It was a well-known fact that Blackstar the Great was not a native of the Star Ocean Republic. Even his surname was "Wuying" because he wanted to remember his hometown.
However, it was obviously not because he still had feelings for his hometown but because he hated his hometown's guts.
Years ago, when the "mobs" of the Martial Meritocrats Sector rebelled against the Cultivators and slaughtered almost all the Cultivators, Wuying Qi was tied up and thrown into the burning crater of a volcano by the people of his hometown.
He was reborn in the volcano. The boiling magma burned up the last bit of his humanity and his belief in the path of the Cultivators, as well as all his feelings for his hometown.
After he returned to the Martial Meritocrats Sector majestically with the army of the Imperium of True Human Beings, he immediately launched the most inhumane suppression and slaughter.
Even half of the population of the Martial Meritocrats Sector was not enough to satisfy the emperor who controlled the universe. He ordered all the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector who survived to be demoted into the most special slaves. It was absolutely impossible for their descendants to get rid of the record of slavery for all eternity.
The Imperium of True Human Beings valued fairness on the surface. Theoretically speaking, even if they were filthy, savaged slaves today, as long as their spiritual roots were awakened and they became experts, they could become high and mighty "true human beings" or "Immortal Cultivators" the next day. The legends about beggars to generals, and from slaves to Sector Masters, were also inspiring stories that the leadership of the Imperium used to anesthetize the bottom level.
However, the protagonists of the "legends" obviously did not include the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
Being born in the Martial Meritocrats Sector in the recent thousand years equaled to being born in the basements of hell. From the moment they opened their eyes, the infinite blood was enough to suffocate them.
The cruelest torture and the most desperate fate awaited the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector. Even if their spiritual roots were awakened by chance and they became experts, they would only be slaves with "more experiment value".
All in all, for a thousand years, the Martial Meritocrats Sector had been the largest testing ground for new magical equipment and techniques in the Imperium. All the highly dangerous, destructive, and unstable magical equipment and techniques would be sent to the Martial Meritocrats Sector and tested on the fleshly bodies of the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
A lot of alien beasts of unknown origins were even captured by the Imperium by accident. When their features and danger could not be tested, they would be sent to the Martial Meritocrats Sector to see the reactions of the alien beasts in the "pure natural" environment. In most cases, the "reactions" showed all kinds of bizarre killing characteristics and killed thousands of people.
In such a cruel world, a hell where there was no hope and a long tradition of the Cultivators, it was not strange that the legends about the 'lost Cultivators' were born when people could not bear the torment. Some of them even established a resistance organization.
Therefore, there were three advantages when the Martial Meritocrats Sector was set as the "first jump point" in the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy.
Firstly, the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy had a complicated astronomical environment. There were cosmic storms, stone belts, and wormholes everywhere. The nebula at the center of the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy would release violent radiation to the outside world irregularly. Although it was somewhat dangerous to jump to such a place, the traces of one's arrival would be erased as much as possible. Even if they were discovered by the Imperium, it would be relatively easy for them to escape.
Secondly, the Cultivators' resistance organization "Starlight" and the "lost Cultivators" were of great significance to the Federation.
Even the most solid fortresses could be breached from the inside. It was unlikely that the Federation could suppress the Imperium in a head-on battle, but it was possible that the Imperium's forces that had been accumulated for a thousand years would be awakened. If "Starlight" did exist, it would undoubtedly be the best comrade of the Federation.
Thirdly, even if Starlight and the lost Cultivators did not exist and were just groundless legends, it at least proved that the people in this area were looking forward to the Cultivators, just like the seedlings in a drought longed for a good rain. It also meant that the foundation of the people was better.
On second thought, it did make sense. In any world of the Imperium of True Human Beings, helping the Immortal Cultivators capture Cultivators would earn them "military credits", which would give them a chance to rise up and get rid of their misery.
But in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, no matter how hard the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector licked the toes of the Immortal Cultivators, there was no hope at all. So, was there any reason for the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector to stand on the Imperium's side? Was there a better place for the people of the Federation to enter the Imperium than this place?
The three advantages were obvious, but there was still one that was worth considering, which was intelligence.
Blackstar the Great did not like the Martial Meritocrats Sector, which was a burden to other worlds in the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy. This area had always been the slowest place in the Imperium with the most underdeveloped civilization.
Also, because the Martial Meritocrats Sector was used as a laboratory for new magical equipment and techniques, and there were quite a few large, high-level prisons that involved a lot of top secrets, military control was often implemented. The place was managed by the reliable royal family or directly by the capital. It was certainly not a place that the small merchants could meddle in.
