Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 2435

Chapter 2435: Total Collapse

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Before the reformists’ shouting came to an end, dozens of flying swords had already darted out of the positions of the Kurfürsten’s army and shot at the heavy tractors that had been boarded with gigantic broadcast rune arrays.

The blast raised by the flying swords turned into visible helical pillars of air as they rushed close like burning stars.

Thankfully, the tractors all carried sturdy defense systems, which condensed glowing spiritual shields in front of the line in time. The powerful airwaves they unleashed voluntarily minced the flying swords into pieces or deviated them from the course.

In the next second, a hoarse voice echoed from the position of the Kurfürsten’s army, too. The man cried like a pig about to be butchered, “Brothers, don’t believe the bulls*it of those rebels. As long as we persist for another couple of days, five days at most, the main forces of the four Kurfürsten will certainly arrive in our reinforcement and slay all the worthless rebels!

“Hang in there! Just hang in there! Whoever persists in fighting without retreating for a couple of days—no, for only twenty-four hours, will be rewarded with a hundred kilograms of crystals of the highest quality. Their citizen ranks will also be increased by three levels. Three levels!”

After the shouting of the hoarse voice, the slightly damaged morale of the Kurfürsten’s army behind the forest of blades was more or less improved again.

Somebody sneered behind the positions of the reformists. His chuckle spread out across the entire battlefield through the broadcast rune arrays. “What ‘Kurfürsten’? They are all traitors who stole the places that they did not deserve. The Reform Committee of the Council of Elders represents the highest authority of the Imperium of True Human Beings. We will never admit any knighthood, military rank, or citizen level granted by the old Council of Elders and the four Kurfürst families. Not just an increment of three levels, even if you are improved by thirty levels, you will lose all your rights and end up as slaves and corpses if you are dogged enough to resist us!”

“Bulls*it! Bulls*it! Bulls*it!”

The hoarse voice burst into fury and roared, “What ‘Reform Committee of the Council of Elders’? You are just a bunch of regicidal, hypocritical rats. When the main forces of the four Kurfürsten arrive, all the rebels will be executed with their entire families. We will see who is being dogged and who will turn into slaves and corpses by then!

“Brothers, hold your position. This whole mountain has been armed to the teeth. Behind every rock is a crystal cannon and a firing point on our side. Those rebels are all untrained rookies. They haven’t broken in during the past half month, and they will not break in in another half month!

“The reinforcements of the four Kurfürsten are already on the way. The prodigious crystals, the rarely-seen Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, and the powerful magical equipment—the reinforcements are bringing them to you, as long as you can persist for another twenty-four hours!”

The reformists’ soundwave tractors were silent for a while, as if they were rendered speechless by what the commander of the Kurfürsten’s army said.

But only three minutes later, another voice that was full of mockery and anger echoed again. While it was not as loud as the previous voice, it was well-oriented and very aggressive. “Song Hongchang, stop your bragging. You are still bulls*itting and trying to deceive more people to die for you when things have gone so far?

“Brothers of the Kurfürsten’s army, your commander in this battle area is Song Hongchang, the leader of the ‘Furious Tide Sect’ and a direct descendant of the Song family, right? Let me tell you, you’ve all been tricked by him! Very badly!

“My name is Zhao Guanglong. I used to be a family warrior of the Song family and the deputy director of the Furious Tide Sector. Many brothers here probably know me. If you don’t, ask those around you, and some of them must’ve heard of my name before. You’ll know that Zhao Guanglong is a real person, not someone invented by the reformists!

“I swear that in the past week, I saw with my own eyes that Song Hongchang pushed the disciples of the Furious Tide Sector, as well as the brothers here, to the frontline to be killed, while he secretly sent his family to the starships to escape from this place. Not just his wife and his sons, even his mistress has been sent away by him!

“Did those people leave emptyhandedly? Of course not! They brought all kinds of crystals, magical equipment, and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Some of them were earned through scams in the past decades, and some were looted by him during the past month when other people were in trouble. The worth of his wealth was astronomical, and his wife, his children, and his mistress brought all of it away without leaving a single crystal for you!

“He claims that the reinforcements of the Kurfürsten will arrive if you persist for a couple of days? Hahahaha. That’s bulls*it! There won’t be any reinforcements, at least not in the next month! Right now, the four Kurfürsten are busy nominating a ‘new emperor’. They are bickering with each other hard. Who cares about you?

“Song Hongchang clearly had crystals and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in his pocket, but he refused to award you and lied to you that reinforcements would arrive with tremendous assets in a couple of days? The truth is that he is just deceiving you into persisting for another twenty-four hours because he will find an excuse to slip away in twelve hours at most!

“By then, he will continue his luxury life at the edge of the Imperium with the wealth that he exploited from you. He may continue serving as a noble or a commander under the so-called ‘new emperor’. But the poor cannon fodder like you would have been rotten into nothingness by then!

“Brothers, I used to be a family warrior and a trusted subordinate of the Song family, which is why I know all the clandestine things he has done. I could’ve totally left with Song Hongchang, but it would be too unbrotherly. I would not deserve the brothers here and the real Imperium!

“That’s why I abandoned the darkness and joined the reformists, siding with justice and loyalty, to reveal the hideous face of Song Hongchang for you.

“The corrupt scoundrel Song Hongchang is a representative of all the big nobles. Brothers, what are you thinking exactly? Are you really going to die for those insatiable, selfish animals?”

The few words were as powerful as three hundred crystal bombs. The frontline of the Kurfürsten’s army was seething, and the morale that had just been condensed collapsed again.

The hoarse voice was panicked and did not reply until after a long daze, “Zhao Guanglong, you traitor, spy, shameless scoundrel! This is shameless slander!

“It was you who intended to escape from this place by slipping on a starship after you stole tremendous military assets if you were not caught by me.

“You kneeled before me and cried hard, claiming that you did a stupid thing in your confusion. Considering that you were a family warrior that had been following me since little, I spared you and hoped that you could correct your mistake by making greater contributions.

“I did not know that you would be so shameless as to join the regicidal rebels during the chaos or to come up with such asinine, flawed lies!

“Brothers, don’t be fooled by him. It is absolutely untrue and ungrounded! I swear to live and die with the position. I swear to fight side by side with the brothers here until the end!”

“Is that so? Then, it’s simple!”

Zhang Guanglong chuckled on the reformists’ side and shrieked, “We’ll know if it is true when you let your wife and your sons stand before us! Song Hongchang, your eldest son is 27 years old and an Immortal Cultivator in the Building Foundation Stage. Right now, everybody is fighting fiercely in the frontline, and countless fellow Cultivators have died miserable deaths, but where is your eldest son? Is he having a great time somewhere else?

“Come on, let your eldest son stand out. As long as he appears in the position here and now, I’ll cut my head off and give it to you!”

After hearing that, the positions of the Kurfürsten’s army fell into dead silence.

The hoarse voice was silent for a long time before the man shouted in fury and helplessness, “Zhang Guanglong, you were a family warrior of the Song family. How disloyal and unfaithful you are!”

“Damn you!”

Hardly had he concluded his sentence when Zhang Guanglong on the reformists’ side spat hard and interrupted his former master without any mercy. “I am a valid Immortal Cultivator and a defender of the Imperium of True Human Beings and the civilization of mankind. I am only loyal to the Imperium, to the queen, to the real His Majesty, and to the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders. Who is your family warrior? Are you even qualified to demand the loyalty and faith of an honorable warrior of the Imperium?

“Brothers of the illegitimate Kurfürsten’s army, have you seen the ugly faces of the big nobles? However hard you work and fight, and however loyal you are to them, you are just a dog, a servant, or a family warrior at best in their eyes!

“Is that what you want? Is that the fate of your life that you are unwilling to change? I truly feel sorry for you!”

The specialist of mental attacks on the reformists’ side who spoke first chimed in, “All the brothers of the illegitimate Kurfürsten’s army, now is the last opportunity for your ‘battlefield uprising’. Rising up will be different from being captured and even more different from being killed!

“Wake up and resist. See clearly the real brightness and justice and join the great cause to renew the Imperium. Aim your weapons and blades at the nobles and the lords, especially Song Hongchang.

“Don’t let Song Hongchang get away!

“Don’t let Song Hongchang escape with the wealth that is supposed to be yours!

“Besides Song Hongchang, there are still countless other wretched nobles and lords in the city who have not escaped yet with their tremendous wealth. Come on and march into the city with us and keep the trophies to ourselves!”

The voices that were full of temptation and instigation found their ways into the ears of every soldier and every bottom-level officer in the Kurfürsten’s army like all-pervasive venom although the battlefield was mired in deafening noises, raising the most primitive hatred, the most scorching desires, and the darkest jealousy in the hearts of the low-level Immortal Cultivators.

Why could the big nobles escape on the starships openly, while they had to die in the damp trenches and the stinky fortresses like rats and cockroaches?

It remained to be seen whether or not the reformists could achieve what they wanted, but they would probably kill all the enemies on their way in their fury.

Everything would be gone after death!

Just like that, the positions that the Kurfürsten’s army had defended for more than half a month finally had thousands of cracks and collapsed beyond control.

Chapter 2436: Loss of Unity!

The defense area where Song Hongchang, the leader of the “Furious Tide Sector”, was in charge was only one point on the prolonged defense line.

The reformists had long talked Zhang Guanglong, the deputy leader under his command, into surrender. They knew that the place was the weakest point on the defense line and therefore had deployed tremendous elite troops here.

The few rounds of charges just now were just disguises. At this moment, after Song Hongchang’s subordinates, particularly the disciples of the Furious Tide Sect, were swayed by the psychological attacks, and a lot of people were really having “battlefield uprisings” in their anger, the elites of the reformists leaped out, and launched the most determined assault!

The elites in the assault were mostly the pillars of the Deep Sea Fleet and the few veterans in the Imperial Guards, or the unaffiliated Immortal Cultivators who had bloody grudges against the four Kurfürst families. They were certainly incomparable for the rookie troops that attacked just now.

Like a burning wolf fang, they pierced through the defense line immediately.

The Kurfürsten’s army that had been penetrated through completely lost the fighting will. Collapses and chaos were spreading out like a chain reaction in a crystal bomb.

Under the leadership of the bottom-level officers, countless regular soldiers in the Kurfürsten’s army were really aiming their blades and barrels at the middle- and high-level commanders.

Song Hongchang, the highest commander in the defense area, immediately turned into a rat that everyone stomped on from a magnificent general a moment ago.

“Song Hongchang is caught! Song Hongchang is caught!”

Cheers that might or might not be true echoed on the battlefield. The flags of the four Kurfürst families’ old Imperium were shaking under the bombardment, only to be torn into shreds and burnt into ashes a moment later.

A new flag of the reformists’ Imperium replaced them and rose on the battlefield. On the flag, the furious flames were licking the sky and the earth!

Li Yao and his companions certainly would not let go of such a great opportunity. Mixed in the overwhelming “avalanche”, they marched in and passed through the defense area of the Kurfürsten’s army.

The whole defense line of the Kurfürsten’s army was almost a hundred kilometers long and dozens of kilometers thick. Song Hongchang was only responsible for one section on it. Even though it was collapsing, the process had not been completed yet.

In many trenches and fortresses, face-to-face shooting or melee combats were still going on, but the battle was apparently one-sided.

The reformists were pushing forward unstoppably, and the warriors were like invincible lunatics. The Kurfürsten’s army, on the other hand, had been devastated. Many troops were dispersing or kneeling to surrender the moment they were engaged with the enemy. Some of them even pointed their blades and weapons at their commander the moment they saw the flag of the reformists, having a “battlefield uprising”.

Moving forward quickly and observing the battle, Li Yao had a lot of mixed feelings.

The minor city battle in front of him was exactly the epitome of the big picture of the Imperium today.

In terms of comprehensive capability, the number of soldiers, and the average quality of soldiers, the Kurfürsten’s army was apparently higher than the reformists. The Imperial Guards, as the main force of the reformists, had never been through any bloody and fierce battles for hundreds of years. They did not have the combat abilities that deserved their equipment.

However, the biggest difference between the two parties was their “belief”.

Belief was something that everybody always talked about but might not be able to explain if pursued. It was just an intangible, philosophical concept.

In Li Yao’s eyes, the belief was very simple. It was just the ideology that one had full faith in.

Only when a trainer had belief could there be a direction for their strength to advance. In the meantime, an army made of countless trainers could only carry out 100% of their combat ability if they had a solid belief.

The Kurfürsten’s army, however strong on paper and however magnificent and splendid it looked, was essentially a traditional, underdeveloped, and corrupt army.

The leaders of the army were selfish, insatiable, and devoid of shame and morals. They could sell their country for their families, or sell their families for themselves. Belief, ideology, and faith were nothing but a skin they used to earn personal interests. Nobody took it seriously.

As for the underclass, they were either deceived by their “skin”, bought over with petty benefits and conspired with the upper class, or were coerced into working for the upper class by violence against their own wish.

In such an obsolete army, no matter how strong the experts were, how vast the territory was, and how many starships and soldiers they had, it was just a tray of loose sand where everybody was rejective of each other!

The reformists, on the other hand, were different.

No matter how Li Yao despised Blackstar the Great’s character and hated his schemes, Li Yao had to admit that Wuying Qi, Li Linghai, and all the other reformists had their beliefs and were devoted to them.

At least 50% of the reformists were not fighting for their personal interests but for something of a higher level, for the new Imperium that they believed in.

This was a new army with beliefs. When encountering an old army without beliefs like the Kurfürsten’s army, it was inevitable that they would crush the enemy like rolling wheels.

No matter what high level one person was at and however strong their combat ability was, there had to be something that they believed in.

The Kurfürsten’s army was absolutely no match for the reformists. Perhaps only the federal army that had beliefs, and possibly even more firm ones, was capable of competing with the “new army” under Wuying Qi’s command.

A defeated army was like a falling mountain. At this moment, the whole defense line was like a mountain that was having an avalanche. It was slowly retreating in deafening noises.

Countless soldiers in the Kurfürsten’s army had chosen to kneel and surrender or have a “battlefield uprising”, but many other people who owed bloody debts or who had tremendous interests in their familial territories chose to flee back to the downtown of Netherwind City, hoping to grip a slim chance of survival and escape with a starship.

The soldiers and the bottom-level officers of the two parties in the fierce battle were all equipped with the standard crystal suits of the Imperium, except that the breastplate of the reformists had an additional emblem. Li Yao and his companions took off the emblem in secret and altered the mode of the identification system. After they were mixed in the messy, crushed soldiers who were all busy running, none of them paid any attention to the strangers at all.

Half an hour later, they entered the downtown of Netherwind City successfully.

This place, however, was another living hell that was probably even more bloody and horrible.

The news of the collapse of the defense line had been delivered. The order in the city that had been maintained by the big nobles through tyranny completely fell out. Everybody ran toward the Netherwind Channel desperately.

Their eyes bloodshot, they cried and waved their hands crazily, like hybrids of zombies and animals, fighting for the last opportunity of survival.

A lot of people who were thin and knew that they could never cram in a starship gave up their hope. They wandered on the street or squatted, looking at the sky and the surroundings in confusion, as if they were too overwhelmed to know why they were here or even who they were.

Li Yao saw countless such persons with his own eyes. Most of them were graceful, gorgeous women in fancy clothes, and some were old men who were obviously in power but had lost most of their strength due to old age.

Xiaoming and Wenwen even recognized a few very famous superstars through facial scanning.

“The few persons standing next to the street like zombies are in fact very awesome culture-type Immortal Cultivators. They are the big stars that every household of the family knows!”

Xiaoming and Wenwen said, “We didn’t know that even they wouldn’t have access to the starships.”

“Culture-type, admin-type, research-type, and creation-type people can only play their roles when society is in order.”

Looking at the pale, desperate stars, Li Yao sighed. “When the order collapses and the society is back to the bloody, dog-eat-dog jungle, the simplest violence will be the only strength!”

As he said, some of the big stars or powerful admin-type Immortal Cultivators, through sexual temptations, bribery, or heartfelt begging, pleaded with the battle-type Immortal Cultivators to lead them forward to the Netherwind Channel.

But the Immortal Cultivators simply kicked them away without any mercy. No matter how the faces were in the past and how the hands used to sign the great contracts in the past, they were absolutely useless right now.

Some of the weaker battle-type Immortal Cultivators, knowing that they certainly would not have a chance to board on a starship to evacuate from the place, simply made up their minds and joined each other into a mob, raiding and burning the city down while they roared the slogans of the reformists.

Now that they had made up their minds to not leave, the superstars and the big bosses who carried tremendous wealth with them naturally became their best prey. Before the troops of the reformists really entered Netherwind City, the whole city was already on fire and enshrouded in smoke. Screams, laughter, and the sounds of flesh being torn apart were echoing nonstop.

“I finally understand why Wuying Qi has spared Netherwind City for such a long time.”

Li Yao and Long Yangjun slew a team of mobsters who were bold enough to rob them. He said, “It is partly to train the troops, and partly because he hoped that Netherwind City would fall into a mess on its own.

“The spontaneous chaos in Netherwind City foreshadows what will happen in the territories of the four Kurfürst families. When one big noble retreats from the place easily, ninety-nine middle and low-level Immortal Cultivators will be left behind. Those people who have been ‘abandoned’, stirred by intense jealousy and hatred, will join the arms of the reformists without any hesitation and become the most hardcore reformists.

“Furthermore, when everything that happens here is broadcast to the entire universe, especially the territories of the four Kurfürst families, by Wuying Qi and Li Linghai in various ways, what will the middle- and low-level Immortal Cultivators in the territory think?

“A team can barely be called a team without unity. Wuying Qi surrounded Netherwind City for a whole month without attack just in order to strike the ‘unity’ of the four Kurfürst families!”

“But right now, the city has been conquered.”

