Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

There were infinite wonders in the vast universe. In only the territory of the Imperium of True Human Beings, the extraordinary talents were already too many to be counted. The battle-type Immortal Cultivators above the Divinity Transformation Stage, in particular, were the terrifying beings who could resist a whole fleet on their own!

Naturally, such battle-type experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage would not fight each other in a life-and-death battle if they did not have any vendetta. Even when they were fighting, it would be merely an exchange of knowledge.

Therefore, the ranks and titles such as “top ten experts of the Imperium” or “best expert of a certain family” were hardly verifiable. They were only of some referential value at best.

According to the position in the family, the accomplishments in the past, and the intensity in training, however, it was still able to distinguish the “super experts” from the “great experts” and the “mediocre experts”.

“Devilish Abyss” Li Jianyi, “Acyclic Earth” Yun Kuohai, and “Star Breaker” Song Huanzhen were all the central leaders of their respective families as well as the elders of the Imperium, and it was more than easy for them to mobilize the resources of a whole planet. What they counted on was their Cultivations, which were at least in the high level of the Divinity Transformation Stage.

The three of them were absolutely the extraordinary persons in the top tier of the Imperium of True Human Beings when it came to individual combat ability. They could tear a warship apart or kill thousands of people with a breath!

Also, besides the three experts, there were still dozens of first-rate experts in the Nascent Soul Stage lurking far away, blocking every gap that one could possibly escape through.

The place was quiet and empty. All the guards and maids in the entire royal palace seemed to be gone. Or rather, an invisible film seemed to have covered the ten square kilometers around as an impenetrable barrier. Even if the most astonishing battle were to take place inside, nobody outside would notice anything wrong.

The elite troops stationed at the northwest corner of the royal palace seemed to be utterly unaware of the situation, showing no sign that they were soaring and offering the queen protection.

The three super experts looked at Li Linghai emotionlessly, showing no intention of bowing at the queen with respect either.

The killing intent and electric arcs around them, however, were even more intense and dazzling, to the point that they were almost forging a dragnet around Li Linghai and mincing her apart directly.

Slowly closing the book in her hands, Li Linghai kept the scroll of the beast hide into her Cosmos Ring. Glancing at Li Jianyi, Yun Kuohai, and Song Huanzhen thoughtfully, she simply said casually without any surprise on her face, “Elder Li, Dean Yun, and Chief Tutor Song, aren’t the three of you supposed to be capturing Dongfang Wang in the Silver Moon Ocean? Why have you suddenly come to the royal palace?

“Or maybe, it is your clones who are engaged in the fierce battle in the Silver Moon Ocean, and you have come to the capital after such a long journey because your real target is not Dongfang Wang but me?

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I did not expect that you would be kicking me away so fast. Before Dongfang Wang is caught, you are already determined to get rid of the people who are not needed anymore? However, isn’t it too much trouble for three grandmasters to come here together to deal with me, when I am just a weak woman? I almost feel… flattered!”

“Those who attack first will have advantages, and those who counterattack suffer losses first. Everybody understands the simple logic.”

Li Jianyi was of the same generation as “Silver Fox” Li Jiande, the leader of the Li family. As sort of a grandfather to Li Linghai, he was the first one to talk. “Also, I’m afraid that Your Grace has some misunderstanding. We never planned to kick you away or remove anyone that is no longer needed; we just have many questions that we would like to ask for Your Grace’s enlightenment.

“For example, where did you get the resources to secretly establish the Deep Sea Fleet? Also, you seem to have practiced a lot of techniques that do not belong to the Li family, thereby ascending to the beginning level or even the middle level of the Divinity Transformation Stage? Having advanced into a battle-type expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage in the royal palace under the watch of countless spies, you are certainly no ‘weak woman’ at all!”

After a sigh, Li Linghai smiled even more mysteriously. “The royal palace is obviously guarded by the elites of the Deep Sea Fleet. The guards and the maids have been replaced by my own people too. But still, you have broken in without alarming anyone and set up such an immaculate array.

“Also, you know the details of the Deep Sea Fleet and even myself very clearly. It seems that the last thing I want to see has indeed happened.

“General Dongfang Sheng, if you are bold enough to betray me, why are you too shy to meet me? I know that you’ve been very curious about the resources that the Deep Sea Fleet was established with and the origins of the starships for many years, and you peeped at my training countless times in secret. Hehe. If you are so desperate to know the answers, just stand before me and let me explain all of them to you!”

Heavy footsteps echoed behind Li Linghai.

The person who blocked the last gap was exactly Dongfang Sheng—a central leader of the reformists, Li Linghai’s trusted subordinate, the Dongfang family’s greatest traitor, and the highest commander of the Deep Sea Fleet!

