“Damn it. What are you doing?”

　　The captain burst into fury and struggled desperately like a lobster that had been thrown into boiling oil. He seemed to be planning to jump at Chief Mate Fang and Manger Qin and bite them hard. “Are you planning to betray the Imperium, too? You are the proud natives of the Black Wind Sector!”

　　“Save your saliva, my captain. With everything that’s happened, is being natives of the Black Wind Sector worth being proud of?”

　　Chief Mate Fang sat in the captain’s chair and crossed his arms. He said gloomily, “After the Black Wind Sector was occupied by the Covenant Alliance, Sirius became the only home for all of us. We cannot watch you ruin the home and make so many people on the starship die with you while doing nothing.”

　　“Betrayal! Shameless betrayal!” The captain was still cursing. “You gutless traitors! Have you forgotten the dignity and pride of the Immortal Cultivators? Are you going to conspire with the soft bones from the four smaller worlds, or are you going to demean yourself by working with the swine-like hominoids?”

　　“We do not mean to betray you. As long as you agree to our demands, you will still be the captain of Sirius,” Manager Qin of the engine compartment said. “We cannot kill the hominoid soldiers, much less taking them as… food storage, as has been illustrated clearly on the letters of persuasion that the federation sent repeatedly. If a hominoid soldier on any starship of the Imperium is executed for any reason including but not limited to ’emergencies’, all the Immortal Cultivators on the starship will be doomed. After we are caught by the federation, they will not spare any of the Immortal Cultivators!”

　　“And that was enough to scare all of you?” The captain widened his eyes and almost spat at the two traitors right in the face. “We will not be caught by the federation. Before they discover us, we will have repaired the starship and found enough fuel for us to perform a space jump and return to the homeland of the Imperium!”

　　Chief Mate Fang and Manager Qin both sighed at the captain’s stubbornness.

　　“Forgetting the odds of looting enough fuel, forgetting if heavily-damaged ‘Sirius’ can safely jump in the four-dimensional space without major maintenance in a dock…” Chief Mate Fang said calmly, “Let’s leave all the technical problems aside. Even if we do jump back to the homeland of the Imperium successfully, so what?

　　“This is not our first brutal failure but the second one. A second brutal failure after less than a hundred years, crushed by none other than a bunch of barbarians at the edge of the cosmos!

　　“Admit it or not, the glory, the pride and leverage of the people of the Black Wind Sector are gone, with absolutely nothing left!

　　“After the brutal failure a hundred years ago, we lost our home, the Black Wind Sector, but we still had an enormous fleet with sufficient supplies and well-trained soldiers. Today, a hundred years later, even our fleet has been shattered. We are out of supplies and no better than stray dogs!

　　“Even if such stray dogs return to the homeland of the Imperium, is it even possible to reestablish the honor of the Black Wind Fleet right under the nose of the emperor, the nobles, and the warlords?

　　“It’s impossible. We will be separated by the multiple warlords and live the rest of our lives under somebody else’s roof without dignity or freedom, until we are used as cannon fodder on a certain perilous battlefield someday. This is almost a certainty. What do you think?”

　　The captain breathed heavily and stared at the chief mate full of hatred.

　　Chief Mate Fang continued peacefully. “If you do remember the glory of the Black Wind Sector, we actually stand a better chance at the edge of the cosmos. At the very least, the defeated soldiers of the Black Wind Fleet can still gather certain bargaining chips for the negotiation with the federation here.

　　“The federation has stated clearly in the letters of persuasion that although the Black Wind Fleet came for aggression, we only had one fight in space, and we did not have the time to occupy their planets or slaughter their civilians. Therefore, we do not owe them much.

　　“They reached an agreement of peace with the Blood Demon Sector, which had been at war with them for hundreds of years, allowing demons to be an important part of the New Federation. It is highly unlikely that they will kill each and every one of us, provided that we do not do anything stupid.

　　“Captain, you know the woman Heiye Lan, too, don’t you? Right now, the federation has presented her as a puppet to control the Black Wind Fleet, but it is also side evidence that we are still very important to the federation.

　　“Think about it. The federation’s collisions with the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance are unavoidable. In the federation, the defeated soldiers such as us can still prove useful, whereas in the Imperium, stray dogs that have encountered two failures in a row are absolutely nothing!

　　“Isn’t which way we should go obvious?”

　　The captain gritted his teeth and shouted, “We are Immortal Cultivators!”

　　“The winner is the king, and the strong prey on the weak. Isn’t it the law of the Immortal Cultivators?” Chief Mate Fang said. “We have been defeated by the federation in a space battle fair and square. You saw how intimidating the enemy’s Colossi, led by the Tartarean Skeleton and the Draconic Phoenix, were with your own eyes. At the very least, the federation is the strong for now. Isn’t it only logical for us to obey them temporarily?”