Long Yangjun turned around and looked at the defense line at the edge of the city that had been rippled with holes. “We have to speed up. Otherwise, if a lot of nobles are gathered in the Netherwind Channel, only to discover that the starships are far from enough, they may destroy the starships if they do not have any hope of leaving!”

Chapter 2437: We’ll Go First!

As a matter of fact, it was what was going on right now.

After killing, burning, and looting for a while, a lot of the mobsters congregated into destructive torrents and flooded at the Netherwind Channel.

Perhaps it was because the big nobles were all gathered in the Netherwind Channel, and they intended to use the heads of the nobles as the stairs for them to rise on the reformists’ side.

Or maybe, they simply did not want the big nobles to escape but want them to end as miserably as themselves.

The order in the city was entirely gone. Li Yao and his companions struggled to move forward in blood, screams, flames, and explosions. They countered countless mobsters who were on a killing spree. Their eyes were all bloodshot; their faces twisted so hard that they were foaming as they killed and sabotaged everything that they saw.

Those people were no different from animals.

No, even the most brutal animals did not have the evilness that surrounded them.

“The ‘ecological equilibrium’ of the billions of devils deep inside their souls has been completely broken.”

Long Yangjun said, “In other words, those people have been devilized. In the meantime, the violent brainwaves that are being released by their souls that have completely gone out of control are likely to raise quakes and resonations, resulting in the loss of control of even more devils in people’s heads. This is an unexpected but very typical ‘arrival of devils’.

“Now you should understand that I did not lie to you, right? How can there be so many devils that come from the extraterrestrial lands? Most of the devils live inside the heads and hearts of human beings in the first place.”

“Mankind, our father, is truly incomprehensible.”

With the slaughters and brutality reflected in their eyes, Li Xiaoming and Li Wenwen sighed in confusion. “If the purpose is to preserve the whole as much as possible, shouldn’t some people sacrifice themselves in order for the rest of the people to evacuate in order?

“If the city falls into chaos before the enemy comes, and everybody has a war against everybody else around them, how many of them will be able to escape in the end?

“It’s just like all the threads under our control are built for the general purpose. As long as it is beneficial for the completion of the task, any thread can be sacrificed without any hesitation or resistance. They will never act on their own.”

“Perhaps that is the feature of mankind or any life.”

Lost for words, Li Yao thought for a long time and could only say, “If you accept that a brilliant, ever-evolving civilization can only be born if everybody has independent self-awareness, you must also accept that some of the people are selfish and not to be communicated with. It is the inseparable bright and dark sides of the civilization of mankind.

“If everybody is turned into something like a machine or a thread, they will certainly sacrifice themselves without any hesitation or even any complaint under such circumstances… But if you think about it more carefully, that may be an even more horrible picture!”

“You do have a point, Dad.”

The kids thought carefully for a while. “Keeping the variation of the individuals so that they can view and modify the material world in hundreds of different modes of thinking is perhaps beneficial for the whole civilization to survive in the cruel universe, but keeping the independence of the individuals will inevitably lead to what is happening right now. It is a price that has to be paid. We… We need to consider carefully before we find the solution to the dilemma.”

The consideration was for the future. Right now, they had to seize every second to arrive at the Netherwind Channel.

After taking care of quite a few teams of ferocious mobsters, everybody was stained with blood or even fresh human tissues on their crystal suits, which became the best warning. Few other mobsters were bold enough to take advantage of the team that seemed rather small in number and kept a distance from them while they marched to the entrance of the Netherwind Channel.

When they passed by the largest hospital in town, Li Yao slightly slowed down.

The hospital had been fully inhabited—no, crammed with heavily wounded soldiers who were covered in bandages.

Most of the wounded soldiers couldn’t have basic treatment. Not only were the medical cabins filled with nutrition drugs few, but even their bandages hadn’t been replaced for days even though the bandages were dirty and filled with blood.

Had the soldiers not been strong, healthy fighters or low-level Immortal Cultivators, who boasted a high vitality, they would’ve kicked the bucket a long time ago.

But however vigorous they used to be, they were dying right now and did not seem to have much time left.

They had all suffered heavy wounds on the city defense line a few days back when they covered the nobles to retreat.

The moment they were no longer of any value, they were immediately abandoned by the nobles and piled up here like decaying, salty fish.

Even though Li Yao was a Cultivator, he couldn’t help but feel sympathetic toward the poor and pathetic Immortal Cultivators.

The only comfort was that Li Yao knew the army of the reformists would soon break into the downtown area and rescue the dying soldiers.

It was not exactly because Li Yao had high hopes for the moral standard of the reformists, but because the wounded soldiers were the best materials for propaganda. For nothing other than to reveal the ungratefulness and heartlessness of the big nobles, the reformists would take good care of the wounded soldiers and use them as the most powerful weapon in the psychological war, exactly like how they used Zhang Guanglong, the deputy leader of the Furious Tide Sect.

Soon after they left the hospital, the road ahead of them was completely jam packed with people. It was impossible to pass.

Further ahead, based on the highly-rising mountain was a splendid alloy gate that was dozens of meters in both length and width with a weight of almost ten thousand tons. Behind the gate, it was the body of the mountain that had been hollowed out and the main part of the Netherwind Channel.

It was a gate of survival and hope.

But right now, it had become a gate of death and destruction.

A hundred burning, exploding crystal tanks were heaped before the gate, blocking the road to the gate completely. A team of Exos with extremely fierce firepower was hiding on the fortresses on the two sides of the gate, raining flying swords, cannonballs, and scorching metal particles upon their partners a moment ago crazily.

The terrain here was extremely tricky. On the two sides of the road were high, steep precipices. No matter how many people had come from the downtown area, they had to cram forward through the narrow road in the middle. Therefore, all that it took was a few elites and enough firepower to claim countless lives. The place was barely conquerable.

When the mobsters marched forward, they were immediately blown back by the stormy forward. After more than ten futile charges, their morale hit the rock bottom.

As mobsters or even “devilized people” who had lost control of their souls in the first place, they were not determined to conquer the place. Instead of charging at the Netherwind Channel, they might as well go back to the downtown area to burn and kill without restraint!

But right at the moment, the ten-thousand-ton gate behind the burning tanks and the fixed firing points were slowly closed under the pull of the giant gears and hinges.

It seemed that the escape on the Netherwind Channel had reached the last moment, and few starships were available inside.

Should the gate be closed, it would be impossible for the people outside to squeeze in.

As a result, the soldiers and the bottom-level officers who lingered in the firing points to buy more time for the big nobles were immediately dumbfounded.

They had just killed thousands of their partners in the old days. The freshest blood was on their hands. Even if other people could all surrender to the reformists, how could they be accepted?

No, before they met the reformists, they would’ve been torn into shreds by the crazy beasts outside!

Realizing that, the soldiers and the bottom-level officers in all the fortresses and crystal tanks howled in fury and desperation, abandoning their positions and running toward the gap of the gate that hadn’t been entirely closed.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Some people even turned around the crystal cannons and fired at the gears and hinges at the edge of the gate, trying to destroy the locking system of the gate.

They all turned into crazy mobsters from accomplices of the nobles in half a second.

The mobsters who were about to retreat in their low morale were greatly encouraged, too. They shouted and passed the burning tanks, charging at the undefended gate.

Li Yao and his companions were naturally at the vanguard. Boosting the power rune arrays, they turned into five streaks of brightness and crawled in at the moment before the gate was closed.

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

By the time everybody landed, almost twenty sections of broken arms had landed next to them, which all belonged to the guards who attempted to stop them from breaking in.

Like the gods of killing, Li Yao and Long Yangjun pushed forward in a storm of blades. Not any guard could resist their one attack. Even the crystal tanks were easily chopped and torn apart before they exploded in spluttering electric arcs.

After Li Yao gripped a crystal bomb that flew at him with only one hand and threw it back to where it came from, nobody had the courage to stand in the way of the mysterious yet strong squad.

Li Yao’s team pressed forward and reached the departure point of the Netherwind Channel without meeting any obstacle. It was a secret dock deep inside the mountain.

Tens of thousands of nobles and their squires were waiting for their starships to refill the fuel and prepare for the jump anxiously inside the dock. The news that the gate had been lost made them even more nervous. They hurried to ask their subordinates to work faster.

The Netherwind Channel was designed to accommodate one starship and accelerate it to a high speed to break into the four-dimensional space for a jump at a time. Also, the gap between two consecutive jumps was at least two minutes.

Almost eight starships were still waiting, which meant that it would take at least twenty minutes for everybody to evacuate.

But it was a big problem whether or not the mobsters who had broken into the gate would give them another twenty minutes.

“Let me go first!”

“I’ll go first. Just give me your terms!”

“Bulls*it! If you don’t let me go first, nobody will be leaving!”

Dozens of nobles who seemed to be CEOs, leaders, and captains, without their usual manners, opened their arms like crabs and argued with each other vehemently.

Suddenly, dozens of flying swords, in fatal brilliance, were focused on the most awe-inspiring noble of all of them, blowing up his spiritual shield as well the protective magical equipment. Then, his half body and his head were completely ripped apart, burnt up, and obliterated!

Before anyone realized what was going on, the cocky noble a moment ago had only half of his body that had been blackened left, which fell to the ground into powder!

“There’s no need to fight.”

Li Yao strode to the nobles and released the daunting vibe of the Divinity Transformation Stage as he casually said, “Get out of the way. We’ll go first!”

Chapter 2438: The Birth of a New Imperium!

The overwhelming vibe of the Divinity Transformation Stage was like a collapsing mountain, whose billions of invisible rocks were falling on everyone’s head.

Besides, Li Yao was not the only person in the Divinity Transformation Stage. Long Yangjun was also releasing the coldest killing intent behind him, locking onto the heart of every noble.

Li Jialing also grimaced and unleashed the fighting will of a lion.

While those nobles belonged to the four Kurfürst families, the members of the Kurfürst families had different ranks as well. The people who had lingered to the last moment naturally couldn’t have been the central persons of their families. Their capabilities were quite limited. The few best ones of them were only in the Nascent Soul Stage.

Under the covetous eyes of Li Yao and Long Yangjun, two ferocious animals in the Divinity Transformation Stage, those nobles absolutely couldn’t resist.

“Senior!”

“Elder!”

“Master!”

Seeing that the noble who was most aggressive, intimidating, and actually strongest had been blown up by Li Yao and Long Yangjun in half a second, the remaining nobles all turned pale and put on an obsequious smile between their wrinkles and their cold sweat.

Although they were cursing aloud in their hearts about how two a*sholes in the Divinity Transformation Stage had jumped out of nowhere, they couldn’t have appeared more humble. They looked so enthusiastic and welcoming that they seemed willing to kick their parents off the starship and spare the seats for Li Yao and his team if their parents were on board.

Li Yao glanced at the starship on the dock that was about to enter the rail quickly and pointed at the third starship to the left. “Whose starship is that?”

It was a “Blue Bird”-level light, half-armed merchant ship. Although the loading capability was not high, and the turrets and the spiritual shield it boasted were limited, it had remarkable power units and could be quite agile in turning and dodging, which made it most suitable to evade the enemy’s bombardment or pass in the complicated meteoroid belt. It was a rather classic “smuggler’s starship”.

Many people were fond of wandering in the gray area doing the clandestine businesses with the starships of such a model.

Li Yao did not have a high requirement for speed and defense ability. After all, should he encounter any danger, he and Long Yangjun could always march out with their Colossi. The key was that the “Blue Bird”-level starships were easier to control and highly automatic. Under the cruise state, more than 95% of the operations could be completed by the mainframe crystal processor.

It was a very classic starship that many people were familiar with. There were no secrets about its control system. Xiaoming and Wenwen happened to know the ways to maneuver the starships of such a model.

In other words, even without the cooperation of the crew, they were still confident to get the starship to the edge of the Imperium.

“It’s… It’s mine.”

A fatty with wrinkles all over his greasy face stood out, shuddering. “If I may ask…”

“This starship will go first!”

Li Yao did not bother to chitchat with him. With his eyes glowing brighter than the sun, he said to the other nobles, “It will take twenty minutes at most for all the starships to evacuate. Everybody will be able to leave if you stay patient and obedient! Otherwise, we will blow up all the other starships first and kill each and every one of you lot, and there will still be time for us to leave!”

His words made all the nobles pale and flabbergasted. They hurried to shake their heads, announcing that they daren’t violate the order of the almighty experts.

Li Yao sniffed and looked at Long Yangjun. The two of them took action together. Thousands of rays of light emanated from their crystal suits, blowing up the cave from the outside of the mountain to the cave. The entire pathway was blocked after the collapse.

Although the rocks were rather loose, it would still take the rebels outside at least half an hour to dig through the blockages.

“Let’s go!”

Li Yao spoke to the overjoyed fatty.

The “Blue Bird”-level starship had long refilled the fuel and been prepared for a space jump, but the fatty was by himself and couldn’t bid for the right to go first. Now that he had the support of Li Yao and Long Yangjun, the final test was done in only half a minute.

The starship entered the rail and moved upward helically, faster and faster, until it ripped apart the void and disappeared in the vortex in earsplitting shrieks!

Li Yao’s team had escaped from the capital that was illuminated by Blackstar. The universe was open for them!

At the same time, the “Blue Bird”-level starship appeared abruptly in the vast space at the periphery of the Empyreal Terminus Sector, with mist-like space ripples around it popping up like hot steams.

The jump of the first phase had been completed successfully.

Because the coordinates were set randomly, they had no idea where exactly they were at in the vast space at the edge of the Empyreal Terminus Sector. They only knew that it was already far away from the capital planet and that the fleets of the reformists were too busy surrounding the capital planet and reclaiming the resourceful, steady space zones around the capital to be deployed so far away.

They were safe for now.

“My two… seniors.”

The real owner of the starship, the greasy fatty, struggled to get out of the buffer gel and looked at Li Yao and Long Yangjun in fear before he said half in reverence and half in impractical illusion, “May I know the names of the seniors, and where you are going to? If you don’t think that the Song family is too weak for you…”

As it turned out, the fatty was from the Song family too. It seemed that he was the same as Song Hongchang, the unfortunate leader of the Furious Tide Sect. Neither of them was the important person in their family.

However, his status would certainly be different if he could bring two experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage back to his family.

Li Yao glanced at him casually and focused his attention on the intelligence that he just collected as he discussed with Long Yangjun and Li Jialing about his plan.

After all, during the first space jump just now, when the computation load of the mainframe crystal processor of the starship was heaviest, the two kids had hacked it, controlled the password of the maneuver system, and slightly modified it.

Right now, without Li Yao’s consent, it would be impossible for the captain or the crew to perform a second space jump.

They had stayed below the ground for too long, and they were in dire need of the latest intelligence on the ground to analyze the situation, especially the movements of the four Kurfürst families.

Just now, when they passed Netherwind City, they stole a lot of crystal processors by the way. The portable crystal processors of the nobles in the dock had been “impounded” by them ruthlessly too.

Li Yao and his companions analyzed and discussed for more than half an hour, and the Song-surnamed fatty waited for exactly the same time nearby pitifully, not having the courage to interrupt the two experts with any noise.

In the end, Li Yao finally showed a pair of coordinates to him. “We’re going to this place.”

“This is… not the territory of the four Kurfürst families!”

The Song-surnamed fatty was greatly surprised that the coordinates Li Yao gave him was at a peripherical world of the Imperium, which was among the most lawless and chaotic places in the universe. The “Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors”, the de facto greatest force in the place, was even the hardcore ally and the biggest sponsor for the reformists. He was less and less certain about who Li Yao and Long Yangjun were.

However, before he gave orders to the captain and the crew, the starship began to hum and shiver on its own, a sign that the space jump units were functioning at the maximal power!

“This is—”

The Song-surnamed fatty’s pupils constricted to the size of needle tips, and his pants were soaked in a cold sweat. He had no idea why the starship was operating “automatically” as if there were ghosts on board.

“Just sit down.”

Li Yao smiled and said to the Song-surnamed fatty, “You’ll know in the future how lucky you were not to get killed today.”

…

When the “Blue Bird”-level starship disappeared from the Empyreal Terminus Sector with the two—three—or maybe five most dangerous persons at the center of the cosmos, Netherwind City, the last stronghold of the Kurfürst families on the capital planet, was completely occupied by the reformists too.

The reformists hadn’t planned to march so fast. They hoped that the Kurfürsten’s army in the city could brutalize each other for a while longer.

But at the last moment, they seemed to be urged by certain influential persons and attacked furiously without bothering the cost unlike before. Before midnight, the flag of lightning trident purged by flames was raised at the highest peak of the Netherwind Mountain.

In the debris of the Netherwind Channel, Li Linghai, who was wearing casual clothes and keeping a low profile, stared at the damage caused by Li Yao and Long Yangjun a moment ago with her eyebrows furrowed.

Her nose was jerking, as if she could smell unusual air from the feeble ripples spreading in the air.

A few strands of black hair appeared on her snowy head.

“They’ve escaped.”

Li Linghai spoke to a voice in her head. “It was half a day ago. If we had attacked half a day sooner, we would’ve had a chance to catch them.”

“There’s no need to be bothered. It was impossible.”

Blackstar the Great replied casually in her head, “The two highly-dangerous monsters couldn’t have been captured so easily. Even if we had occupied Netherwind City a day soon, they would’ve found another way to escape beyond the atmosphere and steal one of our starships for a space jump.”

“Then—”

Li Linghai seemed very concerned. “What about your body, Your Majesty?”

“I can still keep my current form for a long time. That boy belongs to me, and he will come back obediently someday.”

Wuying Qi said, “The escape of the few queer rats does not affect the situation. Except for the minor setback, our progress in other aspects has been quite good. Unexpectedly good, I would say.

“Right now, let’s focus on the bottom of the capital and the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. As long as we can dig out ‘that thing’ from the bottom in time and win the support of the newly-rising warlords and Sector Masters at the edge of the Imperium, we will be able to surround the territories of the four Kurfürsten and force them to come to the capital for a strategic battle!

