Chapter 2691 – Reason For Replacement

Both the four ruling powers and the Sixverse a.s.sociation had become increasingly wary of the Heavens Sect. Lu Buzheng and the sect’s other Semi-Progenitors had been essentially placed on a watch-list for a long time, but Master Shan was considered a cripple; who would go after a cripple? They would never dream that Master Shan would actually be able to bring the power of a Progenitor to bear. It would serve as an incredible shock.

Master Shan did not refuse or hesitate. He still regarded himself as one of the Lu family’s retainers and thus would accept whatever the young master offered him.

The moment the man felt the black energy within the energy converter, his eyes turned red.

Which cultivator did not wish to become a Progenitor? It was the ultimate goal for all cultivators, but it had become an impossibility for Master Shan the moment he had been imprisoned. Then, it had become even further removed when he had protected his young master by stopping Bai w.a.n.gyuan and the other Progenitors by triggering his stellular tribulation. The old man was shocked to discover that he had just obtained the strength that he had only dreamed of previously.

"Thank you, Young Master, for your gift," Master Shan said as he offered a deep bow.

Lu Yin lifted the old man back up. "The Heavens Sect will need to trouble Master Shan to protect it."

Master Shan solemnly declared, "Young Master, you have no need to worry about that. Even if your subordinate should die, no harm will befall the Heavens Sect."

"There’s no need to go that far. Your own life remains the most important thing," Lu Yin answered with a smile.

With that, the Heavens Sect gained another peak powerhouse.

Master Shan was also different from the people of the Transcendent Universe. He had cultivated and progressively improved his strength, and he had only been a single step away from the Progenitor level. While he had failed at that last step, his mental tempering was no worse than a Progenitor’s. In addition to the mental toughness that he had gained, given the man’s technical skills, the black energy converter would allow him to reach a combat level at least equal to the Progenitor of Combat or the Progenitor of Secret Arts.

In the Transcendent Universe, the person who was most terrified by He Ran’s disappearance was He Shu.

When He Ran had been in power, He Shu had been able to do whatever he wished in the Transcendent Universe, and he had been able to disregard everyone. Even Bai Qian had not dared to do anything to He Shu. However, with He Ran missing, He Shu needed to flee. If he did not, everyone whom he had offended would go after him, especially the You family. He would undoubtedly die.

He Shu did not know that Lord Wei was not actually dead, nor that the You family had lost all of their authority. If he did, he would not be nearly so frightened.

"Did you find it?" He Shu asked anxiously as he stared at Xie Wu’s distant form.

Xie Wu replied, "I brought all of them."

"You brought all the resources from all three places?" He Shu s.n.a.t.c.hed the cosmic rings out of Xie Wu"s hand, seeing more than ten of them. These cosmic rings held all the resources that he had acc.u.mulated over the years.

He Ran had been given an extremely high position by Lord Wei, but she had still made it a point to raise up Uncle Mo and fight against fake compet.i.tors to solidify her position. In this regard, He Shu was very similar to He Ran. He excelled at preparing for dark days in the future, and he had been setting aside an emergency fund for many years. In addition to the resources that he had hidden away, he had even managed to obtain a white energy converter for himself.

This white energy converter had belonged to Mu Duo’s family. The family had been deceived by a man named Bai, and they had lost their white energy converter. Bai had been acting on He Shu’s orders.

He Shu had leaned on He Ran"s influence to accomplish a great many things, some of which had been noticed, but others had remained secret.

As he looked at his resources in the various cosmic rings, He Shu’s breathing started to quicken. With this wealth, even if his sister was no longer around, he would still be able to enjoy a comfortable life. The first thing that he needed to do was get in touch with the Junior Sovereign. It was a pity that Shao Qingfeng had disappeared, as that meant that it would be far more difficult for He Shu to reach out to the Junior Sovereign. In the past, he had been able to simply contact Shao Qingfeng, which had been quite easy.

He Shu tore the void open and was about to leave. As for Xie Wu, He Shu was already making his escape, and it would not matter if his dog went with him or not.

Suddenly, He Shu felt a bit of vertigo, and his vision started to blur. A terrible pain erupted in his heart, and it swept through his nerves. It felt like he had been bit by an insect.

No, this was poison.

