Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“What are you talking about?”

Blushing, Li Wuji shouted hoarsely and desperately, “My position and future in my family have been completely ended by you two goddamn prisoners. What ‘shared interests’ are you talking about?”

“My lord, it seems that you haven’t quite figured out what is going on.”

Boss Bai said with a smile, “Once the news that the ‘National Protection Army’ rebelled and caused the annihilation of your fleet is back to the territory of the four Kurfürst families, while we will certainly be dead for sure, you will also lose your reputation and never have a chance to make a comeback as the person who was directly responsible for the failure. You will only become a joke and a shame like Li Lingfeng or Li Linghai, won’t you?

“However, listen closely, what if the news of your failure does not spread to your family, or even out of this space zone?”

Li Wuji had been on the brink of collapse. Even his soul seemed to have shriveled when his ambitions dried.

However, Boss Bai’s words illuminated his forehead immediately like the sunlight in the middle of clouds.

Like a revived viper, Li Wuji tried to sit straight.

“Think about it. Right now, the billions of kilometers around the Blue Sky Market are within our control. Not a single starship has escaped. You never had a chance to ask for reinforcements from your family. Even if you did, the signals must’ve been disrupted by us.”

Boss Bai said in an enlightened manner, “Then, as long as we do not tell the truth, who knows what happened in the Blue Sky Market in the past day?

“Look, the National Protection Army is still organized. It is even more cohesive than before now that the treacherous guys have been removed!

“As for your fleet, it has suffered heavy losses, but attacking the Blue Sky Market comes with a price too. As long as the docks hurry up to maintain the starships, it won’t be entirely impossible to cover it up.

“Consider such a possibility. The National Protection Army is still under your command in name, my lord, and what my lord sends to your family is not a cry for help but a report of victory that states you have conquered the Blue Sky Market, albeit with a slightly heavier loss than estimated.

“In such a way, is it possible to preserve your honor and position in the four families for now, my lord?”

Li Wuji was deep in thought for a long time, before he shook his head and said, “You can’t cover fire with paper. The lies will be seen through eventually.”

“I doubt it.”

Boss Bai chuckled, so sincerely and so dauntingly. “Very soon, the coalition fleet of the four families will attack the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors together. The battle will be at least ten times bigger than the battle in the Blue Sky Market today. Countless fleets will be mired in the swirl of destruction. There will be plenty of opportunities for us to take the advantage. As long as we do the same and try to swallow more fleets in the battle of Seven Seas, the National Protection Army will be expanded incessantly, until nobody is capable of destroying us.

“By then, who will care about my lord’s little lie today? As long as you are powerful enough, you can call a deer a horse, and nobody will argue with you. Isn’t it the rule of the game?”

Li Wuji’s face cramped violently, as if he did not know the space pirate squatting before him at all. He said in disbelief, “You… You are too crazy. I’m an honorable marquess of the Imperium. You are trying to switch our roles and make me your accomplice and a disguise for the National Protection Army!”

“Wrong.”

Boss Bai said gently and extended his hand, meaning to pat Li Wuji’s cheek. But then he realized that his hand was too dirty. Smiling rather in embarrassment, he wiped it on his clothes that were full of stains and blood marks, only to make it even dirtier with all the dust and oil. Finally, he patted Li Wuji’s face neither too heavily nor too lightly. “My lord, you are not qualified to be my accomplice. What I need is just an obedient dog.”

“You—”

Li Wuji was dumbfounded first, before he burst into fury and tried to fight back.

“Just cut your hypocrisy.”

Boss Bai suddenly accelerated his hand and slapped Li Wuji in the face twice as quickly as lightning. “Do you know that there are only two kinds of people in the world? No, no, no, not the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators, not the people of the Imperium and those of the Covenant Alliance, and not the good guys and the bad guys, but… those who are unwilling to be dogs and those who are willing to.

“It has nothing to do with strength, position, honor, power, or any other fancy things; it is just a choice of one’s heart.

“I belong to the former, and I am not willing to be a dog, but my lord is the latter deep down in your bones. Don’t pretend to be tough and deceive yourself when you can’t fool anyone. I can see through it easily. Even if I can’t, I can still smell the stink of a dog from your bones, my lord. Therefore, I have high hopes for my lord, and I believe that you will certainly do an excellent job in your new post.”

“A*shole! How dare you insult a marquess of the Imperium like this!”

Blushing in fury, Li Wuji tried to stand straight and bite Boss Bai’s neck, but he had been locked by Boss Bai and unable to move at all. He could only gnash his teeth and say, “In your dream! I will die before I cooperate with you and deceive my family and the entire Imperium. You humble bandit can go to hell!”

