"That explains a lot. Thank you for enlightening me, Fellow Cultivator Li."
Li Yao said, "I've heard some of the truth and falsehood in the royal palace before. The force that I belong to is not entirely uninvolved in the selection of concubines, either. However, hehe. Those guys only wanted me to be a slaughter machine with more brawn than brains when I was focused on my training. Therefore, they never explained the inside information to me so clearly!"
"We still have a lot of intelligence. We can communicate with each other after this thing is over."
Li Yao sniffed, not giving any comment. "Please continue, Fellow Cultivator Li. Since the queen is a woman who is kindhearted, if not feeble, in nature, why are you so scared of her right now?"
"That's exactly the problem. My sister's personality has changed drastically in recent decades. She has become even more ruthless and coldhearted than I am. Or maybe she had already changed a hundred years ago before she entered the royal palace, except that she covered it so well that nobody noticed it."
Li Lingfeng sighed and turned his eyes to Li Jialing. "Jialing, I won't keep it a secret from you. I wanted to use you as a bargaining chip at the beginning because I thought that no matter how cruel and cold your mother tried to be, her nature was hard to erase. Therefore, the moment she saw you, she would more or less hesitate and reveal flaws.
"In a battle of experts, the slightest hesitation and flaw could already decide the outcome of the battle.
"I even thought that even if she could bear to destroy you when you were in the fetus state, as if she had an 'abortion', she would still hesitate for a moment when you were standing before her with flesh and blood, right?
"But I was wrong. I underestimated my sister who was' kindhearted, sentimental, and weak-natured '. Or maybe it was because she had an unexpected fortuitous encounter in the past few decades and received the most terrifying opportunities.
"In short, when I was fighting with her just now, I deliberately used you to disturb her mind. However, I very clearly sensed that she really did not care about you at all. She came here specifically to kill you. Where is the slightest bit of affection between a mother and son to speak of? You must believe in your uncle!
"Furthermore, I will tell you another great secret. In the past hundred years, my sister and His Majesty have given birth to twelve princes. Four of them have died. According to my secret investigation, the deaths of at least two of the princes are very suspicious. They are very likely to be related to my sister!"
Li Yao and Li Jialing were both stunned. Li Yao found it hard to believe. "Are you suggesting that she has killed at least … two of her own children?"
"Very likely. Believe it or not, I don't have to lie like that, right?"
Li Lingfeng sneered. "Jialing, you should understand it now. As the saying goes, even a vicious tiger does not eat its own cubs. However, your gene provider is a fiendish woman a hundred times more dreadful than a tiger. If you have the slightest expectation and extravagant hope for her, you will be the only one who will suffer in the end!"
Li Jialing swallowed hard. Even though his brain had been highly modified by Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan, what happened today was still enough to make his head explode.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and said, "So to speak, there is indeed something wrong with the queen?"
"Of course there is something wrong!"
Li Lingfeng said, "Think about it. She was a mediocre woman who knew nothing except fighting in the beginning, but she established her own force in secret without the spies of the four Kurfürst families and so many warlord fleets in only a hundred years. She even helped the emperor to consolidate his military power in the Imperium's comprehensive counterattack against the Holy League. She even won the support of tremendous young and bottom-level officers of the Imperium's army … Where did her schemes, her tricks, and even the resources and wealth that she needed to recruit soldiers in secret come from? They couldn't have fallen from the sky, could they? "
"Got it. It seems that the queen is indeed hiding a great secret."
Li Yao's eyes were glittering with greed and bloodthirstiness. "And you want to subdue the queen, monopolize the secret, and even become stronger than the queen?"
"Yes. That's what I've been planning for the past ten years."
Li Lingfeng opened his arms and said frankly, "But right now, the situation is completely different. I am willing to, and have to, share the great secret with you."
Li Yao's eyes rolled quickly again as he asked, "One last question. How strong is the queen exactly?"
"Very strong. At least one minor level higher than me."
It seemed that Li Lingfeng really wanted to cooperate. He was not scared that Li Yao would be scared away. "This is another unbelievable thing. The queen is a tool that we use to monitor the emperor. There shouldn't be any secret about her. Her family has been restricting her training. However talented she is, there is no reason for her to grow so strong. Besides, she spends most of her time in the royal palace. How can she have any fortuitous encounters?"
Li Yao had heard the secrets from Di Feiwen, the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet, before.
Ever since Blackstar the Great, the greatest enemy of the emperor of the Imperium was not the Holy League or the Cultivators but the lords, nobles, and warlords large and small, including the four Kurfürst families.
