by <unknown>
"Excellent. From this moment on, we will all be fellow Cultivators in the cause of reform!"
His hands in his back, Lei Chenghu stood majestically like a pillar that supported the sky. He declared resolutely, "The Imperium's life and our future will depend on our attempt. So, there is no need to reserve anything now. Allocate all the assets, ammunition, and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, and ask your captains to inculcate the ideas of renewing the Imperium into every soldier at the bottom level!"
"Commander—"
Wei Guanghui, commander of the Red Nimbus Fleet, hesitated for a moment and said, "Our fuel, ammunition, and resources for the training of all the Immortal Cultivators can only support one month at best. If we are engaged in a fierce battle, they will probably run out in three days to one week. It is definitely impossible for us to conquer the capital in one week with our forces. What are we going to do next?"
"You don't need to worry about that. I am certain of our final victory."
Lei Chenghu said casually, "I assure you that inexhaustible resources will be awaiting everyone in one week. Now, let's take action!"
A military order was certainly not something to be questioned. Now that the sword had been unsheathed, it would not be sheathed until it had drunk enough blood. The warlords and the fleet commanders, without further ado, ended the communication and began their preparations busily.
The space jump units of the starships were tested and charged with energy again to ensure that the soul-stirring jump could be performed in a few hours.
The warehouses of crystals and arsenals were opened, and the glittering crystals and blades were all distributed, even to the hands of the most humble hominoid soldiers.
The barges of the Astounding Thunder Fleet delivered abundant armbands to the branch fleets. The commanders of all levels in the branch fleets tore off their armbands of the expedition army and put on the new armband of the reformists.
For the common soldiers, they did not have enough armbands to replace the old ones. So, they simply threw away the armbands of the expedition army, wrote "Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions" on a piece of white cloth with blood, and tied it around their foreheads, which looked rather serious and intimidating.
On the flagships from the remote worlds of the Imperium, the leaders were speaking to all the soldiers, especially the younger ones at the bottom level, to encourage them.
On the flagship of the Red Nimbus Fleet…
"Our country has been reduced to such a condition, and our people are in such misery that they are all being suffocated. Your families are suffering the same, right?
"Our factories have been crushed and corrupted by the nobles' capitals from the center of the cosmos! Our farmlands are growing the crops from the center of the cosmos, which have stolen all the living space of the local crops savagely. There is not a single seed that is aboriginal to the Red Nimbus Sector anymore!
"The spiritual puppets from the center of the cosmos that are said to be advanced are also walking in the factories and farmlands of the Red Nimbus Sector blatantly, robbing us of our jobs brutally and shamelessly!
"The proud workers and farmers of the Red Nimbus Sector could stand straight and make a living for their families with their hands and sweat in the past. But right now, they cannot even get the most humble job, and they can only degenerate into beggars, rascals, and prostitutes without dignities!
"Even the Immortal Cultivators whose spiritual roots have been awakened, in order to get the tiniest training resources, have to swallow their discontent and bent their knees as muscles and lackeys for the magnates!
"Tell me, have you not suffered enough such days? Can you take it anymore?"
On the flagship of the Giant Whale Fleet…
"On the Battle Line of Ghosts' Fury—the gory battlefield that swallowed three fleets, ten thousand starships, and millions of soldiers in only half a month—the warriors of the Giant Whale Sector pushed forward in no fear of sacrifices like moths darting at flames. On the dead bodies of our compatriots, we fought against the Covenant Alliance one bone after another and pressed the charge inch by inch. Eventually, we secured a great triumph!
"However, in the rear, at our hometown, our parents are crying in the middle of the night because of hunger, our children can barely stand on their feet because of the lack of food, and our sisters and wives have to sell their bodies and force their smiles to the nobles and magnates from the center of the cosmos, to be played by them flagrantly!
"Even so, even though we have demeaned ourselves to such an extent, we have still been betrayed, and we are about to be kicked away now that our values are fully exploited!
"Who is our real enemy exactly? Warriors of the Giant Whale Sector, loyal sons, husbands, and brothers of their suffering families in the hometown, open your eyes and see for yourself!"
On the flagship of the Bloody Fire Fleet…
"His Majesty will never bear to watch us suffer like this. This is absolutely not the intention of His Majesty. It is all done by the privileged lords and the corrupted officials next to His Majesty!
"Those villains tricked His Majesty, stole the power of the Imperium, and did all the evil things. They are the traitors of the Imperium, the worms of the civilization of mankind. His Majesty has had enough of their blatant lawlessness too!
"Right now, a secret decree has been brought by His Majesty's envoy, ordering us to rise, remove the traitors, and renew the Imperium!
"It is the responsibility of us soldiers to die for the cause to cleanse the universe and let it re-embrace justice!"
On the flagship of the Green Frost Fleet…
"Not just His Majesty, most of the elders in the Council of Elders are supportive of our righteous action too. The citizens in the capital of all classes are also waiting for our army to enter the capital and make things right again!
