Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1477
Therefore, the ranks and titles such as "top ten experts of the Imperium" or "best expert of a certain family" were hardly verifiable. They were only of some referential value at best.
According to the position in the family, the accomplishments in the past, and the intensity in training, however, it was still able to distinguish the "super experts" from the "great experts" and the "mediocre experts".
"Devilish Abyss" Li Jianyi, "Acyclic Earth" Yun Kuohai, and "Star Breaker" Song Huanzhen were all the central leaders of their respective families as well as the elders of the Imperium, and it was more than easy for them to mobilize the resources of a whole planet. What they counted on was their Cultivations, which were at least in the high level of the Divinity Transformation Stage.
The three of them were absolutely the extraordinary persons in the top tier of the Imperium of True Human Beings when it came to individual combat ability. They could tear a warship apart or kill thousands of people with a breath!
Also, besides the three experts, there were still dozens of first-rate experts in the Nascent Soul Stage lurking far away, blocking every gap that one could possibly escape through.
The place was quiet and empty. All the guards and maids in the entire royal palace seemed to be gone. Or rather, an invisible film seemed to have covered the ten square kilometers around as an impenetrable barrier. Even if the most astonishing battle were to take place inside, nobody outside would notice anything wrong.
The elite troops stationed at the northwest corner of the royal palace seemed to be utterly unaware of the situation, showing no sign that they were soaring and offering the queen protection.
The three super experts looked at Li Linghai emotionlessly, showing no intention of bowing at the queen with respect either.
The killing intent and electric arcs around them, however, were even more intense and dazzling, to the point that they were almost forging a dragnet around Li Linghai and mincing her apart directly.
Slowly closing the book in her hands, Li Linghai kept the scroll of the beast hide into her Cosmos Ring. Glancing at Li Jianyi, Yun Kuohai, and Song Huanzhen thoughtfully, she simply said casually without any surprise on her face, "Elder Li, Dean Yun, and Chief Tutor Song, aren't the three of you supposed to be capturing Dongfang Wang in the Silver Moon Ocean? Why have you suddenly come to the royal palace?
"Or maybe, it is your clones who are engaged in the fierce battle in the Silver Moon Ocean, and you have come to the capital after such a long journey because your real target is not Dongfang Wang but me?
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I did not expect that you would be kicking me away so fast. Before Dongfang Wang is caught, you are already determined to get rid of the people who are not needed anymore? However, isn't it too much trouble for three grandmasters to come here together to deal with me, when I am just a weak woman? I almost feel… flattered!"
"Those who attack first will have advantages, and those who counterattack suffer losses first. Everybody understands the simple logic."
Li Jianyi was of the same generation as "Silver Fox" Li Jiande, the leader of the Li family. As sort of a grandfather to Li Linghai, he was the first one to talk. "Also, I'm afraid that Your Grace has some misunderstanding. We never planned to kick you away or remove anyone that is no longer needed; we just have many questions that we would like to ask for Your Grace's enlightenment.
"For example, where did you get the resources to secretly establish the Deep Sea Fleet? Also, you seem to have practiced a lot of techniques that do not belong to the Li family, thereby ascending to the beginning level or even the middle level of the Divinity Transformation Stage? Having advanced into a battle-type expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage in the royal palace under the watch of countless spies, you are certainly no 'weak woman' at all!"
After a sigh, Li Linghai smiled even more mysteriously. "The royal palace is obviously guarded by the elites of the Deep Sea Fleet. The guards and the maids have been replaced by my own people too. But still, you have broken in without alarming anyone and set up such an immaculate array.
"Also, you know the details of the Deep Sea Fleet and even myself very clearly. It seems that the last thing I want to see has indeed happened.
"General Dongfang Sheng, if you are bold enough to betray me, why are you too shy to meet me? I know that you've been very curious about the resources that the Deep Sea Fleet was established with and the origins of the starships for many years, and you peeped at my training countless times in secret. Hehe. If you are so desperate to know the answers, just stand before me and let me explain all of them to you!"
Heavy footsteps echoed behind Li Linghai.
The person who blocked the last gap was exactly Dongfang Sheng—a central leader of the reformists, Li Linghai's trusted subordinate, the Dongfang family's greatest traitor, and the highest commander of the Deep Sea Fleet!
One top expert from each of the four Kurfürst families had surrounded Li Linghai, ready to suppress her!
Dongfang Sheng, on the other hand, did not arrive alone. He was also pushing a floating medical chair. Below the translucent mask and lying in the middle of the high-purity oxygen was "Silver Fox" Li Jiande, the oldest and the most renowned Kurfürst!
Li Linghai looked at Dongfang Sheng and then at "Silver Fox" Li Jiande before she chuckled.
"Grandfather, I know that you would not 'rest in peace' so easily."
Li Linghai said without worries, "So, it was you who planned and gathered such three super experts. I wonder, what offers have you made to General Dongfang Sheng to make him betray me? Hehe. Is he invited to return to the Dongfang family as the leader to clean the mess?"
"You must be joking, Your Grace."
