“Ah!”
The warriors of the assault team nearby exclaimed in shock, but there was no time for them to stop it. Li Jialing was too fast and too intimidating, like a bloodthirsty lion that had been enraged. He gave the feeling that he would die together with whoever was bold enough to intervene.
The Immortal Cultivators who had been through hundreds of battles and killed more people than they could count were all stunned for half a second by the fury that the young man had burst out after more than ten years of repression.
Tu Zhengdao, the deputy leader of the Deep Sea Legion and the captain of the First Assault Team, was the only one who sniffed despite his surprise and stomped on the ground, meaning to separate the two of them.
However—
While he was fast enough, somebody was even faster than him. Just the moment when he was about to leap forward, he felt that somebody pressed his shoulder softly.
After a single press, all the strength inside his body seemed to be absorbed by a black hole. His limbs turned empty, and his knees became sour and numb. He couldn’t jump at all.
Who is it?
Tu Zhengdao was greatly appalled, so chilled that his spine was almost frozen!
Everybody felt that something flashed before their eyes. Then, they saw the white-haired young man who was as aggressive as a crazy lion was grabbed by the neck by “Vulture Li Yao”, as if he were a biting cat.
The crazy lion turned into a giant cat, but it was still snatching, roaring, and grimacing, although it could not get out of the palm of “Vulture Li Yao”.
“Excuse us.”
Grabbing Li Jialing in one hand, Li Yao apologized to the brawny man who was bleeding and nearly strangled politely, “My little brother is a little bit cranky. Try not to piss him off, fellow Cultivators.”
The many Immortal Cultivators looked at the brawny man who fell to the ground and was not back to himself yet, and then at the raging Li Jialing and the polite Li Yao, and eventually their captain, Tu Zhengdao, who was pale and sweating. They all swallowed hard.
They couldn’t help but feel the utmost admiration for Li Linghai again.
Her Grace was truly immeasurable and had too many extraordinary subordinates under her command. The two brutal men that she had recruited were even more merciless than the seasoned warriors of the First Assault Team of the Deep Sea Legion!
Holding Li Jialing’s neck and picking him back to Li Linghai, Li Yao asked in a low voice, “Are you satisfied?”
Li Linghai smiled and waved her hands. “Let’s go back to the ‘Deep Sea Palace’!”
…
Near the splendid halo of the seventh planet at the periphery of the Sand Primitive Sector, more than twenty small assault warships were slowly sailing to a gargantuan mothership more than ten kilometers long. It was a super space base with the functions of communication, commanding, maintenance, and supplies!
The magnetic fields of the two parties attracted one another until all the small assault warships were attached to the shell of the mothership tightly, and the supply transmission channels, the short-distance teleportation arrays, and the Spiritual Nexus system were connected. They were like the barnacles attached to a whale or a giant ship.
Following Li Linghai, Li Yao and Li Jialing walked into the bridge of “Dragon Abyss”, the mothership, and felt that they were melted in the sea of stars.
The shimmers from the super crystal processors were like glittering stars. The spiritual energy of the wholehearted crew members was also spreading out non stop as they worked hard and congregated into an immeasurable ocean of spiritual energy. A vague feeling of graveness could be sensed.
Li Yao was deeply awed by the enormity of the bridge and the professionalism of the commanders.
He once visited the bridge of “Burning Prairie”, the most advanced main-force warship of the federation, but it did not seem as good as this place.
It was quite easy to build a legion where everybody was equipped with a crystal suit, which required only ten years at most. But the space warships, especially a command center of such a level that equated to the “brain” of a fleet, were definitely not something that could be produced with enough money and people. Hundreds of years of profound experience was a prerequisite.
Even if Li Linghai had truly found the Supreme Emperor’s treasures, it was still rather amazing that she had built such a “Deep Sea Fleet” in only decades.
Also, Li Yao noticed that the enormous light beam at the center of the bridge was displaying not just the intelligence of the small fleet but also the intelligence from every part of the Imperium, including some Sectors at the borderland of the Imperium.
Li Linghai must boast an overwhelming, penetrative intelligence network. What was she up to exactly? Purely power?
Li Yao focused his eyes on the military uniforms of the crew members.
Through Di Feiwen, Li Yao had profound studies on the military uniforms of the Imperium’s army in different environments. He knew the different combat clothes, working clothes, normal clothes, and courtesy clothes, which could be used in the scorching environment hundreds of degrees, the freezing environment covered in snow, or a stormy planet frequented by blowing wind and stones.
What was strange was that, while the crew members were wearing the standard uniforms of the Imperium’s army, it was not the latest model but the regular uniforms on the warships of the Imperium of True Human Beings about nine hundred years ago.
Under the illumination of the crystal processors, they were like a bunch of ghosts from a thousand years ago.
A great question mark popped up on Li Yao’s head.
Li Linghai sensed his confusion very keenly.
Now that she had decided to bring Li Yao and Li Jialing with him, Li Linghai did not keep too many things a secret from them.