“Then, it will be such a shame.”

Boss Bai said, unmoved. He drew a handkerchief from Li Wuji’s pocket and wiped his dirty hands, as well as the greasy sweat on his forehead and behind his neck, before he tossed it back to Li Wuji’s face.

“Right.”

He suddenly changed the topic. “I wonder, is someone as knowledgeable as my lord aware of how the excrements of the crew members are processed in a fully-closed starship?

“Oh, if my lord is unaware of it, I can interpret it for you in great detail. We have a facility named septic tank, where certain microorganisms can transform the excrement of human beings into the most fundamental elements that can be devoted to the ecological cycle again.

“Aya, seeing is believing. I’m afraid that my description is not very vivid. Why don’t I invite my lord to visit it in person? One of my starships was hit in the battle, and the recycling cabin at the bottom level where the septic tank is located is damaged. Tsk, tsk, tsk. That picture, that odor, that touch… All are simply too ‘wonderful’.”

Li Wuji’s expression completely changed, and he shrieked like a rooster whose neck had been grasped, “What are you doing, Boss Bai? What are you doing exactly? I-I will not spare you even if I become a ghost!”

“Nothing. I’m just inviting my lord to the peaceful and quiet place where you can consider calmly without being disturbed.”

Boss Bai said with a smile, “If my lord does become a ghost there, you will certainly be a ghost… with a full belly.”

“No, no, no!”

Every hair on Li Wuji’s body was rising and shaking, and he was about to completely collapse.

Boss Bai turned a deaf ear to his cries. Summoning his subordinates, he commanded, “Escort my lord to take a brief rest in the recycling cabin at the bottom of ‘Thunder Snake’. Well, just hang him one meter above the septic tank and drop a little bit every minute. After my lord is full and calmed down, bring him back to me.

“My lord, this way, please. Just make yourself at home. Come on!”

Boss Bai bowed at Li Wuji deeply and sent the man away with perfect manners.

“BOSS BAI! BOSS BAI! BOSS BAI!”

Li Wuji cried like an undying ghost who was seeking revenge. Even a pig that was about to be sent into the slaughterhouse couldn’t have struggled harder than him. His wails were clearly audible even when he was dragged to kilometers away.

After taking care of the two most important persons on the reformists’ side and the four families’ side, and looking at the back of the miserable Li Wuji who was pulled away against his wish, Boss Bai couldn’t help but chuckle and said to the Fist King who was next to him, “Let’s continue the topic just now. Should we take a walk while we talk?”

The two experts walked to the depths of the port aimlessly.

Everything they saw on their way was either maintenance and upgrades or the confiscation and loading of all kinds of assets. The Big Bai Pirate Gang and the fleet of Cultivators were like two ravenous bugs that were lying on a big apple that was the Blue Sky Market, and they were determined to suck up all the juice in it.

After the battle of the Blue Sky Market, both Boss Bai, who swallowed twenty-eight pirate gangs within the market, and the Fist King, who was bold enough to ambush Li Wuji’s fleet in space, had become “gods” in the eyes of the soldiers. Wherever they reached, everybody cheered and applauded for them.

The two of them talked and laughed while they walked to a forsaken port. It was not until nobody was around that Boss Bai finally said, “The allocation this time will be like before. I do not want to keep any of the cunning and atrocious guys in the twenty-eight pirate gangs. Just kill all of them. As for the guys who do not owe much blood debts and who can still be reshaped, the ambitious and obedient ones will go to me, and the docile ones who are just doing this to make a living will go to you.

“As for the starships, according to my evaluation, only 20% of them are fast enough to catch up with my Big Bai Pirate Gang. However, I’ll need to dismantle the power units and fuel cabins of some starships to modify my starships and make them faster. Taking all of them into account, approximately half of the starships will be at your disposal, which will double the size of your fleet. How about it? Can you handle it?”

“That’s not a problem for me.”

Compared to the chatterbox Boss Bai, the Fist King was taciturn and solemn. He calculated carefully for a while before he said cautiously, “When I was in the Land of Sins, I was sort of the head of bandits, but I did not know what a ‘head of bandits’ should really be like until I came to space and witnessed Boss Bai’s methods.

“We wouldn’t have stood any chance of winning without Boss Bai’s planning and forethought. I truly admire you, Boss Bai.”

“You do? That’s highly unnecessary. Everything I do is still within the understanding of most people.”

With a weird smile, Boss Bai suddenly said, “What you have achieved after you came to space, Fist King, is truly remarkable on the other hand. It makes people not only admire you but also fear you. Even I have been shocked so many times that I can’t help but wonder, are you a human being, Fist King?”