Chapter 3417: Beacon City
Beacon City had been built around the original springboard, both serving as a fortress for the Spirit Nidus to defend this key point and also keeping an eye on the springboard.
In the unending darkness of the Aevum Inch, Beacon City released brilliant light. It was home to countless cultivators from the Spirit Nidus. After all, this was the bulwark from which they launched their assaults on the Consciousness Megaverse.
Unlike mortals, each cultivator needed their own unique environment and cultivation technique. Even when they attacked the Consciousness Megaverse, the Spirit Nidus was unable to organize cultivators as they would conventional soldiers.
Progenitor Xi had already explained this much to Lu Yin while Boundless was traveling.
"Squads?" Lu Yin asked in surprise. The Origin Progenitor, Chu Yi, and the others were similarly astonished.
Progenitor Xi’s voice was grave. "The Spirit Nidus tried many different methods when invading my Consciousness Megaverse. At first, they used large-scale attacks, intending to sweep through our megaverse. However, the strongest aspect of conscients is our consciousness. As I’ve explained before, consciousness is completely intangible, as it is what connects the thoughts of living creatures. Whatever a creature imagines, that’s the form a conscient will take. This made it impossible for cultivators from the Spirit Nidus to coordinate large-scale operations against our megaverse.
"Besides, attacks with consciousness cover a large area. It doesn’t matter if an individual or a group is targeted, as everyone nearby will be struck by the attack.
"This is why the Spirit Nidus’s large-scale assaults ended up being too costly for them. After numerous adjustments, by the time I left the Consciousness Megaverse, they had settled on a relatively new strategy: squads.
"The size of a squad depends on the strength of its leader. They can have as few as ten members and as many as 100 or even 1,000 members. Each squad has a cultivator whose consciousness has been cultivated to a high level and whose abilities are tailored to complement the squad’s tactics. This ensures that they can handle any conscients they encounter during their time in our megaverse.
"While squads may lack the efficiency of a large-scale attack, they’re steady. They let the Spirit Nidus make gradual progress. In particular, powerful squads can use Everstone to target strong conscients. In that way, they can gradually wear down the overall strength of the Consciousness Megaverse while also training the Spirit Nidus’s cultivators."
Progenitor Xi’s expression fell. "When I left, the Consciousness Megaverse was already being suppressed by countless Spirit Nidus squads that had scattered across it. I don’t know how things may be going now, but the situation has most likely worsened."
"Why doesn’t the Consciousness Megaverse work together to eliminate the squads?" Mu Zhu asked.
Progenitor Xi’s voice grew bitter, "The squads are able to communicate with each other. Ten or even a hundred squads are always within reinforcement distance. On top of that, each of those larger groups is overseen by a captain, typically an Ortuser. How many experts at that level do you think our Consciousness Megaverse even has?
"The bottom line is that everything comes down to absolute strength. The Spirit Nidus holds an overwhelming advantage."
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Lu Yin frowned slightly. Using squads to attack a megaverse? While it sounded reasonable, the truth was that, if the Spirit Nidus’s goal was to quickly destroy the Consciousness Megaverse, their approach wasted too much time.
It was possible that both the Spirit Nidus and the Consciousness Megaverse believed that using squads was intended to minimize the Spirit Nidus’s casualties, but using squads also meant that the war would drag on much, much longer. Lu Yin was certain this strategy had been adopted because the High Seraph did not want the Consciousness Megaverse to be reset too soon.
The fact that he already controlled the Lesser Spirit Megaverse meant that the High Seraph would not gain any benefit from resetting either the Consciousness or the Tianyuan megaverses.
