Jin Yuyan finished his words coldly, and the atmosphere on the spot became rather awkward.
Puffing his cheeks, Li Yao thought for a long time like a pufferfish that had surfaced on the surface of the water. Finally, he surrendered and said, "It does seem … difficult to explain. Or rather, I can come up with ten thousand explanations, but every one of them seems to be insulting your wisdom. So, can we ignore the unimportant details for now and work together against the enemy in good faith?"
"What do you think?"
Jin Yuyan said, "I've just been betrayed by my wife and my most trusted subordinate, and I've turned into such an androgynous appearance. If you can't even tell me your identity and your purpose, how can I cooperate with you?"
"Fair enough."
Li Yao sighed and took out a glittering jade chip that was engraved with dragons and phoenixes. He gave it to Jin Yuyan and said, "Seeing is believing. As for my real identity, please take a look for yourself, Director Jin!"
"This is …"
Narrowing his eyes, Jin Yuyan's face turned solemn and weird. He took Li Yao's jade chip with both hands and rubbed it softly in his palms. The more he touched it, the more surprised he was. Sweat the size of beans was rolling down from his forehead nonstop.
"Since you've been in charge of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors for so many years, I believe that you must be a knowledgeable man with keen eyes. You should be able to tell what this item is."
Li Yao closed his hands and sighed. With a gloomy face, he said gloomily, "This item hasn't appeared at the center of the cosmos for a thousand years."
Jin Yuyan glanced at Li Yao in disbelief and then observed the jade chip in his hands carefully.
As expected, he was a business tyrant who had traveled extensively and seen a lot of things. He actually knew how to activate this item. He formed a seal with his hands that slowly bloomed like a lotus flower and bound his vitality magnetic field into a unique unlocking form. Then, the top half of the jade scroll bloomed in all directions.
Then, a stream of brilliance that contained infinite brilliance flooded out like a glittering spring, soaking the whole warehouse in the vastness of stars. Among the infinite brilliance, the most glamorous silver lines were drawn nonstop. The lines interweaved with each other and eventually turned into a complicated, magnificent seal.
Although it was just an illusionary stamp of light and shadow, Jin Yuyan was almost dumbfounded as if a whole planet had been enshrouded.
"This is … the Cosmic Seal! It is the seal of the Star Ocean Imperium that has been passed on since the Star Ocean Imperium and was taken away by Firefly when the Star Ocean Republic collapsed! "
Jin Yuyan's voice was shivering. The thousands of streams of information inside the seal congregated into a surging torrent and flooded into his brain, allowing a magnificent, solemn voice to echo inside his head. "Li Yao is hereby appointed as the special representative of the Speaker of the Star Ocean Republic …"
The voice announced almost twenty high, awe-inspiring positions and titles in a row. All in all, it sounded like Li Yao was basically an agent of all the leadership positions of the Star Ocean Republic and fully responsible for the diplomacy, trade, and even war between the Star Ocean Republic and the Imperium of True Human Beings.
All in all, endorsed by the Cosmic Seal, Li Yao was the embodiment of the Star Ocean Republic!
"You are a Cultivator, a survivor of the previous dynasty who escaped from the center of the cosmos a thousand years ago?"
Jin Yuyan did not expect Li Yao to have such an identity at all. It was truly a shock for him. He browsed through the jade chip for a long time and even released his soul to examine the remaining power inside the Cosmic Seal. Then, he scanned the soul signature left on the official document dozens of times, but he still found it hard to believe.
"Old Jin, there's no need to be so cautious. A survivor of the previous dynasty is not a very honorable identity. Do I have to make such a lie?"
With a bitter smile, Li Yao said, "In fact, I've always kept a low profile. I really don't want to bluff people with such things unless it is absolutely necessary. Just now, I said that everybody ignored the details, but you were too narrow-minded and paranoid to believe me. Having no other choice, I revealed my real identity. Look at the jade chip that is branded with the Cosmic Seal. Can such a document be forged in advance? "Also, when I just came to the Imperium, I happened to land in the Martial Meritocrats Sector and blew up the so-called 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' by the way. Yes, the mysterious Cultivator who went on a killing spree in front of all the netizens of the Imperium was me. I really don't want to talk about such trivia. Really, it will seem like I'm bragging if I talk about it. But you just don't believe me. What can I do?"
"It was you!"
Jin Yuyan stood up all of a sudden, his voice shivering. "It was you who blew up 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' on your own and completely sabotaged the slaughter stream!"
Li Yao sighed again and said helplessly, "Yes, it was me who did it. Now, all my trump cards have been exposed … Huh, Director Jin, why do you look so awful? You can't be so principled that you will fight to the death the moment you see a Cultivator, can you?"
