Chapter 2500: Brother-in-Law
Lu Yin asked another question, "What’s the relationship between the three Monarchs?"
Luo Lao'er grew puzzled. "Husband and wives. Everyone knows that."
"I mean their tempers and personalities," Lu Yin said.
Luo Lao'er grew even more puzzled, "Why’re you curious about that? Your universe isn't connected to the Three Monarchs Universe, is it? If it is, you guys are doomed."
Lu Yin's eyes flickered, but he otherwise remained calm. "What do you mean?"
"Are they really connected?" Luo Lao'er’s eyes lit up with schadenfreude, unable to hide his satisfaction at discovering Lu Yin’s misfortune. "Wait, it's my turn to ask. What's your relationship with Zi Jing?"
Lu Yin replied matter-of-factly, "Friends."
Luo Lao'er felt confused. "You’re not husband and wife?"
"Not yet." Lu Yin and Zi Jing were indeed friends and not yet husband and wife, though it was highly unlikely that would ever happen.
Luo Lao'er leaned closer. "If I were to pursue Zi Jing, would you be okay with it?"
Lu Yin gave the young man a strange look. "That sounds like you're asking for a beating."
Luo Lao'er looked offended. "Brother, try to understand me. As a hostage, it’s my natural instinct to try to protect myself!"
"I can ask Zi Jing to accept you as her younger brother," Lu Yin offered.
Luo Lao'er whooped with delight. "Alright then, haha. It's settled, Brother-in-law!"
Zuo Yu happed to pass by, and when she overheard Luo Lao'er refer to Lu Yin as "brother-in-law," she immediately moved closer. "What brother-in-law? Luo Lao'er, is he your brother-in-law? Isn't he Zi Jing's man?"
Luo Lao'er loudly announced, "I'm Zi Jing's younger brother."
"Nonsense." Mu Duo was also listening in. "You're a pathetic soul who was abandoned by the Three Monarchs Universe."
"You're the pathetic soul! Your whole family are pathetic souls! I'm Zi Jing's little brother, and this is my brother-in-law," Luo Lao'er shamelessly declared.
Lu Yin felt his cheeks burn, and he muttered, "Bad luck for the whole family."
Luo Lao’er grinned cheekily. "Brother-in-law, don’t be ridiculous. I’m your pride and joy."
Zuo Yu stared at Lu Yin. "When did Zi Jing recognize him as her little brother?"
Luo Lao'er laughed. "I acknowledged him as my brother-in-law first. What's wrong with that?"
"Luo Lao'er, you're asking for a beating." Zuo Yu pulled out her whip.
After breaking the two apart, Lu Yin returned to asking more questions, "What did you mean when you said that any universe is doomed if it’s connected to the Three Monarchs Universe?"
Luo Lao'er sighed. "Brother-in-law, now that you are my brother-in-law, I won't hide anything from you. My old man is a selfish, controlling, completely despicable bastard. Do you know what he enjoys collecting the most?"
Lu Yin gave a blank stare. Luo Lao'er continued in a completely serious tone. "Aeternus's coordinate seals."
Lu Yin's eyes went wide. "What coordinate seals?"
Luo Lao'er replied, "Brother-in-law, you need to expand your knowledge. Read more books whenever you have the chance.”
"If you tear through the void, it’s possible to travel between parallel universes. It’s always possible to return to the universe of your birth, but if you want to go to another universe, you need to have the spatial coordinates. Otherwise, you’ll be relying on nothing but luck. My old man likes to steal coordinate seals from Aeternus and connect to various parallel universes. Whenever he finds one that he fancies, he simply uses the coordinate seal to visit it. You should already understand his motive, as it’s quite straightforward.”
"He calls himself a Monarch, and the cultivation realms are divided into Servant, Attendant, and others. What do you think he does to the various universes after gaining control of them?
"The Cloudflow Universe is a universe that’s controlled by the Transcendent Universe. They have the coordinates to this place, and just look at how miserable the natives of this Cloudflow Universe are. They’re sent to their deaths while the Transcendent Universe reaps all the benefits.
