by <unknown>
Li Jialing was almost really crying when he grabbed Li Yao by his wrist and asked, "What do you mean by 'we better make thorough plans'?"
"I mean that we need to wing it. Let's just run away now. In any case, I do not want to confront the queen right now. Who knows whether or not an invisible old ghost is observing me malevolently behind her when I am bragging about myself in front of her? It is too creepy!"
Li Yao declared quickly, "Also, you must hide yourself, too! I have just analyzed the situation with Dongfang Mingyue just now. If your mother is truly haunted by Blackstar the Great, and Blackstar the Great is up to a certain world-shifting scheme, you must be the key to the scheme, and you are absolutely much more important than me.
"Therefore, you must not fall into the hands of the queen or Blackstar the Great. You are perhaps the only person that can help us reverse the situation!"
Chapter 2328: Good Brother, Let's Challenge Blackstar the Great! |
Every gold hair on Li Jialing's face and body was rising. Like the most delicate statue, he was dazed for a long time before he finally mumbled to himself, "The only person who can reverse the situation? I… am so important?"
"Definitely."
Li Yao said affirmatively, "Otherwise, how can you explain the queen's erratic attitudes toward you, and why did she offer such an ultimate treasure as 'Imperial Fire Pearl' for us to train with? Yes, I have scanned and experimented on the Imperial Fire Pearl many times, and it certainly does not have anything wrong. But it also has the feature of condensing and purifying the miscellaneous forces. Didn't you say that the forces inside your body were all melted after you absorbed the energy contained inside the Imperial Fire Pearl's energy crazily?
"If my guess is correct, it was some sort of… preparation that the queen, no, Blackstar the Great performed on you with the Imperial Fire Pearl. To put it more simply, it is just like you would have to make a pig grow fat first before you butcher it and enjoy the meat."
Li Jialing was almost crept out. He couldn't help but hold his arms and said, "Is my mother… the queen really cold enough for that?"
"Not exactly. Judging from her inconsistent behavior, it is obvious that she does not regard you as a pure tool or intentionally wants you dead."
Li Yao sighed. "However, if she is truly under the control of Wuying Qi, how can she defeat the thousand-year-old ghost?"
"Then… What about Brother Yao?"
Li Jialing thought carefully and immediately noticed something was wrong. "You swallowed the strength of the Imperial Fire Pearl too. Also, your share of the Imperial Fire Pearl is even larger. Why aren't you the key to the whole scheme?"
"The queen only gave the Imperial Fire Pearl to me because she could not give it directly to you without a good reason. Even if she did, you might not know how to digest and absorb the strength inside the Imperial Fire Pearl. That was why she gave it to me and used me as a disguise."
Li Yao's head was very clear, as if the brain cells and computational ability that he had saved before were all for this moment. "I cannot be the key to the whole scheme, because my arrival was purely an accident, but the scheme began at least decades ago when the queen established the Deep Sea Fleet. However high Blackstar the Great's computational ability is, it is impossible that he foresaw my arrival decades ago, isn't it?
"Therefore, when we inferred the whole scheme, we must completely rule out the 'unexpected factor' that is me and consider what would've happened if I were never here.
"Then, it is very simple. Without me, 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' wouldn't have collapsed, but the assault of 'Starlight' and the association of Cultivators would have still taken place on time. The battle of the two parties would still have happened, and it's very possible that the queen would've snuck into the City in the Sky and taken you away.
"I estimate that her original purpose wasn't to kill you. Well, I mean, Blackstar the Great's plan was certainly not to kill you but to capture and build you into a certain… artifact, device, or maybe carrier. In any case, you would've certainly endured insufferable torture.
"With that in mind, Li Lingfeng's speculation at the beginning was obviously wrong.
"Think about it. According to Li Lingfeng, the queen's reason to kill you was that your existence would expose one of her relationships a long time ago, which would lead to severe consequences. He intended to coerce the queen with the 'scandal'.
