Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1695
"But on the surface, I will be using a different name. I have to 'return' to the Wuying family!"
The young man rose and opened the door of the medical room. Allowing the scorching sunlight to don him with a burning armor, he looked back at Li Yao with the most brilliant smile. "From today onward, I will be called 'Wuying Ling'!"
Chapter 2687: Spring of the Imperium |
Spring had arrived in the Imperium.
It arrived earlier to the underground world of the capital planet that had never witnessed spring than it did to the surface.
Xu Zhicheng, a former distinguished miner and a leader of Nepenthe, stood before the Great Iron Factory that he found both familiar and strange, unable to believe that the place where he was born and brought up could turn into such a paradise!
The suffocating factory had been added with infinite automatic assembly lines, and the purification and fashioning facilities here were state-of-the-art even in the whole Imperium. More than 85% of the workers did not have to waste their lives for the dangerous jobs anymore.
But those workers were not fired. After training, they became new construction workers and created new living spaces by excavating the rocks around the Great Iron Factory. Beautiful towns and industrial parks were established, transforming the dark slave factory into a model underground city of the Imperium.
Even though Xu Zhicheng had personally witnessed all the beautiful changes, he still found it hard to believe his eyes when the whole underground city was celebrating the opening of the brand-new industrial park in the southern district.
It was like a dream that had been going on for half a year and would still continue!
When Li Yao, Long Yangjun, Li Jialing, and Xiaoming and Wenwen left earlier, they were ready to fight for ten years, twenty years, and even a century. Their ancestors had struggled in darkness for ten thousand years. Why couldn't they wait for another hundred years?
They did not expect the victory to come so fast. After only half a year, they were told that Li Yao secured a triumph on the surface and was about to win over the whole Imperium!
At first, everybody was suspicious.
It was understandable. They had been tormented for too long, and their previous resistances all ended up in destruction. They dare not ask for good news because they did not want to be disappointed.
However, the precious resources in cabinets shipped from the surface made them realize that the victory was real.
When teams of cold, iron-boned spiritual puppets came to the underground town, they panicked for a moment, thinking that the machines were ordered to slaughter them.
However, the spiritual puppets were holding not swords but spades. They were not here to kill, but to help repair the shelters, expand the towns, and establish roads among the towns!
Ever since then, the lives of the underground people got better and better.
Xu Zhicheng, as the leader of the Nepenthe believers and Li Yao's old friend, naturally took the responsibility of leading the renewal of the underground world.
Through Xu Zhicheng, Li Yao hired a bunch of healthy men as the guards of the Gold Crystal Pyramid. Since the Gold Crystal Pyramid was a demilitarized area, neither the Arsonist Fleet nor the Astounding Thunder Fleet was stationed in the area, and the underground people were the best guards.
It was not just a job for the underground people, but also an eye-opener for the excellent young men from the underground world, who would soon return to their hometown and bring more light to their compatriots.
As for the other Nepenthe believers, they returned to the Great Iron Factory and devoted themselves to reconstruction works. According to the plan, they would work with Xiaoming and Wenwen, as well as their puppets, to build the Great Iron Factory into a beautiful, futuristic city!
It was not just part of the reform in general, but also a powerful weapon.
The modification of the Great Iron Factory was made into videos and sent to the areas that were still under the control of the four families, showing the hominoids what the future Imperium would look like and what good lives they could live!
Now, while part of the Nepenthe believers took part in the construction of the city, other Nepenthe believers were building roads among the shelters and the underground cities with their mining skills. Then, as census enumerators, they helped the Imperium get the data of the underground people who had always been ignored so that those people's lives could be improved with aid. As a result, more and more underground people were joining the work to make their lives better.
There was no shortage of resources for now.
The four families had plenty of industries in the Empyreal Terminus Sector, and their ace fleets had carried a lot of resources during the invasion. Those were now the reformists' trophies.
The sailing route between the capital and the Seven Seas Space Zone was dredged again, allowing resources to be shipped to support the reconstruction.
The only problem was how to distribute the resources from the ground into the hands of those who were really in need.
Xiaoming and Wenwen, as information lives, made great contributions to that. They were building a new, unbelievable world of information below the ground.
On the surface, it was impossible for Xiaoming and Wenwen to disrupt the reign of the Immortal Cultivators completely, and they had to be careful all the time.
But the underground people, who could barely survive, certainly would not care whether or not the crystal processors would control human beings someday. They could do whatever they wanted to survive!
Faced with unseen technologies, the less developed areas were more likely to absorb and apply them than the more developed areas were. It was not unusual in the history of mankind.
It was exactly the case for the people living below the ground of the capital planet. They had skipped the age of the magic equipment industry and jumped into the brand-new age of ultra information!
They became accustomed to Xiaoming and Wenwen very quickly, and they were used to working with iron puppets. Even the toddlers were following the puppets and learning how to control them.