"This isn’t anything that I’m afraid of Commander Qiu Zhan or anyone else overhearing, as none of them care."
…
Whether it was because Luo Lao'er actually recognized Lu Yin as a brother-in-law, or for some other reason, Luo Lao'er shared many details with Lu Yin. He spoke of how the Three Monarchs Universe was in a complete mess and how it had nearly became a second Aeternus, while also cursing his father.
"But he's your father," Lu Yin reminded.
Luo Lao'er scoffed, "He's no father! He doesn't care about us at all. All he cares about is the son that he had with Monarch Mu. Do you know how many children he's had so far? 125. I'm the second eldest, but many years ago, I was sent to the Transcendent Universe as a hostage. Even then, I’m one of the lucky ones. Other than his son with Monarch Mu, most of the others have all died. Do you remember when I told you that my older brother died on the battlefield? He was forced there by Monarch Luo. In that bastard’s eyes, all of us are nothing but tools."
"Do the people of the Three Monarchs Universe understand Monarch Luo's personality?" Lu Yin asked.
Luo Lao'er replied, "Anyone who reaches a certain level does."
Lu Yin nodded. This explained why Gu Yue had sealed the passage connecting the two universes. If Monarch Luo’s personality truly matched what Luo Lao'er was describing, then giving the man access to the Fifth Mainland would be a terrible idea.
When Gu Yue had sealed the passage, the Fifth Mainland’s strongest cultivators had only been Semi-Progenitors, the strongest of whom had been Arch-Elder Zen. All of them would have been completely helpless against Monarch Luo. Even if they had opened up a path to the Perennial World, the four ruling powers would not have known what to do with the parallel universe, considering how Monarch Luo and his two wives were strong enough to hold back one of the Seven Skygods.
"Brother-in-law, is your universe really connected to the Three Monarchs Universe?" Luo Lao'er asked again.
Lu Yin shook his head. "No."
"Then why ask so many questions about it?"
"Curiosity."
"That’s it? I shouldn't have wasted my breath… By the way, when can I meet my sister?"
Lu Yin looked up at the stars as he said, "Let's worry about that after we get back alive."
"Hehe, you’ll definitely get back alive. My sister’s too important. As for me, I should make it too, since I’m a hostage. The others might not be so lucky," Luo Lao'er gloated.
Mu Duo shouted angrily, "Luo Lao'er, how dare you curse us! You're asking for a beating."
Luo Lao'er exclaimed, "Mu Duo, don't be ridiculous! I did no such thing! If you don't believe me, just ask my sister."
Lu Yin instantly understood that Luo Lao'er truly did deserve a beating.
It appeared that Aeternus had suffered a complete defeat in the Cloudflow Universe. More than half a month passed without them seeing any sign of Aeternus.
During this time, Luo Lao'er made it a habit to call Lu Yin "Brother-in-law." He acted very affectionately, but whenever Lu Yin asked more questions about the Three Monarchs Universe, Luo Lao'er would respond by trying to pry information out of Lu Yin. Luo Lao'er refused to lose to Lu Yin, even when it came to trivial matters.
"Brother-in-law, something doesn't feel right," Luo Lao'er whispered to Lu Yin.
By this time, Lu Yin had already become used to the young man’s constant antics. Whenever he tried to get close, he would always begin with the same words. "What's wrong this time?"
"It's too quiet," Luo Lao'er said solemnly.
Lu Yin frowned. He actually felt the same way. Given his own understanding of Aeternus, the only time they would allow humanity to experience such a lull would be after one of their cosmic doors was discovered and Aeternus’s access to a universe was destroyed.
"I’ve looked through the war records regarding this Cloudflow Universe," Luo Lao'er sat beside Lu Yin as he spoke in a hushed tone, "Whenever the Transcendent Universe sends more reinforcements, the frequency and scale of Aeternus's attacks increase proportionately. However, despite the fact that several of their monsters that are just as strong as Qiu Zhan have been killed, Aeternus has yet to make any moves. Something isn’t right.”
