"When the sandpiper and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits. In the competition between the Imperium and the Holy League, the Federation is certainly not a fisherman, but we can certainly gain some breathing space."
Jiang Hailiu's opinion was similar to Zhou Yifu's before the Yuanying Meeting. "If the Imperium of True Human Beings is the only super force at the center of the cosmos, they will be able to concentrate all their resources and troops to crush the weak forces at the edge of the cosmos one by one. The three Sectors are naturally not enough to compete with hundreds of Sectors.
"But right now, the Imperium's greatest enemy is the Holy League. The two parties are waging a magnificent thousand-year war at the center of the cosmos. It is obvious that they cannot spare too many troops to deal with the 'bumpkins' who live in the middle of nowhere like us."
Jiang Hailiu's self-mockery raised a lot of laughter. The atmosphere in the hall was much more relaxed.
Jiang Hailiu smiled and continued. "Most of the files about the Imperium of True Human Beings that we have collected are from the star child. The star child also said in the battle against fellow Cultivators such as Li Yao and Luoxingzi that the policy of the Imperium of True Human Beings is rather 'generous'. If they are willing to cooperate with the Imperium, the Imperium will grant the Flying Star Sector a high degree of autonomy, as long as the Flying Star Sector hands over population, resources, and experts incessantly.
"His words may be somewhat credible. The Imperium and the Holy League are waging a well-matched, life-and-death war. In the war, both parties are trying their best to collect more population and resources from the Sectors and throw them into the burning purgatory of war. Whoever collects more population, resources, and experts will probably win the final victory!
"Then, the purpose of the expedition army of the Imperium is obvious.
"It is not for a long-term conquest but to plunder the population and resources in the shortest amount of time possible so that they can cope with the real life-and-death war between them and the Holy League!
"Therefore, the expedition army that we will be faced with in a couple of hundred years is not necessarily the strongest army of the Imperium of True Human Beings. It is more likely to be something like 'slave catchers' or 'raiders' who are here in search of 'cannon fodder'!"
"Also, we do not need to completely annihilate them. As long as they realize that the resources that will be consumed if the war continues will far exceed the benefits that they will get after defeating us, and that this is a war where the gains do not outweigh the losses, they will probably retreat in the face of difficulties!"
After Jiang Hailiu's analysis, many Yuanying's eyes lit up.
At first, everybody thought that the expedition of the Imperium of True Human Beings was an apocalyptic catastrophe. But on second thought, war was an extension of politics, and politics required benefits. Nobody would launch a war that did not have any benefits.
Even as strong as the Imperium of True Human Beings was, it would still cost a lot of resources to project an enormous expedition army to millions of lightyears away. The people of the Imperium might be evil, but they were certainly not idiots. What was their purpose?
Cannon fodder! The purpose of their visit to the Federation was to collect a lot of cannon fodder and dedicate them to the war against the Holy League!
It meant that, as long as the Federation could deal a heavy blow to the expedition army of the Imperium and make the Imperium realize that the investment in the war was not worth the cost and that the deal was likely to be a loss, the Federation would be able to keep its independence!
"Of course, the Federation will not be limited to winning the minor defense war. This is just our starting point!"
Jiang Hailiu said thoughtfully. "War is the best catalyst for a civilization to move forward and the fastest approach to learn from the advanced civilizations! If we can really weather through the stormy attacks of the expedition army of the Imperium, our civilization will certainly make a giant leap forward!
"At the center of the cosmos, the Imperium and the Holy League are fighting fiercely. The Imperium must've developed a lot of tactics and magical equipment to deal with the Holy League, and the Holy League must've developed a lot of trump cards to deal with the Imperium, too.
"If the people of the Federation have a chance to go to the center of the cosmos and learn how the two space behemoths fight, bite each other's throats, and dig out each other's hearts, we will definitely have a chance to grow into a new space beast, too!
"You may think that I'm dreaming, but we don't need to grow to the scale of the Imperium and the Holy League. Even if our comprehensive national strength is only one tenth of theirs, it will be enough.
"As long as the Imperium and the Holy League are on par with each other, like a scale that is barely balanced, we will be able to influence the result of the balance even if we are just a feather or a straw!
"We only have one principle, which is to root out the strong and help the weak. If the Holy League is strong and the Imperium is weak, we will temporarily ally with the Imperium to resist the Holy League. If the Holy League, as a new force, is not strong enough and the Imperium is on the winning side, we will ally with the Holy League to resist the Imperium!