“By then, there will be nothing that can possibly stop the birth of a brand-new Imperium, an eternal Imperium, and an Imperium that rules over the entire sea of stars!”

Chapter 2439: Bribe Boss Bai

At the periphery of the fourth quadrant of the Imperium of True Human Beings…

The universe was boundless and naturally did not have directions or the so-called “quadrants”.

However, if the territory of the Imperium was to be observed from the equator of the capital planet of the Imperium, it would look like a rather peculiar group of stars, which was basically in the shape of an oval.

If the north pole and beyond of the capital planet was regarded as “up”, the omelet-shaped universe would be basically round. Then, the classification of “quadrants” would be meaningful.

The fourth quadrant had the most Sectors in the entire Imperium. They were almost twice as many as the other three quadrants.

However, the newborn Sectors were rather weak and barren, not enough to give birth to enormous forces that spanned Sectors. They were just separated, independent, and broken forces who minded their own business.

It was often the case that every Sector was ruled by a tyrant, and the local lords fought each other all the time. Blood was shed incessantly, and the fire of destruction never died out in the vacuum.

Since they were all members of the Imperium of True Human Beings, the battles and merges of the local lords were naturally not conducted by the regular army and were mostly carried out by privateers, or to be more direct, space pirates.

That was a battle form that was smaller and less intense but also much more cruel, shameless, and sleazy than regular battles. In the battles of space pirates, soldiers were thieves, and thieves were soldiers. Victims were bandits, and bandits could turn into new victims at any moment. It was the game rule that everybody knew.

This place was the hometown of “God of War” Lei Chenghu. In his younger days, the most prestigious serviceman of the Imperium today had organized hunting against the space pirates many times, with remarkable accomplishments. For a while, the space pirates at the edge of the fourth quadrant were almost entirely gone.

However, he could annihilate space pirates, but he could not get rid of the soil from which space pirates were born. It was the boundless universe as well as the ambitions and desires of human beings.

Therefore, after he led his main force to the frontline of the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance’s confrontation, the space pirates at the edge of the fourth quadrant who had vanished were revived and got even worse, transforming the place into the most famous land of chaos and destruction in the entire Imperium again.

Speaking of which, the recent decades, and especially the recent years, were indeed the golden time for the space pirates.

At first, the Imperium mobilized tremendous troops to the frontline for the expedition against the Covenant Alliance. As a result, the rear was weakly defended and did not have enough soldiers to resist the space pirates.

The warlords and Sector Masters in the worlds who were unwilling to send their troops to the frontline to be killed often preferred to claim that their fleets had been destroyed by accident in space. But in fact, those fleets were only turned from regular troops into privateers, which would harass and ambush other Sectors when they were not defended.

While the Imperium’s expedition army marched forward, one world after another was recovered, and inestimable assets had been shipped back too. Those assets significantly enlivened the business activities at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium, but they were also the fattest prey in the eyes of the space pirates.

By the time the reformists rose quickly and the “Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors” intended to challenge the old business order, they secretly supported a lot of massive pirate gangs to resist the four Kurfürst families and other nobles with a great amount of money due to their lack of combat abilities.

The four Kurfürst families and other big nobles were naturally unwilling to give in. They either annihilated or appeased the space pirates, recruiting a lot of them for their own purpose and starting a cruel war of “space pirates against space pirates”.

After a few years, quite a few space groups had expanded exponentially and were even capable of dealing with the elite deep-sky fleets. Their mysterious, stealthy, and unpredictable style gave their hostile forces quite a headache.

Zuo Tianying, for one, was having a strong headache right now.

He was a space pirate in the early days himself, and his pirate gang, “Mirage Eagle”, had been quite famous too. It was perfectly normal. Few of the important persons at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium were not space pirates when they were young. Similar humiliating stains could be found in the pedigrees of a lot of warlords, leaders, and even Sector Masters too.

Just like all the powerful, influential persons, after Zuo Tianying became a deacon of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, it had been a long time since he had done such simple, crude, and unprofessional things like killing and fighting.

Not only did he refuse to do it anymore, but he also forbade his subordinates from talking about it. He sometimes even couldn’t hold back his despise and disgust when he looked at other space pirates.

Zuo Tianying liked to call himself a “legitimate businessman” right now.

While everybody knew that businessmen and bandits couldn’t be separated at the vast and dangerous universe at the edge of the Imperium, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was a group of merchants with great ambitions and visions after all. They barely looted other people or forced other people to make deals with them. Instead, they tried to establish a brand-new business order and be the regulator and arbitrator of the order.

So, Zuo Tianying’s vaunt was not entirely wrong.

Although he loathed his past and other space pirates deep down in his heart, Zuo Tianying’s job required him to deal with the people he disliked all the time.

He was the manager of the “Blue Sky Market” under the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

The Blue Sky Market was a free fair established inside a very inconspicuous stone belt centered at a desolate resource planet far away from the habitable planets, surrounded by the debris of countless starships and space fortresses.

People whose goods were still bloodstained and must be kept a secret, people who were unwilling to pay the special taxes to the authorities of the Imperium, and people who were wanted by the major worlds of the Imperium and chased by the bounty hunters, were the most frequent visitors of the free fairs like “Blue Sky Market”.

Here, taxes were not required, nobody would check the source of the goods or the identity of the seller, and even the most dangerous prohibited items were purchasable. Even if you had stolen the dear mothers of the four Kurfürsten, somebody would be bold enough to buy them from you as long as the price was acceptable.

The bandits and criminals that everybody cursed and pursued in other worlds could still buy the most mysterious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, the most effective strengthening drugs, the magical equipment that guaranteed the best performance but did not guarantee quality, and of course, the most charming whores and the most fatal assassins. The so-called “free fair” was exactly such a murky, lawless, and yet absolutely free place.

The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had established dozens of free fairs at the edge of the Imperium. Through the free fairs, the capitals, goods, intelligence, and talents from different worlds were gathered. The unattractive free fairs actually yielded astronomical revenues every day. They were also the foundation of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

Among them, the scale and the flowing capitals in the “Blue Sky Market” definitely ranked the top five.

Having created an enterprise from scratch and growing from a Mr. Nobody to the manager of the Blue Sky Market, Zuo Tianying certainly had extraordinary skills. He was among the most distinguished deacons in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Even Jin Yuyan, the General Deacon, had high hopes for him.

Therefore, although he barely had any fondness of and was even physically disgusted by the guy sitting on his opposite side, who was wearing a short T-shirt, sucking iced juice, and even placing his hairy legs on the desk arrogantly, he still controlled his expression tightly without letting any redundant emotion leak out.

Just as what the intelligence says, a cocky guy who doesn’t know who he is at all.

Zuo Tianying quickly browsed through the files of this “Boss Bai”, the head of space pirates, and sneered in his heart, “However, the more arrogant someone is, the easier it will be to trick them. Just let him feel good about himself for a while longer. It won’t hurt anything. Chances are that I can even get more favorable terms if I offer him a few adulations!”

Deep down in his heart, Zuo Tianying did not take this “Boss Bai” seriously.

Yes, Boss Bai was a new-generation star who only rose in the circle of space pirates in recent years, and his accomplishments in the past were almost “marvelous”. In only a few years, he had swallowed quite a few space gangs that were famous nationwide in the Imperium. He even had the splendid feats where he fought a top-tier fleet of the Imperium in a head-on clash and returned in one piece, and where he attacked seven resource planets controlled by the Imperium in only half a month. One might say that he was a once-in-a-hundred-year “genius” among space pirates.

But he was a young man who had just distinguished himself after all. The name “Boss Bai” was never heard of before. Judging from his brash and disobedient behavior today, how awesome could he have possibly been?

Zuo Tianying estimated that this Boss Bai was probably from a noble family or perhaps a family of generals. He had remarkable combat and commanding abilities, and he was desperate to make a name for himself and maybe to seek avenge. That was why he had been so impatient and glittering in the past two years without realizing the significance of a low profile at all. He was rather lucky to have met the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance at first and the conflicts between the reformists and the Kurfürst families later. Everybody was too occupied to deal with him. Otherwise, a man who did not know what he was doing like him would’ve been beleaguered and squashed by the army!

Such kind of people, however strong they were, would only end up as the knives of other people.

The mission that Zuo Tianying accepted from the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was exactly to recruit Boss Bai and other rogues in the fourth quadrant no matter the cost and to turn them into the knives in the hands of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists.

It was rather easy for him to get in touch with Boss Bai.

Since the Blue Sky Market was the largest and safest free fair in the few Sectors around, Boss Bai’s “Big Space Pirate Gang” visited the place for the disposal of stolen goods as well as purchases and maintenance frequently too. While Zuo Tianying had never met Boss Bai in person before, they at least knew each other’s name.

After he let the intermediary pass over the intention of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors subtly, Boss Bai was already drooling and sending himself to him like a dog who had smelled meat.

Observing the man pretending to be arrogant yet unable to cover the greed and expectation in his eyes, Zuo Tianying couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, knowing that the deal was probably a sure thing now.

Chapter 2440: Heroes Are Also Valued!

“Boss Bai, heroes are always valued. I know that you are the most distinguished space pirate who only rose to fame miraculously recently! Ambushing the Red Purple Planet, resisting the Flowing Wind Fleet, destroying the Hundred Consecutive Stars, merging the Ghost Eye Pirate Gang… Your classic cases can almost be written into a textbook of space pirates for other people to read and learn. Hahahaha!”

Zuo Tianying feigned a smile while he threw out the costless adulations. “The Blue Sky Market is always the most reliable base for all the space pirates. Many of them have been praising you when they maintain their starships or sell goods in my place, claiming that you are very likely to be a great hero who unites all the space pirates in the entire Imperium for the first time in the past thousand years as the future ‘King of Pirates’! I always feel that my heart is pounding when they tell me about your magnificent stories, and it has been my wish to make friends with such a heroic person!”

“Hehehehe, the future king of pirates…”

Boss Bai finally put down the juice cup that he had been drinking from. Veins were protruding on his ferret face like blooming man-eating flowers. He grabbed a handful of luscious grapes from the desk and stuffed them into his mouth, with the juice splashing everywhere. Then, he hissed with a voice that seemed to have been rusted, “Are you suggesting that Boss Bai is not the king of pirates right now?”

“Of course you are. You are the well-deserved king of pirates right now!”

Zuo Tianying was almost laughing out loud. This Boss Bai was more arrogant and ignorant than he had thought. He truly wondered where the bumpkin came from exactly.

The territory of the Imperium was too vast, and there were too many unparalleled heroes and bandits. Even though Boss Bai had been invincible in the past few years and gathered a fairly-large team, he was not deeply-rooted at all. There were still a couple of pirate gangs of the same size to his, if not larger. Right now, three of them had been summoned to the Blue Sky Market.

If you wanted to be the king of pirates, you’d better ask the bosses of those pirate gangs and see if they agreed!

Well, the bosses of those pirate gangs would probably agree because space pirates were never interested in the useless titles. They all understood the logic that the tall trees caught wind first and that the more famous they were, the sooner they would die. Only the idiotic boys like Boss Bai who had just started the business would be passionate to be “king of pirates”!

Other people would never hesitate to offer the hat to him and push him to the frontstage to get killed!

While sneering and mocking secretly in his heart, Zuo Tianying spoke with such sincerity as if he were truly considering for Boss Bai. “However, Boss Bai, we are all poor folks who struggle to make a living in the treacherous sea of stars. I used to be a space pirate, and I understand the sufferings of space pirates too well. This business is a dead end. Even if you become the king of pirates, so what? When the army of the Imperium comes at you on a large scale, wouldn’t you still be fleeing in a panic like mice that have encountered a cat?

“Those who steal a pendant will be killed, and those who steal a country will be knighted. Why don’t you consider the longer term and… seize the entire Imperium together with us?”

“Seize the entire Imperium?”

Boss Bai bit the grapes while making loud noises quickly. Very soon, all that was left in his hands was a bare stem. He narrowed his eyes, with coldness beaming out, while he observed Zuo Tianying up and down for a long time. Then he said in a half smile, “Go on. How is the Imperium going to be seized?”

Zuo Tianying felt more or less creeped out being stared at by him. Spitting in his heart, he calmed himself down and unfolded a 3D map of the Imperium of True Human Beings. He said while pointing at the map, “Boss Bai, since you’ve been dealing with the Imperium’s army for a long time, you must know the situation of the Imperium very well, which is like a turbulent tornado with drastic changes on a daily basis. The Imperium is entirely different from half a year or even three months ago!

“In the newly-recovered area, the expedition army of the Imperium are seething in impatience. The young, bottom-level officers are very dissatisfied with the conservativeness and hesitation of the four Kurfürst families. They are so disappointed that they are even getting out of control. Ever since the news that the Astounding Thunder Fleet has changed their banner, many young officers in the expedition fleets have been thinking to follow the example of ‘God of War’ Lei Chenghu, transforming themselves into a new, glorious army that defends the interests of the Imperium instead of a certain family!

“In the capital, the reformists have completely got rid of the last bit of strength of the old nobles. The corrupt, murky Council of Elders of the past has been demolished and replaced by the ‘Reform Committee of the Council of Elders’. The queen has been elected as the First Member of the committee and the acting highest ruler of the Imperium.

“The Reform Committee of the Council of Elders has been ruling and operating well in the entire Empyreal Terminus Sector, which means that a brand-new government has blossomed and fruited at the heart of the Imperium!

“Outside of the capital, in the territory of the four Kurfürst families, the reign of the old nobles is hanging by a thread. Student movements and strikes are breaking out nonstop. Too many people have been suppressed pitifully! But despite the suppression, the fury of the people has been completely ignited and is flooding like magma. There is no stopping it at all!

“At the peripheral worlds of the Imperium where we are living, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is also actively contacting the great heroes like Boss Bai, planning to rise up and cooperate with the expedition army in the frontline, the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders in the capital, and the people and the low-level Immortal Cultivators who have had enough of everything in the territory of the old nobles!

“As long as the four parties work together, we will certainly sweep across the feeble fortresses of the old nobles destructively and renew the entire Imperium with the wrath of the people!

“Boss Bai, the trend of reform is unstoppable. Those who go with it, thrive; those who go against it, die! Join our greatest cause with your fleet as well as the seven affiliating pirate gangs who receive your protection and command. It’s now or never!”

His face bushing, Zuo Tianying persuaded the man passionately.

Boss Bai, however, simply looked at the map casually and sucked the last juice on the stem before he said, “It means declaring war on the four Kurfürst families, doesn’t it? The risk of this deal is rather high.”

Zuo Tianying smiled cunningly and blinked his eyes. “Other people may be intimidated by the risk, but for Boss Bai, have you ever been scared of the four Kurfürst families? During the battle of Blue Star City, you were bold enough to loot the coalition auction of the four Kurfürst families. Not only were all the extraordinary treasures in the auction plundered by you, but even the nobles who participated in the auction were also captured. Then, you evaded the hunting of the four Kurfürst families for thirty-seven times in the next three months, forcing the enemy to pay the ransom in order to get the hostages back. If you are bold enough to make such an astonishing deal, how can you not have the courage to declare war on the four Kurfürst families?”

It was both a secret exaltation and an indirect reminder for Boss Bai—What you did in Blue Star City was too outrageous and blatant. You were already the thorns in the flesh for the old nobles after the smack on the faces of the four Kurfürst families. Did you have a second choice other than jumping on the tank of the reformists?

As he expected, when the “glorious feat” was mentioned, Boss Bai hooted like an owl and nodded his head gloatingly. “That’s right, that’s right. The universe is large, but there are few businesses that Boss Bai does not dare to do. However, a businessman is not scared of risks, only returns that are not abundant enough. Tell me about it, what will I gain if I stand on the side of the reformists, and what about my Big Bai Pirate Gang as well as the youngsters who make a living with me?”

Zuo Tianying coughed and took out a jade chip from his Cosmos Ring rather mysteriously.

Although it was a “jade chip”, it was in the color of dark red and had been produced in the shape of a small scepter.

Holding it in both hands and delivering it to Boss Bai respectfully, he said, “Please take a look, Boss Bai, this is a warrant just issued by the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders. You have been nominated as the highest commander of the garrison of the Hundred Phoenixes Sector. You have also been accoladed as a ‘vice admiral’ of the army and an honorable ‘viscount’.

“As for the fleets under your command, including the affiliating pirate gangs who have joined you, they will all be enlisted into the garrison of the Hundred Phoenixes Sector as the regular army of the Imperium. They are entitled to all the privileges of the army and will have sufficient supplies and monetary support. After the soldiers die, there will be high compensations too.”

“Hundred Phoenixes Sector?”

Boss Bai touched the jade chip affectionately but pretended to hesitate. “Vice admiral? Viscount?”

“The Hundred Phoenixes Sector is one of the new worlds that have just been won from the Covenant Alliance. It is a resourceful place and full of hope, enough for anyone to realize their dream.”

Zuo Tianying said unhurriedly, “However, since we are on the same side, I will not lie to Boss Bai. You will naturally never report for duty in the Hundred Phoenixes Sector. This is just a title. Only when you have the title will it be appropriate to offer you the corresponding privileges!

“All in all, let’s leave the empty stuff behind and talk about the more concrete things. As long as you accept the warrant, you will turn from a space pirate that everybody spits on into a regular army that is legitimate and backed by the entire Imperium!”

“Huh?”

Boss Bai laughed and craned his rat-like head over. He looked peaceful and delighted, but there was a certain infinite horror and coldness in his voice. “Why, Deacon Zuo, do you feel that it is a shame to be a space pirate, and everybody should spit on them?”

Zuo Tianying was more or less stunned. Highly uncomfortable under Boss Bai’s eyes, he struggled to reply, “That-That is not what I meant. Being a space pirate is certainly not bad, except… except that it may be inconvenient now and then. If you can be a general of the government army, why would you be a space pirate?”

