me, I’ll teach him the Nirvana Tree Path to compensate him.

“I wasn’t lying. Once we resolve this crisis and human civilization is secure, he can rest on the merits of what he’s done for the rest of his life.”

Long Xi said nothing more and simply refilled Lu Yin’s cup. There was more work to be done.

The void before them twisted, and several strange creatures tumbled out. Panicked, they immediately tried to flee, as they had no idea where they were. However, Lu Yin easily captured them.

Still sitting at the stone table, Lu Yin studied the creatures, while Long Xi observed them in curiosity. They were odd creatures, and their aura of foreigners was only too obvious.

There were five creatures, all with oval, lime-colored heads. They had no eyes or mouths, just a vertical seam down the center of their heads. As for bodies, they had no torsos. Their heads were connected to gray-brown fronds that formed what looked like grass skirts.

Lu Yin had coincidentally spotted the creatures while fighting against the two Immortal Verdant Sages while outside the Tianyuan, and he had deliberately guided some shockwaves away from the creatures. If not for Lu Yin’s efforts, these creatures would have all died from their proximity to that battle.

He had wanted to know how these foreign creatures had ended up so close to the Tianyuan.

After a moment of panic, the creatures calmed and turned to face Lu Yin, who was still observing them. “In our civilization, we consider your strength to be at the Semi-Progenitor level, which is more than enough for us to communicate. Tell me: where are you from?”

The creatures shifted to face one another. While they had no eyes, the vertical seams down their heads seemed to serve as sensory organs.

It was unclear whether they were communicating between themselves or doing something else, but after a while, one of the creatures stepped forward and offered Lu Yin a strange bow that he could not make any sense of.

“Mighty honored one, we are from the Toro civilization, which is a civilization that should have already been wiped out. By chance, we were sealed in stone and slept until we were awakened during that recent battle between Immortals.

“We have no intention of disturbing your civilization.

“As for why we appeared here, we also do not know...”

The creature spoke at length, sharing details about the Toro civilization, insisting that it had been destroyed. It even went so far as to say that they did not even know where their native megaverse could be found.

As for being sealed in stone, that should refer to a sourcebox.

Just like Yong Heng and Zhu, these creatures had apparently chosen to seal themselves within a sourcebox in order to escape.

Lu Yin had little interest in the Toro civilization. Karma flickered around his fingertips before he swept it forward. He had only asked questions to put on a show. Karma was how he would get the real answers.

If their story did not match with what karma revealed, there would be a problem.

As spirals of karma pierced the creatures, Lu Yin saw scenes of the past. Most were of darkness that revealed nothing at all. That darkness was only occasionally broken with a few flashes, all of which were pieces of the Toro civilization’s history.

He saw the moment the Toro civilization was destroyed and the collapse of their Mother Tree. Their megaverse had also held a Mother Tree.

He saw blood and flame intertwine.

He saw another strange species, whose bodies were just as bizarre as those of the Toro civilization’s, destroy the Toro civilization. These attackers were another species Lu Yin had never seen before.

He watched for some time, but just as he was about to end things, Lu Yin’s eyes flared. He stared at a certain scene in the karma in a daze. In the Toro civilization’s past, he saw a human, one who wore all red.

Lu Yin turned his focus back onto the creatures before him. “You’ve seen us before.”

The creatures panicked, and the voice of one who had been speaking to Lu Yin quavered, “Mighty honored one, we have never seen you before.”

“You’ve seen a human civilization!” Lu Yin snapped back, killing intent flickering in his eyes. Terrifying pressure forced the creatures to the ground. They trembled, as it felt as though the sky itself were collapsing upon them.

This was the same sensation that they had felt when the Immortals had been fighting, a feeling of the cosmos collapsing. It was a sign of impending destruction, and it caused them all to despair.

“Mighty honored one, we have never seen you before! Absolutely not!”

Lu Yin drew a picture in the air of the red-clad human. “Have you seen someone like this?”

“We have. We have seen those creatures. They are the Crimson Starshade.”

“And yet you tell me that you’ve never seen us before?”

“Mighty honored one, are you also one of the Crimson Starshade?”