Star Odyssey

Chapter 2214: Fissure

When Lu Yin had first met the four Junior Progenitors, Xia Shenfei had been an alcoholic who had been unconcerned about everything. Even if he had met Progenitor Xia Shenji himself, Xia Shenfei would have remained calm and unconcerned about causing any offenses. However, Xia Shenfei had not touched even a drop of wine ever since he had joined Realmless until now. Someone capable of such discipline was beyond terrifying.

"The birds in the sky, the worms in the ground, and even the rhythm of the people's hoes striking the ground, when combined with the time of day, air humidity, and the direction of the wind, can be used as a coded language known only to Realmless’s assassins. Even if an outsider lives on Crow Village island for hundreds or even thousands of years, they would never be able to see any flaws. This is how Realmless internally communicates.” Xia Shenfei took a sip of his wine. “It’s unfortunate that I had to expose myself now, but if I hadn’t, you’d never learn anything about Wuncun without spying on them for thousands of years.”

Xia Ziheng nodded. "I see."

Xia Shenfei tossed the paper book that he had just been reading over to Xia Ziheng. "This is what you want."

Xia Ziheng quickly started skimming the book.

…

The destruction of Crow Village was not considered a big deal to most people in the Perennial World, but that was merely because most people were not qualified to interact with Realmless. This meant that only top powers and experts were affected. For example, an elder from the Celestial Frost Sect who had once hired Realmless to assassinate someone. There were similar such people in the Wang family, the White Dragon Clan, and even the Xia family. All the top powers in the Middle Realm that controlled a territory would have people who had paid Realmless to take action in the past.

All the records of those transactions had been taken by Shenwu's Sky, and included among them was the job that Elder Qing Xing had paid for.

Naturally, there was also some information about when Lu Yin had paid for Xia Xing’s assassination. The entire conversation, from the first word spoken to the last, had been recorded. However, no one was able to recognize Lu Yin's appearance because he had disguised himself with the Mask of Death.

These were also records of transactions that Realmless had been paid for. The jobs had been organized into assassination jobs, intelligence gathering jobs, and even information about suspected Redbacks.

***

In the Middle Realm, just outside of Seed Garden, Cai Shu suddenly showed up and arrested the head of a branch of the Nong family. This drew the attention of Nong Ya, the patriarch of the Nong family.

"Cai Shu, what are you doing?" Nong Ya demanded.

"Patriarch, save me!" The captured man was beyond terrified.

The Nong family was different from other families. As long as a branch family was acknowledged by those living in Seed Garden, they could freely wander around the Middle Realm, unlike the Xia family, which scattered their people across various locations, or the Liu family who could settle down anywhere they wished.

Cai Shu shared the information that had been received from Shenwu's Sky with Nong Ya. "Realmless's headquarters has been captured, and their records were obtained. There is clear information that claims that this person is most likely a traitor, so we need to take him back for interrogating and investigating."

Nong Ya checked the provided information. It was quite clear that this branch head had hired Realmless to assassinate someone, and the target was even the head of another branch of the Nong family. No reason for the hit was provided, but as the assassin had killed the man, he had said a single thing at the time of his death. “You’re a traitor!”

The branch leader who had been killed had not known that he was being killed by Realmless, but he had been completely certain that traitors were behind his death. This made the actual traitor’s identity quite clear. Once the accusation was combined with the knowledge of who had paid for the assassination, it was highly likely that the branch head of the Nong family was a traitor.

Nong Ya stared at the captured man, an ugly expression on the patriarch’s face.

The branch leader dropped his head, not daring to look at his patriarch.

"You’re actually a traitor?" Nong Ya gritted his teeth.

The branch head quickly replied, "No! I'm not a traitor! I just wanted to get rid of him to take over his territory. I’m not a traitor."

"Then who is?" Nong Ya shouted.

Cai Shu spoke up, "Patriarch Nong Ya, Humility’s Gate will be questioning this man, so I’ll be leaving to do that now."

"Patriarch, save me! Patriarch!"

Nong Ya did not move a muscle. The evidence at this moment was quite clear. Given the time and place, as well as the details of the hiring transaction, which included a video, the evidence could not be refuted. If Realmless suspected someone of being a traitor, they were likely guilty.