He Shu whirled around, and he tried to use his energy converter, but Xie Wu moved even faster. In truth, he had been waiting for this exact moment.

A sharp blade pierced He Shu"s body, and his blood floated into outer s.p.a.ce from the wound that had opened.

From a distance, the two men appeared to be embracing each other.

He Shu"s face grew pale as he stared at Xie Wu in disbelief. "Why?"

Xie Wu sneered. "I’ll always be your dog unless I kill you."

He Shu"s strength drained away. He was much stronger than Xie Wu, but there was poison in his body, and it rendered He Shu completely unable to resist. "I- I never thought- I treated you like my brother!"

Xie Wu let out a bitter laugh as he pulled his blade back, only to immediately lash out again, leaving a diagonal cut across He Shu"s neck. "Who sent me to the beast arena?"

The blade fell again, and blood spurted out to float around He Shu’s body. "Who threatened my sister?"

The smell of blood a.s.saulted Xie Wu’s senses, raising his bloodl.u.s.t. The blade slashed out once again. "Who ordered to have that beast torture me?

"Who was laughing while I fought in the beast arena, hoping for my death?

"Who…"

Again and again, the blade flickered out as Xie Wu vented all of the resentment that had acc.u.mulated over the years. While he had always been treated as a dog, he had once been able to endure such treatment, but after he was sent to the beast arena, he had ceased to be a dog. He had transformed into a wolf, and the wolf hungered to devour its captor.

He Shu was diced to pieces by a thousand cuts, and his body was reduced to countless bits of flesh that scattered across outer s.p.a.ce.

Xie Wu was panting for breath. He Shu"s flesh and blood stained every part of his face, body, and blade. It made him look extremely cruel.

Blood and cosmic rings floated nearby, and finally, Xie Wu released his blade. He gathered up the cosmic rings and left.

Xie Wu no longer existed in the Transcendent Universe.

…

Far away, Lord Wei landed on a ma.s.sive bestowal art carrier along with Bai Qian. "There are only three bestowal art carriers of this size. One we keep in the Cloudflow Universe, one has been sent to the Endless Frontier, and the last remains here.

“Do you know why the You family did not mobilize this carrier during their rebellion to try to use it to attack me as well?" Lord Wei asked calmly.

Bai Qian answered in a respectful tone, "I do not."

"Because they can"t be moved." Lord Wei stared off into the distance. "We are the only ones in the Sixverse a.s.sociation that can drive away the Aeternals’ invasion. It is because of this bestowal art carrier right here that our previous victories were won. A powerful sourcebox that we carefully protected up till now had once destroyed an extremely powerful corpse king with this carrier’s attacks. Look up ahead."

Bai Qian looked around and quickly realized that she actually recognized the place. It was the Transcendent Universe’s warfront with Aeternus. This was the universe’s equivalent to the Three Monarchs Universe’s rainbow wall.

However, there was not a single corpse king as far as the eye could see.

All that stretched out before Bai Qian was empty s.p.a.ce, despite the fact that it should be Aeternus’s territory. However, there were no Aeternals there, because they were afraid of what the Transcendent Universe was capable of unleashing.

Cultivation technology meant that combat did not rely on people and cultivators, but rather resources and weapons. This was the Transcendent Universe’s greatest advantage in the war against Aeternus.

"Cultivation technologies will alway form the foundation of my Transcendent Universe’s civilization. Even though I may possess a very strong cultivation, and even if cultivators of equal strength have much greater combat strength compared to people who use energy converters, I will never alter the foundation of this Transcendent Universe," Lord Wei calmly stated.

Bai Qian remained quiet and did not say anything as she waited for the man to continue.

"He Ran has gone missing, and the You family is not responsible for her disappearance. I don’t have any idea who might have done it, but while I was fighting against the You family, the senior researcher’s lab was also destroyed, and a black energy converter was stolen," Lord Wei continued.

Bai Qian"s eyes flickered. That was Lu Yin. No doubt about it.

"The You family"s rebellion was an attempt to seize control of the Transcendent Universe, but fortunately, they relied on the strength of Sovereign Shao Yin and Luo Shan rather than the strength of our universe. If they had done things differently, I would have been in grave trouble. Still, our universe has suffered a loss, as the You family’s foundation has been shattered. We cannot allow outsiders to see that we have been weakened. If He Ran were still around, she would be placed in charge of the Transcendent Universe, but she is missing.”

