by <unknown>
One day, the brutality of the federal space pirates would be known by everybody at the center of the cosmos, and the very first flash that illuminated their name would be the battle today, where the Blue Sky Market was conquered, twenty-eight pirate gangs were swallowed, and Li Wuji's entire fleet was crushed!
Boss Bai did not lie to them at all. They had a good chance to be the freest people ever and the greatest space pirates in the universe!
It was even more needless to say the Cultivators from the Imperium.
During the hundreds of years before today, they had been struggling on the brink of destruction, and it was already their best if they could make a voice in their fury. Even the magnificent uprisings in the mines and the farms often died as abruptly as they took place. They would easily be crushed when the regular army of the Imperium came to suppress them.
Little had they ever dreamed that they could conquer a gigantic business and trade center or shatter an elite fleet of the regular army with their barrages. Even a marquess of the Imperium had been captured alive by them!
More importantly, after the Blue Sky Market was occupied, they had earned sufficient assets. The training resources in the trophies would be enough to help many of them to break into new levels and significantly improve their combat ability.
The starships of the space pirates and the regular army that had been captured could also be maintained and upgraded with the facilities in the Blue Sky Market, comprehensively upgrading their fleet that was as ragged as beggars right now.
In such a way, the fire of Cultivators that had been suppressed for a thousand years had the hope of being reignited and spread out again!
How could they not be cheering in euphoria?
The whole Blue Sky Market had turned into an ocean of joy. The federal space pirates and the Cultivators of the Imperium, the weird combination, sang and danced merrily. Naturally, in light of what happened to the space pirates and the regular army of the Imperium, alcohol was certainly not an option. The victors could only wave their flags vehemently to let out their excitement and ecstasy.
Below the wonderful flags, two partners that had been separated for a long time met again. They were exactly Han Te and Liu Li, the young man and the girl from the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
The two fledgling and vigorous teenagers embraced each other tightly.
The whole world seemed to have disappeared, and they were all there was.
"Han Te!"
"Liu Li!"
The two pairs of eyes that were staring at each other were both filled with tears. Reviewing their extraordinary experiences in the last half a year, they both felt that it was almost a dream.
When Han Te, Liu Li, "Fist King" Lei Zonglie, and Gao Dashan, the experienced captain from Starlight, were rescued from the main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector by Li Yao, the Martial Meritocrats Sector was still occupied by the Immortal Cultivators.
Having no alternatives, Li Yao sacrificed himself to distract all the Immortal Cultivators, allowing whatever left of Starlight to run to the edge of the fourth quadrant at the edge of the Imperium to search for Boss Bai.
Despite Li Yao's confident declaration, Han Te and Liu Li did not have much faith in Boss Bai, the head of space pirates. They had heard a thing or two about space pirates and knew that they were all ferocious men who did not have any integrity or credit. Besides, even the strongest space pirates couldn't have been a match for the regular army of the Immortal Cultivators.
This Boss Bai did not know them at all. How could he have accepted such a crushed team of Cultivators recklessly, which would only be a burden for him?
However, they had no choices back then and could only turn to the last resort. Through all difficulties, thanks to the leadership and protection of the Fist King, they finally arrived at the periphery of the Imperium and got in touch with Boss Bai by chance.
Out of their expectation, after observing their tiny team up and down for a long time, Boss Bai did not turn them down and even gave them a piece of surprising advice.
"You, the Cultivators, are too eye-catching. If you stay in the Big Bai Pirate Gang, it will be easy for the Immortal Cultivators to notice you, which will be troublesome for the both of us.
"However, for the sake that… you are Cultivators, I will not watch you die without doing anything. Here's a solution for you.
"My Big Bai Pirate Gang has sailed and raged in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium and developed to what it is today all because of speed and professionalism. What I've been training with are the best soldiers, who use the latest warships that have the highest speed, fiercest firepower, and best equipment.
"However, we often captured a lot of obsolete, heavy starships when we looted the Immortal Cultivators' ports or attacked other pirate gangs. I would never take those burdens away, but it seemed a shame to just abandon them.
"As it happens, I've just done a few big jobs, and I have a lot of such old and awkward starships as well as weapons that are no better than garbage in my hands. If you do not despise them, I'll offer those gears to you for you to develop your fleet of Cultivators.
"In the meantime, I can send a batch of tutors to you. They are all seasoned space pirates who have the most battle experiences. They will teach you how to establish and command a real fleet.
"What I'm saying is that the Big Bai Pirate Gang and the fleet of Cultivators can play different roles in cooperation, one in the light and the other in the dark.
"Specifically speaking, I have a lot of intelligence regarding the pirate gangs that are on a job, but if I loot them too often, I may be hated by the people of my trade. So, it will be better if you attack them when they have just done a great business, with their arsenal empty and their warehouses full!
"Or rather, it wouldn't matter if I intercept their trophies myself as long as you take the blame afterward. All in all, we will simply observe our agreement. I will have the latest warships, whereas the other starships will be yours. The rest of the assets will be divided evenly. Consider it a favor from me to support the development of the Cultivators in the Imperium.
