YM778.TV Chapter 3274: Knocking
Chapter 3274: Knocking
The butterfly hesitated briefly. “Yes...”
“So, it’s not impossible that the Spirit Nidus could invade us?”
“They could...”
“How would they get here?”
“Through the megaverse’s boundary.”
“Take me there,” Lu Yin said. He was certain that Tian En did not know that Tian Ci had been attacked. Tian Ci had not had enough time to send word to anyone before feeling through the gate, and that meant that the butterfly did not know that Lu Yin had already visited the megaverse’s boundary and seen the stone gate.
If she led him to the wrong place, Lu Yin would immediately know.
It was possible that the butterfly really was afraid of death, or that Lu Yin had just been too ruthless with her. Some time later, she really did lead him to the stone gate Tian Ci had fled through. In that parallel universe, Lu Yin could see the massive gate that connected heaven and earth, as well as the Lord of Lightning guarding it.
“Jiang Feng?” The butterfly was startled.
In front of the gate, Jiang Feng saw the butterfly and Lu Yin. “You two?”
The sight of the butterfly’s miserable condition prompted a laugh that Jiang Feng could not hold back. “It looks like you got beaten pretty badly, Boundary Guardian.”
The butterfly said nothing, as she was too terrified. The fact that Jiang Feng was at the boundary meant that Lu Yin and his people had already visited the stone gate. If Tian En had tried to deceive Lu Yin by taking him to a false boundary, she would likely already be dead.
“Uncle Jiang, how is Tian Ci?” Lu Yin asked.
The butterfly glanced over at Jiang Feng, but the man just shook his head. “He hasn’t come back out yet. By the way, how did you run into this butterfly?”
Lu Yin shared what had happened during the battle at the Immemorial Citadel, which completely stunned Jiang Feng.
The Lord of Lightning had long since known that humanity and Aeternus would eventually have a final battle. He had been waiting for it, expecting it to take place after the Boundary Guardians were dealt with. Unexpectedly, the battle had already been fought while he was guarding the gate.
Lu Yin just gave some brief details of what had happened.
Jiang Feng felt a lingering fear. There had been several critical turning points throughout the battle, and while humanity had ultimately won, it had been a narrow victory. If any one of the various turning points had gone wrong, things could have ended completely differently.
“The Great Sovereign’s sacrifice deserves respect. I’ve heard of Progenitor Hui, but I never imagined that he would be hiding in Aeternus all this time, or that he would play such a crucial role in the final battle. Honorable, but so tragic.”
The mention of those who had sacrificed themselves caused Lu Yin to feel his heart weighed down.
Lu Yin moved closer to the gate, though his foot remained on the butterfly’s back. “If you don’t want to die, prove your worth. What’s the deal here?”
The butterfly did not hesitate to answer. “This gate leads to the Spirit Nidus, but that megaverse is extremely far away. Even for Ortusers, it takes a long time to reach the Spirit Nidus. We used this gate to travel to other megaverses, and when we returned, we were able to easily determine whether a being belonged to this megaverse or not.”
“Who made this gate?”
“That- I really don’t know. It was already here when I first visited this universe. Tian Ci and the others don’t know either.”
“There’s something I’m curious about,” Jiang Feng mentioned as he stared at the butterfly. “Do you belong to this megaverse?”
The butterfly hesitated before answering. “I belong to this megaverse.”
“What about the other three Boundary Guardians?”
“Tian Fa is not from this megaverse. I don’t know about Tian Feng.”
Lu Yin laughed as he exchanged glances with Jiang Feng. Both of them were laughing, though it sounded bitter.
The Boundary Guardians were supposed to guard the megaverse and drive out any outsiders, but at least two of the Boundary Guardians were from other megaverses. It was such a joke. Instead of helping the megaverse drive outsiders away, the Boundary Guardians had turned the place into a prison. They were able to freely come and go, but the natives of the megaverse were trapped inside.
When humanity had started to reveal a bit of strength, when the Origin Progenitor had demonstrated that there was even a slight chance of him leaving, he had been ambushed.
They were not Boundary Guardians, but rather wardens. They kept watch over the megaverse like it was a prison.
It was also clear that Tian En understood what would happen when the truth was exposed. Humanity’s hostility towards the Boundary Guardians would only grow, but even so, she did not dare to tell any lies.
She believed that she had a chance to survive because she was valuable.
She was an Ortuser. How could she not be valuable?
She might not know how Tian Fa had died, but given their personality, there was no way that the creature would have ever debased themselves. She, on the other hand, was different. She was willing to humble herself and beg for her life. She had not lived nearly long enough yet.
As long as she could survive, there would always be a chance to get revenge.
They had been too merciful. After they attacked Tai Chu, the Boundary Guardians should have slaughtered all of humanity’s strongest powerhouses. There had been a chance at that time, but they had missed it. It was too late. They were always too late.
“Open the gate,” Lu Yin snapped.
The butterfly begged, “I... I can’t open it. Only Tian Ci can.”
Lu Yin frowned. “Then what use are you?”
The butterfly retorted, “I’m an Ortuser. I can help you with anything, as long as it’s within my power. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
“I can tell you about the Spirit Nidus. I know a little about that place. I can also travel freely between parallel universes and sense creatures that are not from this megaverse. I truly have been helping this megaverse drive outsiders away. I swear it, Dao Monarch. Please believe me.
“Aside from our personal agenda against humanity, we really have been carrying out our duties.”
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “Knock on the gate.”
The butterfly hesitated, but she could also sense Lu Yin’s bloodlust. There was no choice for her but to turn to the gate and bang on it.
From a distance, it looked like the butterfly was crashing into the gate. It was more pathetic looking than seeing a moth flying into a flame. At least the moth would burn brightly for a moment before dying. The butterfly was silently striking the gate, producing only the faintest of ripples.
