Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Yue Wushuang sent the latest intelligence collected through secret channels to the light beams of the many reformist Immortal Cultivators.

According to the intelligence, the queen, who had been having a vacation on the “Eternal Spring Island”, a famous garden of the royal family in the capital, had a massive hemorrhage in multiple important organs including the brain due to the infection of a certain extremely rare virus. The rescue of the many doctors of the royal family proved futile, and her death had been officially announced half an hour ago.

In the meantime, Emperor Shenwu of the Imperium of True Human Beings suffered the attack of the same virus, but with lesser symptoms than the queen did. He was now being rescued by the royal doctors and the medical teams of the four Kurfürst families and should be able to recover. However, he would need a long time of rest. Naturally, he was delivered to a resort that was under the control of the four Kurfürst families for his “rest”.

Compared to the assassination of one of the five hundred elders of the Imperium, the sudden demise of the queen and the serious disease of the emperor was no news at all.

In the Imperium of True Human Beings, “emperor” had always been a highly dangerous profession over the last five hundred years. It was not unusual at all that they would “die abruptly” after several decades of reigning.

Emperor Shenwu, whose former title was Emperor Tianzheng, had been reigning for almost sixty years in total. By logic, it was time that he died.

Of course, the top-secret intelligence was only secretly passed in the Council of Elders and the few most central agencies of the government. It would take at least a fortnight for the news to spread out to the ears of all the nobles.

Then, after another half month, official news and announcements would be released to inform all the people of the country of the demise of their monarch.

Queen Li Linghai would not “die” certainly until then!

However, the ambitious schemers gathered in the secret communication room of the Deep Sea Palace knew clearly what the brief intelligence meant.

It meant that the four Kurfürst families had already attacked the queen.

It also meant that the four Kurfürst families would not hesitate to do anything to ruin Queen Li Linghai’s political life or even her physical life.

Did the so-called “extremely rare virus” really exist, and was it really “extremely rare”?

The former was likely to be true, but the latter was not necessarily so. At the very least, there were too many such viruses in the biochemical laboratories of the four Kurfürst families.

Thankfully, Li Linghai had risked leaving the capital because of her brother Li Lingfeng and only left a stand-in in the “Eternal Spring Island”. As it turned out, the “extremely rare virus” of the four Kurfürst families hit the wrong target.

But what could Li Linghai do even if she was still alive?

As long as the four Kurfürst families all agreed that the queen had died of virus infection and soul exhaustion, who could object to it?

Who would have the courage to admit that the white-haired witch whose hair was rising and dancing in midair crazily like a God of Vengeance was the real Li Linghai?

Besides, even the emperor had fallen into the hands of the four Kurfürst families and was forced to “rest”!

Holding the emperor to command all the lords was not something that only Li Linghai could do. The four Kurfürst families were certainly familiar with the job.

Before Emperor Shenwu died together with the queen, there was still enough value in him that could be exploited.

The four Kurfürst families’ series of stormy attacks were too fast and brutal. There was no telling how much time they had been planning on it in secret, but the reformists were more or less stunned under the punch.

For a moment, the situation took a giant turn downward. Everybody was almost able to hear the rocks collapsing from the cliff and falling into the bottomless abyss.

They looked at each other in bewilderment. Except for Yue Wushuang, who had been cold the whole time, and Jin Yuyan, who had been smiling all the time, other people were all at a loss.

Of course, that was not counting Li Yao.

“I did not know that…”

The mental devil said gloomily deep inside Li Yao’s head, “After you advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage, your prowess in trapping your teammates has gotten significantly more brilliant. You haven’t done anything yet, and yet the queen has suffered so much!”

“You must be kidding. Am I really to be blamed for this? It is obviously because she was too aggressive. Did she really think that the four Kurfürst families that had dominated the Imperium for a thousand years were all idiots?”

Li Yao sniffed and replied.

However, he was also very curious how the ambitious queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings would counterattack in the hopelessness when the enemy had almost stabbed the knife into the throats of the reformists.

Li Yao still remembered what Li Linghai said in the thunderstorm of the Sand Primitive Sector, as well as the dominating vibe of a fated, supreme sovereign of the universe when she performed the technique of “Dragon Over The Sky”.

She was the woman who had the legacies of the legendary “Supreme Emperor”. She would not give in so easily, would she?

Staring at Li Linghai without blinking, Li Yao did not leave any detail of the white-haired woman.

