bookbashuk Chapter 367 The Grand Palace's Mediation, Lu Yu's Conditions
Chapter 367 The Grand Palace's Mediation, Lu Yu's Conditions
Chapter 367 The Mediation of the Great Thousand Palace, Lu Yu's Conditions
"I am Lin Xuan, the current chief elder of the Great Thousand Palace. I sensed that the conflict between the Saint-grade Heavenly Sovereigns here is intense, and the fluctuations in spiritual energy are affecting several domains, which may harm the stability of the Great Thousand World. Therefore, I have come to mediate."
"I hope that you all will consider my reputation and the greater good of maintaining peace in the world and resisting foreign aggression, and temporarily cease fighting. Let's sit down and discuss the rights and wrongs slowly."
Lin Xuan calmly swept his gaze over the crowd before him and slowly began to speak.
When he saw Lu Yu in his true form and the two avatars whose auras were of the same origin, a very subtle look of surprise and solemnity flashed across his seemingly cloudy old eyes.
Immediately, his gaze turned to Futu Xuan and Tai Ming Ancestor, and he nodded slightly in greeting, clearly recognizing these two ancient clan elders.
His gaze swept over Qing Xuanjun and he nodded slightly before finally settling on Heitian and Heidi, whose faces were grim, and on Mohe Ming, who was isolated and helpless with a deathly pale face.
Lin Xuan's voice remained calm, yet carried an undeniable authority: "Now that I have arrived, I will not favor either side. I urge you all to temporarily set aside your supernatural powers and hostility, and to recount the whole story."
The Great Thousand Palace will make a fair judgment based on ancient covenants and principles.
As soon as he finished speaking, Mahaming's face lit up with joy, as if he had grasped the last straw, and he hurriedly stepped forward.
With a hoarse voice, he said, "Elder Lin! You've come at the right time! You must avenge my Maha Ancient Clan!"
He pointed at Lu Yu, his expression filled with grief and indignation, "This bastard is arrogant and unreasonable. He severely injured our clan's Great Elder and forcibly stole our clan's sacred artifact, the Maha Yin-Yang Bottle! His actions are no different from those of a bandit. We beg you to uphold justice and order him to return the sacred artifact!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Yu remained expressionless, as if the other party was not criticizing him.
The Tai Ming Ancestor, standing to the side, stroked his beard and chuckled, his voice gentle as he smoothed things over, saying, "Elder Lin, you flatter me. It was just the youngsters being impetuous, engaging in playful sparring, and they didn't know their own strength. Why must Clan Chief Maha take it so seriously?"
Fu Tu Xuan snorted coldly, glanced at Mo He Ming, and said with undisguised sarcasm, "Mo He Ming, you've lived for tens of thousands of years, a mid-stage Saint-rank expert, possessing a clan's sacred artifact, yet you were forced to cower in fear by this child of mine who just broke through, and even lost your clan's sacred artifact."
"You still have the nerve to cry foul and complain here? If I were you, I would have crawled into a hole in the ground long ago, to avoid making a fool of myself here!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Maha Ming's face turned ashen. He trembled with rage, his chest heaving violently. Pointing at Fu Tu Xuan, he stammered, "You—you—"
He paused for a long time, but due to his anger and the excessive consumption of his vital energy, he was unable to speak a complete sentence for a while, and felt his vision go black.
Lu Yu glanced at Fu Tu Xuan with slight surprise. In his memory, this elder of the Fu Tu Ancient Clan was always dignified and rigid, and rarely uttered harsh words.
He never expected that the elder would be so sharp and biting in order to defend himself, which gave him a new understanding of this elder.
Lin Xuan observed all of this, his face remaining expressionless. He simply looked at Lu Yu and asked again, "Holy Son Lu Yu, do you have anything to add?"
Lu Yu then raised his eyes and looked at Lin Xuan, his tone as calm as if he were stating a trivial matter unrelated to himself: "Reporting to Elder Lin, the matter is very simple. The Great Elder of the Maha Ancient Clan first came to my Lingbao Pavilion's territory to provoke us, attempting to force a marriage alliance, and attacked first. I was forced to defend myself and gave him a slight punishment. As for this Maha Yin-Yang Bottle—"
He paused, then flipped his palm, revealing the illusory image of the jade bottle, shrunk countless times but still swirling with black and white energy.
"They brought this on themselves to attack me. I couldn't win, and my things were left here, and no one has taken them back."
"It seems the Mahagu clan is too wealthy and powerful to care about this item. I merely picked it up and kept it safe because I saw it was unattended and didn't want to waste it. How could that be considered robbery?"
He spoke with such confidence, even with a hint of confusion, as if he were simply stating the fact that he had "found something unclaimed."
"You—you—"
Upon hearing this, Maha Ming felt his blood rush to his head, his vision blurred, and his finger pointing at Lu Yu trembled. He almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
The elders and clansmen of the Maha Continent were so enraged that they nearly fainted. This was a blatant humiliation!
They described their sacred clan artifact as worthless junk and just "picked it up" like that?
