Wei Guanghui almost couldn’t wait to slap his son in the face to wake him up. After a pause, every wrinkle on his face was suddenly filled with wariness. “Wait. Tell me honestly, you are not a member of this so-called…’Blood Oath Alliance’, are you?”
“Absolutely not. I am not as stupid as that.”
Wei Yuanjia hurried to prove his innocence before his father, “Even Tianxiao, your biological grandson, has nothing to do with the Blood Oath Alliance at all as far as I know. He only joined the ‘Thousand Cherries Union’, another association of young officers.”
“Hehe. The young people today are joining this and that organization every day in their fever instead of working for their family and the Imperium dutifully. They are either stealthy doing their own thing or have no courage at all. They won’t accomplish anything!”
Wei Guanghui shook his beard and said in despise, “In my opinion, it is not a bad idea to let the special investigation committee bring Tianxiao away and let him examine what he has been doing. After all, they are just taking him as a leverage, and they certainly do not really dare to hurt him. If he suffers this time, he will learn to contain himself in the future!”
“Father… I’m afraid you’re wrong!”
Wei Yuanjia, in an unusual manner, confronted his father determinedly. “The noble families from the center of the cosmos treat the Immortal Cultivators of the local areas so harshly that even the most peaceful people in the world would burst into fury. We’ve been fighting in blood through life and death for more than ten years, but what we get is a basket of cold water and even a sentence to prison. Those guys tell us what to do in the rear all the time, regarding us as cannon fodder and chess pieces, and come to steal all the fruits of victory now that we have won. Tianxiao is not the only person dissatisfied with them. Even I, as well as the fellow Cultivators from dozens of small worlds, cannot hold it back anymore either!
“Although the noble families at the center of the cosmos are powerful, the fellow Cultivators at all the peripherical worlds are qualified to compete with them if we join hands with each other. At the very least, we can take back what belongs to us!”
“Of course. Everybody knows that the hundreds of smaller worlds would be able to check the dozens of powerful worlds at the center of the cosmos. But the hundreds of smaller worlds are scattered in every part of the Imperium, with a distance of tens of thousands of lightyears from each other. Many of the smaller worlds have been in conflict for hundreds of years. They are also intentionally controlled by the four Kurfürst families with the strategy of ‘divide and conquer’. They are just a tray of disorganized loose sand. How can they join each other’s hands?”
Wei Guanghui sneered, “When ‘God of War’ Lei Chenghu was still here, it was perhaps possible to unite the forces of a dozen smaller worlds with his prestige and the powerful combat ability of the Astounding Thunder Fleet.
“But did you not hear what the little bas*ard of the special investigation committee said? General Lei has been arrested by them. There is no telling what kind of interrogations he is going through. I imagine that it won’t take long before he completely surrenders.
“The Third Battle Area at this moment is in panic and lack of leadership. Even the Astounding Thunder Fleet can barely protect itself, and you want the Red Nimbus Fleet, with the few canoes, ragged guns, and the two assembled Colossi, to lead the resistance? Who will be idiotic enough to die with us?”
Wei Yuanjia was silent, but determination and weirdness beamed out of his eyes.
Nobody knew a person better than their father did. Wei Guanghui was slightly dazed. Knowing that his son must have very important intelligence that he had not spoken yet, he hurried to drag his son into the command room, locked the door, and blocked it with a soundproof rune array, before he finally asked solemnly, “What is going on?”
Wei Yuanjia cleared his throat, trying to pretend that everything was fine, but his shivering voice exposed the eagerness and excitement in his heart. “Father, what if I tell you that General Lei Chenghu is likely to have escaped from the prison and returned to the Third Battle Area, and that he is summoning the Astounding Thunder Fleet under the slogan of ‘Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions’?”
“What? ‘Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions’?”
Wei Guanghui was so shocked that a thunder seemed to have rumbled in his head. Despite the magnificent strength in the Nascent Soul Stage, he lost his control over his pores for a moment, and he had sweat all over his body.
He grabbed his son’s shoulders; his fingers piercing deeply into his son’s skin like pincers as he demanded, “Speak! Where did you get the news?”
He had every reason to ask the question.
The Red Nimbus Fleet was stationed at the edge of the Third Battle Area where the environment was harshest. The star here was like a temperamental child that was spitting out the most violent radiations and magnetic waves every second. There was also cosmic dust as thick as the fog that covered the area of more than one billion kilometers. Like a wall of fog, it significantly disrupted the signals of the Spiritual Nexus sent in from the outside world.
The No. 223 resource planet was like a lonely island. Even though the super-space communication base of the highest power had been deployed, the contact with the outside world was still intermittent. It was not unusual that no messages of the outside world were heard in two to three days. Sometimes, when they did receive messages, the information was nothing but meaningless, corrupted data.
