Outside of the thunderstorm, under the sky that was equally dim, in the middle of the blowing wind, almost thirty full-terrain small assault starships, which had been added with special units to make them able to carry out aggressive combat ability in both the vacuum of zero gravity and the surface of planets where the gravity was high, had been docked.
Those little monsters had already ripped apart the large but clumsy starships that Li Lingfeng brought into shreds.
At this moment, the queen’s subordinates were clearing the battlefield and moving the units, supplies, and fuel on the large starships that were still of value to their own starships. They were also shooting at the bodies on the ground to make sure that there were no lucky survivors.
After they dismantled everything in a large starship, they would install crystal bombs on it from inside to outside and completely blow it up into melted garbage, absolutely not leaving any trace behind.
Ruthless, decisive, and well-trained. It was definitely an elite troop that had been through plenty of battles. That was Li Yao’s first impression of “Deep Sea Fleet”, the queen’s secret armed force.
The unique appearance of the small assault starships and their slightly vintage style also slightly surprised Li Yao as a refiner.
Under the help of Di Feiwen, the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet, Li Yao had a deep understanding of the levels, configurations, and appearances of the starships that were currently serving in the army of the Imperium.
The Imperium of True Human Beings was different from the Star Glory Federation. After finding the primeval treasures in the Kunlun relic a hundred years ago, the federation entered an age of technological boom. The warships of the federation a hundred years ago and those a hundred years later were absolutely two concepts.
The Imperium, on the other hand, had gradually hit the bottleneck after developing for a thousand years. Although the Black Wind Fleet had been away from the homeland of the Imperium for a hundred years, the Imperium did not make such significant improvements in the production of starships in the meantime.
Therefore, Li Yao noticed after he reached the Martial Meritocrats Sector that the starships serving in the Imperium right now were not essentially different from the starships of the Black Wind Fleet that were brought out a hundred years ago, despite the upgrades and optimizations in certain details.
The queen’s “Deep Sea Fleet”, on the other hand, was different from the starships of the Imperium that Li Yao saw in the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
After removing the messy plugins that were installed to pretend to be “Cultivators”, the main bodies that they revealed were still the “Flying Leopard”-level full-terrain assault starships serving in the Imperium.
However, the anti-gravity units and the power units more or less carried the features of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago.
For example, the rune arrays and the layered armors gave a feeling of noisiness, glamor, complexity, and even cumbersomeness, which was entirely different from the starship style of the Imperium, which pursued simplicity and smoothness and preferred that no manual traces could be found on the surface.
While Li Yao was observing the Deep Sea Fleet, the Immortal Cultivators of the Deep Sea Fleet noticed them too.
“Your Grace!”
A team of fully-armed Exos flew over and fell on one of their knees, paying respect to Li Linghai.
They all opened their helmets. The guy in the lead was a hideous brawny man with a “#”-shaped scar on his face.
Because the scar involved his facial organs, his eyes bulged particularly out, making him look like some sort of fish living deep inside the ocean. He gave both a hilarious and chilling feeling.
Distracted by him, Li Yao sensed that the hideous man was a terrifying expert at least in the Nascent Soul Stage.
However, he was still more or less puzzled why the brawny man would left the creepy scar on his face. For someone in the Nascent Soul Stage, it was not a difficult task to stimulate the cells and to repair the simple wounds. If that did not work out, the medical and surgical technologies of the Imperium were definitely good enough to deal with a few scars, right?
The hideous man was also slightly stunned to see two strangers standing behind Li Linghai.
However, he knew that the queen had too many secrets and too many extraordinary subordinates under her command. So, he knew better than asking who they were recklessly.
Li Linghai was very satisfied with the performance of the hideous man. Narrowing her hands and glancing around the battlefield, she said with a smile, “All of them have been taken care of with none left? Well done, General Tu.”
She then turned around and explained to Li Yao and Li Jialing, “This is the deputy leader of ‘Deep Sea Legion’, a marine troop affiliated to the Deep Sea Fleet. He is also the captain of the First Assault Team. General Tu Zhengdao used to be one of the youngest lieutenant admirals of the Imperium, and he is best at stealth, assaults, and sabotages in the enemy’s rear. The two of you should get to know each other if you have the chance.”
Tu Zhengdao, the hideous man, slightly frowned and said solemnly, “There is no need to talk about my military rank in the fake army of the Imperium. Right now, I am loyal to the queen alone, and I am just the deputy leader of the Deep Sea Legion and the captain of the First Assault Team!”
“General Tu, rest assured.”
Li Linghai said with a smile, “One day, the real army of the Imperium will march back to the capital, and you will be an admiral of the Imperium of True Human Beings again. A real admiral of the real army of the real Imperium!”
Thinking quickly, Li Yao realized that the contradictions between Li Linghai and the aristocrats of the Imperium had escalated to such an extent that she did not even believe that her enemy’s positions were legitimate.
It was certainly not a bad thing for the federation.
