Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1241
After pondering for a moment, Li Yao asked suspiciously, "A dozen Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, even with their Colossi, are enough to die together with the Imperium? I'm afraid that it won't be so simple, right?"
"It is indeed a bit tricky to make the entire Imperium die with us. Besides, if we and the Imperium fight each other, the Covenant Alliance will take advantage, which is certainly not our goal," Jin Xinyue said with a smile. "However, we do not need to drag the entire Imperium to die with us at all. All we need to do is make the warlord or the aristocrat that intends to lay their fingers on the federation die with us and convince them of our capability to do so clearly.
"If a certain aristocrat intends to invade in the federation, then on the frontline at the edge of the cosmos, his troops will be destined to be mired in a prolonged war of attrition where there is no winner. After all the losses, he will only reap a series of wastelands in the end.
"In the rear, his nest will be seriously sabotaged, his bases will be destroyed, his ports will be paralyzed, and his trusted subordinates, his descendants, and even himself will endure infinite assassinations!
"The bottom line is, even if he does manage to conquer the Star Glory Federation in the end, his own capability will be diminished to weaker than ever, and he will end up as a fat and feeble prey in the cruel slaughterhouse that is the Imperium. It will be somebody else who takes all the benefits.
"After the warlords and aristocrats of the Imperium recognize this point clearly, will they recklessly wage a war upon the federation? This is exactly the mutual deterrence that you mentioned before."
Considering carefully for a moment, Li Yao shook his head and said, "The plan is too risky. Every Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and every Colossus is highly precious. Projecting a dozen Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and an equal number of Colossi into the Imperium entails too many unexpected factors. The losses may outweigh the gains in the end.
Looking at Li Yao, Jin Xinyue said, "Since this is a plan of strategic deception, we do not necessarily need to dedicate so many Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Colossi for real. All we need to do is convince our enemy that we have done so.
"Therefore, we actually only require three to four, or even only one or two, experts who are strong enough to perform decapitation strategies on a warlord or an aristocrat to accomplish the Heavenly Slayer Plan at the critical moment, and who can convince the enemy that similar experts to him are lurking right inside the Imperium."
Li Yao rubbed his fists. "That's what I'm best at!"
Jin Xinyue laughed. "When we drafted the Heavenly Slayer Plan in the beginning, I indeed designed the implementer with you as the template. Those elite scouts or experts of the Heavenly Slayer Plan who will be teleported to the Imperium must have very high abilities in information collection, exploration, solo combat, and even large-scale sabotage and decapitation on their own.
"Most critically of all, they must be of some influence and can negotiate with certain forces within the Imperium to reach an agreement as a representative of the federal government.
"Right now, few people in the federation boast such abilities and such standing. While all of them will not hesitate to go to the Imperium, you are certainly the best candidate of them all."
"Most importantly, as the Black Wind King, you are the legitimate ruler of the five worlds, including the Black Wind Sector," Di Feiwen said gravely. "In the Imperium of True Human Beings, strength is law, and when it comes to strength, you are not bad at all, my king!"
"Understood. You can leave both the Heavenly Eye Plan and the Heavenly Slayer Plan to me!" Li Yao was full of confidence. Then, he asked, "However, why does it sound like that the Imperium of True Human Beings is a tray of loose sand? Does it mean that we can deal with the entire Imperium by just dealing with some of the warlords and aristocrats?"
Chapter 1929: Out of Reach! |
Di Feiwen smiled and said, "It is better to say that the universe is too vast and boundless for any unified government to perform effective management with the technology of mankind today than to say that the Imperium is a tray of loose sand.
"My king, you should know that the civilization of mankind has been scattered in the three thousand Sectors not entirely because of our own conquest but also because of the 'spraying' of the Pangu Civilization and the Nuwa Civilization. In other words, we did not expand to the three thousand Sectors 'naturally'; we were 'tossed out' in a very short amount of time with their help.
"Then, after the collapse of the Pangu Civilization and the Nuwa Civilization, and when the tools of communication and transportation that they left behind were destroyed, 'disorganization' and 'isolation' became a regularity, and any unified government or dynasty is a special case.
"Actually, with the technology and social development of the civilization of mankind today, it is already the best for a central government to manage ten to twenty Sectors effectively. I believe that Speaker Ding must understand it better than anybody else."
"Exactly." As if a great headache had struck her, Ding Lingdang frowned and said, "Take the federation for example. Although we have advanced space jump technology and remote communication abilities, both the jumps and the communication consume abundant resources. Astronomical crystals are sent to the space ports and the remote communication bases to be wasted for nothing in the rippling spiritual waves.
"Even so, the federation can barely reach out to or perform effective management on the resource plants in the remote space zones. In many cases, we must count on the local sects to maintain basic order. Such an administration system based on sects is functioning well right now, but who can tell what will happen as time goes by, when the sects have complicated connections and deeply-rooted interests in the local area?
"Furthermore, the boundlessness of the universe and the abilities of human beings has led to the variations of the environments of the habitable planets or even the changes of the subspecies of mankind. For example, a half-primitive world such as the Forest Ocean Sector and the heavily-polluted wasteland such as the Nether World Sector definitely cannot be managed in the same way. Considering different local customs and traditions, it is even hardly possible to make the same law.