Shenwu's Sky released a tremendous amount of information, almost all of which was related to suspected traitors and Redbacks. All of these suspects were delivered to Humility’s Gate. They did not have the resources to deal with traitors and Redbacks. Thus, with the exception of the suspects who were related to the four ruling powers, Humility’s Gate dealt with all the others.

Just a bit more than ten days passed, but during this time, the Perennial World was covered with spilled blood. Humility’s Gate captured and arrested more and more people, all of whom were named in the information that Xia Shenfei had provided. It was also impossible for Shenwu's Sky to do good deeds without taking credit, so it was quickly revealed that Xia Shenfei had gone undercover to enter Realmless so that Shenwu's Sky could find the assassins’ headquarters. This task had eventually led to a tremendous number of traitors being exposed and arrested.

Many people from the Root Organization were also arrested. Too many people had implicitly trusted Realmless, paying the assassins to complete tasks, and this led to their identities being easily revealed.

Of course, most people had tried to hide their true identities when interacting with Realmless, much like Lu Yin had done. However, given Realmless's capabilities, it was usually quite easy for them to determine the true identities of such people.

Chaos reigned in the Middle Realm and the Lower Realm, but not even the Higher Realm was peaceful. Members of the four ruling powers were arrested and killed, but there was also a group of people whom no one knew how to handle.

For example, a member of the White Dragon Clan had paid Realmless to assassinate a junior member of the Wang family. Someone from the Celestial Frost Sect had hired Realmless to kill a member of the White Dragon Clan. Lu Yin was quite familiar with Wang Shang, and he was actually one of Realmless’s assassins, and he was ranked high enough that he had even learned of the existence of Crow Village.

This revelation infuriated the Wang family, but unfortunately, Wang Shang had gone to the Forsaken Land. If not, he would have also been arrested.

With the exception of Wang Shang, people from the Celestial Frost Sect, the Xia family, and the White Dragon Clan had all interacted with Realmless, and eventually, even the Dealcut Association was revealed.

The secret society had provided Realmless with funds and information, and these transactions were all made public. This caused those in the four ruling powers to become absolutely furious.

While there was no denying that the four ruling powers had been wrong to exile the Lu family; that action had ignored what was best for humanity as a whole in the fight against the Aeternals. However, the four ruling powers were not unwilling to protect humanity.

After the Lu family had been exiled, the four ruling powers had taken complete control of the rear battlefield. All of them always viewed the fight against Aeternus to be the top priority, and this was why Shenwu's Sky did not keep Realmless's list of suspected traitors and Redbacks privately, but had instead delivered it to Humility's Gate. It was of top importance that the suspects be captured before they could escape. On top of that, the information from Realmless exposed that the Dealcut Association had been secretly manipulating some of the resources dedicated to the rear battlefield, and had also manipulated various details to prevent specific people from participating in the dangerous fighting taking place on the rear battlefield. As far as the four ruling powers were concerned, such actions were unforgivable.

After learning of the Dealcut Association, the four ruling powers immediately took action and thoroughly investigated the rear battlefield and captured everyone with a connection to the Dealcut Association.

With the fall of Realmless, the Perennial World became extremely turbulent for a time.

***

In the Middle Realm’s Virtue Archives, Headmaster Wen watched as one of the academy’s instructors was taken away by a Humility's Gate. The headmaster was in a rotten mood.

"I never thought that Prof. Lian would be a traitor." Prof. Zheng felt both angry and helpless.action

Many of the nearby students had also seen the instructor be arrested. "If even someone as good and decent as the professor can be a traitor, then Aeternus is simply too despicable."

"Some time ago, I asked Prof. Lian to assist me with my training, and I spent a lot of credits to make that happen. Looking back, it’s terrifying to think about."

"It’s impossible to see through traitors and Redbacks. They can be anyone at all! If not for Junior Progenitor Xia Shenfei going undercover for twenty years to destroy Realmless’s headquarters, all of those people would still be perfectly hidden. Xia Shenfei's contribution to humanity is too impressive."

"This is what the Junior Progenitors are capable of. It would be difficult for others to accomplish similar feats even if they manage to somehow surpass the Junior Progenitors. Xia Shenfei was even an alcoholic! How can anyone compare to his willpower?"

