The Last Sentinel

He does not mean that.

For Li Jing, selling intelligence to Liu Sheng was purely to settle his debts.

The account books of Chentang Pass were piled up longer than Nezha's magic ribbon, and every stroke was like a needle, making it hard for him, the head of a family of immortal waste, to sleep every night.

For Li Jing—since the intelligence has already been sold, there are always tall people to hold up the sky if things fall apart.

For Liu Sheng, this intelligence was no less than a hundred-ton king running into Ye Feng. The goddess of fate had finally smiled upon me, Liu Sheng. I can be considered a person favored by heaven. I, Liu Sheng, have finally made it through!

He abruptly stood up from behind the wooden desk, the hem of his dark Zhongshan suit billowing in the wind. The crystal workbench on the desk hummed, and the light membrane swayed. He clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking, and for the first time, an almost ferocious excitement appeared on his refined face. The layer of restrained mist in his eyes was burned away, leaving only a surging, burning ambition.

As an intelligence broker who travels through the thirty-three heavens and myriad worlds, and a political intermediary who deals with all sorts of monsters and demons, Liu Sheng's sensitivity has always been at its peak, especially regarding information related to Ye Feng, which he is extremely concerned about.

This intense concern stems from two points.

Firstly, Ye Feng himself is a hot topic, has enough buzz, and commands a high price. Information about Ye Feng has always been among the most valuable first-batch items in the entire universe!

Secondly, Liu Sheng himself has a secret: he is not a native of the myriad worlds, but a mixed-race person.

This secret caused Liu Sheng great pain. He lowered his eyes, his fingers unconsciously stroking the buttons on his cuffs, his fingertips brushing against the cold silk as if caressing a scar that would never heal.

With his awareness, insight, patience, and observation skills, not to mention powerful immortal clans, even if he joined a declining immortal clan like Li Jing of Chentang Pass, Liu Sheng could quickly rise to prominence and revitalize Chentang Pass.

However, Liu Sheng did not have this opportunity, even though his mother was the Holy Maiden of the Nuwa Academy of the Myriad Realms.

Because Liu Sheng's father is named Yun Tianming.

Liu Sheng's real name should be Yun Sheng.

Yun Tianming is a taboo in all the heavens and myriad realms, and no one dares to mention this name. Liu Sheng could only take his mother's surname and change his name to Liu Sheng.

If the heavens and the myriad worlds cannot accept me, Liu Sheng, then I will go back to my home planet, Blue Star!

"I knew it! The Sentinels that the previous generation of Sentinels painstakingly trained couldn't possibly perish so easily in the river of time!"

"Look, it's out!"

"Hahaha!"

He threw his head back and laughed loudly. The laughter echoed in the secret chamber, hitting the warm stone walls and bouncing back. Mixed with the buzzing sound of the flowing light membrane, it had a touch of madness.

In the dimly lit secret room, the stone walls were polished to a smooth, warm finish, and bronze-colored metal pipes meandered like veins into the cracks of the stone walls.

Several semi-transparent light membranes floated above the wall, swirling with a pale blue glow. Countless text files and star map coordinates scrolled rapidly, and portraits of people appeared one after another, their eyebrows, eyes, and expressions clearly discernible, with their identities, power levels, and risk ratings marked on the sides.

The interior is simply furnished, with an old wooden table paired with a crystal workbench that gleams with a cool light. There is no noise, only the faint hum of data flowing through the room.

At the head of the room stood a middle-aged man dressed in a dark Zhongshan suit. He had a refined face, with a few strands of gray hair at his temples. His demeanor was elegant and serene, appearing gentle and harmless, yet his eyes held a deep composure born of experience.

Liu Sheng's fingers were long and slender with distinct knuckles. He twirled a card in his hand, on which was the image of the Seven Deadly Sins, specifically the sin of greed.

Then, Liu Sheng flicked his right hand, conjuring up the cards for the Sin of Pride and the Demonic Calamity. He placed the two cards side-by-side in his palm. Looking down at them, a meaningful smile played on his lips as he muttered to himself, "Greed wants to kill Pride!"

"This is not a simple power struggle, but a major purge within the Heavenly Court!"

He slammed the two cards onto the wooden table, making a crisp sound, and the light membrane on the crystal workbench flashed.