"Therefore, the federation today strongly features regional autonomy.
"Even if more and more worlds join the federation in the future, like the Ancient Sages Sector did, because they are far away from the central area of the federation and have even more complicated environments and races, it is basically impossible for the central government to manage them directly. Regional autonomy will be a more probable choice."
When Ding Lingdang took over Patriots Partnership from Lu Zui, she had already been a firm believer of regional autonomy and insisted that the federation would be barely capable of reigning the sea of stars with a formidable army. She argued that the only possible way was disseminating the ideology of the Cultivators to the entire universe.
Her ideas turned out to be the same as Di Feiwen's.
Di Feiwen nodded and said, "You are quite right, Speaker Ding. The problems that you have encountered are the exact problems plaguing the Imperium. Although the Imperium is much more powerful than the federation in terms of comprehensive national strength, there is no fundamental difference between the two parties when it comes to space jump and remote communication technology.
"If we say that the federation's limits are to govern ten Sectors effectively, the most powerful interest groups in the Imperium, with their most advanced technology, can effectively rule over twenty Sectors at best. Any more territory will cause indigestion.
"Even the brawniest and brutal dinosaur that grows for their entire life has a limited body size. The Imperium that is overly huge requires an ever-expanding bureaucratic system and an army for government, but the expansion of the bureaucratic system and the army will further drain and collapse the Imperium in the end. That was exactly what happened to the Star Ocean Imperium. Is the Imperium of True Human Beings any different?"
Li Yao could not help but smile. "Then, summon them with ideology. Do the Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium not have the lofty ideal of 'all for the civilization of mankind'?"
Di Feiwen chuckled, too. "The so-called 'lofty ideal' is a rarely-seen luxury in the entire universe. Neither of us is better than the other. Therefore, we might as well not laugh at each other.
"In the Star Glory Federation, although the Cultivators are praised as 'sabers of humanity' and expected to fight to protect the ordinary people according to the propaganda, how many Cultivators are really selfless and willing to devote their everything including their life? My king, do you and Speaker Ding really not have any selfish desires at all? If the Glorious Sunlight Group under your name was nationalized right now, would you feel nothing and have absolutely no complaints?"
Li Yao and Ding Lingdang looked at each other and smiled. "There is no need to corner us with the high expectations. Of course, we are not that honorable. Who in the entire universe can be entirely selfless except for the puppets of the Covenant Alliance?"
"Exactly," Di Feiwen said. "In the ideal scenario, the war between the federation and the Imperium is a war of ideologies between pure Cultivators and pure Immortal Cultivators. It seems to be a war about who is right and who is wrong. But in fact, the two parties share a common foe, which is not Covenant Alliance but 'humanity'.
"Cultivators have humanity, and Immortal Cultivators have humanity, too, which marks the biggest difference between us and the people of the Covenant Alliance.
"The primary element of humanity is selfishness. Genes are all selfish and will do whatever they can to pass themselves on. When the 'selfish genes' have conflicts with the 'lofty ideals' of the Immortal Cultivators, the only outcome will be the collapse of 'ideal'."
"How so?" Li Yao asked with great interest.
"Theoretically speaking, the Immortal Cultivators' ideology of 'survival of the fittest' is not wrong," Di Feiwen said. "As long as equality is ensured, and the smoothness of the channel of ascension and the strictness of the elimination system are guaranteed, it is a rather fair design. However, it is utterly unachievable in reality.
"All humans are selfish, regardless of whether they are Cultivators or Immortal Cultivators. Even though the Immortal Cultivators may claim that weaklings whose spiritual roots are not awakened should be eliminated mercilessly even if they are their children, how many of them are really ruthless and coldhearted enough to put it into action?
"Besides, in a world where the fittest survives, everybody can betray each other at any minute. One's own family and descendants are probably the only ones who are slightly more loyal. Even if they are 'hominoids' whose spiritual roots cannot be awakened, they can always be given some jobs that are less eye-catching. If the Immortal Cultivators 'eliminate' their own people, wouldn't they be diminishing themselves and allowing other people to take the advantage?
"Rules are made by people. One can always find a loophole if they are determined to. Perhaps, when the Imperium was just founded, the system was once implemented rigorously. However, as time went by, the noble families and great houses expanded quickly and gradually went out of control. It is now an absolute illusion to realize the highly-effective distribution and utilization of resources solely with the idea of 'survival of the fittest'."
"What about the emperor?" Li Yao asked. "Does the emperor not have a problem with the situation where the nobles grow independent and the warlords dominate their own territory beyond his control?"
"Do not imagine the emperor to be too powerful a man. Not every emperor is a 'Blackstar the Great'," Di Feiwen said. "Even Blackstar the Great had to count on a lot of deeply-rooted noble families dating back to the Star Ocean Republic to claim the hegemony of the universe.