“It does make sense.”

Boss Bai suddenly retreated his aggressive eyes and grinned, as if it were not a big deal. “However, is the warrant presented by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors reliable or not?”

Chapter 2441: Boss Bai, How Dare You!

“Of course it is reliable. Please trust us!”

Zuo Tianying said sincerely, “Everybody knows the relationship between the ‘Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’ and the reformists. In the beginning, it was thanks to the sponsorship of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that the reformists started their cause. One of the core concerns of the reformists is also to help us seize the business interests that are supposed to be ours.

“We’ve helped the reformists for a long time, and it is time for a harvest!

“Right now, Jin Yuyan, the General Deacon of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, is in charge of the finances of the new Imperium in the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders as a central leader of the reformists. How can his promise not be reliable?

“Just rest assured. As long as you accept the warrant, your career will immediately soar to the sky!”

“Is that so?”

Boss Bai held the dark red jade chip with his fingers and played with it again and again, but he never activated the jade chip to read the content inside. Instead, he looked at Zuo Tianying with a sophisticated smile and said, “I’m afraid that it can’t be so simple, right? We’ve both been through too many dangers to not know that there is no such thing as free lunch. Hehe. Vice admiral, viscount, and commander of the Imperium’s army! What do you want in exchange for those fabulous titles?”

“Great! Boss Bai, you are truly an outspoken man!”

Zuo Tianying raised his thumb and coughed again. Then, he threw out the real terms in a low voice, “Since Boss Bai is so straightforward, I’ll stop beating around the bush. If you accept the warrant and become a glorious member of the ‘new army’, you will naturally have to listen to the command of the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders. I know that Boss Bai is a man who does not like restrictions and is used to freedom, but you have to take action with us at least on this one.”

Mysteries beamed out of Boss Bai’s eyes as he asked casually, “What kind of operation are we talking about?”

“Defend the ‘Seven Seas Grand Market’, the largest free fair of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, which is also where our organization is headquartered, together with us in the Seven Seas Space Zone!”

Zuo Tianying said solemnly, “According to the latest intelligence, in order to cut the connection between the reformists and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, and to cut the money and resources flowing from the edge of the Imperium to the heart incessantly, the four Kurfürst families have already gathered a coalition fleet, planning to clear the reformists’ forces at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. Their primary target is naturally the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

“The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the space pirates are interdependent. Once the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is destroyed, your space pirates will have no place for maintenance, supplies, and exchange of assets and information, and you will be executed by the four Kurfürst families one after another.

“Therefore, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors has been contacting the great men at the edge of the Imperium and preparing to fight a spectacular head-on battle to defend the Seven Seas Grand Market!

“Boss Bai, the reformists and the Kurfürsten are in a predicament at the center of the cosmos right now, but countless warlords and magnates from other worlds are still observing and hesitating. Those people are exactly ‘the silent majority’. Whoever wins their support is likely to win this war and then seize the entire Imperium, ruling over the sea of stars!

“If the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors can win the battle to defend the Seven Seas Grand Market, the weakness and inability of the Kurfürst families will be completely revealed. By then, not only will all the worlds at the periphery of the Imperium side with the reformists, even the people within the territories of the Kurfürst families who crave for a reform will also rise up and turn the world upside down!

“The battle is of paramount importance for us. If Boss Bai can help us win this war, you will be a well-deserved great contributor to the reform. Do I need to tell you the fame, position, resources, and subordinates that will come with your achievement?”

“That explains a lot. And here I was wondering why the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was asking for the help of so many pirate gangs so anxiously. So, the truth is that your nest is about to be occupied!”

Boss Bai said, “What about the reformists’ own fleet? I was told that the reformists boast three main troops right now: the Deep Sea University, the Astounding Thunder Fleet, and the Imperial Guards. They are also working hard to sway the expedition army in the newly-conquered area. Once the expedition army changes to the reformists’ side, they will be capable of a head-to-head battle against the Kurfürsten’s fleets, right? Why are the fleets of the reformists not doing anything? Are the space pirates like us cannon fodder for you?”

Zuo Tianying thought to himself that, despite his arrogance, the sleazy-looking man was rather sober when it came to the critical things.

But that was within his expectation. If the man did not have such soberness, he wouldn’t have become the most brilliant space pirate at the edge of the Imperium in recent years!

With even more sincerity on his face, Zuo Tianying said, “The specific military deployments are top secrets that I am not privileged to know, but I know that this is a critical battle for the reformists, and the best Deep Sea Fleet, the Astounding Thunder Fleet, and the Imperial Guards will not stand by.

“However, the universe is a vast place, and even the largest fleet is but a grain of sand. It will certainly be great if we can talk more men into joining the side of brightness and justice!

“Perhaps when the mantis is hunting the cicada, a sparrow is lurking behind to take the mantis. What if the elites of the reformists appear at their hometowns when the coalition fleets of the four Kurfürsten attack the Seven Seas Grand Market?

“How about it, Boss Bai? Almost forty pirate gangs have accepted the warrants and agreed to side with the reformists and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors to resist the evil army of the Kurfürsten. Also, they all admire you very much and agreed that as long as you also accept the warrant, they will accept your command in the battle to come. This is a rarely-seen opportunity and the greatest glory for any space pirate!”

Zuo Tianying exclaimed in excitement, as if he were hoping to replace Boss Bai as the leader of the alliance of space pirates.

Boss Bai’s breath became apparently hot.

Several red spots burst out on his face that looked like orange peel.

His throat was rolling nonstop while he swallowed hard.

“I am not a man of vanity, hehehehe…”

He finally changed his attitude and said, “Or rather, I think more highly of the practical things than vanity. Things like viscount, vice admiral, commander, or alliance leader are too far away. Let’s just talk about the benefits in front of us! Deacon Zuo, about the things you promised when you invited me to come to the Blue Sky Market…”

“The things are all in the dock waiting for Boss Bai’s men to pick up!”

Zuo Tianying knew that the guy had finally bitten the hook. He chuckled to himself and pulled the curtain of the office.

Through a clear window, it could be seen that there was a huge dock outside that extended all the way to the boundless space.

The parking places, like the branches of a tree, attracted bizarrely shaped and aggressive starships. Tremendous heavy tractors and spiritual puppets were busy shipping and unloadings like ants and bees.

“Twenty rapid stealth warships of the latest model, five thousand standard crystal suits of the Imperium’s army, and ten heavy carriers’ worth of crystals, fuel, and ammunitions!”

Zuo Tianying waved his hands and declared generously, “This is the welcome gift that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors offers to Boss Bai—no, for Vice Admiral Bai!

“Not that I’m bragging about us, but we are never short of money when we have controlled the business lifelines at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. Even if there is any magical equipment we can’t produce, we can smuggle them out from the territories of the four Kurfürst families. Look at those starships and crystal suits. They are still hot!

“We are only short of people to control them; the good men who roam the sea of stars like Boss Bai!”

“Hmm…”

Looking at the brand-new starships and the boxes of crystals and cannons, Boss Bai finally grinned in satisfaction. “Good, good, good! The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors”sincerity’ is so touching that I’m almost in tears!”

Overjoyed, Zuo Tianying asked, “So, has Boss Bai agreed to lead the many space pirates?”

“Of course I have. Why wouldn’t I?”

Baring his sharp teeth, Boss Bai said slowly, “As a matter of fact, I agreed a long time ago!”

“Huh?”

Zuo Tianying was slightly dazed as he perceived extreme danger from Boss Bai’s smile. Before he figured out what was going on, deafening explosions had happened outside.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Quite a few starships in the dock had exploded uncannily, and the furious flames immediately spread into the Blue Sky Market. Intense smoke was everywhere, swallowing people’s lives mercilessly like rampant black beasts.

Hundreds of starships, like crocodiles lurking in a swamp, finally lunged out of the dark and arrived at the Blue Sky Market. They opened their bloody mouths and spurted out a storm of barrages, sabotaging the defensive positions of the Blue Sky Market ruthlessly.

“Enemy incoming! Enemy incoming! Enemy incoming!”

Earsplitting alarms echoed in and out of the Blue Sky Market.

“Huh?”

Seeing that the Blue Sky Market that he had worked on for decades was reduced to debris in the blink of an eye, Zuo Tianying was shocked first and then grabbed by fury.

If he still did not realize what was going on, he wouldn’t have been qualified to be a deacon of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. “Boss Bai, you are out of your mind to attack the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors!”

As the manager of one of the largest free fairs of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, Zuo Tianying had the combat ability of the Nascent Soul Stage too. Despite his fury, his nerves and his muscles were not affected at all. While he kicked at Boss Bai’s chest, a bluish, poisoned dagger ejected from the tip of his foot, and a dark gold brilliance flowed all over his body, constituting a crystal suit that covered him.

However, the crystal suit that he had been trained with so many times that he could put on in half a second was disrupted by Boss Bai when the helmet and the breastplate were about to be closed.

Zuo Tianying did not even notice how Boss Bai blinked from the poisonous dagger on his foot at all when his throat was already pinched by a pair of burning pincers.

The enemy shook slightly, and the crystal suit that had yet to be put on fell apart like a snake skin!

How is it possible?

Zuo Tianying was scared out of his wits. He was already an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, but the enemy had captured him even without a crystal suit.

Who was this Boss Bai exactly? And what level was he actually at?

Chapter 2442: Commander Bai, of the National Protection Army!

“Hehe, hehehehe!”

Boss Bai sneered nonstop. The aggressiveness as if he could swallow a tiger alive popped up on his ugly, rat-like face as he picked up Zuo Tianying, the expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, with only one hand and smashed him to the floor heavily.

BOOM!

Not counting his level, Zuo Tianying was still a muscular man almost two meters tall with a weight of almost a hundred and fifty kilograms. Yet, he had been pressed into the floor by Boss Bai who was short and skinny. Stones were splashing everywhere, and a human-shaped dent appeared on the ground.

Zuo Tianying’s internal organs were almost entirely shattered because of the smash. He was more confused than ever too. According to the intelligence, Boss Bai was in the Nascent Soul Stage and on par with him at best.

It was also the most important reason why he had the courage to meet with a brutal man like Boss Bai alone.

The intelligence work of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was most effective in the entire Imperium. They had summarized Boss Bai’s combat ability by analyzing all of Boss Bai’s battles, including his performance when he was pushed into corners by the Imperium’s army.

How on earth could he have been so terrifying?

Was it possible that this Boss Bai never tried his best when he was beleaguered by the Imperium’s army and his life was at risk time and time again?

How could there be such a monster?

Also, where were the assassins he had kept outside? He had arranged for fifty tough assassins to hide next to the office, who could’ve charged out any moment and teach Boss Bai a lesson about the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’ capability. Where the hell were those guys?

“You small-minded dealers really need to change your pettiness. Even your warrants are so stingy.”

Boss Bai pressed Zuo Tianying tightly to the ground and spat next to his head, before he chuckled and said, “A garrison commander of a minor Sector, a vice-admiral of the army, and a… f*cking viscount… Viscount! Are you trying to recruit me or insult me? Is the name of ‘Boss Bai’ only worth a viscount for you?

“Here, the four Kurfürsten are obviously much more sincere than you. The rewards they are offering are the Sector Master of a whole world, a lieutenant-general of the army, and an earl of the Imperium. Do you hear me? An earl!

“Also, they have offered me ten main-force warships in advance, whose firepower is five times fiercer than the rapid attack warships that you give me. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Any man would’ve been tempted after they saw it. How do you want me to choose, huh?”

Zuo Tianying was so shocked that his soul was almost frozen. Finding it hard to breathe, he shrieked, “Boss Bai, you have taken sides with those ‘illegitimate Kurfürsten’!”

“Their legitimacy is the least of my concerns. We are all space pirates making a living between the edges of the blades. Isn’t it only natural for us to work for those who are stronger and promise better rewards? The four Kurfürsten are far more powerful than the reformists and your Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in the first place. They’ve given us more money and greater titles. Something would be wrong with my head if I chose you hopeless idiots over them only to be beheaded together with you after you fail, wouldn’t it?”

Boss Bai strangled his neck harder and harder while he said with a smile, “Right, I almost forgot to tell you. Didn’t you mean to start an alliance of dozens of pirate gangs? Your trouble is unnecessary. We’ve already done it under the witness of the special envoy of the Kurfürsten! Thanks to the trust of my dear friends, they have elected me as their leader. I am now the commander of the ‘National Protection Army’.

“This commander is certainly much more awesome than the commander that you offered to me. Haha. Hahahaha!”

His face gray, Zuo Tianying was rendered speechless. There was no telling whether it was because of Boss Bai’s choking or because of his fury, but the expert in the Nascent Soul Stage was almost cramping and foaming.

“Just look at all the pirate gangs outside. Do you think that they’ve been attracted here by your terms to pledge loyalty to you? You can’t be more idiotic!”

Boss Bai continued, “Let me tell you, the twenty-nine pirate gangs have already formed a blood alliance known as the ‘National Protection Army’, which serves and swears loyalty to the government. We are now the legitimate army of the government right now. The conquest of the Blue Sky Market today is just an appetizer. The ‘Seven Seas Grand Market’, the nest of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, is our real target!

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. The Seven Seas Grand Market, the allegedly wealthiest place at the edge of the Imperium, where many treasures that could not be found even in the capital could be found. Robbing the Seven Seas Grand Market is almost the ultimate dream of every space pirate.

“We are all thieves and murderous bandits who would feel itchy at night if we did not rob anyone during the day, and you want us to defend the Seven Seas Grand Market? With all due respect, what’s wrong with the reformists and the small merchants like you?”

Zuo Tianying finally couldn’t hold it back any longer. A mouthful of foams mixed with blood was spurted out, and his face turned from pale to gray.

They had truly opened the door for the burglars!

Stupid. They were truly stupid. Or rather, they far underestimated the shamelessness and greediness of those space pirates!

But there was no time to regret right now.

The flames and explosions outside were the best punishment for their naivety.

As one of the largest free fairs of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, the Blue Sky Market naturally had the most thorough defense.

Also, since it was the time of war, the guards of the market had been increased to the limit. Space torpedoes and all kinds of serial defense arrays were deployed in the stone belts outside.

It was extremely difficult for the Kurfürsten’s fleets to conquer the iron can that had been armed to teeth from outside. They would have to pay a terrible price.

However, the Blue Sky Market was a place for business, and it could not reject the pirate gangs who often stopped by for maintenance and exchange of information and goods.

This time, in order to recruit the great pirate heads including Boss Bai, hundreds of warships of the space pirates had been allowed to park in the Blue Sky Market. A thousand small warships, half-armed business starships, and comprehensive supply ships were anchored outside too.

Who could’ve thought that those space pirates would attack at the same time?

Right when the space pirates sabotaged the Blue Sky Market, churning the defense into holes from inside to outside, a more terrifying enemy appeared from the vast place. It was the regular army with the emblem of the Imperium and the symbols of the four Kurfürst families.

Cooperating with the pirate gangs, the regular army dug through the belt defenses outside of the Blue Sky Market by force and arrived over the head of the panicked members of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. It was truly a disaster.

When a storm of firepower was rained down, blatantly destroying the firing points on the ground and the warships of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that had yet to take off, the short battle came to an end.

In the standard of “small merchants”, the warriors of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were certainly loyal and brave enough.

Perhaps it was because they knew clearly that they would still be killed even if they surrendered.

Perhaps they had been space pirates themselves, and they knew how ferocious pirate gangs were and how cruel their outcome would be if they fell to the hands of the space pirates. So, they simply fought on until their last breath.

The space pirates were the most cunning guys who valued themselves more than anything. Naturally, they stayed away from the rabid dogs.

The Kurfürsten’s army, on the other hand, was determined to bite the hard bone that was the Blue Sky Market, which would be a wonderful overture for the battle in the Seven Seas Grand Market to come. As they attacked without caring about the sacrifices, they blew up the last resisting fortress half a day later after losing a hundred starships.

The Blue Sky Market had fallen.

“Aoooooo!”

The ravenous space pirates wandered about in the Blue Sky Market, blowing up the gates of the warehouses with their storm bolters and searching for assets with their bloodshot eyes.

The free fairs were the ultimate dreams for all space pirates, but since the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was wealthy and powerful before, and they needed the free fairs for sales and supplies, it had always been inappropriate for them to attack.

Now that they were backed by the four Kurfürsten, their wish was finally fulfilled. They naturally wasted no time sabotaging, looting, and enjoying themselves.

Boss Bai, on the other hand, dragged Zuo Tianying, who was devastated and had been tied up by electromagnetic whips, to the No. 1 dock of the Blue Sky Market that was still burning.

A daunting starship that looked like a giant whale with one horn had arrived from the sky and landed here.

A middle-aged man, wearing a pure white cape, with a face as smooth as that of a woman and filled with pride and indifference, was waiting rather in impatience.

He looked at the fire and mess in the Blue Sky Market in disgust while he wiped his nose that had nothing dirty at all with a gold-lined handkerchief, as if it were a great insult for him to breathe the same air with the space pirates.

“My lord!”

Seeing that the man was waiting, Boss Bai hurried to approach him; his arrogance when he was faced with Zuo Tianying a moment ago entirely gone. In a sycophantic smile, he fell on one of his knees and looked at the man’s foot. “Greetings, my lord. Thanks to my lord’s meticulous planning, we have captured the head of the rebels in the Blue Sky Market successfully. Please look, my lord. This is Zuo Tianying!”

Boss Bai tossed Zuo Tianying to the ground as if he were a bag of garbage.

Zuo Tianying rolled on the ground to the feet of this “lord”. He was immediately refreshed when he saw who the man was. Losing his calmness, he shouted, “Li Wuji!”

Li Wuji was an old acquaintance, or an old opponent, for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

As the hereditary “Marquess Yongchun”, he was one of the powerful persons in the Li family with a rather pure bloodline.

