Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1636
"Then, even if Wuying Qi has combined all the strengths in the capital, could he resist the ace fleets of the four families with the Imperial Guards who are exceptionally young and untrained?"
Jin Yuyan asked again, "Or maybe Wuying Qi could get reinforcements as strong as the Astounding Thunder Fleet from elsewhere?"
"It's impossible."
Li Yao closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. "Even Wuying Qi cannot turn a stone into gold. He cannot transform the Imperial Guards who haven't fought any hard battles for hundreds of years into an invincible army in only a couple of months.
"As for the other strong reinforcements, I fear that the expedition army is the only choice.
"However, the expedition army has been reluctant to publicly state their support for the reformists. It is obvious that they are still observing the situation. Now that Wuying Qi has made such a horrible mistake, it is even less likely for them to help him at such a critical moment. They would be showing Lei Chenghu enough respect if they do not stab the reformists in the back.
"Besides, even if the expedition army does reinforce the capital from far away, the ace fleets of the four families would not necessarily be scared of them. Those few ace fleets are the greatest reliance of the four families. From the commanders to the middle-level officers and even to the bottom-level soldiers, they are made of the most loyal, central descendants of the families. The resources consumed in their daily training and the configuration of warships are multiple times more than those of common fleets. Even the Adamantine Fleet that Yun Xuefeng commands is far from them.
"Many people say that the soldiers of the few ace fleets are more expensive than marrow crystals of the same weight. They are the real tough warriors and the greatest support for the four families to dominate the Imperium. Even if they run into the Astounding Thunder Fleet or other fleets of the expedition army, those hardcore nobles would never betray their families or back off.
"If the two parties have the most intense collision in a head-on clash, it remains to be seen who will win in the end!"
"Therefore—"
Jin Yuyan smiled. "You said that the whole thing was Wuying Qi's arrangement. Then, what is his ultimate purpose? Abandon all the defense so that the best fleets of the four families will be attracted to stab his heart?
"Tactically, it is true that the arrival of the Astounding Thunder Fleet may very likely change the outcome of the battle of Seven Seas. However, strategically, such a decision is most idiotic. Unless caught in desperation and it is absolutely necessary, not a single highest commander would have made such a decision!"
"That's right…"
The swirls of mists grew larger and larger still in Li Yao's head. He seemed to have been lost in a hazy fog by himself, and he could not find a way out however hard he struggled. He could only mumble, "I need to think. I need to think about it carefully."
"You can take your time to think about it, Black Wind King. After all, we have plenty of time."
Jin Yuyan said with a bitter smile, "The Astounding Thunder Fleet has successfully jumped over and joined the space battlefield in an organized formation. However strategically idiotic the decision is, and no matter how many schemes and traps it entails, our army has earned more advantages at least tactically, and we will not be killed for the time being!"
Hardly had Jin Yuyan concluded his sentence when explosive cheers burst out in the command center.
Li Yao's head was dizzy because of the overwhelming cheers. He did not know whether he should burst into fury or frustration. "Director Jin, how could you?"
"Like I said, I don't have a choice."
With helplessness popping on his face, Jin Yuyan said in a low voice, "The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors does not belong to me alone. The scandals about me that were exposed to the internal network significantly diminished my control. Many senior managers and great shareholders are already very dissatisfied with me.
"Besides, I'm merely the leader of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in business and politics, and I'm not the highest commander of the garrison fleet or the military leader. How could I exceed my authority and take over military affairs?
"To accept the reinforcement of the Astounding Thunder Fleet is a military decision. I received the message with a few senior managers and commanders of the garrison fleet together. How could I have stopped it when everybody was cheering for it? What reasons did I have?
"Also, the news that the Astounding Thunder Fleet would soon arrive spread throughout the Seven Seas Grand Market. Even the soldiers fighting and bleeding in space had learned that reinforcements were coming. They considered the Astounding Thunder Fleet as their last chance. They managed to deal with the enemies ten times more than themselves and to keep the battle formation stable only because of the prospect of reinforcements.
"If I tell the soldiers now that the reinforcements are no more and the Astounding Thunder Fleet can't make it, guess what consequences there will be? We might as well surrender to the four families directly!"
Li Yao was lost for words again. His body was cold as he fell into the ice cave of helplessness exactly like Jin Yuyan.
"Black Wind King Li Yao, perhaps you're right that the whole thing is a scheme or a trap. However…"
With the most bitter smile, Jin Yuyan struggled to say, "However, Blackstar the Great's capabilities and calculations are far beyond our imagination. He seems to have grasped every detail and forced us into a choiceless situation in every step.
"You've come so late that the space gate has been opened and all the soldiers and merchants have learned the arrival of the Astounding Thunder Fleet. Nothing can be changed. However, even if you had returned half a day earlier and told me everything, and even if I believed 100% of what you said, we still would have had no choice except to let the Astounding Thunder Fleet in, wouldn't we?
"In short, the situation right now is beyond our estimation and control. There's nothing we can do about it except to observe."
"Who says that?"
Clenching his fists, Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "Wuying Qi must have a most insane scheme that involves both the Seven Seas Space Zone and the capital. We have to unravel his scheme and kill him no matter what!"
