Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The young man’s breath suddenly turned heavy, and he almost cried out.

Li Yao hurried to pinch Li Jialing’s neck, in case the young man exposed the two of them to the dreadful white-haired woman.

Li Linghai’s whole attention seemed to have been fixated on Li Lingfeng, or rather, Li Lingfeng’s mouth. She appeared to be in a trance, and her delicate, flawless face seemed to be falling apart. From the cracks, a hint of regret, hatred, and persistence for power leaked out. But she failed to notice Li Yao and Li Jialing’s anomalies.

However, after only a few seconds, the feelings were all frozen, as if the invisible mask had been glued and repaired again.

Her heart was utterly frozen, without the tiniest loophole.

“It seems that since the moment you ordered to blow up the unmanned exploration starship, my dear sister has become a person whom you loathed and despised in the past, a monster that feeds on power, just like me.”

Li Lingfeng said with a smile, “Yes, the fetus was only a product of your momentary rashness. Or rather, it was the last residue of the soft-minded and sentimental Li Linghai in the past. As the fetus was destroyed in the explosion of the unmanned exploration starship, the Li Linghai of the past completely died too. From an utterly deformed corpse arose a brand-new person, an ambitious queen of the Imperium with stealthy intentions!

“Such a queen of the Imperium would never care about the methods and the sacrifices to achieve her purpose, including even her own children.

“Therefore, after she learned that the damn fetus, her sole weakness, was not destroyed but raised up, she wasted no time preparing to destroy the fetus for a second time and to kill her own son, an obstacle that hindered her ultimate purpose, in person. That is why you are here today. You are here to kill but not to save, aren’t you?”

Li Linghai was silent for such a long time that Li Yao and Li Jialing thought that she might deny it, or at least come up with an excuse.

But in the end, the pale-eyed queen of the Imperium simply smiled and said, “Which procedure went wrong exactly? The unmanned exploration starship?”

“Yes.”

Seeing that Li Linghai gave no denial, Li Lingfeng knew that Li Yao and Li Jialing must’ve heard the cruel answer. He said with an even more brilliant smile, “I had long been secretly watching you behind the family’s back before that. My original purpose was merely to learn the inside information of the royal palace from you so that I could gain greater benefits in the family.

“At that time, your wings were not fully grown yet, and your wisdom was far from impeccable. How could you have escaped everyone’s attention when you got an unmanned exploration starship and performed such weird mutations?

“You should really thank your brother, because I helped you kill two persons at that time and prevented the secrets regarding the unmanned exploration starship from leaking out. Otherwise, instead of us two being the only witnesses, the whole world would have learned the issue!”

“That explains a lot. I was truly too innocent, naïve, and reckless in the past.”

With one of her hands in her back, Li Linghai rubbed her temple with the other hand, as if she was regretting her stupidity in the past. Looking at her brother through the finger gaps with her gloomy eyes, she asked, “So, what do you want exactly by raising up my child after decades of work?”

“He is not just your own son; he is my nephew too. If you do not cherish your son as a mother, it is only reasonable for his uncle to raise him up, isn’t it?” Li Lingfeng said with a smile.

Then, he suddenly changed his expression and raised his voice as he continued, “I should be asking you the question, sister! For decades, you have been recruiting subordinates in secret and establishing a secret fleet. Recently, you seemed to be getting in touch with the young, bottom-level officers of various fleets of the Imperium, which had been gathered together for the Imperium’s attack toward the Covenant Alliance. What are you up to exactly?

“Hehe. However great the misunderstanding between you and me is, we are siblings after all, and you will forever be a member of the Li family! It doesn’t matter if you hurt yourself when you act recklessly, but your brother and your entire family may be burned by the fire that you have ignited. We may be doomed forever!

“So, whatever your plans and purposes are, why don’t you say them out frankly? Let’s communicate well, in case you ruin yourself, me, the family, and even the entire Imperium with your misbehaviors!”

“Ruin the Imperium?”

Li Linghai chuckled. With what could be determination or zealousness beaming out of her eyes, she said, “No, I am rescuing the Imperium.”

“Rescuing the Imperium.”

Li Lingfeng was amused. He waved his arms and said, “The Imperium of True Human Beings today includes the most prosperous Sectors in the entire universe, with a concourse of valiant warriors and strong experts and millions of starships. We have just crushed the Covenant Alliance, our old nemesis, on the battlefield. This is exactly our most flourishing moment in the past five hundred, no, the past thousand years. Why on earth does it need rescuing?

“Do you mean what you said, or are you simply just throwing the brainwashing propaganda out of habits?”

Looking at Li Lingfeng in the eyes, Li Linghai said casually, “Enough of the crap. You and I are both aware that the Imperium today is no longer the Imperium from a thousand years ago, and the Immortal Cultivators today have changed from the real Immortal Cultivators from a thousand years ago!

“A thousand years ago, when Wuying Qi, Blackstar the Great, established the Imperium of True Human Beings, what a promising, thriving, and an unstoppable country it was!

