"Cut the crap."
Lei Chenghu said coldly, "Speak now. What did the special investigation committee ask you to do?"
"Father, you should know."
Staring at Lei Chenghu hard, Lei Honghai said, "The Council of Elders, the special investigation committee, and I all hope that you can make a public statement and inform all the troops in the frontline to support the Council of Elders' investigation on the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance, criticize the radicals in the expedition army, and persuade the members of the Blood Oath Alliance in the Thunder Fleet to turn themselves in. At the very least, we hope that you can issue an order to restrain the Thunder Fleet so that no bloodshed will happen when the special investigation committee is stationed there."
"Stationed in the Thunder Fleet?"
Lei Chenghu's pupils constricted violently. "Are the special investigation committee — and the four Kurfürst families behind it — really bold enough to attack the Thunder Fleet that has made remarkable contributions after a hundred years of bloody battles in the frontline?"
"Father, there's no need to worry too much. It's just to purge the radicals in the Thunder Fleet."
Lei Honghai put on a gloating and rebellious sneer. "The Council of Elders does not intend to dismember the Thunder Fleet at all. They only want to ensure the absolute loyalty of the Thunder Fleet to the Imperium. After the investigation and purge are done, they will still be commanded by 'us'."
"Is it 'us' or 'you'?"
Lei Chenghu narrowed his eyes. The shock in his eyes was entirely gone, replaced by mockery and sorrow. "Just like I said, I refuse. You can go now. You don't need to come back if you don't have the death sentence that the Council of Elders has given me."
"Father, why are you so stubborn?!"
Seeing that Lei Chenghu was as stubborn as iron, Lei Honghai burst into fury. Blushing, he roared, "The situation is already at the most critical moment. The radicals in the capital are about to be eliminated. The fleets of the warlords and the nobles have all expressed their loyalty to the Council of Elders. Only a few large fleets are left as targets for everybody, but their throats have been choked by their superiors. They are like turtles in a jar. The Thunder Fleet is one of them!
"The universe is a vast place, but we are rootless duckweeds. However powerful the Thunder Fleet is, we do not have a stable base in the rear. All the weapons, ammunition, and fuel for the starships have to be supplied by the base of the expedition army and the Council of Elders behind the base!
"They do not need to settle us with violence at all. All they need to do is to cut off our supply channels. What do we have to compete with the four Kurfürst families? The trophies collected in the frontline? That would only last a few days!
"The situation is stronger than the person! The war is over. We have won. The historical mission of the expedition army has been accomplished. It is inevitable that the army will be disbanded and reorganized. Nobody can resist such a trend!
"It is rare that the Council of Elders is so sincere that they can guarantee the independence of the Thunder Fleet as much as possible and give us the most prosperous Sector as our hereditary fief. I don't know what you are still insisting on. What benefits can you, the Thunder Fleet, and the Lei family gain by resisting the Council of Elders to the end?
"Please, think about it carefully, Father!
"Ever since we were little, haven't you been teaching us that disunity is the greatest source of calamity for the Imperium, and that as a glorious soldier of the Imperium, we must not fight for our own selfish desires but for the interests of the Imperium and all mankind under the command of the Council of Elders, right?
"Right now, the Council of Elders has given the order in person to disband and reorganize the expedition army. Also, the way of reorganization is not too harsh. The Thunder Fleet is just part of the expedition army in the first place. Why do we have to stand out and go against the Council of Elders and the four Kurfürst families?
"Let me tell you the truth, Father. The Council of Elders is determined to solve the problem of the expedition army at any cost. If the problem cannot be solved without bloodshed, it will be solved with bloodshed.
"Yes. With your control and prestige in the Thunder Fleet and even the entire frontline, as long as you cough softly, most of the soldiers in the Thunder Fleet will probably fight to the end. But what can they do? What is their purpose? Even if you are really going to destroy the Thunder Fleet that you established after all the hard work a hundred years ago and ask the thousands of people in the Lei family to die with you, you should at least give us a reason so that we can understand why we are going to die! "
Listening to his eldest son's ruthless complaints and even criticism, Lei Chenghu was silent for a long time before he finally opened his mouth slowly and said in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Everything that I have done is not for myself, not for the Lei family, and not for the Thunder Fleet, but for the entire Imperium and the supreme civilization of mankind.
"Yes. I used to teach you that it is a soldier's duty to obey orders and that the Immortal Cultivators should be more interested in national wars than personal conflicts. They should only fight for the interests of the Imperium and the civilization of mankind under the command of the Council of Elders.
