Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

2203 Firewall

“Furthermore—”

The mental devil went on, “General Lei Chenghu also enlisted a large batch of true human beings and hominoids into his army purely as consumable cannon fodder. That was how he earned the precious moment of rest, which allowed him to regroup the collapsed troops, rebuild the defense line, and get enough mobile forces.

“On the other hand, he also propagated that everybody, from the soldiers to the civilians, must die for their country. He distributed ‘banzai bombs’ and the battle excitants to all the people in the battle area, while he instilled the idea of dying together with the enemy for the service of the emperor and the country into them.”

Li Yao asked, “What is the ‘banzai bomb’ exactly?”

The mental devil replied, “They were lousily-made crystal bombs. Almost all people in the battle area under his command had one.

“Lei Chenghu demanded that, upon the arrival of the army of the Covenant Alliance, those people should inject excitants to their necks to receive momentary strengthening and stimulation, before they shout ‘banzai’ and die together with the enemy using the crystal bombs. At the very least, they should kill themselves with those crystal bombs to preserve their dignity as citizens of the Imperium.

“Of course, his decision was not entirely unjustifiable. After all, once the planet was occupied and the people were captured by the Covenant Alliance, they would be sent to the so-called ‘temples’ for brainwashing. They would be deprived of their feelings and self-awareness, transforming them into machines of flesh and blood that knew nothing except for carrying out orders dutifully. The strength of the Covenant Alliance would be further built up.

“However, from the perspective of the Cultivators, what Lei Chenghu did was certainly too cruel.

“All in all, Lei Chenghu was the first one to carry out the ‘wasteland strategy’, and he carried it out most completely. Whenever he retreated from a planet, he would not leave a single mine or warehouse to the Covenant Alliance. As for the industrial facilities, they had been blown to the ground since a long time ago.

“About the people, he would organize them to evacuate with the fleet through iron approaches to maintain the available strength as much as possible, but for the people that could not be evacuated, he never cared about their lives either. He even publicly encouraged them to die so that the burden of the Imperium would be reduced and they would not end up as the enemy’s cannon fodder.

“Lei Chenghu’s ruthless if not insane tactics were quite controversial even within the Imperium. The nobles whose properties were confiscated by him against the law and who were forced to go to the frontline as cannon fodder, as well as the interest groups that were involved in the issue, initiated crazy attacks on him later.

“However, after a series of impeccable victories, even those enraged guys had to admit that what Lei Chenghu did completely fitted the practice of the Immortal Cultivators, and that if he hadn’t done it, the army of the Covenant Alliance would’ve likely marched into the heartland of the Imperium in their high morale, in which case everything would’ve been screwed!

“Anyway… If there is ever a real, textbook Immortal Cultivator, that will certainly be Lei Chenghu. He seems to have regarded everybody including himself as a chess piece and a weapon to defend the Imperium.

“I find a man with such a distinctive character very likable, but are you sure that you are going to rescue such a stubborn, hardcore Immortal Cultivator as a Cultivator?”

Li Yao thought carefully for a long time.

In fact, he had vaguely guessed it even without the introduction of the mental devil. How could a man who had been appointed as an admiral of the Imperium’s army and accoladed as Marquis Liaohai be a good guy?

However…

“I think that our primary concern right now is not whether the reformists can seize the supreme power of the Imperium.”

While considering, Li Yao said carefully, “The subtle situation within the Imperium is only one side, and the Covenant Alliance is the other side that is equally important. Those guys of the Covenant Alliance are only puppets but not dead. Would they really do nothing after losing dozens of Sectors and simply watch the Imperium digest the fruits of victory and complete the internal reorganization?

“When we were still in the federation, we had already discussed the issue with the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet. From the perspective of an observer, Di Feiwen also thought that the glorious triumph of the Imperium’s counterattack came too easily and uncannily.

“Also, after dozens of Sectors are swallowed, the problems of uneven distribution and indigestion are bound to happen. That will be an opportunity that the Covenant Alliance can take advantage of!

“So, although I don’t know why the Covenant Alliance decided to play a crazy gamble with dozens of Sectors as the wager as if it had gone mad, I believe that the Covenant Alliance must have a scheme!

“Let’s turn around and look at the Imperium right now. It is exactly like what Li Linghai said. All kinds of conflicts are more intense than ever in the last years of the dynasty.

“Conflicts between the smaller nobles and the four Kurfürst families, conflicts between the newly-rising warlords at the peripheral space zones and the traditional magnates at the central space zones, conflicts between true human beings and hominoids, conflicts between the low-level Immortal Cultivators and the high-level Immortal Cultivators, and conflicts between the expedition army and the Council of Elders.

“Even Li Linghai, who wants to eliminate all the conflicts with the dead bodies of the four Kurfürst families, may have deeper ambitions that she has not revealed yet, and it may bring about greater conflicts. Who knows?

“If the Covenant Alliance takes the opportunity when all the conflicts in the Imperium break out at the same time, what will happen?”