"The group of villains who have been corrupted by the extraterrestrial devils is the only people who are scared of our thunderous march!
"Therefore, as long as our fleet appears at the periphery of the capital, the ambitions and schemes of the tiny group of enemies will be crushed unstoppably.
"Summon your courage and bring out the glory of the soldiers of the Imperium. March, charge, and fight. The victory will be ours. The victory will be His Majesty's. The victory will be the Imperium's!"
Countless starships, Immortal Cultivators, and soldiers of the Imperium stood like a dense forest made of iron.
At this moment, the iron forest was already set on fire.
On Iron Torrent, the flagship-general of the coalition fleet, the final battle preparations were being conducted busily too.
Above the grid command system made of ten connected super crystal processors, the names, numbers, and specifications of the starships popped up on the glittering light beam one after another.
Those starships had been connected into the anti-interference local area network of the coalition fleet as part of the "battle net". Then, by the high-speed exchange of information between the soul and the crystal processors, they became tiny cells on Lei Chenghu's body.
Lei Chenghu stared at all the appearing starships without blinking. With the massive computational ability of the Divinity Transformation Stage, he melted himself in the data chain and the computation array of the mainframe crystal processors, allowing the thousands of thoughts in his head to be transmitted to every starship instantly.
In such a way, the hundreds of starships from dozens of different branch fleets were mobilized by him as if they were his arms and fingers. Like ants and bees, they were moved and regrouped in an orderly fashion.
It was an enjoyment to watch Lei Chenghu organize the troops.
Standing behind Lei Chenghu, Li Yao hesitated.
"Is there a problem?"
Without looking back, Lei Chenghu asked casually.
"Nothing in particular. I'm just wondering…"
Li Yao couldn't hold it back anymore and aske
d it out straightforwardly, "There was not a single guy from the four Kurfürst families on the target starship that was destroyed by the collective bombardment, was there?"
Lei Chenghu was silent for a moment while he gave orders smoothly without any stop. Not giving a direct reply, he said, "The Imperium is too seriously sick right now, and this is not the best opportunity for a great surgery. If possible, I still hope that less blood can be shed to make the Council of Elders change their mind.
"This is not a concession. I'm just trying to… preserve as much strength for the Imperium as possible."
"Got it."
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao asked again, "There's one other thing that I'm very curious about. The Star Ocean Imperium was destroyed by the extraterrestrial devils ten thousand years ago. By logic, the extraterrestrial devils must've been very powerful. But why did they never cause too much trouble in the recent ten thousand years?
"This time, the queen and you are using the extraterrestrial devils as your disguises again, but has it ever occurred to you that the extraterrestrial devils might be really lurking in the Imperium waiting for a good opportunity to instigate chaos again? Are you not concerned about that at all?"
Li Yao was still ill at ease about the extraterrestrial devils, because the Star Glory Federation was almost destroyed by the extraterrestrial devils when the Black Wind Fleet attacked.
The extraterrestrial devil that possessed Lu Qingchen, on the other hand, was not necessarily eradicated but very likely had fled all the way to the center of the cosmos.
"I have been fighting in space for two hundred years, and I've encountered all kinds of ferocious enemies: the extraterrestrial devils, the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, and all kinds of bizarre alien species."
Lei Chenghu said slowly, "However, faced with the real dangers, none of those enemies are worth mentioning at all. There is nothing to be worried about."
Li Yao frowned. "More dangerous than the extraterrestrial devils? What is it exactly?"
"Mankind. Ourselves."
Lei Chenghu said, "Faced with the puppets of the Covenant Alliance, the accomplices of the extraterrestrial devils, or even the gods themselves, I have never been afraid. Only when I am faced with human beings, as well as myself, will I feel the chill deep down to the bones."
Li Yao was stunned and did not know what to say.
"Alright, Envoy Li."
Lei Chenghu sighed and finally turned around. There was no determination and excitement on his face now that a great war was about to begin, only unquenchable exhaustion. He patted Li Yao's shoulder and said, "The coalition fleet has been gathered. Prepare for the battle!"
Chapter 2247: Reactions of the Capital |
The capital in the Empyreal Terminus Sector was the greatest and most glorious place of all time, the heart of the civilization of mankind, and the center of the cosmos.
Ever since the Demon Beast Dynasty reigned the universe, all the united universal countries had regarded the Empyreal Terminus Sector as the center of their government.
The Demon Beast Dynasty, the Star Ocean Imperium, the Star Ocean Republic, and the Imperium of True Human Beings—None of them was an exception.
Any schemer who was ambitious enough to control all the stars in the universe would consider the Empyreal Terminus Sector as an ultimate goal that they had to conquer too.
The Empyreal Terminus Sector was not a particularly prosperous world hundreds of thousands of years ago.
In terms of the location in the three-dimensional universe, it was not exactly at the very center of the cosmos where the stars were densest either.
However, the three-dimensional space in this particular world boasted very mysterious features. Folds, gaps, and stable wormholes were all over the void in the place.
