An hour later, after seeing off the three leaders who were full of schemes, Jin Xinyue was teleported to an underground base that was even larger three kilometers away through another secret short-distance teleportation array below the secret chamber.
Geographically speaking, it was right below the memorial hall of the demon miners at the center of the town.
The decorations of the place made it look like an underground memorial hall, too.
On the dark reliefs around were countless bizarre-shaped demon miners who were working hard in the depths of the deep, dark mines.
There were even scenes where the demon miners were struggling to survive the collapses of the mines, the explosions of the mother lodes, and the rampant venomous water and fire.
Right in front of Jin Xinyue was a light beam that was slowly flowing. On the light beam was a cluster of tiny words, which were the names of the demon miners who had been killed in mining accidents in the past hundred years.
A girl in white was standing below the list of the victims in silence, as if she were a priest in the 'temple of demons'.
She was truly 'white'. Not only was the feather clothes on her body pure white, but her skin that was exposed to the air and her long hair that was flowing down like a river were also the purest white. Even her eyes were translucent and so clear that one could see the deepest part of her heart.
Jin Xinyue accepted three sticks of incense from the girl in white.
The cruelty and madness that she pretended to be when she talked to the three leaders in the secret chamber a moment ago were all gone.
She was fully focused. Solemnly and solemnly, she bowed three times to the dead miners respectfully. Then, she personally inserted the incense into the small incense burner below the light curtain. She did not forget to straighten the half-burnt incense sticks nearby. Even when the burning ashes fell on her hands, she did not flinch.
After inserting the incense, she stood straight and looked at the list of the victims that seemed to be flowing slowly and incessantly. Suddenly, she said, "Xue 'er, do you feel that I'm a bit shameless?"
"No. I know that everything you've done is to eliminate all the uncertainties for the Federation in advance, in case there are more internal troubles when the war is intense. You're right, master. However …"
Xue 'er shook her head. Pausing for a moment, she said, "Isn't it too cruel? After all, so many people are involved. Some of them might not have betrayed the Federation and surrendered to the Imperium in the first place. "
"Do you feel that way, too?"
Jin Xinyue scratched her long hair tiredly. Her true disciple, Xue 'er, walked to her back softly and helped her comb and massage her hair.
"It's been so many years since the explosion of the fluorite mines in the Jade Dust Planet. Xue 'er, I remember that your parents were killed in the disaster, weren't they?"
Jin Xinyue narrowed her eyes and simply allowed her disciple to rub her temples with her slim hands, enjoying the rare comfort of intrigue and schemes. She went on, "To the outside world, and even to the owners of the mines and the big sects behind the mining groups, we have fabricated the illusion of 'terrorist attacks' and pushed all the blame onto the so-called 'Lu Qingchen' and the nonexistent 'CFIA'. But you know that it was not a terrorist attack that was manipulated but just an accident.
"However, are accidents really just 'accidents'? Both the explosion in the Jade Dust Planet and the many accidents that took place in the mining bases on the major resource planets in the past hundred years, are there really no traces of 'accidents' behind them at all? Are they really destined and unavoidable?
"No. Hehe. That is not the case at all!
"Many accidents can be avoided if tremendous resources are devoted to upgrading the facilities, strengthening the education and protection of the miners, and setting a reasonable mining volume so that both the miners and the mining magical equipment can be rested and checked!
"But in the Xing Yao Federation a hundred years ago, most of the mining groups were controlled by the big sects and the conglomerates with hundreds of years of history. Those greedy guys exploited the last bit of strength deep inside the bones of the demon miners in order to loot the excessive profits as much as possible. They were only concerned with expanding the territory of the resource empires and collecting the most resources in the shortest amount of time. They never thought to control the accident rate and the death rate of the miners at all!
"After all, it was the demon miners who were mining on the resource planets at that time. The more disobedient, bizarre-looking fiends and monsters like us died, the more stable the Federation would be. That was what the conglomerates who controlled the mining groups all thought.
"It is the duty of the Cultivators to protect the ordinary people. Even if they truly believe in the glorious words, how could they possibly let those fat guys treat the demons as' ordinary people '?
"The Federation at that time was actually like the 'Uranian Ring Sector' thirty years ago. Human beings were the 'Heavenly Light', and demons were the 'Earthly Brute'. On the surface, we were on the same side, but invisible discrimination was everywhere.