Also, Li Wuji had been engaged in the intelligence work of the four Kurfürst families. He had been striking, sabotaging, and bribing the intelligence network of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

In the past decades, too many spies of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had been captured, tortured, and killed by Li Wuji.

Naturally, a lot of people had also betrayed the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and joined the four Kurfürst families under coercion, causing great damage to the development of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors

He did not expect that Li Wuji had supervised the recruitment of Boss Bai and other space pirates as well as the conquest of the Blue Sky Market. Zuo Tianying swallowed hard, his eyes dimming, and he lost all hope.

Chapter 2443: My Loyalty for My Lord Is Unquestionable!

Li Wuji extended his foot and kicked Zuo Tianying in a relatively clean part on his body in order to see his face clearly. After recognizing him, he snorted without giving approval or disapproval.

A personal guard immediately moved forward and kneeled on the ground respectfully, wiping the tip of Li Wuji’s foot with a giant handkerchief.

It was almost like his delicate, sharp-pointed boot had been tarnished by Zuo Tianying’s clothes.

Li Wuji accepted the service of his guard fully at ease. Glancing at Boss Bai who was still on one of his knees and who seemed loyal and dutiful, he said casually, “Rise. You’ve done a good job this time.”

“Thank you, my lord!”

Boss Bai rose in a rather sleazy way, with his small eyes rolling quickly. He rubbed his hands, as if he were greatly delighted. He looked like a totally different person from the great bandit who drank juice in Zuo Tianying’s office with his legs akimbo a moment ago.

“Of the many rebels of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, this Zuo Tianying is not among the most important ones, but he is still something. It wasn’t easy to catch him.”

Expressionlessly, Li Wuji said in a high-pitched voice, “We couldn’t have caught this thief in time if you hadn’t snuck into the Blue Sky Market. If we can send him back before the new emperor is crowned, it will be a fairly fabulous gift. Commander Bai, you have made great contributions!”

“I daren’t say that!”

Boss Bai declared passionately, “It was all thanks to my lord’s planning and your marvelous fleet that those scoundrels were suppressed. I barely did anything.

“Even though—hehe—even though I have made any minor contribution, I do not have any courage to ask for rewards, and I only hope that the things that I did before can be pardoned. About that…”

Boss Bai rubbed his hands, as if he did not quite know how to phrase it, fearing that the four Kurfürst families would punish him for what he did in the past.

Amused, Li Wuji glanced at Boss Bai’s shoulder.

The guard nearby immediately understood. Throwing away the handkerchief that was used to clean his boot, the guard took out a new one that was big, soft, and fragrant and covered Boss Bai’s shoulder with it.

With the handkerchief in the middle, Li Wuji patted Boss Bai’s shoulder neither too heavily nor too lightly and said in encouragement, “Have you ever heard that even the gods will condone the mistakes that young people make?

“I like young people best, particularly those who are both smart and loyal. You have shown your loyalty in the conquest of the Blue Sky Market this time. Are the absurdities you did in your younger days really a big deal?

“Of course, there are indeed many dissidents within the family who have been speaking ill of the space pirates. Also, your robbery of the coalition auction of the four Kurfürst families was truly quite huge and pissed off a lot of people in the families.

“But so what? Only the capable guys are able to achieve something that huge. If you were an unknown, useless man, you wouldn’t have been qualified to be the leader of dozens of pirate gangs and the commander of the ‘National Protection Army’, would you?

“Therefore, I have already told all the dissidents that you—Boss Bai, Commander Bai—are recruited by me in person, which means that you are my man! I have vouched for you that you have recognized your wrongdoings and changed into a different person. Whoever goes against you will be insulting me! Tell me about it, is there anything that you should be worried about?”

“Thank you, my lord!”

Moved to tears, Boss Bai fell on his knees again. “My-My loyalty for my lord is certainly unquestionable. I will always follow my lord’s instructions in the future! As long as my lord wants it, I will simply march forward with my eyes closed even if a mountain of blades and an ocean of fire are ahead of me. So much as I waver for a single moment, ‘Boss Bai’ shall be cursed in the Imperium for all eternity!”

“Haha. Hahahaha!”

Li Wuji burst into laughter. “Rest assured. Rest assured. When I recruited you, I promised you that I would offer you a great future. Why would I put you in danger?

“However, well, so many pirate gangs have been gathered here under your command, and half of my starships have to stay here for maintenance due to the heavy losses in the assault just now. They will be under your command after they are repaired too!

“So many of the most advanced starships and bravest warriors have been given to you. I’m sure that you know what I want in return. I only hope that you can distinguish yourself or even play a vital role in the conquest of the Seven Seas Grand Market later.

“If you can achieve that, even greater wealth and glories will be waiting for you. The fourth quadrant is the hometown of ‘God of War’ Lei Chenghu. Years ago, he fought his way out of this place through real battles in person too. But he is old now. It’s time to let the new-generation fleet commanders emerge. From a pirate to a general, and from a general to a lord—such examples are not rare in the history of the Imperium. Who knows whether or not you are going to be the next?”

“Rest… Rest assured, my lord!”

Hot steams spurted out of Boss Bai’s nostrils. His face was red, and veins were protruding on his forehead. “I will die to return my lord’s appreciation!”

“Okay!”

Li Wuji nodded his head in satisfaction. He was about to pat Boss Bai’s shoulder again, but his hands stopped in the midair.

Slightly frowning, he glanced at his personal guard.

His personal guard, as if slapped hard by an electromagnetic whip, almost jumped to his feet in fear. He hurried to take away the second handkerchief and replaced it with a third clean, new one.

Observing carefully to make sure that there was no dust or sweat on the handkerchief, Li Wuji finally patted Boss Bai’s shoulder again. “A prodigal who returns is more precious than gold. Young man, work hard. Remember that you are a glorious lieutenant-general of the regular army right now. As long as you serve the country dutifully, I will certainly take care of all the other things for you. There’s no need to worry about anything.

“Alright, the mess in the Blue Sky Market will be left to you to clean it up. I am leaving now for other duties. Let’s meet again in the ‘battle of Seven Seas’ to come.”

“My lord…”

Boss Bai hesitated for a moment. Glancing at the huge, one-horned warship behind Li Wuji, he said, “I do have another request. I wonder, is it possible that my lord could stay here for another half day?”

“Oh?”

Li Wuji retreated his feet that stepped forward. “Why?”

“The Blue Sky Market has been occupied by the space pirates—no, the ‘National Protection Army’. In the next second, I’m planning to hold a grand celebration dinner. Although it is a celebration dinner, it is meant to awe the disobedient heads of space pirates and make them completely obey me.”

Boss Bai said earnestly, “My lord, you should know that those space pirates are all brutal and rebellious. Even though they all agreed that I should be the commander of the ‘National Protection Army’ on the surface, a lot of them actually do not want to obey me and even want to replace me.

“While I have earned a tiny bit of fame in space during the past few years, I am not deeply-rooted after all and may not be able to compete with the seniors who have been infamous for decades. If I cannot suppress them hard, it will be inconvenient to command them in the future.

“Therefore, while my lord is still here, if you could join our celebration dinner and endorse me to intimidate those seasoned thieves, it will be easier for me to mobilize and command them!”

Li Wuji slightly frowned. “Huh…”

“My lord—”

Boss Bai continued, “The battle of Seven Seas is underway. My National Protection Army will be an unexpected army in the battle. What matters most in a surprising attack is commanding and administration. If the pirate gangs cannot be united, the surprising attack will not be as effective as planned. Even though I am really determined to die for my lord, I would not be able to return your appreciation if those seasoned thieves do not obey me!”

His words convinced Li Wuji.

“Fine.”

The third-level lord who was loyal to the four Kurfürst families nodded his head and said after a moment of consideration, “I’ll stay for another half day to back you up!”

Half a day later, on the major square of the Blue Sky Market, the scents of meat and wine were soaring to the sky. The brutal bandits from dozens of pirate gangs, mostly in bizarre clothes with scars all over their faces, had been gathered. Donned in the fancy garment they just stole from the warehouses and holding the alluring whores in their arms, they drank and ate and roared to their hearts’ content.

Of course, theoretically speaking, those hideous fellows were no longer notorious space pirates but the “National Protection Army”, a regular army acknowledged by the Council of Elders.

“Haha. This is truly a gratifying battle and also a gratifying loot! The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is truly affluent. Even the Blue Sky Market, which only ranks in the top five, has so many treasures. I truly wonder what the ‘Seven Seas Grand Market’, which ranks top, looks like.”

“Hehe. You’ll have an opportunity to check it out in a few days. When the day comes, we will loot the hell out of it exactly like we did today!”

“What ‘loot’? Remember, we are a legitimate army of the government now. Haha. We are not space pirates in a robbery, but government soldiers settling a rebellion. Naturally, we will need to confiscate the belongings of the rebels after they are settled!”

The space pirates were all drunk, but Boss Bai was still toasting them while carrying a giant tank of wine.

The space pirates were all experienced, high-leveled Immortal Cultivators who were highly wary when they were sober. They would not be drunk even if they drank a thousand cups of regular alcohol. Also, they often forbade themselves from getting drunk and kept themselves a hundred percent sober every second.

But today was different. What Boss Bai offered today was the wine mixed with powerful excitants and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that could paralyze the nerves and the soul of the high-level experts.

Everybody on the spot was aware of that. Even Li Wuji had given connivance.

Drinking and getting drunk was not because they were drunkards; it was only a demonstration of power.

I am the commander of the National Protection Army and the leader of the alliance of space pirates. When I offer you wine, what I want to see is how you make a fool of yourself after you get drunk. Will you drink it and get drunk?

If you don’t, you will be showing no respect for me, violating my order, and not regarding me as a commander and your boss, won’t you?

If you do not drink any wine and never get drunk, how can I trust that you will completely follow my command and carry out my orders without any hesitation on the battlefield in the future?

Chapter 2444: Arrogance of the Scoundrel!

There was not much trust among the space pirates. They were merely gathered together because the Kurfürst families were powerful and gave abundant rewards.

Letting Boss Bai be the commander of the jumbled “National Protection Army” was also meant for him to take the bullet for everyone when things didn’t go well.

The space pirates never hesitated to shift sides. While the Kurfürsten did look stronger for now, what if something went wrong and the reformists really defeated the Kurfürsten in the end?

Later, when the reformists assigned blames, the commander of the “National Protection Army” would naturally be the first to be executed!

For those heads of space pirates who had raged the sea of stars for decades, none truly agreed with Boss Bai’s leadership.

However, Li Wuji, a legitimate noble of the Imperium and a powerful person of the Kurfürst families, was standing right behind Boss Bai. Further away, tremendous starships of the Imperium were also watching.

With that in mind, when Boss Bai toasted them with giant bowls, it was impossible for them to turn down the “kindness”.

It couldn’t be helped. For the sake of Li Wuji… and so many starships, they had to be drunk today.

“Brothers, the Blue Sky Market now completely belongs to the space pirates—no, the National Protection Army! There can’t be a starship of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors or the reformists in the millions of kilometers around. Also, we have controlled all the space zones nearby that are suitable for space jumps. Even a feature would be burnt up immediately after it is teleported! So, just rest assured. This place is absolutely safe. You can put down all your concerns and enjoy the dinner. Whoever is still awake after the dinner can slap me in the face. If you think that the dinner is not enjoyable enough for you, and if you don’t slap me in the face, it will mean that you are not showing any f*cking respect for Boss Bai! Haha! Hahahaha!”

Boss Bai was the first to get drunk and soon revealed his real appearance of a scoundrel who did not know who he was at all. He seemed rather restrained and batted the alloy tank of wine hard with the steel bowl, barely able to speak clearly.

His clothing was almost that of a textbook parvenu.

The battle in the Blue Sky Market was just over, and the temperature was still high despite manual adjustment. However, he was wearing a red leather coat that he stole from the warehouse as well as a chimney-like hat that weighed almost ten kilograms. At the top of the hat was a colorful, glittering marrow crystal that was glowing like a searchlight. He couldn’t have seemed more extravagant.

It was a shame that the priceless leather coat and the hat were designed for the muscular men more than two meters tall living on the frigid planets. Boss Bai, on the other hand, was a skinny, emaciated shorty. When he was covered in such a huge coat, he was like a kid who had stolen the clothes of the adults. It was needless to say that the big hat was falling all the time and covering his face, turning into a headgear that did not have holes for the eyes and the mouth. As a result, he was forced to poke the hat with his fingers now and then in order to keep it steady. He did not leave the impression that he was a magnificent man at all, and even the most uneducated space pirate couldn’t help but think that he was a monkey in the clothes of a human!

That was not all of it. In order to stuff the coat and the hat, Boss Bai had also inserted a lot of rarely-seen cloths into his coat. The things were great decorations, but they were of little use when he simply stuffed them into his arms.

He did not give himself away yet when he gave the “inauguration speech of the commander of the National Protection Army”, but things gradually went wrong as he toasted the space pirates table by table. His face was redder and redder, and his movement was greater and greater. As a result, the cloths were either dropped to the ground or dragged behind him, making him look like a red-skinned mouse that had grown out variegated tails.

A few guys from the Big Bai Pirate Gang had noticed it, but they did not have the courage to remind their boss. Looking at each other in bewilderment, they could only follow Boss Bai while holding the cloths that had accidentally fallen. The scene was so hilarious that even the most experienced and heartless bandit would’ve burst into laughter.

As for the giant Cosmos Rings on his fingers, they were probably just stolen from the warehouses, and Boss Bai was so busy to show himself off that he did not have time to crack the retrieval code. It was needless to mention the trivia, such as his pockets that were brimming with crystals, with a few dropping to the ground after every step he made forward.

Most of the space pirates were too greedy to care about their image, but even they felt that the “superstar” Boss Bai, who miraculously rose to fame in the past two years, was too humiliating!

It also proved the opinion of many seasoned thieves on him. He certainly had his capabilities, but he was too arrogant and ostentatious. Such people were like firecrackers, who would fall as fast as they rose. So, he was the perfect choice for them to use as a shield.

He could be the commander of the National Protection Army if he wanted to. After all, if the coalition army of the nobles won, they would earn benefits by the way. By then, if the few experienced space pirates joined their hands, would it be a problem at all to make the arrogant little boy a figurehead? Shooting the back of his head on the battlefield and carving up his Big Bai Pirate Gang wouldn’t be too hard either!

Should the coalition army of nobles fail and the reformists won, they would immediately “rectify their behavior” by tying up the “commander of the National Protection Army” and sending him to the guillotine of the reformists. By estimation, the followers like them who were “forced to rebel” but who had a “battlefield uprising” later would not be punished severely.

The seasoned thieves had both fought and collaborated in the past decades. As both enemies and friends, they knew each other too well to say it out and understood what each other was thinking only with eye contact. For a moment, all of them were wearing mocking and weird smiles.

Of course, the smiles quickly disappeared and would never be discovered by Boss Bai. Since the man was so hotheaded and thought that he was the king of the world, just let them adulate him and exalt him to even higher places.

Therefore, the atmosphere of the dinner couldn’t have been warmer.

“Captain Zhao, do you remember the last job we did together with your ‘Tiger Devil Pirate Gang’? Hahahaha. It felt so good! So good! I was thinking back then when we could ever do a job again together. Today, the opportunity has finally come. We are about to work together to rob—no, to settle the rebels in the Seven Seas Grand Market, and I, Boss Bai, am your commander now! Come on, bottoms up! I know that you have a great alcohol tolerance. This keg—this keg is all yours. When the day comes, I will let your ‘Tiger Devil Pirate Gang’ march in first. The… the… the sexiest women will all belong to you. All of them!

“Captain Sun, we—hehehehe—we wouldn’t have known each other without the fight, right? I’m truly sorry for the business in the Black River Space Zone last time, where you lost so many hands. However, for the space pirates, business is business, and friends are friends. Boss Bai almost admires the unparalleled fame of ‘Ghost Blade’! That’s enough talking. These three cups are to show respect for you and to apologize for my offense last time. After this, we will be brothers. If you are still not satisfied, just vent your anger in the Seven Seas Grand Market with us!”

“Master… Master Qian, you are a well-respected senior in the circle of space pirates, and you started the business more than a hundred years ago, right? It must’ve been a tough journey. When you began your career, I was still using diapers, haha, hahahaha! The commander of the National Protection Army was supposed to be a place for a renowned senior like you, and it shouldn’t have been my turn at all. But I was told that you were having health issues because of previous injuries and that you offered to give the place away? The way I see it, you look rather vigorous. What injuries can possibly hurt you, the ‘Ocean Saber’? Come on, this is the best medical wine, ‘Tiger Collapse’, which is made of the marrows of dozens of ferocious animals. Although the alcohol is tough and you will be drunk for the night, it will be the best treatment to warm up the bones, boost the spiritual energy, and repair the damaged body! Come on, I’ll pour the wine for the senior in person. Senior, please!

“Brothers… Brothers, may I have your attention?”

Boss Bai staggered and toasted everyone at the dinner. Naturally, he talked more than he drank, but he had poured buckets of wine into the throats of the space pirates. The lesser space pirates dare not disobey him, while the powerful space pirates, intending to build up his arrogance, also drank plenty of wine to show respect for him.

As a result, even the most tough-looking and quick-witted thieves were more or less drunk now.

Right then, Boss Bai suddenly jumped to the top of a wine bucket and raised his cup high like a drunk bear. “I have a question for everyone. Whose men do you think we are right now?”

The space pirates looked at each other in bewilderment. Some shouted that they were the men of the Imperium’s army and the four Kurfürsten.

“Yes, we are, of course, the men of the army and the four Kurfürsten. However—”

Looking around, Boss Bai suddenly bulged his eyes and shouted aloud, “Space pirates are the most disgusting wolves and the greediest swine in the eyes of the regular nobles. None of them would bother to look at us unless it was absolutely necessary. It was all thanks to Marquess Yongchun’s negotiation and mediation that the four Kurfürst families finally accepted us!

