"Ah!"
The warriors of the assault team around exclaimed in shock, but there was no time to stop him. Li Jialing was too fast, and his killing intent was too appalling. He was truly like a bloodthirsty lion, giving them the feeling that he would die together with whoever stopped him.
The "deep-sea Immortal Cultivators", who had been through hundreds of battles and had killed countless people, were all deeply awed by the fury that the young man had burst out after more than ten years. Their reactions were half a second slower than usual.
Tu Zhengdao, the deputy commander of the Deep Sea Legion and the captain of the First Assault Team, was the only one who was surprised. He sniffed and was about to jump over and separate the two of them.
However …
He was fast, but somebody was even faster. Right when he was about to jump up, he felt that somebody pressed his shoulder softly.
After only one press, all the strength inside his body seemed to have been absorbed by a black hole. His limbs and bones were immediately empty, and his knees were so numb that he could not jump up at all.
"Who's there?"
Tu Zhengdao was greatly shocked. He was so scared that one of his spines was about to be frozen apart!
Everybody's eyes were blurred, and they saw that the aggressive yellow-haired young man who looked like a mad lion was grabbed by "Vulture Li Yao" by the neck with one hand, as if he were a big cat that could bite.
The mad lion turned into a big cat, but it was still scratching and gritting its teeth, but it could not get away from "Vulture Li Yao" at all.
"Excuse me."
Holding Li Jialing in one hand, Li Yao apologized to the brawny man who was almost passed out because of the deep strangulation marks on his neck. "My little brother here is rather short-tempered. You'd better not piss him off if you don't have to, fellow Cultivators."
The Immortal Cultivators looked at the brawny man who had collapsed to the ground and was still in shock, then at the raging Li Jialing and the gentle Li Yao, and finally at Tu Zhengdao who was pale and sweating hard. They all swallowed.
In his heart, boundless worship for Li Linghai rose again.
Her Highness was truly unfathomable. She had countless people with extraordinary abilities under her command. She had no idea where she had found these two terrifying and ruthless people. They were even more brutal than the elite veterans of the First Assault Team of the Deep Sea Legion!
Grabbing Li Jialing's neck, Li Yao dragged the young man back to Li Linghai.
"Satisfied?"
Li Yao spoke to the queen in a low voice through his private talk technique.
Li Linghai smiled and waved his hand. "Let's go back to the Deep Sea Dragon Palace!"
…
In the outer stellar region of the Sand Primitive Realm, near the magnificent ring of the seventh planet.
More than twenty small assault warships slowly sailed toward a gargantuan war mothership more than ten kilometers long. It was a super space base that integrated communication, command, maintenance, and supplies!
The magnetic fields of the two parties attracted each other until the small assault warships were stuck to the shell of the war mothership tightly. The resource transmission channels, the nodes of short-distance teleportation rune arrays, and the Spiritual Nexus system of the two parties were all connected, like barnacles attached to a whale and a ship.
Following Li Linghai, Li Yao and Li Jialing entered the bridge of "Dragon Abyss", the war mothership. They seemed to have melted into the entire sea of stars.
The dim brilliance emitted by the super crystal processors glittered like stars. The crew members were fully focused on the operation, too, which made their spiritual energy spread and ripple nonstop, congregating into an immeasurable ocean of spiritual energy that was vaguely brimming with the air of solemnity.
Li Yao was deeply awed by the enormity of the bridge of Azure Dragon and the professionalism of the commanders.
He had once boarded the bridge of "Burning Prairie", the most advanced main-force warship of the Federation. Even that seemed to be less impressive than this place.
It was very easy to build a legion of crystal suits in a 'hundred-year fleet', and it would take at most ten years to take shape. However, a starship, especially a command center of such a level, which equaled the 'brain' of a fleet, was certainly not something that could be built just by having money. Hundreds of years of accumulation of knowledge were required.
Even if Li Linghai had truly found the Supreme Emperor's treasures, it would still be quite unbelievable that she could build such a "Deep Sea Fleet" in only decades.
Also, Li Yao noticed that the enormous light beam at the center of the bridge that the mainframe crystal processor released was not just displaying the intelligence of the tiny fleet but also the intelligence from various parts of the Imperium and even some of the Sectors at the borderland of the Imperium.
Li Linghai certainly had an overwhelming, pervasive intelligence network. What was she after exactly? Pure power?
Li Yao's eyes fell on the military uniforms of the crew members around.
Through Di Feiwen, Li Yao had a deep understanding of the military uniforms of the Imperium in different environments. In the extremely hot environment of hundreds of degrees, the ultra-low environment covered in snow, or the stormy planets where sand and pebbles were flying everywhere, he knew all the different kinds of battle suits, work suits, regular suits, and ceremonial suits very well.
It was rather odd that the crew members were indeed wearing the standard military uniforms of the Imperium, but they were not of the latest model but the regular uniforms of the first-generation warships of the Imperium of True Human Beings a hundred years ago.
Illuminated by the light of the crystal processors, they were like a bunch of ghosts from a thousand years ago.
