Death… And Me

Chapter 4580: Information Blockage

"Is there... any guarantee you won’t meddle with our problems?" Soza couldn’t help but ask.

"None!" Rean shrugged without hesitation. "Let’s be honest, what kind of guarantee could I possibly give the Werdlem Empire that would actually convince you? We can control the Echo, you know?"

Soza had to admit Rean was right. Any rule they agreed upon could be broken later, and there was absolutely nothing the Werdlem Empire could do to stop them if they decided to change their minds. In the end, all they could do was trust that the twins’ group wouldn’t interfere with their affairs.

"I see..."

However, one of the envoys suddenly thought of something. "Friend Rean, you and your companions are traveling around the Celestial Plane now, correct? We might not be able to offer you anything down here that would be of much use to you, but the situation is different in the Celestial Plane."

The envoy continued before Rean could answer. "We aren’t exactly a major power, and there aren’t many cultivators who know about us either. Nonetheless, in the region where our Empire exists, we do possess a certain amount of influence and leverage. What happened is already in the past. Because of you, the Arbiter found the opportunity to destroy our chance of controlling the Echo, and there is nothing we can do to change that anymore."

He spread his hands. "Rather than dwelling on something that cannot be changed, we would much rather have you as an ally."

Rean would have been lying if he said he hadn’t expected such an offer. Still, he hadn’t expected them to bring it up so quickly. "It sounds interesting... But the problem is that we have likely ascended to very different parts of the Celestial Plane."

The envoy smiled. "That isn’t necessarily a problem. All you need to do is ascend from somewhere near our Werdlem Empire. You would likely appear in our region’s hub this time instead. If you are worried that we might try something against you up there, you could simply leave one of the four of you down here for a while. Just one of you would be enough to destroy our entire Empire."

Rean raised an eyebrow.

The envoy wasn’t finished. "Worse yet, with your control over the Echo, even if you, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky all ascend into our jurisdiction and we somehow decide to do something against you, you could leave some ultimate trap behind that would destroy the Werdlem Empire down here afterward. The Echo possesses this kind of power."

His expression became serious. "I want you to understand that our intention is genuine. We have far more to gain by becoming your friends than we could ever gain by making you our enemies."

Soza nodded in agreement. "He is right. And there is something else you didn’t know. What we had in the Werdlem Empire was only a ’chance’ to control the Echo someday. There were absolutely no guarantees that we would ever succeed, even if the Arbiter hadn’t appeared."

Soza looked directly at Rean. "In a certain way, having you gain proper control over it and then choosing to help us might very well be the best outcome we could have hoped for."

Rean couldn’t help but mentally sigh.

The truth was that the twins’ group had already considered exactly what the envoy suggested.

—

Two days earlier, Kentucky had been the one to bring up the idea.

The location where a cultivator appeared in the Celestial Plane was determined by the location from which they ascended from their Great Void. That wasn’t a secret to anyone who possessed the ability to travel between the Great Void and the Celestial Plane.

If that was the case, why couldn’t the twins’ group simply travel somewhere closer to the Werdlem Empire before ascending again?

The twins’ group had even tried it. Or rather, Rean had tried it, since there was no reason for all four of them to waste time on an experiment that might fail.

Instead of using the Orb System to teleport directly back to the Besgol Region, Rean attempted to ascend normally from the Vinx Great Void but from another location.

It failed miserably.

One of the fundamental aspects of Ascension, and a very important part of the process, was that the Great Void itself rejected the cultivator. The process was somewhat similar to the rejection Low-Ranked Universes had toward Celestial Realm Experts. Normally, a cultivator trying to ascend was essentially being pushed out of the Great Void and into the Celestial Plane.

But what happened when the twins’ group tried?

Nothing!

There was no rejection whatsoever!

The twins’ group were the owners of the Vinx Great Void. The Great Void accepted them completely. In fact, they couldn’t even force it to reject them.

And because of that, one of the necessary processes that culminated in Ascension simply couldn’t happen.

Thus, their idea of traveling around Vinx and ascending from different locations had been completely shut down. They couldn’t choose where to ascend. They could only return to the same place where they had left their Spatial Entrances behind. And, at the moment, that place was the Besgol Region.

—

Back in the present, Rean smiled and politely refused the offer.

"I’m genuinely interested in what you’re offering, but I have to refuse. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t meet again in the future in the Celestial Plane. By the way, where exactly is the Werdlem Empire located up there? We could at least exchange information."

This was another possibility the twins’ group had recently realized they could exploit. Since they could freely travel between the Celestial Plane and the Great Void, why not use that ability to gather information from other powers about their respective regions?

They could potentially acquire knowledge far more advanced than anything currently available to them in the Besgol Region.

Unfortunately, the Werdlem Empire’s answer immediately dashed those hopes.

"Sorry, but that can’t happen." Soza shook his head. "Not only us. No one here in the Great Void will share that kind of information with you, even if you threaten them with your power."

Rean’s expression became confused. "This... why?"

"There are many reasons," Soza explained, "but the main one is definitely that doing so could endanger their own status back in the Celestial Plane."

"Say what?" Rean became even more confused. "How does that work? It’s just information."

Soza didn’t seem interested in elaborating. "It matters not. As for the reason... let’s just say that you already know enough about it."

Rean stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what he meant. Then a thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Arbiters?"

Soza neither confirmed nor denied it.

He simply remained silent.

The other envoys from the Werdlem Empire did the same.

That was all the confirmation Rean needed.

From the looks of it, using one’s Great Void to exchange information between different regions of the Celestial Plane was a major taboo. Apparently, there were rules surrounding what information could be passed between the different regions, and the Arbiters had something to do with enforcing them.

"How would they even know we shared anything?" Rean asked. "We could simply use Celestial Sense to speak with each other."

The twins’ group had already received quite a lot of information about the Celestial Plane from the Primordial Demon Beasts. Default, in particular, had told them many things. Could it be that even the Primordial Demon Beasts were technically breaking some kind of rule whenever they spoke with the twins’ group?

Rean found that possibility rather interesting.

"That," Soza replied, "you will have to find them and ask."

He was clearly adamant about not sharing anything else regarding the matter.

Rean nodded slowly. "No wonder you never mentioned where your Empire was located while we were talking before. You always spoke about your home up there in a general manner, never saying anything specific."

He smiled. "So be it. Seems like I’ll have to find Victor myself and ask him."