One top expert from each of the four Kurfürst families had surrounded Li Linghai, ready to suppress her!

Dongfang Sheng, on the other hand, did not arrive alone. He was also pushing a floating medical chair. Below the translucent mask and lying in the middle of the high-purity oxygen was “Silver Fox” Li Jiande, the oldest and the most renowned Kurfürst!

Li Linghai looked at Dongfang Sheng and then at “Silver Fox” Li Jiande before she chuckled.

“Grandfather, I know that you would not ‘rest in peace’ so easily.”

Li Linghai said without worries, “So, it was you who planned and gathered such three super experts. I wonder, what offers have you made to General Dongfang Sheng to make him betray me? Hehe. Is he invited to return to the Dongfang family as the leader to clean the mess?”

“You must be joking, Your Grace.”

Dongfang Sheng, however, bowed at Li Linghai deeply and said, “With my experience and prestige, it is naturally impossible for me to lead the entire Dongfang family. However, since the family is now falling apart and about to be destroyed, as a member of the Dongfang family after all, I should contribute to the family in the time of peril.

“The highest commander and most leaders of the Dongfang family’s fleet will die together with Dongfang Wang. It is now in a mess due to the lack of leadership. With my experience in commanding the Deep Sea Fleet, I think I’m more or less qualified to return and command the fleet of my family.”

“That explains a lot. So, the highest commander of the Dongfang family’s fleet is enough to buy you over.”

Li Linghai was neither surprised nor infuriated. She simply shook her head and said, “General Dongfang, your vision is too restrained. How do you know that the future of the Deep Sea Fleet would not be a hundred times better than that of the Dongfang family’s fleet? In fact, I have always thought very highly of you. If you remained loyal to me, your future would be more promising than you could possibly imagine. What a shame!”

“Your Grace, I’m afraid you’re wrong again.”

Dongfang Sheng looked determined and did not regret his decision. “Since the very beginning, I have never been loyal to you but the ideas of the reformists. Right now, I’m returning to the Dongfang family in order to carry out the ideas of the reformists from a more advantageous position for the big picture of the Imperium. What is the ‘betrayal’ all about?

“Your Grace, I’m afraid that you are the one who has been keeping something from all the reformists. I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a long time—are your ambitions really limited to ‘Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions’?”

Li Linghai sneered and did not answer Dongfang Sheng’s question. She simply turned to “Silver Fox” Li Jiande.

Li Jiande was not a battle-type expert in the first place, and he had been dying and was haggard for almost a hundred years. No matter how many tubes extended from the medical chair to his body, injecting the medical and nutrition drugs incessantly, his health still seemed hopeless.

However, the three super experts, the fleet commander who betrayed Li Linghai, the dozens of experts in the Nascent Soul Stage outside, and even the entire Imperium further outside seemed to be all within the calculation of the old and cunning Silver Fox!

“I made a horrible mistake.”

Li Linghai sighed. “I underestimated you too much, grandfather. Of the four Kurfürsten today, you are even more terrifying than Prime Minister Dongfang Wang. I really should’ve killed you without bothering anything!”

“Good granddaughter, you have indeed made a horrible mistake, but the mistake is not about me.”

“Silver Fox” Li Jiande slowly opened the nebulizer on his face slowly and looked at Li Linghai with a complicated expression. He struggled to say, “You and Dongfang Wang made the same mistake. You destroyed the most important thing that sustained the Imperium of True Human Beings, which was balance.

“The Imperium has persisted to this day with a scale of hundreds of Sectors and tens of thousands of resource planets without being collapsed by its own weight only because of the balance of the four Kurfürst families.

“No matter how the four families compete openly and in secret on the surface, deep down our hearts, all the leaders of the families should know that we have to maintain the balance among us. The four families are like the four legs of a table. Only by maintaining the balance can we ensure that there can be a cake on the table for us to divide.

“If the table is uneven or collapses, the cake will either fall to the ground into a mess, or we won’t be able to control our hands when we cut the cake, and we will chop off all our fingers!

“Dongfang Wang did not understand the logic. He was ambitious and determined to make the Dongfang family expand into ‘First Family’, which was a great destruction on the balance. It equaled doubling the length of one leg of the table. How could he not be swallowed by the recoil when nobody could eat the cake anymore?

“Standing in other people’s way when they are making a fortune is like killing their parents. When you are cursed by too many people, you will die even if you don’t have any disease. Dongfang Wang was asking to be killed. Nobody could’ve saved him!

“But the purpose of the other three Kurfürst families was only to cut the Dongfang family’s leg of the table, which is too long by a half, so that the balance could be restored. But you, on the other hand, are trying to completely knock the leg off. Wouldn’t that cast us into another loss of balance?”