Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Jialing frowned and asked, “If Brother Yao knows that Jin Yuyan is a determined man, and the free coin is so dangerous, why are you still relieved to cooperate with those cunning merchants?”

“Like I said, it’s the lesser of two evils!”

Li Yao opened his hands and said, “I wish that all the Immortal Cultivators at the center of the cosmos somehow had brain damage, turning them into kindhearted, selfless, and altruistic Cultivators like me so that we could build a beautiful tomorrow together, but how is it possible? We can only strike the unpardonable Immortal Cultivators with the slightly better Immortal Cultivators first before we figure out a way to transform the slightly better Immortal Cultivators into Cultivators.

“A real Cultivator is a practical realist, not an idealist who just talks about dreams. Even if we are hoping to change the entire universe, we have to change one planet at a time.

“Besides, I don’t think that the free coin is truly untraceable and cannot be monitored. It will still leave abundant information that is very clear during the trades, except that the trades are mostly conducted on the dynamic network, and the parties in the trades are all anonymous.

“But the dynamic network is not really uncapturable. Even though the veil of the free coin cannot be torn apart for now, I believe that the problem will be solved sooner or later with technological progress.”

Furrowing his eyebrows, Li Jialing was silent for a long time before he suddenly said, “The universe is too large, and there are too many problems. I suddenly understand Blackstar the Great’s anxiety and doggedness now. If I were Wuying Qi, I would’ve gone crazy in less than three days when faced with all the troubles, including the Covenant Alliance, the reformists, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, the Cultivators, the warlords, the free coin, etc.”

Li Yao said, “Are you serious? You’re feeling compassionate toward Wuying Qi now?”

Li Jialing sniffed and said, “Wuying Qi occupies the shell of the queen and tries to take over my body. We’re naturally sworn enemies, and I only wish I could kill him in person!

“However, even if Wuying Qi is killed, so what? Will the chaotic universe resume tranquility? Who can govern the Imperium in the place of Wuying Qi? Would it be a cunning merchant who worships ‘absolute freedom’ like Jin Yuyan or a Cultivator like Brother Yao? Brother Yao, are you capable of it?”

“Huh…”

Li Yao thought carefully for a moment and replied, “In terms of strength, Blackstar the Great is absolutely no match for me, but everybody has his own gifts. When it comes to the governance of the country, I’m afraid that I’m slightly worse than him, I probably can’t replace him.”

“That’s right. What will the future of the Imperium be?”

The young man was deep in thought while looking at the mysterious stars outside of the window.

Right then, Little Bear shivered and slowed down.

They had passed the inspection, and the ship was pulled to a port at the edge of the Seven Seas Grand Market.

“Alright. As a young man, you shouldn’t focus on such things!”

Li Yao patted the back of Li Jialing’s head and said, “After all, if the sky falls, those taller than me will be holding it up for you. You are not asked to manage the Imperium. Why do you care about national affairs? It appears to me that you are more and more mature now. I don’t even know how I should respond to you. That’s not very lovely!”

“This is just who I am.”

Li Jialing sniffed. “Li Lingfeng used to raise me as his heir years ago. During the few years, he implanted a plethora of national affairs into my head, except that I sealed them before and did not want to remember them.

“But no matter how I sealed them, they just kept bubbling up from my head, especially after I absorbed the strength of the Imperial Flame Pearl. Whenever I run into any problem, I just can’t stop analyzing. What choice do I have?”

While the two of them were talking, Little Bear had been anchored at a port at the edge of the Seven Seas Grand Market.

Ripples of spiritual energy surged into the cabin, connecting Little Bear to the dynamic Spiritual Nexus of the Seven Seas Grand Market. More and more 3D light beams were popping up around them, as if the whole starship were melting and exposing themselves right before the colorful, splendid market in the vacuum.

Li Yao and Li Jialing were both shocked at the enormity and glamor of the Seven Seas Grand Market.

The core of the Seven Seas Grand Market was a planet whose inside had been hollowed. Because the entire Seven Seas Space Zone was full of space cracks, making it one of the most suitable places for space jumps at the edge of the Imperium, the place had been built into a massive transfer base of a military base in the Star Ocean Imperium. The planet was itself a super large arsenal.