Dongfang Sheng, however, bowed at Li Linghai deeply and said, "With my experience and prestige, it is naturally impossible for me to lead the entire Dongfang family. However, since the family is now falling apart and about to be destroyed, as a member of the Dongfang family after all, I should contribute to the family in the time of peril.
"The highest commander and most leaders of the Dongfang family's fleet will die together with Dongfang Wang. It is now in a mess due to the lack of leadership. With my experience in commanding the Deep Sea Fleet, I think I'm more or less qualified to return and command the fleet of my family."
"That explains a lot. So, the highest commander of the Dongfang family's fleet is enough to buy you over."
Li Linghai was neither surprised nor infuriated. She simply shook her head and said, "General Dongfang, your vision is too restrained. How do you know that the future of the Deep Sea Fleet would not be a hundred times better than that of the Dongfang family's fleet? In fact, I have always thought very highly of you. If you remained loyal to me, your future would be more promising than you could possibly imagine. What a shame!"
"Your Grace, I'm afraid you're wrong again."
Dongfang Sheng looked determined and did not regret his decision. "Since the very beginning, I have never been loyal to you but the ideas of the reformists. Right now, I'm returning to the Dongfang family in order to carry out the ideas of the reformists from a more advantageous position for the big picture of the Imperium. What is the 'betrayal' all about?
"Your Grace, I'm afraid that you are the one who has been keeping something from all the reformists. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time—are your ambitions really limited to 'Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions'?"
Li Linghai sneered and did not answer Dongfang Sheng's question. She simply turned to "Silver Fox" Li Jiande.
Li Jiande was not a battle-type expert in the first place, and he had been dying and was haggard for almost a hundred years. No matter how many tubes extended from the medical chair to his body, injecting the medical and nutrition drugs incessantly, his health still seemed hopeless.
However, the three super experts, the fleet commander who betrayed Li Linghai, the dozens of experts in the Nascent Soul Stage outside, and even the entire Imperium further outside seemed to be all within the calculation of the old and cunning Silver Fox!
"I made a horrible mistake."
Li Linghai sighed. "I underestimated you too much, grandfather. Of the four Kurfürsten today, you are even more terrifying than Prime Minister Dongfang Wang. I really should've killed you without bothering anything!"
"Good granddaughter, you have indeed made a horrible mistake, but the mistake is not about me."
"Silver Fox" Li Jiande slowly opened the nebulizer on his face slowly and looked at Li Linghai with a complicated expression. He struggled to say, "You and Dongfang Wang made the same mistake. You destroyed the most important thing that sustained the Imperium of True Human Beings, which was balance.
"The Imperium has persisted to this day with a scale of hundreds of Sectors and tens of thousands of resource planets without being collapsed by its own weight only because of the balance of the four Kurfürst families.
"No matter how the four families compete openly and in secret on the surface, deep down our hearts, all the leaders of the families should know that we have to maintain the balance among us. The four families are like the four legs of a table. Only by maintaining the balance can we ensure that there can be a cake on the table for us to divide.
"If the table is uneven or collapses, the cake will either fall to the ground into a mess, or we won't be able to control our hands when we cut the cake, and we will chop off all our fingers!
"Dongfang Wang did not understand the logic. He was ambitious and determined to make the Dongfang family expand into 'First Family', which was a great destruction on the balance. It equaled doubling the length of one leg of the table. How could he not be swallowed by the recoil when nobody could eat the cake anymore?
"Standing in other people's way when they are making a fortune is like killing their parents. When you are cursed by too many people, you will die even if you don't have any disease. Dongfang Wang was asking to be killed. Nobody could've saved him!
"But the purpose of the other three Kurfürst families was only to cut the Dongfang family's leg of the table, which is too long by a half, so that the balance could be restored. But you, on the other hand, are trying to completely knock the leg off. Wouldn't that cast us into another loss of balance?"
Chapter 2316: Black and White Queen! |
Li Linghai rolled her eyes and said, "The Dongfang family has collected tremendous wealth during the sudden expansion in the past hundred years. Are you not tempted to carve up the Dongfang family at all? Also, you have already caused heavy wounds to the Dongfang family, and all the Immortal Cultivators of the Dongfang family will hate you for it. If you don't get rid of all of them right now, you might be swallowed by the survivors of the Dongfang family one day!"
"Hehe. My good granddaughter, your little trick can only fool the shortsighted, ravenous guys. It is too naïve a move to be played before your grandfather!"
Li Jiande said with a smile, "The prospect to completely divide the Dongfang family is naturally very wonderful, but a chain reaction might be caused in one moment of carelessness, and we may get burnt by the fire that we started. Not only will we have to spit out all the resources that we have swallowed, but the foundations of the four Kurfürst families might be shaken!
"In fact, that is your ultimate purpose, isn't it?
"In the past months, you've been instigating the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and at the bottom level in the Dongfang family and intensifying the contradictions between the main branch and the secondary branches. Finally, the two sides have congregated into a torrent that devours the entire family!
"The other three Kurfürst families seem to be taking great advantage of the so-called 'reform', but we are actually faced with the same fatal threat.
