Li Linghai rolled her eyes and said, “The Dongfang family has collected tremendous wealth during the sudden expansion in the past hundred years. Are you not tempted to carve up the Dongfang family at all? Also, you have already caused heavy wounds to the Dongfang family, and all the Immortal Cultivators of the Dongfang family will hate you for it. If you don’t get rid of all of them right now, you might be swallowed by the survivors of the Dongfang family one day!”

“Hehe. My good granddaughter, your little trick can only fool the shortsighted, ravenous guys. It is too naïve a move to be played before your grandfather!”

Li Jiande said with a smile, “The prospect to completely divide the Dongfang family is naturally very wonderful, but a chain reaction might be caused in one moment of carelessness, and we may get burnt by the fire that we started. Not only will we have to spit out all the resources that we have swallowed, but the foundations of the four Kurfürst families might be shaken!

“In fact, that is your ultimate purpose, isn’t it?

“In the past months, you’ve been instigating the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and at the bottom level in the Dongfang family and intensifying the contradictions between the main branch and the secondary branches. Finally, the two sides have congregated into a torrent that devours the entire family!

“The other three Kurfürst families seem to be taking great advantage of the so-called ‘reform’, but we are actually faced with the same fatal threat.

“In the more than ten Sectors under the Dongfang family’s governance, 90% of the Immortal Cultivators do not belong to the Dongfang family. On the best starships, most of the fundamental jobs are also taken up by the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames who are highly dissatisfied with the Dongfang family. Aren’t the Li family, the Yun family, and the Song family the same?

“The Dongfang family has the contradictions between the main branch and the secondary branches, and the secondary branches want to overthrow the main branch and replace it as the dominator of the Dongfang family all the time. But is any of the other three families utterly united without any gap?

“You have stirred the ambitions of the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and those of secondary branches in the Dongfang family’s dominion. While the fire that they have raised can let us finish the so-called ‘First Family’ of the Imperium, if the fire burns brighter and brighter, is it possible that the fire will spread unstoppably like a wildfire and eventually burn the Li family, the Yun family, and the Song family?

“If the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and secondary branches in the Dongfang family can rise and overthrow the reign of the main branch, why can’t those in the Li, Song, and Yun families?”

Li Linghai sniffed and said casually, “Grandfather, you are overthinking.”

“No, I am not.”

Li Jiande sighed and said, “If we are really greedy enough to indulge the fire to continue burning the Dongfang family to the ground, it will be too late. With the Dongfang family as the fuel, the fire will inevitably sweep across the entire Imperium. None of the few people of the main branch in the Li family, the Yun family, or the Song family can expect to compete with the Immortal Cultivators of other surnames and secondary branches who are on a rampage. The four families will be like four gravestones falling one after another. Eventually, the order of the entire Imperium will be gone, and the center of the cosmos will fall apart, mired in incessant wars!

“Although I have no idea why you are doing this, I cannot let your plan succeed for both the Li family and the Imperium. I’m sorry, my good granddaughter!”

“I understand it now.”

Li Linghai said coldly, “Even when you were threatened by my army, you never thought to completely annihilate the Dongfang family!”

“Yes, your grandfather is already old. When one is old, a lot of things will shrink, including their ambition. They tend to be more conservative when they are considering things. Instead of thinking about what they will gain if they succeed, they will care more about what they will lose if they fail.”

Li Jiande was truly like a kind, graceful grandfather teaching his mischievous granddaughter a lesson. “If I were a hundred years younger, I might’ve been tricked by you and risked everything on destroying the Dongfang family.

“But right now, I understand that the four Kurfürst families are a community of shared destiny. We will rise and fall together. Protecting the authority of the Dongfang family is protecting the authority of the four Kurfürst families including the Li family. If the Dongfang family declines or even gets annihilated, countless people will be motivated to overthrow all the four Kurfürst families. The Imperium will completely fall into chaos by then!

“Therefore, I never intended to destroy the Dongfang family from the beginning; I only wanted to beat them and let them elect a leader whose head is clearer.

“The four families are the four legs of a table. If one family is too strong, just give them some knocking; if one family is too weak, give them a hand. After all, the universe is too large a cake to be swallowed by any individual family if they do not want to be stuffed, right? Hahahaha. Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough. Now that we are all going to eat on the table, no matter how unfriendly we look and how hard our forks clash, we have to be careful on our feet, and it will be inappropriate to really break the legs of the table. Don’t you agree, my good granddaughter?”

Li Linghai looked more and more terrible. She said, one word after another, “No wonder the Yun family and the Song family took the side of the reformists so easily. So, they were persuaded by you when they changed their attitudes, and they have been holding sabers in their hands!”