"After the destruction of the ancient Heavenly Court, it was fragmented. Although a single deity temporarily suppressed the controversy and bestowed immortal positions through his powerful individual strength, this also resulted in numerous factions within the Heavenly Court, including ancient clans, old clans, new factions, conservatives, radicals, those who remained passive, and opportunists."

As he spoke, he lightly tapped the control panel with his finger, and an intricate relationship diagram immediately appeared on the light film, with intersecting lines like an impenetrable net.

"The young master's greed is the representative of geniuses promoted by the old school."

"The arrogant young master is a representative of the new school of geniuses."

In terms of strength, greed clearly outweighs arrogance.

"In terms of potential, Pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. Its suppression is purely due to the drag from the useless new faction behind it. The new faction didn't believe in Mo Lijie and foolishly tried to cultivate his junior brother, Zhao. Unfortunately, Zhao was ultimately killed by Pride! Only then did Pride take over the new faction's power, and now it can challenge Greed."

When Liu Sheng mentioned that Zhao had been killed by arrogance, his fingertips paused slightly on the control panel, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes. He was all too familiar with this kind of fratricide; it happened every day in the myriad realms, only on different scales.

"That greedy fellow isn't easy to deal with either. He knew very well that Mo Lijie killed his own junior brother to gather power, so the old faction began to contact Ye Feng."

At this point, the image on the screen in front of Liu Sheng blurred, and a photo of the two looking at each other appeared on the screen.

The scene on the screen was none other than the Immortal Palace of Hanabi, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

There are three people in the picture: one is the original sin of greed, one is Hua Xiaobai, and one is a lazy, lazy young man.

Liu Sheng looked at the slacking young man, his eyebrows relaxed, his body leaned forward slightly, and the tip of his nose almost touched the light membrane. His pupils suddenly contracted, then slowly dilated, like a sophisticated instrument operating at high speed, dissecting, analyzing, and comparing every detail in the scene.

"I've been wondering who this person is! Why does he look so familiar, but I don't know his identity? Today, thanks to Li Jing's information, I finally understand. This person is Ye Feng! However, not Ye Feng's strongest self, but one of Ye Feng's alternate selves, the alternate selves he played when he was slacking off in the internet cafe!"

He straightened up, clenched his right fist, and gently tapped his left palm, producing a muffled thud.

"So, the truth of this whole situation isn't that arrogance pulled Ye Feng into it, but rather that greed and Ye Feng set a trap for arrogance."

As he spoke, Liu Sheng's eyes shone brighter and brighter, like two red-hot charcoal embers burning two scorching holes in his refined face.

He licked his slightly dry lips, his voice low but filled with barely suppressed excitement:

"Of course, there's also the possibility that Ye Feng set them up in a trap, that Boss Ye wants a double kill!"

"Since that's the case, if I want to help Boss Ye, I have to do things according to his wishes."

He sat back down at the wooden table, placed his hands on the table, and tapped the surface lightly with his fingertips, making a rhythmic tapping sound, like he was beating a drum, or like he was counting down.

"Did Boss Ye lure them into the dimensional battlefield just to kill them?"

"It shouldn't just be like that; he wants to draw the attention of all the realms to the dimensional battlefield."

"Boss Ye has drawn all attention to the dimensional battlefield, but what are his actual tactics?"

Liu Sheng frowned, his eyes slightly closed, and his fingers gently twirled the three cards in his hand: Ye Feng, Greed, and Pride. The three cards spun between his fingers, emitting a soft grinding sound, like three gears of fate meshing.

The hourglass on the table dripped slowly, the fine sand passing through the narrow neck with a soft rustling sound, each grain of sand like a passing moment in time. The light in the sealed room seemed to dim as the sand flowed, while the dark red glow from the bronze pipes grew brighter, as if something was awakening.

Liu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils flashing with a sharp light. He slammed his hand on the wooden table, causing the celadon teacup on the table to shake. A few drops of the cooled tea splashed out and landed on the table, spreading into a small dark water stain.

"I understand!"

"A feint to the east while attacking in the west!"

"Openly repair the plank road!"

"A covert maneuver!"

