by <unknown>
"As for you, 'Vulture Li Yao', it is even more impossible for you to be exposed. You are the greatest traitor that every reformist knows. All the assassin and mercenary groups under the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are aware of the bounties for you. Too many people are whetting their sabers ready to claim your head. The moment you reveal your real identity, you will be drowned in a storm of bullets.
"Think about it. The news from the capital is that you've been bought over by the four families and betrayed the reformists. Now, you suddenly appeared in the Seven Seas Grand Market, right after Red Lady betrayed the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and killed me. How are you going to explain everything? If you were an outsider who doesn't know anything about the situation, would you believe that the woman next to 'Vulture Li Yao' who looks like a chimpanzee is Jin Yuyan, or any of the bulls*it about the 'Soul Transfer Technique'?"
Li Yao scratched his head. "It is indeed hard to explain."
"Explanation means the confession of truth, which brings us to an even more critical problem. It's impossible for you to tell the truth!"
Jin Yuyan continued, "In order to reveal Qi Yuanbao and Wuying Qinxin's scheme, you will have to confess your real identity and your background. Then, you have to let everybody know that you are a Cultivator from Firefly that has fled for a thousand years.
"Regretfully, not all the Immortal Cultivators consider money, capital, and profit as their belief like me. As long as there is a 1000% profit, you can ask me to strike an alliance with the Cultivators that is sworn with blood.
"Most of the Immortal Cultivators' disgust, hatred, and wariness of the Cultivators are deep to their bones. Your real identity is even more sensitive than 'a traitor bought over by the four families'. Besides, you destroyed 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', resulting in the heavy loss of investment for many people in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Many promising researchers were killed in the incident too.
"Don't blame me for not reminding you. The five senior managers, the dozens of regular managers, and the hundreds of shareholders, large and small, had investments in 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky'. Many of them even sponsored 'slaughter streams' personally. After the mess you caused, they were all vomiting blood because of the huge deficits.
"Even if they do not care that you are a Cultivator, you cannot expect them to be fond of you in the slightest. Let me ask you, how are you going to convince them?"
Li Yao scratched his head quickly. "Well…"
"One other thing, Qi Yuanbao knows that I'm not dead and that you are out there. With his cunningness, it shouldn't be hard for him to guess who you are."
Jin Yuyan further increased the difficulty. "I don't know if Blackstar the Great has told part of your real identity to Qi Yuanbao in secret, but I guess he has, because there are few places in the vast universe that a Cultivator like you can go. Blackstar the Great must've foreseen that you would come to seek my cooperation.
"Then, it is not entirely possible that he revealed your identity to Qi Yuanbao in advance for him to take precautions.
"I know Qi Yuanbao's style very well. In terms of head-on combat ability, he is naturally no match for you, but he never attacks the enemy in head-on battles. He never even let the enemy discover him.
"If I were him, I would've dispatched a large group to chase the two of us, strictly forbidding them to talk to me.
"Should you encounter such a squad, would you kill them or not? If you don't, you will be worn out by them. If you kill them, it will be even less possible for you to explain yourself, and it will only prove that you've been bought over by the four families!"
"All the problems boil down to one thing. In order to reveal Qi Yuanbao and Wuying Qinxin's scheme, we have to prove that you are the real Jin Yuyan!"
Frowning, Li Yao asked, "Is there no item or way that can prove your identity?"
"There are the surgical records and data about the Soul Transfer Technique."
Jin Yuyan said, "However, all the data are locked in my office, which is the most heavily guarded place in the Seven Seas Grand Market. Even a wisp of smoke cannot sneak in!"
"Why does it sound so familiar to me?"
Li Yao picked his ear and said, "So, the key for us to reverse the situation is the data about your operation of the 'Soul Transfer Technique', and all the data are kept in a place that is defended by the state-of-the-art magical equipment and countless assassins and guards?"
"Exactly. A lot of business secrets of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors of the highest level are also stored in the place. Naturally, it is under the most rigorous protection."
Jin Yuyan said, "Theoretically, it can never be compromised or broken in. Why are you smiling so weirdly?"
"Nothing, I'm just curious…"
Li Yao rubbed his cheeks. "Since the data are Qi Yuanbao and Wuying Qinxin's greatest weakness, can't they destroy the data in advance?"
"They can't."
Jin Yuyan said, "To destroy the central data, they must have the highest permission of the director, and to get the highest permission, they have to convene a temporary meeting of managers and shareholders and win the votes of more than two-thirds of the participants. Therefore, the data cannot be destroyed by them, at least not in the next twenty-four hours!"
Chapter 2538: Truths and Lies |
While talking, Jin Yuyan drew the structure of the internal district of the Seven Seas Grand Market as well as the defense map around his office. The defensive measures and the distribution of the guards turned into a waterfall of data and poured down.