"In the past, five of the Spirit Nidus’s Seven Seraphs invaded our Consciousness Megaverse. The High Seraph even carried Everstone into battle. That particular invasion was catastrophic for us. Most of our most powerful combatants were slaughtered. Some surrendered, while others fled. Blackless God and Whiteless God both defected to the Spirit Nidus during that invasion, and that’s also when I escaped," Progenitor Xi recalled. "At that time, I didn’t know that there was something like the springboard, and the Spirit Nidus probably wasn’t able to build them at that time either. If they had had that ability back then, they would not have spent 10,000 years to reach the Tianyuan Megaverse. Now that there are springboards between the three megaverses, some squads from the Spirit Nidus have to be stationed at the center, rotating with the other squads in the Consciousness Megaverse.
"While I don’t want to admit it, for the people of the Spirit Nidus, fighting in our Consciousness Megaverse is considered both a punishment and an honor. Doing so paves the way for many of them to rise up higher. If all of those squads are wiped out, there’s no doubt that it would create waves in the Spirit Nidus."
At this moment, her eyes lit up, and she gave Lu Yin an eager look. "Lord Lu, if a hundred squads attack our Consciousness Megaverse, that means that there are at least 100 people who are connected to the upper echelons of the Spirit Nidus, such as the High Seraph and the Seven Seraphs. The people on the squads could be juniors or disciples of those people. If we capture them, it will absolutely shake the entire Spirit Nidus. They can’t afford such a loss."
Lu Yin nodded. "That makes sense."
He suddenly moved forward and grabbed Progenitor Xi by her neck.
She instinctively wanted to resist, but with so many experts surrounding her, she restrained herself. She did not dare to make any moves and instead allowed Lu Yin to grab her. He suddenly squeezed, and she dropped. She was unable to stop herself from coughing up blood, which scattered on the ground.
Lu Yin looked down at Progenitor Xi. "Have you gotten used to lying to me, or do you just think that I’m a fool?
"Shaking up the Spirit Nidus won’t make them hesitate or consider any sort of compromise, but rather lead to death, revenge, and hatred.
"If you want to transfer all of the Spirit Nidus’s hatred onto me, you're just asking to die."
Progenitor Xi coughed. "Lord Lu, that wasn’t my intention! That’s not what I meant!"
Lu Yin stared at her. "If you want to eliminate the crisis facing your Consciousness Megaverse, then work with me. I will handle the Spirit Nidus. Eliminating those squads for you now will only cause the High Seraph to take action with the Seven Seraphs. What I want is to utterly destroy Spirit Nidus, not fight them in a battle where death is inevitable. If you want to die, I can’t stop you. If you try something like this again, I’ll kill you myself."
With a casual flick of his hand, Progenitor Xi was tossed far away, her face deathly pale.
She had once been known as Qingluo Jiantian, and she had fought her way into the Lu Sanctum. She had been an unstoppable powerhouse. Later, she had allied with Aeternus and become the steward of the First Scourge. Not even the Seven Skygods had dared to act rashly towards her, and to some extent, she had been allowed to command Aeternus’s forces in battle, and she had even ordered the Seven Skygods on several occasions.
If not for the fact that the woman was of great value, Lu Yin would have killed her long ago.
Progenitor Xi might have an appearance that was as calm as water, but she was secretly scheming and conniving. All of her plans were attempts to push Lu Yin against the Spirit Nidus. Progenitor Xi wanted to weaken the Spirit Nidus.
Lu Yin had experienced thirty-seven years in a branch stream of the River of Aeons, and he had become very clear about the status of the Spirit Nidus’s elite geniuses.
Those who had been allowed to participate in the vanguard invasion with the president of the Chamber of Commerce had been among the best that the Spirit Nidus had to offer. Each of them had been young and at least as strong as an Envoy. All had undergone a Spirit Rebirth and had connections to the High Seraph or the Seven Seraphs. Even so, as time passed, Lu Yin had never considered using those young elites to threaten the Spirit Nidus.
A unified megaverse with a structured cultivation system would not lack for new talent. If one generation fell, there would always be another.
Killing those people would only incite greater hatred.
