However harsh the Imperium treated the miscellaneous troops from the remote worlds, they would never betray them to the Covenant Alliance, because the price of joining the Covenant Alliance was to give up all their feelings and the dominance of their self-will, which would be more miserable than killing them.

Besides, there were only different roles within the Covenant Alliance that did not have a hierarchy. They called each other “brothers” and “sisters” and regarded themselves as “lambs, tools, and missionaries of the gods”. Even the super experts who were capable of turning the world upside down would be equal to the weaklings who could not catch a chicken.

Wei Guanghui was a seasoned expert in the Nascent Soul Stage after all. As the dominator of the Red Nimbus Sector and the highest commander of the Red Nimbus Fleet, he was an ambitious Immortal Cultivator full of intense desires. How could he abandon everything he had for the monotonous life in the Covenant Alliance?

It was impossible for Wei Guanghui to defect, so was it for the heads of other miscellaneous troops and local forces too. The four Kurfürst families were well aware of that. That was why they were exploited and taken advantage of blatantly, manipulated like dogs and pigs. They really had enough of it…

Wei Guanghui breathed heavily and bulged his bloodshot eyes. Staring at the name list that was still floating in midair, he almost couldn’t wait to snatch it and tear it into pieces.

The name list, however, was only a virtual object painted by mystic rays. It naturally could not be torn into pieces, just like how he knew the schemes of the four Kurfürst families clearly but could do nothing except to watch the noose on his neck getting tighter and tighter.

What else could he do except for holding the fury back?

“Father, are we really going to hand them over? Look at the list. They are all the critical roles in the Red Nimbus Fleet. Many of them are our loyal old brothers who have supported the Wei family for a hundred years. Some of the officers made remarkable contributions in the bloody battles in the past ten years and even rescued the Red Nimbus Fleet multiple times!”

Not everyone could swallow the fury like Wei Guanghui did.

The first to jump out was Wei Yuanjia, his deputy as well as his second son whom he thought most highly of.

Wei Yuanjia was a middle-aged, sophisticated man who never showed his feelings on his face. He also paid attention to his behavior closely and only addressed his father by the military rank. But right now, he was directly calling him “father”, which was obvious of his untamable anger.

Shuddering in fury, Wei Yuanjia pointed at a name on the last line of the list. “Please take a look, Father. Even Ah Xiao’s name is on it!”

On the last line of the list, there was “Wei Tianxiao”, who was Wei Yuanjia’s eldest son and Wei Guanghui’s biological grandson.

“If we are truly going to capture everybody on the list and deliver them to the special investigation committee, all the Immortal Cultivators of the Red Nimbus Sector will be scared, and the Wei family will lose all our support!”

Wei Yuanjia roared, “How are we going to lead the army in the future? How can we explain to the Immortal Cultivators that have supported our family for a hundred years? How can we face our compatriots when we return to our hometown? Who will support such a spineless family to inherit the place of ‘Sector Master’?

“Please think carefully, Father. You must—”

“Enough!”

Wei Guanghui glared at his second son; his eyes as vicious as a viper whose fangs were just cut off. He gnashed his teeth. “Do you think I like to be humiliated? Do you think I did not ‘think carefully’?

“I am an experienced expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, the Sector Master of the Red Nimbus Sector, and the highest commander of the Red Nimbus Fleet! Even ‘God of War’ Lei Chenghu has to show me some respect and call me ‘fellow Cultivator’ when he meets me!

“But today, a little bas*ard in the Core Formation Stage who is still wet behind the ears, because of the support of the four Kurfürst families, is bold enough to barge into my fleet on my carrier, throw this bulls*it list to my face, and demand I hand over the brothers who have fought through life and death with me for decades, as well as their descendants, the future of the Red Nimbus Sector!

“It is needless to say that even my own biological grandson is on the list!

“This is a brutal slap in the face that is blowing off all my teeth. I can’t think of a greater humiliation!

“Do you think I like to hold back my fury? Do you think I enjoy swallowing my teeth with blood? Do you think I am unaware of the consequences of delivering those people?

“But what choice do I have? As my deputy, you know the situation of the Red Nimbus Fleet best. We are now stranded on a barren, highly-unsteady planet that does not even have an atmosphere. Our food, ammunition, and crystals are highly dependent on the supplies from the rear. If the rear is dissatisfied, we wouldn’t have s*it to eat!

“It is needless to say that all the mining bases here had been completely destroyed by the Covenant Alliance before they left. Even if the mining bases are intact and we could excavate abundant minerals, so what? Are they edible? Can we stuff them into our reactors as fuel?

“We will be dead for sure if we do not hand over the people on the list. Before the elites of the four Kurfürst families come at us, we will already be starved!

“It is because the little bas*ard in the Core Formation Stage knew it that he was bold enough to show off before me!”