Lin Xuan's lips twitched almost imperceptibly. Even with his experience of countless trials and tribulations, he found Lu Yu's words to be rather "unique".
"Cough cough————"
Lin Xuan cleared his throat, suppressing the strange emotion in his heart. He turned his gaze to Maha Ming, whose face had turned from ashen to deathly pale, and said in a calm tone, "Since that's the case, Clan Chief Maha, do you have anything to add or refute regarding what Holy Son Lu Yu said?"
Mohe Ming gasped for breath, forcibly suppressing the surging blood in his throat, his voice hoarse and filled with resentment: "Elder Lin! This boy—this boy is clearly arguing illogically! The Yin-Yang Bottle is a sacred object of our clan, connected to our ancestral land, how could it fall so easily?"
"It is clear that he used bizarre methods to forcibly suppress and seize it. How is such behavior any different from that of the evil races from beyond the realm? We implore the Great Thousand Palace to uphold justice, order its return, and severely punish its crimes of harming our people and destroying our territory!"
He tried to escalate the situation, even bringing in the banner of the extraterrestrial evil race, hoping to provoke a more severe intervention from the Great Thousand Palace.
However, upon hearing this, Fu Tu Xuan sneered again: "How are you any different from the extraterrestrial evil races? Maha Ming, have you no shame? My clan's Holy Son is a guest elder officially registered in the Great Thousand Palace, a pillar of strength in resisting the extraterrestrial evil races!"
"Your Maha Ancient Clan's Grand Elder forced a marriage alliance and used your power to oppress us, and you call that a righteous act? It's utterly ridiculous! In my opinion, your Maha Ancient Clan is the very scourge that disrupts the peace of the Great Thousand Worlds!"
The Grand Ancestor Tai Ming also suppressed his smile, his tone calm yet weighty: "Elder Lin, the truth is already clear. The Maha Ancient Clan was in the wrong first, and their weakness followed."
"As for the ownership of the sacred relic—the law of the jungle has always held true. Since the Maha Ancient Clan couldn't protect their own possessions and they were 'picked up' by others, it's simply a matter of strength, and they can't blame anyone else."
"While the Great Thousand Palace maintains order, it has never stipulated that if someone comes to attack you, you are not allowed to fight back, let alone accept any spoils of war, right?"
Listening to the words of both sides, Lin Xuan had already made up his mind.
He glanced at Maha Ming, who was nearly fainting from anger, then at Lu Yu's side, whose faces remained calm, and at the silent Black Heaven Ancient Clan members beside them, before slowly speaking: "I have a general understanding of today's events. The cause was indeed the Maha Ancient Clan's improper actions and provocation. Although the subsequent conflict had a wide-ranging impact, there is no evidence to suggest that Holy Son Lu Yu deliberately slaughtered living beings or destroyed the foundation of the continent, thus violating the ironclad rules of the Great Thousand Palace. As for the Maha Yin-Yang Bottle—"
He paused, looked at the jade bottle in Lu Yu's hand, then at the expectant look in Maha Ming's eyes, and slowly said, "This item was originally used by the Maha Ancient Clan for warfare, but was lost in the struggle and ended up in the hands of Holy Son Lu Yu."
"According to the unwritten rules of the Great Thousand World, in such cases, the ownership of treasures is usually determined by strength. The Great Thousand Palace is not in a position to forcibly interfere with the ownership of spoils between Saint-rank Heavenly Sovereigns."
This statement is tantamount to acknowledging the "legitimacy" of Lu Yu's possession of the Maha Yin-Yang Bottle; at least at the level of the Great Thousand Palace, there will be no forced demand for its return.
Maha Ming's vision went completely black, and his body swayed. If he hadn't been holding on, he would have almost collapsed.
He knew that the tide had turned, and even the chief elder of the Great Thousand Palace had tacitly approved of the other party's "robber logic"!
Meanwhile, within the continent of Maha, beneath the protective array's protective barrier, chaos and uproar had already erupted.
"Outrageous! How can the Great Thousand Palace show such favoritism?"
"What kind of practice is this? It's clearly condoning robbery!"
"Our clan's sacred artifact has been stolen, and our Grand Elder is seriously injured. Our clan has suffered such a humiliating disgrace, yet the Great Thousand Palace refuses to uphold justice?"
"This is outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!"
Countless elders and members of the Mahagu tribe, their faces flushed, roared in anger, howled in resentment, and cried out in grief.
Some people were so angry that they trembled all over and almost rushed out of the formation, even knowing that they would die, they still wanted to fight to the death.
In the deepest part of the ancestral land, in the secret healing chamber, Moheyun, who was struggling to regulate his breathing and recover his original energy, sensed Lin Xuan's words from the outside world through the array, and his already chaotic aura suddenly stopped.
Immediately afterwards, with a "pfft," he suddenly spat out a mouthful of dark red blood, mixed with some fragments of internal organs.
His face instantly turned ashen, his eyes filled with endless humiliation, resentment, and despair. He growled hoarsely, "Heaven has forsaken me, Maha! Heaven has forsaken me, Maha!"
