Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1475
"Therefore, the competition for the new emperor will certainly be fierce!
"Li Linghai is so vicious that she certainly has other moves. With a few tricks, the three Kurfürst families will burst into a great fight against each other."
Although the man was speaking in a hurry, he had recovered the computational ability of the prime minister of the Imperium while he analyzed the whole thing.
Li Yao sweated hard and felt that his heart was cold.
"I'm still baffled."
Li Yao mumbled, "What can the queen benefit from the chaos of the Imperium?"
"I don't know what Li Linghai can gain from the chaos."
Gritting his teeth, Dongfang Wang struggled to say, "I only know that if the Imperium remained in peace and you passed the transition period of power without any disasters, Li Linghai would forever be an insignificant queen. As time went by, it would be less and less possible for her to stir any trouble. In the end, she would only perish like dust without any sound!
"Having done so many things through so much trouble, she would never want to perish like that. Never!"
Chapter 2312: Possessed By Whom? |
In Li Yao's senses, Dongfang Wang's soul power erupted from the depths of his brain like a volcano outburst.
It was certainly not a good sign but the last exuberance of his life.
Li Yao said in a hurry, "Prime Minister Dongfang, don't be excited. I trust you. Just take your time!"
Dongfang Wang's eyes were burned into hazy glass balls. There was no telling if he still had normal vision. His hands that were as dry as twigs, however, were groping randomly in midair, tearing the map of the Imperium into broken ripples.
The former prime minister of the Imperium roared hysterically, "Li Linghai, Li Linghai, you may have taken everything into consideration, but you couldn't have known that Dongfang Tuo and I had reached a secret agreement, and that I had the evidence that I absolutely did not assassinate Dongfang Tuo!
"Vulture Li Yao, Dongfang Mingyue, if you are both Li Linghai's subordinates, everything will be done, and I'll just admit my failure in the gamble!
"However, if you still have the slightest concerns for the big picture of the Imperium and the civilization of mankind, then help me bring the evidence and everything I said just now to General Lei Chenghu. Tell it to everybody in the whole world and ask them to unveil Li Linghai together!"
Li Yao was about to inject another dosage of medical drugs for Dongfang Wang when he stood on his feet, shaking. Every pore on his body was emitting feeble flames, and he laughed crazily in the weirdest way. "Haha. Hahahaha. However, even if your schemes all work out, it's going to be useless, Li Linghai! You can defeat me, you can deceive and steal the entire Imperium, but you can never beat the universe! You will eventually be collapsed by the Imperium and swallowed by the universe just like me!
"Nobody… Nobody can escape from the universe. This boundless yet barren universe is a cage for billions of civilizations!
"Both us and the gods and devils in the primeval age are but ants in the sea of stars and grains of dust in the vast space…"
Dongfang Wang's hands tore apart the map of the Imperium and groped through the spotty light, as if he were reaching for the real universe above his head beyond the seawater.
The flames of spiritual energy around him gradually dimmed. He finally stopped moving and became a lousy statue. His life that was difficult to judge came to an end.
Li Yao gave up the idea to inject more medical drugs for him.
Dongfang Wang's vitality field was on the brink of collapse in the first place. He only persisted until this moment with his astonishing willpower and his resentment for Li Linghai. Now that he had confessed everything and let go of his burdens, he had lost the last thing of his life that he clung to. Nobody could save him anymore.
Li Yao sighed and stepped forward to close Dongfang Wang's eyes that were still wide open. He then put the man on the ground and cleaned his clothes, making him look as if he had fallen asleep.
Dongfang Wang was certainly not a good guy. Being engaged in "cannibal training" in modern society suggested that he had crossed all the lines of humanity and that he was nothing more than an animal wearing clothes.
However, it was also an undeniable fact that he had devoted his life and soul to the Imperium of True Human Beings in the past twenty years, and he had combined all the resources available for the temporary victory of the Imperium's counterattack.
Li Yao really did not know how he should comment on Dongfang Wang.
Nor did he know how he should deal with the man's last words or how to confront Queen Li Linghai!
"How about it?"
Dongfang Mingyue, or Long Yangjun, who had been leaning against the wall in silence the whole time, walked forward and patted Li Yao's shoulder with a smile. "I didn't lie to you, did I? Aren't Dongfang Wang's last words thrilling?"
"They indeed are."
After cleaning up Dongfang Wang's body, Li Yao wrapped Emperor Shenwu's remains and put the two of them together. He then took out a few bottles of drugs from his Cosmos Ring and processed the cadavers carefully.
Many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were the body tissues of beasts and could only be preserved for a long time after being carefully processed. Human bodies were not greatly different from those of animals. So, the same drugs could also be applied to preserve the bodies of humans.
The two corpses were both the most important pieces of evidence. Li Yao naturally would not allow them to perish in the deep ocean.
While processing the corpses, Li Yao analyzed, "Dongfang Wang's words are not to be entirely trusted. We can only say that they are of very high referential value. It is true that, if we consider who earns the most from an event, then the queen will be the top suspect for the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance. Also, the thunderous counterattacks that she initiated after the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance were too smooth, violent, and showed the signs of prearrangements. Furthermore, it is true that Dongfang Wang handled the whole thing very lousily, as if he had been hit unprepared!
