In a dark, damp forest, an octopus-like creature lay sprawled on the ground as if completely drained, gasping for air. Its two tiny eyes radiated a deep sense of utter despair.
It had finally recovered and decided to go out for a meal, so how did it end up running into that terrifying god of death again?
At this rate, when would it ever level up and reach the pinnacle of its insectoid race?
Its unusual behavior quickly caught the attention of a powerful being lurking deep within the forest.
Feeling an overwhelming pressure on both its soul and its genes, the octopus creature couldn’t muster even the slightest thought of resistance.
“My Lord, the Dark Zone is short on resources and mostly filled with Stardust Creatures. Why am I trembling? Hunger! I’m just so terribly hungry!”
Clearly, the other being didn’t trust it. Just as it was about to investigate further, one of its tentacles twitched slightly.
It received a ripple of information from the distant, deep cosmos: Find her, kill her!
Such intense anger, such a chilling intent to kill—it immediately shot to the top of the priority list!
The mental energy of all the insectoids wove together into a massive net, sharing everything they saw, heard, and felt.
A powerful surge of mental force, like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, stirred up ripples of disturbance.
The Supreme Insectoid Ruler opened its enormous compound eyes. Nothing! It couldn’t find any trace of the [Holy Codex]!
Their reconnaissance of human settlements wasn’t thorough enough. They had to intensify their efforts to fulfill the will of the swarm!
The octopus creature, which had narrowly escaped disaster, quietly hid itself in a corner, pretending to be a rock.
A giant lobster, roughly the same level as the octopus, was cackling loudly in the lower-level psychic network, mocking its miserable state.
The octopus rolled its eyes. “You’ve got time to laugh here? All your descendants and offspring have been eaten by the Stardust Creatures in the Dark Zone. Their remains are everywhere.”
The giant lobster’s laughter stopped abruptly. No wonder it couldn’t summon its little lobsters! They’d been eaten by Stardust Creatures!
This was no small matter.
The insectoid race’s operations and management followed a strict calculation process from birth to death. The core principle was maximizing benefits.
The Hive invested resources, allocated them to various insectoids, and assigned them corresponding tasks. If a task wasn’t completed, the Hive would judge that species as lacking in strength, possibly reducing their numbers or even outright exterminating them.
Each insectoid type had a different way of growing.
Besides the energy clusters provided by the Hive, they also had other feeding methods.
Take the octopus creature, for example. Its specialty was psychic control and illusions, so it loved lurking on human star networks, feeding on the complex emotions of humans.
Joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred, and desire.
By absorbing so much, the octopus had learned how to deceive.
It told its Lord and the giant lobster that the Dark Zone had Stardust Creatures and was short on supplies, but it didn’t tell them that some of those Stardust Creatures were actually low-level Stardust Humans, nor that the humans lived on a new, vibrant, and beautiful planet full of life.
Because it had learned fear. It didn’t want to go to the Dark Zone and face that great god of death again.
To minimize the risk, it would hide crucial information and spread rumors about the Dark Zone.
“The Dark Zone is useless. It’s full of Stardust Creatures that are really unfriendly to our kind.”
“I’d rather beat a bug to death than go to the Dark Zone!”
Gradually, the number of wormholes near the Dark Zone decreased.
After all, opening wormholes required energy. There was no point wasting it on the Dark Zone.
Lin Xiaohe had no idea that certain beings had already taken notice of her and wanted to crush her in the cradle of her development.
She also didn’t know that besides Xiao Hei, the swarm now had another traitor in its ranks: that octopus creature.
“You want to establish a partnership pact with the baby Giant Sound Whale?”
Lin Xiaohe looked at Wesley and the others, whose faces were dead serious. Her own expression grew stern.
Under her intensely pressuring gaze, Wesley braced himself and said, “Yes. We’d like to ask the Party Chief to discuss this with the Elder of the Giant Sound Whales.”
“Give me one good reason.”
Wesley’s gaze was firm. “First, after spending time together, we and the baby Giant Sound Whale trust each other. Second, it’s for the development of our own species.”
They had made this decision after careful and thorough consideration.
“Party Chief, humanity advanced from ground-dwelling creatures to the stars using technology. But technological development was built upon the foundation of a huge population base.”
Geniuses are one in ten thousand.
Even though the Federation had gene-editing technology that could raise IQs to 150, the Federation’s technological progress had still hit a bottleneck.
Every breakthrough in science and technology requires long-term accumulation of knowledge and a stroke of genius, like the hand of God.
The Federation had the accumulated knowledge. But they had to admit, in recent years, those strokes of genius had been few and far between.
Wesley pierced the hesitation that had been hanging over everyone. “Party Chief, ever since we took the initiative to step into the cosmos and integrated with Stardust, we’ve started down a development path different from that of ordinary humans.”
With just over a thousand people, even simply continuing the species was an incredibly difficult task, let alone developing technology.
So, they absolutely couldn’t follow the technological path. Instead, they should leverage their strengths and take the path of biological evolution.
If everyone’s strength could reach even one-tenth of the Party Chief’s level, then amid the vast cosmos, they, as emerging humans, could secure a place for themselves.
Their thoughts were very pure. They just wanted to survive, become stronger, stop being a burden to the Party Chief, and become true followers in every sense of the word!
Facing their sincere and fervent gazes, Lin Xiaohe couldn’t bring herself to refuse. “Alright. I’ll go talk to them.”
Entering the Whale Sea again, Lin Xiaohe found the drowsy Giant Sound Whale Elder.
After hearing Lin Xiaohe’s request, the Elder first blinked in confusion, then suddenly swelled in size, looking incredulous. “Lin Xiaohe, I considered you a friend, and you’re trying to steal our baby?!”
Lin Xiaohe also felt this was a bit underhanded.
Feeling somewhat guilty, she said, “It’s a partnership pact. It can be dissolved anytime. Given their current relationship, having the pact or not doesn’t make much difference. Having it just provides an extra layer of safety for both sides.”
Oh my gosh, that sounded so awful, like something a player would say.
Lin Xiaohe’s face burned with embarrassment.
A partnership pact shares the mental energy and life force of the partners’ worlds. Simply put, it splits the damage taken.
It’s a unique form of cross-species cooperation exclusive to Stardust Creatures.
Usually, two species of comparable strength would form a partnership pact.
But the strength of the Giant Sound Whales was far superior to that of the Stardust Humans!
This was completely like marrying way, way above their station—the equivalent of humanity launching from Earth to the moon for a spouse!
“Hmph! Get lost!”
Unsurprisingly, Lin Xiaohe was kicked out.
Back on Kyushu Star, everyone looked at her expectantly.
Lin Xiaohe had a splitting headache. Holding her forehead, she said helplessly, “What gave you the courage to go seeking a rich, beautiful, and powerful partner like that?”
They replied matter-of-factly, “You! You’re the strongest being in the universe! Someday, you’ll lead us to become the most powerful race in the cosmos! Sure, we’re marrying above our station now, but in the future, they’ll be marrying above theirs!”
“How is this ‘marrying up’? This is ‘bringing a little buddy along to get rich together’!”
Lin Xiaohe rolled her eyes. If anyone else had said something like that, she would have scolded them for not knowing their place.
But these people were her own tribe.
As a shining example of someone who sides with family over reason, Lin Xiaohe could only grit her teeth and say, “I’ll try to figure something else out.”
