"Smart!"
Li Lingfeng did not deny it at all. Instead, he grinned. "If the queen is truly dead, many people will laugh in their dreams, but what good will it do for us? Won't we be working for other people in the end?
"Besides, she has always been my biological sister from the same father and mother. If possible, I don't want to completely break up with her.
"My idea is to talk to her. It will be best if we can gather our resources together. Then, whether I want to take back what belongs to me from the Li family, or she has other plans, or Fellow Cultivator Li has other plans for the future, everything will be easier if we help each other, won't it?
"I believe that as long as we join hands, even my sister will have to consider the 'sincerity' of two experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage carefully.
"That's all I have to say. Cherish the rarely-seen opportunity. Fellow Cultivator Li, you should know very well that I wouldn't have told you so many secrets and so many truths if I hadn't been reduced to such a state today.
"Since you know so many secrets, it's impossible for you to escape unscathed. Cooperating with me is the only way out. Otherwise, even if the Empress and I don't kill you, once the news is leaked, thousands of people will kill you!
"All in all, the lives of the three of us are in your hands. 'Vulture Li Yao', it is up to you to decide what to do next!"
Li Yao frowned, his face gloomy. Brutality beamed out of his eyes one moment, and they were as deep as abysses the next. Then, he rolled his eyes crazily, as if he were considering his backup plans. In the end, he said cautiously, "It seems that I don't have a second choice other than to trust you. However, there are still a few things that I must figure out, which concerns the odds of success of my attack."
Narrowing his eyes, Li Lingfeng stared at the periphery of the thunderstorm and said somewhat anxiously, "Alright. Ask away!"
"What is the biggest disagreement between you and Li Linghai," Li Yao said. You are biological brother and sister. Even though the Immortal Cultivators do not value the intangible things such as blood ties, there shouldn't be any major conflicts of interest between the two of you. You can totally communicate with each other and deal with the seniors of the family together. Why are you so incompatible with each other? Isn't such a 'fratricide' behavior too stupid? "
The question seemed to have hit Li Lingfeng's sore spot. The muscles on his face were bouncing crazily. Perhaps because of the lack of time, there was no room for him to fabricate anything. After pondering for a long time, he still said, "Yes. Now that my sister has become the queen of the Imperium, it is impossible for her to return to the Li family as the leader and the Kurfürst. So, theoretically speaking, it is impossible for her to be my competitor. She and I, one in the Li family, and the other in the capital, should cooperate with each other and form a solid alliance of interests.
"However, more than a hundred years ago, when the Li family was selecting a queen, her wings were not fully developed yet. She was only a junior in the family and did not have much say. I, on the other hand, had already distinguished myself and had certain rights to speak.
"When she entered the royal palace, I … did something to her. As a result, she hates my guts to this day."
Li Yao thought of something. "She doesn't want to be the queen?"
Li Lingfeng sniffed at Li Jialing. "If she wanted to be the queen willingly, how could there have been a nephew like me? However, that was more than a hundred years ago. The taste of power is like the best wine. You will not be able to free yourself after tasting one drop. At the very least, in the recent decades, I can tell that she has been addicted to being the queen. She must've enjoyed it very much!
"However, the so-called hatred will eventually be diluted by time. The greatest disagreement between her and me is not the grudge but our beliefs."
"Beliefs?"
Li Yao was slightly dazed. "We are both Immortal Cultivators. Even though we are both ambitious, what's the difference in beliefs?"
"It's completely different. My sister's formidability is beyond other people's imagination. Even the big shots of the Li family do not completely recognize her. Only her blood brother, who shares the same mother, can see a thing or two about her!"
Li Lingfeng shuddered when he mentioned Li Linghai. He struggled to say, "My ambition is to be the leader of the Li family and one of the four Kurfürst families. It is not a big secret. It is even safe to say that every Immortal Cultivator of the four Kurfürst families has the same ambition as me, including you. Do you not want to be the dominator of your own force?
"It is a very common ambition. It is not unusual at all.
"But my sister is different. She … She … In the few close encounters in recent years, I can clearly sense that what she wants is not as simple as the Li family but the entire Imperium!"
Li Yao's eyes glittered. "Are you suggesting that Li Linghai wants to rule the entire Imperium?"
Li Lingfeng shook his head. "If only it were so simple. However, I highly suspect that her burning ambitions will eventually destroy the entire Imperium!"
Destroy the Imperium!
Li Yao was truly dazed for a moment.
Li Lingfeng's IQ was one thing, but it was beyond any doubt that he was indeed an audacious and ambitious man.
