Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

2212 Laureated or Cursed

“Cut the crap.”

Lei Chenghu said coldly, “Spit it out. What does the special investigation committee want you to do exactly?”

“I think you must know it, Father.”

Staring at Lei Chenghu, Lei Honghai said, “The Council of Elders, the special investigation committee, and I all hope that Father can make a public statement and inform all the troops in the frontline of your support for the Council of Elders’ investigation on the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance. We hope that you can chastise the radicals in the expedition army and persuade the members of the Blood Oath Alliance in the Astounding Thunder Fleet to turn themselves in. At the very least, we hope that father can give an order to restrain the Astounding Thunder Fleet so that no blood will be shed when the special investigation committee enters the fleet.”

“It will enter the fleet?”

Lei Chenghu’s pupils constricted abruptly. “The special investigation committee and the four Kurfürst families behind it are truly bold enough to lay fingers on the Astounding Thunder Fleet that has fought bloody battles for a hundred years with remarkable accomplishments?”

“There is no need to be worried, Father. It is only meant to remove the radicals in the Astounding Thunder Fleet.”

Putting on a gloating and rebellious smile, Lei Honghai said, “The Council of Elders does not intend to dissect the Astounding Thunder Fleet but only want to ensure the Astounding Thunder Fleet’s absolute loyalty for the Imperium. After the investigation and purge are done, it will still be commanded by us.”

“By ‘us’, do you mean ‘me’?”

Lei Chenghu narrowed his eyes. The shock on his face was entirely gone, gradually replaced by mockery and sadness. “I stand by what I said. I refuse it. Go now. Unless you are carrying the Council of Elders’ death sentence to me, you do not need to come again.”

“Father, why are you so obstinate?”

Looking at the Lei Chenghu who listened to neither kind words nor threats, Lei Honghai burst into fury and bellowed, blushing, “The situation can’t be more dangerous. The radicals in the capital are about to be eliminated. The fleets of the major warlords and the nobles have pledged loyalty to the Council of Elders too. The few remaining fleets are now the targets for everyone, but their throats have been choked from up above like the fish in a water tank. The Astounding Thunder Fleet is exactly one of them!

“The universe is a vast place, but we are rootless duckweeds. However strong the Astounding Thunder Fleet is, all our ammunition and fuel depend on the base of the expedition army, as well as the Council of Elders behind it, because we do not have a base of our own!

“They do not need to take care of us through violence at all. As long as they cut off our supplies, what can we expect to use to compete with the four Kurfürst families? The trophies we have collected in the frontline? How long can they sustain?

“The trend is not in our favor! The war is over. We have won. The expedition army has accomplished its historic mission. It is inevitable that the army is removed and reorganized. Nobody can resist such a trend!

“Now, the Council of Elders is surprisingly kind to ensure the maximal independence of the Astounding Thunder Fleet and give us a prosperous Sector as an eupatrid fief. I have no idea what you are persisting in. What benefits can you get for yourself, for the Astounding Thunder Fleet, or for the Lei family by going against the Council of Elders like this?

“Please. Think it through, Father!

“Ever since my childhood, haven’t you been teaching us that self-interest and disunity is the source of the problems in the Imperium, and as a proud soldier of the Imperium, we must not fight for our selfish desires but for the interests of the Imperium and all mankind under the governance of the Council of Elders?

“Right now, it is the Council of Elders that has given the order that the expedition army be removed and reorganized. Also, the way of reorganization is not too harsh either. The Astounding Thunder Fleet is part of the expedition army in the first place. Why do we have to be the only exception and go against the wishes of the Council of Elders and the four Kurfürst families?

“Let me tell you the truth, Father. The Council of Elders is determined to settle the issues of the expedition army at whatever cost. If they cannot be resolved with no bloodshed, they will be resolved with blood.

“Yes. With your prestige in the Astounding Thunder Fleet and the entire frontline, as long as you give a signal, most of the warriors in the Astounding Thunder Fleet will fight to the end. But what does it matter? What is the purpose? If you are ruining the Astounding Thunder Fleet that you have been working hard on since a hundred years ago and letting the thousands of people of the Lei family die with you, you should at least give us a reason and let us know what we have died for!”

Listening to his eldest son’s outspoken complaints and criticization, Lei Chenghu was silent for a long time before he slowly opened his mouth again. He said somewhat hoarsely, “Everything I’ve been doing is not for myself, not for the Lei family, not for the Astounding Thunder Fleet, but for the entire Imperium and the supreme civilization of mankind.

