Chapter 2308 The Real Enemy!
Two feeble golden wings flashed past Li Yao’s eyes. By focusing his spiritual energy on the pupils and projecting it to Dongfang Wang’s body, he was able to perceive Dongfang Wang’s vitality field clearly.
Peeping at one’s vitality field was very rude and provocative. If Dongfang Wang’s head were clear and his soul were solid, he would certainly have launched counterattacks automatically.
However, the former prime minister of the Imperium was now mad and insane, completely dwelling in the glories of the past and the crazy illusions. He did not notice the peeping from the outside world at all.
Under Li Yao’s eyes of spiritual energy, Dongfang Wang was entirely gone, replaced by the twisted and undulating fields that looked like the entanglements of countless glittering double helixes.
However, the double helixes that were supposed to be glamorous and vigorous were consumed by darkness all the time and rotting at a visible speed, only to disperse into a black mist in the end, reduced to nothingness in the air.
Long Yangjun did not lie to him. Dongfang Wang was indeed dying. His vitality field was about to completely collapse. His physical body, his soul, and his will were all perishing soon.
Seeing that the prestigious former Prime Minister of the Imperium of True Human Beings ending up like this, Li Yao was caught in mixed feelings. For a Cultivator, Dongfang Wang, as a leader of Immortal Cultivators, was supposed to be one of the “ultimate supervillains”, who should’ve been killed by him after arduous battles through tremendous prices at the cost of gory prices.
But as it turned out, Li Yao had not done anything yet, and the man was already dying?
Li Yao and the entire Star Glory Federation’s illusions and fears about the Imperium a hundred years ago seemed entirely ungrounded. Was that why they said “every family has troubles of its own”?
The federation had the federation’s fatal threats, and the Imperium had the Imperium’s fundamental problems. Faced with the vastness of the universe, both the federation and the Imperium were as insignificant as ants!
Pondering a moment, Li Yao opened his hands and released two streams of mild spiritual energy into Dongfang Wang’s body, trying to slow down the total collapse of his vitality field and stimulate his brain that was about to dry so that he could be conscious for a moment.
As the bright gold spiritual energy enshrouded his body, Dongfang Wang moaned in a low voice. The craziness and compunctions in his eyes slowly ebbed, but they were soon covered by the mist of agony and desperation.
“It’s you… You’re finally here… My time has come.”
The Dongfang Wang at this moment was like an old man who was finally facing the reality. Leaning his head to the human-shaped package in his arms, he mumbled, “I’ve lost, as crushed as anyone can be!”
Although he was looking at Li Yao, his attention was obviously not focused on Li Yao. Instead, he seemed to be mired in the memories of a long time ago while he summarized his life.
“I am defeated, not by the Covenant Alliance, the reformists, or the churlish guys of the four Kurfürst families…”
Dongfang Wang was now gnashing his teeth in fury, now caught in self-pity, and now saying in utmost tranquility without any emotion on his face. “I’ve lost to the three thousand Sectors. I’ve been defeated by the entire cosmos. I’ve been overwhelmed by everyone’s desires and ambitions!
“Hehe. I thought that I could continue what Blackstar the Great failed to accomplish a thousand years ago by uniting the Imperium of True Human Beings and the universe!
“How childish I was to have considered the cosmos and mankind in such a simple way?
“The Imperium of True Human Beings has hundreds of Sectors and tens of thousands of resource planets. The worlds are thousands of lightyears away from each other, with utterly different living environments, customs, and traditions. They have their own appeals and interests. To make things worse, there are even countless sects inside each world, countless Immortal Cultivators inside every sect, and all the Immortal Cultivators are minding only their own business and plotting against each other. How could I have united all of them and let them obey my command?
“The Imperium is not a country at all but a tray of loose sand that pretends to be a country. It is a wobbly alliance that is somehow jumbled together, and the greatest enemy for everybody in the alliance is exactly the ‘allies’ next to them! Why was I such an idiot that I could not see through such a simple fact?
“All in vain! My years of hard work and even my life have been wasted for nothing!
“I burned all my will and my soul and completely devoted myself to the Imperium, and what have I got?
“The four Kurfürst families, including the Dongfang family, hamstrung me in secret. The local leaders and warlords at the periphery of the Imperium simply ignored my orders and worked their ways around them! When I added the war tax by 5%, they were bold enough to levy 50% more on the taxpayers! When I wanted to build an honorable, clean government, they simply sat in the office doing nothing every day! When I asked the warlords’ troops to push forward to the frontline that was of paramount importance, they would immediately ‘encounter a space storm and suffer heavy losses’. All their starships simply wandered off. Instead of contributing to the frontline, they sometimes even turned into space pirates and ransacked the rear while it was undefended, stabbing their blades into their own people!
