by <unknown>
"It's really you. I would've recognized your weird voice even if you were burnt into ashes."
While talking, Lei Chenghu sat on the seat of the co-pilot next to "Li Wuji". He said casually, "How should I call you? Traitor of the reformists, Black Wind King, or Cultivator Li Yao? You are truly bold enough to trespass on my flagship on your own when you have such a unique identity!"
Chapter 2591: Unpredictable Mind! |
"I have always been as bold as this. Otherwise, I wouldn't have volunteered to break into the Godly Might Prison to rescue Commander Lei at the risk of my own life fearlessly!"
Li Yao took out a half-solid blue capsule that was covered in a film from his pocket. Breaking it apart, he smeared it on his face evenly. Together with the movement of his muscles and bones, he regained his original appearance very soon. Looking at Lei Chenghu in embarrassment, he reminded him that he once saved the man's life before he asked in confusion, "When did you realize that I was not Li Wuji, Commander Lei? It wasn't a bluff, was it?"
"Hehe. I never bother to deceive anyone through petty tricks. In the first place, I knew that it was not Li Wuji on the other side of the light beam. Or rather, I knew that somebody more terrible was hiding behind Li Wuji."
Lei Chenghu said in despise, "I know exactly what kind of person Li Wuji is. How could he have established such a terrifying fleet? Besides, Li Wuji is a classic example of the leadership of the four Kurfürst families. He is selfish, cowardly, and considers his life more important than the whole universe. How on earth would he meet with me by himself at such great risks? If he is bold enough to reach my flagship on his own, I'll cut my head off and give it to him as a gift!
"Now that Li Wuji has indeed shown up on my flagship, there can only be one explanation. He was forced to come here with a knife stuck to his throat and a gun pointed at the back of his head. That's why he looked so gloomy a moment ago. He was scared that he would be killed because of you who was too intrepid. Am I right?"
"Commander Lei does have a pair of keen eyes. I did not know that there were so many loopholes in my plan."
Li Yao coughed and asked curiously, "However, even if Li Wuji is not the star of the show, why did Commander Lei say 'it's indeed you'? It almost seems that you saw through my real appearance behind the camouflage."
"It's not difficult to guess your identity."
Lei Chenghu continued casually, "The things you said and did under the identity of 'Black Wind King' have been spread throughout the Seven Seas Space Zone. I don't believe that you would simply rest and stop playing more tricks after that.
"Also, Her Grace has told me about your real identity. Based on my evaluation of your action pattern, the odds that you play the 'decapitation strategy' and sneak to my side are very high. What I did not realize was that you would be coming in such an open manner."
"That explains a lot. However, Commander Lei, I would like to make one thing clear first. I am absolutely different from the 'Black Wind King', who escaped shamelessly a hundred years ago after blackmailing the court, forcing you to wipe his a*s for him in the frontline with the soldiers of your hometown. As a matter of fact, Heiye Ming, the previous 'Black Wind King' has already been blown up into smithereens by me. No need to thank me! It's my obligation!"
Pausing for a moment, Li Yao asked again, "Speaking of which, Commander Lei is quite audacious too. You knew it was me and that I was going to perform the decapitation strategy, but you still had the courage to enter my space shuttle. Are you not scared that I will attack and capture you all of a sudden? You should know that we are too close to each other right now. If I really want to do something, not just three Colossi, even if three hundred Colossi were outside, they wouldn't be enough to stop me!"
"Will you do that?"
Lei Chenghu smiled and said, "I mean every word I said in the Letter To The Soldiers Of The Imperium as well as what I said to Li Wuji. As long as the civil war can be ended as soon as possible to preserve more strength of the Imperium, in order to deal with the Covenant Alliance and to create a new future for mankind, I can negotiate with anybody and compromise on any term.
"I said to you a long time ago that I prefer Cultivators to the shameless 'false Immortal Cultivators'. Now that I am open to negotiations with a 'false Immortal Cultivator' like Li Wuji, why can't I negotiate with a real Cultivator like you?
