Li Yao felt like scratching his head.
Why did it seem that accidents were always happening wherever he went?
However, the situation in the Imperium of True Human Beings this time was much more complicated and confusing than the situation in the Flying Star Sector, the Blood Demon Sector, the Federation, and the Ancient Sages Sector in the past.
It was an enormous swirl that involved almost a hundred Sectors and millions of warships.
Frowning, Li Yao felt that the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance was not as simple as it seemed.
However, he was more interested in the content of the leaflets that the Blood Oath Alliance distributed. Thinking for a moment, he asked, "Right. According to the leaflets, Dongfang Tuo intends to make peace with the Holy League, so he is a great traitor of the Imperium and a shameless capitulator. Is it true?"
"There is no telling whether or not Dongfang Tuo has made peace with the Holy League, or even secretly reached out to the people of the Holy League. But he is indeed a pacifist. He proposed to end the war as soon as possible in the Council of Elders many times. He even blocked the delivery of logistics and military assets to stop some fleets from advancing recklessly. So, he pissed off a lot of officers in the frontline, too. Perhaps it was exactly because of that that the Blood Oath Alliance considered him their primary target for assassination."
Li Linghai said, "Of course, Dongfang Tuo is just a representative of the overall interests of the four Kurfürst families. The situation right now is that the four Kurfürst families want to end the war as soon as possible, but the smaller nobles, Sector Masters, and new warlords at the edge of the Imperium are still attacking. The two parties are at an impasse, and their conflicts are intensifying day by day."
Li Yao was slightly dazed. "Why is that so?"
"It's simple. The four Kurfürst families want to divide the dozens of Sectors that have just been recovered as soon as possible so that their interests and even their sphere of influence can be determined. In order to share the benefits, they naturally need a stable environment. If the frontline is still engaged in fierce battles day and night, it will be impossible to divide the benefits."
Li Linghai explained, "But for the small nobles and the new warlords at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium, they are not confident that they can take too many advantages in the division of interests. Even if a few resource planets are given to them, they do not have the capability of delivering soldiers and assets to protect and operate those planets because they are too far away from their nests. They will be taken away sooner or later.
"In other words, the dozens of Sectors that have been recovered through hard work in the past ten years are destined to fall into the stomach of the four Kurfürst families.
"But it's different if we continue to attack.
"After recovering a new planet, they will be able to plunder all the resources on the planet and hide them in their fleets or transmit them back to their nest through secret channels.
"Besides, the accumulated credits can also be used as bargaining chips. They can also falsely report the losses and get a lot of reinforcements from the rear.
"As for the subsequent construction and operation of this planet, it has nothing to do with the warlord fleets.
"Think about it. If you were a Sector Master from a peripheral world of the Imperium and a warlord with a ragtag fleet, would you be willing to continue looting like this, or would you end the war and go back to your remote hometown to live on nothing?
"In many cases, the Covenant Alliance did not even carry out the 'scorched earth strategy' on the planets that they abandoned. Instead, it was the army of the Imperium who recovered the planets that carried out destructive plundering and then lied that the planets were already scorched earth. What could the expedition army possibly do to those greedy, disobedient guys?
"If all the miscellaneous troops and local warlords did the same, could the direct descendants of the four Kurfürst families have cleaned up all the miscellaneous troops and local warlords?"
Li Yao pondered for a long time. "Got it. The four Kurfürst families hope to expand the territory of the Imperium with the miscellaneous troops and local warlords in the vanguard and weaken the strength of the miscellaneous troops and local warlords by the way. However, the miscellaneous troops and local warlords are neither nice people nor idiots. They simply exploit the value of the newly recovered territories in advance and then lie that they have lost a lot of warships and are in urgent need of assets and even weapons. Eventually, they return with a full load, only to ask the four Kurfürst families to clean up their mess. All in all, neither party is a good guy."
"Exactly. Although your language is crude, your conclusion is very correct."
Li Linghai couldn't help but put on a mocking smile. He said, "The four Kurfürst families have dominated the Imperium for hundreds of years, but they consider other people to be monkeys and pigs and think that they can toy with everybody in the world.
"Perhaps, at the beginning of the war, they did have exactly what you said just now. They hoped that the miscellaneous troops and local warlords could 'lead the vanguard' and fight the Holy League until both sides suffered heavy losses so that they could reap the benefits without doing anything.
"But they underestimated two points. Firstly, the greed and cunningness of the miscellaneous troops and local warlords, and secondly, the will of resistance of the Holy League.