“But handing over the people on the list will also mean death, a death that is slower and more miserable.”

Wei Yuanjia said solemnly, “Father, as you are fully aware, the so-called ‘incident of the Blood Oath Alliance’ and the name list of the radicals are just the first step of the four Kurfürst families. If we do hand over the people on the list, they will certainly have their ways to interrogate the victims and frame us up with random crimes. What if they accuse us of being sympathetic toward the radicals and even involved in the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance?

“Hehe. The ambitions of the four Kurfürst families can’t be more obvious now. They are simply using the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance as a leverage to offset our achievements so far so that they can kick us back to our hometown when they divide the cake!

“But it is impossible for us to return empty-handedly.

“Father, not that I’m making a reckless proposal, but the situation in the Red Nimbus Sector is already on the verge of collapse now.

“You know that the local finance of the Red Nimbus government already collapsed last year. It is needless to say that so many disabled veterans in the Red Nimbus Fleet need compensation after more than ten years of war. The hominoid soldiers among them are easier to deal with, but most of the Immortal Cultivator officers are supported by sects and groups who are our fundamentals. How can we default on them?

“The Council of Elders promised nicely that the compensations of all the disabled soldiers would be taken care of by the base of the expedition army, but the subsistence has been delayed every single time. The disabled veterans in the rear are all expecting the money to buy food and crystals. As a result, we have to fill in the deficit with the local finance of the Red Nimbus Sector first and even by applying for loans from the major banks at the center of the cosmos, which, of course, are the properties of the noble families too!

“Even so, the deficit, as well as the interest of the loans, is growing larger after every day. We can never expect to pay them off now.

“From the fleet to the rear, from the Immortal Cultivators to the hominoids, everybody is complaining like a crystal bomb that will explode at any moment!

“Right now, the only reason why the soldiers are still listening to the command of the Wei family and why the sects and groups in the rear are still shipping supplies to us incessantly is because they believe our promise and trust that we will earn enough benefits for the Red Nimbus Sector and themselves after the war is over. The shares in the ‘Development Group of the Recovered Territory’ and the big mining and transportation corporations will be enough to make up for the blood and sacrifices they have made in the past decade!

“But right now, it is obvious that the sons of b*tches from the center of the cosmos are about to swallow the fruits on their own!

“If our people realize that the only thing they get after a decade of war is an empty promise and a collapsed economy, there will be a mutiny in the next second, in which both of us, as well as all the members of the Wei family, will be torn into shreds and devoured without any remains by the infuriated veterans, disappointed Immortal Cultivators, and even billions of crazy hominoids. Do you believe me?”

Wei Guanghui was silent, his beard shaking nonstop.

“Perhaps… that is the real purpose of the four Kurfürst families.”

With a strange look on his face, Wei Yuanjia pointed at the list and said in a low voice, “Do you not feel that a notable number of people on the list are loyal to the Wei family, but those loyal to the Huang family are few?”

Wei Guanghui was shocked. As he scrutinized, his eyes bulged wider and wider.

It was true. On the so-called “list of radicals”, most people were the Wei family’s loyal subordinates or their descendants.

But when it came to the “Huang family”, another important family of Immortal Cultivators in the Red Nimbus Sector, while there were some names on the list, they were all the peripheral members that did not matter.

Wei Guanghui felt that his heart was grabbed.

The Wei family did not start to rule over the Red Nimbus Sector five hundred years ago. In the beginning, the Wei family was just an inconspicuous family in the Red Nimbus Sector.

However, the previous dominator of the Red Nimbus Sector was not respectful enough of the big shots from the center of the cosmos and was always wary of the goods and investment from the center of the cosmos. Eventually, it was replaced by the Wei family, which “miraculously rose”.

In other words, the Wei family only became the ruler of the Red Nimbus Sector because it was a dog of the four Kurfürst families.

However, humans and dogs were different.

The closer you were to a dog, the more loyal it would be.

The closer you were to a man, however, the more ungrateful they tended to be.

After two hundred years, Wei Guanghui had forgotten the past where his ancestors worked as the dutiful dogs of the four Kurfürst families, and he was thinking to resist.

But he did not forget that the big shots from the center of the cosmos could raise another dog to replace them at any moment, just like how they replaced the earlier “Sector Master of the Red Nimbus Sector’.

The same things had happened in the remote worlds too many times.

In the far-flung and invaluable worlds, raising several different dogs and making them bite each other was exactly a strategy of governance for the four Kurfürst families.

The Huang family was exactly another dog of the Red Nimbus Sector. There was no telling if they had contributed to such a detailed “list of radicals”!

“Father!”

Wei Yuanjia observed his father who was filled with both fear and fury and said, “We cannot wait to die such a worthless death. Let’s fight them!”