The more Lei Chenghu said, the more absurd Dongfang Bai found it to be. He couldn’t help but interrupt him, “Marquis Liaohai, your theory about the gamble of the country’s fate is just your speculation, right? Do you have the slightest proof?”
“Not at all.”
Lei Chenghu pointed at his head and admitted frankly, “It is just my guess based on my intuitions.”
Dongfang Bai was amused. “Your guess? Intuitions?”
“War is an art of speculations. Any commander can be victorious when they have all the information both on their own side and on their enemy’s side, but only the most experienced, sensitive, and excellent commander is capable of predicting the enemy’s capabilities and strategies when the enemy is in the dark because of the lack of intelligence.”
Lei Chenghu said casually, “My intense intuitions are stabbing my brain brutally every second like iron needles, telling me that the main force of the Covenant Alliance is coveting us from the darkness in space. As long as we are sluggish for one moment, they will lunge out and cut our throats.
“It is a sense of danger that cannot be described in any words. Someone who has never fought in a battlefield for real can never understand it.”
Dongfang Bai gnashed his teeth again. “You…”
Eyeing Dongfang Bai up and down for a long time, Lei Chenghu suddenly put on a mysterious smile. “However, after observing the stupid look on your face, I’m starting to believe that the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance was not your scheme.
“Then, it is even worse now.
“If it was not certain malicious guys in the Council of Elders who organized the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance, it could only have been done by the Covenant Alliance.
“The spies of the Covenant Alliance have infiltrated the base of the expedition army and the Council of Elders to an unimaginably deep level, considering that they could both plan the assassination of the Blood Oath Alliance and manipulate you like fools.”
“W-What?”
Dongfang Bai’s face was as pale as a paper. “Are you suggesting that the Covenant Alliance is behind the Blood Oath Alliance?”
“Could it be anybody else?”
Lei Chenghu sighed and said, “In such a critical moment, who will benefit most from the escalation of the conflicts between the frontline and the fear?
“Think about the question clearly. If your greediness blinds your wisdom, and you are truly determined to do things that will hurt your friends and delight your foe, I assure you that the main force of the Covenant Alliance will certainly march to your front in the next second of your celebration!”
“Hehe…”
Dongfang Bai narrowed his eyes, full of suspicion.
“I’m starting to regret that I left the Astounding Thunder Fleet and returned to the capital with you under the illusion that I could convince the Council of Elders.”
Looking at the face of the head of the special agents, Lei Chenghu sighed. “I have realized that I made a horrible mistake, one that countless generals in the frontline have made since ancient times. They greatly overestimated the wisdom of the noble lords in the court behind them and underestimated their insatiable ravenousness.
“People can only see the things they want to see and believe the things they want to hear. A lot of people in the Council of Elders hate my guts. They cannot sleep in peace as long as I am alive. I’m afraid that they have been hoping that I can retire or even ‘unfortunately perish’ for a long time, haven’t they?
“For those elders, even if they are faced with a piece of intelligence regarding the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance that is brimming with loopholes, they will simply turn a blind eye to them and believe it unconditionally.
“With everything coming to this point, there is nothing we need to talk about now. I will never make any public statements. I cannot provide any convenience to help you control the Astounding Thunder Fleet either. My future depends on the ruling of the Council of Elders. Unless you are about to drag me out for a secret execution, you don’t need to come to waste my time again!”
Indifferently, Lei Chenghu held his arms and made a posture of farewell.
The three investigators looked at each other for a long time, all flinching.
After a long hesitation, Dongfang Bai gnashed his teeth. “Marquis Liaohai, if you insist on not making a public statement, and you are unwilling to persuade the radicals in the Astounding Thunder Fleet to leave the frontline and receive investigations in the rear, it is very possible that certain extremely unpleasant and violent conflicts will burst out. Wouldn’t that give an opportunity for the Covenant Alliance, which might cast the Imperium into eternal doom, like you said just now?
“Is that what you want to see? By then, will you be as peaceful as right now?”
Lei Chenghu stared at Dongfang Bai without blinking, the intensity in his eyes growing level by level. Eventually, they were glittering like the light of the double main guns of a super heavy warship immediately before a bombardment.
His voice that was as tough as iron and as indifferent as ice shot out clearly like the bullets of an anti-materiel sniper rifle. “I will do my best to protect my homeland, the Imperium of True Human Beings! Even if all the soldiers of the Imperium have sacrificed and I am the only one left, I will still charge at the enemy’s starships without any hesitation!
“However—
“Isn’t survival of the fittest the belief of the Immortal Cultivators and the self-explanatory truth of the Imperium of True Human Beings?
