by <unknown>
"Ever since I grasped my sword arts, I've never tasted such a feeling before. Even when I was faced with Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, I never experienced such uncertainty! Is this horror? In—incredible! Horror is truly amazing!
"I must train! Since such a dreadful opponent lives in this era, I am more determined to train myself than ever! I have a feeling that if I have a gratifying fight with Bai Xinghe without getting killed, my sword arts will certainly reach the next level, and my sword will really be able to butcher Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators!"
Waving his head, Yan Liren completely dwelled in the world of sword arts. He narrowed his eyes and shook his fingers, imaging the fierce and breathtaking battles with Bai Xingjian that could have taken place.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun, on the other hand, were left utterly dumbfounded, with 'you've got to be kidding me' written all over their faces.
"Even Brother Yan feels the same way," Long Yangjun said solemnly. "Is it possible that what I sensed just now was not an illusion?"
"Hey, hey, hey. Are you serious?" Li Yao asked. "Even you have sensed something wrong, and I was completely fooled and didn't notice any of it?"
"No. You're mistaken, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture." Long Yangjun shook her head and said, "You and I don't have as keen senses to swords as Brother Yan. I didn't realize that the seemingly strengthless commander of the fleet actually boasted such terrifying combat ability. I—I only vaguely felt that his appearance was not right. The way he gnashed his teeth impatiently, and his expression as if he was 'choked' by you, are slightly—slightly—"
"Please don't tell me that he was acting," Li Yao said coldly. He had never thought that anybody could be a better actor than himself. "I also carefully observed his every micro expression. It was definitely his real, uncamouflaged emotions!"
Long Yangjun nodded. "I know. His emotions were real, but the emotions seemed to be… slightly different from his true emotions.
"Let me put it this way. Suppose you are playing a video game. If you experience a setback in the game, or when you have lost a match, you will be frustrated and even infuriated, which will be your real emotions. Nobody can say that such emotions and your appearance are fake, right?
"But getting to the bottom of it, however real the emotions are, they are about a game after all!
"This is exactly the feeling that Bai Xingjian gave me. If the Big Bai Fleet was truly up to something and had come to completely seize Firefly, it would be a matter of paramount importance for both Jin Xinyue and the Star Glory Federation. At the very least, it would greatly influence Jin Xinyue's campaign!
"However, Bai Xingjian gave me the feeling that he was merely playing a game, as if the rise or fall of Jin Xinyue's gang did not matter to him at all, and he was merely playing with Jin Xinyue for fun!
"Such a feeling is truly hard to believe. Therefore, I've been thinking about it myself just now and thought that it was my imagination. However, since Brother Yan put it that way, this guy Bai Xingjian… definitely calls for our attention!"
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao felt tides surging in his heart.
He had absolute trust in the professional judgement of Long Yangjun and Yan Liren.
Therefore, in the warehouse of Infinite Fire just now, he did not swagger around and slightly humiliate Bai Xingjian; Bai Xingjian had intentionally acted weak and fooled him.
He had been humiliated by Bai Xingjian!
Damn!
Who do you think I am? I have fought hundreds of bloody battles and shown off more times than I can count. I always acted weak and crushed other people. Never did I expect that somebody would make the same move on me!
*sshole, wherever you're from and for whatever purpose you are lurking beside Jin Xinyue, it is outrageous of you to play the pig that eats the tiger to my face!
The more he thought about it, the more scared Li Yao felt.
According to Tang Dingyuan's introduction and the files on Bai Xingjian that he had collected just now, he should be an arrogant, disobedient, and impulsive man.
However, was it possible for an arrogant, disobedient, and impulsive man to hide his real combat ability for a hundred years?
Even Yan Liren, an unparalleled swordsman at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, felt uncomfortable about the guy's combat ability!
Nobody had ever noticed such a battle-type expert at least in the Nascent Soul Stage during his hundred years of growth?
Or maybe, whoever had seen him attack had been killed, both their body and their soul?
Is the guy really a cocky, rash, and fierce man?
Did he really leave the Burning Prairie Fleet because of the conflicts with his superior?
Is he really in the 'beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage' due to the help of the countless resources that Jin Xinyue provided because of his mental derangement before?
Was it Jin Xinyue who chose Bai Xingjian, or did Bai Xingjian… choose Jin Xinyue?
Is Jin Xinyue aware of his real capabilities, or is she really thinking of him as a random subordinate that she can command free at will?
Li Yao could not help but hold his arms. He suddenly felt that his little disciple was in great danger!
Right then, Li Yao's portable crystal processor slightly buzzed. It was Cui Lingfeng's special line!
"Speaker, the situation on the Big Bai Fleet's side is already under control. Their commander Bai Xingjian understands our current state. I don't think that he will act recklessly."
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao did not plan to pass on Yan Liren and Long Yangjun's discovery to Cui Lingfeng, the main reason being that it was impossible to explain himself. With Yan Liren and Long Yangjun's capabilities that they pretended to have, it was absolutely impossible for them to have seen through an unparalleled expert at least close to the Divinity Transformation Stage.