His voice grew louder and louder until it was almost a shout, the echoes reverberating through the secret room for a long time.

"Ye Feng's true goal is to invade all the myriad worlds!"

"He wants to focus all his attention on the dimensional battlefield, and then expand the battle with the two prodigies to lure more experts from all the realms to the dimensional battlefield for one-on-one duels. In this way, without experts guarding the void, and with the Flower Fruit Mountain battlefield drawing a large amount of firepower, the defenses of all the realms will become a joke!"

"At this moment, Ye Feng launched his invasion, coupled with the inside-outside cooperation of the powerful figures from the myriad realms!"

"Thirty-three days is going to suffer a huge loss! It would be unacceptable if they didn't lose at least two or three days!"

Beads of cold sweat trickled down Liu Sheng's forehead, sliding down his handsome face and staining the collar of his dark Zhongshan suit, leaving a small dark patch. His eyes became unfocused, and his fingers gripping the cards trembled slightly—not from fear, but from the physiological tremor of extreme excitement. He took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently, like a drowning man finally surfacing.

"This Boss Ye has an insatiable appetite! All those big shots from the myriad realms were hesitant to make a move before, apparently waiting for this moment!"

"But, Boss Ye, do you think the Heavenly Court can't think of what you can think of?"

He frowned, his fingertips tracing the edge of the card back and forth, his brow furrowing into a knot.

"I estimate that the Heavenly Court will soon seal off Greed and Pride's plans to go to the dimensional battlefield, and also seal off your plans to expand the war."

At this point, a red light appeared above Liu Sheng's head, and a system AI notification sounded. The red light wasn't dazzling, but it carried a cold, mechanical feel. It shone on his face, staining half of it blood red, while the other half remained hidden in shadow, the interplay of light and shadow making it difficult to see clearly.

"Valid intelligence, [Heavenly Court Daily Brief] The Heavenly Court's Internal Affairs Steward announced at a press conference that the Seven Prodigies have entered seclusion today in preparation for the next Millennium Chosen One War and will no longer undertake any missions."

Liu Sheng looked at the intelligence report, paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, laughing so hard he almost cried. He shook his head as he laughed, pointing at the words "Seclusion" on the light membrane as if he were watching a huge joke.

"Just as I thought, the Heavenly Court is really something else. The two of them entered the dimensional battlefield, and then the Seven Absolute Prodigies went into seclusion. It seems the other five went too!"

"However, you lousy intelligence department of Heaven can't outsmart me!"

He stopped laughing, his face instantly turning cold. His refined and detached demeanor vanished, replaced by a sharp, razor-sharp edge. He stood up, walked to the light barrier, put his hands behind his back, raised his chin slightly, and looked down at the words like an emperor scrutinizing his prey.

"You must keep this news a secret."

"I'll make sure this news spreads throughout the heavens!"

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable resolve; each word was like a nail driven into the stone wall of the secret chamber.

"Aren't you right, Father?"

Liu Sheng looked behind him and saw a dim ancient painting. The painting did not depict a person, but a brain, a healthy human brain.

Yun Tianming's brain.

Liu Sheng walked up to the ancient painting, his steps very light, as if afraid of disturbing the person in the painting.

He stretched out his hand, his fingertips hovering an inch in front of the screen, hesitating to bring it down.

His fingers were trembling, and the sharp light in his eyes had faded, replaced by a complex and indescribable emotion: longing, resentment, unwillingness, and even a trace of filial piety that he himself was unwilling to admit.

The paper of the ancient painting has yellowed and the edges are slightly curled. The outline of the brain is drawn with extremely fine brushstrokes, and every groove is clearly visible, as if it were alive.

In the lower right corner of the painting, there is a line of very small characters that are so blurred that they are almost illegible. Only the three characters "Yun Tianming" can be vaguely discerned.

In the Three-Body Era, after the aliens obtained Yun Tianming, they separated his brain from his body.

This was also the last time Liu Sheng saw his father's appearance.

He withdrew his hand, clenched it into a fist, and his nails dug deeply into his palm. He didn't turn around, but just stood there quietly, his back to all the light membranes and data streams in the secret room. His back looked particularly lonely and tall in the dim light.

The last grain of sand in the hourglass fell.

The secret room was completely silent.