Chapter 1693: One Life for One Life!

An hour later, after seeing off the three leaders who were concocting their own plans, Jin Xinyue reached an underground base that was even larger three kilometers away through another secret short-distance teleportation array.

Geologically speaking, it was right below the museum of demon miners at the center of the small city.

The decorations of the place seemed to imply that it was an underground museum, too.

On the dark embossments around, the pictures of countless bizarre-looking demon miners who were working hard in the deep, murky mines had been carved.

Some of them were even scenes where the demon miners were struggling to survive collapsed mines, explosions of crystals, or raging floods.

Right ahead of Jin Xinyue was a light beam that was flowing slowly. On the light beam, the names of the demon miners who had been killed in accidents in the mines in the past hundred years were displayed in the smallest font.

A girl in white was standing below the list of the victims quietly, like a priestess of the shrine of demons.

She was truly ‘white’. Not only the feather clothes on her body were white and unsullied by dust, her skin exposed to the air and even her long hair that was running like a river were also the purest white. Even her eyeballs were translucent, so clear that one could see the deepest part of her heart.

Jin Xinyue picked up three sticks of incense from the girl.

The brutality and insanity that she had acted when she was dealing with the three leaders in the secret chamber just now had entirely vanished.

Wholeheartedly and solemnly, she bowed three times to the deceased miners before she stabbed the incense sticks into the tiny burner below the light beam. She also did not forget to straighten the incense sticks nearby that had tipped because they were half burnt. She did not flinch at all when the burning ash fell to her hands.

After doing that, she stood straight again. Looking at the list of the deceased miners that seemed to be rolling incessantly, she suddenly asked, “Xue’er, do you feel that your master is immoral?”

“No. I understand that everything master has done is meant to eradicate all the uncertainties for the federation in advance, in case greater troubles arise within the country when the war reaches the fiercest moment. You are doing the right thing, master, but…”

The girl in white named ‘Xue’er’ paused for a moment and said, “Isn’t it too cruel? After all, so many people are involved. Some of them might not betray the federation and surrender to the Imperium without us.”

“Do you think that it is cruel, too?” Jin Xinyue scratched her long hair, somewhat in exhaustion. Xue’er, the girl in white who was her true disciple, walked behind her and helped her comb her hair.

“It’s been so many years since the explosion in the Jade Dust Mines. Xue’er, I remember that both your parents were killed in the catastrophe, weren’t they?”

Narrowing her eyes, Jin Xinyue simply allowed her disciple’s hands to press her temples, enjoying the rare pleasure between plots and schemes. She said, “For the outside world, and even to the owners of the mines, namely the big sects behind the mining corporations, we claimed that it was a ‘terror attack’ and pushed all the responsibility onto ‘Lu Qingchen’ and the nonexistent ‘CFIA’. But of course, you know that it was not a prearranged terror attack at all but merely an accident.

“But was the accident really an ‘accident’? The explosion in the Jade Dust Mines, and the so many other accidents that happened in the mining bases on the major resource planets in the past hundred years, were there no ‘humane factors’ behind them at all? Were they all destined and unavoidable?

“No. Hehe. That’s not the case at all!

“A lot of accidents could have been avoided, if some resources were devoted to upgrading the facilities and the education and protection of the minders, and if a relatively reasonable goal was set to make sure that both miners and the mining magical equipment rested and were checked enough!

“But a hundred years ago, most of the mining corporations in the Star Glory Federation were controlled by the major sects that had existed for hundreds of years. Those greedy guys tried their best to exploit the last bit of strength in the bones of the demon miners in order to get more profits. All they were interested in was expanding the territory of their resource empire and collecting most resources in the shortest amount of them. They never gave any thought to controlling the accident rate or the death rate of the miners!

“After all, it was demon miners who were toiling on the resource planets back then. The federation would be steadier if more disobedient and bizarre-looking monsters died. That was what the renowned sects and families that controlled the mining corporations thought.

“It is the Cultivators’ responsibility to protect ordinary people. Even if they had really believed in that hollow declaration, how was it possible to ask those voracious guys to treat demons as ‘ordinary people’?

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“The federation at that time was like the ‘Uranian Ring Sector’ thirty years ago, with humans being the ‘Heavenly Light’ and demons being the ‘Earthly Fiend’. We appeared to be in the same country, but invisible prejudice was ubiquitous.

“To finish my father’s Red Tide Plan, and to make the demons fully integrate into the federation, I went through quite troubled times!

