"Rats have their usages, and scum have their usages."
Li Wuji continued teaching his adjutant, who was also his half-disciple, patiently, "Space pirates are unpredictable and unpredictable, but they can cause tremendous harassment and damage. They are like annoying flies humming next to one's ears all day long. They are quite a drain on one's energy.
"You may not be able to annihilate those rats and scumbags once and for all if you focus on hunting them. But as long as they hate you, they will find a loophole and seek revenge after ten years.
"Think about it. If such people are recruited by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists, how much trouble will they be when they are armed and upgraded with tremendous resources?
"Therefore, the 'National Protection Army' is not necessarily intended for their distinguished performance. It will be worthwhile even if it is only to prevent them from taking the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists' side.
"Besides, those scoundrels are also good at certain things that the regular army is not good at and cannot do because of their identity. If they are used well, they may prove to be an unexpected troop. In the war between the four Kurfürst families and the reformists right now, and in the competition to determine the position of the four families in the future, including the position of your father's and mine in the Li family, they may be of use to us!
"Using the family's resources in exchange for their loyalty to us, no matter how much of this loyalty is mixed with water, we will not lose out.
"Also, I do think highly of the guy surnamed Bai. I feel that he is different from common space pirates. How about it? Have you found anything on the investigation of his identity?"
"Not yet."
The adjutant shook his head and said, "His identity is too mysterious. I've searched the official databases of dozens of Sectors, but there is no information about such an expert at all. He seems to have popped up from a crack."
"Well, it can't be helped."
Li Wuji said, "The peripheral worlds of the Imperium have always been such a mess. There is no order at all. Even the strongest families of the Immortal Cultivators can be annihilated easily. Everybody is killed. Those who are not killed have fled to the depths of the sea of stars, leaving no trace behind, as if they never existed.
"However, I've carefully studied many of his battle examples, and I smell a hint of the regular army in his tactical style. This is enough to prove that he is very likely related to the army in some way. Perhaps his father was a soldier? All in all, he was neither from a family of space pirates nor from the reformists. He was naturally on our side.
"Boss Bai can't be his real name, and his hideous appearance must've been carefully designed. But that's not important. At least so far, I can't find any reason for him to betray me. Standing on our side is his best choice. He's not crazy enough to piss off the reformists and the four families at the same time, is he? Hahahaha! "
"The Marquis is right."
The adjutant said, "Whatever his identity was in the past, now that he has helped us to clean up the Blue Sky Market, he has completely broken off his relationship with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists. He can only stand on my lord's side and be my lord's loyal dog!"
"Yes, it does make sense, but I won't completely trust him."
Li Wuji said, "I've also planted some spies in the twenty-nine pirate gangs that make up the 'National Protection Army'. Also, didn't I leave half of the fleet under the command of the Bai guy to monitor the 'supervisors' of the Bai guy? If he dares to do anything wrong in the conquest of the Seven Seas Grand Market, the supervisors and the spies in the pirate gangs will naturally teach him the meaning of 'loyalty'.
"My plan is absolutely flawless. What's there to be worried about?"
The adjutant nodded and refilled Li Wuji's cup.
"Right —"
Sipping the hot tea, Li Wuji suddenly asked, "How's the intelligence work on the Cultivators going? The Cultivators have caused a lot of trouble at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium recently. A lot of information has been sent over from quite a few intelligence channels. Even the Bai guy told me a lot just now. It's not a big deal if it's not painful or itchy, but it can be quite troublesome when it itches at a critical moment."
"The fleet of the Cultivators attacked the seven military warehouses in the Rouge Space Zone half a month ago. After looting tremendous assets, they vanished without a trace."
The adjutant said, "There's no telling whether they are conserving their strength and upgrading their warships with our military assets in preparation for another big operation, or the worst possibility is that they have really been roped in by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.
"In my opinion, the regular Cultivators are really nothing. They are just a bunch of mobsters who cannot withstand a single blow. However, the 'A Boxing Champion' Lei Zonglie is indeed a very dangerous person, even more dangerous than the shameless Boss Bai."
"Yes. The 'A Boxing Champion' Lei Zonglie escaped from the Land of Sins of the Martial Meritocrats Sector. If we get to the bottom of it, isn't it the fault of the goddamn Li Lingfeng?"
After a long sigh, Li Wuji said, "The brother and sister are truly interesting. The elder brother created the Land of Sins and the slaughter stream. After a lot of live streams, he streamed the magnificent scenes of the Cultivators on a killing spree in front of all the people of the Imperium. Not only did he humiliate all the Immortal Cultivators, but he also let go of the defeated Cultivators of Starlight. As a result, the tides of Cultivators in the entire Imperium have been surging in the past year. Even many Immortal Cultivators felt that their beliefs were collapsing after watching the collapse of Manjusaka on the live stream.