Li Yao was not wrong about one thing.
Not just a Divinity Transformation Stage expert, even someone in the Nascent Soul Stage was a very important, strategic treasure. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no ambitious person would destroy someone in the Nascent Soul Stage or the Divinity Transformation Stage easily but would try their best to recruit the talents.
It was especially so for Li Yao, a Divinity Transformation Stage expert who was both good at fighting and refining, who brought a Colossus with him, and who was deeply associated with Li Linghai in a certain way. He was almost a gift of the heavens for Li Linghai’s ambitions.
Naturally, such an expert of the Divinity Transformation Stage could not be treated as a common “subordinate” but some sort of ally or partner.
Therefore, no matter how antagonistic they were at the beginning, after Li Linghai decided to recruit Li Yao, she would have to change her attitude and try to transform him into a “real Immortal Cultivator”.
“You seem to have a lot of questions regarding my warships and soldiers?”
While operating on the crystal processor quickly and handling the intelligence delivered from everywhere in the Imperium, Li Linghai asked casually.
“Indeed. I did not expect the queen’s force to be so strong. The soldiers of yours are almost as good as the elite soldiers on Firefly.”
Li Yao said frankly, “However, what baffles me more is why Your Grace established such a secret fleet at great risks. Was it really just for power, as Li Lingfeng said?
“To be honest, despite the tragedies on Firefly, which almost shook my belief, after everything on the Land of Sins, I held on to the ideology of the Cultivators and have refocused my almost broken belief, thereby advancing into the Divinity Transformation Stage!
“So, it will be quite disappointing if the queen’s purpose is just power.”
Li Linghai smiled and said, “Are you saying that you hope that I can have some lofty ideals whether I’m righteous or I’m evil?”
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, “You can say that. Or rather, I do not believe that you could gather such an enormous force just with the allurement of power and without the encouragement of a lofty ideal.
“To be honest, despite our different stances, the vigor and exuberance that I sensed after I boarded on your starship are exactly the same from what I felt from some of the firmest Cultivators.
“It’s been a long time since I last saw such a young army!”
“Give me a break about the clichés of the Cultivators.”
Li Linghai said unemotionally, “The path of the Cultivators are just the naïve, inconsistent, and ungrounded ideas when new human beings that are different from ordinary people were just born and still restrained by the ethics and morals of the old times. They are not of any value to provide guidance for reality or to resolve any problem.
“Yes, the logic of the Cultivator is very correct and pleasant to hear. Until they run into serious, actual problems, everybody can claim to be a Cultivator, but when they do run into irresolvable difficulties where devastating sacrifices must be made, the Cultivators’ theories will be entirely useless. They have to place their hope on ‘heroes’ or ‘miracles’, but heroes and miracles do not happen very often. The civilization of mankind, on the other hand, must live on even in the harshest environment, with or without heroes and miracles!
“Forget it. You are too deeply poisoned to be convinced by a few words. You are not wrong about at least one thing. We are indeed from the Immortal Cultivators you saw on the Land of Sins. Or rather, those people were fake Immortal Cultivators, while we are the real Immortal Cultivators and the hope of humanity!”
Li Yao blinked his eyes. “What are ‘fake Immortal Cultivators’ and what are ‘real Cultivators’? Do the ‘real Immortal Cultivators’ not oppress ordinary people?”
Li Linghai smiled in disdain. “Why, in your eyes, the most oppressed class in the Imperium of True Human Beings are hominoids, and the most fundamental conflict is the conflict between true human beings and hominoids?”
Li Yao was dazed. “Isn’t it so?”
“Let me put it this way.”
Pondering for a moment, Li Linghai said, “Let’s simplify the model of the society in the Imperium into a mine. The owner of the mine with whips and sabers, a young and heaty miner, and a skinny, low-intelligent monkey who can more or less do the mining.
“Who do you think is the most oppressed among the three?
“Or rather, if you are the mine owner with whips and sabers and you want the most ores and minerals to be excavated, who will you exploit mainly, the young and healthy miner or the skinny monkey?”
Li Yao was stunned for a long time before he mumbled, “I’m afraid that it will be the young and healthy miner, but…”
“That’s right.”
The queen of the Imperium said coldly, “In the eyes of the high-level Immortal Cultivators, the hominoids whose spiritual roots are not awakened are like skinny monkeys and do not boast much value to be exploited. The ones with the greatest value to be exploited are the ‘young and healthy miners’, or to wit, the vast population of middle- and low-level Immortal Cultivators, those in the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage, who are largest in number.
“Therefore, the major contradiction in the Imperium right now is not that between true human beings and hominoids as you have imagined at all, but the contradiction between the upper-class true human beings and the lower-class ones, namely the high-level Immortal Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage and the Divinity Transformation Stage who are strong but small in number and the bottom-level Immortal Cultivators in the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage who are the largest in number. The most exploited, oppressed, harmed, and those who live the most painful lives are the Immortal Cultivators living at the bottom level!”