"I am very curious myself what kind of changes the Cultivators like you who haven't done any notable things for a thousand years can bring to the Imperium when it is in such a great crisis. Besides, like you said just now, you were the one who rescued me from the Godly Might Prison. As a soldier of the Imperium, do I not even have the courage to meet my savior?"
"It's great to know that Commander Lei is such a reasonable man!"
Li Yao took a long breath in relief. "Had I known it earlier, I would've talked to Commander Lei in a more straightforward way. All the hiding and tricks turn out to be unnecessary!"
"Then, let's cut to the chase. Why has a real Cultivator like you come to me, an Immortal Cultivator who should be incompatible with you?"
Lei Chenghu's voice gradually turned cold and hard, like a cannonball that had just been retrieved from a low-temperature arsenal. "There does not seem to be any middle ground between the two of us. At the very least, I will not compromise on the true path of immortality at all."
Li Yao blinked and said, "I'm here merely to take my chances in a gamble."
Lei Chenghu frowned. "What gamble?"
Li Yao declared resolutely, "A gamble that Commander Lei is a real Immortal Cultivator; a fundamentalist Immortal Cultivator that does not compromise. A gamble that everything you've been doing is truly for the Imperium and for the civilization of mankind, that you are not like the 'false Immortal Cultivators' out there who only consider Imperium, civilization, and true path of immortality as their slogans and will stomp on all their beliefs for their personal interests.
"I'm betting that you consider the future of mankind to be more important than anything else, even including Blackstar the Great that you admire the most!"
Lei Chenghu was silent for a moment. With dark brilliance flowing in his eyes, he observed, "You truly have learned His Majesty's real identity. I'm appreciating you more and more, Cultivator Li Yao.
"Now that we are both aware of His Majesty's existence, it's all the more reason why you should give up trying. You know that there's no way that I would betray His Majesty!"
"I wouldn't say that."
Staring at Lei Chenghu, Li Yao said, one word after another, "If you are a pure, real, selfless Immortal Cultivator and everything you do is for the interests of the Imperium of True Human Beings and the future of mankind, then you should stand out and object to Wuying Qi without any hesitation when his doings jeopardize the interests of the Imperium and will destroy the future of mankind!
"Getting to the bottom of it, the targets to which you pledge your loyalty and contribute your everything is the Imperium and the civilization of mankind, not a specific emperor, even if the emperor is Blackstar the Great. Am I correct to understand your belief in such a way?"
Stunned for a long time, Lei Chenghu was amused. "Do all the Cultivators have tongues as sharp as yours? Of course, His Majesty is not equal to the Imperium, much less the civilization of mankind. However, who else at the center of the cosmos today is more qualified to represent the Imperium and the civilization of mankind other than His Majesty? If I do not serve His Majesty with my life, should I work for the four worthless Kurfürsten, or the greedy, barefaced merchants of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, or even the Cultivators who have never accomplished anything?"
"To whom Commander Lei pledges your loyalty, or if you are simply working for yourself without serving anybody else, is really not my concern. I only want to kindly remind Commander Lei that something is wrong with Wuying Qi!"
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said quickly, "Do you not feel that it was a very bad moment that you chose to j
ump to the Seven Seas Space Zone? Jumping over so soon would involve you in the dual vortexes of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the coalition fleet of the four families. By the time you settle all the enemies in a couple of months, you will suffer tremendous losses on your own side!
"About the timing of the jump, I believe that it was Wuying Qi's order. Therefore, he did not trust you at all, and he was planning to diminish the Astounding Thunder Fleet, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, and the four families' coalition fleet together in the battle of Seven Seas, weakening you to the point that you would not be able to compete with him or the Covenant Alliance.
"Also, the Astounding Thunder Fleet had been a blade that was stuck to the throat of the four families. After it left the heartland of the four families and jumped to the Seven Seas Space Zone at the edge of the cosmos, while a victory in the regional battlefield could be secured, the capital would be wide open. The ace fleets of the four families would definitely take the chance to attack the capital in full scale!
