Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough. Hahahaha!”

Li Jiande was like a crow that had coughed all his internal organs out. From the wrinkles that were shivering nonstop, two rays beamed out and stared at Li Linghai gloomily. “Firstly, you connected the many forces at the periphery of the Imperium behind the family’s back and developed a huge secret armed force on your own, raising a storm of blood and roasting your family on a stove.

“When the things were beyond rescue, you simply marched back to the family in your desperation, slaughtering thousands of descendants of your family without batting an eye and destroying more than half of the elite fleet of the family.

“Having committed such atrocious betrayals, you are telling me without any embarrassment that this is for the future of the family. Do you really think that the Li family does not have any rules?!”

Boom!

The old man who seemed to be dying and unable to shoulder the feeblest wind suddenly bulged his eyes and slapped his hands that were as slender as tree branches. Broken ripples spread out on the 3D light beam, as if it were about to be smashed into pieces.

“Please don’t be anxious, grandfather. You can listen to my explanation.”

Li Linghai, however, was not intimidated by the leader of the Li family at all. Not even a single hair on her eyebrows shivered. She still continued talking with a smile, “This is not what I had in mind either, but I don’t really have a choice. Most of the people in power in the Li family are the blind, hesitant, and useless cowards such as my father. If I have told them my plan directly, there wouldn’t have been a second result and that they would be too scared and more determined to get rid of me.

“Grandfather, you are the only visionary and extraordinary person who can foresee what will happen several hundred years later.

“But you are too old after all. You were too exhausted and devoted to the family in the past, and you have to rest in seclusion most of the time right now. The complicated affairs in the family have to be entrusted to somebody else. As a result, you can’t help but be burdened by your stupid teammates.

“Let me ask you, if it weren’t in such a way, even if I was the queen of the Imperium, would there have been an opportunity for me to meet you, shut the mouths of those stupid pigs, make the family realize the feasibility and graveness of the matter, and make you listen to my words carefully?”

“What if I don’t want to listen?”

Every wrinkle on Li Jiande’s face was radiating coldness like the edge of a razor. He leaned closer to the light beam and said, one word after another, “Good granddaughter, listen up. I don’t know what else you have got apart from the Astounding Thunder Fleet, but the Divine Rain Planet is a strategic stronghold that the family has been working hard on for hundreds of years. Even I have personally perfected the defense system of the Divine Rain Planet.

“The entire Divine Rain Planet is filled with battle fortresses large and small, open and secret. There are millions of battle puppets and well-trained Exos too. The arsenals and food below the ground are enough to sustain the high-intensity resistance for a couple of years. You can never take down the Divine Rain Planet without a couple of years and the sacrifices of countless people!

“Hehe. The four Kurfürst families’ elite troops, on the other hand, will jump to the Divine Rain Sector in not a couple of years but a few days.

“It’s true that we have lost the jump signals of the Divine Rain Sector. You must’ve occupied and destroyed the three space gates, making it impossible for our fleets to jump over on a large scale, right?

“But so what? We have plenty of components that can be loaded on starships and assembled into portable space gates. As long as a few starships jumped to the edge of the Divine Rain Sector, they will be able to set up a few minor space gates in a day or two to summon the main troops.

“How many starships do you have in your hands? Can you monitor the infinite space zones at the edge of the Divine Rain Sector, locate all the small space gates that are secretly established, and destroy them without missing out any?

“Besides, the Divine Rain Fleet can’t be destroyed by you so easily, can it? Even if they are all pigs, they are still the pigs that are armed with the most advanced starships and crystal suits. I don’t believe that you can gain complete control over the entire Divine Rain Sector in one month!

“Therefore, I’m very curious about one thing. Tell me, my good granddaughter. Why do you think that you can force the entire family to sit down and negotiate with you just by doing what you have done?”

Li Jiande sat back again.

His dark, little eyes were slowly closed, as if he had lost interest in the conversation and might cut off the communication at any moment.

“Negotiate?”

Li Linghai pursed her lips and chuckled, shaking her finger slowly. “Grandfather, I’m afraid that you are mistaken. I am not here to negotiate with the family but to give you the ultimatum.”

Li Jiande’s eyes that had been closed were opened again.

They were so sordid and brutal that they might have been enough to open the breastplate of a heavy crystal suit.

“I have never intended to occupy the Divine Rain Planet or any habitable planet of the family. Therefore, I will never do such a stupid thing as to send my troops into the atmosphere for bloody landing battles street by street.

