Su Changfa put on a hideous and infuriated appearance, raging and yelling, as if he were one of the ordinary people who hated Wuying Qi's guts.
Inside the Grand Illusionary Land, countless ignorant and fanatic ordinary people, whose eyes were bloodshot and faces were wry, resembling the believers of the Chiyou Cult, were spitting on and barraging Wuying Qi, who was wearing a black suit that was surrounded by white mystic rays, making him look like a saint.
It was like a bunch of hyenas attacking a lion.
One could not help but feel that Wuying Qi had been wronged, helpless and sorrowful, while the ordinary people were idiotic, ungrateful, and gullible.
"Wuying Qing is a murderer and a living embodiment of fiend!
"Blood for blood! For the 8.2 million innocent victims on Karan, he must be minced!
"Very soon, Wuying Qi was found guilty of crimes against humanity and massacre. Because he gave false commands and killed the leaders of the sub-republics without approval, he was also found guilty of treason. To answer for all the crimes, his military rank was removed, and he was sentenced to death without any probation. Also, his soul would not be left behind. He wouldn't even be given the opportunity of turning into a spectral Cultivator!
"What was ironic was that the punishment for officers of the Covenant Alliance who were escorted to the capital together with Wuying Qi was much lighter.
"Hehe. At this moment, Wuying Qi finally understood one thing.
"He had been betrayed!
"He had been betrayed again. Just like he had once been betrayed by the ordinary people for whom he fought for thirty years in the Martial Meritocrats civilization, he had been betrayed yet another time by the people whom he devoted his everything to protecting!
"Before, those people threw him into a crater. Today, they were going to send him to the guillotine without even letting go of his soul!
"Wuying Qi immediately understood everything.
"He was an outsider without any background in the country at all. He was a new force who distinguished himself!
"For the past ten years, he had been dealing with the Covenant Alliance in the frontier. His accomplishments were not significant, and he had sometimes even lost a battle or two. However, the capital had been 'lenient' on him and never issued any substantial punishment.
"It was because parliament needed an unsupported idiot like himself to jump into the swamp and take the blame!
"But now, after securing such a glorious victory, he was completely beyond control with his soaring capability. He posed a threat to the big shots in parliament and jeopardized the interests of the traditional forces in the world of Cultivators!
"Yes. He was guilty!
"He was guilty not because he sacrificed the 8.2 million civilians, not because he had seized the military power of the vassal worlds without approval, but because—
"He was too strong, too keen, and too brilliant! He was capable of threatening the parliament and the deeply-rooted interest groups!
"Whether or not he used that capability, the fact was that he possessed the capability. It was his original sin. He was guilty of being too strong!
"Such a crime could not be washed away by a few years of prison or the deprivation of power and properties. As long as he was alive, he might rise again at any time!
"Therefore, in the eyes of the hypocritical Cultivators and the ignorant ordinary people, Wuying Qi, who was guilty of being too strong, had to be executed!"
Failing to hold back his excitement, Su Changfa bellowed, his every wrinkle turning into a bloody saber, "At this moment, Wuying Qi finally abandoned all his illusions about Cultivators and ordinary people. He completely broke up with the ungrateful, shameless snakes!
"Yes. He was determined to save the civilization of mankind, but what exactly was the civilization of mankind? What was mankind?
"Mankind, the wisest of all creatures and the dominator of the universe!
"Was everybody who was born randomly entitled to such a noble identity?
"Were the stupid, fat, illiterate, foolhardy, avaricious parasites who lived on the Cultivators and the hypocritical, selfish, and shortsighted Cultivators all qualified to be called 'human beings'?
"No. Absolutely not!
"Only the warriors who had a healthy body and noble character, who knew the essence of the universe clearly, and who were willing to dedicate their everything to improving our civilization were the true human beings!
"The rest of them were simply animals wearing the skin of human beings. They were 'hominoids' controlled by their animalistic instincts!
"Wuying Qi did not care about his own life and death, but he absolutely could not stand the abhorrent hominoids sullying and even destroying the noble civilization of mankind any longer!
"Only by replacing hominoids with true human beings could the multiple shortcomings of the civilization of mankind be removed so that our civilization could be brought to a new altitude that was even more glorious!
"That was the enlightenment that Wuying Qi had.
"When he was enlightened and his belief blossomed, he abandoned his identity as a Cultivator without any hesitation! His real-life experience in the past hundreds of years assured him that the title 'Cultivator' had been contaminated by too many dregs and diseases. It was already hopelessly rotten!
"A new era required new protectors!
"Wuying Qi was no longer a Cultivator but an Immortal Cultivator, a brand-new existence who stood on the peak of humanity's hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and represented the future and the hope!
"The first Immortal Cultivator in history and in the three thousand Sectors was thus born!"
"Ah!" Li Yao exclaimed very cooperatively, with an 'I-never-saw-this-coming' expression.