“At that time, everybody was full of ambitions. The hominoids were the fuel, whereas the Immortal Cultivators were the engine and battle units on the iron tank. Everybody was united to push the civilization of mankind forward in the infinite sea of stars. Expand, expand, and further expand. Evolve, evolve, and evolve nonstop to achieve the limits of the universe and make our civilization and human beings the strongest battle species in the universe. That was the loftiest ideal of the Immortal Cultivators a thousand years ago!

“But has such a magnificent dream been fulfilled after a thousand years?

“Hehe. Not to mention ‘exploring the land that has never been visited by ancient people bravely and surpass the limits of all the intelligent lives in history’, we have not even discovered and conquered the maximal territory of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago yet, and we are not as good as the Star Ocean Imperium in many aspects. That’s ancient people from ten thousand years ago!

“What have we accomplished after sacrificing the lives of billions of hominoids as the fuel? Isn’t the so-called dream a great joke?”

Li Lingfeng blushed. He couldn’t help but argue, “Sister, don’t be too imposing. You know clearly that the Star Ocean Imperium inherited the enormous heritages of the Demon Beast Empire that endured thirty thousand years. It also received the direct enlightenment of the primeval civilizations, namely the so-called ‘Book of Revelation’. That was the reason for the gigantic leap of the civilization of mankind.

“There were almost ten thousand years of wars in darkness after the Armageddon Rebellion and the collapse of the Star Ocean Imperium. Many worlds fell apart and developed on their own, unable to reach out to others. It’s been only a thousand years since the Imperium of True Human Beings reunited the territory again. Also, we are faced with the threat of the uncanny enemy that is the Covenant Alliance. Nothing can be helped even though we cannot restore the glory of ten thousand years ago for now. Have you wavered as an Immortal Cultivator just because of that?”

“No, I have never wavered as an Immortal Cultivator, and I have always been the most loyal believer of Blackstar the Great. It is you, the selfish, greedy, corrupted, and conspiring worms, who have betrayed Blackstar the Great and the real Immortal Cultivators’ lofty belief that everything can be sacrificed for the civilization of mankind. You have degenerated into the slaves of your personal desires. You are the fake Immortal Cultivators!”

Li Linghai bulged her eyes and sneered, “It would be understandable if we could not achieve the dreams and oaths of a thousand years ago for now because of temporary difficulties. But look at the murky Imperium today. Look at the corrupted, decayed nobles, warlords, and benefit takers. Look at the bugs who cling to their own territories and interests and who spare no efforts extending their claws to fight for the cake with no consideration of the overall interests of the Imperium and the civilization of mankind. Are those people really comparable to the pure, real Immortal Cultivators a thousand years ago? Do they really deserve such a glorious title as ‘Immortal Cultivator’?

“The simplest example will be the battle between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance.

“The battle this time is a long-prepared counterattack after a rest of hundreds of years. The expedition army includes the best fleets and experts of hundreds of Sectors. They have indeed conquered dozens of worlds unstoppably, all of which are resourceful, prosperous, and strategically important!

“Right now, the Covenant Alliance has been heavily wounded, and it is in the middle of dying struggles. As long as all of our nobles and fleet commanders remain united and forget sacrifices and personal interests, we will have a great chance to break into the heartland of the Imperium and eliminate the great trouble forever!

“Even if we cannot demolish the Covenant Alliance, I believe that we will at least deal such a critical blow that the enemy will not recover in three to five hundred years. It will lose all the bargaining chips to compete for the hegemony of the universe with the Imperium!

“Even I can think of such a simple logic, but why can’t you? Why can’t the noble ministers in the court think about it? Why can’t the family leaders, the warlords, and the fleet commanders think about it?

“The real reason is that nobody is willing to risk fighting an arduous annihilation battle at the heartland of the Covenant Alliance at great sacrifices.

“Nobody is willing to face the desperate counterattacks of the Covenant Alliance when it is dying.

“Everybody is simply keeping their eyes on other people. It will be best if they can take all the advantages after the fleets of other warlords perish together with the fleets of the Covenant Alliance.

“Even worse, while the war is not over yet, all the warlords have got their eyes on the dozens of prosperous worlds that have been newly conquered. Countless claws already can’t wait to reach for the hotcakes when they are not even out of the oven yet!

“Therefore, although the situation in the frontline looks great, the war cannot go on anymore.

“The nobles and the military theorists that they sponsored proposed countless reasons that we should not attack recklessly as if they were real. They claim that desperate enemies must not be chased after and swear that the Covenant Alliance is too maimed to be the Imperium’s problem in the next hundred years and the Imperium has secured the victory of a thousand years. Perhaps the stupid hominoids will believe that crap, but both you and I know that we are missing out on the greatest opportunity, right?

“This is exactly the situation of the Imperium today.

“The Imperium of True Human Beings seems powerful and even on the rise, but it is in fact at dusk right now, and it is rotten to the bones!”