“If my warriors and I can’t rescue the decayed, corrupted country after doing everything we can, and the army of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant sweeps across the entire sea of stars, it will mean that we chose a wrong path, and that the people and system of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant are more advanced than those of the Imperium. The Covenant Alliance, as well as the Pangu Clan hidden behind the Covenant Alliance, is a superior species that is more excellent than the humans of the Imperium and more entitled to the prosperous resources at the center of the cosmos, with which they will create a new-generation of Pangu Civilization that is more brilliant than the civilization of mankind.
“In that case, I will have nothing to say. What can I do except to admit my failure and pay the greatest homage to my opponent? Bursting into fury like a clown?
“In the infinite universal battlefield that is haunted by eternal wars, admitting failure after losing a gamble is perhaps the last decency of a civilization. Failures are as normal as victories for any general. I am already braced for any outcome.”
Faced with the honest eyes of Lei Chenghu, the three investigators were all uneasy.
The filth and insignificance in their hearts seemed to have been illuminated by the brilliance emanated by Lei Chenghu, which was even more dazzling than the star.
Their attitude was entirely different from when they just entered, and they had been truly awed by Lei Chenghu.
“G-Got it.”
Dongfang Bai said in a panic, “This meeting is now concluded. We will report everything that Marquis Liaohai said just now to the Council of Elders exactly as it is for discussion. In any case, I absolutely trust Marquis Liaohai’s loyalty myself, and I will handle the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance cautiously. Please take a rest here for a couple of days. We will be off for now.”
The three investigators bowed at Lei Chenghu deeply again and backed off until they left the clean and quiet prison room.
Lei Chenghu did not bother to waste any time on them when they closed the door of the room again. He simply switched the crystal processor to the precious document.
Crossing his hands, he was deep in thought, as if he did not care about the investigation just now at all but about to continue his article that was interrupted just now.
However, after he turned on the light beam, he was silent and still like a dry tree for ten minutes without recording a single word into the crystal processor.
After ten minutes of silence, deep gasps suddenly echoed in the dead air.
The old general’s eyebrows, wrinkles, lips, and throat shivered at the same time.
Two drops of dirty tears, along the deep, interconnected trenches, slipped through his face that had been roughened by the wind and storm.
Lei Chenghu, the “God of War”, covered his chest and moaned with the feeblest voice, “Imperium…”
…
Billions of stars away, in the Deep Sea Palace, the secret base of the reformists, Li Yao and the mental devil were discussing the legendary “God of War” too.
“While you were maintaining the crystal suits, teaching the boy Li Jialing, and studying the treasures from the Empyreal Transcendence Sector with the queen in the past days, I snuck into the Spiritual Nexus and collected the files on Lei Chenghu. Tsk, tsk, tsk. It is truly shocking!”
The mental devil remarked in amazement, “This man is certainly not a lenient folk that he struck us to be when we first heard of him. Yes. He is selfless, fair, and loyal to the country. Those parts are real. But his methods are extremely ruthless and brutal too. I like it!
“Let’s take for example his grand entrance more than a hundred years ago, when the Black Wind Fleet escaped with the remaining soldiers of the five worlds after the collapse of the battle line.
“The queen only told us that Lei Chenghu eventually resisted the attacks of the Covenant Alliance, defended the second defense line behind the Black Wind Sector steadily, and constructed an iron wall, making the greatest contribution by stalling the Covenant Alliance for a hundred years. But she did not tell you how Lei Chenghu made it, did she?
“Let me tell you, the moment Lei Chenghu arrived at the frontline, he announced that quite a few habitable planets and resource planets in the battle area were under ‘military control’. The assets of all the ‘hominoids’ and most of the ‘true human beings’ were all forced to be purchased with ‘military notes’. They were essentially appropriated.
“Those who showed the slightest disobedience would be sent to the ‘glory camp’, which was a concentration camp invented by him that was said to be even more cruel and dark than the slave mines.
“Only in such a way was he able to collect tremendous resources in the shortest amount of time and prevent the panic and riots on a few planets. How could anybody have rioted when they were all under ‘military control’?”
“So ruthless?”
Li Yao was greatly alarmed.
He knew that “hominoids” did not equal “slaves” in the Imperium of True Human Beings. Many hominoids were free folks and enjoyed the property rights.
After all, from a long-term perspective, the productivity of a pure slavery system was not very high. Today, even the slave mines in the Imperium had to stimulate and motivate the miners with the slaughter stream platforms or the energy pills.
Therefore, no matter how the hominoids were oppressed and exploited, most of the hominoids were theoretically free, and their private properties were protected by law.
In addition, Lei Chenghu was even bold enough to confiscate the properties of a lot of Immortal Cultivators and even throw them to concentration camps?
The man was truly crazy and tough!