“It is needless to mention the wicked merchants who hoarded goods and made a fortune through the war. I wanted to punish them hard, but everybody from the four Kurfürst families, including the leaders of the Dongfang family and even my own son, came to me to beg mercy for them. What could I have done? What could I have done even if I was the ‘prime minister of iron and blood’?
“Even so, despite the unexpected difficulties and troubles, I still combined the resources through hard work with my best and finally won the Imperium’s counterattack! Are the generals who know nothing but fighting and asking for resources in the frontline aware of what a hard-earned victory this is? Do they have any idea how many times I wiped their a*ses for them and how many conundrums I settled for them?
“I thought that those people would be convinced after such a glorious triumph, and that the Imperium would rise to the peak again under my leadership. But I still underestimated the shamelessness of those guys. The war is still not over yet, and they are already impatient enough to stab me in the back. Are they so scared of me, so desperate to get rid of me, and so unwilling to see the rise of a powerful Imperium?”
Dongfang Wang chattered on like a poor old man.
Li Yao listened in silence, not knowing whether he should loathe or pity the former leader of Immortal Cultivators.
Getting to the bottom of it, it was impossible for the Immortal Cultivators who worshipped survival of the fittest to be really united or to have a real leader.
Their leader was nothing but someone who suppressed all the other experts with absolute strength while promising the greatest returns for all the experts.
For Dongfang Wang, he did not even have “absolute strength”. How could he make the disobedient, selfish Immortal Cultivators obey him, follow him, and sacrifice for him willingly?
Dongfang Wang was perhaps a real “patriot”. His ambitions were deeply entwined with the fate of the Imperium of True Human Beings. He truly wanted to become a prime minister with achievements, not one who would resign the moment difficulties emerged, like “Silver Fox” Li Jiande.
That was the reason why Dongfang Wang’s tragedy was destined since the very beginning. He was destined to die for his ambitions and the ambitions of all the Immortal Cultivators.
“I understand it now. I finally understand it now.”
Clinging to the human-shaped package in his arms, Dongfang Wang put on the most mocking smile on his shapeless lips. “I finally understand why even the ‘Supreme Emperor’ and ‘Blackstar the Great’ were not able to expand their influence to the entire universe, because the universe is not something that mankind is capable of uniting at all!
“Human beings are not a naturally created animal but a creature of gods and devils. We did not proliferate to the three thousand Sectors naturally and got used to everything gradually; we were sprayed to the entire universe by the Pangu and Nuwa civilizations in less than a hundred thousand years.
“Our ancestors were just certain monkeys jumping in the jungles of a certain planet. Even if Pangu and Nuwa injected their genes into our bodies, transforming us into tools and weapons, our wisdom was still far from enough to inherit such enormous legacies such as the three thousand Sectors.
“It’s an unbearable gift for us and a catastrophe that will haunt mankind forever. Our ambitions are infinitely magnified by the universe, and yet we do not have enough wisdom and technologies to really conquer this… universe that we both love and hate!
“The Supreme Emperor intended to unite the sea of stars, but his empire collapsed abruptly after only a thousand years. Blackstar the Great wanted to unite the universe too, but his Imperium has also become hopeless today after a thousand years. I thought I could save the Imperium, and I even saw the hope of success, but it still ends up like this.
“Perhaps the universe is never supposed to be united, and it is in fact the best form of the civilization of mankind if it is divided by dozens or hundreds of small countries? However, hehe, the hundreds of small countries will never be satisfied with the reality. Their leaders will still be swallowed by ambitions. There are bound to be frictions. New wars that are a hundred times more fierce will still be raised!
“This is the destiny of mankind. As an ‘artificial civilization’, we are fated to destroy everything, including ourselves, since the moment we were born. Nobody can change such a fate. I can’t, His Majesty can’t, the four Kurfürst families can’t, nor can the hotblooded and simpleminded reformists like you!”
Dongfang Wang’s eyes were finally concentrated on Li Yao to the point that he could recognize who Li Yao was.
“Even if you tarnish me, kill me, and even annihilate the four Kurfürst families so that the reformists can take over the Imperium, so what? That will be just the insignificant first step of a journey of ten thousand kilometers!”
Dongfang Wang smiled viciously. “Your real enemy is not me, not the four Kurfürst families, but the universe itself as well as the desires and ambitions of all humans in it. You may defeat me and the four Kurfürst families easily, but it is impossible for you to beat the universe. One day, you will end up exactly like me, if not a hundred times more miserable!”