by <unknown>
"Right, have I ever introduced to you my two children, Xiaoming and Wenwen?"
Chapter 2675: There Can't Be Two Suns in the Sky |
The confidence on Lei Chenghu's face which indicated that he had everything under his control fell apart like a sand wall in a storm.
"Are you crazy?"
Shocked, he looked at Li Yao in disbelief. "You're giving the ultimate weapon that can destroy the Imperium to two monsters virtualized by crystal processors?"
"Watch your mouth, General Lei."
Li Yao turned grave too. "They're my children. They are a life form that exists in reality. They're neither virtual nor monsters! On the contrary, they can be more calm and rational than us in complicated dilemmas, and they can make the best decision as fast as possible.
"I know myself very well. I admit that I'm not qualified to be a deterrent. Since the very beginning, I've been considering to whom I'll transfer the control of the Gold Crystal Pyramid to. Long Yangjun and Boss Bai are both more suitable than me, but my children are definitely the most suitable!"
"How can you trust them?"
Lei Chenghu was almost jumping out of the light beam. He roared thunderously, "Whatever they are, I do not trust them, and I will not let the Gold Crystal Pyramid fall into their hand!"
"They're my children that were born based on infinite data in the Star Glory Federation. Why would I trust you over them?"
Smiling, Li Yao said unhurriedly, "All in all, I still have the control of the Gold Crystal Pyramid, but I know that the responsibility is too heavy for me, so I signed an agreement with Xiaoming and Wenwen and put a trigger in their logic circuits.
"They will monitor my biophysical parameters including brainwaves, heartbeat, breath, etc. 24 hours a day. The moment they detect that my mind is about to collapse because I can't handle the pressure as the deterrent, they will automatically take over the highest permissions of the Gold Crystal Pyramid.
"Also, if I die accidentally, say I got unfortunately killed while fighting your troops, they will also take over the highest permissions and become the new masters of the Gold Crystal Pyramid.
"I did not ask them to do anything specific with the Gold Crystal Pyramid; I simply asked them to defend the best interest of mankind with the Gold Crystal Pyramid. As to how they comprehend the best interest of mankind, sorry, I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Lei Chenghu looked at Li Yao angrily as if his eyes were about to swallow Li Yao. "You don't know what they will do after they get the Gold Crystal Pyramid?"
"No. I believe that Xiaoming and Wenwen are two innocent and kind kids, but we're different life forms anyway. Inferring their way of thinking with our own is like a dinosaur considering the ways an ape fights. It's utterly impossible."
Li Yao opened his hands and said, "I don't know how they will understand the best interest of mankind, or what they will do after they get the Gold Crystal Pyramid, but I know one thing for sure; while you are a hundred times colder than me, they're probably a hundred times colder than you. Perhaps the billions of creatures in the capital are nothing but some numbers and instructions in their eyes.
"If you insist on landing on the capital planet and intruding the demilitarized area near the Gold Crystal Pyramid, you will have conflicts with Xiaoming and Wenwen as well as their puppet legions. Well, I don't know what impression you will leave on them, or what decisions they will make to defend the Gold Crystal Pyramid. After all, they are only two kids!"
Lei Chenghu fell in his chair and glared at Li Yao, breathing heavily.
"You can't do that… You can't give the fate of mankind away to two lives that are entirely different from us!"
His voice was hoarse, but there was a vague weakness behind his toughness.
"Then you'd better not provoke me."
Li Yao pointed at his head. "I'm now weak and can't stand any provocation. I'm now wondering if I should give the Gold Crystal Pyramid to Xiaoming and Wenwen, but if you provoke me, maybe I'll make the final decision."
This time, it was Lei Chenghu who fell silent.
"Look, betting with the lives of the billions of people in the Empyreal Terminus Sector is not my style or my threat."