After a long silence, the mental devil said, “If the Covenant Alliance really plans to seize the precious moment when all the conflicts break out at the same time, they will have to know the things that are happening in the Imperium clearly.”

“It’s not unlikely. Do you still remember ‘Tang Qianhe’, the puppet of the Covenant Alliance we encountered in the Kunlun relic more than a hundred years ago?”

Li Yao said, “Tang Qianhe was a spy from the Covenant Alliance, but she was able to simulate the feelings of a normal person vividly and even infiltrate into Su Changfa’s exploration team without being discovered by anyone.

“Su Changfa also told us later that the Covenant Alliance’s technologies in the simulation of emotions were much better than the ‘Ring-Tu Test’ of the Imperium that was used to resist the infiltration of the Covenant Alliance. There is no telling how many spies have been sent into the Imperium. Many of the spies are the so-called ‘silencers’. They will not reveal their identities unless it is absolutely necessary.

“Let’s take Tang Qianhe for example. She only ripped apart her disguise and revealed her true intention after discovering a living member of the Pangu Clan.

“Think about it. What if we hadn’t discovered a living member of the Pangu Clan? Would it have been possible that Tang Qianhe followed Su Changfa and Kou Ruhuo into the federation?

“The Imperium and the Covenant Alliance have been fighting for ten thousand years. Countless spies of the Covenant Alliance are lurking within the Imperium and sending intelligence back to the Covenant Alliance incessantly. It is perfectly normal!

“But on the other hand, it is not so easy for the spies of the Imperium to lurk in the Covenant Alliance. Pretending to be someone whose feelings and free will are completely erased is too difficult!”

The mental devil said, “Now that you mentioned it, I remember ‘Tang Qianhe’ too. That woman was crazy enough to turn herself into pure energy in order to awaken the member of the Pangu Clan. That was truly horrible.

“If a spy of the Covenant Alliance could be found in a tiny exploration squad, it is possible that more spies are hidden in the critical departments of the Imperium. They are truly likely to grasp and even manipulate the escalation and outbreak of certain conflicts of the Imperium in secret.”

“Therefore—”

Li Yao said, “The millennium equilibrium is not so easy to be broken. The glorious triumph of the Imperium’s counterattack is not as glorious as it appears. Even if the army of the Imperium is truly invincible in the frontline, their rear is even more dangerous and vulnerable right now!

“One moment of carelessness, and the Covenant Alliance will launch a counterattack. It is not entirely unlikely that the Imperium that is mired in civil war will totally collapse!

“In the event of the Imperium’s total collapse, there will be two consequences.

“Firstly, all the people living in the hundreds of worlds of the Imperium, be they Immortal Cultivators or ordinary people, will be involved in infinite warfare. Their lives will be a hundred times more miserable than right now. They will be either brainwashed into puppets of flesh and blood or blown into smithereens together with their homeland.

“Although I hate to admit it, the Imperium of True Human Beings has indeed maintained unity and general peace in the populated worlds at the center of the cosmos.

“It is better to be a dog in a peaceful world than to be a human in the time of war. I can’t imagine what kind of oceans of blood will be raised once the Imperium collapses abruptly.

“Secondly, after the Imperium collapses and the Covenant Alliance absorbs most of its strength, it will definitely expand into a behemoth that will swallow the entire universe. The Star Glory Federation will be faced with the pressure of the giant beast alone.

“The Black Wind Fleet still maintains the lowest level of communication with the homeland of the Imperium. The existence of the federation cannot be kept a secret for very long. In one to two hundred years at most, after finishing the absorption and combination of the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance will certainly lay its evil hands on the federation.

“What can the federation do in two hundred years? Build a giant starship and run away like the Star Ocean Republic in the past?

“If the Imperium and the federation both collapse, and the Covenant Alliance develop and awaken large members of the Pangu Clan, will there be any hope for mankind? Will they be completely abandoned by the Pangu Clan like tools that have fulfilled their purposes?

“Therefore, from the perspectives of the billions of ordinary people at the center of the cosmos, the national interests of the Star Glory Federation, and the civilization of mankind as a whole, it is best to maintain the stability of the Imperium, make it a ‘fireball’ between the federation and the Covenant Alliance, and keep the two as evenly matched parties.

“In the entire Imperium, if anyone can resist the Covenant Alliance’s fatal attacks, it will be ‘God of War’ Lei Chenghu.

“Besides, although the four Kurfürst families have arrested Lei Chenghu, they will not necessarily kill him. The two parties may reach a deal, and Lei Chenghu may break out of the siege in other ways. The bottom line is, we cannot influence him at all.

“If we rescue Lei Chenghu in cooperation with Li Linghai and place him on the side of the ‘reformists’, we will be able to observe and influence him from a close distance. In the most extreme scenario, there will even be a chance to kill him. He is an experienced expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, but he is the commander of a fleet after all who must be more focused on the arts of commanding. There is no reason why he can be a better fighter than we are, can he?”

“Fair enough. Your head is getting clearer now.”

The mental devil pondered for a moment before it suddenly shrieked, “Watch out!”