Every wrinkle on Li Jiande's face was frozen, truly turning into a cold and hard fossil. After a long silence, he finally said, "Are you really bold enough to do that?"
"Look into my eyes, ancestor."
Li Linghai craned her head. There was not the slightest trace of blood on her fair, flawless skin, but black air was vaguely flowing below her skin and congregating deep inside her eyes. Two black spots the size of needle tips popped up in her eyes that were as transparent as ice.
She repeated, emphasizing her tone, "Look into my eyes and tell me why I don't have the courage to do that.
"Don't forget that you had just planned an attack on the queen in the capital a month ago. You had already decided to completely eliminate me, the disobedient queen of the Imperium, except that my strength was far beyond your imagination. That's why it didn't work out.
"Right now, we are on bad terms. My overall plan and all my capabilities have been exposed. If I don't take a gamble now, should I just wash my neck and wait to be killed?"
"Even if you are bold enough to do that —"
Li Jiande said calmly, "Such an insane and inhumane action cannot win the support of all the reformists and soldiers. Without their support, your crazy plan won't work out at all."
"I don't need the support of all the soldiers. At least for now, it will be enough as long as some of the core soldiers obey me absolutely."
Li Linghai sneered, "With the core soldiers, I will destroy the Divine Rain Planet first, kill billions of people, and completely break off from the family.
"The rest of the soldiers are chasing the remaining soldiers of the Divine Rain Fleet in the vast space of the Divine Rain Sector on their starships. They have no time to stop me at all. By the time they discover me, they can only watch countless space fortresses and orbital docks fall to the ground in flames.
"After the destruction does happen and what is done is done, do the soldiers who do not know the truth have any other choice except to follow me and fight to the end? Such 'heinous crimes' can never be pardoned at all. Even if you guarantee that the soldiers who do not know the truth will be pardoned, they won't believe it at all.
"Besides, it's impossible for you to grant such a pardon, right? Otherwise, how can you face the hundreds of millions of innocent souls on the Divine Rain Planet? How can you face the families that have great interests on the Divine Rain Planet?
"Therefore, destroying the Divine Rain Planet will only strengthen our cohesion and my dominance over the coalition fleet of the reformists. We will carry out the strategy of mutual destruction to the end!"
Li Jiande took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the urge to cough. He said, "You also know that you have committed monstrous sins?"
"Of course I know."
Li Linghai smiled again. "However, your grandson also knows the principle of 'those who steal a hook will be punished, and those who steal a country will be marquis'. The so-called monstrous sins are equivalent to having no sins at all.
"What's more, death is the end of everything. It's death either way, so what difference does it make whether one's sins are monstrous or not?
"Of course, you can totally choose not to believe everything that I said and attack the Divine Rain Sector right now. Let's see if we can rescue a few heavy industrial cities that have been developed for hundreds of years before I destroy the entire Divine Rain Planet.
"However, even if my strategy fails, in the worst-case scenario, I will still be able to lead the remaining soldiers and roam in the heartland of the Li family for a few years. I will still be able to deal heavy damage to the Li family and make the other three families covet the Li family.
"That is not what I want, but if you insist on not listening to my heartfelt words, I will have no choice but to walk to the end!"
Looking at Li Linghai's smiling and charming eyes, Li Jiande was silent for a long time again. After a long sigh, he said slowly, "My good grandson, I agree with you. Your father is indeed a pig. Why didn't he see your potential back then? Why did he choose to send you to the royal palace to be the crown princess? What a waste of talent!
"If he had discovered the ambitions and strength hidden in the deepest part of your bloodline in time and sent you to me for training, perhaps I wouldn't have been faced with the dilemma of not having a successor.
"Even if your father were to be killed a hundred times, it would not be enough!"
"It's not too late for you to discover it in person, Grandmaster."
There was no delight on Li Linghai's face at all. The unpredictable smile was still covering his soul-stirring face as he said casually, "Right now, the losses of the family are not too great. The reformists are not targeting the four Kurfürst families, either. They are only targeting the scoundrels in the capital. As long as Grandmaster is willing to listen to the demands of me and the fellow Cultivators of the reformists carefully, the situation will still be under our control. It will still be under Grandmaster's control!"
"The demands of the reformists?"
Li Jiande asked noncommittally, "What do you want?"
