Li Yao suddenly thought of something. He knew that Ding Zhengyang was talking about Heiye Lan's claw fleet, or the battle where Ding Ling Dong led the Federation's fleet to rescue Firefly.
Ding Zhengyang opened his hands and held his head, his voice shivering. "Before — before that battle, I had never seen a real Imperium in my entire life. My impression of the Imperium was either from the memoirs and battle notes of the previous heroes or from the self-deceiving propaganda videos. In both the memoirs and the propaganda videos, the Imperium was just a bunch of weak and idiotic guys who were trying to drown us with the overwhelming number of people.
"Therefore, in the past decades, I've been craving to meet the real Imperium and wage a soul-stirring, brilliant war so that they could witness the toughness of the last defender of the Star Ocean Republic!
"I've even thought more than once that, if I had to sacrifice myself for the country, the best way to die would be to strike the Imperium brutally at the fiercest moment of the war like Cheng Qizhi, the greatest hero of the past, did, so that Firefly could secure the most glorious victory!
"However, hehe, when the claw fleet of the Imperium really unfolded in battle formation in front of me, when the overwhelming Crystal Suit, the space shuttles, and the aggressive warships lunged at us, I finally knew that I was wrong. I had been deceived. I had been fooled the whole time!
"We were no match for the Imperium. We were no match for them from head to toe in every aspect!
"The magnificence of the Imperium of True Human Beings was not something that a tiny Firefly could resist at all. Our struggles and escapes in the past thousand years, our so-called glorious heroes, and our passionate resistance, were nothing more than the hilarious tricks of moths darting into the fire and a mantis trying to stop a chariot!
"An ant trying to shake a tree. What a hilarious overestimation. We were ants and bugs that were even more pathetic than ants!
It was useless. Any resistance was useless. What heroic spirit? What hot-blooded passion? What courage and sacrifice? Under the suppression of absolute power, nothing could cause even the slightest ripple!
"Dead. They were all dead! "In the battle, so many comrades, brothers, compatriots, and families were killed! "Those who were scared of death were killed. Those who were not scared of death were killed. Those who dared to sacrifice were killed. Those who trembled in fear were killed. Those who marched forward bravely were killed. Those who fled were killed. They were all killed!
Even, even my … "
Ding Zhengyang covered his head with both hands and buried it deep in his chest, sobbing silently.
"Zhengyang …"
Tang Dingyuan sighed and said, "I know that your two sons were both killed in the battle, and the residential area of the senior officers was unfortunately bombarded by the enemy's artillery. Many officers lost a lot of family members in the battle. Some even lost everything like you!
But because of that, shouldn't we hate the Imperium of True Human Beings even more, and we must avenge the Imperium of True Human Beings? Our families and compatriots were all killed by the Imperium! "
"No. They were not killed by the Imperium; they were killed by you, by us, and by the goddamn 'government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic'!"
Ding Zhengyang's eyes were red and swollen. Dazzling brilliance was spurting out of his fingers. He gnashed his teeth. "If they hadn't been deceived and blinded, if they had recognized the situation sooner, and if they had surrendered to the Imperium sooner, none of them would've died! My two sons wouldn't have died. My five lovely grandsons and granddaughters wouldn't have died! They would've lived on and lived happily for the rest of their lives!
Hehe. It was me who killed them. It was me! It was me who inculcated the idea that the Star Ocean Republic would never perish into the two brats. It was me who took them to watch 'Space War' again and again! It was me who told them that a soldier was the noblest profession in the universe, and that the soldiers of the Star Ocean Republic were the noblest! It was me who fed them lies and told them that the Cultivators were the sabers of the civilization of mankind!
If it weren't for me … If it weren't for me, perhaps the two of them wouldn't have joined the army. Even if they did, they might not have volunteered to go to the most dangerous frontline.
If they hadn't joined the army, at the very least, my grandsons and granddaughters wouldn't have lived in the residential area of the senior officers. Some of them would've lived in other cabins. They would've survived. One or two of them would've survived, wouldn't they? Wouldn't they?
So, it was me who killed them. It was the government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic who killed them. It was us. It was you who killed them! "
"Zhengyang!"
Tang Dingyuan shouted. "How did you come up with such a ridiculous idea? Everything that happened to you was indeed a tragedy. But even if you surrendered to the Imperium of True Human Beings, was it certain that your offspring would live a 'happy' life? Don't forget how the Imperium treats ordinary people! "
"Of course, I know the policy of the Imperium."