The situation was even worse in the recent half month when the No. 223 resource planet had entered a period of frequent tectonic activities. All kinds of volcano eruptions and super earthquakes were happening, greatly hindering the communication between the Red Nimbus Fleet and the Astounding Thunder Fleet, which was also the command center of the Third Battle Area.
At the very least, on the official channel controlled by Wei Guanghui, the command center of the Third Battle Area kept silent.
But right now, before the information came over through the official channel, his son had brought him such a piece of shocking, unofficial news. How could Wei Guanghui not be suspicious?
“There is no doubt about that, Father. My intelligence should be 80% trustworthy.”
Wei Yuanjia said mysteriously, “It was sent over through the secret channel of the ‘Business Alliance of the Ten Thousand Sectors’.”
“The Business Alliance of the Ten Thousand Sectors?”
Wei Guanghui frowned hard. “You mean the organization of merchants that is quite active in recent years and offered us a low-interest loan half a year ago?”
“Exactly! The fraternities of young officers such as the ‘Blood Oath Alliance’ and ‘Thousand Cherries Union’ are just the child’s play of the fervent young men. But the Business Alliance of the Ten Thousand Sectors is different. Even you might not know how powerful they are. They are an organization that stands for the power of the local capitals in the more than a hundred Sectors at the edge of the Imperium!”
Wei Yuanjia completely threw away his disguise and said determinedly, “The most powerful force in the universe is the spiritual energy, but it is not as powerful as capitals! The war between the peripheral capitals of the Imperium and the central capitals has already begun. With the connection of the Business Alliance of the Ten Thousand Sectors, we will not be loose sand that can be bullied by anyone but a real alliance that condenses the strength of hundreds of smaller Sectors. Then, under the leadership of trustworthy experts such as General Lei Chenghu and big shots of higher levels, we will definitely succeed!”
Different from his son who was slightly anxious, Wei Guanghui calmed down as he listened on. He stared at his son and said, “Good boy. It seems that you have done a lot of things behind my back, and I was too old and blind to see any of it!”
Wei Yuanjia was choked for a moment. But he simply held his head high and looked back at his father. “Everything I’ve been doing is for the Red Nimbus Sector and the Wei family instead of my selfish interests. The reason I did not tell Father was for your own safety and to separate me from the family. Should what I did be exposed, I would’ve taken all the blame and punishment!
“No matter what, the Wei family is an honorable family of Immortal Cultivators. We are all supposed to be high and mighty, dominating Immortal Cultivators! We are born to rage in the sea of stars and accomplish something great, not to hold ourselves back and be dogs! Not to mention that we cannot even be dogs now even if we want to. They are about to butcher us and eat our flesh!
“Father, you are at the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage. Are you willing to live your entire life whining and die miserably like a hairless dog? Now that the four Kurfürst families are not giving us a chance to live, let’s just go and fight with General Lei! The worst we can expect is just death. Having fought hundreds of battles against the Covenant Alliance for ten years, are we scared of death?”
Wei Guanghui, unexpectedly, did not scold his son for comparing him to a “hairless dog”. He simply considered the situation with a gloomy face.
After a long consideration like a wooden statue, he seemed to have grown older by ten years. He asked hoarsely, “Are you certain that General Lei has returned to the Astounding Thunder Fleet?”
“It should be true.”
Wei Yuanjia hesitated for a moment and said, “Tell you the truth, Father, the Red Nimbus Fleet is not the only one seething in impatience. All the local fleets in the Third Battle Area are rioting. Even the brother troops in the neighboring battle areas who used to fight with General Lei are ready to move. It is now or never!”
“I don’t want probability; I want certainty!”
Wei Guanghui said gravely, “Investigate more. You must figure out if General Lei has returned to the Astounding Thunder Fleet and what helped him get out of the control of the four Kurfürst families exactly!”
“Understood!”
Realizing that his father was not as determined as before, Wei Yuanjia was overjoyed. “I am doing my best to establish the secret communication channel between the No. 233 resource planet and the command center of the Third Battle Area. The fellow Cultivators of the Business Alliance of the Ten Thousand Sectors have shipped a super device of communication, and it is now being set up. The latest news will soon be over.”
“As for right now and the people on the name list…
“Well—”
Pondering for a moment, Wei Guanghui said, “Summon everybody on the list first, including Tianxiao, and show him the list. Tell them that they are in serious trouble.
“If General Lei Chenghu has not returned, don’t blame me for being too cruel. We can only tie those people up and deliver them in exchange for a brief period of peace for us.
“But if General Lei has indeed returned, those people will be the best and most daring team. Hehe. I will let the little bas*ard of the special investigation committee know the consequences of pissing off an Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage…”
