Chapter 4143: Contact

In a flash, many years had passed, and yet I still continued to repeat what that man had arranged. After so long, even I started to wonder if I truly resented the Heavens Sect. If I was undercover, then where was the enemy?

Thirty years after Lord Lu left the Tianyuan, I was assigned to leave the Heavens Sect and handle affairs outside of the sect. During that period, I made multiple friends. They didn’t know who I was, and I didn’t know who they were. We each kept our own secrets while staying in touch.

In that manner, time continued to flow by.

After more than a century, I finally saw Lord Lu return. He was domineering, composed, and above all others in the cosmos. The entire megaverse cheered his return, and so did I. I still absolutely admired him, and I longed for Lord Lu’s attention to fall upon me.

But after more than a hundred years, that man never contacted me again, the man who had arranged for my position and given me my role to act. That man was Wei Rong.

After joining the Heavens Sect, I learned who he was, but I never interacted with him at all. Not once during all those years, nor even after Lord Lu’s return.

Had he forgotten me?

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

I was undercover, but for whom, exactly?

Was he just bored and wanted me to entertain him?

I didn’t dare ask, nor did I have the status to even try. No one in the Heavens Sect dares to offend Wei Rong. Everyone says that anyone else can be offended, except him. That’s because he’s the most insidious person of all.

Insidious? I don’t know about that. I still hoped that he would reach out to me.

142 years passed from when Lord Lu left the Tianyuan to when he returned. Next, everyone followed him to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

203 years have passed since he first left the Tianyuan, and it’s been 212 years since the day Wei Rong asked me to work with him. I remember everything about that day, because it’s the day that my destiny changed and I was brought so close to Lord Lu.

Now, I truly am very, very close to Lord Lu.

...

“Luo Yan greets Lord Lu.” At the Heavens Sect’s location in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, Lu Yin and Wei Rong observed the man who stood before them with blatant curiosity.

Lu Yin addressed the man, “Are you Luo Yan?”

Luo Yan struggled to suppress his excitement. “I am your servant, Luo Yan.”

Lu Yin nodded with a faint smile. “Tell me what this is about. Just repeat what you told Wei Rong.”

Luo Yan drew in a deep breath. “It was thirty years after Lord Wei Rong tasked me to act resentful and willing to betray the Heavens Sect. For those thirty years, I served within the sect. Later, I was sent out to a parallel universe to handle certain external affairs. In my spare time, out of boredom, I communicated with various people on the condition that none of us knew the others’ identities. I didn’t know who they were, and they didn’t know who I was either.

“Some people stopped talking and vanished, while others remained.

“More than a century passed in that manner. Then, forty-six years ago, when the Heavens Sect announced that reinforcements would be sent to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s battlefield and everyone else was ordered to move to parallel universes, one of my long-standing contacts asked me to sneak her onto one of the battleships that was leaving with reinforcements. It wasn’t a difficult request, as anyone who wished to go was allowed to do so. So, I prepared some credentials for her.

“At first, everything was perfectly ordinary, but shortly after we arrived in this megaverse, the tone of her conversations with me changed. She started incessantly testing my opinions regarding Lord Lu, the Heavens Sect, and even human civilization itself.

“Long ago, Lord Wei Rong instructed me to subtly insinuate dissatisfaction with the Heavens Sect. If anyone paid attention, I could then speak further. In fact, over the last century, she repeatedly tested my position regarding humanity as a whole. Following Lord Wei Rong’s guidance, I never spoke too openly or too cautiously. It was clear to me that she holds nothing but pure contempt for humanity.

“Only after we arrived here did her conversations with me grow more explicit. Her communications started dripping with contempt and utter hatred for human civilization. I went along with all of that... until nine years ago.” Luo Yan looked up at Lu Yin. “It was at that time that we met in person. Her name is Mo Bai, and she is an incredibly beautiful woman. Most likely, she isn’t human.”

Lu Yin’s gaze instantly sharpened. “Not human?”

Luo Yan explained, “She has a human appearance, but I feel that she isn’t one. It feels like she is some other creature wearing the guise of a human.”

Wei Rong jumped in, “Luo Yan reported this Mo Bai to me, and I started to track her movements.”

He smirked. “Dao Monarch, do you know who Mo Bai was with all along? Or who was the first to speak with Luo Yan?”

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”

“Yu Leng.”

Lu Yin’s eyes turned cold. “Yu Leng?”

Wei Rong sneered. “Yes, Yu Leng. The one who first contacted Luo Yan was Yu Leng, and for most of the time, he was the one who communicated with Luo Yan. I don’t know why it switched to Mo Bai, but she’s been with Yu Leng. Also, given Luo Yan’s impression of her, I’d wager eight or nine times out of ten that she’s a Verdant Sage.”

Lu Yin tapped a finger on the table, unable to hide the killing intent in his eyes.

Yu Leng had been the first human to start spawning bugs from a Nest, and he had never been caught, even after so long. The Nest civilization had most likely located the Tianyuan mostly because of that man. He was a minor figure who had still managed to alter the entire balance of human civilization.

If he could be found, Lu Yin would make Yu Leng taste a fate worse than death.

Luo Yan respectfully spoke up again, “He—or she—exchanged messages with me for roughly 180 years. The first time I was contacted was thirty years after I left the Heavens Sect, and we only met in person for the first time nine years ago.”

Lu Yin was impressed. He turned to look at Wei Rong. This was a scheme that spanned centuries.

