Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 658
"What I was going to do was strengthen and build up his presumption with all the childish theories, groundless assumptions, and illusionary plans so that he would consider me to be nothing more than a retard who was lucky enough to experience many fortuitous events only to think that he was the savior of the world. Then, your father would inevitably have the feeling that he was whipping me, savaging me, and playing me!
"A great man like your father must usually be flawless. Perhaps, only when he felt that he was completely on the winning side would he reveal the tiniest loophole about himself!"
Jin Xinyue's mouth was opened wider and wider. "So, you talked about so many things with my father just in order to ease his alert so that he would confess his secrets?
"But I feel that my father remained extremely calm to the last second and he did not give away any secret at all!
"What crucial information have you got, Master?"
Li Yao smiled and extended his index finger. "First and foremost, we have confirmed that the Red Tide Plan hasn't been started yet, and there is still time to stop it, which is the foundation of all our next steps!
"If we had found out that neither your father nor all the other demon emperors were in the headquarters of the Pantheon of Demons when we reached Heavenly Path City, then we really would've been doomed because it could only have indicated one thing—that they had been teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector for the ultimate war. There would've been nothing that we could do except wait and watch, right?"
Jin Xinyue thought for a moment and shook her head. "That's not right. Didn't my father say that the war has already begun?"
"What has begun is only the feint!" Li Yao said enthusiastically. "We are both very clear that the key of the Red Tide Plan is 'distraction'. The whole plan can be divided into two phases. The first phase is the fake attack the northern front, where the cannon fodder troops who are pretending to be the main force will attack the north of the Star Glory Federation from the traditional route of the Dark Desolate Domain to the Grand Desolate Plateau to the Giant Blade Pass!
"The purpose of the fake attack is to stall all the elites of the federation in the Giant Blade Pass. Or even better, they are also luring the elites of the federation to chase after them on the Grand Desolate Plateau. It will be best if a second 'Giant Crab Plan' is carried out, where all the crystal suit legions are asked to hunt down the cannon fodder, in which case the rear of the federation will be weakly defended!
"Then, the real main force of the Blood Demon Sector will appear in the heartland at the southeast of the federation and give the federation a critical attack!
"The strategy of distraction requires a time interval so that the main force of the federation will be baited to somewhere as far away as possible. It's a simple logic, isn't it?"
Jin Xinyue thought quickly and immediately understood what was going on. "You do have a point, master. Since the fake attack has only just started, there is certainly some time left before the real attack begins.
"However, how are you so sure that the main force of the Blood Demon Sector has not been teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector in advance? Chances are that they are lurking in the counterattack bases of the Far East Demon Kingdom in the East Ocean of the Star Glory Federation!"
Shook his head, Li Yao said, "That's highly unlikely."
"I don't know how many elites your father has organized for the Red Tide Plan, but in order to sabotage the heartland of the federation, even if they are one-in-ten-thousand elites, there should be hundreds of thousands of them, right? How many resources will a million experts with their powerful biochemical beasts, skeleton tanks, and devilish warships consume, and how much demonic energy will they emit every day?
"Do you think such an enormous troop can hide below the eastern coastline of the federation for half a month without being discovered? Then you are underestimating the scouting ability of the Star Glory Federation!
"Confidentiality is the top priority for the Red Tide Plan. Your father wouldn't have done such a stupid thing.
"Therefore, the elites of the coalition army of demons must've gathered somewhere in the Blood Demon Sector. They are preparing themselves and waiting to be teleported!
"Of course, this is just my speculation and is not supported by any proof. It is also possible that your father has chosen a stupid and straightforward approach.
"Therefore, our sneak-in was also a minor test."
"Test?"
"Exactly! Don't you feel that it was a bit strange? A couple of days ago, you introduced the defense system of Heavenly Path City in great detail to me, but judging from the defensive forces we encountered today, while the air defense was immaculate, the ground forces were far from satisfactory, weren't they?"
