Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1596
"It's alright."
The man in black sounded as calm as before, as if he was too familiar with what was happening on the other cargo ships to be surprised. Taking out a little ball from his pocket, he tossed it to the center of the cabin, which cracked and blossomed like a lotus flower. A gentle light was immediately unleashed and illuminated the entire cabin again.
"Ah!"
Huo Dongling was scared again. The ten or so battle puppets brought by the invaders were still standing at the center of the cabin rigidly and quietly, like a group of cold skeletons under the illumination of the light.
However, in the next second, those battle puppets all fell apart along the smooth fractures, reduced into piles of garbage.
Not entirely eased, the girl patted her chest and glanced around at the remains of the battle puppets, only to notice thick blood and…
She felt like throwing up and did not dare to watch it anymore. Surpassing the gory corpses, she looked at the space through the virtual window.
What was going on in space, however, dumbfounded her. She couldn't believe her eyes and forgetting her fear, she dashed forward and almost pressed her nose into the virtual window.
Her eyes did not deceive her. The two "Starry Shark"-level hunting warships were truly suppressed and destroyed by some sort of… invisible strength and were walking toward their doom irreversibly!
The first warship had already been surrounded by fireballs large and small. After every fireball died out, there would be a huge dent on the shell of the warship, and tremendous materials would be missing, as if they had been swallowed by some kind of mysterious virus.
The second warship was basically intact, despite the few giant cracks across the entire body of the warship. However, countless Immortal Cultivators were spurting out of the cracks, with ragged crystal suits that could not cover their faces, if they were wearing any crystal suits at all!
Huo Dongling did not see the struggles of the Immortal Cultivators who had been spurted out. She wondered if they were already dead, but in the cold vacuum, another starship not far away had a serial explosion, unleashing tremendous high-speed pieces and terrifying radiations that swallowed them overwhelmingly. Even if they were not killed just now, they wouldn't be able to persist for long but would only die a more miserable death.
Having lost all the crew members, the "Starry Shark"-level warship became a coffin of death and silence. All the glittering rune arrays and the exhaust flames on the surface dimmed.
"This is—"
Huo Dongling was stunned for a long time. She rubbed her eyes that had been swollen because of crying and bit the back of her hand to make sure that everything before her eyes was not a nightmare.
Even if it were a nightmare, it was not her nightmare, but the most terrifying one for the descendants of the noble families who were out doing evils.
Right then, somebody patted her shoulder and said, "Hey, Little Dongling…"
Huo Dongling thought that it was the man in black who patted her. Unable to hold back the question marks bubbling in her head, she turned around quickly, meaning to get to the bottom of everything, only to be taken aback by the smiling face of "Mr. Li". She almost screamed.
"Hush, hush, what are you doing?"
Li Yao hurried to cover the girl's mouth. Shaking the bottom in his hand, he said, "I'm just here to ask you if you would like any iced juice. Don't be so nervous!"
"Iced… juice?"
Huo Dongling felt that her heart was jumping out of her chest. Her lips shivered for a long time before she finally looked at Li Yao's hand, where there was a clear glass bottle made of fancy materials, with the emblems of the Imperium and the Yun family carved on the body of the bottle with the most advanced embossment technologies, suggesting that it was the best juice specifically provided for the descendants of the Yun family.
The juice might not be valuable, but the glass bottle, which was almost a piece of artwork itself, was already priceless. There was naturally no such luxury on Little Bear.
Apart from the juice, there were also a few cans that seemed to be made of crystals next to "Mr. Li". Inside the cans were the lobsters, raw fruits, and other delicious cuisines that could easily go bad. They were so fresh as if they had just been fished from the water or picked from the trees.
Next to the food, delicate silver chopsticks and gold forks had been placed, also with the emblems of the Yun family on them. They couldn't have looked more extravagant.
"Right. There are also lobsters and trepang."
Li Yao picked up a nice and delicate cup and filled it with the iced juice for the little girl first. He poured a cup for himself and sipped it with a great mood before he took a piece of trepang with the gold fork. "I like the trepang best. Since the South Spirit Planet is short of water, it must be rare for you to enjoy food like trepang. Come on, why don't you give it a try? It doesn't taste bad at all!"
Huo Dongling's head completely went black. Looking at Li Yao and the mysterious man in black, Li Jialing, next to Li Yao who appeared as if nothing had happened, she finally realized what the problem was after a long time—the key was not the juice or the trepang at all!
The girl asked in confusion, "Mr. Li, where have you been?"
"Nowhere."
Blinking, Li Yao said, "I've been crouching in the corner, haven't I? Right. It seemed very dangerous when you were fighting, so I hid behind that pile of goods."
Looking at the glasses, chopsticks, and glass bottles with the emblem of the Yun family in his hands, and then at the "Starry Shark"-level warships that were falling apart outside of the virtual cabin, Huo Dongling was apparently not convinced.
"Right. My brother is rather short-tempered and likes fighting best."
Li Yao continued with a smile, "He didn't scare you just now, did he?"