"Even an amateur like me can see the horrible mistake. I don't believe that a military expert like Commander Lei overlooked it. Therefore, have you asked 'His Majesty' what he was going to use to resist the ace fleets of the four families? The Imperial Guards who haven't fought any real war for hundreds of years, the Deep Sea Fleet that is not large in scale, or the untrained soldiers who just surrendered to him?
"It's impossible. Wuying Qi's armed forces in daylight are far from enough to resist the attacks of the ace fleets of the four families. Therefore, he must have a secret weapon; an unstoppable, destructive secret weapon that, upon activation, may cause irreversible damage to the capital and even the whole Empyreal Terminus Sector!
"Commander Lei, you admire and worship Blackstar the Great so much that it is not wrong to say that you are his greatest supporter. Let me ask you, has he told you the details of the secret weapon so that you can be prepared? Come on, let's make a bet. If he told you the secret weapon, I'll cut my head off and give it to you!"
Lei Chenghu's face was covered in gloominess. He said, "Li Yao, if you have come to my place just to sow discord with such lousy rhetoric, let's stop wasting each other's time! His Majesty is confident of his victory, and all the subjects need to do is to stride forward fearlessly. How can you speculate what is on a monarch's mind? Even if it is not about a monarch and that it is just about a random general, do you not have the notion of 'military secret' in the world of Cultivators?"
Chapter 2592: Hybrid of Saint and Fiend! |
Li Yao grew agitated too, and he shouted without giving in, "If you were just a soldier or a random general, all you need to do would naturally be to stride forward without looking back, but you are 'God of War'. You are a symbol of the Imperium's army, the last Immortal Cultivator of the Imperium, and even part of the Imperium! If a military giant like you abandons thinking, wouldn't the Imperium become a rampant behemoth? You don't know when it will fall into a trap or even an abyss at all!"
"I know that you have always been proud of your identity as a soldier. It is a soldier's duty to obey, but soldiers should never be mindless slaughter machines without independent will. Otherwise, would there be any difference between them and the people of the Covenant Alliance?
"I know that your hands have been stained with blood in the past two hundred years, and you have killed more people than anybody can count, but I would rather believe that you knew why you were fighting and killing, instead of carrying out somebody's order blindly!
"All in all, this thing concerns the future of the Imperium of True Human Beings and even the future of mankind. If it were me, I would have to get to the bottom of everything! How exactly is Wuying Qi going to deal with the ace fleets of the four families? What prices will be paid? How deformed the capital will be as a result? Have you really never been worried about those questions? Do you really feel that the demolishment of the capital is an acceptable price to win the civil war?
"If you are fine with that, let me tell you something else. One day ago, Wuying Qi detonated 'Wuying Qinxin', one of his puppets, and tried to brainwash me with the technologies of the Covenant Alliance!"
"What?"
This time, Lei Chenghu was truly greatly shocked. Staring at Li Yao, he demanded, "Are you serious?"
"Even if I'm telling lies, I wouldn't make up such a ridiculous lie, would I?"
Li Yao said with a bitter smile, "More precisely, perhaps Wuying Qi did not use the technologies of the Covenant Alliance. Instead, Wuying Qi and the Covenant Alliance are of the same origins and share the brainwashing technologies of the Pangu Clan from the primeval age. Wuying Qi has always been deeply associated with the Covenant Alliance. He was even a contributor to the Covenant Alliance's rise a thousand years ago!"
Lei Chenghu looked more and more awful. He gnashed his teeth and said, "Are you slandering without any evidence?"
"Although I do not have any evidence for now, it makes perfect sense logically!"
Li Yao opened his hands and said, "Although Wuying Qi and the Covenant Alliance seemed to be sworn enemies a thousand years ago, the result of their decades of war was that they carved up the Star Ocean Republic. From the carrion of the Star Ocean Republic, the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance arose.
