Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“That’s the idea,” Di Feiwen said. “In the past hundred years, the messages from the homeland of the Imperium to the Black Wind Fleet have always been intermittent and irresponsible. We were like crazy dogs that they wanted to stay as far away from as possible.

 “However, the messages from the homeland of the Imperium increased recently. They are suddenly concerned about the battle situation here and even asked us several times if we need backup.

 “Hehe. Based on my understanding of those aristocrats and generals, it is definitely not because they were suddenly questioned by their conscience and they thought of the lone army that is wandering far away again, but because they are reevaluating our capability and attitude so that they can decide the ownership of the five worlds including the Black Wind Sector.

 “Once everything is settled, the five worlds will fall into the stomach of other people without getting out, and the lone troop that is wandering at the edge of the cosmos as well as the entire Star Glory Federation will also suffer undeserved disasters. We will be destroyed through no fault of our own!

 “The inquiries made recently are getting more and more specific, involving many details of strategic arrangements. We have managed to provide false answers to fool them. Occasionally, when it is impossible for us to answer, we pretend that the communication is jammed by the cosmic storms, and we did not receive any message from the Imperium at all.

 “However, cosmic storms cannot last forever, and it is not going to work out if we resort to lies all the time. When the homeland of the Imperium grows suspicious about the situation at the edge of the cosmos, even the most delicate strategic deception will be seen through.”

 “Therefore,” Jin Xinyue said, “we have to come up with a solution before the day comes and implement interference on the homeland of the Imperium as much as possible to distract the Imperium’s attention from the edge of the cosmos.

 “With that in mind, we have come up with two plans, one aggressive and the other passive. The more passive plan is the Heavenly Eye Plan. The elite scouts from the federation will be sent to march deep into the homeland of the Imperium for clear and specific intelligence, including the final outcome of the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance, and whether or not the Imperium has indeed secured the most glorious and unprecedented victories as it has bragged about in the reports.

 “If the reports are real, and the Imperium has truly recovered all the territory a thousand years ago, we also need to know the details about the distribution of trophies. Which warlord or aristocrat will control the five worlds including the Black Wind Sector, and what is their attitude toward the Black Wind Fleet and the edge of the cosmos?

 “Only after we figure out the intelligence can we come up with countermeasures to resist the enemy!”

 Li Yao nodded. No battle would ever be lost when one knew oneself and one’s enemy well. The Heavenly Eye Plan was a most balanced and riskless plan. He did not have any objection to it.

 However, knowing Jin Xinyue, the queen of demons who had inherited the blood of Jin Tuyi, Li Yao was certain that she could not have only made such a rather passive plan.

 “Then what is the plan that is more aggressive?” Li Yao asked.

 Jin Xinyue smiled. It was not until this moment that the sharp brilliant from more than a hundred years ago beamed out of her eyes again. She explained, “Attack and defense are actually the two sides of the same coin and can be switched at any time. When it comes to defense, it is the Heavenly Eye Plan, and when we need to attack, it will be the Heavenly Slayer Plan!

 “The details of the Heavenly Slayer Plan are nothing special. It is basically the same as the Heavenly Eye Plan, except that it is no longer elite scouts who are sent to the homeland of the Imperium but experts that boast tremendous damage.”

 “The Heavenly Slayer Plan?” Li Yao’s pupils constricted rapidly. “You are going to send a batch of highly-destructive experts to the homeland of the Imperium?”

 “Exactly. Even if they are not as strong as you, Master, they should be experts at least on the level of Fiend Blade Peng Hai, the Fire Ant King, Wu Mayan, and the ten experts of the Ancient Sages Sector,” Jin Xinyue said solemnly. “I hope that when a dozen or so such experts are gathered with their Colossi, they will be able to destroy an important base of the Imperium very quickly if they are determined; or to completely paralyze an important planet’s resource supplies in guerilla warfare; or to perform a decapitation strategy on the enemy’s aristocrats, warlords, nobles, and central commanders; or to disrupt the enemy’s important ports and transportation hubs… All in all, I am hoping to deliver a dozen or so strategic weapons like that to the heart of the Imperium!”

 Li Yao understood what was going on. “This is a strategy of some sort of mutual deterrence, huh?”

 “Yes. The comprehensive national power of the Imperium is too high. With the juvenile state that the federation is in today after our preliminary development, it will be practically impossible to win a head-on clash with a prepared army from the Imperium,” Jin Xinyue said. “In the battle against the Black Wind Fleet, we destroyed the space gate of the Imperium and secured the final victory mainly because of the dominating return of the twelve Colossi led by you. But luck played an important part, too.

 “We cannot count on unpredictable luck as hope for our every victory. Besides, if the Imperium sends out a coalition fleet that is multiple times stronger than the Black Wind Fleet, there will be nothing we can do however lucky we are.