"Not exactly. I don't hate the Cultivators any more than other Immortal Cultivators do."
Narrowing his eyes, Jin Yuyan said, one word after another, "However, during the construction of 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', Wuying Lan borrowed more than three billion from the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in total. It was one of the few largest loans that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors has ever given to the outside world."
Li Yao: "…"
Jin Yuyan: "Also, regarding Wuying Lan's' slaughter stream ', I personally have high hopes for it. I believe that it is an excellent project that can both make money in the long term and promote our ideas. Therefore, I have invested more than three hundred million in it from my personal venture capital platform,' Gold and Jade Investment Group '. It's all money from my own pocket and has nothing to do with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors."
Li Yao: "…"
Jin Yuyan: "Also, some of the very talented experts of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that we have raised with tremendous resources have been sent to 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' to work on the cutting-edge magical equipment projects together with Wuying Lan's team. We intended to develop a lot of cutting-edge magical equipment to help the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors rise in the future. As it turned out, those experts were all killed abruptly, which greatly damaged the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in the field of weapons development. There's no telling whether or not we can raise a new team of experts in the next twenty years."
Li Yao: "Well, Old Jin, if I say that I was bragging right now, and that the things in 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' were not done by me at all, and that I was just bragging and demonstrating my capabilities just now, well, it doesn't seem very convincing, does it?"
Jin Yuyan nodded slowly. "It is indeed not very convincing."
Li Yao: "Think on the bright side. Even if I didn't destroy 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', your investment and your team of experts would still be there. Wouldn't your wife and her lover take advantage of you right now? Instead of your most vicious wife and her lover, you might as well take advantage of me, a Cultivator. Although I am a Cultivator, I did not cheat on you. Look, don't you feel much better now that you think about it in such a way? "
Jin Yuyan: "… I swear to all the gods in the universe that as long as you say one more word, I will fight a shameless scoundrel like you without caring about my future, my career, my beliefs, and my beliefs!"
"Don't, don't, don't be rash, Old Jin. Let's talk nicely. Isn't it just money?"
Li Yao hurried to surrender. "The Star Ocean Republic has nothing except money. Calm down. You must calm down. Everything can be negotiated. I'll double your losses for you. Let's talk. Let's calm down and talk!"
Money was the best sedative. It restored Jin Yuyan's reddened, infuriated state to the calmness that was as frozen as ice all of a sudden.
He stared at Li Yao for a long time before he said, "Why is a Cultivator, and a special representative of the remnants of the Star Ocean Republic, sneaking back to the Imperium at such a turbulent and unpredictable time?"
"We mean no harm. We just want to go home."
Li Yao raised his hands high. His face was as sacred and sincere as a baby's again, and his voice was mellow and gentle, mixed with vicissitudes, tiredness, and infinite love for his home. "Since we escaped from the center of the cosmos a thousand years ago, Firefly has been drifting in the boundless, dark, and cold universe for too long. Our starship has been in disrepair for a long time, and our resources are severely lacking. Our people are tired of the endless escape and exploration.
"The road ahead is bleak, and there is no hope at all. Even the firmest belief has been worn out by the disappointments year after year and day after day. Right now, we only want to go home. We only want to find a tiny place to live in our old home.
"After all, we have fought for the Star Ocean Republic for a thousand years. No matter how loyal our ancestors were to the country that should've perished a long time ago, we, the descendants, have tried our best. It is not embarrassing to surrender after a thousand years of resistance, is it?
"However, we do not know the Imperium of True Human Beings' attitude toward the — well, the refugees of the previous dynasty. Is it determined to annihilate us without any room for compromise, or is it possible to negotiate and make a certain deal under certain conditions to allow us to return to the center of the cosmos?
"Therefore, as a special representative of the Star Ocean Republic, I snuck back to the Imperium on my own to investigate the situation in the Imperium and the stance of the authorities. Of course, it would be best if I could reach out to the leadership of the authorities who were influential."
"That explains a lot. After struggling for a thousand years, you have finally found that there is no way to retreat, and you still want to turn around and surrender?"
Jin Yuyan sneered. "It seems that the beliefs of the Cultivators are just a disguise to deceive other people."
"The darkness and cruelty at the edge of the cosmos are beyond your imagination."
Li Yao said calmly, "In the thousand years after we left the Imperium, too many indescribable things happened on Firefly. Even our beliefs have undergone … major changes. We are even able to view problems from the perspective of the Immortal Cultivators now."
"No wonder you reached out to Li Linghai. You must've thought that Li Linghai, as a reformist, was more likely to be tolerant of the Cultivators than the four Kurfürst families. If the reformists could control the politics of the Imperium, you would have a chance to go home or even occupy a place in the politics of the Imperium in the future, right?"
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