Chapter 4424: Don’t Know Much
Chapter 4424: Don’t Know Much
Many people had speculated that scavengers originated from the guidance of technological civilizations, but no one could prove that theory. It involved matters far too ancient.
"Of course I have the coordinates of megaverses and quite a few of them at that. However, what sort of price can you offer? You should understand that it is not easy to move an Immortal. Besides, I stopped working as a scavenger long ago. I merely happened to be passing by this time," the stone monster replied.
"As long as Your Excellency can provide enough megaverse coordinates to satisfy us, the trade will undoubtedly satisfy you as well."
"For example?"
"A mirebound artifact."
The stone monster was surprised. "You have mirebound artifacts?"
Far away, Lu Yin had been observing the stone monster the entire time, though he could not hear the conversation. Even so, he clearly noticed the stone monster's surprise. What had this technological civilization said?
"We have destroyed more than one or two civilizations, so there’s nothing strange about us possessing mirebound artifacts."
"But the mirebound artifacts that you have in your possession may not necessarily be useful to me."
"There is no absolute distinction between strong and weak mirebound artifacts. Some are very powerful, and yet they might be utterly useless to Your Excellency. Some are very fragile and can shatter from a touch yet would be highly useful to you."
The stone monster nodded. "That is true. Fine. Which megaverse’s coordinates do you want?"
Inside the oval light, the prince said, "Show it the human form."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Soon, the stone monster saw a gigantic human figure displayed in the cosmos. "I would like to ask whether Your Excellency has seen this kind of creature before."
The stone monster directly answered, "Of course I have."
Inside the oval light, that prince was delighted. "So we really found it!"
"Your Highness, our confirmed direction must lead to the human civilization. The empire already determined that long ago."
"Has the empire determined the strength of that human civilization?"
"That... it has not."
Previously, the technological civilization had been lured through the gates of Obscura to destroy the Thorn Megaverse and the Seal-Eater Civilization, and it had also participated in the war between the Seven-Treasure Anuras and the Blacklight Civilization. Lu Yin had also acted during some of those conflicts, but no accurate information about him had ever been sent back to the empire. Later, Yue Lu had attacked the Trio, and the ambush outside of Obscura’s gate had caught the attention of the technological civilization.
They had done everything they could to send their spheres over, but those spheres were only able to emit signal coordinates for the technological civilization to follow. There was no way to send back any information on the strength of the Trio. That was why, even now, the technological civilization knew almost nothing about the true strength of the human civilization that they were targeting.
The only thing that they were certain of was that human civilization had more than one Immortal, which was why they had sent a king vessel. A king vessel was an even larger warship than what had been sent to fight in the war between the Seven-Treasure Anuras and the Blacklight Civilization. There were only a few such vessels in the entire civilization, so dispatching even one to target this human civilization showed the tremendous importance of this mission.
A king vessel could put up a fight against even another fishing civilization.
This was the confidence of their civilization, but confidence was just one thing. If they could understand the strength of their target civilization in advance, that would naturally be far better.
"You cannot possibly be seeking this civilization, are you? If I remember correctly, these creatures should be known as humans," the stone monster shouted.
"Correct. We are indeed looking for their civilization. Does Your Excellency know anything about them?"
The stone monster said, "I do know something, though I wouldn’t say that I know much."
"What do you mean?"
"I don’t dare to know too much."
"Are you saying that their civilization is very powerful?"
The stone monster replied, "Are you going to just ask like that?"
"Understood." After a pause, a sphere that looked like a miniature sun emerged from the king vessel and slowly drifted toward the stone monster.
The Immortal took it. "A mirebound artifact?"
"That is not a mirebound artifact. Rather, it is a weapon from our civilization called Radiance. For Your Excellency, your safety should matter more than anything else. This Radiance can emit light across a certain area and allow Your Excellency to see through everything within that range."
The stone monster responded with disdain, "That’s not very useful. This isn’t enough to buy my information."
Another object flew out from the king vessel. It was another sphere, but this one gave off no light and instead looked like it was made from some kind of metal.
"That is a portable Crystal Fall. It contains one Crystal Fall, which is powerful enough to threaten an Immortal being. Together with Radiance, these should be enough to buy the information that you are not too familiar with."
The stone monster stared at the second sphere. "That wouldn’t happen to be the same thing that you just used to attack me, would it?"
"Exactly. However, this one is smaller, harder to detect, and more powerful."
The stone monster knew when to stop while it was ahead. "Fine. I will tell you this: I really do not know much about that human civilization, but I estimate that they have seven or eight Immortals."
Inside the king vessel, the prince was shocked. "Seven or eight Immortals?"
The stone monster continued to say, "Don’t be in such a hurry. That isn’t even the most terrifying part. Behind this human civilization is a fishing civilization known as Obscura. It uses gates and civilizations to destroy other civilizations. It is absolutely terrifying and is an invincible civilization. That is the real reason why I don’t dare to know too much about this human civilization.
"My home lies in the same direction that you are currently heading in. Because of this human civilization, I had no choice but to move away, so if you are really looking for that civilization, my advice is that you don’t go."
The king vessel stayed silent.
"Your Highness, these gates are the means of transportation that have lured us into several battles. And yet, they do not belong to this human civilization, but rather to another civilization. This..."
"King vessel, begin informational analysis."
