Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Looking at Ding Lingdang’s clear and sincere eyes, and sensing the warmth of her hands, Li Yao could not have been more touched. “We can talk about how to destroy Earth later. But I want to go to the Imperium immediately to explore the secrets of the primeval civilizations and find out where Earth is. I wonder what kind of support the federation can provide for me right now and what your take on the issue is.”

Ding Lingdang’s eyes dimmed as she said, “The term for the Speaker of the Federation has always been five years. I have nearly fulfilled my term. However, the system was established five hundred years ago when the federation only occupied a tiny territory in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the situation was still in chaos. Right now, the federation includes almost ten Sectors, and the social form and the government structure are rather steady. So, the parliament has proposed a reform. But the details of the reform have not been decided yet. In such a period of transition, I cannot evade my responsibilities recklessly.”

“That means…” Li Yao said, somewhat in embarrassment, “I am going to take off on my own again?”

“Ever since we met, we have spent more time in separation than together,” Ding Lingdang said gloomily. “Before I met you, I always minded my own business and enjoyed the solitude. But for some reason, since we met, I began to feel that the days when I was alone were quite tough and tormenting.”

Li Yao did not know what to say. Secretly blaming himself for being too selfish, he said, “I…”

“Forget it. The man that I’m married to is Vulture Li Yao. If he could stay at home all the time, he would be no Vulture Li Yao!” Ding Lingdang grinned again and bashed Li Yao’s chest hard. “Go now and search for the answers that you want to find. The federation and I will definitely give our full support! After my term is over, I will set off to the Imperium to look for you. I think… it will be in three to five years at most!”

“Honey!” Li Yao held Ding Lingdang’s fists, and his voice turned extremely gentle.

“However, I do have one condition.”

Ding Lingdang snatched Li Yao’s hand instead. Her eyes became very deep.

“What condition?” Li Yao’s heart palpitated. He suddenly had a very bad feeling.

“We have been separated for more than three years, and you will be leaving for the Imperium after staying in the federation for one month at best. The journey to the Imperium will be mysterious and unpredictable. It may take a couple of years, and it may take forever, for us to meet each other again.”

Ding Lingdang said, with a degree of discontentment, “Then, as your wife, I demand you finish the competition of beliefs for the next couple of years within the next month so that I will not miss you at all in the next three to five years. It is not an outrageous request, is it?”

Li Yao swallowed us. “…No. Not at all.”

“Then, what are we waiting for?” Ding Lingdang grabbed him hard. “Let’s begin then. The path to truth is long and rough. We must seize every second!”

…

Seven days later, on the old Boneyard and the new Ultimacy, a streamlined, solid-armored starship with massive firepower—which carried Li Yao, Ding Lingdang, and several other people—slowly landed.

Ultimacy was vastly different from three years ago after the hard work of the remaining soldiers of the Black Wind Fleet and the refugees from Firefly.

Although it had yet to be decorated with sunniness, fragrant of flowers, and peaceful water, the folds thousands of meters high had been razed, and the valleys thousands of meters deep had been filled, creating large areas of plateaus that were suitable for agriculture and living. On the plateaus, towns made of silver, egg-shaped fortresses were established.

The towns were all covered in colorful membranes on the outside, which could both help resist the scourge of the blowing wind and filter the fatal venomous gas.

Li Yao saw a lot of carefree children playing in the open air under the protection of the membranes. He could almost hear their giggles although he was at an altitude of thousands of meters. He felt that his heart was warm.

He could not help but murmur, “What a vigorous planet!”

However, after passing several enormous folds almost ten thousand meters tall and marching inland, he discovered that a rather large proportion of the land was still in a desolate state.

As far as his eyes could reach, layered folds, broken rocks, and winds so violent that were almost visible to the naked eye were everywhere.

On the mountains that rose into the sky were mounds of snow and ice, filled with the air of death and desolation where no creature could survive.

However, inside the bleak inland, dozens of hideous starships were docked, and a large batch of armed shuttles and crystal suits were taking off and landing, forming what appeared to be a busy military base.

At the head of those starships, the raging emblem of a lightning trident was clearly visible.

On the few highest hills and above the military base, dozens of flags of the Imperium of True Human Beings were flying, too.

At first glance, the place truly seemed to be a base that the army of the Imperium occupied.

“Is this the ‘Strategic Deception Center’ that you have specially designed?” Li Yao asked in curiosity.