Progenitor Xi had hoped that Lu Yin would guide Boundless straight to the Consciousness Megaverse and then proceed to wipe out the Spirit Nidus’s squads. She wanted to see Boundless join with the Consciousness Megaverse’s forces to fight against the Spirit Nidus. But how could that ever happen? On the surface, it seemed like a better strategy than directly assaulting the Spirit Nidus itself. At the very least, Lu Yin should try to cooperate with the Consciousness Megaverse. However, the truth was that Boundless would merely become a decoy that the Consciousness Megaverse would use to weaken the Spirit Nidus. Ultimately, everyone on Boundless would be killed by the Spirit Nidus. None would survive, but the Consciousness Megaverse would be able to use that time to recover.
Going to the Consciousness Megaverse would not lead to an alliance, but rather to the Tianyuan Megaverse being played by two other megaverses.
Lu Yin had risen to his current power after starting as an ordinary person. He may have achieved success quickly, but what had he not already seen? He had plotted with Wei Rong and Wang Wen at his side. He had already heard of every kind of conspiracy, both covert and overt, and he had even devised several himself. He immediately saw through Progenitor Xi’s scheming.
He was not the only one, as the Origin Progenitor, Chu Yi, Sovereign Dou Sheng, and the others were all able to see through the woman as well.
Conscients could not be trusted. The fact that their megaverse was being invaded by the Spirit Nidus did not mean that the inhabitants of the Consciousness Megaverse were good. When different species were unable to understand each other, true cooperation could only be achieved if one of the two were on the brink of destruction.
Survival was a harsh reality, and kindness was not in line with the laws of survival, let alone war.
Besides, Lu Yin still had karma to resolve. The High Seraph would never send anyone who was karmically connected to Lu Yin to the Consciousness Megaverse. The man was not that foolish.
Boundless continued onwards.
A year had nearly passed, and Lu Yin and the others’ faces grew solemn. They had almost arrived. They were so close.
Up ahead of them, the lights of the once brilliant Beacon City had grown considerably darker.
Bang!
A huge crash rang out as ripples spread through space, reaching a great distance.
Beacon City had fallen into chaos.
"They won’t escape! Lock down all information! Make sure news doesn’t reach the Ascendant Hall! If the High Seraph finds out, everyone here is dead!"
"Don’t worry, their squad members have already been captured. There’s no one here to help them."
"What about the Primal Beastland or people from Heavenspire?"
"They want to kill those two even more than us."
"Those two dared to break the rules and want to drag us down with them! They won’t die easily."
Cultivators moved through Beacon City, searching for something.
In one corner of the city, beneath the wall, two figures were hiding: a man and a woman.
The man looked quite strange. While he seemed to be human, his ears were twice as large as normal, green, and erect, as though blown up by a powerful blast of wind from below. His dark golden eyes rippled with a cold, disturbing energy. A tail stretched out behind him, a similar dark-green color.
The woman looked calm, and while she was not very attractive, she gave off a warm feeling.
The two were curled up under the wall, clinging to each other.
Blood fell, staining the ground. It came from the man’s back.
The woman’s hand was pressed against the man’s back, and his blood had stained her sleeve. Her eyes were flushed red and belied her sorrow. "You shouldn’t have done this."
The man squeezed the woman tightly and smiled at her. "If I hadn’t, would you have even made it back? That old guy knows about the two of us. He wouldn’t dare to act here, which is why he purposefully arranged for you to return to the Consciousness Megaverse, leaving you with no way out. Don’t worry, we’ll escape back to the Spirit Nidus. We’ll go into hiding and live out the rest of our lives together."
The woman shook her head. "We’re in Beacon City. How are we going to escape?"
"I wouldn’t have acted without making preparations. That old guy never would have dreamed that I’d strike at this moment. He’s already followed the squads to the Consciousness Megaverse, and the people they’re replacing haven’t returned yet. This is when there are the fewest people in this city."
"The city lord is still here."
"I have a plan."
The two of them abruptly looked up, their expressions falling. Right after that, an incredible pressure slammed down onto them, shattering the house they were in.
The two hurriedly avoided it, and the ground where they had been standing collapsed.