Watching the innocent kids play with the metal pets in the beautiful gardens, Xu Zhicheng felt that his heart was melting in the intoxicating spring breeze.
He felt that he was dozens of years younger and back to the days when his wife and his children were alive.
The underground people were no fools. Xu Zhicheng, as a leader of Nepenthe, knew the concerns for the development of crystal processor technologies.
In the past, they had shuddered in fear when faced with the cold and ruthless slaughter machines and gnashed their teeth, hoping to smash all those iron puppets into smithereens.
However, the spiritual puppets were only as evil as those who controlled them.
Even if the underground people were reigned by crystal processors someday, so what? Would it be any worse than the darkness in the past ten thousand years?
"Those from the new-generation who grow up with crystal processors and spiritual puppets will definitely be different from the people on the ground after they grow up."
Xu Zhicheng thought to himself. "But so what? We're never the same as the people on the ground. The Immortal Cultivators despise us and do not even treat us as their own kind, so why don't we consider the cold machines as our compatriots? After all, in the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, we're just machines that have body temperatures!"
"Uncle Xu! Uncle Xu!"
While Xu Zhicheng was thinking, a girl hopped at him on the top of a red lizard.
Xu Zhicheng recognized her as Bing Bing, formerly a resident of the 10,084th shelter and now a messenger of the underground towns who would deliver them things that could not be delivered by the Spiritual Nexus.
"Bing Bing."
Xu Zhicheng grinned and stopped Bing Bing's red lizard. "What have you brought to me this time?"
"It's an invitation! It's an invitation to the coronation ceremony!"
Bing Bing blushed in excitement and could barely catch her breath. She said, "We're going to the royal palace, Uncle Xu. Do you hear me? We're going to the royal palace!"
"A new emperor is to be crowned?"
Xu Zhicheng was not as excited as the girl. He was not interested in who would become the head of the Immortal Cultivators. After all, they were all just as wicked.
However, it was still a surprise for him that even hominoids like them would be qualified to attend the coronation. Time had truly changed.
"Yes, exactly!"
Bing Bing nodded quickly and asked, her eyes glowing, "Uncle Xu, do you know who the new emperor is?"
"How would I know?"
Xu Zhicheng was amused. "We're just underground wildlings. How can we speculate who the new emperor will be?"
"No, it's been announced. I'm sure it will be all over the Spiritual Nexus soon. But I've received the message sooner with the Black Wind King's personal invitation card!"
Bing Bing almost jumped to her feet. "The new emperor is Brother Jialing, whom we fought alongside earlier! Oh, Li Jialing is his fake name. His real name turns out to be Wuying Ling. He's Emperor Shenwu's thirteenth son and the most loved one. However, he was sent out of the palace to avoid the hunting of the four families, and he only met us by accident."
"What?"
Xu Zhicheng was dumbfounded for a moment.
Chapter 2688: Coronation! |
Seven days later, it was a sunny and cloudless day.
Though they had been on the ground for a week and were no longer surprised at the blue sky or the scorching sun, the representatives of the underground people, including Xu Zhicheng and Bing Bing, were still overwhelmed by the boundless square that had been jam-packed with people.
The huge square that boasted infinite space was something that they could never imagine below the ground.
All the underground representatives felt that they had been reborn into a whole new world.
Other than the spaciousness, they were also amazed by the millions of people here.
The place was spacious enough, but there seemed to be more people in the capital than the capacity of any place. The streets, the towers, the square, and the auditorium that was floating with anti-gravity units had all been crowded. Even the sky was occupied by warships!
The delegation of the underground people walked for more than three hours from dawn to morning before they finally found their designated location. They were like a tiny spot that was embedded into an array of infinite spots.
Standing on tiptoe, they saw that the ocean of people stretched all the way to the horizon.
Glamorously-decorated loudspeakers were floating in the sky and roaring, now playing exciting songs and now announcing new orders and policies. Their noises crashed each other like torrents, making it impossible for the underground people to know what was going on at all. They only felt that they were dizzy.
Xu Zhicheng craned his head to look at the royal palace, but he could not see the new emperor on the high platform at all. So, he simply browsed through the few fliers and leaflets in his hands.
Though the news of the new emperor's coronation had been spread throughout the Spiritual Nexus, some places, such as the remote resource planets or the territory of the four families, might not receive the message in time. The fliers were officially printed to make up for that so that the participants of the ceremony could disseminate the message with the fliers to every corner of the Imperium.
The fliers included an introduction to the new emperor and Emperor Shenwu's remark on him, which said that his son took after him and would certainly carry on his cause.
The emperors of the Imperium of True Human Beings were different from those of ancient times anyway.
The succession of the emperors in ancient times did not need to care about social influence. All they needed to do was to win the approval of the nobles and the powerful warlords.
