In the capital planet of the Empyreal Terminus Sector …
In the capital …
At this moment, the situation at the center of the cosmos and the heart of the Imperium of True Human Beings was like a frozen river in early spring. Although undercurrents were surging below the ice, it was still a dead silence from the shore. All the fish and shrimps were sealed in the ice, and there was no sign that the ice was melting at all.
The rebels loyal to the reformists did not attack the capital on a large scale as the intelligence suggested. Instead, they played a diversion and marched into the heartland of the Li family on a large scale. The incident was too huge to be hidden from the ears of the other three families.
However, the Divine Rain Sector was too sensitive after all. The Li family blocked all the information, claiming that they would gather the elites and take care of the rebels on their own. It was inappropriate for the direct descendants of the other three families to march to the heartland of the Li family recklessly to "help with the rebellion". They could only watch.
Besides, the unpredictable and resolute actions of the rebels had left too deep an impression on the four Kurfürst families. The minor riots and rumors in the capital never stopped. Who knew if or not it was another scheme of the rebels? Chances were that the rebels would do something big in the capital again after the four families lowered their wariness on the capital.
Therefore, the elites of the four Kurfürst families were still stationed in the capital, and part of the main force of the Li family was slightly summoned back.
On the dark side, it was possible that the other three families were chuckling in secret, hoping that the rebels could cause as much chaos as possible in the internal organs of the Li family as possible. Even if the Li family asked for their help, they would have to negotiate the terms first!
As time went by, the truth would definitely be revealed sooner or later.
However, in the next couple of days, the situation was still in a subtle balance if not still.
On the other hand, the Imperium of True Human Beings was too large for the consequences of any serious riot to affect every corner instantly.
The Imperium was like a dinosaur hundreds of kilometers long. Even if the tail was on fire, and the signals of pain from the nerve endings still had to be transmitted for a long time to reach the brain. Even if the entire tail was burnt up, every cell in the body might not be able to sense it.
It was even more so for the bacteria and bugs living in the folds of the super dinosaur that was the Imperium.
No matter how the leadership turned the world upside down, how they tried to reform the old, how they proclaimed the Imperium, victory, and the civilization of mankind, the most important problem for the bacteria and bugs was still how to pay for yesterday's bills and find food for today so that they and their families could survive in the difficult way.
The main continent where the Imperial Palace and the Senate were located, the Black Star Continent, Underground City, District 36.
It was not wrong to describe the dark corners where the brilliance of the Imperium could not reach at all.
It was because the canyons that had been torn apart by the fierce battles between the Supreme Emperor and the Blood God were long, narrow, and deep. They were indeed like interconnected, filthy folds that covered the body of an enormous beast.
Every fold was a major district. From thousands of meters to ten thousand meters from the top to the bottom, millions or even tens of millions of people lived there. It was even more than the population of a metropolis at the peripheral worlds.
During the day, the "folds" released dense smoke and steam to the ground, and at night, hazy and dim light popped up incessantly like glittering smoke.
It was the only sign that the ants, who lived deep inside the dark folds all day long, showed their existence and that they were still alive.
The thirty-sixth district was a district that was close to the Imperial Palace and the Senate. It was one of the benevolent places with relatively good security and environment.
The area one to two hundred meters below the ground, on the other hand, was still the shallow area where there was a chance of sunlight at noon. For the entire underground system, it was one of the "noble areas".
There were mainly two types of people who were qualified and wealthy enough to live in the district.
One of them was the distinguished hominoids. They were often the foremen of the underground factories, the lucky few who had successfully started their own businesses, and the family members or high-level lackeys of the Immortal Cultivators.
The other type was the Immortal Cultivators. They were the losers among the true human beings, the bankrupts who had nowhere to go, and the garbage who had been seriously wounded due to mental derangement.
In the world of Immortal Cultivators where the survival of the fittest was regarded as the truth, the survival competition was extremely cruel. The cruelty was not only reflected in the oppression of the "true human beings" on the "hominoids" but also in the life-and-death, merciless competitions among the Immortal Cultivators.
If one wanted to win, then one had to stop at nothing to cultivate to a higher realm. If one disregarded one's own condition and madly charged towards a higher realm, then it would cause one to have an extremely high probability of succumbing to qi deviation and the collapse of one's Dao Heart. Once a problem arose in one's cultivation, or one was defeated in a cruel competition, injured, seriously ill, or even slowly aging due to the restrictions of the laws of nature … There were various reasons that caused one's realm to fall to rock bottom and become trash. When one didn't have the slightest bit of value, one's end was usually extremely miserable.
As the saying went, a general's success was built on ten thousand dead bodies. When an Immortal Cultivator soared into the sky, perhaps ninety-nine Immortal Cultivators would fall into the abyss. It was even more so for the battle-type Immortal Cultivators who licked blood on their blades.