　　Chief Mate Fang squatted next to the head of his prisoner and eyed the captain coldly.

　　The captain was silent for a long time. Then he took a deep breath and spat a mouthful of bloodstained saliva on the chief mate’s face. “Screw you!”

　　Chief Mate Fang took out a smooth handkerchief and wiped the saliva on his face slowly. Then he drew the storm bolter from his waist and pressed it against the captain’s temple so hard that it almost stabbed into the captain’s skull. “I understand your stance now. Do you have any last words, captain?”

　　The captain stared at the traitors unwaveringly and took a deep breath. Then he shouted at the top of his voice, “Long live the Black Wind Sector! Long live the Imperium of True Human Be—”

　　Boom!

　　Before he finished his declaration, Chief Mate Fang already pulled the trigger.

　　As thousands of electric arcs dashed out, more than half of the captain’s head was blown apart. All the brain tissue and fluids splashed and covered the ground up to three meters away.

　　Frowning, Chief Mate Fang pointed at the mess and said, “Clean it up. We’ll say that the captain insisted on carrying out the order to kill a hundred innocent sailors and even decided to punish us by military law when we refused to obey. Having no choice, we were forced to resist and accidentally killed the captain. In the end, we seized control of ‘Sirius’.”

　　“Understood!”

　　The few members on the bridge did not bother looking at the dead body on the ground that had lost half of its head. They saluted the chief mate and left in a hurry.

　　“Is the communication with ‘Green Island’ smooth?”

　　Manager Qin of the engine compartment rubbed his hands and asked hesitantly, “Any updates so far?”

　　“Same old. Another dozen starships have surrendered, and another hundred starships that did not understand the situation were defeated.” Chief Mate Fang sighed and said, “Right. It is said that Vulture Li Yao has returned with his Colossus, the Tartarean Skeleton. He is even stronger than he was in the space battle.

　　“He seems to be taking the space as his personal training ground and practicing his new techniques with the starships which were too pigheaded to surrender. The starships of the Imperium sabotaged by him alone are more than fifty.”

　　“F—Fifty?” Manager Qin was dumbfounded. “Is he really so unbelievable?”

　　“That is what the latest version of the letter of persuasion from the federation says. I don’t think that there is any need for them to lie about that.” Chief Mate Fang smiled bitterly. “On second thought, it does make sense. How could the starships that were riddled with holes and running out of supplies and power compete with a Colossus? And it was not just any Colossus but Vulture Li Yao’s, a guy who slew our commander Heiye Ming in a head-on clash!”

　　Manager Qin swallowed hard. “Then—then we should approach ‘Green Island’ now!”

　　“Yes. We will approach Green Island and get in touch with the main troops behind the brown dwarf,” Chief Mate Fang said. “According to Green Island, General ‘Di Feiwen’, the highest commander of the troops on the brown dwarf’s side, is already negotiating with the federation. You should know General Di Feiwen’s methods clearly. He will certainly get acceptable terms of surrender for us.

　　“Of course, the more troops General Di has in his hands, the more leverage he will have in the negotiation, right?”

　　…

　　On ‘Nine Cauldrons’, the largest comprehensive supply starship in the Burning Prairie Fleet, inside the super high-gravity and high-pressure training room, Li Yao kept his arms stretched out and his legs together, making his body into an enormous cross.

　　The training room was in an extreme environment of thirty times the standard gravity and twenty times the standard air pressure. However, Li Yao was floating in midair as if he were not under such effects at all.

　　Hundreds of thousands of broken pieces of the magical equipment were revolving crazily and unpredictably around him.

　　Suddenly—

　　Li Yao’s half-closed eyes opened abruptly, and a sniff echoed from his nose. Of the hundreds of thousands of pieces, half of them flew toward him and assembled into a crystal suit in less than two seconds with cracking sounds!

　　It was not over yet. Hardly had the crystal suit been assembled when it broke apart and exploded. Another batch of pieces rushed close and assembled into an entirely different crystal suit.

　　In less than twenty seconds, Li Yao accurately distinguished and screened out the components that belonged to five different crystal suits from the hundreds of thousands of pieces of crystal suits which were entirely mixed up. Then, he attracted the pieces and assembled the five crystal suits that were in completely different categories in the blink of an eye!

　　The powerful perception of spiritual energy, the precise implementation of crystal suits, and the amazing expertise of remote manipulation made everybody inside and outside the training room dumbfounded and soaked in sweat.

　　Di Feiwen, vice commander of the Black Wind Fleet, a lieutenant general of the Imperium, and the leader of the second largest family of the Black Wind Sector?

　　Li Yao recited the name in silence and slowly landed.

　　The hundreds of thousands of components of crystal suits assembled into five crystal suits behind him in clinking noises and smashed on the floor like five iron guards.