The muscles on Ding Zhengyang's face were cramping, and his previously red face turned pale. He sneered. "But how can my offspring be ordinary people? The achievements of my two sons and I have proved the excellence of our bloodline and genes. The odds that my offspring will awaken their spiritual roots will be multiple times higher than that of ordinary people. Also, I will leave training resources hundreds of times more for them than for ordinary people. How can ordinary people compete with them? They will certainly distinguish themselves in the cruel competition! The life of my offspring in the Imperium will definitely be much, much better than the life on this ragged ship that is riddled with holes! "
Tang Dingyuan and Cui Lingfeng looked at each other and then glanced at Li Yao's reaction. Tang Dingyuan said calmly, "But we were not fighting alone. With the help of our allies, we still annihilated the fleet of the Imperium!
Right now, we do not just have a 'broken, ragged ship'. We have seven Sectors, a planet of the primeval civilization, and a hundred billion warriors who are absolutely unwilling to yield to the tyranny of the Imperium. They are fighting side by side with us! "
"So what?"
Ding Zhengyang chuckled weirdly. "What we destroyed was an insignificant claw fleet that belonged to an expedition army of the Imperium. There are at least ten of such expedition armies in the homeland of the Imperium, right? In my opinion, the Xing Yao Federation right now is like us who were still living in a dream hundreds of years ago. When the Black Wind Fleet launches an assault, they will follow our footsteps and continue fleeing into the darkness of the sea of stars. "
"Got it," Tang Dingyuan said. "In the battle ten years ago, you were scared out of your wits and turned into a pessimist."
Ding Zhengyang took a deep breath and gradually calmed down. He was as calm as a dead man as he casually said, "I do not hold any 'doctrine'. Our failure is objective, inevitable, and happening. It does not depend on our will. My two sons are the firmest optimists and triumphalists, but so what? Does it help? When the crystal cannons ripped their bodies apart, they were not slowed down by half a second because of their triumphalism. "
"Therefore, in the ten years that followed, you slowly transformed from a pessimist into an Immortal Cultivator," Tang Dingyuan asked. "You also spread the theories of the pessimists and the Immortal Cultivators in secret, corrupting and transforming more people?"
Ding Zhengyang smiled and shook his head. "Captain, to this moment, do you still not understand the massive rebellion that took place on Firefly? I was just a vulgar sailor who was in charge of the affairs on the deck floor at best. How could I have beguiled so many people and turned them into Immortal Cultivators?
No. I did not do it. They did it on their own. "
Tang Dingyuan frowned. "On their own?"
"Yes," Ding Zhengyang said. "You don't think that I was the only one who was deeply stimulated in the battle that almost destroyed us ten years ago, do you? "No. A lot of other people were as enlightened as I was and realized that they had been living in a hilarious dream.
"Not just me. Not just Cheng Xuansu. There were more of them than you can imagine.
"I did not 'bewitch' them; I merely 'discovered' them. In the darkness, it is always convenient for us to smell the scent of our own kind. Everybody who has just woken up from a dream has a special vibe. We found each other very soon."
"And then? What did you do?" Tang Dingyuan asked, unperturbed.
"Nothing much," Ding Zhengyang said. "At first, we only gathered together cautiously and talked to each other about the pain of losing our family in the war and discussed the future.
Ding Zhengyang said, "The encounter was the first head-on confrontation with the imperium in hundreds of years. Other than the serious damage to the starship, a lot of people on board had very serious psychological problems and post-battle PTSD. Therefore, all kinds of seminars, meetings, and counseling groups were popular at that time. We were not very eye-catching when we were mixed in with them.
After a long discussion, fierce arguments, and painful self-analysis, we reached a consensus that it was time to wake up from the dream that we had been dreaming for a thousand years! "
"Was it Lu Qingchen?"
Tang Dingyuan asked. "Did the so-called 'Master Lu' of the CFIA make you reach the conclusion?"
"Not exactly. Lu Qingchen was something that happened later, a long time after the 'team of Immortal Cultivators' on Firefly was established," Ding Zhengyang said.
"After we were stationed at the edge of the Dragon Snake Space Zone, we learned a lot about the Xing Yao Federation. Naturally, we learned about the existence of the 'CFIA', an organization of local Immortal Cultivators. Of course, we thought of getting in touch with the CFIA, partly to discuss the latest theories of the Immortal Cultivators and partly to see if there was an opportunity for cooperation. We even learned about the expedition army of the Imperium from them.
"However, the CFIA was very clandestine, and we were too weak at that time to be too ostentatious. Therefore, we did not have a good solution for the time being.
Then, one day, I sent one of my trusted subordinates to Fish Dragon City for a secret mission of the team of Immortal Cultivators. "
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