Li Yao said, "My real threat is to give my place away to someone else. I'm too soft-hearted to be a deterrent, which is why every party can accept me as a deterrent. Otherwise, would you prefer Boss Bai, Long Yangjun, or Xiaoming and Wenwen to be the deterrent?"
Lei Chenghu lowered his head and thought for a long time.
"What if—"
He struggled to say, "If something happens to you in other battlefields, will the Gold Crystal Pyramid go to the two information lives too?"
"I do not intend to go on any adventure for now. I'm not made of iron anyway. After finishing off Wuying Qi and saving the Imperium, I deserve a holiday and a good rest!"
Li Yao said, "I think nothing can threaten my life if I stay on the capital planet, right? Also, didn't you promise that you will protect me as the King of Black Wind, General Lei?"
"As for the future, like I said just now, we can establish a committee in the demilitarized area and study the secrets of the Gold Crystal Pyramid together, and the committee will control it.
"But that is on the premise of sincere cooperation. For us to cooperate sincerely, I have to maintain minimal deterrence, don't you agree?"
Lei Chenghu thought for a long time and took a deep breath.
"I do."
It was the first time that Lei Chenghu spoke in the sound of a mosquito when he always rumbled.
Hearing Lei Chenghu's reply, Li Yao took a long breath and smiled in relief.
"You wouldn't demand to take control of the Gold Crystal Pyramid now, would you?" Li Yao asked again.
"Yes."
Lei Chenghu gnashed his teeth and said, "But everything apart from the Gold Crystal Pyramid must be transferred to us immediately!"
"Of course! Then, the battle in the capital has come to end, hasn't it?"
Li Yao extended his hand to Lei Chenghu on the light beam. "We've won!"
"For now, only for now."
Lei Chenghu unwillingly extended his hand and shook Li Yao's.
"A temporary victory is better than an eternal failure."
Li Yao blinked his eyes and said, "Even a forced alliance can still bring us precious peace, can't it?"
…
No matter how many setbacks were awaiting them in the future, the victory and the hope for peace had truly arrived at the capital that had almost been swallowed by the wrath of the star at this moment thanks to the hard work of Li Yao, Long Yangjun, Li Jialing, Lei Chenghu, Boss Bai, and many other people.
In the following month, the reformists seized every second to coordinate their forces, including Lei Chenghu's expedition army, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors' army in the Seven Seas Space Zone, and the Deep Sea Fleet that previously belonged to Wuying Qi and Li Linghai. Those forces were gathered into the greatest troop that mankind had ever witnessed.
Of course, the Arsonist Fleet as well as the Cultivators also joined the reconstruction of the capital under the name of "Black Wind Legion".
The Immortal Cultivators were reluctant to admit or talk about the Cultivators. Many of them were worried and embarrassed, and some found the Cultivators utterly unacceptable.
However, Li Yao was the legitimate King of Black Wind and a strong expert beyond the Divinity Transformation Stage. Many people knew that it was he who blew up the remaining soul of Blackstar the Great. For the Immortal Cultivators who worshiped power, Li Yao's strength was his best shield.
Plus the insincere endorsement from Lei Chenghu, the theory that most Immortal Cultivators heard was that Vulture, a new-generation King of Black Wind, conquered the Star Glory Federation, a country of Cultivators at the edge of the cosmos, and returned to the center of the cosmos for the renewal of the Imperium.
The Imperium of True Human Beings was based on the Star Ocean Rep
ublic, and the first batch of Immortal Cultivators mutated from the Cultivators. So, it was not entirely unacceptable that there were a lot of Cultivators in the Black Wind Fleet who were "going through the same mutation".
The relocation and reorganization of the ace fleets of the four families went quite well too.
Most soldiers in the fleets were crushed in the Next Sun Plan. Even though their souls had recovered, they lost their will of resistance. When they realized that their fleets were gone and the Deep Sea Fleet, the Astounding Thunder Fleet, the Arsonist Fleet, and the Imperial Guards were united, they gave up fighting for their families.