"How are we going to stop it?"
Jin Yuyan opened his hands and said, "Look at the light spots on the hologram of the space zone. Lei Chenghu's fleet has jumped over in an organized way and is about to launch an attack at Yun Xuefeng's flagship-in-general. No matter who wins in the end, the battle will not end in a couple of days. In the meantime, the ace fleets of the four families must be marching at the capital aggressively. Whatever scheme Wuying Qi has, it will be activated very soon, won't it?
"And you, 'Vulture Li Yao, Black Wind King', you are still at the edge of the Imperium. Even if you get a starship, jump back to the Empyreal Terminus Sector, and sneak into the palace again, what can you do? Are you capable of taking down the ace fleets of the four families as well as Wuying Qi's Imperial Guards in the space battlefield, or are you confident enough to approach Wuying Qi without alarming anybody and kill Blackstar the Great in a one-versus-one battle?"
Chapter 2580: God of War's Awesomeness! |
Li Yao stabbed his fingers deep into his hair, which was as fluffy as a bird nest. His eyes hollow, he said, "Give me half a day, and I will certainly be able to sort the whole thing out and locate Blackstar the Great's flaws. He must have flaws, because he was not prepared to be exposed so soon. He was forced to activate his plan because of 'Silver Fox' Li Jiande. Also, he couldn't have predicted that I would appear in the Seven Seas Grand Market and rescue you. In other words, the plan he is implementing right now is a backup plan of backup plans. He'll be a real god if his plan is still flawless under such circumstances!"
Jin Yuyan sighed and said, "Be my guest, but please take a look at the hologram of the space zone. The Astounding Thunder Fleet has voluntarily sent a message to Yun Xuefeng's main fleet. The two parties are about to be engaged."
Greatly alarmed, Li Yao turned back abruptly and stared at the red and blue light spots on the holographical map of the space zone for a long time, before he left the command center without saying anything.
Enshrouded by coldness, he returned to the "Palace of Black Wind King" as soon as possible.
The most advanced communication facilities in the place allowed him to contact Boss Bai at any moment and share most of the real-time data in the "Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs", making it possible for him to monitor the space battlefield more clearly and deeply.
In the dark and quiet communication room, the fluorescence from the dozens of 3D light beams in the room illuminated into a twisted, illusionary realm beyond reality.
Sitting at the center of the many light beams, Li Yao simply allowed the torrential information sliding on his face and his body quickly.
He seemed to have been back to the moment when he inferred what was on Jin Tuyi's mind in the Blood Demon Sector by himself.
His soul seemed to have been placed on a frozen lake. He could hear the ice cracking apart and feel that the cold water was about to erupt like magma.
As time went by, the situation in the space battlefield changed again and again in the most dazzling way.
Lei Chenghu truly deserved to be a man known as the "God of War". His expertise in fleet commanding and space battles was as good as Boss Bai's, if not better. The Astounding Thunder Fleet commanded by him was really like a tide made of thousands of rumbling thunders—a tide that was alive and infuriated!
The Astounding Thunder Fleet caught Yun Xuefeng unprepared the moment it jumped to the Seven Seas Space Zone.
Perhaps Lei Chenghu realized very calmly that it was impossible to hide the organized jump of such an enormous fleet for too long. He simply exposed some of the spiritual waves voluntarily, pretending that they were a random garrison fleet of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that had rushed to the place as reinforcements.
After detecting the "random reinforcement troop" that was not far away from him, Yun Xuefeng immediately deployed a branch fleet that included one Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship to annihilate the enemy.
It was safe to say that Yun Xuefeng's decision was reasonable and did not involve any mistake. In order to destroy a reinforcing troop that was not large in scale, a branch fleet led by one Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship was more than enough in any case.
It was a shame that what Yun Xuefeng encountered was Lei Chenghu.
The duel of the two generals lost suspense in the very beginning.
In the next three hours, Lei Chenghu taught everybody in the area a lesson about the arts of commanding, the coordination of thousands of barraging cannons, and the fearlessness of the soldiers of the Imperium who were bold enough to fight with an Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship.
The soldiers and crew members on the Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship who had always been proud also learned why their fleet could not be called "best" or "ace" when they had such an enormous warship.
A hundred rapid attack ships that had an amazing speed surrounded the Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship in a hundred streaks of brilliance, like a pack of brutal wolves attacking a clumsy buffalo. No matter how many fatal attacks the Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship shot out, they merely brushed past those rapid attack ships, wasting the spiritual energy and the ammunitions for nothing.
When the Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship finally hit a few rapid attack ships, a few Colossi that belonged to the Astounding Thunder Fleet broke into the warship under their cover.
In the meantime, the arsenal warships, the shield warships, and the inferential warships that provided protection for the Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship were separated, surrounded, and swallowed by other starships of the Astounding Thunder Fleet.
When a wound as gigantic as a canyon was torn from inside to outside on the Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship, and infinite materials and flames spurted out, its destruction was already inevitable.
Lei Chenghu declared his arrival with the destruction of an Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship, which caused significant consequences on both the enemy's side and his own.