Inside the core hall of the ancestral land, the young Maha Tian clenched his little fists tightly, his tender face flushed red with extreme anger.
He couldn't understand all the complex considerations and conventions, but he knew clearly that the villain had stolen something very important from the clan and seriously injured the Grand Elder. Now, even that seemingly powerful white-bearded old man wasn't helping them!
"Bad people! They're all bad people!"
Maha Tian gritted his teeth, his eyes wide, staring intently at Lu Yu's figure outside the light barrier. His small chest heaved violently. "I must become super powerful in the future, snatch our bottle back, and beat that bad guy to a pulp! I'll avenge the Grand Elder and Grandpa!"
The clansmen serving him quickly covered his mouth, fearing that his childish words would be overheard and cause even greater trouble.
But seeing the stubborn and unyielding flame in the young master's eyes, I felt a mix of emotions, including grief and indignation, as well as a glimmer of hope.
Outside the formation, Lin Xuan seemed oblivious to the uproar and grief within the Maha Continent, and continued calmly, "However, the Maha Ancient Clan is ultimately an ancient great clan, and has made meritorious contributions in guarding a region of the Great Thousand Worlds and resisting the evil race."
"Saint Lu Yu, now that you have gained the upper hand and reaped the benefits, why not show some magnanimity as well?"
He looked at Lu Yu, his tone carrying a hint of appeasement: "You can keep the Maha Yin-Yang Bottle, but the Great Elder of the Maha Ancient Clan is seriously injured, and the Maha Clan Chief is also badly injured."
"Let's leave it at that. The extraterrestrial evil race has been in turmoil lately, and it is really not advisable for our Great Thousand World to start another major war and deplete its own strength."
His aged gaze swept over everyone present, and his tone became more solemn: "I have come here not only to mediate today's dispute, but also to convey the common wishes of the higher-ups of the Great Thousand Palace. I hope that you can all prioritize the overall situation, put aside your grudges for the time being, and work together to deal with the possible threat from the evil race."
"Any Saint-level Celestial Sovereign is an indispensable fighting force in the Great Thousand World."
Lin Xuan's meaning was clear: the Great Thousand Palace would not force Lu Yu to return the sacred object, but hoped that Lu Yu would know when to stop, let the Maha Ancient Clan go, and stop pressuring them, so that the matter could be settled.
At the same time, it also serves as a reminder to all parties that the extraterrestrial evil race is the common enemy, and the world needs to preserve its strength.
Upon hearing this, Mohe Ming's eyes were still filled with humiliation and resentment, but he finally saw a glimmer of hope for a ceasefire and the preservation of his tribe, and he looked nervously at Lu Yu.
Fu Tu Xuan and Tai Ming Lao Zu exchanged a glance and nodded slightly.
They naturally understood the implications. Lu Yu had already achieved a great victory, his fame had spread far and wide, and he had even obtained a treasure as valuable as the Maha Yin-Yang Bottle. To continue to exterminate him would not be the best choice in terms of reputation and actual benefits.
Now that Daqian Palace has offered a way out, going with the flow is the safest course of action.
All eyes were once again focused on Lu Yu, awaiting his final decision.
Upon hearing this, Lu Yu chuckled lightly, calmly looking at Lin Xuan, and said, "Elder Lin, what if I disagree?"
The atmosphere in the room suddenly tensed up as soon as he said that.
Lin Xuan's usually calm face showed a barely perceptible furrow of brows.
Lu Yu did not wait for Lin Xuan's reply, but continued, his voice clear and indifferent: "You said that the Maha Ancient Clan was an ancient great clan that once guarded a region of the Great Thousand World and made meritorious contributions in resisting evil races. This is true, and I, Lu, also respect the sacrifices and merits of our ancestors."
He abruptly changed the subject, his gaze sharp as he swept it across the pale-faced Mahaming: "But Elder Lin, that was ancient times, tens of thousands of years ago!"
"May I ask, in the past ten thousand years, has the Maha Ancient Clan ever taken the initiative to attack and kill a single Heavenly Demon Emperor during a time of great peril?"
"Have you ever made any noteworthy new contributions to this vast world?"
His voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a knife, striking everyone's heart: "As far as I know, after the ancient war, the Maha Ancient Clan retreated to the Maha Continent, closing themselves off and rarely participating in major operations organized by the Great Thousand Palace, let alone venturing into the territories of the evil races beyond the borders. Their achievements are all due to the legacy of their ancestors."
"An ancient clan that only knows how to rest on its ancestors' laurels, craves comfort, even engages in internal power struggles, yet accomplishes nothing externally, and is only good at bullying its own kind—"
A cold smile curled at the corner of Lu Yu's lips. "Even if such a Saint-grade Heavenly Sovereign, such an ancient clan, were barely preserved, what use would they be to my Great Thousand World in dealing with the calamity of the evil race?"
"They're nothing more than a resource-consuming burden that might even cause them to back down in crucial moments!"
These words were ruthless and to the point, tearing apart the "ancient achievements" facade of the Maha tribe.
A brief silence fell over the room.