 “According to the conclusion of our specialists, after we combine the technology from Kunlun, the Nuwa warship and the Pangu laboratory in the Ancient Sages Sector, the Black Wind Fleet, and Firefly, as long as we develop at a high speed for one or two decades in order to fully grasp and make use of the technology, there will be hope for us to compete with the army of the Imperium in an open battlefield.

 “However, the enemy is hardly likely to give us one or two decades. The next ten years will be the most crucial ten years for the federation. Should the enemy attack again in the meantime, they will not even have to entirely occupy the federation, and the serious damage to the few most important industrial planets of the federation will be more than enough to delay the progress of our development and cast us into an eternal doom.

 “Therefore, in the next ten to twenty years, we can only adopt the strategy of unrestricted warfare and asymmetric strikes to protect ourselves.

 “Is a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator in a Colossus important in a space battle in a head-on clash? Of course it is! However, the truth is that if the Imperium sends out a second coalition fleet that is multiple times more powerful than the first one after learning the truth of the federation, we will not be able to resist the overwhelming attack at all even if we gather all our Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and their Colossi. The only difference is that we may die slower and more valiantly.

 “If so, what if we move the most dangerous Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and their Colossi from the main battlefield to the battlefield behind enemy lines?

 “We do not need to boast the ability to completely crush the Imperium. As long as we can convince our enemy that, once they decide to destroy the federation, they will have to pay an insufferable price at their heartland and will die together with the federation, it will be good enough.”

 After pondering for a moment, Li Yao asked suspiciously, “A dozen Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, even with their Colossi, are enough to die together with the Imperium? I’m afraid that it won’t be so simple, right?”

 “It is indeed a bit tricky to make the entire Imperium die with us. Besides, if we and the Imperium fight each other, the Covenant Alliance will take advantage, which is certainly not our goal,” Jin Xinyue said with a smile. “However, we do not need to drag the entire Imperium to die with us at all. All we need to do is make the warlord or the aristocrat that intends to lay their fingers on the federation die with us and convince them of our capability to do so clearly.

 “If a certain aristocrat intends to invade in the federation, then on the frontline at the edge of the cosmos, his troops will be destined to be mired in a prolonged war of attrition where there is no winner. After all the losses, he will only reap a series of wastelands in the end.

 “In the rear, his nest will be seriously sabotaged, his bases will be destroyed, his ports will be paralyzed, and his trusted subordinates, his descendants, and even himself will endure infinite assassinations!

 “The bottom line is, even if he does manage to conquer the Star Glory Federation in the end, his own capability will be diminished to weaker than ever, and he will end up as a fat and feeble prey in the cruel slaughterhouse that is the Imperium. It will be somebody else who takes all the benefits.

 “After the warlords and aristocrats of the Imperium recognize this point clearly, will they recklessly wage a war upon the federation? This is exactly the mutual deterrence that you mentioned before.”

 Considering carefully for a moment, Li Yao shook his head and said, “The plan is too risky. Every Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and every Colossus is highly precious. Projecting a dozen Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and an equal number of Colossi into the Imperium entails too many unexpected factors. The losses may outweigh the gains in the end.

 Looking at Li Yao, Jin Xinyue said, “Since this is a plan of strategic deception, we do not necessarily need to dedicate so many Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Colossi for real. All we need to do is convince our enemy that we have done so.

 “Therefore, we actually only require three to four, or even only one or two, experts who are strong enough to perform decapitation strategies on a warlord or an aristocrat to accomplish the Heavenly Slayer Plan at the critical moment, and who can convince the enemy that similar experts to him are lurking right inside the Imperium.”

 Li Yao rubbed his fists. “That’s what I’m best at!”

 Jin Xinyue laughed. “When we drafted the Heavenly Slayer Plan in the beginning, I indeed designed the implementer with you as the template. Those elite scouts or experts of the Heavenly Slayer Plan who will be teleported to the Imperium must have very high abilities in information collection, exploration, solo combat, and even large-scale sabotage and decapitation on their own.

 “Most critically of all, they must be of some influence and can negotiate with certain forces within the Imperium to reach an agreement as a representative of the federal government.

 “Right now, few people in the federation boast such abilities and such standing. While all of them will not hesitate to go to the Imperium, you are certainly the best candidate of them all.”

 “Most importantly, as the Black Wind King, you are the legitimate ruler of the five worlds, including the Black Wind Sector,” Di Feiwen said gravely. “In the Imperium of True Human Beings, strength is law, and when it comes to strength, you are not bad at all, my king!”

 “Understood. You can leave both the Heavenly Eye Plan and the Heavenly Slayer Plan to me!” Li Yao was full of confidence. Then, he asked, “However, why does it sound like that the Imperium of True Human Beings is a tray of loose sand? Does it mean that we can deal with the entire Imperium by just dealing with some of the warlords and aristocrats?”