"However, if the queen was really backed by Blackstar the Great, why on earth would she have been stopped by Li Lingfeng? If she really wanted you dead, Blackstar the Great could've taken action in person. Was Li Lingfeng strong enough to resist him?
"That's why I argue that Blackstar the Great does not want to kill you.
"In the meantime, if the queen had been under the control of Blackstar the Great, and she was not a woman who was lustful for power and scared of scandals but one who loved my foster father and your birth father, there would've been no motivation for her to kill you either. The only reasonable explanation was that she knew that you would suffer the most excruciating suffering had you fallen into Blackstar the Great's hands before your unavoidable death, which she could not stop. So, she only wanted to give you a quick and clean death!"
Li Jialing almost passed out in shock.
Li Yao spoke faster and faster. "We know now the powerful counterattacks of the reformists after the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance were all carefully arranged beforehand. In other words, the whole scheme had all been set before the queen left the capital for the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
"At such a critical moment, not commanding in the Deep Sea Palace, not fomenting trouble in the frontline, the queen went all the way to the Martial Meritocrats Sector to look for you, didn't she? Even if she were determined to kill you, she did not need to do it in such a hurry, right? After all, Li Lingfeng and she hadn't ended up on bad terms yet. Couldn't she just wait for another couple of years?
"All the evidence suggests that you must be the most crucial part of the whole scheme, so crucial that the queen—or Blackstar the Great—had to drop all the work at hand and find you first!"
After a long silence, Li Jialing struggled to say with an almost suffocated voice. "Fine. If everything Brother Yao said is true, what are we going to do right now?"
Long Yangjun had been listening to Li Yao's analysis in silence the whole time. It was not until this moment that she chuckled and said casually, "Very simple. Since you are the key to the whole event, and Blackstar the Great cannot activate his scheme without you, I can just kill you right now and burn you up completely, ensuring that not any part of your soul and not a single cell will be left for Blackstar the Great. Isn't that the perfect solution?"
"What?!"
Greatly alarmed, Li Jialing hurried to hide behind Li Yao out of natural instincts, before he looked at the mysterious "Sister Mingyue" in a cold sweat.
He could tell that… she was not entirely joking!
"Hey, don't be too outrageous. If I allow that, what kind of Cultivator would I be?"
Li Yao glared at Long Yangjun. "Also, it will be absolutely useless to simply kill Li Jialing. Our enemies include not just one Blackstar the Great but also the Alliance of the Holy Covenant which is coveting in space. We do not know Blackstar the Great's real scheme yet. Assuming that something about Li Jialing goes wrong, who knows whether or not the thousand-year-old ghost would go mad because of the debacle and drag the entire Imperium to die with him?
"If Blackstar the Great turns the Imperium into a mess and the army of the Covenant Alliance marches in, even 'Vulture Li Yao' with my Colossus might not be able to resist them!"
"Not 'might not', but 'certainly can't'."
Long Yangjun yawned and said casually, "That's why I was patient enough to listen to you for such a long time instead of killing this little brat the moment I see him. I've shown enough respect for you, right?"
"Brother Yao."
Li Jialing jostled Li Yao's back and said, "Is
this… Sister Dongfang Mingyue really suppressed by you? Why am I under the impression that the truth should be the opposite, and you've been suppressed by her?"
Li Yao blushed. "What are you talking about? It is I who suppressed her, of course. She is only so cold because I hurt her pride during my suppression!
"But don't be nervous. She is rather kind despite her nasty mouth. She seems to have a secret base in the capital. Let's hide there for a while, figure out the situation, and contact the righteous men out there before we take any action."
"The righteous men out there?"
Li Jialing's eyes shone brightly. "For example, General Lei Chenghu?"
"Well, maybe somebody else."