Jin Xinyue was dazed. "That seems to be true. The airspace was impregnable with the Mirage Falcons, Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes, and Ghost Jellyfish. The demon emperors and the devilish warships arrived very fast, too. In comparison, the ground forces were sparse. We barely met any trouble when we escaped!"
"As you said earlier, the ground forces deployed around Heavenly Path City included the 'Eight Desolate Venomous Dragon Legion' of the Claw Clan, the 'Furious Tide Thunderous Beast Legion' of the Claw Clan, the 'Tyrant Beetle Legion' of the Insect Clan, among a few other elite troops. But today, we encountered none of them. The ground forces we met were just small fries," Li Yao remarked.
Jin Xinyue immediately understood. "The elite troops deployed in Heavenly Path City, which equal to the garrison of the capital city in the Star Glory Federation, have set off in advance to the last rendezvous point!
"Of the remaining troops in Heavenly Path City, Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes, and Ghost Jellyfish are for one-time use and do not need to be brought, and the Mirage Falcons, the devilish warships, and the demon emperors are all fast enough to arrive at the rendezvous point at any time!"
Li Yao smiled. "See? You've read a lot of information, too.
"But that is still not the whole of it.
"Although all the elite troops have left, so many devilish warship and demon emperors, even including your father, are still lingering in Heavenly Path City.
"Such a national war is the last attempt of the Blood Demon Sector. Your father and the rest of the demon emperors will certainly command and fight on the frontline. Their future depends on the outcome of the war, and they will have to do their best without any reservation.
"The fact that your father and 'Ape Fiend' Yuan Riyue are still in Heavenly Path City proves my previous hypothesis that the main force of the coalition army of demons hasn't been teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector yet. They are still being gathered in a certain place in the Blood Demon Sector, and they will not be teleported until their commanders arrive!
"See? Isn't such information crucial for us?"
Jin Xinyue blinked her watery eyes in a daze for a long time.
She had always considered herself smart and quick-minded, but in front of her master, she felt that her brain was consistently one beat slower. Thinking for a moment, she hesitated before saying, "What can we do even if we know such information now? Can we still stop the Red Tide Plan?"
Li Yao smiled evilly. "About that. We'll have to count on the most important information that I've elicited from your father!
"That is the truth of the Red Tide Plan, or rather, what the real Red Tide Plan is!"
Jin Xinyue was so surprised that she almost jumped up. "Isn't the Red Tide Plan a strategy of distraction where the main force of the coalition army of demons will be teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector through the secret wormholes constructed by the Far East Demon Kingdom in the past and stab into the heartland of the Star Glory Federation with the fake attacks in the northern battlefield as a distraction?"
Li Yao squinted, with brilliance of admiration beaming out of his eyes. "Do you really think that the Red Tide Plan is as simple as that?"
Jin Xinyue felt that her head was dizzy. "Is this simple? Is this not the truth but a disguise for the real Red Tide Plan?"
Li Yao sighed and said, "Assuming that this is the truth about the Red Tide Plan, how do you know it?"
Jin Xinyue frowned. "The Red Tide Plan is my father's lifelong work. As his daughter, I discovered it by accident!"
"You said yourself that your father is an emotionless machine and an out-and-out man of determination. Do you really think that he cared about blood relationships?" Li Yao said casually. "Moreover, you killed your stepmother, his beloved wife, and you did a lot things that jeopardized the interest of the Gold Crow Kingdom.
"You were even secretly planning to assassinate him!
"He knew everything you did!
"But instead of killing you immediately, he eased his alert and let you get access to the Red Tide Plan. Did you not feel that it was weird and suspicious?"
Cold sweat was popping up on Jin Xinyue's head, and two sharp scalpels seemed to be cutting her brain. She shuddered beyond her control and mumbled, "You are right, Master. On second thought, it does seem a bit weird. With my father's meticulousness, how could he have exposed his most critical plan to his ambitious, disobedient daughter?"
