Chapter 2550: The Black King’s Palace!
Honestly, if any of the Immortal Cultivators believed Li Yao’s bulls*it that they could charge forward valiantly while counting on Li Yao’s cover, their brains would’ve been too seriously wrong for them to survive to this day.
However, strength was most wors.h.i.+pped by the Immortal Cultivators. Compared to the tiny fleet in their hands, the Black Wind Fleet was definitely an irresistible primordial beast.
Besides, as the Immortal Cultivators thought again and again, they believed that Li Yao was not entirely wrong. Two tigers could not live on the same mountain. It was impossible for an ambitious warlord from the periphery like “Black Wind King” to live in peace with the four Kurfürst families.
A war between the Black Wind King and the four Kurfürsten was inevitable. Wasn’t the present the best opportunity?
Therefore, while the Black Wind King would not lead the charge for them, if they did fight together and reveal the weakness of the four families’ coalition fleet, the Black Wind Fleet would certainly show up and finish the battle in a critical strike.
Li Yao did not give them any chance to think carefully. Raising his right arm high, he clenched his fist and bashed his chest hard, before he waved it out like a saber, a hammer, or a wars.h.i.+p that was flying to the heart of the universe.
“Long live the Imperium!”
Taking a deep breath, he roared in a soul-stirring voice, “Our cause will succeed. A brand-new Imperium will arrive. Long live the Imperium, long live the Immortal Cultivators, long live the civilization of mankind!”
It had been a long time since the Immortal Cultivators heard such a sincere and heartfelt roar.
The voice was so pure, genuine, and even extreme that the body of the Black Wind King seemed to be expanding nonstop, further highlighting the selfishness and insignificance of their own souls. It was true. Were they Immortal Cultivators at all when compared to such a Black Wind King?!
“Long live the Imperium!”
“Long live the Immortal Cultivators!”
“Long live the civilization of mankind!”
Whether they meant it or not, all the Immortal Cultivators began to roar together with Li Yao.
The roars flooded out of the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors again like a torrent of thunders, filling the internal district immediately before overflowing to the external district and even the entire Seven Seas s.p.a.ce Zone.
Very soon, all the merchants, killers, mercenaries, and spies lingering in the Seven Seas Grand Market learned the astounding news. The Black Wind King, a capable warrior who was on par with Lei Chenghu but a hundred times more ambitious than him, had returned and declared unambiguously that he was going to resist the four families on the side of the reformists and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors again!
The shocking news was exactly a rapid cardiotonic for the panicked Seven Seas Grand Market.
The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors again had plenty of capitals. However, capitals had to be combined with violence in order to let out mysterious reactions and unleash a strength a hundred times more than before.
Before, although Lei Chenghu was on the reformists’ side, “reformists” and “Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors again” were not exactly the same thing. Also, Lei Chenghu’s Astounding Thunder Fleet and the best fleets of the four families were stalling each other, ready to reinforce the battle at the capital anytime. It was impossible for him to jump to the peripheral worlds of the Imperium easily.
Whether or not the garrison of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, together with the mercenaries and the a.s.sa.s.sin groups that had been temporarily recruited, could resist the overwhelming crush of the four families’ coalition fleet, n.o.body was confident to give a positive answer.
To make things worse, even Director Jin Yuyan was a.s.sa.s.sinated before the final battle. Their confidence and morale had hit rock bottom.
However, as it turned out, Jin Yuyan was not dead at all but neatly resolved the four families’ series of schemes. He had also invited such a powerful person as the Black Wind King to help with the battle!
A well-trained army was much better than a large army. The covetous Black Wind Fleet would certainly bring enormous pressure to the coalition fleet of the four families, adding more unexpected factors to the battle of Seven Seas.
The confidence and morale that had just hit rock bottom immediately bounced back, as shown by the futures index in the Commodity Market.
Before, when the news that Jin Yuyan had been a.s.sa.s.sinated was out, the whole market lost confidence in the free coin. Everybody was desperately exchanging the free coins they had into all kinds of goods and hoping to escape before the four families’ coalition fleet arrived.
For a moment, the prices were soaring, and the free coin had been greatly devalued. The business order was about to be gone.
After the news that Jin Yuyan was not dead and the Black Wind King had arrived, the market was immediately calmed down. The exchange rate between the free coin and the crystal coin of the Imperium was soon stabilized, and it became even higher than before Jin Yuyan’s a.s.sa.s.sination.
It meant that the free coin was more valuable than a day ago!
The free coin was confidence; the confidence of the Immortal Cultivators from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium and even within the four families in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors as well as the reformists.
The value of the free coin almost decided the ending of the battle of Seven Seas.
