Li Yao understood what the mental devil meant.
For a 'quasi-bee civilization' such as the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, cutting off one of their external limbs, destroying one of their enormous fleets, or even occupying dozens of their Sectors would not hurt their foundation. Their morale and resistance would not be damaged at all. They would truly be able to 'fight to the last soldier'.
However, the greatest weakness of a civilization was their "queen bee", or "mastermind". For the Holy League, they were five mysterious and omnipresent Ultimate Benevolence Masters.
Most people of the Holy League could not think independently and could only carry out the orders of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters mechanically. Then, if somebody could alter the orders of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, or even corrupt and kill them, the seemingly enormous swarm might collapse instantly and be obliterated.
That was exactly why Li Yao invaded the Holy League.
That was why the "heretics" bred within the Holy League were so threatening.
To prevent the "mastermind" and the mental network that it spread out from the mastermind from being attacked, the Inquisition had become one of the most important organs of the Holy League. Its position was even higher than the regular army of the Holy League and the "Blessed Army" that had been fighting the Imperium's army for a thousand years.
Li Yao read the files that the mental devil transmitted to him carefully.
"You said that this fortress of God's Punishment is the nest of the Purgers and the Sweepers. I already know the Purgers. What are the Sweepers?"
Li Yao asked.
"The Purgers and the Sweepers are both the main battle units under the command of the Inquisition, but their targets are different."
The mental devil explained, "The Purgers are mainly targeting 'objects'. Like what we saw in New Joy City on Planet Black Castle, they target the goods and artworks from the Imperium that contain the intense feelings and desires of human beings. They classify, purge, destroy, or recycle those objects.
"The targets of the Sweepers, on the other hand, are not 'objects' but 'people'. They are the guys who have been corrupted by monsters and turned into 'devils' or even 'heretics'. They are all the targets that the Sweepers have to deal with.
"In terms of degree and means, the Cleaners are more serious and ruthless than the Purgers. Just from the names of the two, you can imagine that the Purgers are still salvageable. They only need to be purified, and they can be recycled. The Cleaners, on the other hand, mean that they have been deeply corrupted and can no longer be saved. They can only be completely wiped out, burned to ashes, and 'cleaned' like garbage.
"Therefore, the Sweepers are a special class that is a hundred times more terrifying than the Purgers. Their daily job is to capture and annihilate the devils, the heretics, and the guys who flee from the Imperium. They are absolutely different from the Purgers, who are essentially garbage collectors. The Sweepers are the real elite troops. Not only are they the Inquisition of Heresy, they are also the strongest single combat unit in the entire Holy League. Also, they are best at quick reactions, team assaults, anti-infiltration, and anti-assassination operations. All in all, they are like the white blood cells in the blood that devour germs mercilessly.
"However, you don't have to worry too much. Right now, the Sweepers are focused on the heretics that are rising again and getting more and more powerful. Besides, they did not expect that we would turn into such a weird life form and continue lurking inside the Holy League boldly. They thought that we had run away a long time ago. Therefore, for the time being, the Sweepers do not have any plans to capture us. We can still take some minor actions right under their nose without alarming anyone."
"Interesting."
Li Yao's soul extended its tentacles and absorbed the intelligence of the Inquisition and the Sweepers greedily like an octopus.
Although the mental devil did not dig deeply into the core data of the God's Punishment Fortress because it did not want to act recklessly, the surface data flowing on the Spiritual Nexus was enough for Li Yao to get a basic understanding of the most elite investigation and destruction organization inside the Holy League.
"The Sweepers are the key."
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "Since the organization is the strongest combat unit under the Inquisition of Heresy, and it is responsible for such a sensitive job as capturing heretics, it must be possible for us to get in touch with the Ultimate Benevolence Masters. If we can infiltrate the Sweepers, won't we be able to locate the Ultimate Benevolence Masters and even figure out the secrets behind the Holy League?
"Right. I vaguely have a feeling that the heretic society that has risen from the ashes is of great research value. Have you found any relevant files? Ah, 'Divine Heart Society'. Is it this one? "
Li Yao was quite lucky.
The debris of the mainframe crystal processor that he had been hiding in was from the large mobile laboratory of the Devil Child Project.
The purpose of the Devil Child Project at the beginning was to study the gene provider of Zhou Xiuyun and Chu Zhiyun, who was the "evilest heretic" and the founder of the Divine Heart Society a hundred years ago.
