Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1365
"I cursed them exactly on the spot—What is your problem? Is there something wrong with your head? Are you not considering reasons and logic at all? I would certainly have to reveal the capability of the Divinity Transformation Stage and my Colossus in the mission, but the Cultivators are a bunch of stray dogs and mobsters who have been killed and brutalized since a thousand years ago! What kind of foolish person would believe that the Cultivators could send someone in the Divinity Transformation Stage to carry out the mission in a Colossus?
"It… It was absolutely impossible. Even pigs wouldn't have believed that. The readers would've criticized the author for being too unbelievable, outrageous, and adding too many lucky factors to the supervillains that were Cultivators even if it were in a novel. It was needless to ask how it could deceive you and the cunning, smart big shots of the Li family!
"To be honest, I have pretended to be a lot of people in my life. I can even play a sixteen-year-old whore vividly. But it is truly a very troublesome challenge to pretend to be a Cultivator in the Divinity Transformation Stage this time. I totally can't imagine what exactly makes a 'Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator', what is on their mind, or what they look like!"
Li Lingfeng nodded his head slowly. "I understand it very well. The high and mighty big shots of families and the commanders of the coalition fleets never care about the actual situations in the frontline but always expose the specific executors in all kinds of unnecessary dangers."
Li Yao rolled his eyes and put on a cunning smile. "What now, Fellow Cultivator Li, are you trying to test which family or space fleet I come from? It does not seem important.
"All in all, guess how those sons of b*tches replied to me. They argued that victors did not need to explain and would not be punished. As long as I could sabotage your plan neatly and destroy 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', nobody would care if 'the Cultivator from the sky' was true or false.
"Or rather, even if all the forces and everybody knew clearly that I was a fake Cultivator and in an obvious disguise, so what? Your stream platform would already be destroyed, and the Heavenly Eye Group would likely be merged and swallowed by other people. 'The Cultivator from the sky' would never show up again. It would be clean and neat without any sequela, right?"
"No, there is sequela."
Li Lingfeng said coldly, "The tales of the Cultivators would spread out in the sea of stars. Countless hominoids would be inspired by the nonexistent scumbag. They would cause great trouble and seriously jeopardize the overall interests of the Imperium."
Li Yao laughed. "I didn't know that Fellow Cultivator Li is such a noble patriot. But rest assured. The Imperium is so magnificent, and the Cultivators could barely be called an ailment. A questionable tale and a few videos that could be fabricated by any crystal processor can't hurt the foundations of the Imperium.
"Besides, that is all the families and relatively independent space fleets have been doing. The interests of the family and the fleet are always placed above the interests of the Imperium, right?"
"Yes. You have made it in a very remarkable way."
Li Lingfeng narrowed his eyes and said, one word after another, "Even though I am on your opposite side, I have to admit that it is a clean, rapid, and textbook stealth-and-sabotage operation. Other people will only appreciate your ruthlessness, decisiveness, and heartlessness, without being bothered by your ridiculous false identity as a 'Cultivator'."
Li Yao raised his eyebrow and blew a whistle. He said with a smile, "You really do not hate me? Your peace of mind right now strikes me as a bit pretentious, Fellow Cultivator Li!"
"Of course I hate you. I want to skin you, cut you into pieces, and burn you into ashes."
When he thought of the damage Li Yao caused to "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky", the brutality inside Li Lingfeng's eyes was running out again. "To be honest, if it were yesterday, or even just half an hour ago when I had eight warships and hundreds of elite warriors hunting you together, I definitely wouldn't have let go of you but asked you to beg to be killed. I would've tortured you alive for ten years, before drawing out your soul and shattering it, making you die for good!
"But is there any point in saying that right now? Even if I hate your guts, so what? Right now, the greatest threat to me is not you but Li Linghai. In the meantime, the greatest threat to you is not me but Li Linghai, too!
"Like you said just now, 'business is business'. There's nothing personal between you and me. Even if we do have the greatest hatred toward one another, we can always make concessions at a life-and-death moment, right?"
Li Yao rolled his eyes again and again, and the smile on his face was even more intense. "Yes. Business is business, and interests are interests. Anything can be bargained and negotiated for survival."
"Besides, you are just a tool."
Li Lingfeng said, "I know everything about the experts above the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage who are public in the Imperium, including their techniques, their attack patterns, and the Colossi they use. All their data are in my head, but you are certainly not among them.
"So, the answer is obvious now. You are a secret weapon domesticated by a certain family, just like I raised Li Jialing and Li Linghai raised her secret armed force 'Deep Ocean Fleet'.
"Like you said just now, you can pretend to be countless people in the most vivid way, and even acting as a sixteen-year-old whore is not a problem for you. It better proves my speculation.
"You are the kind of creatures, like 'pretenders' or 'ghost warriors', who are trained to help the family with the clandestine businesses through the most bloody, dark, and dangerous missions, right?"
Li Yao's pupils constricted violently. As if he were stung by a nonexistent needle, his voice suddenly turned cold. "Ghost warriors? I don't like the sound of that."
"I know you don't."