Very soon, even the soldiers who were stationed at the floating sentry posts at the border of the Seven Seas s.p.a.ce Zone were full of confidence about the final battle and the Black Wind King. Such a troop was definitely usable!
Jin Yuyan took the opportunity to secretly meet with the powerful warlords and magnates at the edge of the Imperium, reaching underground agreements one after another.
The middle-level commanders and the bottom-level officers of the four families were also important targets for him to attract. He promised them thousands of benefits and temptations on one condition—that those people would s.h.i.+ft their sides during the battle and join the cause of brightness and justice.
Other than that, he was also busy restoring the order of the Seven Seas Grand Market and dealing with the guys like Qi Yuanbao, Wuying Qinxin, and Red Lady. However Jin Yuyan hated the few “traitors”, it was impossible for him to execute them immediately. After all, they were not by themselves but had countless subordinates and allies, like “b.l.o.o.d.y Skull” and “Life Claimer”, which were trained by themselves in person. 99% of the members of the a.s.sa.s.sin groups were unaware of their betrayal or their scheme to a.s.sa.s.sinate Jin Yuyan.
With a war coming near, those people were the pillars to defend the Seven Seas Grand Market. What would those people think if their leader was executed at such a moment? What would the people of the “Wuying group”, which was rather close to Wuying Qinxin, think?
Therefore, Jin Yuyan could only follow Li Yao’s suggestion and keep Qi Yuanbao, Wuying Qinxin, and Red Lady in custody until the victory of the battle of Seven Seas.
As for the elite a.s.sa.s.sination squads that the four families sent to infiltrate the Seven Seas Grand Market, they were not as lucky.
Identified by Qi Yuanbao and Red Lady, those people were all captured, and all their secret bureaus and intelligence networks were unrooted too.
They were all the central members of the main bloodlines of the four families. It was barely possible for them to surrender.
Without batting an eye, Jin Yuyan had all the a.s.sa.s.sins from the four families executed before the Commodity Market, their stinky blood flowing all over the ground, as a gesture of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’ determination to crush the four families.
Jin Yuyan was occupied for almost half a day before he finally finished the preliminary preparations for the final battle. He was able to catch his breath and went to Li Yao to discuss the operations in the next step and to seek the answers to the mysteries that had been puzzling him.
Li Yao did not stay in the headquarters of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. He asked Jin Yuyan to spare a building that was about twenty floors high as the palace for the “Black Wind King”.
He also retrieved countless components from the warehouse of the Seven Seas Grand Market, arming the tower that solely belonged to the Black Wind King. Even Jin Yuyan did not know what he was up to inside.
When Jin Yuyan walked into the “palace of the Black Wind King”, the inside of the building had been completely deformed by Li Yao’s modification.
The whole building was crowded with mysterious defensive arrays. All the floors were drowned in the hazy mist where one couldn’t see one’s own fingers. In the dark mist, countless raging shadows could be vaguely seen. Now and then, the hoots of fiends, the cries of ghosts, and other creepy noises were echoing.
Jin Yuyan felt that he had stepped into an absurd but horrible nightmare after he walked into the building. He could not sense any of the sounds or information from the outside world.
What a brilliant interferential array on the soul!
Jin Yuyan was secretly alarmed. He knew that what he saw and heard was mostly illusions. The defensive arrays that Li Yao had set up could even deceive the experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage like him. Although it was partly because his soul and his brain were not matched, it was still indicative enough of Li Yao’s capabilities in magical equipment modification, deployment of defensive arrays, and soul attack besides fighting.
Where does this monster come from exactly? Not only does he have such a remarkable combat ability, but he is also adept at so many side tricks. This is really…
While Jin Yuyan was thinking, a glamorous and eye-catching black shadow slowly descended from the midair.
Every floor of this building was about three meters tall. However, the black shadow seemed to be dropping from a hundred meters high in the middle of thousands of crows, landing on Jin Yuyan’s back without a sound.
Greatly alarmed, Jin Yuyan turned around abruptly, only to discover that thousands of black flames were ignited on the black shadow, tearing it apart and revealing Li Yao’s real appearance.
Li Yao at this moment had a skin as pale as a dead man, which was even more eye-catching under the contrast of the black mist. He was only wearing a sloppy black robe that seemed to carry no decorations, but if one were to observe more carefully, they would notice that countless goriest scenes of slaughters had been sewed on the black robe. The astounding black seemed to be made of an ocean of blood that had curdled and dried.
Li Yao’s eyes were as profound as the night sky and stained with blood. From the bloodstains, the gold brilliance that was a mix of dominance and brutality was vaguely blooming. He grinned and bare his sharp teeth, and his voice was echoing far and near from all directions at the same time, slithering up from the bottom of Jin Yuyan’s feet like countless vipers all the way to the back of Jin Yuyan’s ears. “Director Jin, you’re here.”