The central government and the local governments kept each other in check, which constituted the main theme of the development of the Imperium in the past thousand years.
As the territory of the Imperium was expanded, the forces of the lords and the local warlords naturally grew stronger and stronger. The emperor's power was gradually weakened and deprived, until he completely became the puppet of the lords and nobles in the end.
In case such an unparalleled hero as Blackstar the Great reappeared, the lords and nobles were more wary of the royal family than ever. The education and training of the royal family were under the close surveillance of the four Kurfürst families, too.
The teachers of the royal family were all selected by the lords. The techniques and secret arts that they practiced were strictly regulated, too. The disobedient, obstinate members of the royal family were likely to be mentally deranged and killed on the spot. It was absolutely impossible for the emperor or a certain prince to find an unparalleled technique in the "royal library" and suddenly counterattack after grasping it.
Since Li Linghai was a descendant of the Li family, what he practiced naturally should be the techniques of the Li family. His training in the royal palace should be highly controlled, too.
So, how could she have advanced to the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage, which was even higher than Li Lingfeng's?
Li Yao's head was in a mess.
But thankfully, Di Feiwen had talked to him about a lot of inside stories of the Imperium, which saved him the trouble of revealing them.
"However, there's no need to be too worried, Fellow Cultivator Li. Even if the queen's absolute combat ability is higher than ours, her operation to sneak into the Martial Meritocrats Sector and the Sand Primitive Sector must've been kept a secret from everybody. She would never dare to expose it.
"It will be difficult for us to kill her, but even if she is at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage, it will be unrealistic for her to kill two experts in the middle level and the high level of the Divinity Transformation Stage who both have Colossi, right?
"Also, we don't even need to fight her head-on. As long as we threaten her that we will run away without caring about anything for a few days and nights, she will be in the most awkward situation when the main troops arrive.
"Therefore, we are not entirely incapable of playing games with her. Like I said, as long as we can let go of our grudges and join hands sincerely, she will never dare to end on bad terms with us."
Li Yao clenched and unclenched his fists three times. Finally, he made up his mind and nodded slowly. "Alright. I'll cooperate with you for now and figure out the queen's trump cards first!"
"Great!"
Li Lingfeng clapped his hands and smiled. "Then, please hide yourself and my nephew first, Fellow Cultivator Li. She doesn't know that you are here yet. You will be an unexpected troop!"
"Wait!"
Li Jialing bulged his eyes and glanced at Li Yao and Li Lingfeng back and forth through the lightning and wind. He gnashed his teeth and said, "I — I haven't given you my word yet!"
"Huh?"
Li Lingfeng was slightly dazed. Frowning, he said, "Jialing, I thought that the strengthening and modification in the past ten years had trained you to be calm and rational enough. I've explained it clearly enough just now. If you are still affected by rashness, hatred, or mother-son feelings, it will be … too disappointing for me, won't it?"
"I don't care about mother-son feelings at all. Even if Li Linghai is really my gene provider, so what?"
Li Jialing's body was trembling, but he persisted. "However, I still cannot completely trust you. There are too many details in the whole thing that are still unclear!
"Who is my father exactly? Is he … from the Holy League? How did Li Linghai get to know someone from the Holy League, keep their life seeds, and even combine into a fetus? Why did she do that? Where is my father exactly?
"I will not be fooled by you again until I figure out the questions!"
Li Lingfeng's face turned particularly awful. He glanced at Li Yao again, as if he were weighing the pros and cons of revealing everything. A moment later, he said coldly, "So, you have guessed it. It does make sense. Now that your real identity has been revealed, the Origin Plan that was corrupted by the Holy League will not make sense anymore, and the incomplete Path of Ultimate Benevolence deep inside your brain will not be explained.
"Yes, your father is indeed from the Holy League, but as for the specific details, I only know the general idea …"
"Wait, I don't want to hear it from you. God knows if you are lying to me again!"
Li Jialing declared angrily, "I want to hear it from Li Linghai in person! If you really want me to cooperate with you to deal with Li Linghai, find a way to trick her into confessing all the truth and verify it with what you said. Then, I will judge for myself! If what you said just now is true, we will certainly help you at the critical moment. Otherwise … you can go to hell! "
"You —"
Li Lingfeng did not expect Li Jialing to play such a trick.
Li Yao couldn't help but laugh. "Fellow Cultivator Li, it seems that you are certainly not lying about one thing. You have truly devoted all your efforts and resources to your nephew. He has been refined into an excellent student!"
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It's been three consecutive days, haha, the beginning of May is not bad, roar roar roar roar roar!
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