Chapter 4123: Baiting The Enemy

The moment the creatures finished speaking, they used some unknown method to sharply increase their speed. In only an instant, they started closing in on the green lotus leaf.

On the lotus, Greater Sancte Green Lotus and Lu Yin exchanged glances.

Here we go

.

“It seems that the expert they’re relying on has arrived. They’re suddenly far more confident.”

“I just hope that they don’t bore me.”

Very quickly, something that looked like an enormous bone tore through the void to block the lotus leaf’s path.

Lu Yin studied the bone.

So that’s what they use to travel through the Aevum Inch

.

The bone must have belonged to an absolutely terrifying creature. Even as just a bone, it could move faster than a peak Dukkhan. When the creature had been alive, it had to have either been some bizarre creature with exceptional speed or an Immortal.

Several bizarre creatures appeared, perched along the bone.

They looked like huge, one-eyed spheres with six legs growing out at strange angles. The longer that Lu Yin stared at them, the weirder they looked.

Of course, in their eyes, Lu Yin and Greater Sancte Green Lotus were the oddities.

“These two beings only have two legs! How hideous!”

“They must be slow. No wonder they’re riding on a leaf.”

“They have two eyes? How does that even work? Do they both see the same thing? Does their vision overlap? If one closes, can the other still see?”

The leader snapped, “Silence!”

All of the others instantly grew quiet.

“Friends,” the leader called out, “It isn’t very polite to leave before we’ve finished our conversation, is it?”

Lu Yin smiled. “There’s nothing to talk about. We take what we need, and you take what you need.”

“I’m curious about what you might ‘need,’” the leader said, “All you did was destroy a Mother Tree, and you took nothing. Your actions look less like plunder and more like... concealment. It’s as if you just hid that civilization.”

Lu Yin instantly understood.

They think that I destroyed the Mother Tree in order to conceal that civilization’s location

.

“You’re overthinking things,” Lu Yin casually replied, “Though, I am curious. What exactly are you? Why were you watching that civilization?”

“That’s none of your business. All we ask is that you remain here for some time. We don’t want to make this unpleasant.”

“Some time?” Lu Yin echoed. “How long is this ‘some time’ that we’re talking about?”

“A hundred years? Hm... probably too long,” the creature muttered to itself.

The leader fixed its solitary eye on Lu Yin. Within its pupil, countless hexagonal facets overlapped, refracting the image of Greater Sancte Green Lotus. The creature was staring at Lu Yin, but it feared Greater Sancte Green Lotus more.

“We’re trying to show you a bit of good faith. If you refuse... you can’t blame us for whatever happens next.”

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Greater Sancte Green Lotus gently stated, “You cannot hold us here.”

“Since we dared to show ourselves,” the leader suddenly hissed, “It’s because we’re certain that we

can

.”

“Even if you managed that,” Green Lotus replied in a soft voice, “Most of you will die.”

“Oh?” The leader sneered.

Bloodlust grew thick between the two groups. It appeared that they were just the twitch of a finger from attacking.

“You’re scavengers selling coordinates, aren’t you?” Lu Yin suddenly asked.

Every eye snapped over to him, and the killing intent rose even higher.

“Relax,” Lu Yin said, “Maybe we’re looking to buy.”

The leader barked a harsh laugh. “You’re also scavengers.”

Lu Yin blinked. “What makes you think that?”

“You didn’t destroy the Mother Tree to ‘protect’ that civilization,” the leader explained, “You erased their presence. Hiding a civilization might mean protecting it... or it might mean preventing others from noticing while you quietly sell the location.”

Lu Yin did not reply. From the perspective of the scavengers, that was a sound bit of logic.

“In that case, we should have a real talk,” the leader continued, their tone growing more relaxed with the lack of a denial from Lu Yin.

Quite simply, nothing else fit the narrative. For a foreigner to suddenly show up and destroy the Mother Tree of another civilization... What else could it be? Bored vandalism?

“Unless... he smashed the Mother Tree just because he couldn’t keep his hands to himself?”

The creatures behind the leader exchanged looks, excitement flashing in their single eyes. If these two were also scavengers, it would be perfect.

To the scavengers, destroying a Mother Tree was a declaration: “We can’t outbid other brokers for this location, so we’ll tank its value and quietly sell it.”

It stank of inexperience. It looked like weakness, like leverage.

After all, with its Mother Tree destroyed, the value of a megaverse would drop precipitously. The only reason to do such a thing was because someone was willing to earn less profit in order to not compete with others. This was enough to demonstrate what kind of businessmen the scavengers had stumbled upon.

Their boss was so smart. Just a few words had exposed the other party’s bottom line.

“Since you’ve already seen through us, there’s no need to hide things,” Greater Sancte Green Lotus calmly stated, “Yes, we destroyed the Mother Tree to hide that megaverse so that we could sell its location in the future.”

The leader’s single eye revealed a level of satisfaction. “So, you are in the same business as us. In that case, I’ll speak plainly.

“You should give up on that megaverse. We’ve already secured a buyer, and they’ll arrive within 100 years at most. Even if you tried to sell the coordinates, you’d need a bit of time to find a buyer. Judging by your behavior, you’re new to this line of work. Without hundreds of thousands of years to build up a network of connections, you won’t be able to find a buyer, which means you’ll be too late to make a sale.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus let out a helpless sigh. “I guessed that that was the case from the moment that you told us to wait here a century. Pity, pity.

“In that case, we’ll take our leave. Don’t worry, we have no buyer. That civilization is no longer of any concern to us.”

As the green lotus leaf began to move, the massive bone slid forward to block the way even more completely.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s expression immediately fell. “What is the meaning of this?”