“Are humans any different from jackals if they are ungrateful? So, remember clearly now. Just leave the Imperium and the four families behind. We are first and foremost men of the Marquess Yongchun. We are the lord’s loyal subordinates!

“Whoever the lord tells us to attack, we will attack. Whoever the lord asks us to bite, we will bite. That is exactly the ‘National Protection Army’. If who can’t do that, don’t blame me for cutting him into pieces!

“Come on, let’s give our lord a toast to show our respect. No, no, no. One cup is far from enough to express our admiration and gratitude for our lord! One bucket! One bucket for everyone! Fill it up! Fill it up! Here’s to the lord!”

Chapter 2445: He Can’t Be That Insane, Right?

After hearing that, the space pirates were obliged to drink now. While his words were vulgar, he did have a point. Space pirates were nothing but chamber pots and cleaning cloths for the nobles, who were only giving them the name “National Protection Army” in order to strike the reformists. But thieves were always thieves. Who knew whether or not they would be the next after the reformists were indeed annihilated someday, and they would be kicked away like the filthy, stinky chamber pot?

Therefore, if they could win the support of the powerful persons in the four families, say, Li Wuji who had come to recruit him in person, it would certainly be for the best.

On the other hand, for Li Wuji, if he had a bunch of strong and obedient space pirates at his disposal, it would be quite beneficial for him to expand his influence in the four families and the Council of Elders.

Now that both parties needed each other, they were obviously full of sincerity. Led by Boss Bai, the captains of all the pirate gangs, as well as the lone bandits, raised their wine buckets high and poured the liquids in. The amber-colored wine poured down like a waterfall. Thankfully, as Immortal Cultivators, they were capable of controlling their internal organs and vaporizing the water. Otherwise, their stomachs would’ve been broken when the buckets of wine were filled into them.

But as a result, when the water was vaporized, the nutritional tonics in the wine was diluted faster too, making them drunk even more quickly.

Seeing that the heads of space pirates were all blushing because of drinking, and the atmosphere was rather heated, Li Wuji slightly nodded his head to show satisfaction.

With his mysophobia, he would certainly not drink the same way as those pirates, but since so many people were toasting him at the same time, it would be inappropriate to not do anything. Therefore, he took out his personal cup and drank a cup of wine, which immediately raised a round of cheers. Naturally, Boss Bai’s voice was the loudest and most excited of all.

“In the next—”

Seeing that everybody had chugged a whole bucket of hard liquor, Boss Bai smiled and said, “The battle of Seven Seas is about to come. This is the end of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors but the first battle of the National Protection Army, which will be the beginning of our journey to the top of all the troops in the Imperium. Let’s drink another bucket of wine to celebrate the triumph of the battle in advance!”

Both the space pirates and the regular soldiers were most superstitious before great battles. Many things were best left unsaid, but now that Boss Bai had proposed to “celebrate the triumph in advance”, they naturally had to drink the second bucket of wine.

Otherwise, it would’ve been a curse that they would fail or die in the battle.

Immediately, a lot of soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang carried hundreds of buckets of hard liquor over. After the seals and the covers were removed, it turned out to be translucent ambers and gems inside the buckets. When the heaters were aimed at the ambers and gems and shined on them for a while, they were immediately “unfrozen” into fragrant wine.

Then, a few metal balls that could adjust temperature were thrown into every bucket, setting the temperature of the wine to the best level. It felt like the wine could crawl into their mouths on its own without them drinking as long as they raised their heads.

“Come on, let’s drink up and fight bravely on the battlefield. We are not to humiliate our lord!”

Boss Bai batted the bucket hard and shouted.

He was already staggering, his tongue blurred, and he could barely raise the wine bucket now.

While he was unable to raise the bucket, other people certainly could not follow his example, because Li Wuji and other nobles were watching them coldly!

All the space pirates knew that the dinner was, in fact, a test for them to see if the disobedient space pirates were docile and loyal.

Then, what else could they say? They’d finally found a chance to join the four families. Besides, the Blue Sky Market had been looted by them, meaning that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists hated their guts right now. They had no choice except to be loyal right now. So, just drink it up!

Therefore, the second bucket of wine was poured in.

But this time, many people were drinking obviously more slowly than previously. Their bellies were rising, and they were surrounded in mists, as if they were in the middle of a sauna bath.

After they finally poured the hard liquors with tremendous drugs that were specifically refined for the Immortal Cultivators into their stomachs, the wretched Boss Bai, out of their expectation, exclaimed again, “Everyone, everyone, I was told that our new emperor will ascend to the throne after the rebels of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are annihilated. While we are all unrefined folks, since we are ‘National Protection Army’, we certainly cannot forget our loyalty to His Majesty! It is not a tradition to toast only twice. The third bucket of wine is to our future emperor. May the Imperium of True Human Beings thrive and unite the sea of stars!”

All the heads of space pirates looked at each other in bewilderment, feeling a headache.

Although they had committed tremendous murders and other crimes, they barely touched hard liquors, which were essentially powerful aesthetics.

Since they barely drank anything, it was particularly troublesome when they did get drunk. Now that they were drinking such a great quantity of wine, which was also a mix of multiple different kinds of hard liquors, they felt that furious flames were burning their internal organs and flowing into their brains along the veins and nerves, corroding and paralyzing their souls.

If they were to activate their strength, they could naturally resolve the alcohol with their Cultivation.

However, how could they sit cross-legged and press out the alcohol right in front of Boss Bai and Li Wuji?

Many people were already seeing colorful stripes or even stars before their eyes.

Now that Boss Bai announced a third round of toasts, they all cursed in their hearts that the pretentious boy was too boring.

But now that Boss Bai had said that it was for the “future emperor”, there was no excuse for them to avoid drinking now. They had already toasted for Li Wuji with a bucket of wine. If they were to refuse to toast His Majesty, not just Boss Bai, even Li Wuji would not agree.

When the toast was for Li Wuji, you drank it, but when it was for the future His Majesty, you refused to drink. Then, was this a “National Protection Army” or Li Wuji’s private troop?

Li Wuji certainly knew better than leaving such a weakness for other people to criticize him.

Hardly had Boss Bai concluded his sentence when Li Wuji strode forward and raised his cup, not caring if the space pirates at the dinner were hesitant. “Exactly. The reformists and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are just ants trying to shake a tree in front of the might of His Majesty. When His Majesty ascends to the throne, the iron army of the Imperium will immediately crumble over all the heinous rebels! Come on, everyone, here’s to His Majesty and the Imperium!”

He was holding a cup, but what the soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang carried over this time were buckets that were even larger than the previous two rounds.

It was also perfectly reasonable. His Majesty was apparently much higher than a Marquess Yongchun. Naturally, the buckets of wine to toast His Majesty should be larger than those for the Marquess Yongchun.

The competition within the four Kurfürst families was also very intense. It was always the most sensitive period when a new emperor claimed the crown. One moment of carelessness, and even the smallest mistake could become other people’s weapons.

Even though they had lost the capital, they hadn’t lost their great tradition of inner fights.

One of the reasons why Li Wuji did not want to socialize with the rude space pirates more than he needed to was that their lack of manners would add to his trouble. But out of his expectation, what Boss Bai did was rather flawless. He couldn’t help but nod his head in approval.

The heads of the space pirates, however, looked awful. Some of the cautious thieves even grew wary.

To be honest, it was not unusual to attack the enemy under the excuse of meetings or dinners.

But things were different this time.

The battle between the four families and the reformists was fierce. The space pirates, which were large in number, were an important leverage and would tip the scales whichever side they were to join.

They might get removed when they were not needed anymore, but that time had not come yet. So, Li Wuji should be recruiting them sincerely.

Boss Bai, as the “mastermind”, had pissed off the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors with the attack on the Blue Sky Market. He certainly had no reason to betray Li Wuji and the four families and swallow them at such an absolutely inappropriate timing.

Even though Boss Bai had expanded a lot, they had twenty-nine pirate gangs gathered here, and Li Wuji’s regular army was also observing coldly. One Big Bai Pirate Gang was no match for them from any perspective.

However insane Boss Bai was, he couldn’t be hoping to swallow twenty-nine pirate gangs as well as a fleet of the Kurfürsten on his own, could he?

All the heads of space pirates thought again and again, only to find no suspicious points. So, they believed that the Bai-surnamed boy was only showing off now that things had gotten his way, and it was best to just wait and watch.

Raising their necks, they poured the third bucket of wine into their stomachs, before they all cheered, “We appreciate the lord and His Majesty!”

“Long live His Majesty, long live the Imperium!”

Boss Bai also held the bucket and drank it hard.

But he was too drunk to keep the bucket in his arms. So, he simply tossed it to the ground into pieces, with the wine splashing like blood. “We are all life-and-death brothers after the three buckets of wine! Whoever is disloyal to the Imperium or to his brothers shall be torn into shreds that will turn into rats mauling and biting each other, experiencing the pain more miserable than hell!”

He was completely drunk and began to talk nonsense.

“Commander Bai, this is enough.”

Looking at him coldly, Li Wuji said.

“No, it’s… it’s not enough.”

Boss Bai waved his hands uncontrollably and said, “Hahahaha. Today is the happiest day of my life. Can you imagine that…”

He almost waved his hands that were stained with wine to Li Wuji’s face. Immediately coming back to himself, he was covered in a cold sweat.

Li Wuji stepped back, his eyebrows almost rising, as he glared at him angrily. “Commander Bai, this is truly enough. I think the atmosphere is heated enough, and other people have shown enough respect for you as their commander.”

“Yes, of course.”

His lips shivering and his face reddened, Boss Bai said, while the odor of wine spurted out of his mouth, “I’m just too happy and want to serve my lord too much.”

Chapter 2446: Safe Journey, My Lord!

Li Wuji took another step back to dodge the odor of wine from Boss Bai’s mouth. Covering his nose with a handkerchief, he glanced at his guard.

His guard went forward and announced, “Please enjoy yourselves at the dinner. Our lord has to leave in advance for other duties. By the time the Seven Seas Grand Market is conquered, our lord will hold a party again and entertain the generals here!”

“Goodbye, my lord!”

Boss Bai crossed his hands and bowed deeply, bidding farewell to Li Wuji together with the space pirates.

But as it happened, probably because he had drunk too much wine, or probably he was too excited to digest it for a moment, his stomach roared when he bowed, and he burped so loud that he was almost vomiting the wine out.

Li Wuji was so shocked that his entire face was darkened. He hurried to leave with his nose covered.

The other heads of space privates wanted to laugh but did not have the courage to. Seeing how Boss Bai was making a fool of himself, they threw away the anger that they were forced to drink three buckets of wine a moment ago, and they further believed that the smug guy couldn’t have any scheme.

Boss Bai made two acidulous burps and struggled to press the wine in his throat back to his stomach. Knowing that he had greatly humiliated himself and probably pissed off Li Wuji, he hurried to clean up his clothes, wipe the greasy sweat on his face, and chase after Li Wuji.

“My lord, my lord!”

Boss Bai chased after Li Wuji on the road to the No. 1 dock.

“Commander Bai, is there anything else?”

Li Wuji turned around after hearing the calling. He said coldly, “If there’s nothing else, just go back and gather your troops. Like you said, it is not an easy task to unite so many pirate gangs. The Imperium has been treating you well. You have to serve the country dutifully to return the favor.”

“Yes, yes, I-I’ll certainly devote my life and soul to the country. Well…”

Boss Bai stammered, not knowing what he was saying at all. He said in embarrassment, “Well, I was slightly drunk just now. I hope that my lord wouldn’t… wouldn’t…”

Li Wuji tried to hold his laughter back and put on a smile.

This time, Boss Bai’s leather coat had been stained with wine and oil. It was greasy and stinky and couldn’t have looked more terrible. Li Wuji, with his mysophobia, wouldn’t pat his shoulder in person even if there were ten handkerchiefs on it.

His personal guard knew his master’s temper very well. He simply stepped forward on behalf of Li Wuji and patted Boss Bai’s shoulder.

“Commander Bai, everything about you is perfect, except that I didn’t know that you had a drinking problem.”

Li Wuji said thoughtfully, “I know that space pirates can be quite stressed when you make a living for yourselves, and if your nerves are tightened for too long, it is possible for you to get deranged. So, some of you like to soothe the nerves and the soul with special medical wines. It is also some sort of special training.

“However, a great war is coming near, and you have just recruited those disobedient guys, which needs you to be a hundred percent sober. If you fail your mission because of drinking, even I wouldn’t be able to save you.”

“Of course!”

Boss Bai was suddenly refreshed. He held his chest high and declared, “Rest assured, my lord. I will not touch any drop of alcohol from this moment on. If I ever do, please cut my tongue, my lord!”

“I do not want your tongue. What I want is the Seven Seas Grand Market as well as the lives of the revels of the reformists and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors!”

Li Wuji narrowed his eyes and gnashed. Then, he softened his voice and said solemnly, “Commander Bai, don’t ever think that I’m simply regarding the likes of space pirates as pawns and cannon fodder. At the very least, you are different from other people.

“If you were a pawn or cannon fodder, your life and death would be none of my concerns. Would I care if you drink at all? There would be no need for me to say any of this to you.

“However, I truly have high hopes for you and believe that you are more than a humble space pirate. Or rather, you have only joined the circle of space pirates soon, and it is still possible to rescue you.

“Come on, there are no other space pirates here. Let’s just be honest with each other. Do you think the four Kurfürst families’ recruitment of the space pirates is sincere? Is it possible that they will get rid of the space pirates after they are no longer needed?”

Boss Bai was slightly dazed, as if he were caught unprepared by Li Wuji’s subtle questions. Not knowing what to say for now, he sweated even harder. “Well, about that, I truly don’t know. Well, it’s not my place to say.”

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to know?”

With a smile, Li Wuji said unhurriedly, “In fact, you should know that the space pirates who have been in the business for decades are already rotten to the bones. Even though they are under the banner of a legitimate army, they still can’t stand restraints. After enough endurance, they will commit wrongdoings again because of the unchangeable nature.

“Therefore, the cooperation with those people is only temporary. One day, the National Protection Army will be further regrouped to clean the mark of space pirates in the past. That’s when it will be reborn into a real regular army.

“Just now, you said that you were my men, but are the space pirates really qualified to be my men?

“But you—Commander Bai, Boss Bai—are the only exception. I truly look forward to your future, and I’m raising you as a trusted subordinate. I will also invest in the regrouped National Protection Army in the future without caring about the cost and help you build an unprecedented deep-sky fleet that roams a hundred worlds invincibly.

“In short, I have no doubt that you should be one of the toughest fleet commanders in the Imperium in the next hundred years, but not a clandestine space pirate.

“Now, you should understand how important you are. Young man, a great future is ahead of you. Just try to seize it.”

Boss Bai seemed to be greatly shocked, as if he did not expect that Li Wuji would be so straightforward or think so highly of him.

Every wrinkle on his lips and his face was shivering, until he was shedding tears in silence in the end.

“My lord, you… you have given me so much appreciation that you are almost another parent for me!”

Boss Bai cried, “Although… although it was my parents who gave me my life, my life is solely yours now, my lord! It’s been many years since my birth parents passed away, and I’ve been making a living in space on my own for all those years. Nobody taught me any life lesson. Also, because of the environment, I was forced to embark on the wrong path in helplessness. Actually, I regret very much that I became a despicable space pirate.

“My lord has given me a new life. You have raised me so considerately without bothering my humble background. I really don’t know what to say right now. My lord, I do have another request. If it is too outrageous, please just consider it my drunk talk. The request is—well, I’ve been lonely for a long time since my birth parents died, but my lord’s kindness for me makes me feel the parental warmth again. Then, it somehow occurs to me how great it would be if my lord adopts me!

“Well, I know it is inappropriate—too inappropriate. My lord’s identity is too honorable for you to adopt someone like me as a son. However, considering my lord’s age, you are actually in the generation of my grandfather. I’m told that your sons are all strong and well-acknowledged pillars of the country. How fortunate would I be if I could be adopted by one of them and be my lord’s foster grandson!”

Slightly shocked, Li Wuji observed Boss Bai carefully.

Somewhat embarrassed under his eyes, Boss Bai chuckled and lowered his head.

“You are really…”

Li Wuji thought for a long time, only to come up with no word to describe Boss Bai. He simply waved his hands and said, “Let’s talk about it after the battle of Seven Seas Grand Market is over and the rebels of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are taken care of. Since you are loyal enough, it is not entirely unnegotiable.”

“Thank you, my lord!”

Overjoyed, Boss Bai kneeled again.

But this time, he was not falling on one of his knees, but two.

Li Wuji was quick enough to step away. His personal guard also supported Boss Bai to prevent Boss Bai from kneeling.

“Don’t do that. You are a general of the Imperium after all, and you’d better have the corresponding demeanor.”

Li Wuji couldn’t hold it back anymore. Pointing at Boss Bai’s leather coat, he said, “Also, hurry to change your clothes. Haven’t the regular uniforms and the battle uniforms of the Imperium been distributed to you? A regular soldier should be like a regular soldier!”

“Yes, my lord is right!”

Boss Bai immediately began to take off his clothes, as if he were determined to be naked before Li Wuji.

Li Wuji sighed and couldn’t take it anymore. He hurried to go.

“Wait, my lord, please wait!”

Boss Bai chased after him while taking off his clothes.

“Are you not done yet?”

Li Wuji had run out of patience. He said gloomily.

“Nothing. Nothing important. But please be careful on your way.”

Boss Bai said pitifully, “You have left half of the fleet here and are leaving with only the other half. I hope nothing will go wrong.”

Li Wuji sniffed and said, “The guards of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors have been destroyed in the ports of the Blue Sky Market without any survivors. The rest of their fleets are marching to the Seven Seas Grand Market crazily, ready to focus and defend their nest. As for the other fleets of the reformists, they are cleaning up the mess in the capital and have no time to deal with us for now, don’t they? What can possibly go wrong?”