Li Lingfeng smiled. "Every deeply-rooted ancient family has tragic persons like you, who can never show up with their real faces or enjoy the dignity, power, and glory that they deserve despite their dominating strength! Instead, they have to carry out the most dangerous, evil, and ugly missions time and time again. One moment of carelessness, and they will either be killed miserably in the frontline or thrown out as a scapegoat when the scheme is exposed!
"Take your mission for example. There's no need to describe the dangers in sneaking into 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' for sabotages on your own and to face my thunderous fury. You may be killed by me at any moment.
"Even if you return in one piece for now, should any information be leaked, the Li family may burst into fury and trace back to the schemer behind the curtain, the force that you belong to. Chances are that you will be traded or sacrificed. Tsk, tsk, tsk. When I think that way, while I am quite miserable right now, your conditions are no better than mine!"
In the confrontation of the two of them, Li Yao seemed to be unable to hold back his temper for the first time. He said coldly, "Fellow Cultivator Li, what is it that you are trying to say? We seem to be running out of time!"
"What I want to say is that we are actually the same type of people. I understand you!"
Li Lingfeng was even more sincere than when he talked to Li Jialing a moment ago. "Although you are in the dark while I am in the light, we are actually the same tools for our families.
"Haha. Everybody knows that I am the best within the prime generation of the Li family, the well-acknowledged 'next Kurfürst'. But how many people know that I am just a target that the big shots of the family have pushed to the front? 'If a tree grows taller than other trees in the forest, it will be destroyed by the wind inevitably.' Do the seniors of my family not understand such a simple logic? If they truly want me to be the leader of the family and the Kurfürst, there is no reason why they should tell everybody about it eloquently. Shouldn't they simply train me, support me, and give me more troops and power in secret?
"But now, they have promoted it on a large scale and informed everybody in the world that I am very likely to be the next leader of the family and the next Kurfürst. What is the meaning of that? They are obviously pushing me to the stage to help them shoulder the storms and arrows from inside and outside of the family as a cover for the real future heir in their hearts!
"Hehe. They thought that I was truly bemused by my ambitions, but I knew exactly what they planned!
"I will never admit to being a tool. 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', the Heavenly Eye Group, the slaughter stream platform, and everything about Li Jialing were the attempts I made to get rid of my pathetic fate!
"I am the captain of my own fate. The real big shots of the Li family consider me as a fool, a puppet, and a tool, but I will let them know who will laugh to the end and who is most qualified to control the entire Li family!"
As he approached the end, Li Lingfeng was already yelling.
Li Jialing, who had been raised by Li Lingfeng in secret since childhood, never knew that his uncle whom he deemed a fiend had such a side. He was stunned for a moment.
Sensing his subtle changes of feelings, Li Lingfeng smiled at the young man casually. "Why, Jialing, you did not expect that your uncle to be someone like this? In fact, you should have. Where exactly do you think the insubordination and sense of competition deep inside your soul came from?"
Pausing for a moment, he extended his hand at Li Yao again and said slowly, "Also, I believe that any expert who has advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage is unwilling to have their fate controlled by a family, a fleet, or a sect, and to live like rats in the gutter that will never see the sunlight!
"Your Colossus is so tough. Do you not want to let it appear in the sky of the capital of the Imperium in broad daylight someday?"
Li Yao: "… Well, truth be told, I did give it some thoughts before."
Chapter 2136: Wisdom Back Online! |
"It is useless to just 'give it some thoughts'!"
Li Lingfeng suddenly raised his voice and declared in an oppressing way, "My fellow Cultivator whose name I do not know but who is as pitiful as me, although you have been covering yourself up, I have already figured out your identity and your situation from the traces you left behind!"
Li Yao was slightly dazed. "Have you?"
"First of all, raising an assassin, assaulter, and saboteur in the Divinity Transformation Stage in secret while hiding it from everybody else, and having a Colossus that is not registered in any database in the Imperium—Even taking the entire Imperium into account, the forces with such capabilities can only be the four Kurfürst families and the few warlords of the coalition fleets who rose recently. Your origins can be beyond the few forces!"
Li Lingfeng said resolutely and unquestionably, "However, with such a remarkable background and amazing capabilities, you have been used by the force behind you as a secret agent to carry out such a mission that is bordering on suicide. It appears to me that your life in your force can't be too comfortable. It is possible that you are hated, envied, and ostracized too. Somebody might even have hoped to kill you through me, didn't they?
"Otherwise, I can't think of a reason why a high and mighty expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage would come to ruin 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' at such great risks. There are no benefits in it for you in person, and it is 99% likely that you would be killed!
"It's just like right now, had Li Linghai not arrived all of a sudden, you would've been killed by me a long time ago!
"As an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, you should be able to calculate the gains and losses in the blink of an eye. How could you have done such things rashly? It is utterly unreasonable!"
Li Yao's pupils enlarged and constricted, and the veins on his face were visible now and then too. He said slowly, "Fellow Cultivator Li, should I compliment you for your wisdom that is finally back online and showing the computational and deduction abilities of the Divinity Transformation Stage?"
Li Lingfeng sneered, "Eliminating all the unreasonable and illogical choices, my speculation is the only possible truth. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain your arrival and what you did at all!"