“At that time, my father had accepted his sentence. As an experiment subject of the ‘human hibernation project’, he was completely frozen. The hope of unfreezing and reviving him was very slim.

“My master, and your grand-master, went to explore outer space. There wasn’t any word from him for a long time. He wouldn’t be returning in the next few decades, if he returned at all.

“Without the protection of father and master, I was merely a Core Formation Stage Cultivator transformed from a demon king. But I was holding such a delicious cake that was the Blood Demon Sector. What choice did I have except to lower my head faced with the extortion and exploitation of the renowned sects?

“They asked me to ship a great number of demons for mining in the extremely harsh resource planets that were yet to be developed. It was obvious that a lot of people would die, but I accepted it.

“They offered us the most ragged and outdated mining facilities, but they demanded an outrageously high quota. I accepted it.

“There was absolutely nothing on the resource planets other than crystals. Food had to be delivered from the outside world. The miners had to feed on the crudest recycled food, and the fresh food was pegged at a price a hundred times higher than it should have been. It was pure blackmail, but I accepted it.

“Under such high-intensity work and such crazy expansion, accidents were bound to occur, but after every accident, they hesitated and reduced the compensation time and time again. In order not to affect the reputation of their sect and their status in the financial market, they even kept a lot of accidents to themselves. But I… I gritted my teeth and accepted it again!

“Because I know that if I hadn’t accepted it, the renowned sects that controlled most of the seats in parliament and the entire news industry could’ve absolutely found more flaws in the demon race and significantly delayed the demons’ total integration into the federation. New changes might’ve happened, too.

“Even I could’ve been killed by them if I hadn’t acted so ‘mild and docile’ and replaced by a puppet that was easier to be manipulated.

“Hehe. They thought that I did not know their assassination plans and the list of puppets they chose from the demon race? I knew everything!

“However, neither my father nor my master were not present. What could I do except accept everything in silence?”

Sensing her master’s sadness, Xue’er pressed harder and carefully said, “We all know that it is not easy to run the demon race. You’ve been troubled in the past hundred years, master.”

Jin Xinyue smiled and went on. “I can accept it, but I will not forget it! With a hundred years of endurance, I passed the ‘Bill of Rights for General Equality’, which brought the equality that demons have today, the in-depth infiltration in parliament and the news industry, and the Ministry of Equality and Development, the Dim Moon Fund, and the Big Bai Fleet. Most importantly of all, I more or less earned the trust of the renowned sects and made them believe that I was really just a puppet. An ambitious one that had a strong lust for power, at best!

“Therefore, hehe, it is time we settle the scores right now!

“Nobody can bully my people like that without paying the price! The CFIA does not exist. Lu Qingchen need not answer for so many accidents in the mines, either. Those who should really be responsible for the crimes are the wretched mining corporations, the resource giants, and the renowned sects behind them that have dominated the federation for hundreds of years!

“This time, I have carefully selected seventeen huge sects as the focus of our strike in the plan. They were all deeply associated with the mining accidents in the past hundred years that shouldn’t have happened in the first place and were not taken care of properly after they did, causing tragedies for countless demons. I know exactly who owes us debts. No innocent people will be involved.

“Those fat and greedy sects should’ve seen today coming during the past hundred years when they sucked the blood of the demon race hard.

“I am not a rigorous person. Those renowned sects need only pay one life for one life. Today, exactly the same number of people in their sects will be killed as the number of our victims who were killed in the accidents that shouldn’t have happened. It is very fair, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Xue’er emboldened herself and said, “But it does not appear to be the fairness of the Cultivators.”

“I am not a Cultivator in the first place. The whole world knows that I am a demon. The most charming and deceptive demon.” Jin Xinyue smiled casually. “Besides, I am not doing this entirely for vengeance. What you said just now does make sense. Compared to the ordinary people and the Cultivators at the bottom level, those huge, unremovable, and rotting sects are the greatest uncertainties in the war to come.

“The ordinary people and the Cultivators at the bottom level can only count on their country, the Star Glory Federation. Their country is their everything. Even if they want to ‘lead the way’ for the Imperium, they will not be qualified to do so.

“However, to the renowned sects that have existed for hundreds of years, ‘country’ does not matter at all. Their sects and families mean the world to them.

“To protect themselves, and for their own survival, they have both the ability and the motive to betray the Star Glory Federation for greater benefits!”