"That's right! Lu Xiaoxuan is really the worst ever! If he hadn’t killed Junior Progenitor Bai Shaohong, then Bai Shaohong might have also accomplished great things and even eventually become a Progenitor."

"Don't talk about the Lu family! Do you want your brain to explode?"

"The Lu family was banished by four ruling powers precisely because they colluded with Aeternus. Lu Xiaoxuan killed Junior Progenitor Bai Shaohong, which means that he himself is a Redback! It’s terrible."

…

Lu Yin had to struggle to calm himself down after he heard the various students’ discussions. This clearly demonstrated the power of four ruling powers. After just a short period of controlling the Perennial World, everyone “knew” that the four ruling powers had verified that the Lu family had been working with Aeternus, which was why the Lu family had been overthrown by the four ruling powers. Everyone conveniently forgot about everything that the Lu family had previously accomplished.

If not for the Lu family, how would the Perennial World ever have come to be? How would the Fifth Mainland have remained protected? Right or wrong, the Lu family was solely responsible for all of these things.

"Prof. Hao Yu, so this is where you were." Nong Siniang had gone to find “Hao Yu.”

Lu Yin was feeling rather torn at this moment. "Prof. Lian’s been arrested. I can’t help but wonder if there are any other traitors or Redback still in the academy."

Nong Siniang pursed her lips. "Someone from my Nong family was also arrested. There are traitors everywhere, which is too scary."

Lu Yin smiled. "Don't worry. The day will come when humanity will be able to drive Aeternus out and restore peace."

"That's right, humanity will absolutely do that," Wu Taibai said.

Bai Weiwei also arrived and joined in. "Such a thing needs all of humanity to work together to pull off."

More and more people gathered and joined the conversation, and eventually, the Dealcut Association was brought up.

In the past, a few people had known about the Dealcut Association, such as Xia Zhitong, who had struggled to join. It had been a tightly guarded secret that the Dealcut Association was able to influence matters on the rear battlefield, but the secret society had been utterly destroyed now. There was no way it would be allowed to continue.

Lu Yin silently returned to his stone pillar.

He realized that he had overlooked something: the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

When Xia Shenfei had gone undercover to infiltrate Realmless, one of his clones should have done so. Given that, seeing as how Xia Xing was the sect master of Shenwu’s Sky, he must have also cultivated the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

Had Lu Yin captured Xia Xing's main body, or a clone? Regardless, as soon as the captive was released from Zenith Mountain, the other Xia Xing should be able to sense his presence.

This realization made Lu Yin extremely thankful that he had never taken the sect master out of Zenith Mountain after capturing him. As soon as Shenwu’s Sky had an approximate location for their sect master, it would be impossible for Lu Yin to remain hidden.

However, this greatly complicated things, as Lu Yin had to meet with Xia Xing and interrogate him, but he also could not release him from Zenith Mountain.

There was only one way to accomplish this without risking being detected by Shenwu’s Sky: Timestop Space.

Thinking of this, Lu Yin left Virtue Archives and made a show of going to visit Yu Chuan, but in reality, he went out to roll his die.

***

In the Higher Realm, Xia Ziheng, Xia Xing, Xia Shenfei, and the other top-ranking members of Shenwu's Sky were staring at an image on display in front of them all. It was a picture of Lu Yin’s disguised face from when he had hired Realmless to assassinate Xia Xing.

"Have you found out who this is yet?" Xia Xing asked.

Someone spoke up. "No."

Xia Shenfei sipped some wine. "It's easy to alter your face."

"He placed the deposit for the hit in the Azure District, and the attack took place at the border of Huaiyuan. The two districts are far apart from each other, so there’s nothing that can be determined from that." Xia Xing frowned.

A map of the Middle Realm appeared in the air.

"For a true expert, such a distance is not a problem," Xia Ziheng said.

Xia Shenfei suddenly spoke up, "Is the Yu Hao who you first suspected still in Virtue Archives?"

Xia Ziheng nodded. "He was a suspect because he was the only one who knew that the sect master would visit the Middle Realm, but when everything happened, he was in the Blue Moon District, which isn’t far from the border of Huaiyuan."