"The younger sister is even more 'amazing'. She has turned from the queen of the Imperium into the leader of the reformists and the temporary governor of the Imperium. She is about to swallow the family in turn. The Li family has truly suffered a heavy blow. Otherwise, we wouldn't have had to recruit those flies, bugs, and rats.
"Have the brother and sister been sent by the heavens to punish the Li family?"
The topic was too sensitive. Even though Li Lingfeng was dead and Li Linghai had betrayed the Imperium, there were a lot of things that Li Wuji could say that the adjutant could not. He could only chuckle in agreement.
"Forget it. You can go now. Ask the captain and the rest of them to perform a space jump when they reach the designated stable space zone. I'm going to take a nap. Don't wake me up."
Li Wuji adjusted his seat, changing it from a hard solid to a soft couch that was as soft as gel, before he lay down.
The adjutant stealthily packed up the tea set and retreated.
On his flagship, Li Wuji was soon relaxed. He forgot his displeasure when he pretended to be nice to the space pirates, but he was dwelling in new troubles while he was half asleep.
It was not the Cultivators' problem.
Even if a bandit such as "A Boxing Champion" Lei Zonglie emerged among the Cultivators, they would not be much of a problem in front of the formidable Imperium even if they were ten times stronger.
It was not even the reformists or the Holy League, either.
The reformists were too shallow after all. What could they do even if they seized the capital?
In the past five hundred years, with the rise of the four Kurfürst families, the heart of the Imperium had been beating slower and slower. The fall of the capital was more symbolic than practical.
Of course, the Empyreal Terminus Sector where the capital was located was a unique hub for space jumps. Losing it would cause trouble for the four Kurfürst families to communicate with each other and gather their fleets, but nothing more than that.
As for the Holy League, it had been completely crippled in the great expedition in the past twenty years. It was even less of a problem.
What Li Wuji was vaguely worried about was the internal affairs of the four families.
The four families were both friends and foes. It was especially so before the coronation of a new emperor. The competition for the election of the new emperor was even more bloody. One moment of carelessness, and several families would suffer great losses.
Li Linghai, queen of the Imperium, had been through such a competition in person. That was why she was bold enough to kill Emperor Shenwu first despite universal condemnation and hit the critical spots of the four families precisely.
Li Linghai wanted the four families to be in chaos because of the choice of the new emperor. It was an open scheme without any disguise.
However, Li Wuji discovered, to his sorrow, that there was nothing they could do even though they had seen through the scheme. They could only bite each other when they had to.
"If the four families could be united, the Holy League, the reformists, the space pirates, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, and the Cultivators would've been annihilated a long time ago. We wouldn't have been reduced to such a mess today."
Li Wuji thought to himself regretfully, "It's a pity that every man for himself will be destroyed by the devil. The people of the four families understand that too well!"
Such concerns for the country and the people only hovered in his head for a moment.
Ever since the words "every man for himself, and the devil takes the hindmost" popped out, he had been racking his brains to think about his future interests.
Twenty-nine space pirates had been recruited by him. If the battle of the Seven Seas Grand Market went well, more space pirates would certainly join him. It was a force that could not be underestimated. If he could completely grasp them …
The capital had been occupied by the reformists. A lot of elders had been killed, and a lot of vacancies had appeared. Everybody wanted to take a step forward, and he seemed to have a very good chance …
After Li Linghai's betrayal, the Li family's influence plummeted. Now that the election of the new emperor was decided, they would certainly have nothing to do with it. Then, which of the puppets proposed by the other three families was most likely to be the next emperor would have to be determined in advance in order to place all the chips on the eventual winner …
While thinking, Li Wuji fell into a deep sleep.
The microchips inside the soft couch sensed the changes of his physiological parameters and automatically adjusted themselves to the sleep protection mode. The gel became softer and gradually enshrouded him. In such a way, the discomfort of the space jump would be eased.
Li Wuji had been through countless space jumps. Also, his personal chamber had been modified at a tremendous cost. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling had all been embedded with buffer and stabilization rune arrays. Even when he was performing a space jump, there would not be strong waves that would affect his thinking and rest.
However, not long after he fell asleep, or even just a few seconds later, he heard a deafening boom. It was as if the whole world had been turned upside down, and he was shaken out of the soft gel bed.
"This is —"
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