The merchants of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were mainly after money and were not interested in trouble. They had never been interested in this area, which turned the area into a black hole of intelligence.
On the other hand, the sea of stars was too vast and boundless. The distance was easily hundreds of thousands of lightyears away, causing the events that happened in the other world to become illusory legends and bizarre stories.
As a result, what Di Feiwen could provide was nothing more than the "rumors" from more than a hundred years ago.
As for exactly where to choose as the platform for the Federation to enter the Imperium, it was a problem that could be discussed later.
Li Yao, Ding Ling Dong, Jin Xinyue, and Di Feiwen discussed for a while and analyzed the environments, garrisons, and weaknesses of the dozens of worlds at the edge of the Imperium. Although it was the outdated intelligence from a hundred years ago, the data such as astronomical parameters and natural environment would not change easily.
After talking for a couple of hours, Li Yao gradually grasped the double plan of the Heavenly Eye and the Heavenly Slayer.
However, Di Feiwen heaved a long sigh in the end, as if he were hesitating.
"Why are you so worried, General Di?"
Li Yao found it odd. "According to your analysis just now, although the Imperium of True Human Beings is powerful, there are too many internal conflicts and undercurrents to take care of itself. Chances are that they will fight each other because of the unequal distribution of the spoils. They may not have the spare strength to extend their claws to the edge of the cosmos. Even if one or two of their claws do extend to us, we will definitely be capable of fighting them. It is not entirely hopeless!
"However, judging from your hesitation, you seem to be worried about something on a deeper level, right?"
"You have my wisdom."
Di Feiwen bowed deeply at Li Yao again. "I'm not worried about the Imperium but about … the Holy League."
"The Holy League?"
Li Yao was slightly dazed. "Didn't you say that the Holy League has been utterly crushed by the Imperium and has vomited all the worlds that it has swallowed in the past thousand years and retreated to the central area a thousand years ago? The so-called central area of the Holy League must be a barren place at the edge of the cosmos similar to the Federation, right?
"What? Do you suspect that the 'victory' sent by the court is false?"
"No. Although the 'victory' is too unbelievable in terms of military common sense, my intuition tells me that the Imperium is not faking it."
Di Feiwen shook his head and said, "However, the Holy League has been defeated too fast. Dozens of Sectors and hundreds of resource planets have been lost in only a couple of years? What kind of speed is this? Even the words' defeated like a mountain 'are far from enough to describe it. "
Li Yao was silent.
He recalled that it had taken them more than half a year to annihilate the Black Wind Fleet in the space battle four years ago, and that was the result of the 'battlefield uprising' of the remaining soldiers of the Black Wind Fleet led by Di Feiwen.
If the Black Wind Fleet had chosen to resist to the end, it would have been impossible to annihilate them without a couple of years.
It was already so difficult to deal with the remnants of an expedition army that did not have a foundation. Was it possible to occupy dozens of Sectors in only a couple of years?
"If the army of the Holy League is so vulnerable," Di Feiwen said, "I don't know how they secured such glorious achievements in the past thousand years, how they rose unstoppably despite the suppression of the Imperium, and how they crushed the Black Wind Fleet neatly a hundred years ago."
Brilliance beamed out of Li Yao's eyes. "You suspect that … the Holy League is faking its failure?"
Using dozens of rich and fertile worlds to initiate a strategic contraction, this kind of spending was really too shocking!
"Before a fist is punched out, it has to be retracted deeply first," Di Feiwen said.
"As I said just now, the Imperium of True Human Beings is a very abnormal country," Di Feiwen said. "The experts who have ulterior motives keep each other united based on their common fear of the Covenant Alliance.
"Over the past thousand years, the Holy League has been on the offensive most of the time. On the surface, they seem to be conquering cities and territories, but they have won many battles and swallowed a lot of territory of the Imperium.
"But the more dominating they are, and the more territory and resources they occupy, the more scared and united the Immortal Cultivators will be. In the end, they are united to the point that the Holy League cannot break in at all!
"That is the limit of the Holy League's attack.
"In my humble opinion, the Holy League has already reached the limit of its attack when it occupied the five Sectors of the Black Wind Fleet a hundred years ago. If they march in again, they will be in the military towns and strategic locations that have been carefully managed since the age of the Star Ocean Imperium. All the Sectors are impregnable and not the same as the border worlds at all.
"In other words, the Holy League will not be able to completely conquer the Imperium in another three to five hundred years. It is even more likely that all the Immortal Cultivators will be highly united. Everybody will abandon their conflicts and prejudices in the greatest fear and fight side by side against the common enemy!
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