Lu Yin did not know if Tian Ci could hear the banging from the other side of the gate, but they needed to try. The next time the gate opened, it might mark the start of a war between the Spirit Nidus and Lu Yin’s own megaverse.
No matter how confident he might be in his megaverse’s strength, Lu Yin did not want such a war. It would lead to the deaths of countless people.
No one knew how many megaverses there might be.
Lu Yin was exhausted, and all he wanted was to protect his own universe.
The butterfly kept ramming into the gate. Each strike caused her light to grow a bit dimmer.
“Speak! Are you really just going to knock?” Lu Yin shouted angrily.
Tian En was filled with despair, but still called out, “Tian Ci, open the gate! Tian Ci, it’s me, Tian En! Open the gate! Tian Ci...”
Jiang Feng was watching a truly bizarre scene. He could not shake the feeling that there was something off about the situation. There was an oddity to what he was seeing.
This was clearly a matter that concerned the fate of the entire megaverse, and yet it somehow felt like he was watching a breaking and entering attempt.
He looked over at Lu Yin. "How is Kong Tianzhao?"
"Still alive."
Jiang Feng sighed. "He\'s quite unfortunate."
Lu Yin felt puzzled.
"In order to break through, he fought a copy of himself from a parallel universe. One of them ended up dying, and that caused him to almost cut his emotions off.
"He joined the invasion of the Scourge and specifically targeted Progenitor Xi in hopes of either breaking through or dying. After numerous battles that pushed him right to the edge of death, he neither managed to die nor break through. He’s very unlucky."
Lu Yin was curious about something. "Uncle Jiang, is there a parallel universe with a copy of you?"
Jiang Feng nodded. "Yes."
"Then why have I never seen two versions of the same person no matter how many parallel universes I’ve been to?" Lu Yin was confused about this. During a previous conversation, they had spoken about how every choice within a universe could lead to variations. Because of this, there should be an infinite number of parallel universes, as each choice would spawn a new parallel universe.
Even at Lu Yin’s level, no one was able to clearly explain parallel universes to him.
Sequence strings connected the various parallel universes, but to Lu Yin, they did not seem like parallel universes, but rather stacked universes.
The only true parallel universe he had ever learned of was the one that Whitecloud City had found that was a near-perfect copy of their own. That was a real parallel universe.
Jiang Feng replied, "I don\'t know about that either. I\'ve heard that the Aeternals define parallel universes that have the same internal structure as true parallel universes, and those are somehow different from the ones that we normally see. Aeternus sees some sort of distinction. I interrogated a few human traitors who joined Aeternus, and they were trying to find those kinds of parallel universes. As for why they wanted them, I have no idea."
Parallel universes, sequence strings... Lu Yin\'s expression became thoughtful.
In front of the two men, Tian En continued to bang on the gate while constantly shouting, but all of her efforts were useless. The door did not budge, and there was no response of any kind.
She continued her efforts for a very long time, but nothing ever changed.
Lu Yin spoke up, "Enough. Stop."
The butterfly stopped and turned to face Lu Yin. Her wings were gone, which made her look pitiful. "This gate is very important to the Spirit Nidus. Tian Ci will not open it easily."
Lu Yin stared at the butterfly. "Although you weren’t able to open the gate, your performance was quite impressive. I can give you a chance to live."
The butterfly heaved a sigh of relief, and her voice grew much gentler, "Thank you! Thank you, Dao Monarch Lu."
Lu Yin then asked, "Why did you kill Progenitor Ku?"
"What?" Tian En was startled.
Lu Yin repeated, "You told me earlier that the rules that you are subject to are why the Boundary Guardians didn’t cooperate with Aeternus to eliminate humanity. If not for that, humans would have never had any chance to defeat Aeternus, and I would have never grown to power. You are restricted by the rules you follow, so why did you kill Progenitor Ku?
"That was before I was even alive. It was while the Fifth Mainland was at war with the Sixth, just after the Perennial World split off. The Origin Universe was weak at that time, and the Sixverse Association was barely able to hold back the First Scourge. They barely managed to survive against the Seven Skygods. So, at that time, why did you specifically go after Progenitor Ku?"
Tian En grew nervous. "It was just an coincidental encounter. The human managed to escape from Yong Heng, and he was incredibly talented, so..."
Lu Yin\'s eyes flashed. "That’s too forced. Your answer is too forced."
The butterfly quivered in fear. "No! That\'s really what happened!"
"What did Progenitor Ku see or run into in the Scourge that caused you to hunt him down after he escaped? Why didn’t Yong Heng chase him down instead? On top of that, why did Progenitor Ku lose some of his memories? What do you know? Answer me!" Lu Yin ordered.
Tian En stared blankly at Lu Yin, clearly hesitating.
"What? Now you don’t want to live?" Lu Yin shouted.
The butterfly replied, "Dao Monarch Lu, there are certain questions that I cannot answer. This is one of them. Please don’t ask me again. I am an Ortuser. I have value. I can be of great help to you."
Lu Yin\'s expression grew cold. "Answer me. What was removed from Progenitor Ku’s memory? What do you know?"
A tremor entered the butterfly’s voice. She could sense Lu Yin\'s determination. "Dao Monarch Lu, you are touching upon something forbidden."
Lu Yin was unswayed. "The moment I killed Tian Fa, I had already touched upon something forbidden. I’ve asked you so many questions, and there are several that you’ve avoided answering. You\'ve told me all that you can, haven’t you?"
Tian En’s voice rose, "You had me knock on the boundary gate! From the very beginning, you never intended to let me go! Lu Yin, you will die a miserable death! All of you humans will suffer greatly!"