by <unknown>
Li Yao took a long breath and clenched his fists. He had never felt more passionate!
His foster father was right. Enslaved by the wretched Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium of True Human Beings, the ordinary people were simply ants and weeds, nothing remotely related to human beings!
The war between the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators had only just begun. They would certainly fight to the end until the blood of the last Cultivator was shed in the sea of stars!
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and declared, one word after another, "Rest assured, pop. No matter how formidable the imperium is, we will show them the pride of the federation!"
Naturally, the slobby middle-aged man could not hear his reply. He simply continued. "Ah Yao, listen up. My homeland—the most dreadful force of human beings in the universe—is the Alliance of the Holy Covenant!"
"Huh?"
"The Covenant Alliance, the strong, most wicked, and most terrifying nation of human beings in the entire universe! So far, countless Sectors have fallen into the hands of the Covenant Alliance. None of them were even close to be match for the Covenant Alliance!
"To resist the Covenant Alliance, which is rising like the sun, even the traditional superpower Imperium of True Human Beings, which always considered itself the rightful successor of the Star Ocean Imperium, has betrayed its past beliefs, abandoned the glory of Cultivators, and trampled on humanity, turning themselves into pure animals and out-and-out war machines!
"Despite the gory prices they paid, the Imperium, which has been utterly deformed, only managed to slow the march of the Covenant Alliance. As for how long their fierce war at the center of the universe will last and which side will be the final winner, we might not be able to know the answer this century!"
"…" Li Yao.
"Listen Ah Yao, since you are close to, if not already at, the Nascent Soul Stage, you can more or less influence the policies of the federation now! If one day, the Covenant Alliance really comes at the federation, don't hesitate, and run away immediately! Run to the center of the universe and ask for the reinforcement of the Imperium of True Human Beings! If possible, it's best that the entire Heaven's Origin Sector be ceded to and protected by the Imperium of True Human Beings!
"Have you seen the metal stick? You don't need to know what it is. When you arrive in the imperium, go and find a woman named 'Li Linghai'. Give her the metal stick and the jade chip!
"The jade chip can prove your identity. There's also a video that I've imposed a barrier on. It's a few words that I've left for her. You don't need to know them.
"Since you are my foster son, after you give her the metal stick, she will not wrong you for my sake. Even the Heaven's Origin Sector might be protected by her and the imperium!
"Of course, that is depending on the imperium defeating the Covenant Alliance. If even the imperium is crushed by the Covenant Alliance, it will be doomed. Everything will be doomed!
"You don't need to worry about where to find Li Linghai. If you really make your way to the imperium, just ask anybody you run into, and they will tell you where she is. However, as for exactly how you can approach her, you will have to work it out yourself.
"Remember, nobody except Li Linghai is to see the metal stick. If anybody does, kill them immediately! Otherwise, you will be mired in infinite trouble!
"This is also one reason I hesitated to tell you the truth.
"As for this video, you can clip the part about the metal stick and Li Linghai off and simply inform the leadership of the federation of the existence of the Covenant Alliance and the imperium so that they can be better prepared!"
The slobby middle-aged man coughed and vomited a mouthful of blood. Not bothering to wipe it off, he mumbled, "Ah Yao, I know that you are good kid. The Star Glory Federation is a good country that persists in the orthodoxy principles of human beings, too.
"Perhaps, after you reach the imperium, you will find their approaches in complete violation of your beliefs and your moral standards. Those condescending and merciless Immortal Cultivators will definitely appear unacceptable to you!
"However, trust me. No matter how evil the Imperium appears to be in your eyes, the Covenant Alliance will be at least ten thousand times eviler!
"Are we clear?"
His eyes were bloodshot, and he was almost extending his head out of the light beam. He shouted desperately, "Don't trust the Covenant Alliance. Don't trust the so-called 'Path of Ultimate Benevolence' or 'Pangu's Covenant'. Don't trust any of that. Never!
"This is the cruelty of the universe today. If you have to choose sides between the Covenant Alliance and the Imperium in the bleeding sea of stars, the Imperium should be your only option.
"However unwilling you are, and however ugly the Imperium of True Human Beings is, it is by far… the last guardian of humanity now!"
End of Volume III
Prelude of Volume IV
"Cough, cough. You self-righteous Cultivators don't know the first thing about the universe or the true meaning of 'human being'!"
…
"A few youngsters in the Nascent Soul Stage… who gave you the courage to clamor here?"
…
"Haha! Come on, old monster. Open your eyes and observe! This is the true strength of human beings! We are the true human beings! The Immortal Cultivators shall never bend!"
Chapter 1186: Dancing Butterfly |
When the butterfly broke out of its cocoon, the world around her had experienced drastic changes. She was faced with the freezing rain and the overwhelming coldness on the Grand Desolate Plateau of the Heaven's Origin Sector in the early spring, instead of the warm, moist breeze at the south of the Blood Demon Sector, her hometown.
The ghastly changes caught the little creature unprepared.
