by <unknown>
Li Linghai said coldly, "But it's a shame that there is no place for 'Kurfürst' in my vision!"
"Silver Fox" Li Jiande's lips trembled, and he was even more withered than before.
He was not really saying that to surrender. He did not even care too much about his own life anymore, and he was simply using it to test Blackstar the Great's attitude toward the entire Li family.
It seemed that Blackstar the Great did not intend to keep the four Kurfürst families at all, and they were destined to perish!
"You—"
Having ended up on bad terms, "Silver Fox" Li Jiande did not need to hide anything anymore. The wrinkles on his face immediately gathered into a hideous ghost face as he laughed crazily. "Whatever vision you may have, it won't work out! Even if you can eliminate the four Kurfürst families, so what? You will die eventually someday! After you die, the royal authority will still decline, and the local magnates will still rise! The future emperors will only be more and more idiotic and weak. Very soon, new 'Kurfürst families' will show up and destroy the Imperium that you have carefully constructed! You cannot defeat us. You cannot beat time and the entire universe!"
"You're wrong."
Li Linghai picked up Li Jiande and dragged him to her face before she said, one word after another, "Now that I have returned to the human world, I will not allow the Imperium to fall into somebody else's hands. From today on, I will be the Imperium. I will not age or die in the next ten thousand years, and the Imperium of True Human Beings will surpass the Star Ocean Imperium in the past and become the best regime of the civilization of mankind that unites the entire universe!"
"Not age or die in the next ten thousand years?"
"Silver Fox" Li Jiande trembled hard.
For some reason, he did not hear any insanity from Li Linghai's declaration but only solemnity and graveness, as if…
As if the ghost that should've been gone a thousand years had truly found a way to live for ten thousand years!
"You have missed the best opportunity to stop me."
Li Linghai squeezed Li Jiande's medical cabin and said casually, "But I'm rather curious about one thing. As 'Silver Fox', you are best known for your calculation and carefulness. But why are you unwise enough to get involved in the dangerous mission in person? With your identity and strength, shouldn't you be supervising the battle in the rear? In that case, you possibly could've realized the secrets of the underground palace and made corresponding remedies.
"But you have chosen to come here in person, not even resorting to a spiritual puppet with remote communication abilities or a hologram projector. Why?
"Give me an answer to solve my confusion, and I will spare a hundred lives of those from the Li family."
Li Jiande could've refused to answer the question.
After all, the distance between "Blackstar the Great" and "credibility" was as long as the distance between the Empyreal Terminus Sector and the edge of the cosmos.
However, in his sorrow and desperation, "Silver Fox" Li Jiande trembled for a long time but still said in remorse, "The arrest operation targeting Li Linghai was planned by me in person, but Li Linghai happened to be my biological granddaughter. The Yun family, the Song family, and the Dongfang family could not completely trust me, fearing that it was my scheme with Li Linghai and Dongfang Sheng to catch all of them.
"Therefore, they demanded me to arrive in person and command on the spot in order to trust my sincerity and send out the toughest warriors. I am… essentially their hostage!"
"That explains a lot."
Li Linghai couldn't help but burst into laughter, and the hundred metal tentacles around "Hellstar" trembled crazily at the same time. "'Silver Fox' Li Jiande, just ask yourself, do such 'four Kurfürst families', who are utterly disorganized and do not have the slightest mutual trust, not deserve to die?"
"… They do."
"Silver Fox" Li Jiande said in devastation, "They all deserve to die. None of them is wronged!"
"Then die now!"
The metal tentacles of "Hellstar" minced brutally. The medical cabin, together with "Silver Fox" Li Jiande inside, was immediately shattered and enshrouded in black flames as the background of "Hellstar".
"The Imperium that I have established through arduous work has been reduced to such poor conditions by the unworthy descendants. A thousand years can pass by easily, but the pain will stay forever!"