"All in all, we will keep the balance between the two super forces and prevent any of them from gaining the upper hand. We will take the opportunity to learn their most advanced arts and tactics until our claws and teeth are sharp and our wings are fully developed, and we will be the top players in the sea of stars!
"All in all, in short, there is hope for the Federation. There is hope for the three Sectors! As long as the fellow Cultivators are firm in their beliefs and march forward hand in hand, not only will we be able to resist the invasion of any foreign enemy, we will even march to the center of the cosmos one day and let the 'civilization of mankind' shine in its true glory again! "
Jiang Hailiu's passionate speech raised thunderous applause. All the Yuanying and demon emperors were thrilled.
As a Yuanying, which one of them did not have the ambition to dominate the universe? Which one of them was willing to be trapped in a remote village at the edge of the cosmos and be regarded as bumpkins by the super forces at the center of the cosmos?
After learning that countless ordinary people at the center of the cosmos were savaged by the Imperium and the Holy League, their beliefs did not allow them to sit by and watch.
"We are the most authentic heirs of the Star Ocean Imperium on a spiritual level! We are the last guardians of the civilization of mankind! Let's march to the center of the cosmos and let the civilization of mankind regain its glory ten thousand years ago! "
Including Li Yao, every Yuanying, regardless of whether they were battle-type or not, was breathing fast and roaring in their heart.
As for the demon emperors, they had even more complicated feelings.
Perhaps they could not understand the full meaning of 'civilization of mankind' for the time being.
However, 'marching back to the center of the cosmos' was a dream that their ancestors had been dreaming about for ten thousand years and had infiltrated into the deepest part of their blood!
Over the past ten thousand years, the demon race had been losing ground again and again. They had lost one homeland after another. Until today, the Blood Demon Sector was one of the few worlds of the demon race that were left.
Even though the Blood Demon Sector was slightly stronger than the Tian Yuan Realm in the past, every demon emperor in the Pantheon of Demons knew that 'marching back to the center of the cosmos' was just a dream that could never be realized!
But right now, if they joined hands with the Xing Yao Federation, would there be a slim chance that they could march back to the center of the cosmos?
Even if they had to change their banner, their identity, and even their appearance, they would still be marching back to their hometown after all!
For a moment, the demon emperors looked at each other in bewilderment, breathing fast, too.
"Fellow Cultivator Jiang is quite right. I think that the Federation is very promising, too. In fact, the gap between the Federation, the Imperium, and the Holy League is not as huge as we imagine!"
Zhou Yifu, the historian, spoke again. "It's true that we only have three Sectors under our control right now, while the Imperium and the Holy League, which occupy the prosperous area at the center of the cosmos, may have hundreds of Sectors under their control each!
"However, the ratio of our comprehensive national strength is definitely not as simple as one to a hundred!
"I wonder, do you know anything about the Limit Theory of the Imperium's Territory? Due to the complexity of communication, transportation, and information processing, even the largest Imperium has its limits of expansion. It's just like the strongest primeval beast cannot grow without limits. When it expands to a certain scale, it will have to stop growing. Otherwise, it will likely be crushed by its own weight!
"According to the definition of modern cosmology, the Sectors that we live in are areas where resources are gathered that can be reached in a short amount of time by regular means of navigation at the sub-light speed.
"Within the same Sector, it is possible to communicate with each other at the sub-light speed or even lower. The communication of resources and population is relatively easy, and the control is the highest, too.
"Different Sectors, on the other hand, must be connected by means of 'breaking the void', 'breaking the barrier of the three-dimensional space', or 'space jump'. Not only will countless resources be consumed, they are also very dangerous. It is easy to be involved in the turbulence of the four-dimensional space and obliterated into nothingness!
"Are we not going to use 'space jump', or are we going to travel at the sub-light speed or even the speed of light? The two Sectors that are a hundred thousand lightyears away from each other will take a hundred thousand years to reach each other, not counting the expansion of the universe itself!
"Think about it, everybody. Today, we are merely gathering the experts of three Sectors for such a meeting. Yet, we will have to resort to the 'array communication array', which will burn countless crystals every second. We will also have to worry about the interference of the high-dimensional space storms, which may cause a signal delay of several minutes or even longer!"
"Then, even if the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant do boast hundreds of Sectors respectively, how much control do their rulers have over those Sectors? How can the capital of the Empyrean Terminus Sector ensure the absolute control of another Sector tens of millions of lightyears away? "
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