But her species was best known for their tough vitality. During the prolonged cold winter, when most insects were frozen in the snow, her species would turn into a cocoon and weather through the winter before they became butterflies again and reembraced the sun when spring came.
Before her simple nerves responded to the changes of the outside world, the strength hidden in the deepest part of her genes forced her to flap her wings fast and fly higher.
She observed the world around with great interest, trying to look for a shelter that was slightly warmer and food, of course. After feasting upon the delicious, sweet juices from flowers and grasses, she would also need to find a mate to pass the ancient genes inherited from her ancestors on to the next generation.
Her nerves that were too simple, bordering on shabby, could not afford too much hesitation, depression, and self-pity. After making sure her destiny, she was no longer confused or overwhelmed by the fear of failure or death, focusing on dancing in the cold rain.
Unfolding in front of her eyes, however, was a dazzling new world.
After several months of arduous effort from millions of workers and federal soldiers, the boundless Grand Desolate Plateau was no longer as empty and desolate as it had once been but a lively picture of prosperity!
The molten steel was spluttering, and the heavy magical equipment was fulminating. Hundreds of workers gathered together and sang the most deafening songs, as loud as the anthems of the legions of the federal army nearby. Even the clouds in the sky seemed to be shattered!
Based on the abandoned starships and the fixed tents, and with the underground buildings as the core, a new city was already taking shape after only several months.
The city, which was named Grand Desolate, would be not only where the Grand Desolate War Institution was located but also the communication center of economy, politics, and culture for the three Sectors!
The butterfly was fascinated by the lively scene there. Because of the hard-working workers and soldiers, the temperature in Grand Desolate City was several degrees higher than the wilderness, a difference that would very likely determine her life and death.
The butterfly flapped her wings and flew to Grand Desolate C
ity.
Countless glittering, bizarrely-shaped buildings, unseen before in the history of either the Heaven's Origin Sector or the Blood Demon Sector, were flashing below her translucent wings.
If her wisdom was enhanced a million times, and after thousands of years of evolution, she might come to realize the usages of those buildings and what an incredible miracle it was to have such buildings established on such a derelict place!
At the outmost area of her leap, in the northwest direction of Grand Desolate City, the super communication arrays made of more than fifty thousand pan-like signal transmitters could break the limitation of the three-dimensional space and make the information perform space jumps, thereby achieving real-time communication among the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector.
Although the so-called 'real-time' still had minutes, if not hours, of lag, for the Sectors that were countless light years away from each other, the delay was nothing more than the blink of an eye.
Next to the super communication array was a giant pit, dozens of kilometers in diameter. It was dark and bottomless. The sand and rocks excavated from the pit alone had been piled into a continuous man-made mountain next to Grand Desolate City. There was also a microclimate around the giant pit and even an inward attraction force, which nearly swallowed the butterfly.
The pit was the upgraded version of the Heaven's Artillery, which was still under construction. After adopting the state-of-the-art space jump technology of the Flying Star Sector, it would boast a teleportation ability dozens of times higher than its previous version. Projecting several Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators to certain coordinates in the space zones nearby would not pose a problem!
The new-generation Heaven's Artillery, the under-repair Eye of Blood Demon, and the Cosmic Slingshot of the Flying Star Sector would be the bridges that connected the three Sectors!
Wu!
A prolonged shriek suddenly echoed from another enormous building below the butterfly. Scared, she hurried to dodge to one side.
The dome of the egg-like building, on the other hand, suddenly split apart and retreated to the two sides. A light crystal warship activated the anti-gravity rune arrays and slowly floated from inside.
The strengthened external skeletons on the front of the warship and the pair of crystal and acid cannons, which should have been contradictory to each other, indicated that it was not a random crystal warship.
In fact, it was an experiment model of the new-generation warship that had adopted the most advanced technologies of the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector. It was installed with a dual system of biochemistry and spiritual energy, and it was covered by both crystal armor and a strengthened external skeleton. Crystal cannons and acid cannons were both its weapons. Crystal cables and synthesized neurons were utilized at the same time to maneuver it.
To quote the reporters of the Star Glory Federation, who liked exaggeration more than anything else, it was a future warship!
Boom!
The experiment, which represented the future, collapsed in black smoke with a dull fulmination after rising only less than two hundred meters, perhaps due to the incompatibility of the dual system.
The refiners in the dock, however, had been prepared for all this. Hundreds of buffer rune arrays were activated at the same time. An invisible safety net seemed to be weaved above the dock and held the broken warship. After fluctuating for a moment, the warship became still in midair.
The refiners, wearing the engineering crystal suits from the Flying Star Sector, hurried to fly to the damaged parts of the warship.
The butterfly was deeply awed by the enormous creature. An enormous beast that had collapsed was still an enormous beast. It was not something that she could approach.
