“You… You—”
Li Wuji felt that the world was swirling before his eyes in his fury. He finally slapped the adjutant in the face brutally despite the filth. “Idiot, somebody left a ‘backdoor’ on the mainframe crystal processor of the flagship and even the battle network of the entire fleet, and you had no response at all? Were you all dead?
“Also, even when we were anchored, it would still take a long time for the enemy to compromise our dozens of layers of defense, right? How could the enemy have achieved that?”
“You’re quite right, my lord.”
The adjutant said gloomily, “At that time, the Blue Sky Market was just conquered by us. Fires and explosions were still occasionally happening in the warehouses. As a result, the network system inside the market was unstable, and intense waves were happening every few minutes. Sometimes, the chaotic pulses from the explosions would affect our starships too. They are all the regular phenomena when a port is conquered. We never thought much of it back then. But now that we think of it again, that was probably when the enemy snuck in under the cover of the interferences and the pulses.
“As for the time, well, we did not plan to stay for long in the Blue Sky Market, which might’ve given the enemy an opportunity, but later, my lord—my lord was invited to the celebration dinner by the Bai guy. A lot of time was delayed. On your way back to the starship, my lord was stalled by the Bai guy again, who ranted on so many things, like asking to be your foster son, reminding you to be wary of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie. A lot of time was wasted again. Perhaps it was during that time…”
Li Wuji’s eyeballs protruded out of his eye sockets slowly, like the eggs being squeezed out of the birth canal, as he stared at his adjutant.
His adjutant had been too focused on talking eloquently to help his master analyze the current situation. It was not until this moment that he finally noticed his master’s murderous eyes. Flabbergasted, he hurried to stop and looked at his master pitifully.
“Get lost!”
Li Wuji bellowed and shoved his adjutant before he ran out of his personal chamber to the bridge.
“Whatever it takes, gather the soldiers that are still able to move. Let’s retreat to the Blue Sky Market with the unreachable starships as our cover!
“Drastic changes must’ve happened in the Blue Sky Market right now. We have to return immediately and suppress the Bai guy and then resist the newly-emerging mysterious enemy based on the defense system at the edge of the Blue Sky Market. This is the only way!
“If Boss Bai seizes the other half of our fleet in the Blue Sky Market and controls the whole defense system of the Blue Sky Market, we will be doomed for good!”
Li Wuji shrieked as he rushed away, not even noticing that one of his boots was missing.
Before him, the previously straight pathway had been twisted into a broken screw. Shockingly huge cracks were everywhere on the wall. Almost all the tubes and cables had been broken, either spurting out high-pressure air currents or unleashing spluttering sparks. Now and then, he saw the most terrible picture—a lot of Immortal Cultivators and the wall were melted into an inseparable whole, and metal particles had filled their internal organs. They had died the most miserable death.
They were all the consequences of the failed space jump.
When the crew members and the wall were dismembered, ready to pass the four-dimensional space, they suffered a heavy strike, which blew them together in the four-dimensional state like a tornado. After they were bounced back to the three-dimensional space again, they were already a tragedy.
It was also the first time that Li Wuji had ever seen such horror in person.
The scene was no worse than the cruelest torture for an unsullied noble like him.
He tried his best not to throw up on his way to the bridge.
It was a pity that the bridge of Eternal Spring was also mired in flames. Everything was a mess. The crystal processors and the seats of the crew were lying on the ground, and the small explosions never stopped.
The leadership, who should be controlling the starship and commanding the fleet, had mostly put on their crystal suits and were fighting the rogue fires and the balls of lightning with the foam extinguishers.
Li Wuji calmed himself down and meant to discuss it with the captain.
But to his surprise, the captain was standing before the mainframe crystal processor in a daze, staring at the main operation menu on the light beam in hopelessness and desperation.
Li Wuji looked at where the captain’s shivering eyes were looking, only to discover that the main operation menu of his flagship was empty. All the data and information had been shattered into glittering stars, and the stars were gradually condensed into a gigantic swirl, revolving slowly.
Very soon, at the center of the swirl, which looked like a black hole, an… iron fist slowly rose!
The iron fist was filled with the virile and barbaric blast. Rivets, screws, and rust were all over its surface, and steams that looked like white dragons were jetting from the joints. The sound of it squeaking after being filled up by fury was almost audible.
Then, from the top of the picture, a crown made of gears fell down on the fist in a bam.
The iron fist wearing the crown of gears silently watched the Immortal Cultivators who were in a mess.
“Fist King!”
The adjutant lost his cool and shouted behind Li Wuji, “It’s ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie!”