"However, even if all the indirect proofs point at the queen, there is still the most critical question—if the Imperium really falls into chaos, how will Li Linghai benefit from it exactly? What can she do, and what does she want?
"No military power, no prestige, and no great influence in the Council of Elders. It is impossible for the four Kurfürst families to obey her easily. Even the reformists are not following her but the ideas that she has proposed. How can such a Li Linghai clean up the mess when the Imperium is mired in chaos?"
"What if she does not need to clean up the mess at all?"
Long Yangjun said casually, "Assuming that the queen of the Imperium right now is not the real Li Linghai but has been possessed by something else, which has transformed her into… say, a puppet of the Covenant Alliance?"
"If Li Linghai is from the Covenant Alliance, everything will make sense. Her very purpose is to turn the Imperium into a mess so that the army of the Covenant Alliance can take the advantage!"
His eyebrows furrowed like a towel, Li Yao considered for a long time but shook his head slowly. "It's true that everything will have a reasonable explanation if Li Linghai is a puppet of the Covenant Alliance, but I don't think that it is so simple.
"I know that the Covenant Alliance has very advanced technologies on the simulation of emotions, which can allow the puppets of flesh and blood to simulate normal feelings and pass all the 'Ring-Tu Tests'. However, Li Linghai and I are both experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, and I've seen her burst into a fury with my own eyes. I'm not under the impression that she is controlled by the Covenant Alliance."
Li Yao kept something to himself.
Li Yao's foster father was exactly from the Covenant Alliance. But because of Li Linghai, he broke the Three Fundamental Laws and gained the feelings and self-will that a human being deserved.
His foster father transformed from a puppet of the Covenant Alliance into a normal person, but Li Linghai turned the opposite way? That would be ridiculous!
When Li Yao mentioned his foster father, he could sense the vulnerability and affection in Li Linghai's heart clearly. Such sincere emotions couldn't have been simulated at all.
"That does make sense. Even if Li Linghai were from the Covenant Alliance, many other things would still be inexplicable. For example, why she knows the secrets of the royal library and the underground palace."
Pausing for a moment, Long Yangjun asked, "Right, you haven't told me the source of Li Linghai's strength yet. Based on what did she turn into a mysterious, powerful schemer from a regular doll queen in only decades, establish a rather advanced fleet in secret, and associate with so many oppositions to form a new force that is 'reformists'?
"A revolution requires money and resources. Leaving aside all the planning, plots, and combat ability, where did she get all the resources?"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao realized that he had to speak the truth now.
"If I say—"
Thinking and rethinking, Li Yao finally said, "Li Linghai is indeed possessed, not by the Covenant Alliance but by the legendary… Supreme Emperor, would you believe me?"
Slightly dazed, Long Yangjun lost her calmness. "Li Linghai received the heritages of the Supreme Emperor? She… She discovered the Gold Throne in the Empyreal Transcendence Sector?"
Li Yao nodded his head. "If that's true, would everything be explainable?"
Thinking for a moment, Long Yangjun shook her head hard. "I don't think it is true. The legendary Supreme Emperor represented light and justice. He was an open and straightforward man. If Li Linghai were really possessed by the Supreme Emperor or received his legacies, she wouldn't have bothered to resort to such plots and schemes.
"Of course, if you insist that the legends are fake and the Supreme Emperor was, in fact, a scoundrel, or that certain weird changes happened to him during his long sleep, resulting in the mutation of his character, I won't be able to deny your theories either."
Li Yao also thought that the idea was too far-fetched. Most importantly of all, the half key leading to the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum had always been in his hands, which meant that Li Linghai had never entered the core of the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum. Then, how could she have been possessed by the Supreme Emperor or found the Supreme Emperor's legacies?
Thinking about that, Li Yao suddenly had a palpitation.
Yes, it was impossible for Li Linghai to enter the core of the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum. She… She couldn't have accessed the Supreme Emperor's legacies at all!
Then, where exactly did she receive the dominating air that could swallow the stars and the dragon sword of purple flames?
What secrets lie inside the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum?
Li Yao suddenly recalled that Li Linghai asked him to pay more attention to the files relevant to the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum. Intrigued, he asked, "Long Yangjun, haven't you been to the royal library? I'm told that it is the place that keeps the most ancient classics and files in the entire Imperium. There must be a lot of classics concerning the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum, right? Did you find anything special?"
"Anything special? No, none whatsoever!"
Long Yangjun shook her head quickly. Frowning, she said, "Don't you talk about it with me. There are indeed millions of files about the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum in the royal library. They almost take up one-tenth of the entire library. I thought that I could've discovered something from them. However, after browsing through them for a long time, it occurred to me that they were either ungrounded tales or exaggerated travel journals. There was nothing useful at all. It was a complete waste of my time!"
"One-tenth of the entire royal library is reserved for the classics regarding the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum?"
