Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1321
"What about those who are confined and guilty of 'dereliction of duty' and other crimes? Are they miners, too?"
"No," the captain said. "They seem to be the managers of the local mining group. They are all Immortal Cultivators. But because they dealt with the emergency unsatisfactorily and were too merciful during the suppression of the illegal demonstrations and the armed rebellions, which led to the escalation of the incident, they were found guilty of 'dereliction of duty' and sent here.
"Rumor has it that some of them were rather sympathetic to the rioters. They were suspected to have been infiltrated and polluted by the Covenant Alliance. That was why their sentence was rather harsh, and they were even found guilty of 'crimes against humanity'."
Chapter 2063: The Truth Is Out! |
Infiltrated and polluted by the Covenant Alliance?
Li Yao secretly frowned.
Of course, he disagreed with the Alliance of the Holy Covenant's approach to treat human beings as the slaves of the Pangu Clan and completely abandon emotions and free will.
If he had to choose sides in the war between the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, he was still more inclined to the Imperium's side.
However, just because of their poor performance during the suppression of the riot of the miners, they had been deemed to be infiltrated and corrupted by the Covenant Alliance and sentenced to death. The punishment seemed too severe.
Even the Immortal Cultivators, their own kind, were treated so harshly. It was not hard to imagine the Imperium's attitude toward the 'hominoids'.
Li Yao ground his teeth hard and felt exasperated at the idiocy of the Immortal Cultivators. If he were a 'hominoid' caught in darkness and desperation after seeing his compatriots being suppressed miserably, he might have considered abandoning his feelings and joining the Covenant Alliance, too!
After a sniff, Li Yao continued his questioning. "You said that you have carried out a lot of shipping missions. Were they all the relocation of felons?"
The captain nodded. "Yes. Our carrier boasts the ability to keep a thousand hibernation cabins running at the same time after special modifications, which were done at a great cost. It is not a fair deal to ship common goods."
"So, you have met a lot of prisoners," Li Yao said casually. "Were they also found guilty of insurgency or even treason because of various riots, rebellions, and uprisings like the prisoners this time?"
The captain thought for a moment and then nodded somewhat hesitantly. "In most cases, yes. Naturally, there are occasional individual or criminal cases. The 'Triones Shipping Group' does not have enough experts to escort the criminals that are more dangerous. We do not have a higher level. Therefore, those who are shipped by us are mostly the general criminals that involve a lot of people whose combat ability is not very high. In the last half a year, we have already carried out three similar missions."
"Oh? Are there a lot of large-scale resistance cases caused by the hominoids in the Imperium?"
"A few hundred years ago, there was no end to such incidents," the captain said, "but in the last hundred years, after the various reforms in the Imperium, such incidents have decreased.
"However, over the last couple of years, because the Imperium is at war against the Covenant Alliance and in dire need of resources, every subject of the Imperium is required to dedicate themself selflessly.
"Many lazy hominoids lack the spirit of sacrifice. Because of the indulgence in the last hundred years, they grew resentment when their workload was slightly increased. Besides, the spies from the Covenant Alliance have snuck into the Imperium to spread propaganda and instigate the ignorant folk to rebel. Some of the bottom-level Immortal Cultivators were even corrupted and developed an unnecessary sense of empathy and mercy. So, the cases of strikes and riots are on the rise again."
"Got it. To cope with the war against the Covenant Alliance, or more exactly, to prepare for the largest counterattack in the past thousand years, the Imperium is in desperate need of tremendous resources. So, harsh laws have been implemented to serve the purpose. After the riots of the hominoids are suppressed, they will be sent into various prisons. Even the prisons of the national level are insufficient now, and 'private prisons' have to be established to cage the prisoners." Li Yao narrowed his bloodstained left eye and stared at the opponent. "Is that so?"
"Yes," the captain said. "The prisons of the government are useless for those criminals because the environment in the prisons is no different from their workplace deep inside the mines. It is barely a deterrence, only a great waste of precious resources in keeping them fed.
"But private prisons are different.
"The hundreds of private prisons have different ways of operation. After the criminals are delivered here, not only will they waste zero coins of the country, the owner of the private prison will also submit a large sum of money according to the headcount and their capability. It is both a relief of burdens for the country and a greater deterrence for the criminals. The owners of the private prisons have their ways to exploit them for abundant revenue, too. It is a stone that kills three birds.
"Therefore, all kinds of private prisons are flourishing in the Imperium nowadays. The private prison under the banner of the 'Heavenly Eye Group' is a typical example. It is a model prison of the state level."
Li Yao took a deep breath to hold back his simmering emotions. "The Heavenly Eye Group pays a large sum of money for every criminal delivered. How are they going to earn the money back?"
"I don't know." The captain shook his head quickly. "We are only responsible for shipping the goods and only stay in Manjusaka for a day or two every time. We don't have an opportunity to find out much inside information, nor are we interested in it. As long as we can earn our money, it will be good enough."
Under the deterrence of Li Yao's soul and the hypnotization of the mental devil, there was certainly no possibility of lying for the captain. He truly did not know anything about it.