"In the more than ten Sectors under the Dongfang family's governance, 90% of the Immortal Cultivators do not belong to the Dongfang family. On the best starships, most of the fundamental jobs are also taken up by the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames who are highly dissatisfied with the Dongfang family. Aren't the Li family, the Yun family, and the Song family the same?
"The Dongfang family has the contradictions between the main branch and the secondary branches, and the secondary branches want to overthrow the main branch and replace it as the dominator of the Dongfang family all the time. But is any of the other three families utterly united without any gap?
"You have stirred the ambitions of the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and those of secondary branches in the Dongfang family's dominion. While the fire that they have raised can let us finish the so-called 'First Family' of the Imperium, if the fire burns brighter and brighter, is it possible that the fire will spread unstoppably like a wildfire and eventually burn the Li family, the Yun family, and the Song family?
"If the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and secondary branches in the Dongfang family can rise and overthrow the reign of the main branch, why can't those in the Li, Song, and Yun families?"
Li Linghai sniffed and said casually, "Grandfather, you are overthinking."
"No, I am not."
Li Jiande sighed and said, "If we are really greedy enough to indulge the fire to continue burning the Dongfang family to the ground, it will be too late. With the Dongfang family as the fuel, the fire will inevitably sweep across the entire Imperium. None of the few people of the main branch in the Li family, the Yun family, or the Song family can expect to compete with the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and secondary branches who are on a rampage. The four families will be like four gravestones falling one after another. Eventually, the order of the entire Imperium will be gone, and the center of the cosmos will fall apart, mired in incessant wars!
"Although I have no idea why you are doing this, I cannot let your plan succeed for both the Li family and the Imperium. I'm sorry, my good granddaughter!"
"I understand it now."
Li Linghai said coldly, "Even when you were threatened by my army, you never thought to completely annihilate the Dongfang family!"
"Yes, your grandfather is already old. When one is old, a lot of things will shrink, including their ambition. They tend to be more conservative when they are considering things. Instead of thinking about what they will gain if they succeed, they will care more about what they will lose if they fail."
Li Jiande was truly like a kind, graceful grandfather teaching his mischievous granddaughter a lesson. "If I were a hundred years younger, I might've been tricked by you and risked everything on destroying the Dongfang family.
"But right now, I understand that the four Kurfürst families are a community of shared destiny. We will rise and fall together. Protecting the authority of the Dongfang family is protecting the authority of the four Kurfürst families including the Li family. If the Dongfang family declines or even gets annihilated, countless people will be motivated to overthrow all the four Kurfürst families. The Imperium will completely fall into chaos by then!
"Therefore, I never intended to destroy the Dongfang family from the beginning; I only wanted to beat them and let them elect a leader whose head is clearer.
"The four families are the four legs of a table. If one family is too strong, just give them some knocking; if one family is too weak, give them a hand. After all, the universe is too large a cake to be swallowed by any individual family if they do not want to be stuffed, right? Hahahaha. Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough. Now that we are all going to eat on the table, no matter how unfriendly we look and how hard our forks clash, we have to be careful on our feet, and it will be inappropriate to really break the legs of the table. Don't you agree, my good granddaughter?"
Li Linghai looked more and more terrible. She said, one word after another, "No wonder the Yun family and the Song family took the side of the reformists so easily. So, they were persuaded by you when they changed their attitudes, and they have been holding sabers in their hands!"
Li Jiande put the nebulizer on his nose again and took a deep breath. He sighed, "My good granddaughter, I truly regret sending you into the palace. I should've kept you by my side and taught you wholeheartedly so that you could grow into the most distinguished heir of the Li family! You have such great gifts, but you do not have the enlightenment of the wise. You are too young, too impatient, too confident, and too aggressive!
"The tallest tree in a forest will be destroyed by the wind first. Always!"
Li Linghai stared at Li Jiande thoughtfully and focused her eyes on Dongfang Sheng again. "After the restoration of balance among the four Kurfürst families, the reformists will soon be removed. General Dongfang, is this how you express your loyalty to the ideas of the reformists?"
"My good granddaughter, you have truly misunderstood General Dongfang."
Before Dongfang Sheng argued, Li Jiande defended him instead. "Peace is always the best. 'Silver Fox' is certainly not as pigheaded as Dongfang Wang who was known as 'iron and blood'. Killing is my least favorite thing. We are all the people of the Imperium. What can't be resolved through peaceful negotiations?
"While the four Kurfürst families are the pillars of the Imperium, the smaller nobles and the warlords at the peripherical worlds are indispensable parts for the Imperium too. The reformists are also very important lubricants for the Imperium. Your operation under the slogan of 'Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions' is a great warning for the four Kurfürst families, making us reflect on whether or not the behavior of certain people among us has really crossed the line.
"Rest assured. After the incident, the four families will have internal reorganizations. We will give away rather copious interests so that the forces that have made major contributions and suffered heavy losses in the past twenty years of war can be satisfied. In any case, I do not want a civil war to burst out inside the Imperium when the Covenant Alliance is not destroyed yet."
"Grandfather, you sound really convincing. If the brutal name of 'Silver Fox' had not been so resounding since a hundred years ago, I would've bought it."