“Yes. I taught you often that a soldier’s responsibility is obedience, and that the Immortal Cultivators should take part in national wars instead of street fights. They should only fight for the interests of the Imperium and mankind under the governance of the Council of Elders.

“In the past two hundred years, I have been practicing the ethos every second. I might not be enough to be compared to the famous generals in history in terms of accomplishments and commanding arts, but I can announce proudly that I never used any bullet to gain personal benefits, and every enemy that I slew with my saber was an enemy of the country.

“Even if the orders given by the Council of Elders contradicted my personal interests, or even if I knew that certain elder or a certain noble family was behind it, I still carried out the orders dutifully without any negligence, just in order to set an example for other warlords and local troops and to make the entire Imperium be really united again.

“But this time…

“The Council of Elders is truly wrong. They have made a fatal mistake that will destroy the Imperium and the civilization of mankind!

“I am not saying this for myself, the Lei family, or the Astounding Thunder Fleet, but for the interests of the Imperium of True Human Beings. The expedition army must not be removed or reorganized. Instead, it must be further expanded and gain more independence. At the very least, it must maintain the current scale and be prepared for another thirty years of war for the final victory.

“This is a national affair that concerns life and death. How can I back off? If I take one step back, the entire Imperium will fall into a bottomless abyss!”

Lei Honghai could hear none of it. He simply sneered, “There are so many powerful and wise men in the Council of Elders, with intelligence a hundred times more than we do. How can they possibly be wrong?

“The situation they cannot see through has been seen by you and you alone. Is this because they are all drunk and you are the only one who is sober?”

“The Council of Elders maybe does have a lot of people whose wisdom is as profound as the ocean and whose computational ability is as fast as lightning. But they all have selfish desires. When one has selfish desires, involved in the swirls of power and interests, they will lose their senses and become the slave of their lust and ambitions. Or rather, they will turn into a donkey with a carrot hanging before their head, unable to see through the simplest trap.”

Lei Chenghu sighed and said casually, “I don’t think that I’m the only sober person. The Imperium is such a vast place. There must be a lot of other people who are also sober. However, in such a dirty world, some are unwilling to wake up, some daren’t wake up, and some are shot to death when they open their eyes and want to scream, this time really never to wake up again.”

“I don’t know what you are trying to say, Father, but if you don’t soften your attitude, the Imperium may be doomed and may be not, but you, the Lei family, and the Astounding Thunder Fleet will truly be doomed and for all eternity!”

Lei Honghai’s neck was bulging because of his fury. He roared, “Ever since I was born, have you considered for your family for once? I only dispatched the starships under my command to ship some contraband. Everybody in all the fleets did that. Even the troops of the four Kurfürst families did that. It was a public secret and an unspoken tradition, but you had to expose it and wreck the reputation of me, your eldest son. Also, hundreds of my connections were involved. Almost all my friends were pissed off!

“There’s also my younger brother. He was only one hair away from the peak of the Core Formation Stage. Was it wrong at all that he tried to break into it? You said that he wasn’t talented. It might be true, but so what? Were the descendants of other noble families all exceptionally gifted? Didn’t all of them advance into the supreme levels after multiple tries with astronomical resources?

“But you were unwilling to give him even one additional crystal. As a result, he was forced to make the breakthrough through risky techniques. When he was mentally deranged and on the verge of death, you could’ve saved him easily, but you simply turned a blind eye to him!

“Hehe. My younger brother and I were not the closest siblings, but I was definitely not as heartless as you!

“Why, you think you are a great, selfless, pure Immortal Cultivator and an iron-boned, loyal contributor to the Imperium of True Human Beings?

“Do you know how other people comment on you behind your back? They say that you are not selfless, but your selfishness lies entirely on ‘reputation’. You have sacrificed your biological son just in pursuit of the reputation as a loyal official of the country!”

Those words had perhaps been held back in Lei Honghai’s heart for decades.

Now that he had vented them out, his eyes were bloodshot in excitement, and his mouth was almost foaming. He couldn’t have looked more devastating and exultant.

When his eldest son mentioned his youngest son, Lei Chenghu’s pupils apparently constricted hard, as if his eyeballs were about to collapse into two black holes.

However, he disguised himself quite well, and the brightness as tough as iron soon filled the “collapse area” in his eyes. Sulking in his own resentment, his eldest son did not notice his father’s anomaly at all.

“Everything I do, I do to with a clear conscience. I do not need to explain to anyone, nor do I care about their comments.”

“God of War” Lei Chenghu took a deep breath and said slowly, one word after another, “Those pests compare me to themselves and consider me as a person who fishes for fame, so be it. I don’t care whether I am laureated or cursed, because that is not what I fight for.”