"You are being silly!" The mental devil chuckled. "The so-called 'criminals' naturally have a lot of value to be exploited. They are all the new blood to be transmitted to the Land of Sins!"
"Huh?" Brilliance shone in Li Yao's eyes. "Are you suggesting…"
"Yes. Didn't we analyze it before? The Land of Sins suffer from radiation and pollution," the mental devil said. "It is an atrocious world with endless slaughter where the strong prey on the weak. The children born in the Land of Sins are highly unlikely to grow up smoothly. By the calculation of the demographic model independently, it should be a world of a scarce population that has collapsed a long time ago.
"In fact, the population in the Land of Sins is refilled mostly by the newcomers from the sky other than natural reproduction.
"Every day, countless people who have lost their memories are projected from the sky and grow into a new generation of 'sinners'. They will either struggle, fight, and be twisted into ferocious experts and monsters in the abnormal world, or die without a sound there.
"Where do you think is the incessant 'fresh blood' from?"
"That explains a lot," Li Yao said. "Most of the 'fresh blood' from the sky are the ordinary people who were engaged in strikes, demonstrations, and uprisings in the Imperium. After they were suppressed, they were naturally regarded as 'sinners' and became a new generation of 'sinners' before they were exiled to the 'Land of Sins' for life imprisonment. What a marvelous design!"
"Don't forget that there are still 'old grandpas'," the mental devil said. "The old grandpas are newcomers that arrived with all kinds of advanced arts and techniques and are much stronger than general sinners. Naturally, common criminals do not qualify for that."
"I understand it now. They are the Immortal Cultivator criminals, just like the thirty-six unlucky fellows who have been charged with 'dereliction of duty' up ahead," Li Yao said. "The Imperium is such a large place. There are all kinds of setups and competitions among the Immortal Cultivators. It is only natural that a lot of criminals are generated.
"Perform brain surgery on the criminals to erase or corrupt their memory area and implant abundant new information into it. Or, simply refine them through high-intensity hypnotization procedures for a long time, and they will become 'old grandpas' who are responsible for the dissemination of new techniques.
"Right. Gu Zhengyang, Liu Li's dad, mentioned that he vaguely recalled his skull being opened on an operating table and somebody ruling that he was guilty. It perfectly fits this guy's theory. Liu Li's dad used to be an Immortal Cultivator who committed a crime!"
So far, most of the secrets about Manjusaka had been unveiled.
The only question now was how to sneak into and destroy it!
Li Yao considered the matter in silence for ten seconds before he asked the captain, "Is there a dock near the space port of Manjusaka, one that is capable of repairing large starships? Your starship is too badly damaged. It cannot perform a space jump if it is not maintained right here, can it?"
"There is," the captain replied. "The space fortress of the Heavenly Eye Group has full facilities. Naturally, it is not short of maintenance docks. We have performed a few simple maintenance and examination jobs there. We saw other starships that suffered cosmic storms repaired there, too."
"Therefore, with the condition of your starship right now, it will certainly be docked here for a long time for maintenance," Li Yao said. "How long do you expect it will need to stay?"
The captain was responsible for the damage control team in the first place and was a professional in terms of starship maintenance. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Our engine compartment is almost entirely ruined now. However we accelerate the process, it will take at least ten days to half a month."
"What will the crew do in the meantime?" Li Yao asked. "Will you be allowed to go out?"
"We have a small activity area near the space port, but it is impossible for us to enter Manjusaka," the captain replied dutifully. "It's a forbidden area. People from the Heavenly Eye Group help us move all the hibernation cabins in every time. We have never entered it."
"Alright. Everything is clear now. Thank you for your cooperation."
Li Yao snapped his fingers. The Immortal Cultivator's bloodshot eyes immediately glazed. He turned around mechanically like a zombie and opened his arms, running at where the poisonous gas and the fire were most furious.
After a dull explosion, the Immortal Cultivator turned to ash, but before that, his screaming soul had been ripped apart by the claw of Li Yao's soul, completely vanishing into the fire.
"Let's keep the same approach and fly Neltharion in for reconnaissance first."
Li Yao lifted the stealth multipurpose starship in his palm and blew at it softly. The mental devil took the opportunity to dive in.
Li Yao's soul was ten times stronger than before, and the distance to secretly control Neltharion had been extended dozens of times over. Even if his remote control over Neltharion was cut off, there was still the mental devil who was relatively independent to maintain the stealthy investigation of Neltharion when the connection was off.
For Li Yao's own body, when he was equipped with a crystal suit or went on a killing spree after summoning the Colossus, there was little difference between the periphery of Manjusaka or its center.
After all, the entire sky would be within the range of his attack!
Chapter 2064: Frozen Beehive! |
Li Yao wanted to take a gamble.
The carrier was not of a high level. It was shipping nobodies from the riot in the mine. The best of them were a few Immortal Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage. Both the Fist King and Xiahou Wuxin were much stronger than them. They should not attract much attention from Manjusaka.
Besides, Manjusaka was planning the epic quest to fish up 'Starlight' once and for all and had no extra energy to spare on a minor explosion accident of such a carrier.
