Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Jialing: “… Why am I getting more and more scared as you talk, Brother Yao? Speaking of which, even if we are asking for help from this Boss Bai, there is no need to put on such tawdry clothes, is there?”

Li Jialing pointed at Li Yao’s red-and-green clothes and his blue-and-white flip-floppers.

“What do you know? This is exactly a garment of Boss Bai’s style!”

Li Yao said disapprovingly, “I learned this style from Boss Bai exactly as a way to show my admiration for him. The moment he sees this same-style battle robe, he will certainly recall how we fought together years ago, and he won’t refuse to help us at all.”

Li Jialing bit his teeth hard as he tried to hold himself back. “I only feel that this is such a disgrace. We were never like this when we were faced with Blackstar the Great a few days back. At that time, you rode on the ‘Gold Vulture’ magnificently. Isn’t it a shame to be so… humble before a space pirate?”

“A shame? Do you really think that you are something and your honor is valuable?”

Li Yao sniffed and drank up the juice in the cup. His eyes glowing with calmness and determination, he said solemnly, “We Cultivators can shed blood or even die for what we believe in. Do we need such a thing as honor?”

“Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough.”

Long Yangjun coughed lightly not far away and moved quietly, getting as far away from Li Yao as possible.

Xiaoming and Wenwen couldn’t hear it anymore and went to the cabins in the rear to look after the soldiers that had just been rescued—or the people who were soon to be cannon fodder.

Blushing, Li Jialing was lost for words. After a long daze, he finally managed to ask, “Brother, I’m just confused. Although the Flying Rainbow Fleet has a hundred times more starships than we do, it is just a mediocre fleet without a Colossus, isn’t it? Our carrier may not have any combat ability, but with the Colossi of you and Sister Long, wouldn’t it be more than easy for you to destroy the enemy’s flagship?

“I don’t believe that the local troop at the edge of the Imperium can be so determined that they will still fight the Colossi when their flagship has been decapitated by the Colossi. It’s absolutely impossible! Even the best fleet of the Imperium hardly chooses to attack the enemy’s Colossus if they do not have any Colossus themselves.

“So, why do we have to ask Boss Bai for the favor?”

Li Yao sighed. Licking the juice on his lips, he said, “This question is very simple. First of all, it is indeed possible for Long Yangjun and me to crush the Flying Rainbow Fleet’s battle formation or even destroy the enemy’s flagship and a few main warships.

“But it’s certainly impossible to keep the entire Flying Rainbow Fleet here with only two Colossus. Such local troops from the edge of the Imperium are all specialists at preserving themselves. They may be not good at fighting hard battles, but they are the best experts when it comes to shifting sides or running away! Perhaps the moment they detect the spiritual flames spreading out of the two Colossi, they will immediately escape at their highest speed. How many of the starships can Long Yangjun and I catch even if we have three heads and six arms?

“Once most of the starships of the Flying Rainbow Fleet jump away, they will certainly spread out the news that two mysterious Colossi appeared in this area. Soon enough, all the forces will learn the traces of Long Yangjun and me, including Blackstar the Great.

“Then, it will be easy for him to figure out our intention and our association with Boss Bai. He may even infer that our operation in the next step must be concerned with the Seven Seas Grand Market, the nest of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

“It is the last thing that I want Blackstar the Great to know. In the game between us and Blackstar the Great, our greatest advantage is that the enemy is in the light while we are in the dark. The more secret and stealthy we are, the better. It will be best if we are gone from Blackstar the Great’s eyes forever and emerge from his back at the most awkward moment for him!

“Secondly, and more importantly—

“We attacked the Flying Rainbow Fleet at the risk of exposing ourselves in order to rescue the ordinary people who had been captured by the Flying Rainbow Fleet as cannon fodder.

“If we hadn’t done anything, the innocent miners, farmers, and small dealers who struggled to survive would’ve been chained to the starships and forced to march at the most dangerous battlefield by the damn Immortal Cultivators of the Flying Rainbow Fleet, getting killed for nothing!

“Right now, we have only saved part of the innocents. There are still more ‘soldiers’ who are scattered on the starships of the Flying Rainbow Fleet. We can barely rescue them with only our strength. If Long Yangjun and I really destroy the flagship of the Flying Rainbow Fleet, the remaining fleets will only disperse and bring the captives back to their nest. Then, we can’t chase after them planet after planet, can we?

“So, if we want to rescue all the innocents at once, we must tread lightly. We can only show the Flying Rainbow Fleet that we are weak and attract them to Boss Bai’s territory so that we can surround them with the Big Bai Pirate Gang and possibly the fleet of the Cultivators, trying to not let go of any starship.