“What I want is only the resources stored in the warehouses and space fortresses on the near-planet orbit, mostly fuel and ammunition.”

Li Linghai raised her wrist and checked the time and progress on her mini crystal processor. “In twelve hours, my fleet will move all the assets on the orbit of the Divine Rain Planet. The ammunition and crystals on the starships that we have captured will all be transferred too.

“After that, I will tie the captured starships and the facilities on the orbit, such as the spaceports, the docks, the fortresses, etc. Then, with the immense impetus of a dozen starships, all the facilities on the orbit will be pushed into the atmosphere and hit the ground heavily.

“As for the targets, I have taken care of all of them. They will be the twenty cities on the Divine Rain Planet with the most population. I believe that the defense of the Divine Rain Planet must be very thorough, but when the ports and fortresses weighing millions of tons hit heavily at the highest speed, what a huge momentum and blast will they boast? Even the most advanced anti-air cannons won’t be able to obliterate such enormous masses, right?

“I estimate that I will completely ruin ten of the twenty metropolises of the Divine Rain Planet, or maybe fifteen, if I am lucky.

“Then, the entire Divine Rain Planet will be enshrouded in terrifying smoke, which will block the light of the star. In the next ten to twenty years, the Divine Rain Planet will be a frigid hell below zero. Perhaps nobody will appreciate the next spring blossom in thirty to fifty years. Whoever survives the catastrophe can wait patiently!”

Li Linghai looked at Li Jiande with a smile.

The more gloomy and hateful the guy looked, the more brilliant her smile became. She had completely taken his fury as a compliment.

“This is just the first step. I’m not done yet.”

Li Linghai continued, “After all the facilities on the near-earth orbit and all the starships that we have captured are pushed to the major cities on the Divine Rain Planet, the coalition fleet of the reformists will leave the Divine Rain Sector and jump to the other worlds of the Li family.

“However prepared the family is, it is impossible to distribute all the troops evenly to every Sector, is it? In fact, it will be great if they are so stupid.

“Yes. It is naturally impossible for me to control the space gates to all the Sectors. But as you put it just now, grandfather, there is a kind of magical equipment named ‘portable space gate’. As it happens, my fleet has a few of them with us too. They are enough for me to initiate protracted harassment and sabotage within the Li family!

“After we jump to every new Sector, we will crush the local garrison, swallow all the resources, and do our best to directly destroy all the habitable planets and resource planets, or at least destroy the living conditions of the habitable planets, making the environment of those planets harsher than ever.

“Before the main troops of the family realize what is going on, we will finish our sabotage, destruction, and transference, going on to the next target or simply rest for a while in the vast space. After all, the resources that we plunder will be enough for our consumption.

“After all the weakly defended worlds are looted and destroyed, we will jump to the central world right before grandfather and fight a decisive battle with the most elite forces of the family!

“Yes. Maybe we will be highly unorganized when we jump over, and there might not be the slightest formation. All the starships will be scattered in the vast, boundless sea of stars. So, we will inevitably fail the battle.

“But I believe that if we are determined to die together with the opponents, we will be able to drag at least thirty percent of the elite forces of the family into hell with us before I am completely obliterated, right?

“This is my plan, grandfather. Even if there is a slight change in practical operations, it won’t matter. As long as a handful of planets, as well as having a couple of elite fleets of the family die with me, I will be satisfied.”

An enormous wall of silence stopped between Li Linghai and Li Jiande.

“Silver Fox” Li Jiande was best known for his ruthlessness and mercilessness in his prime years, and he had killed more people than he could count without blinking his eyes.

However, there was no telling if the organs in a person would soften as they grew old, but the coldness on his face was gradually falling apart.

Li Linghai saw through Li Jiande’s hesitation immediately. The delight in her clear eyes was even more intense. She licked her sharp teeth with her soft tongue and said, “The four Kurfürst families are like four ravenous, insatiable tigers. While they are usually united against the hyenas, wolves, and leopards from the outside world, are they not coveting each other too?

“Two tigers cannot live on the same mountain. Despite the vastness of the universe, four tigers seem too many. If one of the tigers is heavily wounded, emitting enticing smell of blood and meat, grandfather, do you think the other three hungry tigers will treat it and help it to recover, or will they attack it while it is in trouble, carving it up and devouring it without leaving any bones behind?”