When she heard the message of her “death”, the queen of the Imperium did not even move her eyelashes although her white hair was dancing crazily.

Her eyes that were clear as if made of dews in the first place were even hollower. Her mind seemed to have drifted to the capital billions of stars away, while she concentrated all her attention deducing a way of survival out of the most dangerous situation!

“Fellow Cultivators…”

After considering carefully for a minute, Li Linghai finally said slowly in the calmest tone, “I know that many fellow Cultivators had unrealistic illusions on the noble families until just now. They were still wavering and thought that we could negotiate with those people through gentler approaches. Eventually, we would be able to renew the Imperium with no bloodshed.

“But after you hear the news of my ‘abrupt death’, do any of you still think that way?

“Open your eyes and see the reality. Our reform is a war where either our enemy or we will die. It will not end until the blood of either party runs dry. No mercy and hesitation can be tolerated!

“The four Kurfürst families are bold enough to assassinate their own elder and the queen of the Imperium. Even Lei Chenghu, a prestigious general in the army known as ‘God of War’, has been captured blatantly to ‘assist their investigation’. I can’t even imagine what crimes they will impose on General Luo!

“Fellow Cultivators, you can compare yourselves to Dongfang Tuo, me, or General Lei. Even if you abandon the ideas of the reformists right now and crawl to the feet of the four Kurfürst families to surrender, would they spare you with their ruthlessness?

“You and the families, sects, forces, fleets, and Sectors behind you are already too involved.

“You have all seen the name list of suspects of the special investigation committee. How many names on it are closely connected to you? And how long will it take before they trace the names to you?

“We have all been pushed into desperation with nowhere to run to. Instead of being cut and minced slowly and watching our cause and ideas to be obliterated, we might as well have a final attempt and take our chances. Even if we have to die together with the four Kurfürst families, the light when we are shattered will illuminate the future of the Imperium of True Human Beings!”

As she approached the end, Li Linghai seemed to have become transparent. From the deepest part of her soul, dazzling brilliance beamed out, making her truly like a lighthouse that could illuminate the entire dark Imperium.

“But…”

One of the reformists hesitated and asked, “Many fleets that are inclined to us have been mobilized and separated. Our secret accounts have been mostly frozen too. A lot of our sympathizers and supporters have been put into prison. Even you have been erased by the four Kurfürst families, Your Grace. What can we do?”

“The attacks of the four Kurfürst families may indeed be very aggressive and nearly cut our throat, but they made two fatal mistakes.”

With crazy flames blooming inside her eyes, Li Linghai extended her fist, as if she was performing a unity etiquette, or making a promise to everybody. “Firstly, they did not expect that I would leave the capital in secret and that the person in the capital was only a well-trained stand-in for me.

“Besides, it is impossible for them to know that I have already advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage and that I was never eliminated by any kind of rare virus. They have missed the greatest opportunity to kill me.

“Secondly, and more importantly, however they pried and studied, they could never have thought that the power of the reformists had expanded to such an extent. They did not know that the Deep Sea Fleet that we built in secret and the Tribunal of Extraterrestrial Devils that had been expanding were already among the best troops of the Imperium. They did not know that we have the unexpected help of Fellow Cultivator ‘Vulture Li Yao’ who have talents in two fields!

“The four Kurfürst families pushed themselves into hopelessness too as they pushed us into it, because all the smaller nobles, low-level Immortal Cultivators and the warlords at the peripheral worlds had seen through the ravenousness of the four Kurfürst families. They knew that they would only be embraced by their doom if they did not resist.

“At such a moment, as long as we deal a heavy blow on the dominating four Kurfürst families and call for supporters, we will be able to gather all the forces that oppose the great noble families nationwide!

“In any case, I will never admit that I have ‘died’ without a sound just like that!

“I promise to you that in less than one month, I will return to the capital with everybody here openly as the queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Nothing can possibly stop me!”

Everybody was more or less awed by the fervent and crazy air around Li Linghai.

After a long silence, the reformist who asked in the beginning said, “Then, what are we going to do exactly?”

Li Linghai smiled.

Opening her arms to everyone softly, the white-haired woman said in the most earnest way, with purple colors vaguely spreading inside her eyes, “Trust me. At this moment, all I ask from you is your complete, unreserved trust. You will carry out my every order dutifully no matter how crazy the order may sound. I will definitely not disappoint you. This is the darkness before dawn, and a stronger, new Imperium will soon be born in the darkness!”