As the black flames fell down, high-pitched roars that completely did not sound like Li Linghai echoed from deep inside "Hellstar", "To clean up the broken realm from the beginning, Imperium, I have returned!"
Chapter 2325: Throne of Gods! |
Half an hour later, in the world fragment deep inside the underground palace…
The arrest team led by "Silver Fox" Li Jiande was not large in number. In order to keep it a secret, they did not even bring many crystal warships since they were hoping to take down Li Linghai with the four experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage and their Colossi neatly and quietly.
In the meantime, the Deep Sea Fleet was founded by Li Linghai in person after all, and most of the resources and even starships came from Li Linghai's supplies. Dongfang Sheng only equaled a senior manager. While he could control the critical posts temporarily with his trusted subordinates, it was certainly impossible for him to turn everybody in the fleet against Li Linghai.
Therefore, after Li Linghai got Dongfang Sheng, Li Jianyi, and Song Huanzhen under control, she immediately sent a message to the Deep Sea Fleet, which then took action and seized the entire royal palace tightly.
At this moment, the elite troops of the four Kurfürst families were either protecting the Council of Elders or capturing Di Feiwen above the Silver Moon Ocean. It meant that Li Linghai had a few hours of precious time to perform modifications on the three experts at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage so that they could unleash more magnificent forces!
The boundless black fog seemed to have consumed all creatures that were struggling in pain. From the darkness, the roars of Dongfang Sheng, Li Jianyi, and Song Huanzhen were coming over.
Their roars were extremely weird. They seemed both trapped in the most excruciating agony and moaning in the greatest ecstasy of the universe. It also sounded that they had retrograded from a highly-developed intelligent species into a primeval beast haunted by their natural instincts.
Surrounded by the roars of the three experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, Li Linghai stood alone on a highly-rising stone pillar in the dark abyss.
At first look, the gigantic pillar more than thirty meters in diameter seemed to be made of translucent obsidians. Rising from the core of the planet, it was emitting deep and mysterious colors even though it was in the middle of the black fog.
But one would only notice if they were to observe from up close, that the raw materials that constituted the gigantic pillar were exactly the bones of countless primeval beasts!
The primeval beasts, which were dozens of meters tall, had been squeezed together by uncanny, weird forces. After hundreds of thousands of years of corrosion and polishing, they had been refined into materials with a texture that resembled crystals.
Among them, some of the remains looked like humans, only significantly larger and melted with bizarre-shaped beasts. They should be the remains of the intelligent lives from the Pangu civilizations' alliance, or the primeval gods that the ignorant would kneel and worship when they saw them.
At this moment, countless primeval beasts and ancient gods were stomped on by Li Linghai's feet!
On the top of the gigantic stone pillar, the claws of the beasts and the arms of the gods were all raising high, as if they were drowning and extending their hands out of the surface of the water for help. The claws and the arms bound and twisted each other, forming a concavity that looked exactly like a throne!
Li Linghai, however, was not sitting on the throne. Instead, she was holding the handle of the throne, and her back was as hunched as
if she were a lobster. Her entire body was trembling hard. The look on her face was also more painful than ever.
From her eyes, her hair, and the black stripes on her fair skin, the thickest black fluids were leaking out and dripping to her feet into a pool of black water.
As the black fluids leaked out, Li Linghai's eyeballs and hair returned to the color of white that bordered on transparency, except that she looked much more lackluster and haggard than before, as if she were about to die.
Perhaps "Silver Fox" Li Jiande was not wrong. To be possessed by such an unparalleled expert like Blackstar the Great and to activate the strength that did not belong to herself indeed came with a terrible price. Li Linghai's vitality and brain seemed to have been entirely drained.
Shivering, she groped for a dosage of the dark red drug from her Cosmos Ring and injected it into her carotid artery. She took a few deep breaths, but she did it in such a haste that she was coughing aloud again until tears were running out, and she almost vomited out her internal organs. It was not until she coughed for more than half a minute that she was finally more or less back to herself.