After a long silence, Li Yao finally heaved a sigh and said, "It may be the truth, but so what? Everybody in the universe has their restraints. Even if you are as strong as a god, it is impossible for you to do whatever you want! The Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and various sources that someone in the Divinity Transformation Stage consumes every day are astronomical. The seemingly powerful Colossus also requires an enormous industrial system for maintenance. There are also issues of fuel, ammunition, and replacement of weapons… Without the support of a family, what can I do by myself and my Colossus?
"Therefore, although I know I'll be hanging by a thread if I take the mission to sabotage your territory in the Martial Meritocrats Sector on my own, although I know that the fake identity of 'Cultivator' definitely cannot fool everyone in the entire Imperium, although I know that there is a good chance that I will be killed by you, or be hated by you who are at a higher level in the Divinity Transformation Stage than me for the rest of my life even if I am not, although I know that the entire Li family will consider me as prey should the incident be exposed and I will very likely end as a sacrifice in the private deals, although I know clearly that it is a scheme of someone in my force to kill me indirectly—I know everything clearly, but so what? So what?
"You're quite right. I'm just a tool, the sharpest saber. However sharp the saber is, it cannot decide whose hands it will be grabbed in and what it will slash!"
As he approached the end, blood was glistening in Li Yao's eyes, and his voice was filled with anger and resentment!
Li Lingfeng observed him quietly for a while before he suddenly chuckled. "It seems that I was not wrong at all. We truly share the same unfortunate life. It seems that I should not loathe you but the force behind you—the guys who went through all the trouble to destroy my lifelong work, the slaughter stream platform and the Heavenly Eye Group, and who intended to destroy you by the way too!"
The blood inside Li Yao's eyes was shining as he said gloomily, "Yes. Maybe those guys wanted us to kill each other in a battle, which would've been a stone that killed two birds!"
Blinking his eyes, Li Lingfeng put on an even more sunny smile. He said, "We've been fighting and chatting for a long time, but I don't seem to have learned my fellow Cultivator's name yet."
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "Call me 'Vulture Li Yao'."
Li Lingfeng glanced at Li Jialing, and there was even more certainty in his eyes.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes, and with hostility beaming out again, he said, "Why have your senses been locked onto Li Jialing? You want to tell if I gave you a false name through his indirect reactions?"
"I have no doubt that you gave me a false name."
Li Lingfeng chuckled. "However, judging from the reactions of my little nephew, you gave me the same pseudo name as you gave to him, which more or less proved your sincerity."
Li Yao glanced at Li Jialing and mumbled, "I'm feeling more and more that I underestimated you yesterday. I thought that you were just a random guy in a noble family who had more ambitions than talents. But as it turns out, as the dangerous moment of life and death, your wisdom is soaring like a volcano eruption. Even such a top-secret, that 'Vulture Li Yao' is a false name, has been seen through you immediately. How impressive!
"Enough talking. Now that we have more or less learned each other's cards, what exactly do you want, Fellow Cultivator Li?"
"Vulture Li Yao, Fellow Cultivator Li, right? Don't be so vigilant. You may find it hard to believe, but I really don't mean any harm to you right now—nor am I qualified to. I just hope that we can warm each other up and give each other a hand."
Opening his hands, Li Lingfeng said frankly, "You know it better than anybody else that the quest of 'Dying Light' has been completely messed up, 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' has been demolished, and the Heavenly Eye Group is hopeless. Whatever influences that I have built in the past decades are possible to fall apart. It is impossible for the big shots of my family to continue trusting and supporting me like before.
"All in all, I am poorer than any moment in the past hundred years, and it is barely possible for me to make a comeback on my own.
"Why would I refuse the friendship of another expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage under such circumstances? And it is one with such a powerful Colossus, no less!"
"Friendship?"
Li Yao sneered, "What will I get?"
"Same, the friendship of an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage!"
Li Lingfeng smiled. "Although I do not have anything right now, my core troops haven't suffered any damage. They are still cleaning up the mess in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, unaware of what is going on here. The wretched Sand Primitive Sector has been screwed up by the hundreds of years of destructive experiments. It is barely possible for us to send signals out.
"The bottom line is, as long as you help us survive the crisis right now, I'm absolutely confident to rise again. By then, if you really want to change your fate, I believe you wouldn't mind receiving some selfless help from 'the real controller of the Li family', would you?
"The alliance of two experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage is enough to make the universe tremble. How does it sound? Do you want to show up in the most glamorous seat in the Imperium openly and claim the power and glory that belong to you?"
Li Yao's eyelids bounced violently, and he ground his teeth like a grater. In an even more hoarse voice, he said, "That's all? You want to fool me into selling my life to you with such weightless bulls*it?"
"Of course. That's all about the future. Right now, what matters most is my dear sister and Her Grace of the Imperium."
Li Lingfeng sniffed the air; his nose tip quivering nonstop. "She has already entered the thunderstorm and is searching for us in the middle of the pouring rain and the thunder. It is a pity that the magnetic field here is too chaotic. She can't lock onto our coordinates for the time being, but it won't be long before she does. How about it? I don't believe that you are not interested in the queen."
