Long ago, when Lu Yin had asked Mister Mu when he should use the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation, the man had said to place the cauldron at the bottom of the Heavens Sect’s Stairway to Heaven and then wait for an opportunity. For that reason, Lu Yin had been waiting ever since.
Mister Mu had even mentioned that his own Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation was also waiting for an opportunity.
Lu Yin was eager to know when Mister Mu’s opportunity would come.
At the moment, it seemed that the moment of opportunity might have been when Lu Yin had overcome various obstacles and merged with the Tianyuan’s will.
“So you escaped to the Tianyuan thanks to that mirebound artifact, the Cauldron?”
“That’s right.”
“Where is the Cauldron now?” Lu Yin wondered. With so much of what had happened in the Tianyuan, if the Cauldron were still in Mister Mu’s hands, the man would have never left it unused. In Mister Mu’s mind, his old megaverse had been lost, and the Tianyuan had become his new home.
Mu Zhu sighed. “As I said, there are some powers that cannot be wielded outside of our original megaverse, and the Cauldron is among them. It only launched us out of our megaverse, but it did not accompany us to the Tianyuan. We don’t know where it is now.”
Lu Yin felt uneasy. “Could Obscura have taken it?”
Mu Zhu shook her head. She had no answer.
“If the Cauldron is still in our megaverse and wasn’t taken by Obscura... Then after Master breaks through to the Immortal realm, and if he can draw on its power, he will become formidable. Extremely so.”
That was the only thing that Mu Zhu knew for certain.
Lu Yin’s expression hardened. “Senior Sister, I can’t promise what I’ll achieve, but if I gain the necessary power, I will help you return home.”
Just then, the Astral Anura stone was tossed back out. Lu Yin immediately grabbed it, and saw that, beneath his ‘Good child,’‘Good daddy’ had been written. Beneath that was another message. ‘I’m your grandpa.’
Lu Yin was rendered speechless. Clearly, the final message had been left by whoever had snatched the stone a moment before Lu Yin.
That being had likely not expected to stumble upon such a weird conversation in the Thread of Heaven.
Their message was actually an insult.
As Lu Yin was about to reply, Mu Zhu replied, “There’s been no reaction to ‘Nest.’ Should I send out any additional information?”
Lu Yin said, “If you’d like. ‘Floating coffin’ would also work. Just toss that out and see. If the one writing on the cauldron stone picks that message up, we might start another exchange. If they’re a part of the Hui-Silver Sky Army, they’re also part of Obscura.”
“Alright.”
In the meantime, Lu Yin wrote another line on the Astral Anura stone. ‘Insolence! My good child, show them what the Seven-Treasures Astral Anuras can do!’
He was baiting the other into sharing additional information. Given their earnest claims of kinship, he wanted to see just how much they really knew about the toads.
Simultaneously, the creature with silver in its eyes was glaring viciously. It had been toyed with. Who had been writing “cauldrons” beneath the one that it had written? Who had dared to make a fool of them?
When they saw the period, they had assumed that the other was aware that there were only nine cauldrons, which indicated knowledge of one of that person’s signature techniques. That had explained the period.
However, what did the drawing of yet another cauldron mean?
A stone could be grabbed by more than just one creature in the Thread of Heaven.
It was possible that the one who had been trading cauldrons on the stone with it had been the same one who had left the period, which would imply knowledge of the nine cauldrons. Another cauldron had been drawn after that, but by whom? It might have been drawn by the same hand, or it was possible that the period had been left by a different creature.
The being stared at the period written on the stone. Who had it been? Did they truly know about the nine cauldrons? Or had someone just been toying with them?
Multiple creatures had left marks on the same stone. The creature with silver in their eyes had done so, but the other two might have been acting separately or cooperating. If they had been acting independently, then who had left the period, and who had drawn the cauldron? If they were working together, then the only option was that they had been toying with the silver-eyed creature. Still, it was possible that they knew about that civilization.
The chill in the creature’s eyes grew stronger. One way or another, someone was taking them for a fool.
After a long moment, bloodlust flared in their savage gaze. “Show me if you’re connected or not.”
They then drew nine human heads onto the stone and cast it out.
Lu Yin had expected the Astral Anura stone to appear first, but it was the cauldron stone that appeared next instead.
He picked it up, and the new message left him shaken. He handed it to Mu Zhu.
When she looked, her pupils contracted sharply. Unrestrained killing intent erupted from her as grief filled her suddenly bloodshot eyes.
Lu Yin immediately suppressed her bloodlust.
He had seen the picture of the nine human heads. He might not know who those people were, but since they were humans, they must have some sort of connection to Mister Mu. For Mu Zhu to express such strong grief, they had to be people who had died in Mister Mu’s native megaverse.
Lu Yin did not ask any questions. He simply waited.
Mu Zhu had not seen those faces in a very long time, but there were some memories which could never be forgotten, only buried deeper.
Once those memories were brought back to light, they would raise pain no weaker than when they had first been inflicted.
Mu Zhu sat in silence, staring at the stone. She said nothing at all for a long time.
Lu Yin continued to grab stones to read. The Astral Anura stone still had not returned. The other creature either did not know how to reply, or there was too much that they wanted to say. The latter would mean extensive knowledge of the Seven-Treasure Anuras, which was what Lu Yin was hoping for.
“They were my senior uncles, all nine of them. Master took them in on his teacher’s behalf. Eventually, all of them achieved success, and they held great influence in our megaverse,” Mu Zhu slowly explained, her voice cold and dry.
Lu Yin looked over and quietly listened.
“When I trained with Master, they doted on me, constantly finding resources for me. Whatever I wanted, they would find. Whatever I wished to do, they would help me do it. They indulged me even more than Master himself.
“They governed the megaverse, teaching countless cultivators and earning the respect of all.
“Even when the Hui-Silver Sky Army appeared, my senior uncles proved to be their match and eventually won, at least until Hui itself arrived.” Mu Zhu clenched her teeth. Her voice grew frigid. “One by one, they rushed out, blazing with a final, brilliant light before vanishing. They were all taken from the world—all nine never returned. It was thanks to them that Master had a chance to escape with me. Without that, even though he had managed to grievously wound Hui, a single strike from that creature would have been enough to keep us from leaving.
“We should have taken them with us, but they stayed behind to cover our retreat. They bought our escape with their lives, increasing Hui’s karmic chain.”
Mu Zhu stared off into the depths of the Aevum Inch. “I don’t know if it was the Cauldron’s power or their sacrifice that prevented Hui from pursuing us, but regardless, we lived while all of my senior uncles died. Not one made it.”
Lu Yin’s expression grew heavy. This was a tragic story, yet one that had been told repeatedly throughout human history. Unless humanity became invincible, such stories would only continue to repeat.