The black water below her feet that was as thick as a swamp, however, were bubbling weirdly. In the next moment, a black phantom rose from the black water slowly. Higher and larger, it expanded into a shadow of a human more than three meters tall!
It was almost like Li Linghai's shadow had come to life and was staring at her coldly from her back.
Even though the shadow did not have any facial organs, Li Linghai still felt a pair of scorching eyes.
"Your body… is simply too weak."
A gloomy, heavy voice came from the shadow. "Because of your weakness, I was forced to play so many despicable tricks even though my foes were only in the Divinity Transformation Stage. I even had to make many promises to the insubordinate subjects in order to divide and conquer them. This is truly my greatest humiliation!"
Li Linghai recovered her sanity from her trance. She hurried to kneel on the ground. "Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"
The shadow did not reply to her but simply mumbled to himself, "'Silver Fox' Li Jiande, on the other hand, is truly a tough person. If he had reacted sooner, or if the four Kurfürst families had not demanded him to command on the spot, chances were that he would have won the competition by organizing everything from the rear!
"My strength has not been entirely recovered yet. This is not the best opportunity for me to surface. But after 'Silver Fox' Li Jiande's game, there is no choice but to take action right now!
"Thankfully, most of the plans have been accomplished. As the thousands of surplus generals and millions of disabled veterans cried before my statue day and night in the Emperor's Mausoleum, they had poured their spirits and beliefs into the array that I left a thousand years ago. My remaining soul is now completely unlocked and can be transferred into a new shell.
"Where is Li Jialing right now? I cannot stand hiding inside your weak shell anymore!"
Li Linghai trembled. After a long hesitation, she still said in a low voice, "He is in the Silver Ocean with Vulture Li Yao, participating in the operation to capture Dongfang Wang."
"Excellent!"
The shadow said casually, "By estimation, the battle to capture Dongfang Wang will be over soon. Summon them back now. Huh, no. Let's go there in person and prepare for the transference of the soul. Do not play any trick this time."
Li Linghai's voice was quivering even harder. "I do not have the courage for that."
"You do not?"
The morose voice from the shadow suddenly turned high as the shadow remotely grabbed Li Linghai by her throat and picked her up, demanding, "You do not have the courage for that? I hardly think so. You have the guts for everything!
"Decades ago, when you learned my plan, you were bold enough to try to destroy the life seed and stop me from obtaining the perfect carrier!
"After you discovered the existence of Li Jialing, you thought multiple times to send him away to the edge of the cosmos. When that did not work out, you then planned to kill him for good!
"Even right now, when I am hibernating, you have played a lot of tricks with that Vulture Li Yao, haven't you? Hehe. You thought that I had grown senile after sleeping a thousand years and that I did not know anything about your smart moves?
"Let me tell you, my lenience is limited. Do not be trapped by your own cleverness!"
The shadow tossed Li Linghai to the ground heavily. There was already a ring of black marks on Li Linghai's long neck, which was turning into black blisters at a visible speed, as if her entire neck had been corroded to the bones!
Li Linghai was both in agony and greatly scared, but another emotion that was even more intense finally defeated her pain and fear. Covering her neck, she moaned, "Your Majesty, why—why Li Jialing? He is not your descendant at all!"
"You know the answer!"
The shadow replied coldly, "Like I told you before, years ago, it was you and the guy from the Covenant Alliance who woke me up together. At the intersection of your fates and mine, two mysterious forces that you cannot understand yet found their way into the two of you.
"On your side, the force helped you break through the acupoints in your training, transforming you from a plain, mediocre Immortal Cultivator into an ultimate expert.
"On the guy from the Covenant Alliance's side, it helped him shatter the boundary of the Three Fundamental Laws, returning to him the feelings and the free will of a normal person.