Furthermore, it was anything but unusual for a starship to be seriously damaged after encountering a cosmic storm during the voyage.
Therefore, Li Yao estimated that the carrier would stay in the dock of Manjusaka for at least ten days. There probably would not be enough hands to perform a full maintenance on it at the beginning.
It was absolutely safe for Li Yao to hide his original body inside. Unless a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator suddenly decided to rip the carrier into shreds, nobody would ever be able to discover him.
For the low-level Immortal Cultivators, even if he swaggered before them openly, they would not be able to see him at all. That was the confidence of a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator!
"Neltharion, go now. Figure out the overall structure and the distribution of forces inside Manjusaka. Most importantly of all, find the planner and commander of the so-called 'epic quest', as well as the heart of the enormous space fortress."
Li Yao rubbed his chin slowly and put on a cold smile. "Speaking of which, it's been a long time since I last employed the decapitation strategy!"
Neltharion turned into waves that were utterly inconspicuous in the air again, moving further away quickly.
Under the dual control of Li Yao and the mental devil, Neltharion passed the heads of the Immortal Cultivators who were in a hurry, avoided the antifire foam that was spurting everywhere, and snuck into the main warehouse where a thousand hibernation cabins were located by following the few patrol puppets whose routes were fixed.
Since his goal was to approach the enemy's core, the general criminals were not his target. Pondering for a moment, Li Yao flew Neltharion to the top of the hibernation cabin that caged the Immortal Cultivator of the highest Cultivation.
The gap between the bars that was as thick as a finger happened to be enough for Neltharion to crawl in without a sound.
Li Yao slightly adjusted Neltharion's output of spiritual energy to make it melt into the cooling and stabilization rune arrays of the hibernation cabin. Then, it was ordered to lurk quietly.
What he needed to do next was wait.
The Cultivators who were stranded in the Imperium of True Human Beings had waited for a thousand years.
They did not need to wait much longer.
…
After several hours of anxious, exhausting work, the fire at the rear of the carrier was finally extinguished.
Although the power engine had been messed up by the explosions and almost lost all its impetus, it was great that they had finally arrived at their destination. The carrier was pulled by several navigation starships from Manjusaka and docked at the end of one of the space ports.
The crimson space fortress looked even more magnificent and splendid when it was viewed at a close distance.
It was truly like a flower of the hell that was blossoming slowly and could be divided into three layers that were entangled and connected with each other. The disc-shaped space stations at the periphery were like enormous petals. A lot of tentacles also extended out of the edge of the petals and into space. The carrier was docked right next to one of the tentacles.
At the center of the petals was the thick 'flower disc'. Judging from the scale, it was no less impressive than 'Hundred Flowers City', the largest space city in the Star Glory Federation.
The flower disc, as the main body, was connected to a spherical space station that went deep into the atmosphere by almost a hundred channels that looked like stems. Countless circular rails extended from the spherical station in all directions, which enshrouded the entire planet like the claws of a fiend. Small barges and automatic spiritual puppets were working around the circular rails. They were exactly the 'Heavenly Rails' that Li Yao had seen from the Land of Sins.
The port where the carrier was docked was itself a large warehouse. There were not many living Immortal Cultivators in the warehouse. Most of them were clumsy and lifeless spiritual puppets.
It appeared that the two parties had cooperated many times and knew each other very well. The spiritual puppets moved in on fixed rails, and the crystal wires and mechanical structure on them were connected to the hibernation cabins on the carrier, pulling all of them out.
The hibernation cabin where Neltharion was hiding was certainly no exception.
Because it was larger and more advanced, four spiritual puppets worked together in order to move it out of the carrier.
Several Immortal Cultivators in black uniforms, with an emblem of a sole eye on the chest and left arm, who appeared to be officers, discussed something with the captain of the carrier, while they pointed at the damage at the rear of the carrier.
It appeared that they were checking the number of goods and the losses during the journey and discussing the maintenance issues.
Neltharion completely went into stealth mode, like a meteorite that spattered into the hibernation cabin. It was not discovered by anybody.
Ten minutes later, the thirty-six hibernation cabins where the Immortal Cultivator criminals were locked indeed went separate ways from those that caged the 'hominoid' criminals.
The hibernation cabins of the ordinary people were still waiting to be shipped, but the hibernation cabins of the Immortal Cultivators had already been delivered to a spacious platform, where the ground was carved with complicated runes, with bright purple smoke popping up intermittently.
A teleportation array?
Li Yao blinked. The next second, his connection with Neltharion was cut off!
Cr*p. There is actually a 'quick channel' for the Immortal Cultivator criminals, which can teleport them to Manjusaka directly!
The mechanism of teleportation arrays involved the esoteric knowledge about the four-dimensional space, the super tiny wormholes, and many other things. Despite Li Yao's powerful telepathic thoughts, it was impossible for him to track them through four-dimensional space.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao entered the deep meditative state in a dark corner of the carrier. His telepathic thoughts turned into waves, which analyzed the space ripples that were triggered when the teleportation array was activated and then spread out to all directions.