The defenders seemed to have just been injected with a powerful cardiotonic. Their morale that had hit rock bottom previously bounced to the peak again.
The attackers' fighting will that had been gathered after all the trouble collapsed all of a sudden into nothingness, gone for good, exactly like the broken Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship.
What was most horrifying was not Lei Chenghu's tough combat ability but his unparalleled influence and prestige.
Lei Chenghu had been in service for almost two hundred years. In his early years, he annihilated space pirates in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium and struck an alliance with many worlds. Then, he led the soldiers in his hometown to resist the Covenant Alliance in the times of crisis. By the time of the Imperium's counterattack, he led the vanguard and conquered the enormous Third Battle Area with a bunch of defeated and untrained soldiers. His fame was unparalleled, and he was a role model as the most standard Immortal Cultivator, meeting all the moral requirements for an Immortal Cultivator.
Even his enemy who loathed him and wanted to kill him could only admire his integrity and respect him as the "last Immortal Cultivator of the Imperium".
The psychological blow of the participation of such a "God of War" in the battlefield on the attackers was much greater than that of the destruction of an Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship.
Just like Jin Yuyan said, Lei Chenghu was himself a rather unique warlord from the peripheral worlds. He was the same kind of person as the warlords and local magnates who took up more than 90% of the attackers and understood them well.
In the past two hundred years, Lei Chenghu had fought those warlords countless times and even saved their lives on the most dangerous battlefields. In the Imperium's counterattack not a long time ago, Lei Chenghu had also commanded the troops of many warlords to expand the territory of the Imperium.
Even right now, the Astounding Thunder Fleet was still mixed with a lot of Immortal Cultivators from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. They were essentially brothers from the same world. How were they going to fight the war?
Not a single warlord from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium could stand the consequences of attacking Lei Chenghu's fleet.
Or rather, so much as Lei Chenghu coughed lightly, countless young bottom-level officers who zealously worshipped him would be joining him and accepting his command!
It was certainly not good news for Yun Xuefeng and other Immortal Cultivators of the four families.
In the meantime, it was not pleasant for the Cultivators like Li Yao either.
If the situation went on, even if the "battle of Seven Seas" was won, the greatest winner would only be Lei Chenghu and Wuying Qi behind him. It would be impossible for Li Yao to achieve a balance among the Immortal Cultivators.
Even Boss Bai was sending messages to Li Yao crazily.
"What exactly is going on? Why did a riot suddenly burst out in the Seven Seas Grand Market? Why did Lei Chenghu's fleet suddenly jump to the Seven Seas Space Zone?
"Damn it. The Astounding Thunder Fleet is really strong. As expected of a super army that has been tested through two hundred years of bloody battles. They've swallowed an Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship so quickly!
"Our Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs has been gathered for no more than three months. Despite the assistance of the super artificial intelligence, we probably would be no match for the Astounding Thunder Fleet.
"Hey, hey, hey, Li Yao, who are we helping right now? If we continue to pretend to be 'loyal' and stay on Yue Xuefeng's side, we will soon burst into conflicts with the Astounding Thunder Fleet!
"Yun Xuefeng is going mad. Really. The guy is already eyeing me in a creepy way. I estimate that he will push us out to resist the Astounding Thunder Fleet if he loses a few more branch fleets!
"What do we do? Should we stab Yun Xuefeng in the back right now and take Lei Chenghu's side? But exactly which side is Lei Chenghu on? He is undoubtedly the purest Immortal Cultivator!
"One moment of carelessness, and we may become Yue Xuefeng and Lei Chenghu's mutual enemy. That… That will definitely be the greatest joke!"
Li Yao sent a message to Boss Bai. "Give me an hour, and I'll give you an answer. Until then… please hang in there. Boss Bai, I trust you. You can make it!"
Li Yao cut the communication with Boss Bai quickly, allowing himself time to analyze and deduce calmly in the cold swirls of thinking.
In the green fluorescence, there was nothing but himself made of blood, who sat on his opposite side and held his cheeks with both hands, contemplating together with him. It was almost like a weird mirror had been set up before him.
"Wuying Qi's mental attacks were very good. They were nothing like the in-depth hypnotization, psychological hints, and soul shocks that we had seen before."
The mental devil said slowly, "I've carefully analyzed the mark that he implanted into our soul through the soul explosion and realized that it involves changes of the most fundamental layer of the soul. It is a very brilliant brainwashing technology. Similar techniques are rarely found among human beings."
"Rarely found among 'human beings'?"
Li Yao keenly grasped the key. "That means they have been found elsewhere?"
"It's hard to say if they are the same, but we indeed saw similar modifications in the brain tomography of the Pangu Clan as well as the Covenant Alliance."
The mental devil replied somewhat uncertainly.
In the Kunlun relic, the primeval relic discovered in the Star Glory Federation, Li Yao had slain a living member of the Pangu Clan. The exploration team also discovered a lot of decayed and withered bodies of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan later.
Below the ground of the Land of Eternal Night in the Ancient Sages Sector, inside the Nuwa warship and the Pangu laboratory, there were plenty of well-preserved bodies as well.