Li Yao studied and gasped. Grimacing, he said, "Isn't your office too rigorously defended? Also, why are the ventilation tubes and the sewers so narrow and twisted, with the sharp daggers of mystic rays flying all the time? According to the structure, nobody can break in without three days and three nights!"
"But we absolutely don't have three days and three nights."
Jin Yuyan said solemnly, "Once the meeting of managers and shareholders comes to an end and Qi Yuanbao wins the approval of the big shots, the result will not be changed. After he becomes the 'victor', nobody will care about how exactly he has made his way to the top or how I died. They won't even care about whether or not I died. I will completely become the past, and Qi Yuanbao will be the future!"
"Is that so?"
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao continued studying the tubes and gaps that were a hundred times more complicated than a maze, before he asked casually, "Isn't it too cruel?"
"We are Immortal Cultivators. Immortal Cultivators are always cruel."
Jin Yuyan said, "You must understand one thing. Other people elected me as the director of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors not because I was delightful, not because I was dutiful, and certainly not because I was frank and forthright, but because I could bring more interests to them and defeat the coalition fleet of the four families. Nothing more!
"Then, as long as Qi Yuanbao shows an equal amount of capability, proving that he can also bring more interests to the shareholders and the big shots behind the shareholders and that he can defeat the coalition fleet of the four families, that will be enough. Nobody will care about whether his hands are dirty or how many schemes he has performed!
"Getting to the bottom of it, people of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are not interested in serving justice or telling right from wrong at all. There is nothing but interests in their eyes!"
Li Yao's eyes were gradually frozen. Stunned for a long time, he asked, "That is to say, even if most directors and shareholders know that you are really Jin Yuyan, as long as they think you cannot bring enough interests to them, they will abandon you and support Qi Yuanbao without any hesitation?"
Gloomily, Jin Yuyan said, "That's only natural. They are all businessmen. As long as the profits are high enough, they can do business with anyone."
Li Yao's eyes were getting brighter and brighter. "From a different p
erspective, if a certain someone can bring them enough profits and demonstrate enough strength to defeat the four families, even if he is neither Jin Yuyan nor Qi Yuanbao, those managers and shareholders will still support him and do business with him instead without hesitation?"
Slightly stunned, Jin Yuyan thought for a moment and said, "Theoretically, yes. However, Qi Yuanbao and I have been working with the managers and shareholders for a hundred years to convince them of our capabilities. How can a 'certain someone' who emerges out of nowhere convert them?
"The only solution is that you confess your identity and do business with those people as a representative of the government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic. Of course, the profits will be inestimable, and anybody can be tempted.
"But like I said just now, not all the Immortal Cultivators are as rational as me. Most Immortal Cultivators are absolutely incompatible with the Cultivators. Besides, you also destroyed 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', resulting in their heavy losses. Furthermore, one tiny Firefly is far from enough to resolve the threat of the coalition fleet of the four families at all.
"Therefore, no matter what a great talker you are, you cannot persuade them easily. I really don't understand what your 'certain someone' is trying to do. What have you come up with?"
"Nothing. I just want to take a gamble."
Li Yao licked his frozen lips, with a cunning and cold smile. "First of all, the defense of your office is indeed too rigorous. Like you said, it's impossible to sneak in without three days and three nights. Breaking in openly, on the other hand, will cause a huge mess and kill many subordinates that are loyal to you. The misunderstanding will only get more severe.
"Secondly, after the fuss that Qi Yuanbao made, the confidence of the Seven Seas Grand Market must've hit the rock bottom. Even if we seize the control of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors again, the sagging morale can barely be boosted in the upcoming 'battle of Seven Seas'. We will be sure losers if we join the battle like this.
"Therefore, I believe that a gamble is highly necessary. We will take back the control of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in the most simple and straightforward ways, and we will make all the warlords and Sector Masters at the edge of the Imperium, and even most of the bottom-class and middle-class Immortal Cultivators within the four families, believe that our capabilities will soar soon, allowing us to crush the four families and the 'false reformists' in the capital easily. They will wager their everything on us and work with us determinedly, making us the pillars as well as the new leaders of the reformists!"
"How is it possible?"
Jin Yuyan looked at Li Yao in disbelief. "All the managers and shareholders of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are the most cunning and paranoid foxes. How can they easily believe your bulls*it and even make us replace Li Linghai as the leaders of the reformists?"
"It's very simple, because what I am going to tell them will not be bulls*it but the truth."
Li Yao said frankly, "I always believe that truth is the most powerful of all. False things are always false. A lie needs the disguise of another hundred lies, and it will still be exposed in the end. So, I will only speak the truth from the beginning to the end. Now, I only need a chance; a chance for me to speak in front of all the managers and shareholders.
"In order to get the chance, we will have to…"
Li Yao elaborated on his chance in great detail for ten minutes.
Jin Yuyan looked at him as if he were the most zealous lunatic and the sleaziest conman.
"You truly have the potential to be an excellent businessman. It's been a long time since I last saw such a shameless, sordid man who could deceive himself without changing his face and who was so good at making a fortune with nothing."