"Not just you. In fact, over the past couple of years, in order to persuade more tribes to join the Red Tide Plan, your father had to inform part of the content of his strategy to the experts. Therefore, in the leadership of the Blood Demon Sector, the Red Tide Plan was not really a big secret at all!" Li Yao calmly observed.
"A plan whose lifeline is 'confidentiality' has been learned by so many people so many years before it is really implemented. Is it really a sound plan?"
Chapter 996: Fatal Teleportation! |
Jin Xinyue took more than ten deep breaths, and yet she could not stop her teeth from biting her lips. Panting, she asked, "Are you suggesting that the Red Tide Plan I discovered was exposed by my father on purpose and that it was not the real Red Tide Plan but just another distraction?"
"Do you not feel that, for the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons and the nominal leader of the Blood Demon Sector, the Red Tide Plan you know is too simple and straightforward, bordering on childish?" Li Yao asked in return.
Jin Xinyue's chest was fluctuating fast, and she could barely focus her eyes. She mumbled, "Has father been lying to everybody? Then—then, what is the real Red Tide Plan? How did you learn it, Master?"
For a moment, Jin Xinyue even suspected that her master and her father were in the same gang!
Sitting cross-legged, Li Yao rubbed his temples to ease the explosive pressure caused by the rapidly-functioning brain, and he analyzed calmly, "In order to crack the Red Tide Plan, I've been contemplating one question. How exactly can you teleport a million soldiers to the heartland of the Star Glory Federation?
"The Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector are being merged right now, like two eggs that are crushing into each other. The Dark Desolate Domain was the point of impact for the two eggs. The 'eggshell' here has been broken. Naturally, the egg white and the yolk inside can flow without obstruction.
"Therefore, it is much more convenient to teleport through the Dark Desolate Domain. Or rather, natural, stable wormholes are appearing without anybody doing anything!
"However, after passing through the wormholes of the Dark Desolate Domain, the coalition army of demons will find themselves in a boundless Grand Desolate Plateau, which causes tremendous pressure to their logistics.
"After the Battle of Dawn, the human towns on the Grand Desolate Plateau have been abandoned, and all the citizens have evacuated behind the Giant Blade Pass. The coalition army of demons will not be able to find any prey even if they want to plunder.
"Therefore, it is impossible to march in this way. Even if the Blood Demon Sector spares no warriors, they will be merely committing suicide!
"Your father had to look for a different approach. On the surface, he located the secret wormholes established by the Far East Demon Kingdom in the past and tried to infiltrate the federation through the inconspicuous paths behind it!"
Jin Xinyue frowned. "Did my father not?"
"You will know the answer after you analyze it," Li Yao replied. "First of all, the Far East Demon Kingdom created the wormholes for the few nobles to flee to the Blood Demon Sector. Then, how large and stable would the wormholes have been?
"It is one thing to teleport a few thousand nobles to the Blood Demon Sector in different batches over several years, but it is a whole different thing to teleport a million soldiers, who are armed to the teeth and boast colossal war potential, to the Heaven's Origin Sector instantly!
"The Far East Demon Kingdom was not very strong. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been demolished by the Star Glory Federation. When they were struggling to survive, were they really capable of establishing wormholes of such enormity? And would the wormholes have been so well-built that they are still stable after five hundred years?
"Passing through wormholes is highly dangerous. One moment of carelessness, and all the troops will be lost in the storm of the four-dimensional space!
"One wave is enough to obliterate a top expert. Wouldn't it be awkward for a demon emperor to pass through the highly-unstable wormhole, only to discover that their heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney had been left on the way?
"It is almost like a bridge between two cliffs that was constructed five hundred years ago and is now beyond repair. The valley that the bridge is in has level-nine storms all year around, which could destroy the bridge at any moment.
"Furthermore, below the bridge is an abyss that nobody will survive!