Realizing that he had misspoken, Boss Bai said, blushing, “I just want to remind my lord to be wary of… the Cultivators!”

“The Cultivators?”

Li Wuji stopped his foot that was about to step away. “It’s been a long time since I heard them. Why, is this place harassed by the Cultivators?”

“Yes, it is.”

Boss Bai said solemnly, “The Cultivators are even more brutal and horrible than space pirates. They do not have any personal desires or weaknesses, which means that it is impossible to negotiate with or recruit them. There is no telling what they think, but they seem unafraid of failure or death.

“It had been many years since any Cultivators caused trouble in this area, but they began to raise turmoil again recently. Their general soldiers are not a big deal, just a few farmers and miners who have stolen some chainswords and storm bolters. But their leader, ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, is really a tough one.”

Chapter 2447: The Damn Cultivators!

“Oh?”

Seeing the hate on Boss Bai’s face, Li Wuji somehow grew interested. “Why, have you fought him? Is he very tricky to deal with?”

“We are all making a living at the edge of the Imperium. If the Cultivators get more, the space pirates will have less. Naturally, there are frictions.”

Thinking for a moment, Boss Bai said, “Most of the Cultivators are not exactly tricky, but they can be more persistent and better at running than us.

“We space pirates do not have many supply and maintenance points in the vast space. After all, most of the cities are scared of us. Before, apart from the free fairs under the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, there were only several ports of space pirates where we could be anchored. If we missed the supply points and encountered a space storm, we would be dead for sure.

“Those Cultivators, on the other hand, seemed particularly good at activating the ordinary people. They could also hide themselves among the ordinary people. In every resource planet or every mine, no matter to whom those places belonged, they could always find a way out or melt themselves into the local people.

“In the past twenty years, the Imperium had an expedition first and then… a rebellion later. While the space pirates were developing, the Cultivators were developing too, even faster than the space pirates in a lot of places. That’s really unbelievable!

“I’ve considered it for a long time, and I think that an ancient saying summarizes it quite well. Those who are barefooted are not scared of those who are wearing shoes, and those who are powerful are scared of those who are dogged!

“Compared to the government army and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, all the space pirates are barefooted. We have nothing but our worthless lives, and the battles are always in our favor no matter how they are fought.

“Those wretched Cultivators, on the other hand, are even more destitute and unafraid of death than us. We are all traveling in space to earn money and make a living. Since there are not many profits, we are often reluctant to attack the Cultivators, but those poor wretches often assault us when we have just done a big job, with our arsenals empty and our trophy warehouses full. Once they succeed, they will immediately move on to the resource planets and distribute the stuff they stole from us to the local miners and farmers.

“As you can see, my lord, after those people get benefits from the Cultivators, they will naturally side with the Cultivators and give them information. They will help treat the wounded and fabricate identities, and they will even ask the youngsters in their families who cannot live on anymore to join the team of the Cultivators—the damn ‘Starlight’.

“The space pirates always highlight a timely evacuation when an attack fails. How can we march to the resource planets to annihilate the Cultivators? We can only sit and watch them buying people over with the stuff that we looted through all the trouble. What’s the outcome? We take all the blame, and they have all the benefits. Yet, there is no way that we can settle the scores with them. It’s truly maddening!”

Li Wuji nodded his head and sighed. “Yes. While the Cultivators are just minor trouble compared to the Covenant Alliance and the rebelling reformists, they have been active for a thousand years since the fall of the Star Ocean Republic. During the thousand years, the minor trouble was never completely resolved, and it would be revived after every decade. It is undeniable that the Cultivators do have high expertise in deceptions. Since even the government army has failed to extinguish them, it is only natural that you can’t either.

“Right, let’s talk about that ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie. I’ve vaguely heard about the name before when I was in the Li family. He is an expert in the organization of the Cultivators who only rose recently, isn’t he? How good is he compared to you?”

“The Fist King is very strong. I’ve fought him several times. Neither of us was a winner.”

When Lei Zonglie was mentioned, Boss Bai immediately grew solemn. Considering for a long time, he said, “However, the deepest impression that the man left on me is not his combat ability. If we are talking about combat ability, so many experts were sent by the four Kurfürst families when they hunted me, but none of them could do anything about me, could they?

“But this ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie is also a specialist of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus besides fighting. He is best at hacking the control system of the hostile starships, thereby interfering with and taking over the whole starship.

“When my Big Bai Pirate Gang encountered the Cultivators’ fleet of Starlight, ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie could hack my command system and mess up my previously delicate battle formation while he fought with me.

“Damn it. Why is he nicknamed ‘Fist King’ when he is obviously a specialist of crystal processors? How shameless!

“That was truly the most humiliating thing ever since I began my career. I intended to keep it a secret forever, but since my lord has been treating me so well, would I even deserve to be a human being if I kept anything from my lord? All in all, I suffered a notable setback from ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, and it was quite fortunate of me to have returned in one piece.

“I was among the lucky dogs. I was told that quite the local garrisons of quite a few Sectors had also encountered the Cultivators’ fleet led by ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, and many of their starships had been hacked and stolen. Under his leadership, the crushed members of ‘Starlight’ who fled to this place in a panic have been redeveloped and revived, and it took only less than one year.

“I’m thinking that since the war between the four Kurfürst families and the reformists is coming near, the Cultivators are unlikely to sit by and watch but will certainly jump out and stir trouble. Now that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors tried to recruit us, who knows whether or not they would recruit Starlight? That’s why I asked my lord to be careful on the way.”

“Huh…”

Considering for a long time, Li Wuji slightly nodded his head. “The information is very important for our next step in our operation. Commander Bai, it is very considerate of you.”

Having been complimented by his master, Boss Bai smiled as delightedly as a blooming flower. “My lord is both strong and blessed. Even though you do encounter that ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, my lord will certainly crumble him into pieces. It was unnecessary for me to say anything.”

“No, whoever the enemy is, one can’t be too careful in dealing with them. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Li Wuji looked at Boss Bai with great satisfaction. “You’re quite right on this one. It was indeed necessary to report it to me. If you have any other intelligence in the future, just contact me via the private communication channel that I gave to you. Remember, that is a channel only you know. Of all the space pirates, it is your voice that I want to hear.”

“Understood!”

Boss Bai smiled in ecstasy. “I will certainly live up to my lord’s trust and appreciation!”

“Very good. Now go back and restrain your troops. If they are too greedy and wild, they will have no combat ability at all.”

Li Wuji waved his hands. “I’ve stayed long enough in the Blue Sky Market. If you have anything else, just contact me through the secret letter.”

“Of course. Farewell, my lord.”

Boss Bai saluted in an unprofessional way first, before he bowed to the ground, his pointy and skinny bottom poking backward.

By the time Li Wuji boarded on “Eternal Spring”, his flagship, Boss Bai was still in the dock of the Blue Sky Market like a black, little nail.

Having returned to his personal chamber on his flagship, Li Wuji did not have any smile or trust on his face anymore as he observed Boss Bai through dozens of surveillance cameras.

Through the feedback of the dozens of surveillance cameras, Boss Bai’s every movement and every change of expression during the past half day were scanned and analyzed carefully a hundred times.

“My lord, the soundwaves of every word this Boss Bai said just now, as well as his facial changes and other biophysical changes, including heartbeat and blood flow, have been analyzed in detail just now. There… shouldn’t be a problem.”

A young, handsome adjutant who looked similar to Li Wuji stepped forward and brought him a cup of green tea first before he inputted a comprehensive analysis report into Li Wuji’s portable crystal processor. He said boldly, “However, I’m still not fond of him.”

The adjutant who had the privilege to enter Li Wuji’s personal chamber freely was naturally not a random person. He was the biological son of another powerful person in the family and sort of a nephew for Li Wuji.

It was a tradition that the powerful persons in the family struck an alliance. They would entrust their biological sons to each other for tutelage in exchange for a more valid alliance and deeper trust so that they would be condensed into an inseparable community of interests.

Therefore, the adjutant could be counted as a half true disciple for Li Wuji. Plus the noble identity of his father, he did not need to be too careful about how he talked.

“The Bai guy is certainly not a likable man. When I saw him, I thought of a rat grinding its teeth in the gutter.”

His eyes closed, Li Wuji took over the refreshing perfume that the adjutant handed over and smeared it on the sides of his nose, soothing the disgust of dealing with the stinky space pirates. “However, I didn’t recruit him for his personal charisma. Even a rat has a rat’s usage, doesn’t it?”

“He is a treacherous scoundrel.”

The adjutant retrieved a few pictures where Boss Bai dragged Zuo Tianying to walk. Then he said, “Please take a look, my lord. How arrogant the Bai guy was when he was faced with Zou Tianying, and how adulatory and shameless he was before you! He even wanted my lord to adopt him? That’s truly daydreaming. How can the noble blood of the Li family be tarnished by that kind of people?”

“He is a space pirate. If he is not a shameless scoundrel, are you expecting him to be someone chaste?”

Li Wuji was still not bothered. He even laughed in amusement. “Despite the clumsiness, he was still pledging loyalty to me. Don’t bother about the small details.

“Your analysis of micro-expressions and biophysical parameters should support that too. Except for his brazenness and desire for power, his face does not imply any other scheme, right?

“I’ve seen too many such people. He may be insane and crazy when he is a space pirate, but he is just waiting to sell himself for a good price!”

“I just don’t understand.”

The adjutant stared at Boss Bai in the picture gloomily.

At this moment, the fleet that Li Wuji brought had taken off and left the Blue Sky Market, but until the last starship left, Boss Bai had been standing there to see them off.

Boss Bai’s spiteful behavior made the adjutant uncomfortable. The pure adulation and shamelessness was something that a noble descendant like him couldn’t understand. “Why do we have to recruit those scumbags?”

Chapter 2448: He Can Only Be a Dutiful Dog for My Lord!

“A rat and a scumbag can also be useful under the right circumstances.”

Li Wuji continued to teach his adjutant who was also a half disciple for him. “Space pirates gather and disperse unpredictably, yet they can cause great sabotages. They are like annoying flies that hum next to your ears all day and can be a great distraction.

“If you try to hunt those rats and scumbags, you may not be able to catch all of them, but as long as they begin to resent you, they will jump out and seek revenge from you in the next ten years there is a chance.

“Think about it. If such people are recruited by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists, who invest tremendous resources to arm and upgrade them, what great trouble will they grow into?

“Therefore, the ‘National Protection Army’ we established is not expected to have a great performance. It will be worth it as long as they are not inclined to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists.

“Besides, those scoundrels are adept at certain things that the regular army is not good at or unable to do due to their identity. If we use them well, they can be an army that catches everyone unprepared in both the war between the four Kurfürst families and the reformists right now and the competition within the families for me and your father to rise to higher places!

“Trading their loyalty with the resources of the family is always a great bargain no matter how questionable the loyalty is.

“One more thing. It’s true that I think highly of this Bai guy. He seems different from regular space pirates. How is the investigation on his identity going?”

“There’s no result yet.”

The adjutant shook his head. “His identity is truly mysterious. I’ve searched the official file databases of dozens of Sectors, but none of them contain the information of such an expert. It’s almost like he jumped out of nowhere.

“Is that so? That’s quite understandable.”

Li Wuji said, “The peripheral worlds of the Imperium have always been messy and disordered. Even the strongest family of Immortal Cultivators may be demolished, with everybody killed, in the blink of an eye. Those who luckily survived will also escape further into the space without leaving any information, as if the family had never existed.

“However, I have studied many of his battle cases and found the hint of the regular army in his tactical style, which indicates that he is probably associated with the army. Perhaps his father was a serviceman? All in all, he is neither from the family of space pirates nor with the rebelling reformists, and he should naturally be on our side.

“Boss Bai can’t be his real name, and his hideous face right now must’ve been carefully devised too. But it doesn’t matter. Up until so far, I can’t find any reason why he would betray me. Standing on our side is his best choice. He can’t be crazy enough to piss off the reformists and the four families at the same time, can he? Hahahaha!”

“You do have a point, my lord.”

The adjutant said, “Whoever he was in the past, now that he has cooperated with us and razed the Blue Sky Market, he has declared war on the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists, and he can only take our side to be my lord’s dog now!”

“Yes, that’s quite right, but I’m not putting a hundred percent trust in him either.”

Li Wuji said, “I’ve left a few spies in the twenty-nine pirate gangs that make up the ‘National Protection Army’. On the other hand, the half fleet that I entrusted to the Bai guy’s disposal will supervise him. Should he have any anomaly in the conquest of the Seven Seas Grand Market, the half fleet and the spies in the pirate gangs will teach him a good lesson about ‘loyalty’.

“My plan is absolutely flawless. What’s there to be worried about?”

The adjutant nodded his head and filled Li Wuji’s cup with hot water.

“Right—”

Sipping the hot tea, Li Wuji suddenly said, “How’s the intelligence work on the Cultivators going? The Cultivators have caused quite a fuss in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. A lot of information has come from various channels. Even the Bai guy told me a lot just now. Even a minor trouble can be quite tricky when it happens at a critical moment.

“The Cultivators’ fleet attacked seven military warehouses in the Red Fat Space Zone and disappeared after plundering tremendous assets.”

The adjutant said, “We don’t know whether they are upgrading their warships with our military assets, preparing for another big job, or it is an even worse possibility—that they have truly been recruited by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

“In my opinion, the regular Cultivators are not a big deal at all. Just a bunch of worthless mobsters. But that ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie is truly an extremely dangerous person, even more dangerous than this shameless Boss Bai.

“That’s right. ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie escaped from the Land of Sins of the Martial Meritocrats Sector. Getting to the bottom of it, wasn’t the dead man Li Lingfeng to be blamed for everything?”

Li Wuji said after a long sigh, “That pair of siblings is really interesting. The brother founded the Land of Sins and started the slaughter stream, only to broadcast the magnificent killing spree of the Cultivators to all the people of the Imperium. Not only was it a great humiliation for all the Immortal Cultivators, but he also let the crushed members of Starlight run loose. As a result, the tides of Cultivators have been breaking out nationwide in the past year. Even many Immortal Cultivators found their beliefs collapsed after watching the great collapse of ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’.

“The sister, on the other hand, is even more ‘incredible’. She has changed from the queen of the Imperium to the leader of the reformists and the temporary archon of the Imperium, about to swallow her family back. The Li family has truly suffered a lot. Otherwise, it would’ve been unnecessary for us to recruit all those flies, bugs, and rats.

“Are those siblings the heaven’s punishment for the Li family?”

The topic was too sensitive. Even though Li Lingfeng had died and Li Linghai had rebelled, Li Wuji could comment on them, but his adjutant, as a junior, did not have the courage to. He simply chuckled in acknowledgment.

“Alright, just go now. Let the captain perform a space jump after sailing to the designated steady area. I’m going to take a nap. There will be no need to wake me up.”

Li Wuji adjusted his chair, transforming it from a hard seat to a soft gel-like bed, before he lied down.

His adjutant quietly cleaned up the tea utensils and left the room.

Since he was on his own flagship, Li Wuji relaxed quickly and forgot the discomfort he had when he was dealing with the space pirates. But when he was half asleep, he was dwelling in new annoyance again.

It was not exactly about the Cultivators.

Even though the Cultivators did have a leader like “Fist King” Lei Zonglie, they would be no trouble in front of the powerful Imperium even if they were ten times stronger.

His concerns were not even the reformists or the Covenant Alliance.

After all, the reformists were too shallow and short of soldiers. They might have seized the capital, but so what?

In the past hundred years, after the rise of the four Kurfürst families, the heart of the Imperium had been beating more and more slowly in the first place. The symbolic significance of the capital’s fall was much greater than the actual significance.

Of course, the Empyreal Terminus Sector where the capital was at was a unique convenient intersection of space jumps. Losing it would increase the trouble for the Kurfürst families to communicate or gather their fleets, but there was nothing too severe.

As for the Covenant Alliance, it had been crippled in the great expedition in the past two decades, and it was an even lesser problem.

What Li Wuji was worried about was still the internal relationship of the four families.

The four families were both friends and foes. Before every new emperor ascended to the throne, a storm of blood had always been raised regarding the choice of the new emperor.

Queen Li Linghai had been through such competitions in person. That was why she was bold enough to kill Emperor Shenwu atrociously. It hit the critical part of the four families.

It was exactly Li Linghai’s goal to let the four families fight over the choice of the new emperor, which was an open, undisguised scheme.

But Li Wuji discovered, to his sadness, that even though they knew it was a scheme, they had no choice except to bite each other hard.

If the four families could be united, the Covenant Alliance, the reformists, the space pirates, and the Cultivators would’ve been annihilated a long time ago, and today’s devastation would be spared!

Li Wuji thought in pitifulness, “It’s a shame that nobody is really selfless. People of the four families understand it too well!”

Such national concerns only hovered for one moment in his head.

When the idea that “nobody is really selfless” popped in his head, he began to focus all his attention on his future interests.

The twenty-nine pirate gangs had been recruited by him. If the battle of Seven Seas went well, even more space pirates would join him, which would be a force not to be underestimated. If he could grasp them in his hands…

The capital had been conquered by the reformists, and there were a lot of vacancies in the Council of Elders after the casualties. Everybody wanted to move one step higher, and he seemed to have a great shot…

While thinking, Li Wuji fell asleep.

The microchips in the soft bed, sensing the changes of his biophysical parameters, switched to the sleep protection mode automatically. The gel became softer and gradually enveloped him, which could soothe the discomfort in the space jump later.

Li Wuji had been through countless space jumps. Also, he had invested a huge amount of money on the modification of his personal chamber. The wall, the floor, and the ceiling had all been embedded with buffer and stabilization rune arrays. There would not be much shaking even during a space jump, and his thinking and his rest would not be disrupted.

