Two feeble gold rings flashed on Li Yao's eyes. He poured his spiritual energy into his pupils and shone it on Dongfang Wang, allowing him to sense Dongfang Wang's vitality field clearly.
Such prying into the vitality field was a rather provocative behavior. If Dongfang Wang's head was clear and his soul was solid, he would've counterattacked automatically.
But right now, the former prime minister of the Imperium was so insane that he was completely dwelling in the glory of the old days and the crazy illusions that he did not notice the prying of the outside world at all.
In the eyes of Li Yao's "spiritual eye", Dongfang Wang was completely gone, replaced by twisted and agitated magnetic fields that looked like countless glittering double helical chains.
However, the double helix that should have been colorful and glittering was corrupted by the darkness nonstop. It was decaying, withering, and breaking at a visible speed. In the end, it dispersed into clusters of black fog and vanished into nothingness in the air.
Dongfang Wang was indeed dying. His vitality field was about to completely collapse. His fleshly body, soul, and will were all about to perish.
Seeing that the former prime minister of the Imperium of True Human Beings had been reduced to such a level, Li Yao had mixed feelings. For the Cultivators, Dongfang Wang was the leader of the Immortal Cultivators and should've been an "ultimate supervillain". Shouldn't he have been annihilated with great difficulty after all kinds of gory prices were paid?
But as it turned out, the guy was about to be killed so easily before he had even moved a finger.
Li Yao and the entire Xing Yao Federation's illusions and fears about the Imperium a hundred years ago did not seem to be the case at all. Was it the so-called "every family has its own problems"?
The Federation had the threat of the Federation, and the Imperium had the fundamental problems of the Imperium. Faced with the vast universe, both the Federation and the Imperium were so insignificant!
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao opened his hands and released two streams of gentle spiritual energy into Dongfang Wang's body, trying to delay the collapse of his vitality field and stimulate his brain that was on the verge of exhaustion so that he could be slightly refreshed.
As the bright gold spiritual energy enshrouded his body incessantly, Dongfang Wang moaned feebly. The madness and regret in his eyes gradually faded. His eyes were slightly clear for a moment before they were covered in the mist of pain and desperation again.
"It's you … You've finally come … My time has come."
At this moment, Dongfang Wang was like an old man who was finally able to face reality. Leaning his head against the human-shaped package in his arms, he mumbled to himself, "I've failed. I've failed completely. I've failed!"
Although his eyes were fixed on Li Yao, his attention was clearly not on Li Yao. Instead, it was as if he had sunk into distant memories and was summarizing his life.
"I have lost, but not to the Holy League, not to the reformists, and certainly not to the ingrates of the four Kurfürst families …"
Dongfang Wang suddenly gnashed his teeth, then complained, and then said without the slightest emotion on his face, "I have lost to the three thousand Sectors, I have lost to the entire universe, I have lost to all human beings, and I have lost to everybody's desires and ambitions!
"Hehe. I thought that I could complete Blackstar the Great's unfinished cause and integrate the Imperium of True Human Beings, the universe, and the entire sea of stars!
"How naïve. How could I have such a naïve idea? How could I have underestimated the universe and human beings?
"The Imperium of True Human Beings has hundreds of Sectors and almost ten thousand resource planets. Every Sector is thousands of lightyears away from each other. Their living environment and customs are entirely different. They all have different homelands and interests. There are even countless sects inside every Sector, and countless Immortal Cultivators inside every Sector. Every Immortal Cultivator is scheming against and killing each other. How can I unite them and make them all obey my command?
"The Imperium is not a country at all but just a tray of loose sand that pretends to be a country. It is a loose alliance that is barely put together, and the greatest enemy of everybody in the alliance is their 'allies' next to them! I was truly an idiot. How could I not have seen through such a simple fact?
"It was all in vain. All my years of hard work and even my life were all in vain!
"I burnt all my will and soul and completely offered myself to the Imperium. What did I get in return?
"Including the Dongfang family, the four Kurfürst families were all hindering me in secret. The local magnates and warlords at the edge of the Imperium ignored or disobeyed my orders, too! When I asked for a 5% war tax increase, they were bold enough to raise it by 50%! When I asked for an honest and corrupt government, they were bold enough to sit in their offices and stare at each other with crystal processors all day long! When I asked the warlords' troops to advance to the frontline that was of paramount importance, they were bold enough to 'encounter a cosmic storm and be annihilated'. So, their starships all slipped away. Not only did they not contribute to the frontline, they even turned into space pirates and looted the rear when the troops were not strong enough, stabbing their own people in the back!