However, the Imperium of True Human Beings was a modern country anyway, and the emperor was a representative of the country instead of a simple dictator.
In particular, the new emperor elected by the reformists had to compete with "Emperor Chengwu", which was selected by the four families. Since Emperor Shenwu had been dead for a year, neither of the two new emperors seemed legitimate enough, so it was all the more reason to beautify this new emperor.
So, these luxurious fliers introduced the life of the new emperor, claiming that he was the late emperor's thirteenth son who had been raised in another family because his father feared that he would be set up. Bing Bing had told Xu Zhicheng that earlier.
Xu Zhicheng was not at all interested in the fliers that were official and hence boring.
What he carefully studied was the leaflets that were of a much lousier quality.
The leaflets were also introductions to the new emperor, but they were much more exciting. There was no telling who published or spread them, but almost every participant of the ceremony was holding one.
According to the leaflets, the late emperor once fell asleep when he was too tired from working before his demise, and he saw a golden lion with wings flying into his palace and circling around him. There was even a glittering star on the forehead of this lion!
The black-starred lion gazed at him first, before it leaped out to the back of the palace!
The late emperor woke up from his dream and got the news that the queen had given birth to his thirteenth son.
Because of the unusual dream, the late emperor paid special attention to the thirteenth prince and secretly decided to let him inherit the crown.
However, the spies that were all over the royal palace somehow spread out the unusual dream, and the four Kurfursten certainly wouldn't allow the prince who was the reincarnation of the black-stared lion to grow strong. They decided to murder this thirteenth prince.
But fortunately for the Imperium of True Human Beings, one of the assassins found his conscience. He secretly replaced the thirteenth prince with another baby and carried him out of the royal palace into the Li family boldly!
After that, the thirteenth prince gradually grew up, and he realized his bloodline and his identity at a critical moment. Under the support of his most loyal subjects—the Black Wind King and Dongfang Mingyue—he left the Li family for the Seven Seas Space Zone, before he marched back to the capital, vanquished the four families, and secured a glorious victory as well as the crown that belonged to him!
Xu Zhicheng had no idea who wrote such a leaflet, whose language was simply bordering on vulgar and whose content was hard to believe. However, it was indeed exciting to read the leaflet. Everybody would feel that the new emperor was a young hero who was destined to lead them after reading it!
The leaflets, naturally, were not official.
But Xu Zhicheng was not a fool. If the authorities really disagreed with it, they would've censored those leaflets, yet the fact was that almost every participant of the ceremony was holding onto one of the leaflets, which showed the authorities' indirect support.
While Xu Zhicheng was considering the matter, the noises above his head turned ten times louder. He raised his head, only to see that the blue sky had turned into a golden ocean as thousands of starships had arrived over the capital.
Thousands of starships would be a grain of sand in space.
But within the atmosphere, when they were only several hundred meters from the ground, their overwhelming exhaust flames seemed to be tearing everything apart!
The sun was completely eclipsed by the fire from the starships. When the sunlight passed through the gravity fields of the starships, it turned into colorful fragments that added to the magnificence of the ceremony, as if it were fireworks for the coronation of the new emperor.
"Ah…"
Xu Zhicheng could not breathe anymore. He cheered with the millions of other people around him.
As an underground rebel, he was never proud of his identity as a member of the Imperium, but when he saw the grand scene of thousands of starships, he suddenly had an uncanny urge.
If the new emperor was really the young man he knew, with the support of Li Yao and Dongfang Mingyue, the underground people might really have a chance to melt into this unparalleled power and become part of the Imperium, right?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The unexpected shots of cannons nearly made Xu Zhicheng jump to his feet.
Thankfully, he remembered what he was repetitively taught a few days previously. It was said that cannons would be fired during the coronation.
As he expected, the deafening explosions did not cause any damage. The cannons from the thousands of starships launched the most dazzling flames of light, paving a golden path from the sky to the ground, as if they were delivering a certain power from the universe to the high platform before the royal palace!
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Thousands of light beams were unfolded in the sky, displaying the picture where the new emperor was slowly setting foot on the high platform so that the participants of the ceremony and all the people in the Imperium could see him clearly.
The new emperor turned out to be a tall and vigorous young man. He was wearing golden formal clothes that extended to a dozen meters away. The gold scales stitched to his clothes made him look like a golden dragon that was slowly stretching out. Holding the sword that represented royal power, he slowly stepped on the platform.
His black hair, mixed with some golden strands, was dancing as if it were alive. Deep in his eyes, golden light and purple light were fighting with sparks bursting out. After his every step, a footprint was left where he set his foot on. He looked much more majestic than Emperor Chengwu that was elected by the four families. Many people who learned of his background from the fliers and the leaflets were growing more and more respectful of him, vaguely realizing that this new emperor was different from any of the puppets in the past hundreds of years!
Chapter 2689: The Emperor's Order |