Because of the features of their profession, their odds of being heavily wounded and mentally deranged were many times higher than other Immortal Cultivators. Also, fighting all day long would inevitably leave a lot of hidden problems in their bodies. They might also make a lot of sworn enemies.
When one was at the peak of his cultivation, he could naturally do whatever he wanted. However, if he fell sick, got injured, aged, or went mad, and if he did not train any powerful successors and did not have any savings, it was very easy for him to fall from the peak to the bottom of the valley and be smashed to pieces.
Living incognito in the underground world was almost their only way out.
The renowned experts in the past turned into thugs, mercenaries, assassins, and the lowest-level gladiators in the underground arenas when they were caught in desperation. Such examples were not uncommon.
The few crystal coins of the Imperium that they exchanged for by exhausting their life, burning their soul, and draining their last drop of blood and sweat were immediately exchanged for high-intensity medical drugs, painkillers, and even excitants that boasted strong paralysis and hallucinogenic effects. They could not wait to be injected into their abnormally expanded veins. Lying in a dark, damp corner, they imagined that they would rise again in a bizarre dream while their bodies slowly turned cold and rigid. It was the sad but unavoidable ending for many Immortal Cultivators.
From a certain point of view, those Immortal Cultivators were even more miserable than ordinary people.
Ordinary people could totally work in sweatshops and survive as long as they had a bit of synthetic food that tasted like wax. If a few slices of "ham" made of grease were added to the porridge, it would already be a delicacy.
However, the Immortal Cultivators, even those who were old and suffering from internal injuries, would never swallow their pride to work together with the "hominoids" and end up as common components on an assembly line.
Besides, the money that they earned from their work was not even enough to fill their stomachs that were like bottomless holes, much less the astronomical medical fees.
Once one became an Immortal Cultivator, they would embark on a path of no return that was full of thorns. They could only march forward bravely until they were destroyed, but there was no turning back. They could no longer be ordinary people.
The thirty-sixth district was packed with the hopeless Immortal Cultivators who were neither human nor ghost. No sect, force, group, or family was willing to take them in.
In the past half year, the number of such garbage had increased by ten times, making the underground world that was already crowded even more noisy and chaotic.
The frustrated people who had recently wandered to the underground world were the officers of various levels who had been fired from the expedition army. They were mainly the generals and colonels in the miscellaneous troops who had been heavily wounded, whose Cultivation had plummeted, and whose troops had been wiped out. They were all commanders without an army.
Thirty years ago, the Imperium decided to launch the largest strategic counterattack in the past five hundred years. Therefore, the unprecedented general mobilization was carried out to expand the army. Even the miscellaneous troops from the peripheral worlds that were not allowed to boast too powerful fleets in the past were greatly expanded after receiving the promise of the central government.
In order to tempt the bumpkins from the miscellaneous troops to work for the Imperium, or rather, to profit from the fire for the four Kurfürst families, other than all kinds of military aid, military ranks, designations, medals, and titles were all over the sky and offered as if they were free.
Hundreds of years ago, the Imperium had been rather strict in the evaluation of military ranks and titles. In the absence of large-scale wars for hundreds of years, it was true that some Yuanying experts were not promoted to major generals or lieutenant generals until they were old enough to live their entire lives.
But this time, it was true that any random expert of Jin Dan from the peripheral worlds, as long as they could raise a team, even if it was a half-armed carrier fleet modified from civil carriers, would be able to wear the awesome hats such as "major general, commander, or lord of the Imperium" without caring whether or not their heads were big enough.
Such people were known as "surplus generals" in the upper-class society of the Imperium. They were all jokes that were not worth mentioning at all.
However, a lot of ignorant Immortal Cultivators from the peripheral worlds, or the guys who were ambitious enough to risk everything for a great fortune, gritted their teeth and marched to the frontline with the guys from their hometown under the hats of "colonel, chief of staff, major general, and commander".
How could those guys who had more brawn than brains be a match for the cunning guys of the four Kurfürst families? They were still easily manipulated and reduced to other people's chess pieces and cannon fodder.
The luckier ones were dispatched to the Third Battle Area under the command of "God of War" Lei Chenghu. Chances were that they could keep their troops and their heads. Even if they were killed, it would be a worthwhile death.
But most of the "surplus generals", on the other hand, did not even know how they were killed. In only a couple of years, the troops that they brought to the frontline were all annihilated, and they themselves were heavily wounded on the battlefield. Some of them even lost limbs, and their abdomen and spiritual root had been burnt into a mess.
What he got in return was either a few clanging medals, a "rank increase", or all kinds of empty promises, such as how he would be rewarded after the "final victory", and how he would be given a fief everywhere.
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