Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The building that Li Yao had asked for from Jin Yuyan was one of the communication nodes of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in the first place. The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had a business network all over the center of the cosmos. Naturally, they boasted state-of-the-art communication equipment. Also, after retrieving abundant magical equipment units from the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’ warehouses, Li Yao crafted a few enhancement and blockage devices himself, finishing the modification on the super-remote secret communication system.

Both Jin Yuyan and the four families could’ve monitored their communication. However, the messages that Li Yao sent out detoured in seven Sectors countless times before they were delivered to the flagship of the “Coalition Fleet of the Pyromaniacs”. They were also blocked, encrypted, and anti-tracked by Xiaoming and Wenwen. It was absolutely impossible for other people to detect them.

Also, the whole building had been crowded with sound-blocking and other obstruction units thanks to Li Yao’s work. The intense interferential waves that they released every second prevented any data from spreading out.

The place was absolutely safe and secure. They were able to talk freely.

Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!

The two of them reached the communication center inside the building, which had been modified by Li Yao into a remote observation and command room. When the time came, he would be altering the course of the battle of Seven Seas together with Boss Bai in this place.

At this moment, the hundreds of light beams floating in the midair were glowing in white gloomily. Waves were falling like snowflakes in earsplitting noises.

It was the last safety measure.

The communication between Boss Bai and Li Yao adopted special high-frequency encryption methods. If their frequency was not grasped, one would be able to see nothing but the snowflakes and hear nothing but the noises.

Li Yao and Li Jialing looked at each other. The two of them took a deep breath and stimulated their brain cells, boosting their soul.

When it was boosted to a certain frequency, it was kept still while they spread the tides of the rhythmed brain cells to their retinae and acoustic nerves.

As a result, the whole world around became fuzzy, and they were even twisted into bizarre-looking fiends themselves.

The picture on the 3D light beam, however, gradually became clear. They could also hear Boss Bai’s laughter too.

Because the signals zigzagged in space, traveling between the Seven Seas Grand Market and the flagship of the “Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs” with the communication bases in dozens of different Sectors as platforms, there were significant interferences and delays.

Therefore, Boss Bai had no time to wait for Li Yao and Li Jialing’s reaction but simply began his introduction, hoping to transmit as much information to Li Yao as possible.

After more than half a month of fighting, Boss Bai had become a minor celebrity in the coalition fleet of the four families. Boss Bai today looked absolutely unlike what he used to be in the Blue Sky Market. He was wearing the fanciful combat suit of the Imperium’s generals, and the pads on his shoulders almost made it taller than his head. He was also carrying medals, sashes, command sabers captured by him, and the likes all over his body, which made him look like a colorful rooster when he introduced his achievements to Li Yao and Li Jialing in excitement.

In short, the field battles in the previous half month helped the “Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs” to better hone their combat ability. Xiaoming and Wenwen, as two information lives, learned the pace of war. The Fist King was adapted to the recently-upgraded warships too.

Besides, because the “National Protection Army”, the skin on the “Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs”, appeared both loyal and capable of fighting among the sloppy, hesitative miscellaneous troops, almost like the single light in a dark night, it was greatly appreciated by the command center of the four families’ coalition fleet, which transferred the commandership of several miscellaneous troops to them. Even Li Wuji’s position in the command center had risen. He took the opportunity to retrieve abundant assets and equipment for Boss Bai’s army. He also brought up the expectation of the commanders, who hoped that they could carry on in the final battle in the next phase and defend the honor of the Imperium well.

In the meantime, Boss Bao had also got the most confidential intelligence through Li Wuji, including the time of the final battle, the grouping information of the fleets, and the strategies on the four families’ side.

Such a campaign where a million starships were involved was too massive to be kept a secret. Various people had already sent the approximate time of battle to the Seven Seas Grand Market, and Boss Bai merely narrowed it down to the hour. At this moment, the terrifying forces that were claimed to be from a hundred Sectors had been gathered and prepared. It was estimated that they would launch a space jump in sixteen hours to reach the Seven Seas Space Zone, surrounding the enemy without leaving any gap!

Despite their intimidating size, the morale of the attackers was absolutely not high.

Both the “million starships” and the “coalition fleet of a hundred Sectors” were mostly made of the local armed forces from the edge of the Imperium.

On one hand, the warlords had the natural instinct to preserve their strength. On the other hand, they had been associated with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors for a long time. Chances were that their spokespersons just had a meeting in the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and listened to the roar of “Black Wind King Li Yao”. They were thinking about which side they should take right now. How was it possible for them to fight the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors relentlessly without caring about anything?