"No, no, he didn't."
Huo Dongling couldn't help but wanted to say—but you did!
She was about to open her mouth when her eyes were widened again. She exclaimed and pointed at Li Yao as she said, "Mr. Li, a red light just flashed and flew into your ear!"
"Is that so?"
Li Yao extended his little finger and picked his ear. "I didn't feel anything. You must've seen it wrong."
Huo Dongling narrowed her eyes and pouted her lips, with an "I may be an ordinary person but you can't insult my wisdom like this" look on her face.
"Fine, there indeed was."
Li Yao surrendered and grimaced at the girl. "However, this is a secret. Little Dongling, will you keep it a secret for me? Come on, calm yourself down with a cup of juice first. Then, you can tell your father that it's fine now. All the cargo ships are fine now. They can go to the 'Starry Shark'-level warship that did not explode to collect the precious fuel. There are no Immortal Cultivators on that warship now—not any living ones."
Chapter 2513: Money Never Sleeps! |
"This is truly… a sign of the gods who have come to rescue us!"
"The gods do have mercy!"
Before they continued their journey to the jump point, everybody in the tiny business team—from passengers to the crew—kneeled down and worshipped the profound stars outside, thanking the gods who lived beyond the stars for helping them survive the disaster.
The uncanny things that happened on the cargo ships and the two "Starry Shark"-level hunting warships looked exactly like a deed of the gods.
On the ten or so cargo ships, the unexpected invaders suffered fatal attacks almost at the same time. The wounds were only an insignificant hole at the center of their eyebrows or on their chests, but their entire vitality and souls seemed to have been pumped away. The last look on the faces of the dead people was all shock and horror. According to the experienced doctors on the cargo ships, those people were not killed because of physical damages but because of mental meltdown. They seemed to have been mired in some sort of… boundless swirl of horror that swallowed their entire lives!
More straightforwardly, they were simply scared to death.
The accidents on the two "Starry Shark"-level warships were even weirder. The first warship had a puzzling explosion, and the second warship lost the temperature and the pressure due to a few irrecoverable damage on the shell. As a result, all the crew members were "absorbed" out of the warship. In the meantime, the damage control system, the automatic repair devices, and even the alarming mechanisms on the mainframe crystal processor did not respond at all, leading to the unbelievable tragedy.
Who could've done that except for the gods or the fiends?
Of course, the businessmen who were bold enough to make a living in such a wartime were mostly experienced travelers that did not believe in gods superstitiously. After examining the traces, they naturally knew what happened exactly.
However, someone who was capable of killing so many Immortal Cultivators and suppressing two "Starry Shark"-level hunting warships without a sound was too strong for them to even imagine. It was not something that they should look into.
When one was out, one should eat more and talk less, and in particular, one should not ask the questions they shouldn't ask or mind the business that wasn't theirs. Such ordinary people often lived a longer life in the Imperium.
Now that the one who did this was unwilling to reveal himself, they'd be out of their minds if they were determined to find out the answer. It was certainly most convenient to give the credit to the intangible "gods".
It was not hard to assume that, if the "gods" who took action just now were still hiding in their team, their journey would certainly be safe and sound, right?
As it turned out, they did not run into any trouble again when they continued the journey, and they reached the jump point smoothly.
After a couple of hours of preparation, they performed an accurate and stable space jump, arriving at the edge of the Seven Seas Space Zone, where the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was headquartered.
"Wow!"
When everybody was recovered from the dizziness and nausea caused by the space jump, they couldn't help but exclaim in shock at the view outside that they saw through the virtual window.
It was simply… too lively!
The universe was too vast compared to the activities of human beings. In most of the space zones, even the busiest sailing routes were actually vacuums of death and silence. Other travelers were hard to come by.
However, in the Seven Seas Space Zone, dozens of overwhelming and glittering rivers of light, made of the exhaust flames of countless traveling fleets, could be seen by the naked eye. Hundreds of patrollers and barges were also cruising and commanding the "rivers" that carried abundant money, goods, and resources to flow toward different directions. After zigzagging, they were all gathered in the glamorous space city that was as huge as an asteroid. It was exactly the Seven Seas Grand Market, the center of trade, logistics, and finance at the edge of the Imperium, which had risen quickly in the recent hundred years and could even compete with the capital of the Imperium!
As the free fairs in the peripheral worlds were lost or abandoned, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had retreated most of the garrisons back to the nest, preparing to fight a decisive battle with the coalition fleet of the four families.
At this moment, the Seven Seas Grand Market was unprecedentedly defended. Only half a minute after the inconspicuous business team jumped over, a patroller immediately came to inspect and offer guidance.
Many warships of the garrisons of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were the secondhand products of the four families or the latest and even experimental warships that were smuggled over. Their shape and coating were very similar. Even the heads of the warships were all painted with the lighting trident that represented the Imperium of True Human Beings.
However, the warships of the four families would also paint the family sigil next to the lighting trident and sometimes even the unique symbols of their own bloodlines. The more marks there were, the more powerful and strong the master of the warship would be.