"During the hundreds of years when the Imperium of True Human Beings was expanding its territory, it encountered quite a few powerful countries and independent regimes of Cultivators. But in the end, the enemies were all crushed. Judging from the standards of the enemies in the past, after dozens of industrial worlds were seized and the main-force fleets were crushed again and again, the so-called 'will of resistance' should've been entirely gone. They would've definitely surrendered obediently.
"But the Holy League was obviously not a country that the Imperium had conquered before.
"The people of the Covenant Alliance can be said to be the zealots of the Pangu Clan who absolutely believe in their true god. They can also be said to be machines of flesh and blood whose humanity has been erased. They have no concept of fear or pain.
"How could either the zealots or the machines of flesh and blood choose to surrender?
"Therefore, even though dozens of Sectors were lost, and even though quite a few main-force fleets were scattered like sand in the collapse, the Holy League showed no sign of instability at all. It seemed that it would not matter even if the war lasted another thousand years."
Li Yao asked, "But the Imperium couldn't take it anymore?"
With a bitter smile, Li Linghai said, "Yes. No matter the differences between the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators, we are all people with feelings and free thoughts at the very least. We can feel pain and resist. The Imperium had shed too much blood in the war, and the national economy was on the verge of collapse. Therefore, the war had to be ended as soon as possible in any case. Otherwise, not only would the frontline be lost, the dozens of Sectors that we just got might be lost again. The heartland of the Imperium might even be jeopardized!
"Although I appreciate the patriotism of the young officers in the frontline, I actually take the same position as Dongfang Tuo, or the four Kurfürst families, on that point. I am not a fanatical warmonger. The war must be ended. If there is any chance of making peace with the Holy League, I will try it too."
Li Yao found it odd. "Is it possible to make peace with the Holy League?"
"Why is it not possible?"
Li Linghai said casually, "The war between the Imperium and the Holy League has lasted a thousand years, and they are not fighting every year. There are always times when the two parties take a rest. Otherwise, both the Imperium and the Holy League would've been wiped out a long time ago."
Li Yao could accept Li Linghai's theory rationally, but he still found it hard to accept emotionally. "I just feel that the peace talks between the Imperium and the Holy League are … a bit weird."
"Then, is it not weird that a Cultivator and an Immortal Cultivator are talking on the flagship of the 'rebels of the Imperium'?"
Li Linghai glanced at Li Yao and said, "There are a lot of realists in both me and the four Kurfürst families. For a realist, 'ideology' is never the first consideration; 'interests' are. As long as there are enough interests, why can't we cooperate or at least have a temporary truce with the extraterrestrial devils, not just the people of the Covenant Alliance or the Cultivators?"
Li Yao was rendered speechless.
He felt that he should feel lucky that Li Linghai, queen of the Imperium, was not a "fundamentalist" Immortal Cultivator.
If she were one of the purest Immortal Cultivators, she would've slashed him the moment she saw the Cultivator, wouldn't she?
Sorting through his messy thoughts for a moment, Li Yao nodded his head and said, "Got it. What should we do now?"
Li Linghai stared at Li Yao for a long time thoughtfully. As if she had made up her mind again, she asked, one word after another, "Can I absolutely trust you?"
Li Yao said frankly, "If what you are doing is really good for all the ordinary people of the Imperium as you said earlier, you will absolutely trust me."
"Alright!"
Li Linghai's eyes constricted, as if they had turned into two swords that had been sealed for a long time but were still sharp the moment they were unsheathed. She said solemnly, "Putting the 'reformists' in power will definitely be more beneficial for the ordinary people than if the noble families control the politics right now.
"However, after the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance, our cause will be in jeopardy!
"I left the capital in secret to execute Li Lingfeng and left a specially trained stand-in in the capital. The stand-in can handle the general situation, but he will certainly be exposed in such a mess.
"We have been forced to a dead end. We have no choice except to lay our cards on the table in advance!
"We haven't accumulated enough strength yet. Naturally, it will be very risky for us to lay our cards on the table in advance. What will happen next will likely be a series of extremely dangerous bloody battles. At such a moment of life and death, an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage who is both talented in fighting and refining will undoubtedly be a trump card for us. You have the power to reverse the situation!
"Vulture Li Yao, I can promise you in the name of the queen of the Imperium that, as long as you are willing to work together with the fellow Cultivators of the 'reformists' to tide over the difficulties and seize the entire Imperium, you will get everything you want. There may even be benefits beyond your imagination. I will not be stingy, either!"
Li Yao blinked. "Well, such as?"
"Such as …"
Li Linghai smiled and said, "Three days ago, an elder of the Imperium unfortunately perished. It is estimated that a hundred elders of the Imperium will perish one after another in the next year and a half. Half of the five hundred seats in the Council of Elders of the Imperium will be vacant, and new elders will be needed to fill them.
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.