The butterfly continued flying toward the center of the city. She passed a brand-new campus that the Grand Desolate War Institution was planning, a crystal suit center co-funded by the three major crystal suit centers of the Flying Star Sector and the Glorious Sunlight Group, a research institute on the biodiversity of the Blood Demon Sector, and a trade market that came to being spontaneously and was running before the central area of Grand Desolate City was completed. The experts from the three Sectors often went there to exchange the messages about techniques, technology, magical equipment, and relics.
The butterfly did not know that the cocoon in which she had been hiding was buried in the soil of an Ice Marigold, which had been brought to the trade market from the Blood Demon Sector in a flowerpot.
Even if she did, she would not care about it because she too busy observing the colorful glass walls in the air, in which many giant creatures resembling hairless chimps were vibrating the air and sending out information she could not comprehend.
The butterfly was not certain whether the glass walls were real, or maybe they were intangible like the rainbows after a storm.
Her speculation was quite close to the truth.
The 3D light beams floated in the sky of Grand Desolate City were playing and replaying two pieces of breaking news.
The first piece of news was the conclusion of the war tribunal.
After the Blood Demon Sector submitted the instrument of surrender, and the two Sectors signed the peace agreement, the war tribunal targeting the Blood Demon Sector's invasion on the Heaven's Origin Sector immediately started to work.
During the century of conflicts, most of them were in the form of 'beast tide' in the previous ninety years. On many occasions, it was even impossible to tell whether the demon beasts of the Blood Demon Sector ran to the Heaven's Origin Sector on their own through the natural wormholes or they were actually driven by the demons.
In fact, weirdly enough, in the past ten years, although the two parties regarded each other as their sworn enemy, they had never officially declared war on each other.
Therefore, most of the cases that the war tribunal worked on were about the crimes that the coalition army of demons committed while it was sweeping across the Grand Desolate Plateau in the Battle of Dawn three years ago, as well as the crimes of the Red Tide Plan, in which the demons assaulted the capital city of the Star Glory Federation.
The Battle of Dawn was the first large-scale military action taken by the coalition army of demons to invade the federation. It was planned and organized by the Kingdom of Lion Butchers and the supporters of continentalism in the Nether Spring Kingdom.
It was a pity that most of the suspects had already been trapped by Li Yao and killed in the destruction of the Eye of Blood Demon.
Elder Nether Spring was perhaps the only survivor of the disaster, but his ending was certainly not a pleasant one. One might say that his karma had caught to him.
Thus, the only guy who could stand in the war tribunal to be trialed and should be responsible for the beast tide outbreak in the capital city was Jin Tuyi, the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons!
After months of deliberation, the nine special judges of the war tribunal had ruled unanimously that Jin Tuyi was found guilty of various war crimes, slaughter, and other felonies!
However, opinions differed as to how he should be punished.
By logic, death sentence was the only suitable penalty for such a criminal.
But Jin Tuyi was under very special circumstances.
After the examination of the Association of the Medication Healers and dozens of well-known neurologists, they had reached the conclusion that, before the war tribunal started, Jin Tuyi had already lost his wisdom because of cerebral sclerosis. He was no more intelligent than a newborn baby.
It meant that Jin Tuyi had essentially already died as a 'social person'. What remained was just a pile of meat that could breathe.
"As a suspect who has committed appalling crimes, if Jin Tuyi is executed in such an ignorant state, not only will it be painless for him, it will also be the greatest irony for the citizens who were killed miserably and even the entire federati
on!
"Having confronted Jin Tuyi face to face, I know his formidability very well!
"I'm even suspicious that he has accelerated the escalation of his cerebral sclerosis through a certain secret technique and turned himself into an incontinent retard intentionally. He must be trying to evade from the real punishment in such a way. It is going to be a mockery for the solemnness and the integrity of the federal law!
"If Jin Tuyi, as a retard, is sentenced to death right now, it is not going to be a real criminal of war that we punish but a pile of meat that looks identical to Jin Tuyi!"
Chapter 1187: Meeting of the Nascent Soul Stage! |
Regarding the sentence of Jin Tuyi and the way to punish him, debate remained unabated in almost every trade of the federation.
From the representatives, the ministers, and the leaders of the major sects, who were at the center of politics, to the ordinary folk who were not involved in national affairs, all citizens of the federation were considering how to conclude the war between mankind and the demon race in a way that was satisfactory for everybody.
Li Yao, the Ultra-Level Federal Hero, presented his opinions on the forums and through various media outlets. After making his declaration, he continued.
"According to the neurologists, at the terminal phase of cerebral sclerosis, even the nerve endings will be frozen. Other than the most fundamental actions that are controlled by the brainstem such as his heartbeat or breathing, he is barely able to do or sense anything. Nothing is painful for him.
"It means that, even if Jin Tuyi is minced to a pulp right now, he will not feel the slightest pain. On the contrary, his death will be the way for him to escape from the real punishment forever!
"Therefore, I don't think we should punish Jin Tuyi right now. I think we should preserve his body and head in a certain way until the day we can actually punish him comes!