“Did you know, Dad, what I have hated most since childhood has always been your view that you are the only person fighting for the Imperium and that the entire world has betrayed it. I have had enough of it!”
Lei Honghai started calling him “Dad” instead of “Father”, and the mockery and rebelliousness on his face were even more intense than before. “It is a shame that no matter how self-righteous you are, there is nothing you can do right now.
“The Imperium is perfectly fine. It does not need your saving. Besides, you can barely save yourself right now!
“Let me tell you what will happen next.
“It does not matter even if you insist on not making the public statement, because the special investigation committee can do it on your behalf. As for the soul stamp, I am your son after all. Your blood runs in my veins, and our soul stamps are very similar. After some slight adjustment, my soul stamp can replace yours to issue the commands.
“It may be seen through, but so what? The Council of Elders is already ready to deal with the Astounding Thunder Fleet. If you insist on rejecting our kindness, and your wretched subordinates are as stubborn as rocks, we will have to settle everything in the most thunderous way!
“Do not blame me for being too cruel to the uncles. The Council of Elders gave them and you a lot of chances. I do not hate them, but I want to protect myself and the many people from the Lei family. Do you know what a great headache the Lei family has been having when we have a leader who decides to sacrifice the family for the country every now and then?
“As for your personal safety… Rest assured. Although you have been an inhumane and heartless father, and you can watch your son die while doing nothing, I will never be as cruel as you, and I will show you enough fidelity.
“You will not be killed, which is one of the terms that I negotiated with the special investigation committee. After the issues in the Astounding Thunder Fleet are taken care of and the situation is steady again, you will be sent to a beautiful and pleasant manor much bigger than this place where you can live your life of retirement comfortably and, by the way, watch how I govern the Astounding Thunder Fleet in a completely different way and make the entire Lei family thrive!
“This is everything that will happen next. Open your eyes and observe, Father. I will prove to you that the ideas that you’ve believed in all the time are wrong. You are not as correct and important as you imagine. Without you, the Imperium will still flourish at a high speed, and the Lei family will still rise a hundred times faster. Do you hear me?”
Lei Chenghu looked at his son as if he were a corpse in a grave.
He was utterly unmoved as his son grew more and more excited and high-pitched. Listening in silence the whole time, he did not observe until his son was done with the catharsis. “Got it. So, you have made up your mind to betray me for the commandership of the Astounding Thunder Fleet?”
“Betray…”
Although his father was like a tiger trapped in a cage with the teeth and claws removed, Lei Honghai couldn’t help but feel palpitation when he heard the word “betray”. Holding back the cramp on his eyelids and his lips, he said, “I never want to betray you, Father, but a lot of people—including myself and many from the Lei family and even the Astounding Thunder Fleet—we want to survive instead of dying for an ungrounded, ludicrous reason!”
“On a battlefield, the more afraid you are of death, the faster you will die. Only those who have forgotten their fate may fight a way of survival out of the dead bodies. You’ve been following me in wars for so many years, yet you do not understand such a simple logic?”
Lei Chenghu shook his head slowly, with his eyes full of confusion, as if he found it strange that he had such a stupid son. Staring at his eldest son so hard as if he would not see him again in the next second, he spoke in a voice that was even more frigid than the icy cold wind on the floor. “Let me tell you what will happen next, silly boy.
“Yes, your plan may work out at the beginning. With your cooperation, the Council of Elders can easily eliminate all the people in the Astounding Thunder Fleet who are loyal to me. Your soul stamp can be used to fake my orders and send the voices of ‘Marquis Liaohai’ to the entire frontline. But that is your entire value.
“Before your value is completely exploited, they might make you the commander of the Astounding Thunder Fleet. But good days don’t last. Soon enough, you will find the Astounding Thunder Fleet utterly infiltrated and deformed, and that you are nothing but a puppet.
“Without the consent of those elders, you cannot even command a single starship.
“Do not think that you can play balance among the four Kurfürsten. It will be useless. You are no match for them at all.
“But perhaps, you will not meet such trouble at all, because the expedition army will have been removed and reorganized before that. The army groups that are highly concentrated with the highest alert and combat ability will return to their original units in the local areas. They will even fight each other over the ownership and development rights of the dozens of Sectors.
“By then, the main-force fleets of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant will definitely march out from the least expected place and crush the disorganized troops of the Imperium. The whole Imperium will be cast into panic and mayhem.