Li Yao smiled bitterly. Lei Chenghu was Blackstar the Great's zealous admirer. During their conversation in the Emperor's Mausoleum last time, the man even mentioned that he wanted Blackstar the Great to be reborn and clean up all the filth in the Imperium. If Lei Chenghu learned the truth, he would possibly waste no time arriving at the capital to pledge allegiance to Blackstar the Great as his vanguard. How could Li Yao go to Lei Chenghu?
However, of the influential fleet commanders in the Imperium, Li Yao happened to know a certain someone who was his "best friend". It was said that the guy's carrier was soaring at the borderland of the Imperium. Last time, Li Yao even asked Han Te, Liu Li, the Fist King, the warriors from the Land of Sins, and the Cultivators of Starlight to join him. It never occurred to Li Yao that he would be asking for the guy's help in person so shortly.
Boss Bai, we've known each other for more than a hundred years. Even if you are busy enjoying your life right now, you cannot turn a blind eye to an old friend, can you?
Li Yao mumbled to himself, Also, if Blackstar the Great really controls the power of the Imperium again, it will be no good for your "Big Bai Space Pirate Gang". An Imperium of iron and blood that is completely united will not tolerate any pirate gang. Therefore, saving me is also saving yourself!
While he was thinking how to escape from the capital and ask for the help of Bai Xinghe, the Pirate Potentate in the Divinity Transformation Stage, earsplitting shrieks suddenly echoed from his crystal suit.
"Somebody's here!"
Long Yangjun also sounded a bit nervous.
Li Yao was slightly dazed. Then he sensed that dozens of the most dominating clusters of air sweeping at the center of the ocean like the tentacles of fiends.
"Something's not right."
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and perceived the situation at the center of the undersea battlefield, only to discover that the intensity of the undersea battle was dropping but waves were rising on the surface of the ocean.
After he turned on the public communication channel and browsed through the past information carefully, he couldn't have looked more awful.
The operation to hunt Dongfang Wang and rescue Emperor Shenwu involved more than ten battle-type experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage. It was already a luxury team.
However, even in such a luxury team, few people were at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage.
But right now, "Devilish Abyss" Li Jianyi and "Star Breaker" Song Huanzhen, two experts at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage, as well as their hundreds of personal guards, showed an anomalous behavior?
Also, even the Divinity Transformation Stage had sent hundreds of starships to the sky of the Silver Moon Ocean to "provide firepower reinforcement"!
Chapter 2329: At the End of the Trench! |
Those who had advanced to the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage were all at least two hundred years old. Naturally, they had a lot of disciples and descendants, who, under the tutelage of the Divinity Transformation Stage experts, could mostly reach the Core Formation Stage or the Nascent Soul Stage without much trouble.
When an expert at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage joined a battle, they would often be followed by ten or so or even more squires, who would cooperate with them with lesser Colossi or advanced crystal suits. Those squires were mostly the Divinity Transformation Stage experts' true disciples or biological descendants. Their combat abilities, loyalties, and teamwork were far better than the outsiders.
In the world of ancient Cultivators, those squires would be the greatest reliance for a Divinity Transformation Stage expert to compete for the hegemony of the world. They would always invest tremendous resources and efforts in their squires, and their squires considered their leader to be more important than anything else.
When Li Yao and Ding Lingdang were in the Star Glory Federation, their personal squires were managed by Wu Mayan, Li Yao's true disciple. It was not hard to tell how important the squires were.
Right now, the squires of "Devilish Abyss" Li Jianyi and "Star Breaker" Song Huanzhen, an elder in their respective family, had all been deployed. It was obvious that they couldn't have been attracted by Dongfang Wang who had already kicked the bucket. Then, they certainly had another target…
Also, considering the anomalies of the Deep Sea Fleet, it was hard to not think of Queen Li Linghai. Li Yao was greatly alarmed. "They're so fast!"
More information came to the communication channel. "Devilish Abyss" Li Jianyi and "Star Breaker" Song Huanzhen had the highest Cultivation, combat ability, and position in their respective family in the "coalition army of the five forces" here. When the two of them led their squires to their commanding ships on the Silver Moon Ocean, it was naturally impossible for anyone to stop them.