Therefore, tremendous files about the Divine Heart Society and other heretic societies were stored in the debris of the broken crystal processor. Li Yao did not even need to risk infiltrating the Spiritual Nexus and the crystal processors nearby. He only needed to read the information inside the debris to gain a basic understanding of the origins of the heretics and the rise, destruction, and re-rise of the Divine Heart Society.
In the past thousand years, ever since Blackstar the Great activated the man-manufacturing factory at the edge of the cosmos that had been sealed for hundreds of thousands of years, the abnormal country known as the Alliance of the Holy Covenant had been proliferating at an unbelievable speed. Very soon, it occupied almost a hundred desolate and barren Sectors at the edge of the cosmos.
The desolation, hardship, and boredom that were unbearable for normal human beings were like fish in water for the people of the Holy League.
It was because they did not care about the environment at all, nor did they enjoy any pleasure. Their lives were extremely simple, and every drop of resources was absorbed efficiently.
Habitable planets were not of much significance for them. Most of the people of the Holy League lived — no, lived on starships. They were much more internet-oriented than the Federation and the Imperium.
The typical way of life of the people of the Holy League was very simple. They built synthetic farms on a large scale on the habitable planets. Because they did not need to consider the taste of the food and could use abundant hormones blatantly, the unit output of the farms was very high. Even the barren planets with harsh environments could still support a large population.
The population was then sent to the depths of the planets to excavate the mother lodes and the raw materials of crystals, as well as the primeval relics from hundreds of thousands of years ago.
All the metals and crystals that were excavated were refined into new starships with the technology in the primeval relics. When the starships were assembled into a new fleet, they would be launched to a new Sector and repeat the process.
There was no entertainment, no art, and no desire, so there was no internal friction. When it was necessary, they could work for ten days and ten nights without any expression, injecting hormones and excitants into their almost dry veins until their last drop of life was squeezed out and they collapsed in the pit. They would never complain at all like their counterparts in the Imperium.
When they were not working, they would sit in their resting rooms that were not much bigger than coffins dutifully, keeping their heartbeats, breaths, and pulses to the minimum to reduce the consumption of energy.
Sometimes, when a resource planet was completely emptied, and the transfer of the local workers would consume too many resources that could not be compared to the value that they could create in the future, the 'worker bees' would be abandoned mercilessly. When the last bit of oxygen ran out under the artificial dome of the resource planet, they would not have the slightest fear about the death that was about to drown them.
It was exactly with such a cold and efficient social organization system, as well as the 'worker bees' and the 'soldier bees' that the Alliance of the Holy Covenant was able to compete with the Imperium of True Human Beings, which was at the center of the cosmos and boasted abundant resources and endless experts, with a barren world in a corner of the cosmos as an equal, and even vaguely at an advantage.
However, when a small country fought a big country, if it could not win the battle quickly, it would always be faced with the shadow of failure no matter how glamorous the victory at the beginning was.
Lei Chenghu, 'God of War' of the Imperium of True Human Beings, had once analyzed the two most fatal problems of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant. First of all, their foundation was too small and weak for them to last. More importantly, as a 'quasi-bee civilization', they lacked enough creativity. Most of the people of the Holy Covenant did not have any initiative or creativity at all. They only knew how to follow the instructions of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters. How could they possibly create new technologies?
They could only excavate the relics of the primeval civilizations from hundreds of thousands of years ago to make up for the lack of technological progress.
However, there was always a limit to the excavation of relics. If the primeval relics could solve all the problems, they could only excavate more relics in the territory of the Imperium of True Human Beings at the center of the cosmos!
After a thousand years of competition, the Alliance of the Holy Covenant today had reached the end of its development. On one hand, all the resources at the edge of the cosmos had been looted by them to build an invincible fleet that had reached the peak of its combat ability. On the other hand, almost all the habitable planets and resource planets had been reduced to zero, and they had to rest for hundreds of years before they could reap the resources again.
In other words, the Holy Covenant had put all the chips on the table and was about to take a wild gamble.
The strategic retreat of the Holy Covenant in the Imperium's counterattack was exactly for that purpose — a strategic final battle with the Imperium.
It was the judgment of 'God of War' Lei Chenghu a few years ago, which coincided with the intelligence that Li Yao received today. Li Yao could not help but marvel at Lei Chenghu's strategic vision.
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