From the four-dimensional perspective, the travelers from other worlds could jump to the Empyreal Terminus Sector with the minimal consumption of energy, and people of the Empyreal Terminus Sector could also leave for any part of the universe easily through the ubiquitous folds of space.
Such a feature made the Empyreal Terminus Sector an intersection of all the worlds in the entire universe and a location of strategic importance that all the generals fought over. It was also why every united country chose the place as the capital.
For the people who jumped to the Empyreal Terminus Sector through a wormhole for the first time, they were often shocked by the texture of the world that was as cold as metals.
In the past forty thousand years, from the Demon Beast Dynasty to the Imperium of True Human Beings, the metals and minerals of hundreds of worlds under the control of mankind had been shipped to the Empyreal Terminus Sector incessantly to perform high modifications on the main planet of the Sector, gradually transforming the planet into an indestructible iron fortress.
It was the highest symbol of mankind's modification on the universe at their own will.
When travelers entered the atmosphere from the port at the peripheral orbit of the planet on the sightseeing vertical platform, they would see the continuous, crowded metal buildings shining under the sunlight. All the architecture demonstrated the ambitions, desires, and recklessness with their most bizarre shapes and most glamorous colors.
Except for the royal palace and the manors of some nobles, little green could be found in the capital. However, the air circulated tubes that were everywhere were releasing fresh air that contained all kinds of microelements that were beneficial for the physical and mental health so that the hundred billion people living on the planet like bugs would not go mad from suffocation.
The travelers who visited the capital for the first time, after being shocked by the metal buildings—some like lions, some like giant eggs, some like fiends, and some even like short pants—would immediately be awed by the second splendor, which was the gaps on the ground that were tens of thousands of meters deep into the ground. They were like enormous gorges that connected each other and scarred the land.
Legends had it that at the last years of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago, the Supreme Emperor and the Mad Armageddon had such a world-blighting battle on the main planet of the Empyreal Terminus Sector that even the planet was blown up into halves by their unbelievable strength.
That, of course, was just a tale. However strong a human being might be, it was impossible to blow up an enormous planet, which would have violated the conservation of spiritual energy.
But it was an undeniable fact that the crust of the planet was riddled with holes and the seismic areas, which had long hibernated, were activated, resulting in violent changes in the tectonic plates that ripped the interconnected gaps. Perhaps… it was the limit of mankind's combat ability.
In the ten thousand years after the Star Ocean Imperium's destruction, the lucky survivors repaired the broken planet carefully and arduously.
They discovered, to their surprise, the mother lodes hidden deep inside the gaps and the enormous geothermal energy contained in the underground magma. So, they simply established vast underground cities in the gaps thousands of meters deep that were blown out by the Supreme Emperor and the Mad Armageddon. Living and thriving in those places, they expanded the living space of the capital by multiple times.
Naturally, the noble families would never live below the ground, where it was dark, soggy, and hot. With the sea level of the capital as a baseline, it was a distinctive distribution graph of the social classes of the Imperium of True Human Beings from thousands of meters into the ground all the way upward.
The hominoids and the slave workers at the bottom level all lived tens of thousands of meters into the ground, making their living by operating the geothermal factories and providing energy for the entire planet. Several thousand meters into the ground, it was the residence of the miners and purification workers, and there were also farmlands where the underground crops were grown. On the ground lived tremendous low-level Immortal Cultivators and part of the wealthy hominoids. Those hominoids ofte
n had blood connections with the Immortal Cultivators and were privileged to see the sunlight of the capital only because of the protection of the Immortal Cultivators. They were on the highest floor of the pyramid of the hominoid class. They were also responsible for businesses in the capital.
As for the noble families and the magnates, they mostly lived on the twelve satellites of the Empyreal Terminus. Except for the two natural satellites, the other ten were all artificial super space stations. It was said that the most beautiful, extravagant paradises on earth were inside them.
In the thousand years since the Imperium of True Human Beings was established, the capital had been run in such a hierarchical but orderly mode.
It was a shame that as the rules of Immortal Cultivators set up by Blackstar the Great gradually collapsed and the Imperium set off to sunset, the capital had slowly lost the glory of the past too.
As more and more worlds were merged into the Imperium, the Imperium grew simply too huge. As the heart of the Imperium, the Empyreal Terminus Sector was bloated too.
In only the past five hundred years, the population of the capital had been increased by ten times. Also, in order to maintain the governance that was getting more and more chaotic and complicated, the bureaus and the offices of the local worlds in the capital were expanding ten times faster than the growth of the population. The resources of the Imperial Terminus Sector themselves were far from enough to support such a gigantic population and the consumption of the daily training of so many Immortal Cultivators. The ecological chain was on the verge of collapse every year. As a result, the capital had to count on the blood transmission from the neighboring worlds.
When the total population of the Empyreal Terminus Sector surpassed eighty billion according to the official census, the residents of other worlds were strictly forbidden to enter the capital randomly. Not just the hominoids, even the Immortal Cultivators in the Refinement Stage would find it barely possible to apply for a permanent residence certificate in the capital.