"Informational analysis in progress... Informational analysis in progress... Informational analysis complete. Based on the Immortal being’s words, possible conclusions are as follows: first, the human civilization is not to be provoked. Second, this Immortal was deliberately sent by the human civilization to threaten us into retreating."
"Which possibility is more likely?"
"Impossible to determine. After all, this Immortal being is not part of human civilization. Generally speaking, civilizations do not communicate with one another, and human civilization should not be able to accept an Immortal scavenger. This creature’s words do carry some credibility, but that does not prove that it was not sent by the human civilization to threaten us. Since the human civilization possesses those gates, it is not impossible that they have already noticed our approach." After a pause, it continued to say, "Your Highness, send this information back to the empire and wait for the empire's response."
"The king vessel's informational analysis is only a reference. Have you considered that both possibilities may be true at the same time?"
"Your Highness, you mean...?"
"Immortal beings care about their karmic chains, but we do not. If we truly intend to go to war, do you think that they would want that?"
"You mean to say that they sent out this Immortal as a threat and that they really do possess such terrifying strength."
"Whether they truly possess such strength remains to be seen. It took us a thousand years to even find them, and we cannot just give up. If they are not as terrifying as they pretend to be, then we can avenge the fact that we were used while also harvesting tremendous amounts of resources. Do not forget the real reason why we are looking for this human civilization."
"It is because of that gate. I understand."
"We’ve paid an astronomical price just to find them. Naturally, this is not just for revenge. That method of traveling through gates is what we truly desire. Besides, we are not going to die anyway, so what is there to fear?"
"And the king vessel?"
"The king vessel is not weak."
"Understood."
The stone monster stared at the king vessel. "Hey, I already told you what I know about that human civilization, but I also have the coordinates for another civilization. Do you want to buy it? I will accept a mirebound artifact."
"Oh? What is the civilization that Your Excellency has coordinates for?"
"It’s a civilization with four or five Immortals."
"There’s such a civilization nearby?" that prince asked in surprise.
Immortals did not easily come into being. Under normal circumstances, encountering a cosmic civilization with even one Immortal was rare. Four or five? That was already quite the formidable civilization.
Even for the technological civilization, swallowing such a target would not be easy.
However, such a powerful civilization also meant abundant resources. After all, a civilization capable of producing so many Immortals could in no way be compared to an ordinary megaverse.
The stone monster laughed. "I knew that you would want it! So, how about it? Do you want to trade?"
"Of course."
"What ability does your mirebound artifact have?"
"It can sense battle conditions, ignoring distance."
The stone monster did not understand. "What does that mean?"
"You place the mirebound artifact down, and within a certain radius of that object, if battle fluctuations appear, whether it be the power of space, time, or anything else, they can be sensed from afar via its counterpart. In this way, you can judge the intensity of the battle and decide whether to go or flee."
The stone monster understood. "That doesn’t sound particularly useful."
"Your Excellency, you can leave one at home and carry the other with you. If anything happens at home, you will naturally be able to sense it."
"When you put it that way, it is quite useful after all. Did you just say there is no limit to the distance it can be used?"
"Yes."
"Can it really be that ridiculous? Has your civilization already explored the entire Aevum Inch?"
"Within the maximum range that we have explored, we have yet to find the range limit of this mirebound artifact, so we believe that Your Excellency will not exceed that limit either."
The stone monster thought for a moment, as if hesitating.
"Your Excellency, the coordinates of that megaverse are of no direct use to you. Surely you do not intend to deal with that civilization on your own, right? It would be better to exchange those coordinates for a mirebound artifact. Even if you are unable to use it yourself, you can still trade it with other beings."
The stone monster knew that it was finally time. It had been anxious for a long time already. "Fine, I’ll trade. Give me the mirebound artifact."
"We must first verify that the civilization Your Excellency speaks of is real."
"How will you verify it? Do you want me to take you there?"
"That will do."
The stone monster let out a breath of relief. With this, its mission was accomplished. Its task was to lead this technological civilization to the coordinates that the human, Lu Yin, had provided it. What happened after they arrived was no longer any concern to the stone monster. As for the mirebound artifact, it did not really care about that either; all it wanted was freedom.
Next, the stone monster stared blankly as a somewhat smaller, yet still enormous, oval light slowly detached from the king vessel. What is that?
Far away, Lu Yin frowned. This detached oval light looked exactly like the ones the technological civilization had used in the war between the Seven-Treasure Anuras and the Blacklight Civilization. Could it be...?
"The mirebound artifact has been entrusted to the vessel before Your Excellency. You may now lead the way. Once the location of that civilization is confirmed, the mirebound artifact will belong to you."
The stone monster looked back at the king vessel. "And what about you?"
"Your Excellency seems very concerned about our movements, no?" that prince asked, staring at the stone monster on the screen.
The stone monster replied, "It’s not that I care, but there are several Immortals at where we are heading. If you don’t make the trip yourselves, can this thing really withstand those Immortals?"
"That is not something that Your Excellency needs to worry about," the prince replied. The voice remained calm, though this time, the voice was not transmitted outward, but simply addressed the prince’s subordinates. "It seems that this Immortal really is connected to the human civilization. They likely want to lure us to the coordinates that they gave this creature."
"Your Highness is wise. Since they can no longer use gates to manipulate us, they are using a scavenger as bait. That human civilization does not want us to get near them."
"Hmph! Then we will go there anyway and see if that civilization is only putting on an act or simply does not want war."
"Then is there still any need to send the starship to finish the trade with this Immortal?"