Even someone like Li Lingfeng was shuddering in fear because of Li Linghai's ambitions. What was Li Linghai up to exactly?
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao managed to calm himself down and said, "Fellow Cultivator Li, aren't you exaggerating? Or do you have any proof?"
"I don't have any direct proof."
Li Lingfeng shook his head. "But for those in the Divinity Transformation Stage like you and me, we can perceive a lot of things through the traces. It's called 'intuition'. You don't have to have solid evidence to reach a conclusion."
"Intuition?"
Li Yao smiled. "Your intuition is telling you that our queen is already so terrifying?"
"Trust me. There's no need for me to lie to you at such a moment!"
Li Lingfeng said in a hurry, "I'm perhaps the first person in the entire Imperium who discovered her horror. The reason is very simple. It's because I accidentally intercepted the fetus of my nephew Li Jialing decades ago. After I vaguely learned the cause and effect, I wanted to repair the relationship with her with the fetus as a bargaining chip …"
Li Yao interrupted him. "I'm afraid that it was not to repair the relationship but to blackmail her so that she would stand on your side unconditionally in the competition for the leadership of the Li family and the throne of the Kurfürst in the future, right?"
"That's the same thing," Li Lingfeng said.
"All in all, after I got Li Jialing's fetus, I asked Wuying Lan to design the most perfect fetus strengthening plan and planned to give birth to him when the time was right. On the other hand, I was investigating Li Linghai in secret, hoping to learn more of her weaknesses so that I could have a showdown with her someday.
"As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't investigated her, but when I did, I was greatly surprised by the result.
"As it turned out, my good sister was not as loyal and devoted to the family as a tool of the family as she appeared to be. Instead, she had built a secret armed force named 'Deep Sea Fleet' in secret and extended her hands to the critical departments of the Imperium, gathering power step by step and establishing her own force. There was no telling what she was up to!
"Not just that, her personality and abilities had undergone drastic changes. She was like a completely different person from the past. I even had an absurd feeling that the queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings was not my biological sister at all. At the very least, she was not the Li Linghai that I sent to the royal palace in person more than a hundred years ago!"
"What?"
Li Yao was greatly surprised. Thinking quickly, he asked, "Somebody switched her, or even possessed her?"
"No." Li Lingfeng shook his head.
Li Lingfeng shook his head and said, "This is a serious matter. It is absolutely impossible to possess the queen of the Imperium. In terms of blood samples, cells, genes, and even soul waves, comprehensive, rigorous tests have to be performed every year to prove that the woman is indeed my biological sister, Li Linghai.
"Otherwise, the Holy League has all kinds of brainwashing methods, and the extraterrestrial devils are adept at the secret arts to invade the brain. If the queen can be possessed and switched, can the emperor and the lords not do the same? The Imperium would've collapsed instantly!
"However — however, even though I knew that the woman was indeed my biological sister, Li Linghai, I still felt that it was unspeakably weird time and time again.
"The simplest example is that, more than a hundred years ago, before my sister went to the capital to become the 'Crown Princess', she was only a very pure battle-type Immortal Cultivator and an elite warrior of the family. She was even a person who was too sentimental and indecisive.
"She was indeed highly talented. Her talents in training were even vaguely higher than mine. However complicated and obscure the techniques were, she could pick them up after only one look. When she was only in her twenties, she was already on par with the middle-aged warriors in the family who were in their seventies or eighties, including — including me, who had already distinguished myself at that time.
"However, for the standards of the Immortal Cultivators, she was indeed too merciful and naïve. She did not know the evilness of people and the complexity of the world.
"Perhaps it was exactly because of her sentimentality, mercifulness, and naïveté that she was eventually selected by the family to be the Crown Princess and the future queen."
Li Yao nodded his head. "I understand it now. A woman who is emotional to the point of weakness will be more likely to be restrained and controlled by the family. She will become a tool for the family to monitor the emperor obediently. Should anything go wrong, there will be all kinds of weaknesses that you can take advantage of, too."
Li Lingfeng hesitated for a moment, but he still nodded his head and said, "You are right. None of the four Kurfürsten want to see an ambitious, sophisticated, and uncontrollable queen. Such a woman who is weak, sentimental, and deeply dependent on the family is the best candidate for the queen of the past generations.
"On the other hand, even if everybody knows the truth of the political marriage, they still have to consider the feelings of the crown prince or His Majesty after all. Sending a female spy who has been specially trained to be cold, heartless, and ruthless as the Crown Princess or the queen is too simple and crude. It will not be good if His Majesty's or His Majesty's rebellious mentality is raised.
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