“Hehe, hehehehe!”
Boss Bai sneered nonstop. The aggressiveness as if he could swallow a tiger alive popped up on his ugly, rat-like face as he picked up Zuo Tianying, the expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, with only one hand and smashed him to the floor heavily.
BOOM!
Not counting his level, Zuo Tianying was still a muscular man almost two meters tall with a weight of almost a hundred and fifty kilograms. Yet, he had been pressed into the floor by Boss Bai who was short and skinny. Stones were splashing everywhere, and a human-shaped dent appeared on the ground.
Zuo Tianying’s internal organs were almost entirely shattered because of the smash. He was more confused than ever too. According to the intelligence, Boss Bai was in the Nascent Soul Stage and on par with him at best.
It was also the most important reason why he had the courage to meet with a brutal man like Boss Bai alone.
The intelligence work of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was most effective in the entire Imperium. They had summarized Boss Bai’s combat ability by analyzing all of Boss Bai’s battles, including his performance when he was pushed into corners by the Imperium’s army.
How on earth could he have been so terrifying?
Was it possible that this Boss Bai never tried his best when he was beleaguered by the Imperium’s army and his life was at risk time and time again?
How could there be such a monster?
Also, where were the assassins he had kept outside? He had arranged for fifty tough assassins to hide next to the office, who could’ve charged out any moment and teach Boss Bai a lesson about the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’ capability. Where the hell were those guys?
“You small-minded dealers really need to change your pettiness. Even your warrants are so stingy.”
Boss Bai pressed Zuo Tianying tightly to the ground and spat next to his head, before he chuckled and said, “A garrison commander of a minor Sector, a vice-admiral of the army, and a… f*cking viscount… Viscount! Are you trying to recruit me or insult me? Is the name of ‘Boss Bai’ only worth a viscount for you?
“Here, the four Kurfürsten are obviously much more sincere than you. The rewards they are offering are the Sector Master of a whole world, a lieutenant-general of the army, and an earl of the Imperium. Do you hear me? An earl!
“Also, they have offered me ten main-force warships in advance, whose firepower is five times fiercer than the rapid attack warships that you give me. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Any man would’ve been tempted after they saw it. How do you want me to choose, huh?”
Zuo Tianying was so shocked that his soul was almost frozen. Finding it hard to breathe, he shrieked, “Boss Bai, you have taken sides with those ‘illegitimate Kurfürsten’!”
“Their legitimacy is the least of my concerns. We are all space pirates making a living between the edges of the blades. Isn’t it only natural for us to work for those who are stronger and promise better rewards? The four Kurfürsten are far more powerful than the reformists and your Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors in the first place. They’ve given us more money and greater titles. Something would be wrong with my head if I chose you hopeless idiots over them only to be beheaded together with you after you fail, wouldn’t it?”
Boss Bai strangled his neck harder and harder while he said with a smile, “Right, I almost forgot to tell you. Didn’t you mean to start an alliance of dozens of pirate gangs? Your trouble is unnecessary. We’ve already done it under the witness of the special envoy of the Kurfürsten! Thanks to the trust of my dear friends, they have elected me as their leader. I am now the commander of the ‘National Protection Army’.
“This commander is certainly much more awesome than the commander that you offered to me. Haha. Hahahaha!”
His face gray, Zuo Tianying was rendered speechless. There was no telling whether it was because of Boss Bai’s choking or because of his fury, but the expert in the Nascent Soul Stage was almost cramping and foaming.
“Just look at all the pirate gangs outside. Do you think that they’ve been attracted here by your terms to pledge loyalty to you? You can’t be more idiotic!”
Boss Bai continued, “Let me tell you, the twenty-nine pirate gangs have already formed a blood alliance known as the ‘National Protection Army’, which serves and swears loyalty to the government. We are now the legitimate army of the government right now. The conquest of the Blue Sky Market today is just an appetizer. The ‘Seven Seas Grand Market’, the nest of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, is our real target!
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. The Seven Seas Grand Market, the allegedly wealthiest place at the edge of the Imperium, where many treasures that could not be found even in the capital could be found. Robbing the Seven Seas Grand Market is almost the ultimate dream of every space pirate.
“We are all thieves and murderous bandits who would feel itchy at night if we did not rob anyone during the day, and you want us to defend the Seven Seas Grand Market? With all due respect, what’s wrong with the reformists and the small merchants like you?”
Zuo Tianying finally couldn’t hold it back any longer. A mouthful of foams mixed with blood was spurted out, and his face turned from pale to gray.
They had truly opened the door for the burglars!
Stupid. They were truly stupid. Or rather, they far underestimated the shamelessness and greediness of those space pirates!
But there was no time to regret right now.