Also, the Deep Sea Fleet, commanded by Dongfang Sheng, was observing and suppressing them from nearby. It was said that the four Kurfürst families issued new orders. For a moment, everybody was at a loss about what to do when the commandership was taken away.
The more he thought about it, the more scared Li Yao became. He suddenly bulged his eyes and demanded, "Cut off your communication with the battle network, block all the communication and information transmission channels, and turn off all the power and defense units on the crystal suit. Do not make any spiritual wave spread out!"
His warning came too late.
Long Yangjun and Li Jialing had indeed suppressed the spiritual waves of their crystal suits to the minimum as quickly as possible, yet the water around them immediately squeezed them like a landslide, resulting in the cracking noises on the crystal suit.
The three of them sank to the depths of the ocean like three iron blocks.
However, there was still the coldest wave that passed the trench that they were at. It was like a frigid wind that pierced through their internal organs and limbs.
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Li Jialing couldn't help but shudder hard.
"Damn it. We've been noticed. Also, it was probably Blackstar the Great who could scan such a deep trench accurately with his telepathic thoughts through the dark ocean!"
Breathing heavily, Li Yao rolled his eyes and spoke through the point-to-point private channel.
"Right now, Blackstar the Great is still unaware that we have inferred his real identity. It is possible that he is gathering the troops above and below the Silver Moon Ocean. Do you think we can expose his real face if we march out and declare the truth to everyone?"
"Absolutely. But then what?"
Long Yangjun asked back, "Are you sure that you can stop his plan after unveiling him? Don't forget that he is the founding emperor of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Now that Emperor Shenwu is already dead, who can say that he does not have the legitimacy to succeed the throne? Chances are that other people will kneel before him immediately after you reveal who he is! At the very least, 'Devilish Abyss' Li Jianyi and 'Star Breaker' Song Huanzhen seem to have betrayed the four Kurfürst families and taken his side."
"It does make sense."
Thinking quickly, Li Yao came up with a new plan. "Then, since he is unaware of your existence right now, if you hide in the darkness, is it possible to kill him directly in an ambush?"
Long Yangjun shook her head hard. "No."
"
Why?"
Li Yao raised his voice. "Are you not the reincarnation of a primeval god? Shouldn't you have a hundred other forms? Can't you beat him?"
"Primeval god my a*s. We are both carbon-based lives, and we have to abide by the fundamental laws about energy transformation and cell division. If I am as strong as you described, I would've slapped you to death already!"
Long Yangjun replied, not in a good mood, "Just think with your pig head. If the primeval gods were so awesome, why is it mankind who survived in the end but not the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan? The air constituents and the energy changes on most of the habitable planets in the three thousand Sectors are no longer suitable for the survival of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan. It's almost like putting the human experts on the primordial planets billions of years ago. They would find it difficult to get accustomed to the air and terrain at that time!
"Also, I am not the reincarnation of a primeval god, but an elite human warrior who received the dual refinements of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan. Essentially speaking, I am still just a common warrior, whereas Blackstar the Great is an excelsior warrior at least among trillions of human beings. How could he be killed by me so easily? What are you thinking about?"
"It does make sense."
Li Yao mumbled. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the black water above his head where spots of light were bursting out.
In a trance, he seemed to notice a pair of gloomy, profound eyes that were staring back at him.
Shuddering again, Li Yao discovered that his team had fallen into a predicament.
At the bottom of the ocean ten thousand meters deep, in order to run away at the highest speed, they would have to activate the power units and the spiritual shields of their crystal suits to resist the pressure of the water and create a path for themselves.
But as a result, intense spiritual waves would spread out, which would be perceived and followed by the unknown enemy immediately. If the enemy was really Blackstar the Great, Li Yao was not confident to get rid of him.