“Li Lingfeng is too stupid to be of any help for our cause. Cooperating with him will not necessarily push our plan forward, but he is absolutely capable of destroying the dreams and hopes of all of us if we do not cooperate with him.”
Li Linghai said casually, “Therefore, I’ve been making secret plans to eradicate him since ten years ago. The two fellow Cultivators here were specially raised for the purpose of executing Li Lingfeng. Today, they have accomplished their mission and slain the scoundrel. So, they can now surface and officially join the Deep Sea Fleet.”
“Li Lingfeng is dead?”
Tu Zhengdao was apparently delighted. But then he glanced at Li Yao and Li Jialing rather warily. “He was killed by the two fellow Cultivators here?”
“Exactly. He is ‘Vulture Li Yao’, and he is Huang Feng[1]
.”
Pausing for a moment, Li Linghai said, “They’ll stay by my side for now and join my security team as my secretary and my personal guard. They are strangers to most people and unlike you who are all deeply connected to the obsolete army of the Imperium. It will be easier for them to enter and exit the capital city. They may be able to carry out certain missions that are not suitable for you.”
“Secretary and personal guard?”
Including Tu Zhengdao, all the Immortal Cultivators of the First Assault Team of the Deep Sea Legion were greatly surprised.
As Li Linghai’s secret troop, they naturally all knew how many appalling secrets and what great ambitions the seemingly meek queen held.
The queen’s secretary and the personal guard would definitely learn of many secrets of the queen. If their great plan did work out later, the future of the two strangers would be nothing but promising.
Who were the two strangers exactly, and what made them qualified to be trusted and appreciated by the queen?
The First Assault Team of the Deep Sea Legion was the elite of the elites. The guards in the queen’s security team were mostly the seasoned warriors in the First Assault Team. One might even say that they were the queen’s most trusted subordinates.
Otherwise, such a critical mission to execute Li Lingfeng wouldn’t have been entrusted to them to carry out.
The Immortal Cultivators were short of many things, but certainly not the ruthless and disobedient guys. Immediately, dozens of malicious eyes were glancing at Li Yao and Li Jialing.
Li Linghai smiled. “Having executed Li Lingfeng together with me, they naturally have something extraordinary about them. If you are interested, you should get to know each other better. Only after you know each other very well will you be more confident when you fight by each other’s side in the future.”
It was obviously a hint that she did not object to, or rather, she was encouraging, a test on the expertise of the two newcomers from the warriors of the First Assault Team.
Immediately, a few brawny and ruthless warriors walked out. One of the Immortal Cultivators who was more than 2.5 meters tall and as huge as an iron tower looked at the white hair all over Li Jialing’s body and chuckled. “Are you a body fundamentalist, or… of demon descendant?”
It was an ill-intended question.
The Imperium of True Human Beings considered itself the rightful successor of the civilization of mankind. Naturally, it was never fond of “demons”.
After ten thousand years of hunting and slaughtering, there were barely any large-scale, habitat-based demons in the territory of the Imperium. Whatever left of the demons were all slaves who were even more inferior than “hominoids”.
At the very least, hominoids had the possibility of awakening their spiritual roots and growing into Immortal Cultivators theoretically, but the odds were little to none for a demon to change their fate however strong they became after training.
In the Imperium, cursing someone to be a demon was even more serious than cursing him to be a “bastard”.
Of course, the body fundamentalists, who had built their bodies into magical equipment and awakened all kinds of primeval cells, would also grow the features of ancient beasts, and it was not easy to distinguish them from demons. Speaking of which, they were essentially the same thing. Demons were exactly the ancient body fundamentalists that the Nuwa Civilization raised during the primeval war.
This was already a well-acknowledged fact in the Star Glory Federation.
However, under the political correctness of the Imperium of True Human Beings where pure human beings were above anything else, it was certainly not to be admitted.
The brawny, tower-like man asked the question in an obvious provocation.
Li Yao looked at Li Jialing.
Li Jialing smiled and suddenly charged forward in a streak of gold brilliance.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Sharp claws ejected out of the plump palms, triggering a hundred golden arcs that enshrouded the brawny man. Very soon, his skin was falling apart, and he was bleeding hard.
The warrior of the First Assault Team did not expect Li Jialing’s attack to be so agile and brutal. After losing the initiative of the battle, he could not take it back at all.
After all, Li Jialing had received Wuying Lan and Li Lingfeng’s double refinements with a ferocious body that was even more perfect than Wuying Lan’s. He was also almost exploding in fury after everything he experienced today.
He couldn’t defend himself at all in front of Li Yao and Li Linghai, but it was more than easy for him to deal with a common warrior of the assault team.
It all happened too fast. After a series of dazzling attacks, Li Jialing suddenly dashed to the head of the brawny man and tied the man’s neck with his legs like a boa, not giving the helmet a chance to spread out of the armor and protect the head. Then, his claws stabbed at the enemy’s temples like eight gold daggers!
[1] Note: Huang Feng means “yellow wind”.