"It's very simple. I hope that the Li family, one of the four pillars of the Imperium, can hear the cries from the soldiers in the frontline and the bottom-level Immortal Cultivators at the peripheral worlds."
Li Linghai said unhurriedly, "I hope that you can support our righteous action of 'Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions', eliminate the scoundrels in the Council of Elders in the capital together with us, and eliminate the cancer that lives deep inside the flesh of the Imperium so that a more beautiful and powerful new Imperium can be established!"
Li Jiande's tiny eyes rolled quickly. "Who are the scoundrels? Who are the cancers?"
Li Linghai declared aloud, "The Dongfang family, which claims to be the 'first family' that surpasses the royal family, is the cancer of the Imperium and even the civilization of mankind!
"The elders of the Dongfang family and its vassal families are the scoundrels who are guilty of the most heinous crimes!
"For the Imperium and for the civilization of mankind, the Dongfang family must be destroyed. It is exactly under such a righteous cause that the reformists have gathered to eliminate the scoundrels and save the Imperium no matter what the price is!
"However, faced with the Dongfang family's deep-rooted power, wealth, and soldiers, the reformists are far from enough. Grandmaster, please summon the forces of the Li family and all the vassal families to stand on our side and support us!"
Li Jiande did not dwell on whether or not the Dongfang family was a "scoundrel" or a "cancer". Instead, he said, "Will the reformists and the Li family be able to take care of the Dongfang family cleanly and decisively instead of the awkward stalemate between the two parties and even dragging the Imperium into the swamp of a civil war?"
Li Linghai said unhurriedly, "The reformists and the Li family are on par with the Dongfang family. Naturally, it is not enough to crush the Dongfang family thunderously.
"However, if three of the four Kurfürst families are united, together with the forces of the reformists, it will be enough to annihilate the cancer unstoppably!"
Li Jiande laughed like a crow again, with great interest beaming out of his eyes. "My good grandson, can you persuade the other two families to take the risk together?"
"I can't, but I believe that you can, grandmaster."
Li Linghai smiled and said, "Otherwise, why would I come to you with such great 'sincerity'?"
Li Jiande asked, "What if I can't, either?"
"Then, I'll have to die."
Li Linghai said gloomily, "As the queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings, it is not excessive to bury a few planets with her, is it?"
Li Jiande coughed softly and calculated in silence.
"I have absolutely faith in grandmaster's methods. You must be able to persuade the other two Kurfürst families. Most importantly of all, the three Kurfürst families have been dissatisfied with the Dongfang family for a long time. They only lack a reason to fight and an opportunity for cooperation."
Li Linghai said casually, "The so-called politics is nothing more than a game of balance. The political ecology of the Imperium of True Human Beings in the first five hundred years was the balance between the royal power and the four Kurfürst families. In the second five hundred years, when the royal power declined, it became the balance within the four families.
"The four Kurfürst families are like the four legs of a table. Only by having the same height can the long-term stability of the Imperium be ensured. If any of the four families dominates, it will be tantamount to flipping the table and reshuffling the cards.
"It was a tacit agreement that everybody had been abiding by for hundreds of years. But in the recent two hundred years, the Dongfang family pretended to be stupid and broke the rules, expanding crazily. Right now, they vaguely boast twice the strength of any other family.
"I would like to know what the Dongfang family is up to exactly by expanding their forces so rapidly, and to when will the expansion stop? Are they really going to replace the royal family of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, overthrow the Imperium of True Human Beings, and become the well-deserved dominator of the universe and the rightful 'first family'?
"If that day comes, what will the Li family and the other two families do? Will they kneel and kowtow to the Dongfang family again? Even if we are willing to kneel and kowtow, does the Dongfang family have the courage to accept it frankly? "
Li Jiande seemed to have fallen asleep. Even his eyes were half closed.
But Li Linghai knew clearly that his cunning grandfather was listening, analyzing, and considering carefully.
"Elder, don't feel that I'm just being an alarmist. 'The strong will always be strong' is an unbreakable truth in the cruel competitions of the Immortal Cultivators. For the small worlds at the edge of the Imperium, the four Kurfürst families are 'the strong will always be strong', but isn't the Dongfang family also 'the strong will always be strong' within the four families? The Dongfang family is expanding faster and faster every day. If we don't stop it now, we will never be able to stop it. We can only watch them swallow us one bite after another! "
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