Also, the issue concerned the safety of his own little disciple. Naturally, he could not idle by and watch as a master, so he had to take certain actions in secret.
Cui Lingfeng, on the other hand, shook his head and said, "Leave the Big Bai Fleet aside for now. Ding Zhengyang confessed a lot of things, including tremendous intelligence about Lu Qingchen and the CFIA. However, they are not worth mentioning compared to the information that I'm about to tell you.
"Ding Zhengyang said that the Black Wind Fleet is in dire need of an appropriate jump point and a space gate so that it can stab into the belly of the Star Glory Federation. To achieve this, they have been corrupting the leadership of the federation together with the spies that infiltrated the federation in secret and the CFIA. It seems that someone among the leadership of the federation has been transformed into an Immortal Cultivator."
"Leadership?" Li Yao was greatly alarmed. "Who exactly?"
"Naturally, Ding Zhengyang does not know who it is," Cui Lingfeng said, "but to quote him, 'it is a person who can change the course of the war'!"
Chapter 1642: Beach Landing! |
Inside the plaza of the Ministry of Equality and Development, Jin Xinyue was appreciating the magnificent clouds in the sky through the window.
Under the setting sun, the angry clouds were roiling as if two armies, one gold and the other red, were charging at each other. Heads were falling, and blood was running, until all the soldiers were swallowed by darkness.
The scene somehow reminded her of something from more than a hundred years ago.
As she recalled, in the Blood Demon Sector more than a hundred years ago, right above the Eye of Blood Demon, there had been the exact same bleeding ocean of clouds. It was above the crimson clouds that she had listened to her father unveiling the truth of the Red Tide Plan and understood who exactly her father was and what he had been trying to accomplish.
A hundred years had passed. Now, it was her turn.
"Okay. Alright. Keep going."
She was still wearing a black suit and a pair of high heels, but her black hair th
at looked like a waterfall was bound by a hairpin that was still in the shape of the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars emblem of the federation, which made her appear even more agile and aggressive.
Her face was as cold as ice under the dim sunlight, and her voice was even more frigid than a blizzard in the North Pole. Even her fury had been frozen while she listened to the sound far away attentively and replied calmly now and then.
"The Immortal Cultivators' insurgency failed, Cui Lingfeng and Tang Dingyuan knew everything in advance, and a certain 'Team Red Lotus' took care of everything neatly.
"Hehe. As expected of the Star Ocean Republic. Even a broken ship has many nails that are still useful. Is it strange at all that a country that has lasted thousands of years would have some precautions or a few top-secret troops made of unseen monsters?
"So to speak, it must've been 'Team Red Lotus' that rescued Tang Xiaoxing in Fish Dragon City before we did, only to throw her back to the secret police later, right?
"Lin Jiu? Alright. The name has been noted.
"What, Cheng Xuansu is dead, but Ding Zhengyang is not?
"Of course, it is very serious.
"Ding Zhengyang knows too much, and those people in the government-in-exile seem to have much keener senses than we expected. Right now, we are in the middle of a campaign. Should they trace all the evidence back to us and expose the whole issue, it will definitely be a great scandal that we cannot cover up. The public will not accept the way we treated our 'ally'. The Patriots Front will not let go of the issue, either.
"Forget it. With everything coming to this point, you do not need to do anything now. I'll pick it up from here. Just focus on your own business!"
Jin Xinyue cut off the communication. She continued watching the last struggle of the dying sun wholeheartedly while holding her arms.
As the dim redness slowly sank into the swamp of the night sky, her previously cold, grave face gradually put on a hint of a smile.
"The first phase of the Dim Moon Plan has been completed successfully."
She turned around and smiled at the old, rusty archive manager in the room.
"I did not know that the government-in-exile still had a rather elite secret troop. They have suppressed the rebellion of the Immortal Cultivators on their own without the intervention of the Big Bai Fleet. Even Ding Zhengyang was captured by Team Red Lotus alive.
"They must've grown suspicious of me. The first phase has been more successful than I thought it would be!"
While speaking, Jin Xinyue walked over agilely, helping the archive manager finish the work that had been disrupted by the message when it was half done.
The archive manager was sitting in a special metal chair. A lot of components on the artificial body were connected to the magical equipment units on the metal chair. Dozens of translucent soft tubes were bound to his body, filling spiritual energy, nurturing his soul, and lubricating the rusted components for him. However, it seemed slightly different from the maintenance for normal spectral Cultivators.
Jin Xinyue walked behind the archive manager and fixed his metal head with a holder. Then, she carefully unlocked the seal rune arrays on the skull and plucked an arched metal cover that duplicated the skull of a living person. There was a clear, round container that was carved out of a whole crystal.
Soaked in the crystal container and nurtured by the bright green nutrition liquids was… a brain!
Judging from the trembling, the brain was still alive. Tremendous artificial nerves made of biochemical materials extended all the way down from the brain and controlled every part of the artificial body.
Therefore, the archive manager was not a spectral Cultivator who only had a broken soul at all. He was a living human being, except that most of his body parts had been replaced by artificial organs. Compared to the disabled people who put on an artificial limb after their body was broken, it was only a matter of ratio, and he was essentially no different from those people!