However, soon after he just entered his dream, perhaps only several seconds, a deafening explosion, as if the whole world had been turned upside down, shocked him out of his soft bed of gels.

“This is—”

Li Wuji’s pupils constricted violently as he sensed fatal cracks on both the starship and himself. It seemed that an invisible, uncanny force was tearing apart the entire starship and all the crew members in the most brutal way, trying to rip them into four-dimensional fragments!

Chapter 2449: The Silence Assassin

Li Wuji seemed to have been caught in a weird nightmare.

The wall around and the famous paintings hanging on it were suddenly stretched to somewhere far, far away, as if they were ten thousand meters from him, before they were suddenly bounced back to his face, almost whizzing into his eyes.

He extended his hands, only to discover that his hands were like blossoming flowers. Everything, from the fat and the veins to the nerves and the bones, was clearly visible, but he could not sense the slightest pain. The fundamental law of the three-dimensional world had been completely violated.

The deafening explosion just now was more than soundwaves too, and it was flowing, roaring, and corroding his soul that was exposed outside of his brain in glamorous colors!

It took Li Wuji a long time before he finally gathered a tiny bit of thinking ability and realized his status.

His flagship “Eternal Spring” and him were in a certain state of transition, or “superimposition”, when it was breaking into the four-dimensional space for a space jump.

However, the space jump did not succeed, and his starship or even his fleet had been bounced back mercilessly.

It was almost like a high-speed train running into an iron wall.

No, it was even worse than that.

It was because they were not bounced back because of the problems of the space jump units or other faults, but because the wormholes that they ripped were blown apart by bombardments, and they were thrown back to where they came!

They were assaulted by the enemy in the middle of a space jump. It was the most dreadful nightmare that no starship commander wanted to experience!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The deafening explosions congregated into a flood raging inside every pathway on the starship, collapsing and swallowing everything on its way—the crystal suits, the space shuttles, the arsenals, and the panicked Immortal Cultivators.

As a powerful person of the four Kurfürst families, Li Wuji had a fleet that was equipped with the most advanced and high-quality starships. The defense of his flagship “Eternal Spring” was only slightly lower than that of the general starship of the family. It was an out-and-out “super warship”.

Under normal circumstances, one Eternal Spring was enough to deal with a dozen hostile starships without losing when it was not with a fleet. It could even resist the fierce firepower of a space fortress the hard way and fire back at the enemy.

However, it was a whole different case when a starship entered the space jump state.

No matter how sturdy the alloy armor, how strong the spiritual shield, and how thick the interferential magnetic field was in the three-dimensional world, it was absolutely meaningless for a starship that had been unfolded in the four-dimension.

When unfolded in the four-dimension, all their internal parts would be exposed. How could the armor on their bodies help at all however solid it was?

When the enemy lurking in the dark suddenly dropped the disguise and launched the fiercest firepower at the fleet that was in the middle of a jump, it was not an ambush or a war but a sheer slaughter.

Eternal Spring and its owner, Li Wuji, were finally bounced back to the three-dimensional state.

But the damage caused by the intense explosions and the severe interferences were irreversible.

“Ahh…”

Li Wuji stared at his hands in a daze. During the process when he was bounced from the four-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state, space ripples had been flying freely inside the starship like blades without thickness and, other than reaping the lives of too many Immortal Cultivators outside, cut his three fingers and half of his ear. The blood was spurting crazily, staining the delicate woolen carpet on the floor into a mess. He was both disgusted and in pain.

His case was among the better ones.

His personal chamber had the best protection. So, the rampage of space ripples did not cause much damage.

He couldn’t imagine what a terrifying picture it would be outside, particularly near the engine compartment and the space jump units.

How did it happen?

His face pale and covered in a cold sweat, Li Wuji was completely lost.

Even the dumbest starship commander knew that, while space jump was the most important technology for mankind to conquer the universe, it was also the most vulnerable, defenseless moment for every starship and every passenger onboard and the most likely moment for the enemy to attack.

Therefore, a space jump should only be performed in the most steady area after ensuring that no enemy was around.

If possible, it would be better to ensure that they would be met by their own people at the destination of the jump, and they had large space gates for navigation. Only by doing so could the space jump be riskless.

Even though the commander on Li Wuji’s fleet was not the most famous general in the Imperium, he was still from a noble background and was a professional with decades of training and a hundred years of commanding experience.

The jump point he had chosen was the traditional, steadiest point in space near the Blue Sky Market. Every nine out of ten starships that passed the Blue Sky Market would choose to jump from here. Nothing had ever gone wrong.

All the warships in the Blue Sky Market that belonged to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had been destroyed or disarmed. It was absolutely impossible for them to take off and attack Li Wuji and his fleet.

Was it done by the space pirates?

Absolutely impossible. All the pirate warships were docked in the Blue Sky Market obediently under the watch of the other half of his fleet closely. Li Wuji did not receive any report of the anomaly at all!

A third force that was neither the space pirates nor the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had suddenly jumped out to attack them?

That was too preposterous!

The universe was too vast, and the distance was too far. Technically speaking, nobody could “suddenly jump out” at all.

Li Wuji’s starship could’ve detected the waves of the rushing starships within hundreds of thousands of kilometers. If a fleet had been coming at them aggressively from millions of kilometers away or even further, his commander, being neither blind nor deaf, couldn’t have neglected it at all or decided to perform a space jump under such circumstances in order to kill themselves, could he?

After all the impossibilities were ruled out, there was only one explanation that was most ridiculous and horrifying was left.

Li Wuji suddenly felt that his mouth was dry, and his heart had sunken into a bottomless canyon.

The only possibility was that there was indeed a hostile fleet, one that did not come at them aggressively from millions of kilometers away but had been ambushing right next to them all the time.

To be more exact, they had been ambushing in the steady space that was most suitable for space jumps near the Blue Sky Market.

Turning off the power units, retreating the spiritual shields, maintaining radio silence, and even lowering the artificial gravity and air circulation inside the starships to the minimum, they tried not to spread out the slightest spiritual wave.

If there was indeed such a silent fleet, which had stayed in the state of rocks and garbage for the past few days or even longer, it was indeed possible that they could’ve avoided the scanning of Li Wuji’s fleet under the cover of the stone belts outside of the Blue Sky Market.

However… However… However—

“How can there possibly be such an insane tactic!”

Li Wuji let out a scream of incomprehension!

In order to carry out such a tactic, the enemy must’ve arrived here a few days in advance to set up the ambush, and to not release many spiritual waves, the living environment on the starships must’ve been extremely harsh. Chances were that the temperature was below zero, and the air was stinky. Everybody had to wear their crystal suits and live through the few days in sufferings with the self-circulating respirators as tough as iron.

The mysterious, silent fleet was like an assassin who hid inside a swamp, holding the breath, the pores, and even the heartbeat, just in order to wait for an opportunity to cut the enemy’s throat.

Li Wuji discovered painfully that he seemed to have fallen into a fatal trap.

The mysterious enemy with such willpower and such a high control over the fleet was certainly not waiting for any random business group or pirate gang. The only prey that was worth their price was him, Li Wuji!

“My lord! My lord!”

His adjutant’s desperate screams echoed from outside the door.

Before Li Wuji answered, his adjutant, covered in blood and snot, had already barged in.

Li Wuji looked around and picked the flowery scarf on the table. Grabbing the adjutant’s collar with the scarf as a blockage, he shrieked, “Don’t panic! What exactly has happened?”

“A-A mysterious fleet that came out of nowhere launched an assault at us while we were carrying out the space jump!”

The adjutant cried, “Doomed! Our fleet is doomed! Most of the starships have been deformed by the space ripples and lost the abilities to attack, defend, or move. The remaining starships have also lost their commandership and become loose sand!”

“Idiot!”

Had it not been the blood and snot on his adjutant’s face, Li Wuji would’ve slapped him hard. “What do you mean by saying ‘they have lost their commandership’? What are the captains doing? Hurry and raise the spiritual shields and gather the starships that are still mobile! Even a skinny camel is still larger than a horse. My fleet is among the best at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. Even though we’ve been attacked halfway through the space jump, who can be certain to swallow all my starships?”

“It’s… It’s impossible to raise the spiritual shield or send any message to other starships!”

The adjutant replied, almost crying, “Our control system and even the entire battle network have been compromised and sabotaged by the enemy!”

“What?”

Feeling that his head was dizzy, Li Wuji shouted at the loudest of his voice, “How is it possible? Eternal Spring has state-of-the-art technologies in cyberwarfare. After we set sail and the dynamic defense system is activated, the password for every interface is changed more than a hundred times every second. Who could’ve hacked our battle network so quickly?”

“It was not hacked just now.”

His adjutant wailed, “When docked in the Blue Sky Market for maintenance and fuel refill, Eternal Spring was once connected to the database of the Blue Sky Market to collect the business secrets of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Billions of entries of information were copied. Somebody must’ve snuck in at that time and left a ‘backdoor’ in our system.

“By the time we had a space jump and the mainframe crystal processor of the starship was most vulnerable, the enemy kicked on the ‘backdoor’ and broke in like ferocious wolves!”

Chapter 2450: Arrival of the Iron Fist!

“You… You—”

Li Wuji felt that the world was swirling before his eyes in his fury. He finally slapped the adjutant in the face brutally despite the filth. “Idiot, somebody left a ‘backdoor’ on the mainframe crystal processor of the flagship and even the battle network of the entire fleet, and you had no response at all? Were you all dead?

“Also, even when we were anchored, it would still take a long time for the enemy to compromise our dozens of layers of defense, right? How could the enemy have achieved that?”

“You’re quite right, my lord.”

The adjutant said gloomily, “At that time, the Blue Sky Market was just conquered by us. Fires and explosions were still occasionally happening in the warehouses. As a result, the network system inside the market was unstable, and intense waves were happening every few minutes. Sometimes, the chaotic pulses from the explosions would affect our starships too. They are all the regular phenomena when a port is conquered. We never thought much of it back then. But now that we think of it again, that was probably when the enemy snuck in under the cover of the interferences and the pulses.

“As for the time, well, we did not plan to stay for long in the Blue Sky Market, which might’ve given the enemy an opportunity, but later, my lord—my lord was invited to the celebration dinner by the Bai guy. A lot of time was delayed. On your way back to the starship, my lord was stalled by the Bai guy again, who ranted on so many things, like asking to be your foster son, reminding you to be wary of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie. A lot of time was wasted again. Perhaps it was during that time…”

Li Wuji’s eyeballs protruded out of his eye sockets slowly, like the eggs being squeezed out of the birth canal, as he stared at his adjutant.

His adjutant had been too focused on talking eloquently to help his master analyze the current situation. It was not until this moment that he finally noticed his master’s murderous eyes. Flabbergasted, he hurried to stop and looked at his master pitifully.

“Get lost!”

Li Wuji bellowed and shoved his adjutant before he ran out of his personal chamber to the bridge.

“Whatever it takes, gather the soldiers that are still able to move. Let’s retreat to the Blue Sky Market with the unreachable starships as our cover!

“Drastic changes must’ve happened in the Blue Sky Market right now. We have to return immediately and suppress the Bai guy and then resist the newly-emerging mysterious enemy based on the defense system at the edge of the Blue Sky Market. This is the only way!

“If Boss Bai seizes the other half of our fleet in the Blue Sky Market and controls the whole defense system of the Blue Sky Market, we will be doomed for good!”

Li Wuji shrieked as he rushed away, not even noticing that one of his boots was missing.

Before him, the previously straight pathway had been twisted into a broken screw. Shockingly huge cracks were everywhere on the wall. Almost all the tubes and cables had been broken, either spurting out high-pressure air currents or unleashing spluttering sparks. Now and then, he saw the most terrible picture—a lot of Immortal Cultivators and the wall were melted into an inseparable whole, and metal particles had filled their internal organs. They had died the most miserable death.

They were all the consequences of the failed space jump.

When the crew members and the wall were dismembered, ready to pass the four-dimensional space, they suffered a heavy strike, which blew them together in the four-dimensional state like a tornado. After they were bounced back to the three-dimensional space again, they were already a tragedy.

It was also the first time that Li Wuji had ever seen such horror in person.

The scene was no worse than the cruelest torture for an unsullied noble like him.

He tried his best not to throw up on his way to the bridge.

It was a pity that the bridge of Eternal Spring was also mired in flames. Everything was a mess. The crystal processors and the seats of the crew were lying on the ground, and the small explosions never stopped.

The leadership, who should be controlling the starship and commanding the fleet, had mostly put on their crystal suits and were fighting the rogue fires and the balls of lightning with the foam extinguishers.

Li Wuji calmed himself down and meant to discuss it with the captain.

But to his surprise, the captain was standing before the mainframe crystal processor in a daze, staring at the main operation menu on the light beam in hopelessness and desperation.

Li Wuji looked at where the captain’s shivering eyes were looking, only to discover that the main operation menu of his flagship was empty. All the data and information had been shattered into glittering stars, and the stars were gradually condensed into a gigantic swirl, revolving slowly.

Very soon, at the center of the swirl, which looked like a black hole, an… iron fist slowly rose!

The iron fist was filled with the virile and barbaric blast. Rivets, screws, and rust were all over its surface, and steams that looked like white dragons were jetting from the joints. The sound of it squeaking after being filled up by fury was almost audible.

Then, from the top of the picture, a crown made of gears fell down on the fist in a bam.

The iron fist wearing the crown of gears silently watched the Immortal Cultivators who were in a mess.

“Fist King!”

The adjutant lost his cool and shouted behind Li Wuji, “It’s ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie!”

Li Wuji’s heart that had been falling in the valley was finally grabbed by that iron fist.

…

Five minutes earlier, in the Blue Sky Market, neither the space pirates nor the half fleet that Li Wuji left behind for supervision foresaw the slaughter among the broken stars five minutes later.

Li Wuji’s departure was actually quite a relief on the rude and disobedient space pirates, like the employees whose stern boss had just left. Everybody revealed their real appearance, screaming and shouting, pushing the joy of the party to the apex.

Even the seasoned marauders who had roamed the sea of stars for a hundred years had never looted such a famous, prosperous city at the edge of the Imperium like the Blue Sky Market before.

Whenever they came here for supplies and rest, they had to follow the management of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and needed to behave themselves even if they were visiting the brothels!

Today, after the conquest of the Blue Sky Market, the myriad of treasures in the warehouses were indeed great eye-openers for them, making them forget everything else.

The titles such as colonels or lieutenants of the Imperium further added to their confidence and courage, giving them the illusion that nobody would dare to ask for trouble since the four families were on their back.

It was needless to mention the leaders of the smaller pirate gangs, who had long abandoned their alert and wariness after the three buckets of hard liquor.

In the meantime, while Boss Bai had an unattractive look and only just began his career, he seemed to have been a space pirate ever since he was in his mother’s womb, and he knew what the space pirates thought and liked perfectly. Not only was everything that he said exactly what other people had in mind, but even the performances that he had arranged were also particularly spectacular too. Also, he had mediated between quite a few pirate gangs who had been holding grudges against one another for a long time, winning the cheers of everyone at the party and slighting altering the space pirates’ impression of him.

“Boss Bai is truly trying to be the commander of this National Protection Army. He is free to do whatever he wants. After all, we won’t lose anything.”

“We now work for the four Kurfürst families. Who is bold enough to challenge us here?”

“Even if any of them wants to challenge us, look, half of Marquess Yongchun’s fleet is still here, commanded by ‘Li Yuanzhen’, the lord’s trusted general. Even a madman wouldn’t attack us at such a moment.”

“So, let’s just indulge us for half a day. The transformation from space pirates to a legitimate army does call for celebration!”

Thinking as such, they never said no to the drinks that Boss Bai’s soldiers brought over. The wine of this round was made of dozens of fresh fruits and tasted more like cool juice than wine. According to Boss Bai, the alcohol percentage of the wine was very low, and nobody would get drunk. It was most suitable to refresh their stomachs that had just been burnt by the hard liquor.

While everybody was talking and laughing, nobody cared if it was right. But as it happened, after they drank the cool fruit wine, the dizziness just now was indeed much better, and they found themselves drinking more and more of it uncontrollably!

When the leaders of the pirate gangs were having a celebration dinner at the central square, the space pirates under their lead were certainly not idle either. Accompanied by the soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang, they gambled and drank and had great fun at the edge.

Boss Bai also meant to integrate the many pirate gangs with the celebration dinner. Hinted by him, the soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang gathered the members of other pirate gangs with the excuses of drinking games and dispersed them, leading them to different corners in the market.

As a result, it was true that the soldiers of the pirate gangs made a lot of new friends, but their old buddies who were in their own gang were all lost!

As time went by, the party was more and more heated and uncontrollable.

Even the officers and soldiers that Li Wuji left in the Blue Sky Market were moved by such an atmosphere and had a great time under the service of the members of the Big Bai Pirate Gang.

Proud of their identity, they naturally did not join the carnival of the space pirates, but they did not reject the delicious wine and the cuisines offered by Boss Bai either.

Perhaps there was only one person in the entire Blue Sky Market who retained the basic clearness.

He was Li Yuanzhen, a vice-admiral of the Imperium and the commander of the half fleet that Li Wuji had left behind.

Li Yuanzhen was Li Wuji’s cousin in the family and one of his trusted subordinates. Now that he had been left to supervise, his steadiness and his loyalty were certainly unquestionable.

Although all the enemies had been suppressed or imprisoned, and not a single force within millions of kilometers was strong enough to threaten them, the excessive revelry where nobody had the slightest restraint still made the well-trained, regular warrior naturally disgusted and wary.

“Commander Bai, this is about enough.”

Li Yuanzhen finally found Boss Bai. Bulging his brown eyes, he said coldly, “The Blue Sky Market is still unstable. Chances are that some people of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists are still lurking in the dark. Also, our starships are all seriously damaged and in dire need of maintenance and refill of fuel and ammunitions. Should we call it a day?”