In particular, when they heard that it was Li Yao, the King of Black Wind, who played a vital role in the battle of the capital, a lot of them even asked to join the Black Wind Legion and serve Li Yao!
Of course, not everybody was willing to surrender.
Many of the four families' forces that intruded the capital had escaped back to their nests before the scourge of the solar storm.
Just because they had lost the ace fleets did not mean that the four families would give up their resistance. The grand nobles were still hiding in their nests, preparing for their final struggle. In fact, the brutal failure in the capital made them unprecedentedly united. They even gave up the competition for the crown and elected a new emperor at a speed like never before.
The reformists would certainly not sit around and watch. Since the coronation ceremony on the four families' side was about to be held, the reformists decided to hold their own too in order to reassure the soldiers and the people. In the days to come, there were bound to be two emperors in the Imperium of True Human Beings, and it remained to be seen which of them would declare the other one a counterfeit.
Chapter 2676: Changes in the Hometown |
However, none of that was Li Yao's business.
He did not care who would be the new emperor because they would only be a puppet on the surface and the real power was controlled by Lei Chenghu, Jin Yuyan, and also the King of Black Wind. He was also an influential person in the Imperium who was not a Kurfurst but looked like one.
Li Yao cared more about the reconstruction of the Empyreal Terminus and the modification of the Gold Crystal Pyramid.
The solar storm was highly destructive. Although Li Yao turned off the Gold Crystal Pyramid in time before the tipping point, the aftermath of the storm still wrecked the surface of the capital planet. Also, after Wuying Qi died, the capital had been in complete anarchy.
The mayhem of such an enormous planet could not be quelled by several fleets in a couple of days.
Three months after the battle of the capital, the capital planet was still plagued by the problems caused by the solar storm.
Too many people lost their homes. Some had fatal symptoms due to radiation diseases. Some were robbing other people claiming that they were eliminating the followers of the Kurfursten, giving a great headache to the real reformists.
Perhaps they did not care about the status of the ordinary people on the capital planet, but the capital was the home camp of the reformists and the root of their legitimacy. They could not allow it to stay chaotic forever.
An ironic thing happened.
In order to settle the mess in the capital, to ship the assets of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors to the capital planet for disaster relief, and to coordinate the different fleets and troops, they had to depend on advanced crystal processors for automatic work.
Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King were the perfect candidates for such missions.
Naturally, Lei Chenghu was highly wary of those "virtual lives" and unwilling to work with Li Yao.
However, just like he had to accept Li Yao as the master of the Gold Crystal Pyramid, he didn't have a choice either this time.
The remaining forces of the four families had elected a new emperor. Despite their consecutive failures, they still controlled dozens of heavy-industry planets that were of paramount importance. If they were given a year or two, they could probably establish another great army and seek a comeback.
To avoid future trouble, the reformists had to combine their forces and attack the territory of the four families with their high morale in order to reunite the Imperium again.
However, the fleets of the Covenant Alliance were still coveting in the darkness, perhaps waiting to attack the Imperium's heart when the reformists' army was fighting the four families in the four families' territory!
Lei Chenghu did not have much time, and the future was hardly promising. So, no matter how vigilant he was of Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the shameless Cultivator Li Yao, he had to deepen their cooperation and to renew the Imperium with the help of the information lives and the Star Glory Federation.
Therefore, more and more of the most advanced crystal processors of the Imperium were given to Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King as part of their thinking network.
Thanks to the increase of their computation abilities and their data analysis abilities, Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King accomplished various missions, such as reestablishing order on the capital planet, reorganizing the fleets of the four families, setting up sailing routes between the capital and the Seven Seas Space Zone, etc.
The potential that they revealed astounded Li Yao, Lei Chenghu, and all the other people who knew them.
Of course, not everybody was aware of the information lives yet.