"I’m guessing that the next corpse king to show up will be far more powerful than anything we’ve seen so far," Luo Lao'er explained.
Lu Yin's heart stirred. "You mean a corpse king that can rival a black energy converter?"
Luo Lao'er nodded. "If I use the levels of my Three Monarchs Universe, then the next corpse king will be a Monarch, which means that it’ll be powerful enough to stand up to my old man."
"Have corpse kings at that level appeared in this Cloudflow Universe before?" Lu Yin asked.
Luo Lao'er shook his head. "Not according to the records that I could find. Also, Qiu Zhan has a white energy converter, which means that if one of those monsters really does show up, the Ruling Council won’t be able to keep him from gaining access to a black energy converter just because of his previous offenses."
"It’s possible that the general already has a black energy converter and that you just don't know about it," Lu Yin commented.
Luo Lao'er considered the possibility. "That could be true. Some of the old fogeys on the Ruling Council are quite cunning. They must have deliberately sent a general here who wasn't on good terms with them in order to trick Aeternus into believing that Qiu Zhan doesn't have a black energy converter. Then, once Aeternus sends a Monarch-level corpse king over, it will be beaten silly."
Lu Yin exhaled. "You should pray that such a corpse king doesn't appear. Both you and I are from cultivation civilizations. You should know that relying on an energy converter isn’t enough for someone to compete against a cultivator with comparable strength in a one-on-one battle."
Luo Lao'er glanced around and dropped his voice, "Brother-in-law, look, it's been a while. Why don't we try to contact my sister and ask her to get us out of here?"
Lu Yin glanced over. This was Luo Lao'er’s true intentions; he wanted to get closer to Zi Jing so that he could leave the battlefield.
"You seem to be particularly wary of this Cloudflow Universe." Lu Yin grew curious.
Luo Lao'er smiled. "I'm wary of every battlefield. If there’s no need for me to be on one, I won't."
"Since you’re a hostage, it doesn’t seem very likely for you to be sent to a battlefield, so why are you here?" Lu Yin had been curious about this for quite some time. Who would send a hostage onto the battlefield? As soon as the hostage died, the tension between the two universes would only be exacerbated.
Luo Lao'er's eyes flickered, and he gave a wry smile. "I wasn’t originally going to be sent to this battlefield. Also, you're here as well, Brother-in-law. That should mean that this is a relatively safe battlefield."
Lu Yin stood up. "It's my turn."
It was time for him to charge the cube.
A short while later, Lu Yin withdrew his hand, and it was time for Mu Duo to replace him.
Following the path next to the platform, Lu Yin moved into the depths of the carrier. He had already followed this path several times when recharging his energy converter.
Their platform was quite a long ways away from the site where they recharged their energy converters. As Lu Yin moved along, he saw many other people either heading to recharge their own energy converter, or returning from doing so.
Suddenly, Lu Yin froze. He slowly turned his head to stare at the metal wall next to him.
These walls were made from some sort of golden metal and there were streams of various colors of light flowing within them. He focused on a specific stream of light that had an odd color. "What a unique innate gift."
As soon as he spoke, the stream of light shot out from the golden wall, aiming straight for his head.
With a casual movement, Lu Yin evaded the sudden attack. The stream of light shifted directions and formed a blade that slashed down.
The green lens over his right eye flickered with numbers as Lu Yin dodged again and again. He removed the lens and then saw a blurry figure standing in front of him.
This person had been hidden within a stream of light, which reminded Lu Yin of the inhabitants of the Light World. Lightson's innate gift was light itself, which made him visible, yet also intangible while blinding his opponents.
Lu Yin had traded blows with Lightson in the past, but that had been a long time ago. After becoming the Heavens Sect’s Dao Chosen, the Light World had sent Lu Yin a grain of fatesand that had once belonged to Lightson.
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