Li Yao took a deep breath. His eyes were more or less wet, too.
It was because, except for the environment of "Firefly", which was fictional, everything else, including the struggle in the magical equipment graveyard, the glimmer in the darkness, and the father-son relationship between him and his father, was real.
It could not be more real.
"I don't know why I saved my father in the spur of the moment, nor do I know what was on my father's mind that he adopted me when I was disobedient, aggressive, and cruel. At that time, I was already nicknamed 'Vulture'. I was certainly not a likable character."
Li Yao took a deep breath and tried to speak as calmly as possible. "Other than the arts of refining, he also taught me a lot of life lessons. He showed me the light in the darkness and made me realize that 'the strong prey on the weak' should not be the only truth in the universe. He also let me experience the most sincere feelings among human beings for the first time.
"Perhaps —
"Many times, I saw him deliberately getting drunk to cover the tears in his eyes with the smell of alcohol. Then, he picked up a metal rose that he carved and sniffed it deeply, as if he could really smell the fragrance of the flowers from the other side of the sea of stars.
"At that time, he would look at me in a very weird way. His eyes even penetrated me, the magical equipment graveyard, and the shackles of time and space, all the way to somewhere far, far away.
"I don't know if I'm overthinking, but I vaguely feel that he hoped that I was his biological son and the product of his love with … a certain woman. Then, our family could live together in peace and joy. That would be the most beautiful thing in the universe."
"Stop it. Stop it."
The queen mumbled. Her emotions suddenly burst out like a torrent. "I told you to shut up!"
Huala!
The earth below the queen's feet fell apart. Countless bolts of lightning blew into the ground from her feet and soared to the sky along the thick cracks, tearing apart the sky like thousands of flying swords!
The hurricane and the thunder were all shuddering in fear because of the queen's outburst.
Li Yao and Li Jialing's facial organs were almost displaced by the queen's uncontrollable emotions, too!
"Let's not talk about such … useless things."
Covering her chest, the queen gnashed her teeth. "Tell me what happened later. How did you advance into the Divinity Transformation Stage and get a Colossus? Huh?"
"With my old man's help, my arts in refining soared," Li Yao said. "Firefly, which had drifted for a thousand years, did not have much except the broken scraps of ancient magical equipment at best. My old man and I repaired tremendous magical equipment and jade chips together and collected some techniques and training methods from them. With that as the foundation, we grew step by step.
"Firefly has sailed to the edge of the expansion of the civilization of mankind. It is a dark, barren, and lackluster sea of stars. It is barely possible to get resources through regular approaches. Only by exploring the few world fragments and abandoned worlds can we possibly find some leftovers.
"We have an organization named 'Occult Orbs Fellowship', which is dedicated to exploration.
"After I joined Occult Orbs Fellowship, I ventured among the countless world fragments and abandoned worlds, such as' Skeleton Dragon Sector 'where a big ancient demon was hibernating, the' Nether World Sector 'that was devastated and devoid of any resources except for some evil spectral Cultivators, and so on. Naturally, I had a lot of fortuitous encounters and received a lot of legacies. Luckily, I did not die and trained myself to the peak of the Yuanying Stage step by step.
"While my combat ability grew, my position in the Star Ocean Republic soared, too. I rose all the way to the top and became the special envoy of the Speaker and the captain of 'Team Red Lotus', the Speaker's secret guards. I was sort of the best expert on Firefly and a favorite of the Speaker of the Star Ocean Republic. Then, it was not strange that the 'Tartarean Skeleton', the only Colossus, was at my disposal, right?"
"Huh …"
Pacing back and forth, the queen pondered for a moment and said, "No wonder you were adept at ambush and sabotage and were able to crush 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky'. So, you received professional training and were even the captain of a secret team?
"However, your story does not make sense again.
"Since you are the best expert on Firefly, the special envoy of the Speaker of the Star Ocean Republic, the captain of the guards of the Speaker of the Star Ocean Republic, and the user of the only Colossus, you are certainly in a high position. However uninterested you are in politics and only good at fighting and refining, you are still in the swirl of power.
"Then, how could the government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic allow such a top-tier expert like you to leave Firefly with the only Colossus, come to the Imperium, and even seek refuge with me? Isn't that a bit of a … defection? "
Li Yao smiled bitterly and said, "Like I said just now, perhaps you didn't hear me clearly, Your Grace. I said that I am the last Cultivator on Firefly in the Star Ocean Republic. Is there a 'Speaker' or 'captain'?"
The queen was slightly dazed. "What do you mean? What happened to your starship?"