"In order to complete my father's Red Tide Plan and to truly integrate the demon race into the Federation, I, as your master, had a hard time at that time!
"At that time, my father had already been punished and became an experiment subject of the 'Human Hibernation Plan'. He was completely frozen, and the chances of him being thawed and revived were slim.
"In the meantime, my master and your grandmaster went to explore the outer space, too. There was no news of them for a long time. It seemed that they would not be back for decades, if not forever.
"Without the protection of my father and my master, I was just a tiny Jin Dan who had been transformed from a demon king. But I was holding such a huge 'cake' of the Blood Demon Sector in my hands. Faced with the coercion and extortion of the conglomerates, did I have a second choice other than to lower my head?
"They asked me to transport a large batch of demons to the resource planets with the harsh environment that had yet to be developed. It was obvious that a lot of people would die, but I tolerated it.
"They only provided us with the most ragged, outdated mining magical equipment, but they demanded an unbelievably high quota. I tolerated it, too.
"There was nothing on the resource planets except for crystals. Food had to be shipped in from the outside world. The miners had the crudest recycled food, and the fresh food was offered at a price a hundred times higher than that of the locals. It was extortion. I tolerated it, too.
"Accidents were bound to happen under such high-intensity work and crazy expansion. But after the accidents happened, they declined and withheld the pensions and the compensation for the disabled. In order not to affect the reputation of their sects and their prices in the financial market, they even concealed the accidents countless times … I — I gritted my teeth again and held back my anger!
"Because I knew that if I couldn't bear it, the conglomerates who still controlled most of the seats in parliament and the media could've found more problems with the demon race and significantly delayed the process of the demon race's full integration into the Federation. New variables might even have been introduced.
"Even I might've been killed by them if I hadn't behaved so 'obediently' and replaced by a leader of demons who was more suitable for them and a puppet that was easier to manipulate.
"Hehe. Did they think that I didn't know their assassination plans and the list of puppets selected from the demon race? I know it very well!
"However, I was the meat on their chopping block. My father and my master were not here. What else could I do except endure it in silence?"
Sensing her master's sorrow, Xue 'er pressed harder and said solemnly, "We all know that it is not easy to be a family of demons. Master, you've been working hard in the past hundred years."
Jin Xinyue smiled and went on. "I can tolerate it, but I will never forget it! With a hundred years of patience, I got the 'Bill of Rights for General Equality', the equal status of the demon race today, the infiltration of parliament, the media, the public opinion, and all other sectors of society, the Ministry of Development, the Dim Moon Fund, and the Great White Fleet. Most importantly of all, I got the trust of the conglomerates more or less and made them think that I was really a puppet, an ambitious and greedy puppet at best!
"Therefore, hehe. It's time for me to settle the score!
"Nobody can bully Jin Xinyue's people like that without paying the price! The CFIA does not exist, and Lu Qingchen is not responsible for so many accidents in the mines. The real ones who should be responsible are the goddamn mining groups, the resource giants, and the conglomerates behind them that have dominated the Federation for hundreds of years!
"This time, the seventeen major sects that I've carefully chosen to strike at in the entire plan are all deeply related to the accidents in the mines that shouldn't have happened in the past hundred years and were not dealt with properly after they did, which brought countless tragedies to the demon race. Every injustice has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. I will not involve the innocent.
"The conglomerate major sects should've seen this day coming when they sucked the blood of the demon race brutally in the past hundred years.
"I don't ask for much. Those conglomerates will pay for my life with their lives. How many people have died in the accidents in the mines that shouldn't have happened in the past hundred years? They will pay the same amount of lives for me today. It's fair, right?"
"Yes."
Xue 'er summoned her courage and said, "But it's not as fair as the' Cultivators'."
"I am not a Cultivator in the first place. The whole world knows that I am a demon, a demon that is best at deceiving people."
Jin Xinyue smiled casually. "Besides, I'm not doing this purely for revenge. What you said just now does make sense. Compared with the ordinary people and the bottom-level Cultivators, the conglomerates that are getting corrupted day by day are the most unreliable uncertain factors.
"The ordinary people and the bottom-level Cultivators can only count on the country that is the Xing Yao Federation. The country is their everything. They are not qualified to 'lead the way' for the Imperium even if they want to.
"However, for the major sects that have been passed on for hundreds of years, 'country' is not important at all. Sects and families are everything.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