"In the past two hundred years of my military career, I have been practicing the maxim every second. I do not have the courage to compare myself with the many famous generals in the history of the Imperium, but I can proudly say that I have never used a single bullet for personal gains, and every enemy that I have slain with my saber is an out-and-out 'enemy of the country'.
"Even if the orders issued by the Council of Elders were in conflict with my personal interests, and even if I knew that a certain elder or a certain noble family was behind it, for the stability of the Imperium, to set an example for other warlords and local troops, and to truly unite the entire Imperium again, I still carried out the orders dutifully without the slightest negligence.
"But this time …
"The Council of Elders was truly wrong. It made a fatal mistake that was enough to destroy the Imperium and the civilization of mankind!
"I am not saying it for myself, not for the Lei family, and not for the Thunder Fleet, but for the interests of the Imperium of True Human Beings. The expedition army must not be disbanded or reorganized. Instead, it must be further expanded and strengthened its independence. At the very least, it must be maintained at the current scale and prepared for another thirty years of war in order to exhaust the enemy.
"This is a matter of life and death for the country. How can I back off? One step back, and the entire Imperium will fall into a bottomless abyss!"
Lei Honghai could not listen to it at all. He sneered and said, "There are so many powerful and wise big shots in the Council of Elders who know a hundred times more intelligence than we do. How can they make a mistake?
"Father, you have seen through the big picture that even they cannot see clearly. Is this what it means to be sober when everybody else is drunk?"
"Perhaps there are a lot of guys in the Council of Elders whose wisdom is as deep as the ocean and whose computational ability is as fast as lightning, but they all have selfishness. Once one is involved in the swirls of power and interests because of selfishness, they will be blinded by greed, and they will end up as slaves to their desires and ambitions. Or rather, they will be donkeys with carrots tied to their heads, unable to see through the simplest traps."
Lei Chenghu sighed and said casually, "I don't think that I am sober when everybody else is drunk. The Imperium is such a large place. There must be a lot of people who are sober. But in such a dirty world, many people are unwilling to wake up, and many people do not dare to wake up. Many people will be shot to death the moment they open their eyes and are about to shout. They will never wake up again."
"I don't know what you are trying to say, father, but if you do not soften your attitude, I don't know if or not the Imperium will fall into the bottomless abyss, but you, the Lei family, and the Thunder Fleet will all fall into the bottomless abyss and be doomed forever!"
Blushing, Lei Honghai roared angrily, "Have you ever considered your family and your blood relatives for even one time since you were a child? I only asked the starships under my command to transport some contraband. Everybody in all the fleets did the same. Even the troops of the four Kurfürst families did the same. It was an open secret and an unwritten convention. But you simply had to expose the matter and ruin my reputation as your eldest son. Hundreds of my connections were involved, too. You made me piss off all my friends in the circle of nobles!
"There is also my younger brother. He is only one step away from Jin Dan's level. What's wrong with him trying to break into Jin Dan's level? You said that he was not talented. Maybe he was, but so what? Are the descendants of the other noble families all gifted? Haven't they reached the highest level with abundant resources and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures time and time again?
"But you did not even give him a single extra crystal, forcing him to make a breakthrough through the dangerous secret arts. As a result, he was truly mentally deranged and was on the verge of death. At such a time, you could've saved him by simply moving your finger, but you simply left him to die!
"Hehe. My younger brother and I are not very close, but we are not as inhumane as you!
"What, do you think that you are a great, selfless, pure Immortal Cultivator, and a loyal subject of the Imperium of True Human Beings?
"But do you know what other people are talking about you behind your back? Others say that it's not that you're selfless, but that your selfishness is all about 'fame'. You're fishing for fame, and in order to pursue the title of 'loyal minister', you've sacrificed your own son! "
Perhaps Lei Honghai had been holding those words in his heart for decades.
Now that he had vented them out, he was so excited that his eyes were bloodshot, and white foam was flowing out of his mouth. He could not have looked more hideous and ecstatic.
When his eldest son mentioned his younger son, Lei Chenghu's pupils constricted brutally, as if his eyeballs were about to collapse and turn into two black holes.
However, he covered it very well and immediately filled the "collapsed area" of his eyeballs with brilliance that was as hard as iron. His eldest son was also dwelling in his fury and did not notice his father's anomaly.
"I, Lei Chenghu, only have a clear conscience. I don't need to explain to anybody, and I don't care about anybody's comments."
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