"Therefore, the child of the two of you, who is the combination of your fates and your strengths, is the best carrier for me to return to the universe. He is my real blood descendant!
"As for the members of the royal family with the 'Wuying' surname, what kind of weak, unworthy, and ambitionless beings have they retrograded into after a thousand years? Look at the Imperial Guards, look at the pig-like Emperor Shenwu. How have my offspring been corrupted into this? Those worthless swine are absolutely useless. I only hate that I cannot slaughter all of them to save the precious resources that they are going to waste. Are they even qualified to accommodate my powerful soul?"
The shadow had truly burst into fury when he mentioned the royal family nowadays. When the black flames surged out, it was almost like thousands of sharp blades were about to be slashed at the members of the royal family.
"In the past decades, it's not like we did not try transferring my soul to other members of the royal family."
The shadow suddenly sneered, "Your two sons included. Didn't they die abruptly because my soul was too tough for them? Why, now that you have sacrificed two sons for me, what's the big deal to sacrifice one more?
"I know that those royal princes were born by you unwillingly with Emperor Shenwu. You hate Emperor Shenwu's guts, and naturally, you did not have any feelings for those royal princes.
"This Li Jialing, on the other hand, is the only child of you and the man you loved most. It is only natural that you find it hard to let go of him.
"But you'd better understand one thing. This is his destiny that he cannot escape from. Since he could even absorb the Imperial Fire Pearl perfectly, is it not the best sign that he would be the most perfect carrier for me?"
Chapter 2326: Fight For the Imperium For Another 100,000 Years! |
Lost for words, Li Linghai asked in a shivering voice, with the ripples of desperation spreading out of her eyes, "What… What about 'Vulture Li Yao'? He could absorb the strength in the Imperial Fire Pearl too. Although he was not as fast as Li Jialing, he was significantly better than the members of the royal family that had been tested before. It was indicative enough that he did not reject Your Majesty's strength.
"Besides, his level is higher than Li Jialing's, and he is already in the Divinity Transformation Stage. He must be strong enough to accommodate Your Majesty's powerful soul!"
"Vulture Li Yao is indeed a rather excellent carrier."
After a brief silence, the shadow said, "I don't think he lied
about being the foster son of the guy from the Covenant Alliance. After absorbing part of my strength, the guy from the Covenant Alliance escaped to the edge of the cosmos in a hurry and fostered a child. Then, perhaps the strength was delivered into his foster son's body by him without him knowing it, or his foster son absorbed it voluntarily.
"Therefore, this Vulture Li Yao is deeply associated with me too. His fate and mine are entwined too. It is not surprising that he could digest the strength in the Imperial Fire Pearl.
"However, since the man rose to a high place in the regime of the remaining rebellions of the Star Ocean Republic, he must've experienced a series of fortuitous events in the past, which filled his body with a myriad of uncanny forces. In my senses, his body is like a multicolored dye vat and not nearly as pure as Li Jialing's.
"Besides, after a hundred years of experiences, and since he used to be a powerful man in the past, his soul has already been fixed, and his beliefs will not be changed easily. There will be a lot of unnecessary risks if I am to invade and occupy his body.
"Furthermore, for those who have advanced into my level, we have a lot of mysterious visions and prophecies that you cannot understand. I have sensed that there are many secrets to this Vulture Li Yao, and I felt a cold warning that I must not try to possess the man whenever I studied the man's files. Otherwise, I might embrace my doom, and it would be very likely that I fail to possess him and he simply melts my remaining soul in the end.
"Therefore, I will not possess him in any case. I would rather beat this Vulture Li Yao into smithereens, even if it will be a great waste of his great body, than try to steal his brain!
"Naturally, the man's Cultivation and wisdom are among the best. His shameless character and his sordid combat style are also my favorites. If he can kneel before my feet genuinely, what's the harm of sparing his life? But if he doesn't, I'll have other ways to deal with him too. That shouldn't be your concern!"
"I know what to do."