Li Jiande put the nebulizer on his nose again and took a deep breath. He sighed, “My good granddaughter, I truly regret sending you into the palace. I should’ve kept you by my side and taught you wholeheartedly so that you could grow into the most distinguished heir of the Li family! You have such great gifts, but you do not have the enlightenment of the wise. You are too young, too impatient, too confident, and too aggressive!

“The tallest tree in a forest will be destroyed by the wind first. Always!”

Li Linghai stared at Li Jiande thoughtfully and focused her eyes on Dongfang Sheng again. “After the restoration of balance among the four Kurfürst families, the reformists will soon be removed. General Dongfang, is this how you express your loyalty to the ideas of the reformists?”

“My good granddaughter, you have truly misunderstood General Dongfang.”

Before Dongfang Sheng argued, Li Jiande defended him instead. “Peace is always the best. ‘Silver Fox’ is certainly not as pigheaded as Dongfang Wang who was known as ‘iron and blood’. Killing is my least favorite thing. We are all the people of the Imperium. What can’t be resolved through peaceful negotiations?

“While the four Kurfürst families are the pillars of the Imperium, the smaller nobles and the warlords at the peripherical worlds are indispensable parts for the Imperium too. The reformists are also very important lubricants for the Imperium. Your operation under the slogan of ‘Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions’ is a great warning for the four Kurfürst families, making us reflect on whether or not the behavior of certain people among us has really crossed the line.

“Rest assured. After the incident, the four families will have internal reorganizations. We will give away rather copious interests so that the forces that have made major contributions and suffered heavy losses in the past twenty years of war can be satisfied. In any case, I do not want a civil war to burst out inside the Imperium when the Covenant Alliance is not destroyed yet.”

“Grandfather, you sound really convincing. If the brutal name of ‘Silver Fox’ had not been so resounding since a hundred years ago, I would’ve bought it.”

Li Linghai sneered and then suddenly shrieked, “General Dongfang, do you really believe that the four Kurfürst families will fall back and let go of the fat meat next to their mouths? This is just a delaying trick. After they are back to themselves and figure out the strength of the reformists, they will certainly come for retaliation. Don’t regret what you did when your doom comes!”

“Your Grace, I’ve made up my mind. You can stop your futile argument.”

Dongfang Sheng said emotionlessly, “I find it impossible to trust you with all the secrets that you have been keeping, unless you tell us everything first, including where the resources to build the Deep Sea Fleet came, how you achieved your marvelous Cultivation, and also… how you went missing after a blink when you snuck into the depths of the royal library a moment ago. What happened exactly? Where were you?”

“Yes, just confess everything, my good granddaughter.”

Li Jiande coughed violently for a while again and managed to continue, “Confess all the secrets and agree to our conditions, and you will still be the most honorable queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings. You will still be involved in the distribution of the interest in the postwar reconstruction. In the game of power, I’ll do my best to keep a place for you.”

Li Linghai completely calmed down.

Her transparent eyes seemed to have lost the heat of a human, releasing gloomy a fire that burned toward all directions.

Combing her hair that was like a white waterfall, she said casually, “What if I don’t want to confess?”

“Then we will have to invite Your Grace to somewhere else to talk!”

“Acyclic Earth” Yun Kuohai rubbed his enormous hands and grinned hideously. “Don’t blame us for being too merciless. I believe that Your Grace will certainly tell us everything that happened in the past hundred years in the end!”

“Give up your dying struggles, and don’t make a scene.”

Li Jiande also frowned and said, “Our men are everywhere. All your subordinates in the Deep Sea Fleet who are loyal to you have been controlled. Even the control system of the defense arrays in the royal palace has been compromised by us!

“Seven barriers have been set up here. You cannot even send a single telepathic thought out. It is impossible for you to call ‘Vulture Li Yao’ or anybody for help. I regarded you as an unparalleled expert at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage when I planned the arrest carefully. You don’t stand any chance at all. Is it time to admit your failure, my good granddaughter?”

“Is it?”

Li Linghai smiled without giving a reply. Black veins suddenly protruded from her pale face and wriggled like thousands of worms. Her smile was more and more mysterious and aggressive.

She was still combing her long hair that was like a white waterfall. However, as her pure hands waved, her white hair that felt like ice and frost turned black inch by inch from the top!

The devastating white in the beginning turned into an immeasurable black. It was almost like a certain unique coating that could absorb all the visible and invisible light!

No, not just the hair, even her white eyes were injected with the black fog that was like ink. Soon, there was nothing but blackness in her eyes, as if two mini black holes had been embedded on her gorgeous face.

In the blink of an eye, her hair turned entirely black without any sign of whiteness, and there was not the least light in her eyes anymore. The white queen had completely become the black queen!

“I—I—Your emperor never knows what ‘failure’ is!”

The black queen grabbed her hair that was waving madly like tentacles and burst into crazy laughter.