“By the time the last retreat of the Flying Rainbow Fleet is blocked, it will be the showtime for the ‘Arsonist’ and the ‘Super Awesome Upgraded Heavenly Crystal’. Hehe. My purpose is not so simple as to crush the Flying Rainbow Fleet; I’m going to swallow them from the skin to the bones. Not even a screwhead is going to get away from my hands!”

“That explains a lot!”

Li Jialing was a smart person himself. After Li Yao pointed out the critical factors, he immediately understood everything. His anger and confusion a moment ago turned into admiration again.

Thinking for a moment, he glanced at Long Yangjun not far away and said in a low voice, “However, Brother Yao, you may want to stop calling Sister Long’s Colossus ‘Super Awesome Upgraded Heavenly Crystal’. She seems pissed about the name.”

“What’s wrong with the name? How magnificent it sounds! It’s much cooler than simply ‘Heavenly Crystal’!”

Li Yao frowned. “Her Colossus has been utterly transformed and is nothing like the previous ‘Heavenly Crystal’. Besides, only a Colossus with such an intimidating name is qualified to team up with my ‘Arsonist’, right?”

“…”

Li Jialing was silent for a moment before he quickly changed the topic. “Right, I’m also confused about one thing. How did you know that the Blue Sky Space Zone is already Boss Bai’s territory? His Big Bai Pirate Gang couldn’t have expanded fast enough to swallow the entire Blue Sky Market, could it? Also, according to the secret messages among the four families that Xiaoming and Wenwen intercepted after hacking the mainframe crystal processor of the Flying Rainbow Fleet, Boss Bai had surrendered to the four families and joined Marquess Yongchun, Li Wuji. Even though the Blue Sky Market was not within the control of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists, it should be the territory of the four families led by Li Wuji, and Boss Bai and the other twenty or so pirate gangs should be hamstringing each other. He wouldn’t be able to help us even if he wanted to.

“Then, wouldn’t we suffer attacks from both sides if we jumped to this place?

“So my question is, why did you think that the Blue Sky Market’s new master was Boss Bai, and even ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie and the Cultivators’ fleet were here?”

“Because he is Boss Bai!”

Li Yao smiled and placed his legs on the desk. Looking at his toes that were twisting merrily inside the slippers, he said with a smile, “The moment Xiaoming and Wenwen got the intelligence that Boss Bai had surrendered to the four families, I knew that there must be a scheme in it.

“Boss Bai is a man who pursues absolute freedom. Since the moment he… broke the old boundary, nobody would ever be qualified to be his master. Even the most formidable gods wearing the supreme crowns cannot bend his knees or tell him what to do!

“The four families? Marquess Yongchun, Li Wuji? Hehe. Those small fries are not even qualified to command Boss Bai’s leg hair!

“So, I was very certain that Boss Bai succumbed to Li Wuji because he had dug a gigantic trap for Li Wuji to jump in—a trap that was probably not just for Li Wuji but also for the dozens of pirate gangs that were gathered in the Blue Sky Market.

“Considering Boss Bai’s ambitions and the background that the ‘battle of Seven Seas’ was about to begin, it was obvious what Boss Bai was trying to do. He was going to swallow the elephant and finish the most dangerous leap, making the Big Bai Pirate Gang rise at the border of the Imperium and become a powerful force that could possibly shake the situation of the Imperium!

“Such a scheme could barely be accomplished by the Big Bai Pirate Gang alone, but didn’t the intelligence that we receive earlier suggest that the fleet of the Cultivators commanded by ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie had also risen unstoppably at the edge of the Imperium? Do you think that it is a coincidence that the ranges of activities of the Cultivators’ fleet and the Big Bai Pirate Gang are almost the same and can barely be separated?

“The rumors had it that the Cultivators’ fleet had been in frictions with the Big Bang Pirate Gang, but since you spent some time in the Martial Meritocrats Sector too, you should know why the Fist King and the rest of them were here. They were introduced by me to join Boss Bai and must’ve been cooperating with Boss Bai in secret. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have grown so fast at all. Now that they had teamed up to trap Li Wuji and the space pirates, could their enemy possibly survive them?

“Rest assured. If my guess is correct, the entire Blue Sky Market must be under the control of Boss Bai. Also, his capabilities have significantly expanded after swallowing so many pirate gangs and all the starships of Li Wuji’s fleet together with the Fist King. Since he is a man who is willing to die for his brother anytime, he will certainly attack with all his available forces and help me surround the Flying Rainbow Fleet the moment I cough and drop him a hint!”