For those who were ignorant, they felt that the reformists were settling the complicated problems with unbelievable efficiency as if they were helped by god.
What slightly reassured Lei Chenghu was that Li Yao did not claim the Gold Crystal Pyramid for himself. Though no troops were allowed to reach within ten kilometers from the Gold Crystal Pyramid, people like Lei Chenghu were free to visit it as long as they did not carry any weapon.
Seeing Li Yao's modifications on the Gold Crystal Pyramid, including a research institute and a museum, Lei Chenghu had to admit that Li Yao was probably the most suitable person to control the Gold Crystal Pyramid if he couldn't control it.
Another piece of good news was that Li Linghai made it and was not killed in the battle.
Of course, after being possessed by Wuying Qi for years, and after the attack of the solar storm in the Next Sun Plan, her body and her soul were weaker than ever, and she had to rest in a special ward in a military hospital.
Her injuries were on the genetic level, and it was impossible for her to fully recover. She only had two options. She could either give up her cultivation and live until she died of old age as an ordinary person, or she could transfer her soul to an artificial body and regain her strength as a spectral Cultivator.
Of course, the transference could be highly risky, and it was possible that her soul would perish even if she had the protection of the best specialists.
Thankfully, there was no need to make any hasty decision. She could heal her soul first in the hospital.
Li Jialing had also been staying in the hospital with his mother. He also studied his body that was corrupted by Wuying Qi 2.0.
The mother and the son, whose relationship had been special, must've had a lot to talk about.
The leaders of the reformists disagreed greatly on how to deal with Li Linghai.
On one hand, she was the leader and even founder of the reformists as a party. The Deep Sea Fleet, which was the fundamental force of the reformists, was established by her in person too.
Although the Astounding Thunder Fleet had replaced the Deep Sea Fleet as the most powerful troop of the reformists, no war could be won by a single fleet. Lei Chenghu had to consider the attitude of the Deep Sea Fleet. If he punished Li Linghai severely, would he leave Li Linghai's subordinates with the impression that he was initiating a purge?
On the other hand, everything Li Linghai did was because she was instructed by Wuying Qi so that he could reclaim the Imperium. However, neither Li Linghai nor anyone else could have resisted Wuying Qi if Wuying Qi possessed them
back then. So, it was not entirely Li Linghai's fault that she allowed Wuying Qi to take her body to do evil things.
Besides, Li Linghai still had a lot of secrets, including the location of the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum, which was critical for the future of the Imperium.
So, after weighing the pros and cons, the leaders of the reformists decided to understate Li Linghai's negative role in the Next Sun Plan and to not judge her openly so that everything could come to a peaceful end.
Naturally, everybody was delighted by the result. Even Li Yao felt that it was the best arrangement.
Three months after the battle of the capital, Li Yao had digested most of Wuying Qi 3.0's legacy in his head.
He also had a deeper understanding of how to control the Gold Crystal Pyramid.
An enormous super-remote base of communication was established at the edge of the Empyreal Terminus Sector under the supervision of Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King. It sent a message to the Star Glory Federation on the details of what happened after Li Yao arrived at the Imperium, and it asked for the parliament's decision on the relationship between the federation and the Imperium.
The information highway between the center of the cosmos and the edge of it was about to take shape!
…
In the Land of Eternal Night in the Ancient Sages Sector in the Star Glory Federation…
The Land of Eternal Night was not nearly as desolate and dangerous as when Li Yao set foot on it with the Three Saints and Four Rapscallions.
The weather specialists and professional engineers had reshaped the place and established lively "heat oases" on the ice land where a drop of water would be frozen into ice immediately. The hard-working people in the heat oases were exactly the epitome of the rising federation.
The federation had undergone great changes yet again in the past three years.
After their surrender, the Black Wind Fleet brought new technology and knowledge to the federation.
The specialists from the Black Wind Fleet also offered new perspectives for the federation's projects to explore Kunlun and learn the primeval technology.