Jin Xinyue put an enormous crystal cover right above the chair. After sterilizing the germs inside the crystal cover with mystic rays, she extended her hands into the crystal cover through the pair of gloves on the side of the crystal cover. She then connected a syringe to a tiny hole next to the crystal skull of the archive manager and slowly injected a tube of bright golden liquids.
The liquids dripped into the crystal skull along with the soft tubes, turning into golden balls in the middle of the green nutrition fluids.
An amazing thing happened!
From the living brain, a lot of 'synapses' that were similar to flagella or nerves jerked up. Those synapses darted into the golden balls as fast as lightning and devoured all the liquids inside!
The brain glowed before it went back to normal a moment later.
"So, do you feel any better?"
After finishing everything, Jin Xinyue helped the archive manager close the metal skull that served as a camouflage on the outside. At first glance, he was no different from any other regular spectral Cultivator.
The archive manager slowly nodded and struggled to warm up his metal limbs.
"But I don't feel that you are in high spirits. Why is that?" Inside Jin Xinyue's eyes, the fire of ambition was burning so fiercely that it was almost flowing out like magma and completely consume her. "The Dim Moon Plan is proceeding smoothly. Everything is within my calculations and control. After a hundred years, the Red Tide Plan is about to be concluded with a perfect end, and our race will rise again! Do you not feel proud of me at all?"
"Of course, I am proud of you." Perhaps because of the bright golden solution, the archive manager was speaking a bit faster than the days before, but the long-sealed smell of dust in the voice was still not entirely eliminated. "However, a word of advice. Nobody can calculate and control everything. I couldn't, nor can you."
…
On Firefly at the edge of the Dragon Snake Space Zone, a secret meeting regarding Ding Zhengyang's confession, the expedition army of the Imperium's strategy, and the policy of the 'rightful government' was being conducted.
Other than Tang Dingyuan; Cui Lingfeng, who hosted the meeting; and Li Yao, acting as the commander of the Speaker's guards, a lot of critical people on Firefly, including the president of Star Ocean University, participated in the meeting.
After the meeting, the representatives would be nominated to form a new 'Election Observation Delegation' or rather 'Participation Negotiation Delegation'. They would set off to the heartland of the Star Glory Federation and communicate with the federal government on the official merger of the two parties, or at least in-depth military cooperation to found a 'joint headquarters' for the war to come.
"The Black Wind Fleet is here. Both Ding Zhengyang's confession and the confessions of the captives of the Imperium whom we caught ten years ago lead to the same conclusion! With the Black Wind Fleet's route and their technological capabilities, it is absolutely possible for them to have reached the Star Glory Federation in the last ten years!"
As the captain, Tang Dingyuan was in charge of military affairs. Naturally, he was the one who interpreted everything about the Black Wind Fleet.
In the upper half of the ball-shaped meeting room was a splendid star map, depicting the functioning patterns and the possible routes in the hundreds of galaxies near the Star Glory Federation.
It was the result of the exploration and prospection by the Heavenly Road Plan that the federation had implemented a hundred years prior.
Also, Firefly had recorded all the galaxies, space zones, and Sectors that it had detected in the past thousand years while it was running from the Empyreal Terminus Sector to the edge of the cosmos. In fact, they possessed a rather detailed universal sailing route from the federation to the center of the Imperium.
The very sailing route could also be considered the route of the Black Wind Fleet's march.
Pointing at the edge of the glowing star map, Tang Dingyuan explained, "Within a hundred lightyears from the Star Glory Fe
deration, there are at least a hundred relatively stable galaxies. Right now, it is very possible that the Black Wind Fleet is lurking inside one of the galaxies to wake up the soldiers who have hibernated for a hundred years and to repair the damage on the starships due to the long journey. With any luck, they can even retrieve some fundamental resources from those galaxies and refill their supplies. They are now preparing themselves and waiting for the best opportunity to launch into the most vulnerable part of the federation!
"The Black Wind Fleet, as a main-force fleet that includes the armed forces of multiple Sectors of the Imperium of True Human Beings, is essentially a humongous dinosaur in the universe. Their cruise speed can't be very high.
"It will take them several months for them to prepare a space jump, which will probably last around one week. There's no need to mention normal cruising. It will be difficult for them to reach one tenth the light of speed while keeping an intact battle formation under such circumstances!
"Assuming that their normal cruise speed is one tenth the speed of light, what does it mean? It means that if they take the nearest galaxy to the Star Glory Federation as their base and march over by way of normal cruising, it will take them decades before they reach this place!
"It is obvious that they absolutely cannot march in such a way. During the decades of normal cruising, the consumption of fuel, the damage to the starships, and the unexpected attacks of the federation will not be something that the Black Wind Fleet can bear!
"In the last hundred years, the Black Wind Fleet has reached the edge of the cosmos through short-distance space jumps. Now that the final battle is drawing near, they have no choice but to directly 'long jump' to the edge or the center of the federation!
"This is exactly like a 'beach landing' in ancient times. The point of the landing will be the key to the outcome of the battle!"
Chapter 1643: Dinosaur in Space! |