"One other thing. On the vast resource planets and in the mines and farms at the periphery of the Imperium, tremendous precious intelligence and human resources are hidden. I'm hoping to work on those aspects, establish a few bases, and transform most people at the edge of the Imperium into my sympathizers and supporters, or at least people who are willing to do business with me.
"But it won't be appropriate for me to do that. Taller trees catch more wind. What exactly does a filthy space pirate want to do when he is winning the people's support? But it is most suitable for your 'Starlight' to do that because you have been doing that since the beginning. Most of the ordinary people have heard your name before and rather trust you.
"All in all, our two parties can pretend to be at loggerheads or even fight each other hard, but there is in fact a lot of room for cooperation and complementation between us. If we play our roles well, even if the regime of the Imperium is not changed, we can at least significantly expand our living space. How about it? Are you willing to do that?"
Now that Boss Bai had put it in such a way, what else could the desperate survivors of Starlight say? Of course they would do it!
What happened later was exactly what Boss Bai predicted.
At first, he offered a batch of outdated starships, which were still usable, to the survivors of Starlight. He then sent experienced space pirates to help train the soldiers of Starlight, teaching Starlight how to ambush, move, and loot other people when they were in trouble almost hand in hand. He also worked together with Starlight to swallow quite a few infamous pirate gangs, allowing Starlight to upgrade their gears and develop rapidly.
After that, with the mainframe crystal processors with high computational abilities, "Fist King" Lei Zonglie's combat and commanding abilities soared. He was even stronger than Boss Bai in terms of hacking and cyberwarfare. The two parties truly became
an inseparable whole.
Today, they had conquered the Blue Sky Market together and swallowed twenty-eight pirate gangs and one regular fleet when they were terribly outnumbered, announcing that they were a force at the edge of the Imperium not to be underestimated.
Everything! Everything was truly like a dream!
"Liu Li, snap on my forehead and see if we are dreaming. I don't want to find myself suffering on the Land of Sins after I wake up later!"
Han Te said to Liu Li with a smile.
Liu Li curled her finger and snapped at Han Te's forehead so hard that Han Te jumped to his feet and then lowered his back while covering his head. Even his tears were almost running out.
While wiping his tears, he burst into laughter. "It hurts. This is not a dream. We've truly won. If we can conquer the Blue Sky Market today, maybe it won't take long before we return to the Martial Meritocrats Sector with an overwhelming fleet and smash the Land of Sins into pieces!"
The young man from the Land of Sins couldn't forget his disastrous homeland.
Of course, what he couldn't forget more was the little sister before him who had escaped from the Land of Sins together with him.
Chapter 2458: Big Sisters and Little Sister |
The two partners who had been born and grown up together on the Land of Sins went on separate ways after they came to the boundless space.
The blood of ambitions and restlessness had always been flowing inside Han Te's veins. He was very curious about the space pirates' unexpected, unrestrained, and somewhat mysterious and romantic life. When he heard that the fleet of the Cultivators was in need of a liaison officer in the Big Bai Pirate Gang to coordinate the cooperation, he volunteered to take the complicated and arduous task.
After he came to the Big Bai Pirate Gang, not only had he done an excellent job in his post, he also gained access to a lot of other posts, until he encountered the job of "artilleryman" as if it were the fate of life.
The "artilleryman" was much more than controlling the heavy cannons on the starships to attack. The "fire control officer", a senior profession to the post, was responsible for the distribution of firepower and the rhythm of attack of a starship or even an entire fleet.
Even the most commonly-seen mass-produced attack starship had almost a hundred cannons large and small. For a coalition fleet made of hundreds of starships, their firepower combined could be astronomical.
How to configure the complicated firepower, how to adjust the shooting angle, how to change the rhythm of attack, whether to bombard stormily or to barrage unhurriedly, whether to focus on one point or to shoot the entire area… The answers to the sophisticated questions often lay in the hands of the fire control officer.
In most of the deep-sky fleets, the fire control officer was the second or third person only below the highest commander and was equaled to the chief of staff of the fleet.
Furthermore, when the commander of a fleet was killed or lost combat ability, it was often the fire control officer who took over his place instead of the chief of staff.
The chief of staff only provided assistance, and the fire control officer was the one who made the ultimate call.
To be an excellent fire control officer required not only abundant experience, calmness, and steadiness, but also talents.
When to barrage with all the cannons, when to cancel the attacks, when to bombard without caring about the consumption of spiritual energy, and whether or not to remove all the spiritual shields and focus the energy on the turrets to play a shocking gamble when the starship was under unfavorable circumstances… Those problems could not be answered in books or the crystal processors but had to be decided by the fire control officer's momentary spark of talents.
It was a common understanding among the fleet commanders that an excellent fire control officer could improve the firepower intensity of a fleet by at least 20% on his own!
Another unquestionable understanding was that the best fire control officer was like the most distinguished artist, who could not be trained and could only be discovered.
Right now, Han Te was still far from an excellent fire control officer, if he was a "qualified" one at all.