Jin Yuyan said with mixed feelings, "If you had come to the Imperium a hundred years ago, it's possible that the director of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors today would be you instead of me!"
"Thank you for your compliment. In order to accomplish the plan, we will have to contact some people and prepare an ambush."
Li Yao accepted the praise without changing his expression. "Director Jin, you've been doing business in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors for more than a hundred years. You must have made a few good friends who are willing to give you a chance under the most unbelievable circumstances however suspicious they are, right?
"I don't need them to believe that you are you and support you immediately. It will be fine as long as they give me a chance to talk for five minutes!"
"There are some."
Jin Yuyan sighed and said, "However, Wuying Qinxin is well aware of my friendships with those people. She must've monitored the Spiritual Nexus, the communication channels, and the residences of those people closely. However we reach out to those people, the messages will be intercepted."
"It's alright."
Li Yao smiled and said unhurriedly, "I've carried a powerful communication transverter with me, through which we can send the signals to a tiny super-remote communication base that I deployed at the edge of the Seven Seas Space Zone earlier. Then, we will be able to be connected to the Spiritual Nexus.
"Not far away from the Seven Seas Space Zone, I have some other pals and a… very advanced center of super crystal processors. The information we intend to deliver will be encrypted and disguised by the center of super crystal processors first before it is transferred back to the Seven Seas Grand Market. Rest assured, nobody can possibly intercept or interfere with it!"
While talking, Li Yao fell on one of his knees and retrieved abundant components from his Cosmos Rings before starting to assemble them quickly.
While assembling, he activated the secret communication channel between him and Li Jialing. "Jialing, what's going on outside? Nothing. I'm just checking up on you. Also, I have a tiny mission for you…"
…
In the internal district of the Seven Seas Grand Market, standing on the planet that was riddled with holes, the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was a splendid and glamorous building like a gold pyramid.
His hands in his back, Qi Yuanbao stood on the sightseeing balcony on the top floor of the plaza, surrounded by special glass that was as clear as water. There was not the slightest trace of steel structure, as if the glass were embedded in the air without any support.
As far as the eyes could reach, the whole planet looked like a glittering beehive. It had long been deformed by the power of human beings and money, brimming with skyscrapers and complicated traffic tubes. Countless people were coming and going like busy ants or worker bees, struggling to survive.
Qi Yuanbao opened all the windows, simply allowing the rushing wind to cut his face. The stink of iron and copper in the wind smelled as pleasant as honey for him.
He liked the scent. He liked all the scents as well as everything that reminded him that he was still a "living person".
Recalling the thrilling, blood-boiling assassination half a day ago, he felt that his heart was still racing crazily. Even his hands were shivering beyond his control.
The feelings let him know that he was still a living person, not a ghost that was haunted by vengeance and lust for power.
Soft footsteps echoed from his back. He did not need to turn back to know that it was his twin sister, Wuying Qinxin.
During the past hundred years, he had been very jealous of his sister because she got to live as a human being, unlike him who had to hide in the shells of other people through the "Body Puppet Technique", until he was unable to tell who he was exactly in the end.
However, right now, he had been used to and even grown fond of the form, and he considered himself to be some sort of existence that was above mankind.
He was not a human being, not even an Immortal Cultivator, but something entirely different and much more superior.
Perhaps it was exactly because of such arrogance that he defied Blackstar the Great and
took action in advance, killing Jin Yuyan at an inappropriate time.
It was a pity that something went wrong during the operation.
But he was absolutely capable of resolving the minor error that was named… Vulture Li Yao.
Chapter 2539: Qi Yuanbao's Ambitions! |
"What's the situation outside?"
Qi Yuanbao turned back and looked at Wuying Qinxin. "Are the managers and shareholders here? Also, have Red Lady and 'that guy' been caught?"
"Due to the emergency, all the managers and shareholders in the Seven Seas Grand Market have been gathered here. The shareholders who are not in the Sevens Seas Grand Market are also joining the meeting through representatives.'
Jin Yuyan's "widow" Wuying Qinxin looked as perfect as if she were a statue made of marble. She was so perfect that she did not even seem real. Even the vague sorrow covering her eyes and face was like a carefully-designed mask.
Nobody could see through what the woman wanted, not even her biological brother Qi Yuanbao.
Wuying Qinxin paused for a moment and went on, "Red Lady and the assassins of Bloody Skull have been surrounded in a narrow corner in the 27th district. We have locked down all the tubes from the 27th district to the outside world and dispatched three crystal suit legions to besiege them. There are also two Colossi aiming at and suppressing them from space. Even though Red Lady is an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, it's impossible for her to get away.
"However… there are still no updates about 'that guy'. He seems to have vanished into thin air.
"Ah Bao, I do not feel good. You and I are both clear that it is not important whether the Red Lady is killed or escapes. 'That man' is the key. Not that I'm blaming you, but your attack was indeed a bit hasty."