“Yes. The Imperium of True Human Beings does not know about what’s happened at the edge of the cosmos or that the Black Wind Fleet has been annihilated and surrendered. We intend to keep it that way,” Ding Lingdang said. “However, the intermittent communication between the two parties has not been entirely cut off. We want to learn precious information from within the Imperium, too. So, it is necessary for us to send some information back occasionally.

“Therefore, we have fabricated a base for the Black Wind Fleet based on the desolate, lifeless environment on Boneyard and established the Strategic Deception Center. Jin Xinyue has been appointed as the commander of the deception troops, and Di Feiwen, the former vice commander of the Black Wind Fleet, is her right-hand man. The two of them are supposed to accomplish the task of deceiving and collecting intelligence from the Imperium together.

“Look how bleak the environment here is. It is essentially an undeveloped planet that has absolutely nothing. However, since it boasts an atmosphere of sorts, it seems to be slightly worthwhile to be developed. This is a classic scenario where it is a shame to abandon the trophy, but it can offer barely anything after it is developed.

“According to the fake messages we sent to the Imperium, most of the territory of the Star Glory Federation is made of such planets. We hope to diminish the other warlords and aristocrats’ interest in the edge of the cosmos as much as possible in such a way while providing a logical reason for the Black Wind Fleet to be stationed here for a long time.

“We want to impress upon the Imperium the idea that the edge of the cosmos is an unattractive, barren land that is not worth conquering on purpose on a large scale. But now that the Black Wind Fleet is already here, and they have lost their original homes, they have no choice except to stay here for now however dissatisfied they are.

“In order to be more convincing, we have even shot pictures of the surroundings and sent them back to the Imperium together with half-true, half-false parameters of the planets. So far, so good. The Imperium is convinced that the Black Wind Fleet is still in the middle of suppressing the Star Glory Federation. Other than the harsh environment, everything is going well. Therefore, it has no intention of sending out a second expedition army.”

An enormous crack opened on the apron of the ‘base of the Black Wind Fleet’. The vehicle that carried Li Yao, Ding Lingdang, and the rest of them slowly flew in.

Below the crack, however, was an enormous dock, in which several super-light starships were running the final maintenance.

Those starships…

They were even smaller than Sparkle, the multipurpose exploration starship that Li Yao was most familiar with. They were clear and seemed to be made of countless crystal scales, which gave them the air of that single escape capsule of the Pangu Clan.

Generally speaking, they were elegant, agile, stealthy, and unpredictable. They were one of the best starship models that the federation could produce.

As a magical equipment expert, Li Yao had naturally-endowed instincts on most magical equipment. He could sense the power entailed in the starships in the moment.

“Although some messages are sent from the homeland of the Imperium occasionally, they are far from enough for us to gain a comprehensive and profound understanding about the Imperium right now,” Ding Lingdang said. “Besides, even the veracity of the messages cannot be confirmed. The aristocrats and even His Majesty in the homeland of the Imperium might not be telling the truth to the Black Wind Fleet, which was essentially an ambitious independent army.

“Therefore, it is inevitable that we need to send out trustworthy men to the Imperium to collect first-hand intelligence. The intelligence collection operation has been named ‘Heavenly Eye Plan’.

“The super-light starships before your eyes are the new-generation exploration starships based on Sparkle, applying the remarkable technology from the single escape capsules of the Pangu Clan, the Black Wind Fleet, and Firefly. The model has been named ‘Heavenly Eye’. Its performance is multiple times more advanced than the one that carried you to the dark nebula a hundred years ago, featuring high stealth and remote communication abilities.

“Right now, we have the detailed star map of the Imperium of True Human Beings, as well as the traffic map and the sailing routes between the Imperium and the federation. It is not entirely impossible for us to teleport an enormous fleet over as long as there is not a strict requirement on the precision and formation of the starships.

“However, such a fleet is destined to be noticed by the Imperium after it is teleported over. In that case, it will certainly be surrounded and destroyed. Chances are that the Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium will even trace them back and discover the truth of the federation. We will be the victim of our own scheme.

“Therefore, the reconnaissance operation can only be carried out with the ‘Heavenly Eye’ stealth starships with the minimal number of elite scouts, who will figure out the general situation in the Imperium, especially the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance, and check if the messages that the Imperium sent to the Black Wind Fleet openly are true. After they send the intelligence back to us, or even secretly establish a one-way space gate that can send navigation signals to the federation, we will know what to do next.

“Basically, this is an upgraded version of your exploration in the dark nebula. The only difference is that the Ancient Sages Sector deep inside the dark nebula is far less developed than the federation, whereas the Imperium of True Human Beings is likely well above the federation in every field, which means that the difficulty of collecting intelligence will be magnitudes higher.”