However, his calmness when he controlled the cannons and distributed the firepower and his status of both frenzy and peacefulness when he played the wild gambles had made Boss Bai who had the keenest eyes see his talents and determined to raise him.
Han Te's character was exactly what Boss Bai was fond of too.
The Land of Sins where he was born, like the bleeding space, was an extremely cruel hunting field and arena. Everybody was a predator and prey the moment they were born.
Han Te had a great time in the Big Bai Pirate Gang. He and Boss Bai got along very well too. Although he had been admitted by Liu Li's father as a disciple in his hometown, Boss Bai was still more than enough to be his teacher. Also, he had learned a lot of stuff from the jade chips Li Yao left behind and Boss Bai. His progress in half a year was more than what other people achieved in ten years.
Just now, the starships of the Big Bai Pirate Gang secretly shifted the direction of the turrets to bombard the space pirates and the garrison in the Blue Sky Market. Han Te contributed to the accurate aiming and the almost perfect coordination of infantry and cannons!
Han Te had great fun in it. He also had the ambitious goal to follow and even surpass Boss Bai one day.
Even though the Big Bai Pirate Gang had successfully met the fleet of the Cultivators, he did not plan to return to the Cultivators' side anymore.
Liu Li, in the meantime, had been staying in the Cultivators' fleet, or to be more exactly, next to "Fist King" Lei Zonglie.
The Fist King was a super spiritual puppet that could upgrade and survive permanently. His training methods were unique. In order to be stronger, he had to strengthen his iron body every second or even replace it with a newer and sturdier shell.
Such modification and maintenance work couldn't have been accomplished by the Fist King alone. He needed at least an assistant.
When Li Yao left the Martial Meritocrats Sector, he had poured some of his maintenance knowledge and secret arts into the jade chips and handed them over to Liu Li.
The Land of Sins was almost a planet-size magical equipment graveyard. Most magical equipments had to be maintained and assembled on their own. The kids born on the Land of Sins often boasted excellent skills in magical equipment maintenance.
Liu Li had the basic knowledge of magical equipment maintenance in the first place. Thanks to the girl's natural deftness, and under the guidance of Li Yao's jade chips and the Fist King's personal instruction, she was more or less able to keep up with the Fist King's pace.
Right now, she had become the Fist King's indispensable personal maintainer and upgrader. Her sole field of research was to maintain the Fist King's body and make him the strongest being in the whole universe!
Such ancillary work was too dull for the ambitious Han Te, but Liu Li enjoyed herself in it.
She preferred peace to action in the first place, and the lonely journey in space could be quite scary. What could she complain about if she could stay next to such an expert like the Fist King and be protected by him all the time?
Han Te could be a superhero or a great thief if he wanted to be, but Liu Li had her own little dream too. It wouldn't be bad if she could grow a tiny land of Gold Barley!
The drastic changes in life during the past half a year made the young man and the girl who had just passed twenty years of age grow fast.
The newly-grown stubble on the young man's lips was harder than before, and the girl was also much plumper. When they hugged each other today, they somehow felt that they were "the most familiar strangers" to each other.
When they smiled at each other after hugging for a long time, they finally saw their own reflections from a long time ago in each other's eyes.
"One year ago, when we were still struggling in the Land of Sins, we never expected that so many chan
ges would happen to us."
Looking at his hands, Han Te mumbled, "Or that life would be so amazing and incredible!"
"Yes. Ever since Grandpa Yao came to our world, our lives seemed to have been pushed by him into a turbulent vortex."
Liu Li smiled too, and she said in a crisp voice, "I wish Grandpa Yao could see us right now. I wonder where he is exactly. I truly miss him, but there is no telling when we can meet him again."
"We certainly will."
Han Te said, "According to Boss Bai, a super tough man named 'Vulture Li Yao' rose in the capital recently. It was probably Grandpa Yao!"
"Master Fist King also said that, but I found it hard to believe—"
Taking a deep breath, Liu Li said in disbelief, "A Cultivator rising in the capital of the Imperium of True Human Beings? Grandpa is truly… perplexing!"
"I can't agree more."
Han Te grinned and said, "The two persons that I admire most in my life are Boss Bai and Grandpa Yao. They are the kind of people that you don't need to be surprised at whatever miracles they bring about."
"Don't forget there's still Master Fist King."
Liu Li said, not entirely convinced, "You worship Boss Bai, but I think our Master Fist King is more awesome. Hurry and let's meet Master Fist King. You are our liaison officer in the Big Bai Pirate Gang after all!"
"Of course, I certainly need to visit him."
Han Te was suddenly embarrassed. Scratching his head, he said, "However, can we visit him this afternoon? Or maybe you can wait for me for two hours? Just two hours?"
"Huh?"
While Liu Li was surprised, female chuckles suddenly echoed behind Han Te, and quite a few girls who were plump, petite, or pleasant-looking rushed at him.
"Han Te, what are you doing here? You are a minor contributor to the conquest of the Blue Sky Market too. Hurry and celebrate with us!"
"Exactly. We'd been waiting for you for a long time, and you snuck out without telling us. We are so sad!"
"Huh, who is this little miss? You look rather strange!"