After ten thousand years of development, the planet was already beyond recognition. The inside of the planet had been hollowed and built into what appeared to be a beehive or an ant nest. On the surface of the planet, countless circular rails had been built, which grew outward incessantly, extending branches of vacuum tubes. Next to the vacuum tubes were the living cabins in the shape of spheres, and around the living cabins were new vacuum tubes. Further outside, they were connected to the permanent living quarters modified based on the abandoned starships, which were then connected with the circular rails to even more vacuum tubes, abandoned starships, and sphere living cabins. Today, nobody could tell how many floors the Seven Seas Grand Market had, and how many zones and how much population there were in the place.

It was a haven for the space pirates, a resort for the wanted criminals, an arena for the unknown to earn their fame with their life, a paradise for the adventurers, and a graveyard for the cowards. This was a black market of the black markets, a slaughterhouse of the slaughterhouses, and a heaven of the heavens. This was the freest place in the entire universe!

At this moment, the latest catalog of goods and services in the Seven Seas Grand Market, as well as the demo system in the Grand Illusionary Land, had been matched with the mainframe crystal processor of Little Bear, allowing them to be displayed directly.

Through the trade system with the Grand Illusionary Land, the merchants could browse through the commodities vividly. After the trades were completed through the free coin on the Spiritual Nexus, the fully-automatic barges would load the goods on the starships. The merchants did not even need to leave his starship in the entire process. It couldn’t have been more convenient.

Of course, regarding the unique Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures whose authenticity must be checked in real life, or when the merchandise was human resources such as mercenaries, assassins, or regular laborers, the merchants still needed to enter the Seven Seas Grand Market to complete the trades.

Li Yao was preparing to secretly get in touch with Jin Yuyan. He naturally needed to get off.

But before leaving Little Bear, it wouldn’t hurt to look around in the virtual market and see what was out there.

The two of them were both experts with extraordinary computational abilities. As soon as they made the decision, they were immediately connected to the demo system with the Grand Illusionary Land, and tremendous names of goods spurted out from the 3D light beam like a waterfall.

From the most fundamental water cleaning pills, air circulation chips, and synthetic food in cans, to the refined minerals for industrial purposes and the strengthening drugs for the experts, to the rather sensitive space shuttles, crystal suits, battle puppets, and even the modified, half-armed carriers, anything could be found on the catalog. Both of them felt rather dazzled.

Clicking on the latest half-armed carrier to read the introduction, Li Jialing discovered that it was modified based on a new model of carriers co-developed by the four families. But the questions remained. Where exactly did the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors get so many advanced carriers, and how did they get the most confidential technological manuals of those carriers in order to complete the modification?

Looking at the description of the good, which stated that it was an original product from a certain magical equipment base of the four families, Li Jialing couldn’t help but feel absurd.

“The goods provided in the Seven Seas Grand Market are truly numerous.”

Li Jialing found it hard to understand. “The coalition fleet of the four families have obviously blocked most of the sailing routes, trapping the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in the Seven Seas Space Zone, their base. Yet so many goods are still supplied here without any restriction, and so many business teams have arrived here by passing through the control of the four families. This is utterly unreasonable!”

Li Yao told Li Jialing that it was because he did not know the whole of it. The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors did not produce any goods. They even released the shares of many shipping groups, inviting the people who were interested to join the great cause together. They were just the provider of a platform where trades were free and anonymous.

The individuals trading and making a fortune on the platform established by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were actually the countless corporations.

Who created those corporations, or who controlled such enterprises in secret? Of course, they were the Immortal Cultivators that included those from the four families!

An Immortal Cultivator from a secondary bloodline of the four families could perhaps get a minor job in the government or become an unimportant officer in the fleet. With their salaries and the dividends from their family every year, they would never be starved, but they would never be full either. They were about to live their entire life for nothing when a certain corporation affiliated with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors offered them shares in secret, asking for nothing in return except for their “friendship”. Who would ever turn that down?

Such things did not happen yesterday but had started decades ago before the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors completely revealed its ambitions. At that time, it was completely legal.

After decades of operations, their shares equaled a rather impressive amount of money if exchanged into the free coin.

From the four families to other noble houses, and from the minor officials in the central worlds to the warlords in the peripheral worlds, who did not have the shares of the corporations under the name of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, who did not have free coins dozens of times higher than their legitimate income in their secret account, and who did not receive the bribery of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors every year? Their “friendship” was certainly worth it!

Right now, those people were asked to besiege the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, cutting out their own way of making money and transforming the free coins in their pockets into meaningless numbers? That was certainly not going to happen!