The coating of the warships of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, in comparison, was much more simple. They simply surrounded the lighting trident emblem of the Imperium with a circle of glittering stars—no, not stars, but eighteen shiny coins. The emblem of lightning with eighteen coins was the latest insignia of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, which also represented the organization's belief to change the Imperium with money!
Once bitten, twice shy. Since they were almost killed by the warships of the four families half a day ago, everybody felt a bit creepy when they watched the patrollers of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors lunging at them with daunting turrets on them.
It was the first time for the crew of Little Bear from the distant South Spirit Planet to visit the Seven Seas Grand Market. They had no idea before what a gargantuan place they were about to be faced with. Now, their hearts were racing, their mouths were dry, and their palms were soaked in sweat.
However, in the next second, the large hologram that the two patrollers projected to them made everybody take a long breath in relief.
On the gigantic light beam, two lines of words had been written: "Welcome to the Seven Seas Grand Market, the freest place in the entire universe!"
…
It would take a whole day of inspection, navigation, and distribution to reach the Seven Seas Grand Market from the edge of the space zone.
It was a time of war after all, and a bloody battle was going to happen very soon. Permitting the strangers to enter the Seven Seas Grand Market for free trades after only one day was already very open and efficient.
"The freest place in the entire universe…"
Li Yao and Li Jialing were standing on the back deck of Little Bear. Huo Dongling had specifically cleaned the place up for them. There was nothing but dark minerals around them, making it convenient for them to talk.
Holding a cup of iced juice, Li Yao observed the ocean of light made of thousands of business ships outside of the window and said with a smile, "I don't know if it is 'freest', but this place is definitely one of the wealthiest places in the entire Imperium. In terms of the activity of money, this place is even above the capitals of the four families!"
"I was told that the Seven Seas Grand Market has another name, which is 'Sleepless City'. It does not mean that people here don't sleep, but that the money here never sleeps. The slogan of this place is exactly 'money never sleeps'."
Li Jialing remarked in amazement too, "It was Li Lingfeng who told me the name. He once described the prosperity of this place and the methods through which the merchants collected their wealth, leaving a rather deep impression on me. But I didn't know until I came to this place that Li Lingfeng's description was not one tenth of the real prosperity of this place. I truly don't know what tricks the cunning merchants of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors have been playing to build a peripheral space zone far from the affluent center of the cosmos into such a thriving state!"
Li Yao asked, "Oh, did Li Lingfeng mention this place too?"
"Yes, Li Lingfeng once told me that the first thing he would do after he became the leader of the Li family was to conquer the Seven Seas Grand Market!"
Li Jialing had shaved the hair all over his body and dyed the short hair black. The magnificence of the golden lion was gone, but there was additional cunningness and brutality. Swallowing, he mumbled, with a hint of greediness and wariness flashing in his eyes, "At that time, I didn't understand why Li Lingfeng wanted to steal food from a bunch of small merchants when he viewed himself as the 'future Kurfürst', but after seeing the overwhelming tides of business teams here, even I feel more or less tempted.
"Having realized the importance of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the Seven Seas Grand Market before the reformists emerged, Li Lingfeng indeed had keen eyes and deserved to be one of the candidates for the 'future Kurfürst'. It was a shame that he died such an uncanny death."
Li Yao's eyes gradually grew sharp as he said, "However, he did not speak the whole truth to you. Or rather, he couldn't understand the source of the real power of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors because of his identity and his stance. 'Money never sleeps' is truly a neat summarization. The rise of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is exactly the rise of the power of money. It's not all about the cunning merchants."
Narrowing his eyes, Li Jialing looked at his fists that were covered in gold flames and asked, "I don't understand. However powerful money is, does it have to obey absolute violence? Brother Yao, how can you achieve anything with just money? Is the Seven Seas Grand Market really so important that Li Lingfeng, you, and everybody in the four families have to fight for it without caring about the outcome of the capital?"
"Money certainly cannot get you everything, but you cannot get anything without money!"
Looking at Li Jialing's fists, Li Yao said, "Absolute violence is definitely remarkable, but if you cannot even afford your bread, where exactly are you going to find 'absolute violence'?
"For the ancient Cultivators, if they were lucky enough to dig out the secret treasures of the primeval age from a certain mausoleum, it would be possible for them to grasp 'absolute violence'. But as the civilization of mankind advanced, the so-called 'violence' became more and more organized, systematical, and industrialized, requiring the support of incessant resources. For individuals, it's impossible for them to dominate the world with a random treasure they picked up.
"It's a moot question whether violence brings money or money brings violence. Money and violence are the two sides of the same coin that count on and support each other.
"It's a shame that if one of the two trees growing next to each other is too luxuriant, it will take away the nutrition of the other tree. When violence is too strong, the importance of money will be underestimated and even ignored, resulting in an irrecoverable decline. It is exactly what happened in the Imperium in the past hundreds of years, and the reason why the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors came into being."