The flames and explosions outside were the best punishment for their naivety.
As one of the largest free fairs of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, the Blue Sky Market naturally had the most thorough defense.
Also, since it was the time of war, the guards of the market had been increased to the limit. Space torpedoes and all kinds of serial defense arrays were deployed in the stone belts outside.
It was extremely difficult for the Kurfürsten’s fleets to conquer the iron can that had been armed to teeth from outside. They would have to pay a terrible price.
However, the Blue Sky Market was a place for business, and it could not reject the pirate gangs who often stopped by for maintenance and exchange of information and goods.
This time, in order to recruit the great pirate heads including Boss Bai, hundreds of warships of the space pirates had been allowed to park in the Blue Sky Market. A thousand small warships, half-armed business starships, and comprehensive supply ships were anchored outside too.
Who could’ve thought that those space pirates would attack at the same time?
Right when the space pirates sabotaged the Blue Sky Market, churning the defense into holes from inside to outside, a more terrifying enemy appeared from the vast place. It was the regular army with the emblem of the Imperium and the symbols of the four Kurfürst families.
Cooperating with the pirate gangs, the regular army dug through the belt defenses outside of the Blue Sky Market by force and arrived over the head of the panicked members of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. It was truly a disaster.
When a storm of firepower was rained down, blatantly destroying the firing points on the ground and the warships of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that had yet to take off, the short battle came to an end.
In the standard of “small merchants”, the warriors of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were certainly loyal and brave enough.
Perhaps it was because they knew clearly that they would still be killed even if they surrendered.
Perhaps they had been space pirates themselves, and they knew how ferocious pirate gangs were and how cruel their outcome would be if they fell to the hands of the space pirates. So, they simply fought on until their last breath.
The space pirates were the most cunning guys who valued themselves more than anything. Naturally, they stayed away from the rabid dogs.
The Kurfürsten’s army, on the other hand, was determined to bite the hard bone that was the Blue Sky Market, which would be a wonderful overture for the battle in the Seven Seas Grand Market to come. As they attacked without caring about the sacrifices, they blew up the last resisting fortress half a day later after losing a hundred starships.
The Blue Sky Market had fallen.
“Aoooooo!”
The ravenous space pirates wandered about in the Blue Sky Market, blowing up the gates of the warehouses with their storm bolters and searching for assets with their bloodshot eyes.
The free fairs were the ultimate dreams for all space pirates, but since the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was wealthy and powerful before, and they needed the free fairs for sales and supplies, it had always been inappropriate for them to attack.
Now that they were backed by the four Kurfürsten, their wish was finally fulfilled. They naturally wasted no time sabotaging, looting, and enjoying themselves.
Boss Bai, on the other hand, dragged Zuo Tianying, who was devastated and had been tied up by electromagnetic whips, to the No. 1 dock of the Blue Sky Market that was still burning.
A daunting starship that looked like a giant whale with one horn had arrived from the sky and landed here.
A middle-aged man, wearing a pure white cape, with a face as smooth as that of a woman and filled with pride and indifference, was waiting rather in impatience.
He looked at the fire and mess in the Blue Sky Market in disgust while he wiped his nose that had nothing dirty at all with a gold-lined handkerchief, as if it were a great insult for him to breathe the same air with the space pirates.
“My lord!”
Seeing that the man was waiting, Boss Bai hurried to approach him; his arrogance when he was faced with Zuo Tianying a moment ago entirely gone. In a sycophantic smile, he fell on one of his knees and looked at the man’s foot. “Greetings, my lord. Thanks to my lord’s meticulous planning, we have captured the head of the rebels in the Blue Sky Market successfully. Please look, my lord. This is Zuo Tianying!”
Boss Bai tossed Zuo Tianying to the ground as if he were a bag of garbage.
Zuo Tianying rolled on the ground to the feet of this “lord”. He was immediately refreshed when he saw who the man was. Losing his calmness, he shouted, “Li Wuji!”
Li Wuji was an old acquaintance, or an old opponent, for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.
As the hereditary “Marquess Yongchun”, he was one of the powerful persons in the Li family with a rather pure bloodline.
Also, Li Wuji had been engaged in the intelligence work of the four Kurfürst families. He had been striking, sabotaging, and bribing the intelligence network of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.
In the past decades, too many spies of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had been captured, tortured, and killed by Li Wuji.
Naturally, a lot of people had also betrayed the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and joined the four Kurfürst families under coercion, causing great damage to the development of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors
He did not expect that Li Wuji had supervised the recruitment of Boss Bai and other space pirates as well as the conquest of the Blue Sky Market. Zuo Tianying swallowed hard, his eyes dimming, and he lost all hope.