Li Wuji’s heart that had been falling in the valley was finally grabbed by that iron fist.
Five minutes earlier, in the Blue Sky Market, neither the space pirates nor the half fleet that Li Wuji left behind for supervision foresaw the slaughter among the broken stars five minutes later.
Li Wuji’s departure was actually quite a relief on the rude and disobedient space pirates, like the employees whose stern boss had just left. Everybody revealed their real appearance, screaming and shouting, pushing the joy of the party to the apex.
Even the seasoned marauders who had roamed the sea of stars for a hundred years had never looted such a famous, prosperous city at the edge of the Imperium like the Blue Sky Market before.
Whenever they came here for supplies and rest, they had to follow the management of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and needed to behave themselves even if they were visiting the brothels!
Today, after the conquest of the Blue Sky Market, the myriad of treasures in the warehouses were indeed great eye-openers for them, making them forget everything else.
The titles such as colonels or lieutenants of the Imperium further added to their confidence and courage, giving them the illusion that nobody would dare to ask for trouble since the four families were on their back.
It was needless to mention the leaders of the smaller pirate gangs, who had long abandoned their alert and wariness after the three buckets of hard liquor.
In the meantime, while Boss Bai had an unattractive look and only just began his career, he seemed to have been a space pirate ever since he was in his mother’s womb, and he knew what the space pirates thought and liked perfectly. Not only was everything that he said exactly what other people had in mind, but even the performances that he had arranged were also particularly spectacular too. Also, he had mediated between quite a few pirate gangs who had been holding grudges against one another for a long time, winning the cheers of everyone at the party and slighting altering the space pirates’ impression of him.
“Boss Bai is truly trying to be the commander of this National Protection Army. He is free to do whatever he wants. After all, we won’t lose anything.”
“We now work for the four Kurfürst families. Who is bold enough to challenge us here?”
“Even if any of them wants to challenge us, look, half of Marquess Yongchun’s fleet is still here, commanded by ‘Li Yuanzhen’, the lord’s trusted general. Even a madman wouldn’t attack us at such a moment.”
“So, let’s just indulge us for half a day. The transformation from space pirates to a legitimate army does call for celebration!”
Thinking as such, they never said no to the drinks that Boss Bai’s soldiers brought over. The wine of this round was made of dozens of fresh fruits and tasted more like cool juice than wine. According to Boss Bai, the alcohol percentage of the wine was very low, and nobody would get drunk. It was most suitable to refresh their stomachs that had just been burnt by the hard liquor.
While everybody was talking and laughing, nobody cared if it was right. But as it happened, after they drank the cool fruit wine, the dizziness just now was indeed much better, and they found themselves drinking more and more of it uncontrollably!
When the leaders of the pirate gangs were having a celebration dinner at the central square, the space pirates under their lead were certainly not idle either. Accompanied by the soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang, they gambled and drank and had great fun at the edge.
Boss Bai also meant to integrate the many pirate gangs with the celebration dinner. Hinted by him, the soldiers of the Big Bai Pirate Gang gathered the members of other pirate gangs with the excuses of drinking games and dispersed them, leading them to different corners in the market.
As a result, it was true that the soldiers of the pirate gangs made a lot of new friends, but their old buddies who were in their own gang were all lost!
As time went by, the party was more and more heated and uncontrollable.
Even the officers and soldiers that Li Wuji left in the Blue Sky Market were moved by such an atmosphere and had a great time under the service of the members of the Big Bai Pirate Gang.
Proud of their identity, they naturally did not join the carnival of the space pirates, but they did not reject the delicious wine and the cuisines offered by Boss Bai either.
Perhaps there was only one person in the entire Blue Sky Market who retained the basic clearness.
He was Li Yuanzhen, a vice-admiral of the Imperium and the commander of the half fleet that Li Wuji had left behind.
Li Yuanzhen was Li Wuji’s cousin in the family and one of his trusted subordinates. Now that he had been left to supervise, his steadiness and his loyalty were certainly unquestionable.
Although all the enemies had been suppressed or imprisoned, and not a single force within millions of kilometers was strong enough to threaten them, the excessive revelry where nobody had the slightest restraint still made the well-trained, regular warrior naturally disgusted and wary.
“Commander Bai, this is about enough.”
Li Yuanzhen finally found Boss Bai. Bulging his brown eyes, he said coldly, “The Blue Sky Market is still unstable. Chances are that some people of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the reformists are still lurking in the dark. Also, our starships are all seriously damaged and in dire need of maintenance and refill of fuel and ammunitions. Should we call it a day?”