Lin Xiaohe’s goal was to rescue people, not to have a final showdown with the bugs.
So, apart from the bugs that stood directly in her path, she didn’t attack the giant grave.
Whether the giant grave understood this or not, after its first Void Devourer team was thwarted, it didn’t send out a second.
Not only that, but the bugs along Lin Xiaohe’s route seemed to receive some kind of order and scurried out of her way.
The surviving Imperial soldiers were dumbfounded.
“The bugs have that high a level of intelligence?! They know where Lin Xiaohe wants to go?”
Watching the ark drift farther and farther away, the Imperial soldiers didn’t hesitate for a second. They jumped into their spacecraft and chased after it like mad.
“Hmm?”
A puzzled female voice suddenly sounded over the Imperial warship’s communication channel.
The Imperial soldiers, like lost baby ducklings finally spotting their mother, cried out in a tearful, wailing mess.
“Great Lin Xiaohe, please come and get us!”
Lin Xiaohe raised an eyebrow. She had only hacked into their communications because she thought these Imperial warships were trying to ambush her.
“You’re from the Empire, aren’t you?”
“Pfft, what’s Empire or not Empire? We’re all humans here! You and me, hearts connected, we all live in the same universal village!”
“If you’re willing, we could also not be from the Empire. We could belong only to you!”
Lin Xiaohe said, “You can follow if you want.”
“Thank you! Sending you a heart!”
“You will always be the god in my heart!”
The Imperial warship group hugged tightly against the ark, terrified of being left behind.
They stared in shock at the scene outside their windows: “Holy black hole, there are really people on those Giant Sound Whales! And they’re not wearing space suits!”
This was completely insane.
Could these still be called humans?
How long had Lin Xiaohe’s followers been in the Black Domain? And they had already evolved this much?!
“I’m not envious. Not jealous at all. Ahhh, screw it! I’m so jealous I could go crazy! Why wasn’t I born in the Federation?!”
The Imperial soldiers’ eyes were red with envy. How great it was to be from the Wasteland Star—they got to grow stronger alongside Lin Xiaohe, and when danger came, someone would come and get them!
The ark shot through the Sixth Star Ring like an arrow, straight for the Wasteland Star.
Only when that massive ark stopped in the sky above the Wasteland Star did the survivors finally dare to believe that someone had truly come to save them.
Director Chen was crying his eyes out, tears and snot streaming down his face. He couldn’t even see who was in front of him; he just grabbed the person and screamed hysterically:
“You finally came! I’ve been waiting forever—the flowers have all withered! I already wrote my last words! The Federation government is inhuman—a huge place like the Sixth Star Ring, abandoned just like that! Tens of billions of lives, all thrown away to feed the bugs. They’re not human, they’re really not human!”
Some people were laughing and crying at the same time, kneeling on the ground and pounding their fists against the dirt: “Mom, Dad, if you’d only held on for a few more days, you would have made it to the rescue! Why couldn’t you hold on? How could you leave me all alone in this world?”
Wesley and the others felt heavy-hearted, their eyes growing moist as well.
There weren’t three million survivors. There were fewer than one million.
Wesley hugged Director Chen back and comforted him: “It’s okay. If the Federation doesn’t want you, we do! As soon as the Party Leader found out you were trapped, she started preparing for the rescue immediately. From now on, you’ll stick with us, and we’ll build a new home together!”
About ten meters away, a burly man with a face full of snot and tears was running around frantically like a headless fly, searching for something.
Su Xi asked curiously, “What are you doing?”
The man’s face crumpled, and he broke down: “The worst pain in the world is when a person dies before they’ve finished spending their money. What’s even worse than that is spending all your money before you die!”
“In plain language, please.”
The man wailed loudly: “I thought no one was coming to save us, so I threw away all my star coins!”
Su Xi’s face was full of sympathy, and she said softly, “Oh, that is terrible. Take your time looking.”
After everyone had let off some emotional steam, Wesley and the others began directing the survivors to board the ark.
For certain reasons, the ark didn’t have its own propulsion system, so it couldn’t land on the Wasteland Star.
Originally, Lin Xiaohe had planned to ask the Giant Sound Whales for help, but with the Imperial warships joining in, that task was handed over to them.
Grandma Lin, who had insisted on coming along, was holding a video recorder, documenting the evacuation of the survivors from the Wasteland Star.
On this day, Federation civilians, Imperial warships, stardust Giant Sound Whales, stardust humans, and the supreme fighter Lin Xiaohe—all appeared in the same frame!
If this video had been posted on the StarNet back in the day, it would have gone viral in an instant! Who could ever believe that all these different parties would work together on the same thing?
Guo Hai wasn’t crowding in with the overly excited ordinary people.
He was unshaven, staying behind to board the ark last, his gaze fixed firmly on Lin Xiaohe.
Lin Xiaohe sensed the look sharply and turned back to meet his eyes: “You’re Guo Hai? Old Dong told me you were looking for me.”
“Yeah. My boss is Chu Huaizhi.”
Lin Xiaohe paused.
Old Chu, huh.
Her feelings were very complicated.
Guo Hai pulled out a small wooden box he had kept hidden against his chest: “The boss wanted me to give this to you.”
“What is it?” Lin Xiaohe took the box and opened it. Inside was a very familiar-looking seed.
A dandelion seed?!
This seed was even bigger than the one she had found in the secret realm, and its color was purer and more translucent.
The moment the seed touched Lin Xiaohe’s palm, it seemed to come alive. It clicked into her skin and vanished.
The next second, a faint, fragile thread of mental connection appeared in Lin Xiaohe’s spiritual sea.
“My lord, please give me a name.”
Lin Xiaohe’s mouth twitched. What in the world?
Dandelion: “My lord, your radiance is as dazzling as the brilliant Milky Way. I am willing to be your servant, to live for you, to die for you!”
Lin Xiaohe quickly interrupted it: “Yingzi! I’ll call you Yingzi!”
The dandelion hesitated: “Isn’t this name a bit too ordinary?”
“Hero’s child—Yingzi! How is that ordinary?”
The dandelion understood: “Oh, so you see me as your child? Very well, my lord mother.”
Mother, then. Fine.
She already had too many people to take care of. One more Yingzi wouldn’t make a difference.
Lin Xiaohe snapped back to reality and saw Guo Hai staring at her palm without blinking.
He looked at it like it was some kind of rare curiosity, sighing in amazement: “It just… acknowledged you as its master that easily, that casually?!”
“What else did you expect? Some kind of ceremony?”
After a long pause, Guo Hai let out a deep breath: “If only you had been born earlier. The boss found this seed in… a certain place. He firmly believed that the seed could be planted and would help humanity’s progress.”
Guo Hai fidgeted a little, looking embarrassed: “Would it be convenient for you to tell me what this seed actually does? If not, that’s fine.”
“Clears heat, detoxifies, soothes the liver, brightens the eyes, reduces swelling, dissolves lumps, and boosts immunity.”
“Huh? That’s it?” Guo Hai didn’t believe her.
Lin Xiaohe also found it strange. Normally, the abilities of stardust-mutated plants were completely different from ordinary plants.
But Yingzi was a little oddball—it actually had the exact same effects as a regular dandelion!
Lin Xiaohe said, “I’ll study it more carefully once we’re back in the Black Domain. Now, get on the ark.”