A huge question mark popped up in Li Yao's head.
Li Linghai sensed his confusion keenly.
Now that he had brought Li Yao and Li Jialing with him, Li Linghai did not intend to keep many things from them.
Li Yao was quite right about one thing.
Not just the Divinity Transformation Stage, even a Yuanying was a strategic asset of great importance. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no ambitious man would destroy a Yuanying or a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator easily. Instead, they would spare no effort to recruit them under their command.
It was especially so for Li Yao, an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage who was adept at both fighting and refining, who had his own Colossus, and who was deeply connected to Li Linghai. For Li Linghai's ambitions, he was almost a gift from the sky.
Such experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage could not be regarded as common 'subordinates' but allies and partners to some extent.
Therefore, no matter how aggressive and aggressive the two parties were at the beginning, when Li Linghai really decided to recruit Li Yao, his attitude would naturally change, and he would transform him into a 'real Immortal Cultivator'.
"You seem to have a lot of questions after seeing my warships and soldiers?"
Li Linghai asked casually while he operated quickly on the light beam of the crystal processor and processed the intelligence that was sent over from various parts of the Imperium.
"Indeed. I did not expect Your Grace's forces to be so powerful. The professionalism of the soldiers on the warships is as good as that of the well-tempered veterans on Firefly."
Li Yao said frankly, "However, what I'm more curious about is why Your Grace established such a secret fleet at the risk of irrecoverable doom. Is it really just for power as Li Lingfeng said?
"To be honest, despite the tragedy that happened to Firefly, which shook my belief, I still persisted in the ideology of the Cultivators after the incidents in the Land of Sins and the Martial Meritocrats Sector. I even regathered my belief that was almost broken and broke into the Divinity Transformation Stage in one fell swoop!
"So, if Your Highness the Empress's goal is only to fight for power and profit, it's a little disappointing."
Li Linghai smiled and said, "Are you suggesting that, whether I am righteous or evil, you want me to have some lofty ideals? Is that so?"
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "You can put it that way. Or rather, I don't believe that Your Grace could have gathered such an enormous force and made so many elites follow you wholeheartedly because of the allure of power and without the motivation of lofty ideals.
"To be honest, although we are on different sides, the vibe of vigor and determination that I sensed after I entered 'Dragon Abyss', Your Grace's' Dragon Abyss' was exactly the same as what I sensed from many of the firmest Cultivators.
"It's … been a long time since I last saw such a young army!"
"Let's stop talking about the clichés of the Cultivators."
Li Linghai said without batting an eyelid. "The so-called 'path of the Cultivators' is just the naïve and feeble ideas that are generated by the ethics and morals of the old era when the new human beings are just born and different from the ordinary people. They are all bragging but do not have the value of guiding practice or the ability to solve problems at all." Yes, Your Grace is right.
"Yes. The philosophies of the Cultivators are very correct, correct, and touching. When we do not run into any serious problems, everybody can praise themselves as a Cultivator. But when we do run into difficulties that we cannot resolve and have to make gory sacrifices, the Cultivators' philosophies will not work at all. We can only hope for the arrival of certain 'heroes' and 'miracles'. However, heroes and miracles are rare. The civilization of mankind, on the other hand, has to survive in the harshest environment. Even if there are no heroes or miracles, we still have to survive!
"Forget it. You have been deeply poisoned. I never thought that I could convince you with a few words. At least, you are right about one thing. We are indeed different from the Immortal Cultivators that you saw in the Land of Sins. Or rather, those were all fake Immortal Cultivators, and we are the real Immortal Cultivators and the hope of the civilization of mankind!"
Li Yao blinked. "What are 'fake Immortal Cultivators' and 'real Immortal Cultivators'? Do the 'real Immortal Cultivators' not oppress the ordinary people? "
Li Linghai smiled in disdain. "Why? In your opinion, the class that is most oppressed in the Imperium of True Human Beings right now is the hominoids, and the fundamental contradiction is between true human beings and hominoids?"
Li Yao was dazed. "Is it not?"
"Let's put it this way."
After pondering for a moment, Li Linghai said, "We have simplified the social operation model of the entire Imperium again and again until there is only one mine, one mine owner who holds a whip and a saber, one strong miner, and one skinny, unintelligent monkey who is barely capable of mining.
"Of the three of them, who do you think is the most oppressed?
"Or rather, if you are the mine owner who holds a whip and a saber, and you want to collect the most minerals, whose flesh and blood will you exploit most, the strong miner or the skinny monkey?"
Li Yao was dazed. Thinking for a long time, he mumbled, "I'm afraid that it will be the strong miner, but …"
"That's right," the empress said coldly.
The queen of the Imperium said coldly, "In the eyes of the high-level Immortal Cultivators, the hominoids whose spiritual roots have not been awakened are like skinny monkeys. In fact, they do not have much value to be exploited. Those who can be exploited the most are the 'strong miners', who are the majority of the Immortal Cultivators in the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage.
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.