Su Changfa was quite satisfied with his cooperation. As if on drugs, the old man's face was flushing, and his eyebrow was dancing while he chuckled in amusement. "To this moment, when the first Immortal Cultivator in the universe was born, the idiotic Cultivators had yet to realize what a terrifying enemy they had pissed off. They had no idea what kind of mysterious abilities the enemy had grasped during the hundreds of years of travel in the universe. They did not know what an enormous organization the Salvation Syndicate had developed into in secret, either!
"Wuying Qi was confined in the most heavily guarded prison in the Empyrean Terminus Sector. He seemed to be too frustrated to resist anymore. His death sentence would be carried out soon, too.
"His trusted subordinates whom he had brought to the capital had been disarmed, too, either arrested or under surveillance.
"The big shots in parliament and the seniors in the world of Cultivators, based on their own experience, thought that Wuying Qi's accomplices had been cleared and that he would not be able to stir up any trouble on his own.
"What was the biggest threat right now was actually the border defense army on the frontline that was loyal to Wuying Qi.
"The border defense army—combined with the private armies of those ten or so vassal worlds, equipped with the starships and the magical equipment left by the Covenant Alliance, and possessing their experience of more than ten years of bloody battles—was truly not to be underestimated.
"The Star Ocean Republic had been at peace for too long. Most of the troops lacked battle experience despite their remarkable gear. They were incapable of dealing with Wuying Qi's border defense army in a remote, unfamiliar environment.
"In order to settle the trouble as quickly as possible, preferably with no blood shed, the parliament dispatched the 'central army' whose responsibility was to garrison the Empyrean Terminus Sector.
"The parliament demanded that the central army march to the frontier as quickly as possible, take over the border defense army that was loyal to Wuying Qi, and bring the nearby vassal worlds under control.
"In the parliament's opinion, as tough as Wuying Qi's border defense army might be, it had just gone through a great battle and suffered tremendous casualties after all, and it was mixed with the mobs from those vassal worlds. Wuying Qi was not there to command them in person, either. They were essentially loose sand!
"How could they expect to compete with the central army, which was well-trained, had abundant supplies, and had the orders of the authorities?
"Chances were that the jumbled army would surrender the moment that the central army arrived!
"It remained to be seen whether the central army was stronger than the border defense army or whether it was the other way around. However, the big shots in the capital forgot one thing. While the central army, which was supposed to guard the capital, marched to the frontier to suppress the rebellion, wouldn't the capital be poorly guarded?
"Oh. They might've thought that, but the Star Ocean Republic was 'the strongest country in the universe'! For a thousand years, the ten or so core Sectors around the capital city had never been scourged by any war. Even if no soldier was left in the capital, would there be anybody who was audacious enough to come and ask to be killed?
"Just like that, a great show was aired!
"When Wuying Qi was escorted to the punishment field and was about to be officially executed in front of everyone, a fleet with pure black camouflage that looked like a ghost suddenly appeared in the Empyrean Terminus Sector and pierced into the heart of the 'strongest country in the universe'!
"It was an elite troop loyal to Wuying Qi, comprised of the veterans who had survived after more than ten years of bloody battles with the Covenant Alliance. Equipped with the advanced starships from the Covenant Alliance, with tremendous Purple Thunder Crystals as the fuel catalysts, they were like eagles that flew in the sky, zigzagging around dozens of Sectors and launching an unexpected assault to the capital!"
In the picture behind Su Changfa, starships that were streamlined and looked like black lightning descended from the sky like soldiers from the heavens. The thunder that they unleashed changed the color of the sky and the earth!
On the ground, the ugly ordinary people and the Cultivators were all appalled. They were all fleeing in devastation and falling apart!
"Under the thunderous attack of Wuying Qi's fleet, the garrison troop that was temporarily moved to guard the capital was no match at all. Many members of the Salvation Syndicate had been lurking in the capital, too. Infuriated by the parliament's betrayal and set-up, they rose up in response!
"Wuying Qi had already been escorted to the punishment field. However, the punishment field was entirely surrounded by the people who supported him, admired him, and worshipped him. Before Wuying Qi unlocked the shackles on himself, he had already been raised by countless pairs of hands to a crystal tank!
"On the crystal tank, while removing the soul-suppressing nails and the spirit-stealing needles that had been pierced into his bones while not even changing his countenance, he gave the famous speech entitled 'New Hope'!
"The scene was captured by countless reporters and delivered to the audience in the hundred Sectors. They all deeply felt Wuying Qi's formidability, resolution, and wisdom!
"After finishing the speech, Wuying Qi was heaved by his supporters from the punishment field to the parliament directly!
"Wuying Qi announced that the parliament had lost its legitimacy and could no longer stand for all citizens of the Star Ocean Republic because of the corruption, perversion, and conspiracies with hostile countries!
"He demanded the dissolution of parliament, the dismissal of the Speaker, and the arrests of all the representatives. A new constitution was drafted, changing the regime of the country from 'parliamentary republic' to 'presidential republic'!
"Because of the urgent situation and the upcoming civil war, he announced that the Star Ocean Republic was to enter the state of emergency immediately. According to the 'Emergency Response Act', he was appointed as the first acting president of the Star Ocean Republic in the time of peril!"