"It was needless to mention the profiteers who hoarded and made a fortune out of the war. I wanted to punish them severely, but everybody in the four families, including the leadership of the Dongfang family and even my son, pleaded for the profiteers. What could I have done? What could I have done as the 'prime minister of iron and blood'?
"Even so, faced with so many unexpected difficulties and troubles, I still worked my heart out and tried my best to integrate the resources. Finally, I won the Imperium's counterattack! Did the generals in the frontline who only knew how to fight and ask for starships and resources know how hard-won the victory was? Do you know how many times I've wiped their asses and dealt with so many huge problems?!
"I thought that those guys would certainly have nothing to say after such a glorious victory, and that the Imperium would be able to step on the peak for the second time under my leadership, right? I didn't expect that, hehe. I underestimated the sordidness of those guys. The war was not over yet, and they were already so eager to stab me in the back. Were they so scared of me, so anxious to get rid of me, and so unwilling to see the rise of a powerful Imperium? "
Dongfang Wang rambled on and on like a pitiful old man.
Li Yao listened in silence, not knowing whether he should hate or pity the former leader of the Immortal Cultivators.
Getting to the bottom of it, the Immortal Cultivators who worshipped the law of the jungle could not really be united or have a real leader.
The so-called leader was just a bandit who suppressed all the experts with absolute violence and promised to bring the greatest benefits to all the experts.
For Dongfang Wang, he did not even boast "absolute violence". How could he make all the disobedient, selfish Immortal Cultivators obey him, follow him, and sacrifice for him willingly?
Dongfang Wang was perhaps a real "patriot". His ambitions were deeply tied to the fate of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Therefore, he really wanted to be a successful prime minister, unlike "Silver Fox" Li Jiande, who quit the government the moment he encountered any difficulties.
It was exactly because of that that Dongfang Wang's tragedy was doomed from the very beginning. He was destined to die for his ambitions and the ambitions of all the Immortal Cultivators.
"I understand it now. I finally understand it."
Holding the human-shaped package in his arms tightly, Dongfang Wang curled his loose lips into an extremely mocking smile. "I finally understand why the 'Supreme Emperor' and 'Blackstar the Great' in the past failed to spread to the entire sea of stars for a long time. It was because the sea of stars that included the three thousand Sectors was not something that human beings were capable of unifying in the first place!
"Human beings are not natural creatures but creations of gods and devils. We did not spread to the three thousand Sectors naturally and slowly adapt to everything. Instead, we were disseminated to the sea of stars by the Pangu and the Nuwa civilization in only tens of thousands of years.
"Our antecedents were merely monkeys jumping back and forth in the jungles on a certain planet. Even though the Pangu and the Nuwa have injected their genes into our bodies and refined us into tools and weapons, our wisdom is still not ready to accept such an enormous legacy as the three thousand Sectors.
"It is a gift that we cannot afford. It is also a disaster that will forever haunt the fate of mankind. Our ambitions have been infinitely magnified by the sea of stars, but we do not have enough wisdom and technology to really conquer the sea of stars that we both love and hate!
"The Supreme Emperor once tried to unify the sea of stars, but his empire collapsed abruptly in only a thousand years. Blackstar the Great also wanted to unify the sea of stars, but his empire has become as hopeless as it is today after a thousand years. I thought that I could save the empire, and I even saw the hope of success. I did not expect that … it would still be the same.
"Perhaps the sea of stars should never have been unified, and it is the best form of the civilization of mankind to be divided into dozens or even hundreds of small countries? However, hehe, the hundreds of small countries will certainly not be satisfied with the status quo. Their leaders will still be swallowed by their ambitions. They will still have friction with each other and raise new wars that are a hundred times fiercer!
"This is the destiny of the civilization of mankind. As an 'artificial civilization', we are destined to destroy everything since we were born, including our own. Nobody can change such a fate. I can't, His Majesty can't, the four Kurfürst families can't, and the hot-blooded, simple-minded reformists like you can't, either!"
Dongfang Wang's eyes were finally focused on Li Yao, clear enough to recognize Li Yao's identity.
"Even if you can ruin my reputation, kill me, and even annihilate the four Kurfürst families so that the reformists can control the Imperium, so what? This is only the first step in a journey of ten thousand miles, a small step that is not worth mentioning! "
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