While time meant little to cultivators, Wei Rong had continued this plot with no guarantee of any sort of opportunity. It almost seemed like busywork. And yet that busywork had transformed into a century-spanning trap. That was how Wei Rong operated.

When the Innerverse and Outerverse were separated from each other, he had used the perspective and strength of a cultivator from the Outerverse to manipulate the giants of the Fifth Mainland, such as the Lockbreaker Society. He had later contended with Lu Yin for control of the Outerverse.

Lu Yin was well aware that, without his die and Wang Wen’s help, he would have struggled greatly to defeat Wei Rong. The man had too fine a grasp of human nature.

Wei Rong said, “No matter how deeply Yu Leng and Mo Bai have hidden within humanity, they can’t outdo the Heavens Sect. Give us even a sliver of a lead, and we can pull anyone out.

“However, Yu Leng has vanished. We can no longer find any trace of him at all.”

Lu Yin looked over. “Nothing at all?”

Wei Rong shook his head. “We’ve effectively locked onto Mo Bai, but we simply can’t find Yu Leng. To avoid alarming the snake, we haven’t pushed too hard against her.”

“Well done. If Mo Bai really is a Verdant Sage, she’s not just a thread to find Yu Leng.” Lu Yin looked back at Luo Yan. A century of communication had earned enough trust for an in-person meeting, but that meeting had happened too soon. It might not have even been Mo Bai’s idea, but rather the Immortal Lord’s.

Neither Mo Bai nor the Immortal Lord necessarily trusted Luo Yan. It was possible that Mo Bai had been exposed in order to test Luo Yan, and if that was true, then the test would be part of a greater scheme.

It was necessary for Luo Yan to win the Immortal Lord’s trust.

“I know of a location in the Aevum Inch. Is it possible to send it to Mo Bai via Luo Yan?” Lu Yin asked Wei Rong.

Wei Rong frowned. “What’s at that location?”

Lu Yin said, “It might be Mister Mu’s home megaverse, or it could be a trap prepared by a foreign enemy.”

“An enemy of human civilization?”

“My master’s enemy,” Lu Yin clarified.

Wei Rong frowned. “If that’s the case, then is it possible for the enemy to target humanity through the Immortal Lord?”

Lu Yin shook his head. “That powerful enemy is also one of Obscura’s members, and they already know where human civilization is. The Immortal Lord has no idea what connection Mister Mu might have to them. That’s the first point. Second,” He looked up at the starry sky. “Humanity isn’t all that desirable.”

Wei Rong was puzzled.

Within their human civilization, they considered everything from a human perspective. They faced enemies from all directions, so any foreign civilization was considered an enemy by default.

However, the visit to the Thread of Heaven had reminded Lu Yin that other civilizations also fought fiercely. If the creature who was desperate to gather information about the Seven-Treasure Anuras was really the toads’ enemy, then their hatred for the toads likely rivaled humanity’s hatred for Obscura.

That creature had possessed no shame at all.

If the Immortal Lord knew nothing about Mister Mu’s connection to the Hui-Silver Sky Army, then if the Nest civilization stumbled into the army’s trap, there would be no negotiations. There would only be wariness towards the other party and possibly even war.

Unless they were already aware of each other.

It was rare for civilizations in the Aevum Inch to communicate with each other. Lu Yin would prefer to let the Immortal Lord test those coordinates for humanity than believe that the Nest civilization would ally with the Hui-Silver Sky Army.

This was different from exposing the connection between the Tricolor Skyborne and the Seven-Treasure Anuras. The toads might cause trouble for humanity, while the Hui-Silver Sky Army would not. That was because Lan Meng was the Obscura member assigned to deal with humanity.

Wei Rong said, “If that’s the case, then delivering the coordinates to the Nest civilization without raising suspicion isn’t impossible.

“Luo Yan, what’s your relationship with Hui Can?”

Lu Yin raised a brow.

Luo Yan knows Hui Can?

Luo Yan replied respectfully, “We’ve only spoken, but I can publicly claim that we’re close.”

“That’s good enough.” Wei Rong turned back to Lu Yin. “They’ll get the coordinates through your disciple Hui Can. That’s how we’ll leak it to Mo Bai. It should work.”

Lu Yin was taken aback. “Does Luo Yan know Hui Can?”

Wei Rong said, “I arranged that. Every one of my hidden pieces needs to have opportunities, and more than one, to interact with the leading figures of the Heavens Sect. The purpose is to provide them with a path to plot against the sect. Without those kinds of connections, how can anyone hope to learn secrets from my pieces?

“This has been one of Luo Yan’s tasks throughout these years.”

Lu Yin exclaimed, “No wonder no one dares to offend you! Not even 10,000 years would be too long for you to get revenge.”

Wei Rong gave a wry smile. “That would require your servant to live for 10,000 years first.”

Normally, considering the resources provided by the Heavens Sect and the cultivation methods that Lu Yin had shared, it should not be difficult for Wei Rong to become a Progenitor, which would make living for 10,000 years easy. However, given the current situation, not to mention Wei Rong, but not even Lu Yin was confident that he could survive for so long.

There were only two paths available for human civilization: flee, avoid all enemies, and hide. Or, grow strong enough to crush every enemy and ensure that no one dared to provoke them.

There was no third option.

Luo Yan left a short while later, only waiting for the coordinates from Lu Yin.

Since Lu Yin also needed to wait for Greater Sancte Blood Tower to calculate the coordinates, Lu Yin went to see Ancestor Lu Yuan.