"Based on the principle that the greatest beneficiary of a crime is the greatest suspect, it is not a groundless accusation that Wuying Qi collaborated with the Covenant Alliance to trick everyone!
"As to why the Imperium of True Human Beings has never destroyed the Covenant Alliance after it was established, it is very easy to understand. The Imperium needs the Covenant Alliance as an excuse to govern all the Sectors and to exploit the ordinary people. The Covenant Alliance, a source of fear, is why the Immortal Cultivators should exist!
"Don't be hasty to argue. There's one more thing. Aren't you curious about how Wuying Qi is going to deal with the army of the Covenant Alliance?
"The main force of the Covenant Alliance is not crushed, and eighty percent of their strength is preserved. They retreated and abandoned a lot of Sectors voluntarily in order to allure the expedition army of the Imperium to march in. When the supply lines and the defense lines are stretched out, they would fight a final battle against the Imperium!
"Why are they so impatient about the victory despite the risks? Because the Covenant Alliance encountered a great crisis of rigidity. If they don't fight the battle, they would collapse on their own very soon!
"This is all your own theory, Commander Lei, which you explained in great detail in the report you wrote for the Council of Elders. I believe that Wuying Qi must've read the report and had no doubt in the insight of such a loyal subordinate like you, right?
"Then, here comes the question. Wuying Qi clearly knew that the army of the Covenant Alliance was lurking in the darkness not far away, ready to launch a critical strike on the Imperium anytime, but he was still bold enough to start a full civil war at the crucial moment. What does he want exactly?
"Even if he could finish off the ace fleets of the four families neatly, so what? How is he going to deal with the main fleets of the Covenant Alliance? With the scarred land and the exhausted, broken fleets after the civil war? Has he lost his mind? Does he want to enjoy being an emperor for a year and a half even if he will be killed after that?
"No, it's impossible. He is a man who plans to rule over the cosmos for another ten thousand years. He couldn't have neglected the Covenant Alliance.
"The only answer is that he has been with the Covenant Alliance in the first place. At the very least, he is deeply associated with many people within the Covenant Alliance. He can control a large group of people of the Covenant Alliance with the brainwashing technologies that are of the same origin as the Covenant Alliance. He… He can replace the Pangu Clan in the hearts of some of the people of the Covenant Alliance and become their almighty god!
"Commander Lei, do you not feel anything about such a future? Can such a malici
ous, insane Wuying Qi be your master?"
Li Yao's saliva was almost flying to Lei Chenghu's face.
Lei Chenghu, however, was deep in thought with a rigid face, and he did not have any time to wipe his face.
"Nonsense."
Lei Chenghu mumbled, "I have never heard such absurdities before!"
"Let's go to the capital and figure out if they're absurdities together!"
Li Yao said sincerely, "Commander Lei, I know that Wuying Qi is an embodiment of the 'perfect Immortal Cultivators' in your imagination and that he is the only hope of light that can rescue the Imperium and even mankind from decadence and darkness. However, you must not overlook the distance between 'imagination' and 'reality'.
"Getting to the bottom of it, do you really know this 'Blackstar the Great' that you have absolute faith in? Do you really know what kind of person the Wuying Qi standing before you is?
"No, the person you admire, worship, and absolutely trust is merely the Blackstar the Great that has been glorified too many times by the history classics and the propaganda of the Imperium in the past thousand years. He is as different from the real Wuying Qi as a girl's picture taken by the beautifying cameras after she puts on makeup for two hours is different from her real image when the makeup has been removed. They're absolutely two people, alright?
"Let's say that Blackstar the Great a thousand years ago was truly marvelous, incredible, and a supreme leader of the civilization of mankind who deserved your loyalty, but why are you so certain that the Wuying Qi at present is the Wuying Qi a thousand years ago?"
"Huh?"
Lei Chenghu narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"I think that you've made a mistake. No. We have both made a cognitive mistake."
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao analyzed calmly, "It's true that we figured out his identity from the tiny traces, and he acknowledged that he's Blackstar the Great. However, who knows what really happened?