"In the Imperium, there is even a secret theory that Blackstar the Great was merely a 'spokesperson' that those traditional families of the Star Ocean Republic introduced. They created such an 'emperor' in order to consolidate the interests that they had looted illegally. However, the emperor's ambitions and strength far exceeded their expectations, and things slightly went out of control in the end.
"While Blackstar the Great was uncontrollable, his offspring were not as dominating as him. In the past thousand years, the great families of the Imperium instigated trouble and contradictions within the royal family through all kinds of approaches. With the throne as the bait, they lured the Wuying family to fight one another so that they could take the opportunity to consolidate their power. The entire Empyreal Terminus Sector is no better than a rubber stamp.
"Today, the most powerful four families have even been given the title of 'Kurfürst', the prince-elector. Think about it. If even the emperor must be elected by them, how could the emperor expect to restrain them?"
Li Yao observed in mixed feelings, "The situation in the Imperium seems to be different from what Su Changfa told me in the past."
"Su Changfa came from academia. As a professor of Imperial Colonization University, he was nurtured in an ivory tower. Naturally, he fully accepted the propaganda of the Imperium."
Di Feiwen lowered his head and said, "I, on the other hand, am merely a minor dealer who rose up from the bottom level of the Imperium. I don't know what everything should be 'theoretically', and I am only sharing what I have seen exactly as it is.
"All in all, this is about the situation of the Imperium when the Black Wind Fleet left the Imperium a hundred years ago. The twenty or so worlds near the Empyreal Terminus Sector are nominally under the direct command of the emperor. The bureaucratic agencies sent by the court manage them. Of course, the interventions from the four families of Kurfürst are inevitable.
"The forty or so Sectors outside are the hereditary territory of the four Kurfürst families, mixed with some feuds of the members of the royal family. On average, every family rules over seven to eight worlds. They are only obliged to submit taxes and offer soldiers to the court according to their different strengths. It is practically impossible for the court to interfere with their internal affairs.
"The hundreds of Sectors further beyond are even more separated. Every Sector often has its own ruler. In some of the Sectors that have multiple habitable planets, almost every planet will have a ruler. Those people are either the hereditary nobles, rising warlords, or people who volunteered to surrender during the Imperium's conquest of the universe. For example, if the federation had chosen to surrender when the Black Wind Fleet attacked, it was possible that a few Sector Masters would have been elected to maintain the local government. This is not because the Imperium is lenient but because it is beyond the reach of the Imperium, like Speaker Ding explained so eloquently just now.
"The ways to govern the peripheral worlds are rather various and arbitrary. Harsh tyranny is not the only option. Some worlds adopt gentler policies. But for the brutal and ruthless ones, the cruelty of their government is much more severe than the worlds directly under the command of the emperor and the Kurfürsten."
Chapter 1930: Training for Everybody |
Li Yao was rather astonished. "Now that you put it in such a way, the Imperium today is indeed chaotic and as unpromising as a setting sun. It is rather miraculous that it has survived a thousand years and is even showing the signs of rejuvenation!"
"Yes. Logically, such an Imperium where the strong prey on the weak should've collapsed abruptly in the cruel exploitation and the everlasting internal strife," Di Feiwen said. "But an eternal factor helped it to maintain the vulnerable stability, which was the Covenant Alliance.
"No matter how selfish, aggressive, unpardonable, and sophisticated the Immortal Cultivators are, the Covenant Alliance is their common foe. No Immortal Cultivator is willing to be deprived of their feelings and free will and end up as a pathetic puppet.
"It is because of the existence of the great enemy that is the Covenant Alliance that the local forces within the Imperium manage to maintain their basic order. Although the strong prey on the weak, there is a set of game rules that everybody has accepted, however reluctantly. No matter how powerful the Kurfürsten are, they never thought to usurp the throne because the so-called throne is more of a curse than a bliss. If the Imperium is destroyed by the Covenant Alliance because of their attempted usurpation, wouldn't they be the greatest fools in the world?
"Therefore, the Imperium is not governed by the authority of the emperor; every force that has their own intentions are condensed and gathered under the lightning trident flag of the Imperium of True Human Beings because of their fight against the Covenant Alliance.
"Because there is absolutely no room for negotiation between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance, almost no nobles or warlords will surrender to the Covenant Alliance. That is why the Imperium of True Human Beings has reigned for a thousand years."
"That explains a lot." Li Yao nodded slowly. The Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant were indeed utterly incompatible with each other. Although the Immortal Cultivators were rather heinous, the puppets of the Covenant Alliance were even more inhumane. Compared to the life where one's feelings and will were completely stripped away, making them live as zombies, the government of the Imperium did seem somewhat acceptable.
"However, things are subtly changing right now," Di Feiwen said calmly. "In the past thousand years, the Covenant Alliance has been highly aggressive most of the time. The dread of the Covenant Alliance united all the Immortal Cultivators and forced them to ignore their contradictions between each other.
"After the unexpected victory of the strategic counterattack of the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance has been banished from the most prosperous area at the center of the cosmos. It does not seem capable of threatening the Imperium anymore. The thousand years of threat from the outside world seems to have been completely shattered.