The four families knew the situation very well, but there was little they could do. They had to boost the morale with both carrots and sticks.

But there were many more sticks than carrots. What they offered were simply promises that would be fulfilled after the Seven Seas Grand Market was conquered.

It must be noted that the warlords and local magnates from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium had been trapped once in the Imperium’s counterattack. At that time, countless experts and young men from the peripheral worlds believed in the four families’ promise and joined the expedition army, fighting the army of the Covenant Alliance in places far from their homes. After dozens of Sectors were recovered after their hard work, however, the four families were conspiring to kick away the contributors who had shed blood, sweat, and tears and to carve up the newly-recovered areas for themselves.

The incident was exactly the fuse that caused the rise of the reformists.

With such a lesson in mind, even though most of the warlords were not openly on the reformists’ side, they simply regarded the many promises that the four Kurfürsten made as bulls*it.

In short, the four Kurfürst families became the victims of their own scheme. Their credit was already gone, and it was difficult for them to lead the team.

Within the four families, on the other hand, there were experts who were adept at civil wars. There were vaguely irrecoverable chasms among them.

Although they knew that the morale on their side was certainly not high in any aspect, due to the huge gap in the size of the army, almost all the leaders of the four families believed that it would be a quick battle without much suspense.

“We are time-honored noble families with a group of experts and tough generals. Our overwhelming starships can swallow the entire Seven Seas Space Zone. Can we possibly be defeated by the small dealers of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors?”

It was the opinion of most of the leaders in the four families.

“The only minor trouble that we may come across in the battle is to gather the messy starships from the hundred Sectors after the jump and make them obey the command center. As long as the gathering is accomplished—no, as long as 30% of our fleet is gathered in the Seven Seas Space Zone with their command restored, the dealers in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors will immediately surrender, right?”

Even the most cautious leaders also thought so.

Since the victory was suspenseless, the distribution of the accomplishments and how to earn the greatest benefits from the “glorious triumph” became the critical problem that was better resolved in advance.

“The four families seem united on the surface, but they actually have a lot of problems among them.”

Boss Bai said, “Don’t forget that only half a year ago, the Li family, the Song family, and the Yun family joined their hands and declared war on the Dongfang family that was still the strongest back then, significantly weakening the Dongfang family! How could such hatred be forgotten easily?”

Boss Bai told Li Yao that among the four families, the Dongfang family had just suffered serious setbacks. The leaders had been completely cleaned up, and many of the middle and bottom classes joined the reformists in the capital. Its capability had dropped to the bottom of the four families although it was at the top previously.

The Li family wasn’t any better. At first, the collapse of “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” and the failure to annihilate the fleet of the Cultivators made them a joke among all the Immortal Cultivators. Then, Li Lingfeng, the “future Kurfürst”, was killed abruptly, and Li Linghai revealed her real appearance as a reformist, stabbing the family’s back brutally.

What was most unbearable of all was that “Silver Fox” Li Jiande, the soul of the family, perished in the battle in the royal palace. The backbone of the family was lost.

The series of heavy blows significantly undermined the Li family, whose comprehensive capability was not any better than the Dongfang family’s. They had to work with each other in order to check the Yun and Song families.

The Yun and Song families did not suffer major losses in the competitions in the previous phase. Naturally, they were fighting each other to be the leader of the four families.

Which of them would become the leader of the four families, on the other hand, depended on by whom the new emperor was endorsed.

After the demise of Emperor Shenwu, the supreme throne of the Imperium had been vacant. The Yun family and the Song family both proposed their favorite members of the royal family, and they were caught in an impasse. That was why it had been postponed to this day.

The result of the battle of Seven Seas would probably be an important factor that decided whose puppet would become the emperor.

“Yun Xuefeng, the commander of the four families’ coalition fleet, is a general who had rather distinguished performances in the Imperium’s counterattack.”

Boss Bai continued the introduction, “At that time, the fleets of the four families were mostly staying in the rear comfortably, preparing themselves to claim the fruits later. Yun Xuefeng’s fleet was the only troop that fought with other miscellaneous troops and had a few head-on clashes with the army of the Covenant Alliance, showing the might of the four families. Some people even believe that he is on par with General Lei Chenghu in the expedition army. Haha. That’s naturally a joke. However, the guy is certainly not a random worthless general, and he does want to achieve something for himself.”