Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When the two “highest authorities of the Imperium of True Human Beings” were about to collide, a lot of people of the Kurfürst families, as well as the notable nobles and great merchants who were deeply associated with them, were still lingering on the capital that was under the control of the reformists.

The capital was the heart of the Imperium after all. Any noble or sect that was slightly capable would deploy an office in the capital to claim their interests. There were also a lot of lobbying groups whose livelihood depended on the Council of Elders. Tremendous descendants of the noble families were studying in the hundred advanced academies, too.

Blackstar the Great took action simply too fast. In only three days, through “Devilish Abyss” Li Jianyi, “Star Breaker” Song Huanzhen, and other experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, he had won over quite a few fleets of the four Kurfürst families and launched unexpected attacks on the armies of the nobles that were stationed in the space fortresses in the Empyreal Terminus Sector.

By the time the confused nobles realized what was going on, the fleets of the reformists had surrounded the atmosphere of the capital planet and began to separate and swallow the remaining troops in the vast area of the Empyreal Terminus Sector.

In the turbulent month, the most popular saying in the Imperium was “in the name of the Imperium”.

For the big nobles as well as the magnates and merchants who were associated with them, those words were like a death sentence.

“In the name of the Imperium, the accounts as well as the assets of your sect in the capital will be frozen for military usages. Please rest assured. After the cause to reform the Imperium is completed, they will be returned to your sect with interests!”

“In the name of the Imperium, in the name of His Majesty, and in the name of all the people of the Imperium, we are going to carry out the sacred sentence on you, a shameless traitor who betrayed the Imperium and the civilization of mankind. Die now, traitor!”

“In the name of the Imperium, for the great cause to reform the Imperium, all the Immortal Cultivators in your families whose spiritual roots are awakened are now recruited for this sacred war. This is your ultimate glory. All the Immortal Cultivators on the list, please gather and come with us!”

The Imperial Guards, the low-level Immortal Cultivators, and the young officers congregated into a furious, unstoppable torrent that cleaned the forces of the big nobles in the Imperium ruthlessly. Similar orders were echoing everywhere in the capital every day.

All the assets in the noble families, which had a history of hundreds of years, were frozen and confiscated. Even the crystals, magical equipment, and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that the families kept in private were found without leaving out any. All the Immortal Cultivators were brought away and tied to the tank of the reformists after being dispersed.

For the nobles who were relatively “docile”, the reformists would give them a document that had the seal of the “Reform Committee of the Council of Elders”, solemnly swearing that their assets would be returned with benefits on the day of success.

Of course, considering that those Immortal Cultivators were all sent to the most dangerous battlefields, few might be able to survive a couple of months. By then, even if the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders really abided by the promise, it remained to be seen who would claim their heritages in the end.

The situation was certainly not in their favor. Many quick-witted and determined nobles insisted on refusing the paperwork of the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders but “donated” all their belongings to “the great cause to reform the Imperium” just so that the glory of the Imperium a thousand years ago could be restored sooner.

Those nobles immediately became the models that the reformists praised relentlessly. The descendants of their families were moved from the most dangerous, cannon-fodder troops to the relatively safe garrisons and logistical troops. Also, they were given another promise—in the war against the four Kurfürst families, once the enemy was completely crushed, they would have their fair share in the astronomical trophies, too.

The wealth they lost today would return in double by then.

It was a natural-born skill of the Immortal Cultivators to shift sides.

After a few examples were set, the reformists soon combined most of the strength of the nobles in the capital.

Of course, not all the nobles trapped in the capital were as wise and generous.

Many nobles could not bear to give up the wealth they had accumulated through hard work for hundreds of years, and some did not believe that the insignificant reformists could accomplish their purpose. They resisted the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders to the end.

Very soon, they got a taste of the iron fists of the reformists. Not only were they branded as traitors and their belongings confiscated, but their family members were all enlisted to the daring teams whose odds of survival were slim.

It remained to be seen if the four Kurfürst families could make a comeback, but even if they could, those families would have been razed to the ground without any dust left.

Under the crush of the merciless reformists, a lot of other nobles chose to flee together with the remaining troops of the four Kurfürst families.

The atmosphere had been tightly surrounded by the fleets of the reformists. The dozens of space fortresses that defended the capital had fallen to the hands of the reformists, too. Almost no starship could break out of the atmosphere by force.