The leader replied in a cold voice, “It seems that you still don’t understand the rules. Since we’re in the same business, you should know that, until the buyer arrives at the megaverse they’ve bought, you can’t leave. On top of that, while you didn’t steal the coordinates, you did destroy the Mother Tree. Such a loss needs to be compensated.”

Lu Yin sneered. “What a joke! You just stood there and watched, yet you now expect us to pay?”

“Clearly, we can’t come to an agreement,” the leader replied, their voice growing colder.

Lu Yin glanced over at Greater Sancte Green Lotus, who gave a slight nod.

Lu Yin smiled. The creatures’ backer had arrived, which meant that there was no need to keep playing along. This was what the two humans had been waiting for.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus was powerful, but when roaming about the Aevum Inch, even he needed to keep his guard up. A blade could fall from anywhere. Even lowly Dukkhan wanderers, filthy scavengers, could prove deadly if underestimated.

Green Lotus’s nod had informed Lu Yin that the situation was safe.

“Wait, you’re not really thinking of fighting, are you? That’ll only result in mutual ruin,” Lu Yin quickly protested.

The leader’s single eye gleamed slyly. “The loss of the Mother Tree must be repaid.”

“I have a proposal,” Lu Yin announced, “We’ll let you sell the coordinates that we know to your buyer, and you let us sell your coordinates to ours. That way, the coordinates can earn double the profits. Even if the buyers do find out, what can they do about it? It’s not as if they can prove that we’re intentionally selling duplicates. It’s just a coincidence that one of our competitors happened to discover the same megaverse.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus turned to stare at Lu Yin, speechless.

That’s completely shameless... though, admittedly, selling a civilization’s coordinates is already shameless to begin with.

Still standing on the bone, the leader let out an admiring sound. “A fine idea! We’ve thought about that before, but we’ve never encountered any competitors that we could cooperate with. You must understand that meeting fellow scavengers in the Aevum Inch is far rarer than discovering a civilization.

“Very well, I accept! How many civilizations do you have the coordinates for?”

“Two,” Lu Yin answered without any hesitation. “And you?”

“Three.”

“As expected of our seniors—you have more than us.”

“Two is already quite impressive,” the leader said approvingly.

Lu Yin smiled. “I included the one that we just left.”

The leader froze. “?”

The void trembled, and the massive bone suddenly dropped as a crushing force enveloped it. The leader panicked.

They’re attacking!

It was barely able to twitch before it was slammed to the bone beneath the indescribable pressure. Terror filled its solitary eye.

An Immortal? This is an Immortal’s power!

It struggled to rasp out, “Master, run!”

Far in the distance, a larger creature of the same species froze for a moment before immediately turning to flee.

A lotus blossomed in the middle of outer space. “Since you are already here,” Greater Sancte Green Lotus called out, “Stay.”

The creature’s eye grew wide with terror.

An Immortal!

How careless had they been?

It raised its six legs up high and then stamped them against the lotus. Space and time both froze as Lifeforce surged. The creature’s eye pulsed, scattering countless hexagonal shards of refracted light across the Aevum Inch.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus gave a nod of mild surprise. Sure enough, this was a creature that had reached the pinnacle of power beneath the Immortal realm. It possessed Lifeforce and was capable of wielding Immortal matter. Its strength matched that of Qing Xing.

Even so, against Green Lotus, such power was little more than a child’s tantrum.

The lotus continued its descent, and as it did so, the Lifeforce, light, and all motion froze.

The creature’s pupil contracted violently.

It’s over! This isn’t just any Immortal

.

It might have stood a chance against a normal Immortal, and it might have even escaped. However, before Green Lotus, all of its techniques were about as useful as defending with a sheet of paper. This Immortal was terrifyingly strong.

The creature was pulled into the lotus by an irresistible force, and then it was deposited onto the green lotus leaf.

Within moments, the entire group was captured.

Lu Yin chuckled as he looked at them. Obviously, his earlier “proposal” had been nothing more than a joke.

Civilizations that dared to buy the coordinates of other megaverses would not be easily fooled. They were approaching the level of fishing civilizations, which sent out bait in order to devour other civilizations.

How dare mere scavengers think that they could toy with such powerful entities?

The leader had agreed too quickly. It had been trying to lower Lu Yin’s guard, and so Lu Yin had struck first, showing no hesitation.

Both sides had been trying to deceive the other, and both had been aware of the implicit game. It had been a simple matter of who played the game better.

None of the scavengers had realized that they were facing an Immortal.

The sky had fallen upon them.

At least, that was how they felt at the moment.

They had never imagined that they would run into an Immortal.

The largest of the creatures directed a vicious glare at its subordinates. The fools had failed to recognize an Immortal before offending them.

Even worse, they led that Immortal straight to me. Damn them!

“Don’t blame them,” Lu Yin said in a mocking tone, “Did you really think that they could have found us if we hadn’t wanted them to?”

The massive creature finally spoke, its voice deep and filled with resignation. “Honored Immortal, we meant no offen-”

“Cut the nonsense,” Lu Yin interrupted, “We didn’t go through the trouble of luring you out just to chat with you. You sell civilizations’ coordinates, right? And for the last one you sold, is the buyer arriving in 100 years?”

“Yes.”

“What civilization is that buyer from? Where are they located?”

“Honored one, I don’t know what civilization they belong to. We contact them with this each time,” the creature explained while pulling out a metallic sphere. The surface was covered with intricately detailed carvings and was clearly mechanical. Every line gleamed with precision.

Lu Yin’s eyes widened slightly. “A technological civilization?”