This time, it was Li Yao's turn to be in a trance. After a moment of hesitation, he grunted and vomited a mouthful of black blood, losing all the strength in his face.
"Brother Yao!"
Li Jialing hurried to help him. "What's wrong?"
"His belief is shaking," the queen said coldly.
"I can sense that your soul is very unstable and on the brink of collapse. You are not far away from mental derangement. Why? Did something bad happen on Firefly that almost made you lose your belief?" Li Yao smiled coldly. "Is it because of you?
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao wiped the blood on his lips and managed to say, "Yes, Firefly has been destroyed. The Star Ocean Republic has perished. I am the only one who has escaped to the Imperium to look for you. But … can you not dig into the details?"
"No," the queen said resolutely.
"Even if you are mentally deranged, you must tell me the truth dutifully. Otherwise, I will kill the two of you immediately!"
"You —"
Li Jialing's blood almost flowed to his head. For the first time, he summoned his courage and glared at his birth mother, or in his own words, the "gene provider". "If your belief collapses and you are mentally deranged, it is very likely that you will be killed!"
"So what?"
The queen sneered. "Do you not deserve to die?"
"Then, just do it!"
The young man who had been suppressing himself until this moment finally burst out. Coldly-Shining claws popped out of his hands, and his teeth protruded like those of a ferocious beast. He glared at the queen. "Just do it, but I will not wait to be killed. I will fight you to the end!"
"You think that I dare not kill you?"
The queen looked at Li Jialing's mutation in disgust, her lips twitching nonstop. "Look at what kind of monster Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan have turned you into. I really shouldn't have let Li Lingfeng die so easily!"
"I have been a monster since the beginning. I have been a monster since I was born!"
Li Jialing shrieked, "But I never asked anybody to give birth to me. Yes, it was your mistake to create a monster like me!"
"Indeed."
The queen narrowed her eyes. "So, I am going to correct the 'mistake' right now."
"Don't do that!"
Realizing that it was not good, Li Yao hurried to cut off the eye contact between Li Linghai and Li Jialing. His face was more and more conflicted and painful.
The queen retreated her eyes from Li Yao. With a mocking smile on her lips, she said to Li Yao casually, "Even if you don't tell me, I can guess it. Have the resources on Firefly been completely exhausted, and in order to fight for the last chance of survival, the so-called 'Cultivators' have completely torn off their masks, turned into the most brutal animals, and killed each other, right?"
Li Yao trembled hard. Dumbfounded, he stared at the queen in disbelief.
"Don't look at me like that. By common sense, this is the only reasonable ending. What's so strange about it?"
The queen said in disdain. "Countless specialists of the Imperium have run the most detailed deductions. They have deduced that Firefly will certainly collapse from the inside during the thousand years of exile in the sea of stars at most. The timing is perfect. The hypocritical Cultivators like you are truly not surprised at all!"
Li Yao was rendered speechless. It was not until a long time later that he collapsed like a balloon that had lost all its air. He mumbled, "Yes. After a thousand years of wandering, we still failed to find a Sector that was suitable for survival. The resources of all the world fragments and the abandoned worlds had been exploited, and our population had exploded to more than five hundred million.
"The hibernation cabins and the circulation system on the starship were seriously damaged. Food, clean water, and even air were getting scarce. It was impossible for us to feed the five hundred million people anymore.
"At that time, our Speaker Cui Lingfeng — yes, he has the same name as your brother, which is another coincidence — proposed a 'Rebirth Plan'. He planned to kill eighty percent of the people on the starship with biochemical viruses that would burst out randomly. If the population could be reduced to a hundred million, it would be possible for the ecosystem of the entire starship to be maintained.
"In fact, it was not exactly Speaker Cui Lingfeng's idea alone. It was not until later that I learned that the parliament had always had such 'emergency plans', including the fatal biochemical viruses, which had been sealed for hundreds of years."
"It's perfectly normal," the queen said casually.
"In such a closed and desperate environment, it was probably the only way for your civilization to survive, even though it could only prolong the life of your civilization for another few hundred years."
"But there was another faction in the leadership of our government, led by Tang Zhengdong, captain of Firefly," Li Yao said in pain. "They were fundamentalist Cultivators who believed that the innocent should not be killed under any circumstances."
"Idiots."
The Empress coldly gave a four-word evaluation.
Li Yao hesitated for a moment and said, "Captain Tang Zhengdong discovered Speaker Cui Lingfeng's plan and had to stop it. The fierce battle between the two factions somehow leaked out, and everybody on Firefly learned it.
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