Any starship that acted recklessly would be torn into shreds by the fierce firepower on the space fortresses soon after they broke out of the atmosphere.

Even though they were not torn into shreds, they could barely perform a space jump when their shell was broken, if they did not intend to be obliterated into nothingness after being involved in the storms in the four-dimensional space.

With that in mind, there was only one way to escape from the capital.

First of all, they would be teleported to the edge of the Empyreal Terminus Sector in a random jump through the super teleportation arrays on the surface of the planet, leaping over the fleets and the space fortresses that surrounded the planet, before they activated the space jump systems of the starships and ran away.

In terms of space jump, the Imperium of True Human Beings was a hundred years more advanced than the Star Glory Federation.

In the Heaven’s Origin Sector, there was only one super teleportation array, “Heaven’s Artillery”, and the Blood Demon Sector only had “Eye of Blood Demon”. But at the capital and the heart of the Imperium, more than ten super teleportation arrays with astonishing capacities had been established.

The ten or so super teleportation arrays were the most precious emergence exits and had helped countless nobles and troops to escape from the capital over the past month.

Of course, such locations were the primary targets of the reformists, too. After a month of fierce battles, they had mostly fallen into the hands of the reformists.

To this day, there was only one last super teleportation array that was still in the hands of the four Kurfürst families. It was known as the “Netherwind Channel”.

It was a super teleportation array with a rather unique structure. Most of the framework was established inside a continuous, highly-rising mountain. A helical tunnel had been dug out inside the mountain, and when a starship entered the mountain from the bottom of it and got accelerated on the rail of the helical tunnel, it would eventually rush out from the enormous cave at the peak and rip the void, arriving at any random point at the vast space at the edge of the Empyreal Terminus Sector.

The highly-rising mountain was named the Netherwind Mountain. It was how the “Netherwind Channel” got its name.

It could be easily seen from the structure that was hidden deep inside the mountain that the super teleportation array had been designed as a military teleportation array of the highest defense when it was established.

Based on the entire Netherwind Mountain, too many fixed firing points, fortresses, underground arsenals, and anti-air cannons had been constructed. The mountain had also been strengthened by countless defense rune arrays. Even if the whole mountain was reduced to the ground by blanket bombardments, the super teleportation array inside might not be damaged at all.

After hundreds of years of development, a major city named “Netherwind City” had been established at the foot of the mountain, too. The inhabitants of the city were mostly the people of the four Kurfürst families who were sent to the capital. It was not hard to imagine their attitudes toward the so-called “Reform Committee of the Council of Elders”.

When all the strongholds in the capital had fallen into the hands of Blackstar the Great, the Netherwind Channel became the only island of hope in the tsunami raised by the reformists.

All the nobles who craved to escape from the capital had been gathered here, putting up resistance while being desperate to board on starships, crawl into the channel, and flee.

The army of the reformists followed them closely. They had surrounded Netherwind City and the Netherwind Channel from the sky, on the ground and below the ground, determined to block the last way of escape of the nobles and remove their last banner in the capital.

However, the battle did not go as well as planned.

It was partly because of the special territory of the Netherwind Channel and the residents of Netherwind City. But more important, it was because too many nobles had been gathered here.

The fairly-small city was perhaps the place with the highest density of Immortal Cultivators in the entire capital, or even the entire Imperium.

The weapons of the traditional nobles were aiming at the sky like quills on the hedgehog, making the reformists rather hesitant about where to attack.

It was a common sense in military arts to leave some hope for the enemy. At this moment, even if the reformists were capable of blocking the Netherwind Channel, they would not dare to do it recklessly, fearing that the hopeless nobles would launch crazy counterattacks in their desperation, which might result in heavy casualties. If so, the losses would outweigh the gains.

For the reformists, they were also thinking about something else. The “Netherwind Channel” could only teleport a limited number of starships every day. Of a hundred nobles, few could successfully escape. The nobles left behind were all valuable talents, and it would be a shame to kill all of them. If the reformists could make them surrender, the comparison between the two parties would change quickly. That would certainly be for the best.

Therefore, the battle in the Netherwind Channel had been protracted to a whole month without being ended. By the time Li Yao and his companions finally reached the Netherwind Mountain, the whole mountain was still enshrouded in the smoke of war!