“Give me a way to allow you to replace He Ran," Lord Wei stated while facing away from Bai Qian.

He wanted Bai Qian to replace He Ran, but not because of Bai Qian’s importance. Lord Wei had once valued Bai Qian quite highly, but because she had cooperated with the You family, his att.i.tude towards her had changed. Unfortunately, with He Ran missing, someone needed to replace her. Lord Wei did not have anyone else prepared, which meant that Bai Qian was the only option.

Additionally, the excuse for this change was quite simple; publicly, He Ran was not missing, but also suspected of being a spy for Aeternus. Xuan Qi had already announced his suspicions, so it would be best to allow outsiders to believe that.

This also served to improve Lord Wei’s standing, as anyone who was suspected of being a spy was regarded as the enemy of all of humanity.

Bai Qian bowed to Lord Wei. "I placed Luo Qian’s lens in the Ziyou Realm."

Lord Wei turned around to look at Bai Qian in surprise. "That was you?"

"Yes."

"How did you get that? How did you get it into the Ziyou Realm? Why did you do that?" Lord Wei asked three questions at once. The only reason why his opinion of Bai Qian had changed was because she had cooperated with the You family. If not for that, he would have no objection to having her replace He Ran.

Bai Qian explained, "Xuan Qi and I have never fully trusted the You family. He Ran always held the advantage in our compet.i.tion, so if I want to make a comeback, I needed to rely on external forces, such as the You family. Xuan Qi was my choice, so…"

Bai Qian had spent a long time developing her explanation for Lord Wei and had decided to blame everything on Xuan Qi, as she was still cooperating with Lu Yin.

Lord Wei listened quietly, and after a while, he said, "The You family asked Xuan Qi to frame He Ran and took advantage of an opportunity to cooperate with the young man. With him guiding the situation along, you were able to make your move when He Ran asked him to frame the You family.”

Bai Qian explained, "The entire purpose of this was to show you, my lord, that I was not partnering with the You family, but that we were mutually using each other. He Ran visited the You family on several occasions, and while she never worked with them, she still had to show them proper respect."

Lord Wei smiled. "Yes, she was intimidated by them. The You family is a monster, and as soon as they threw their full support behind you, He Ran lost confidence that she could defeat you, even if she already understood where I stood on the matter.

"It"s just a pity that Xuan Qi is dead. If not, I really would have wanted to meet such a genius for myself. He Ran’s only mistake was trying to suppress Xuan Qi. She falsely accused him of pa.s.sing information to Luo Shan, which forced the You family to drive Xuan Qi out of the Transcendent Universe, which offended Xuan Qi greatly. He Ran desired to be superior to all others and needed everyone to bow to her. She did not understand that human beings are the most complicated creatures in the universe.

"No matter if one considers his talent for cultivation or his planning, Xuan Qi was one of the best. There are not many people who can deceive the You family, and even I was deceived by him."

Bai Qian commented, "Xuan Qi may not actually be dead. He already saw that the You family was not as simple as they appeared to be, and because of that, he should have left a way out for himself. However, the You family was also powerful enough to be able to force Xuan Qi to frame He Ran, and they even captured me. Both of us were helpless against them."

Lord Wei nodded. "Since he was cooperating with you for so long and also helped you frame the You family, there is a possibility that he left a way out for himself. I hope he is not truly dead."

Not once did Lord Wei even consider the possibility that Xuan Qi could have captured He Ran and destroyed the old man’s laboratory. As far as anyone knew, Xuan Qi did not possess that level of strength. Whoever had killed Ke Jian had done so easily, and the bestowal art carrier that had been protecting the senior researcher’s lab had also been destroyed. Such things could only be done by a peak powerhouse, and Xuan Qi did not possess that level of strength. Lord Wei was not like the members of the You family who would come to decisions based on outcomes rather than evidence.

You Fang had managed to use Xuan Qi’s abnormal behavior to deduce a great many things about his origins, and he also did not require any evidence. This was beyond what most people could process.

At this moment, Lord Wei was actually the most suspicious of Chu Jian, the Cyclic Universe’s perfect Junior Sovereign who had been eyeing the Transcendent Universe. Lord Wei did not believe that secretly taking action was out of the question for Chu Jian.