“By then, the dumbfounded, helpless Kurfürst families will remember me and put me back to power, asking me to command the remaining soldiers to resist the army of the Covenant Alliance that is in the highest morale, exactly like what happened during the collapse of the Black Wind Sector a hundred years ago.
“There is something that you’re wrong about, son.
“I am indeed a pillar of the Imperium. Perhaps, I am the only one who can save the Imperium. Without me, the Imperium WILL malfunction and even completely collapse.
“That is the only reason why the Council of Elders dare not kill me. It is not because of the ‘terms’ that you negotiated.
“I do not blame you for choosing to betray me today, but I feel very pitiful. I thought you were at least smarter than your younger brother, and after learning the lesson of using starships for personal interests, you would not overestimate your wisdom and abilities and do such stupid things anymore.
“It never occurred to me that you are even more stupid than him. Ten thousand times more stupid.
“Mark my words, son. You may betray me today, but the day will come when you regret your decision. I hope that you will hold your head high, face the repercussions of your betrayal, and die for the Imperium valiantly like a man when that day comes!”
Lei Honghai’s lips trembled for a long time.
He was about to argue, but he simply held back his words after thinking for a long time. He merely sneered and bowed deeply at Lei Chenghu. “Rest well, Father. Everything will be over in a few days.”
“Perhaps.”
Lei Chenghu’s eyes passed his son and the wall, reaching a place that nobody could tell. “Perhaps everything is already over.”
…
The dazzling halo triggered by the anti-gravity rune arrays of “New Birth 2”, the carrier, soon disappeared into the icy fog. Very soon, even the contour of the starship was beyond recognition.
As nine gates that were ten meters thick closed slowly, the frigidity in the snowy world was blocked outside and could not find its way into the prison at all.
The Godly Might Prison once again became an impregnable environment.
The five hundred frozen prisoners who had just been delivered were going through the first examination to confirm their identities under the watch of a thousand prisoners and even more spiritual puppets.
While controlling every muscle and every cell precisely to pretend to be a deeply-hibernated person, Li Yao controlled Neltharion carefully and wandered in the underground port in the stealth state.
One after another, Neltharion detected assault warships that were docked in the port to avoid the bad weather.
It also noticed thousands of spiritual puppets and the highly-vigilant jailors that had been armed to the teeth.
There was no need to mention the surveillance cameras that had crammed the entire spaceport and every pathway and could invoke a trypophobia attack when one looked at them, as well as the interconnected firing points and the hidden bastions in the rocks.
The more one looked, the more depressing they would be.
Thankfully, there was the help of the spies from inside, or Li Yao would absolutely refuse to sneak into such a heavily guarded place.
A few jailors, leading a team of spiritual puppets, arrived before Li Yao and turned on the cabin he was at.
Li Yao hurried to move the blood gel that Li Linghai had long prepared to the spot where the newcomers were about to collect.
Perhaps some of the jailors who were responsible for the identity check belonged to the reformists too. Li Yao did not run into any trouble. After the blood and skin samples were tested, the magical equipment in their hands began to emit a gentle green color.
The jailors changed a new identification armband for Li Yao and waved their hands to let him go, implying that the Godly Might Prison had accepted the prisoner, and he would be “defrost” soon.
The first test has been passed successfully!
Li Yao felt a slight relief in his heart. “In the next moment, I will fully carry out my tough personal abilities, assassinate a jailor, and impersonate him. Then, I will dodge the sentry posts, surveillance cameras, and invisible rays with my agile and phantom movements and sneak to General Lei Chenghu’s side without alerting anyone. This is really a super difficult challenge, but I vaguely have a feeling that I’m pretty lucky today. I’m going to accomplish the mission without setbacks!”
In another half hour or so, Li Linghai and the rest of them will launch an attack. As long as I can pass the half hour in peace, the job will be 99% successful!
The mental devil: “Well…”
Hardly had Li Yao thought of that in his head when he sensed the most intensive quakes, mixed with deafening explosions, coming over from somewhere deep below his feet.
Earsplitting buzzes echoed from all directions. The entire Godly Might Prison was immediately enshrouded in red lights. All the jailors, war puppets, hidden bastions, and firing points were all activated and entered the most emergent combat state. Desperate roars came from the broadcast runes everywhere.
“Enemy incoming! Enemy incoming! Somebody has broken in!”