Confused, Li Yao asked by the way, "Why?"
"Because Blackstar the Great loved studying the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum more than anything else, of course. He almost collected all the files about the exploration of the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum in the past ten thousand years and piled them in the royal library for his passionate studies. Do you expect his offspring to drag the books out and burn them up?"
Long Yangjun continued, not thinking that it was a big deal, "A few hundred years ago, there were even rumors in the Imperium stating that Blackstar the Great did not die in peace in the royal palace in the capital but embarked on a journey in search for the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum when he felt that his death was drawing near. In the end, he eventually perished inside the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum!"
Chapter 2313: Great Catastrophe! |
The blood all over Li Yao's body was immediately frozen. His every drop of blood seemed to be piercing through his veins, muscles, and skin and protruding out of his pores like stings.
"What did you say?"
Sounding like a ghost whose neck had been choked, he stammered, "Say… Say again? What did you say just now?"
"Why do you act like you're peeing your pants? Did I say anything so scary?"
Long Yangjun was rather confused. "I don't remember saying any. There are no secrets in the royal library, and the classics concerning the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum are not of much research significance."
"No."
Li Yao struggled to say. His throat seemed to have been blocked by a large piece of ice, which made his voice high-pitched and filled with coldness. "Just now, you said that Blackstar the Great was very interested in the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum and had likely died inside it?"
"So what?"
Long Yangjun frowned and asked, "Is there any great person in the universe who is not interested in the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum? Does any of them not want to explore the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum if they have the chance to? Do you not want to visit it? I certainly do!"
"You don't understand!"
Veins were bulging out on Li Yao's face, which was as pale as that of a dead person. He seemed to be of a mind to grab Long Yangjun by her collar and shake her hard. "Where did you read the so-called 'rumor'? How credible is it? Is it supported by any valid proof?"
"I read it from a journal from more than seven hundred years ago. The author of the journal was a deposed member of the royal family. In his journal, he gathered plenty of bizarre stories and tales that were not recorded by historians. However, his writing was rather lousy, and the content was ridiculous. After hundreds of years, it is already barely possible to be found on the market. Even in the royal library, it was kept in a deep corner. I skimmed it for a moment and threw it back there."
Seeing Li Yao's nervousness, Long Yangjun realized the importance of the matter and became solemn too. "As for proofs, the author certainly did not provide any. But I, for one, feel that it is quite possible. Whether or not he indeed found the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum in the end, it was very possible that Blackstar the Great left the Empyreal Terminus Sector for the Gold Throne in the Empyreal Transcendence Sector when his death was about to come."
Li Yao's eyelids and veins were bouncing at the same time. "Why are you so certain?"
"Very simple. Because of his personality!"
Long Yangjun opened her hands and said, "Does Blackstar the Great strike you as a person who would lie on a sickbed waiting for his death? If you were Wuying Qi and you knew that you were dying soon, would you not have wanted to travel in space to search for new opportunities? Should you find the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum and the legacies from ten thousand years ago, chances were that you could break into new levels and live another few hundred years!"
Clenching his fists, Li Yao said anxiously, "But Wuying Qi's mausoleum is in the capital!"
"So what? What lies inside the mausoleum is just a stone coffin as well as an enormous statue established next to a mountain."
Long Yangjun said, "Don't forget that, in case anybody disturbed the rest of their remains, all the emperors of the Imperium of True Human Beings had burnt their bodies into ashes in a temperature of almost ten thousand degrees. It means that even if you open Wuying Qi's coffin, the best you can expect is a handful of ashes.
"Right. The tradition was set up by Wuying Qi himself. Chances were that it was a disguise!
"Then again, even if his bones were really inside the coffin, it still wouldn't prove anything. For someone in his level, he could totally separate his soul from the body and reside inside an artificial body to search for the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum. Naturally, his dead body would be left in the capital, and his demise would be announced!"
Li Yao was lost for words. Recalling his adventures in the Land of Sins that were completed with an artificial body, he couldn't help but nod his head.
If he could achieve such a thing when he was only new to the Divinity Transformation Stage, it certainly wouldn't have been a problem for Blackstar the Great.
Just now, Li Yao's face was as pale as a dead person, but it was now as dark as the blackened Emperor Shenwu on the ground now.
He paced back and forth in the narrow cabin. After every lap, his face would look more awful. It seemed to not be sweat but ink that was leaking out of his pores.
"Have you been poisoned too?"
Long Yangjun asked, "Why do you look so terrible?"
"Hush—"
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said, "Let me think. Let me think in the calmest state by connecting all the known factors… I'm about to make a series of bold assumptions. Help me analyze if they are possible."
Long Yangjun nodded her head. "Of course, bring it on."
"First of all, Blackstar the Great was very interested in the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum when he was alive. Of course, you are quite right. Nobody in the universe is uninterested in the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum."
Breathing heavily, Li Yao continued, "But Wuying Qi was different. As the 'founding emperor' of the Imperium of True Human Beings, he was certainly capable of gathering all the classics and files about the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum in the entire universe.