"Right now, your father is asking hundreds of thousands of soldiers to cram onto the bridge. Is there something wrong with your father's head?"
Jin Xinyue opened her mouth, only to come up with no rebuttal.
"Also," Li Yao continued, "your father's Red Tide Plan claims that the counterattack bases left by the Far East Demon Kingdom five hundred years ago will be used as the bastions for the march of the coalition army of demons.
"But as far as I know, the Star Glory Federation has explored the relics of the Far East Demon Kingdom far and wide, and no intact counterattack bases were ever found along the coastline.
"Let's say that the Far East Demon Kingdom left some sort of counterattack base in an inconspicuous place in the coastline. Then we are back to the question. Are the bases reliable enough after being scourged by seawater for five hundred years? Is there enough room for so many soldiers? Are the rune arrays and the demonic artifacts still functional?
"Besides, although the Far East Demon Kingdom also belonged to the demon race, their biochemical technology was slightly different to that of the Blood Demon Sector. Are the assets that the Far East Demon Kingdom prepared for their counterattack perfectly compatible with the experts, the biochemical beasts, and the devilish warships of the Blood Demon Sector?
"I don't believe that you father has never thought of such problems!
"So, my real question is—
"Do the awesome 'secret wormholes of the Far East Demon Kingdom', allegedly leading to the eastern coastline of the federation, really exist?"
Jin Xinyue was dumbfounded as if she had been struck by lightning. She hurried to say, "But—but if the wormhole does not exist, how is the coalition army of demons going to be teleported over?"
Li Yao squinted and murmured, "That's exactly what I've been reflecting on. Is there a certain way that the best troops of the Blood Demon Sector can be projected to the heart of the Star Glory Federation instantly?
"For example, is it possible to build a certain 'super teleportation array' and rip apart the soft barrier between the two Sectors?"
Jin Xinyue hesitated for a moment and shook her head. "There isn't such technology in the Blood Demon Sector. The largest teleportation array we've ever built is the Eye of Blood Demon.
"It took us ten years to build the Eye of Blood Demon, at the cost of almost all the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in the Blood Demon Sector for teleportation arrays.
"Right now, we have neither resources nor technology to construct a second super teleportation array.
"But the Eye of Blood Demon is the opposite of the Red Tide Plan's demand. It can project a few elites to ten thousand lightyears away, but it can't project a million soldiers to another Sector, however close the Sector is to us."
Li Yao smiled. "Yes. More than ten years ago, the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector discovered 'Boneyard' ten thousand lightyears away almost at the same time. In order to explore the unknown planet, the two Sectors dedicated all the available resources to super teleportation arrays that allowed ultra-long-distance projection.
"In the Heaven's Origin Sector, we built the Heaven's Artillery.
"In the Blood Demon Sector, you built the Eye of Blood Demon.
"It was through the Heaven's Artillery that I was teleported to Boneyard.
"The best demon generals of the demon race, led by Wang Ji of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, were teleported to Boneyard through the Eye of Blood Demon, too.
"Later, I slew Wang Ji and was teleported into the depths of the sea of stars with Skeleton Dragon. The rest is history.
"The designing purpose of the Heaven's Artillery and the Eye of Blood Demon was to explore the great universe. Therefore, it was the distance of teleportation that counted but not the maximum capacity.
"For the convenience of our discussion, let's compare most of the teleportation arrays to two different types of slingshots.
"The first type of slingshots—let's call them 'distance slingshots'—can throw a stone weighing half a kilogram a hundred kilometers away.
"The second type is 'weight slingshots', which can throw a huge rock weighing a ton five hundred meters away.
"Distance of projection matters in the first case, and the mass of the object to be teleported matters in the second. Are you following me?"
Jin Xinyue nodded. It was rather a shallow metaphor.
"Both the Heaven's Artillery and the Eye of Blood Demon belong to the first type, the 'distance slingshots', because they are devised to send only a few elites somewhere far, far away, right?"
