The crawfish meat was sweet and bouncy, coated in a savory, fragrant, spicy and numbing sauce.
Delicious!
After eating a whole one, Lin Xiaohe felt perfectly fine. In fact, her previously somewhat fatigued spiritual energy felt nourished and refreshed. It was great!
Chang Qing praised one and disparaged another: “See? I told you eating crawfish is fine. That Chu guy only had problems because he’s too weak!”
Lin Xiaohe didn’t agree or disagree. She just silently picked up another crawfish.
At that moment, if only she had a bottle of beer or cola, it would have been perfect.
As they were finishing up, Chang Qing’s ear twitched. He stood up reluctantly. “I need to go take care of something first. Leave some crawfish for me, okay?”
With that, he turned into aerial roots and disappeared.
Lin Xiaohe asked curiously, “What’s he off to do?”
“He’s probably being summoned by the humans he’s raising.”
Huh?!
Who’s raising whom?
The Elder Giant Sound Whale didn’t want to say more. It hated humans, with the exception of Lin Xiaohe.
After eating and drinking its fill, the Elder Giant Sound Whale left too.
Lin Xiaohe returned to the Hummingbird. She thought it over for a long time but ultimately decided not to let everyone try the spicy crawfish.
That stuff really did boost spiritual energy, but it was too aggressive. Ordinary people couldn’t handle it.
The next few years were practically heavenly.
Everyone methodically transformed Kyushu Star. The plants grown on Pangea, under Lin Xiaohe’s careful care, produced a bountiful harvest.
That very day, everyone had a small bowl of vegetable porridge and were so moved that tears welled up in their eyes.
Food made from a planet they had transformed themselves, from crops they had planted with their own hands—it was just so delicious!
The best in the world, no arguments accepted.
The space station and port on the canopy of the Jianmu tree were completely finished the following year.
Jianmu had entered its mature stage. Its branches and trunk were like green jade, with vein patterns flowing with dark blue starlight.
The canopy, spreading out in low-Earth orbit, was as green as emerald. The leaf veins were like liquid crystal, with glowing firefly stardust floating between them.
The canopy held up a complex of buildings with a strong classical Chinese architectural style.
Vermilion-painted corridor pillars wrapped with spiritual vines, gold-patterned flying eaves holding up the Milky Way, glazed tiles imprinted with swirling nebulae.
“So? Party leader, isn’t it exactly like the Heavenly Palace you drew?” Wesley raised his head proudly.
He couldn’t get real vermilion paint or glazed tiles. But he could use other materials to achieve a similar look.
Lin Xiaohe’s mind wandered. She felt an unreal sensation, like Zhuang Zhou dreaming he was a butterfly.
“It looks like it. So much like it.”
Wesley chuckled. He had never imagined that after entering the Dark Domain, life could be so blissful, like that of immortals.
Sure enough, follow the party leader and you’ll eat meat!
Lin Xiaohe checked the material reserves. They hadn’t reached the warning line yet; they were still fairly abundant.
Just as she was hesitating about whether to go to the black market to collect the remaining supplies, Lin Meimei swam over: “Xiaohe! There are a lot of spaceships gathered outside the Stardust Wall.”
Lin Xiaohe’s heart skipped a beat.
Old Dong was a frugal man.
Without concrete news from her, he wouldn’t waste fuel having ships gather near the Stardust Wall to wait.
Lin Xiaohe lifted her foot. The green halo beneath her feet swirled. Each step she took covered twice the distance as before!
It took her only two days to reach the Stardust Wall.
Dense clusters of spaceships, like frightened chicks, pressed as close as possible to the Stardust Wall, seeking its protection.
Lin Xiaohe hacked into Old Dong’s ship system: “What’s going on?”
All this time, Brother Dong’s nerves had been constantly taut. There were dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t dared to relax for a single moment.
When that familiar voice came through, he seemed to understand how Dong Yuxuan must have felt—an ultimate sense of security.
As long as Lin Xiaohe was there, no difficulty could stump her.
Brother Dong’s eyes reddened, and his voice carried a hint of sobbing and grievance: “Lin Xiaohe, it’s absolute chaos out there!!”
Seven years had passed inside the Dark Domain. Outside, just over two months had gone by for the Federation.
But those two-plus months had felt like years to Brother Dong!
He was like a child who had been wronged outside, running to a parent to tattle tearfully.
“A few months ago, lots of wormholes suddenly appeared in the Sixth Star Ring. They usually show up above planets or in the atmosphere. From these wormholes came swarms of black beetles and big fat grubs that eat people on sight.”
Lin Xiaohe’s gaze darkened. She recalled the contents of the Leviathan Plan and asked calmly, “Has the Federation taken any action?”
Just mentioning this made Brother Dong angry.
The black beetles and big fat grubs were exactly the same as the ones Lin Xiaohe had encountered during the military academy competition.
Even thinking with your toes, you could guess the Federation must have known about these alien creatures for a long time.
“The Sixth Star Ring military immediately sent warships to the areas where the wormholes appeared.”
Brother Dong’s expression turned as foul as if he’d eaten shit. “But misfortune never comes alone. The Empire massed its forces and launched a major counteroffensive. The military was caught between a rock and a hard place. The Sixth Star Ring relief force got blocked on the way and couldn’t arrive in time.”
Lin Xiaohe: “Did the Federation government tell the public how to deal with these creatures?”
“No. They just told everyone to hide and not confront them directly.”
With the Federation and the Empire at war, plus the appearance of wormholes, the black market got the worst of it.
The peacetime tacit understanding shattered completely at that moment, and the black market became one of the front lines.
The Mantis Armed Group, the Iron Meteor Raiding Group hiding in the black market, and other factions, seeing that Brother Dong was heading for the Stardust Wall, followed without a moment’s hesitation.
That’s why there were so many ships in front of the Stardust Wall!
Everyone seemed to have noticed Lin Xiaohe’s figure too.
They remained utterly silent. Their ships stayed quiet.
At this moment, the Stardust Wall, which had originally blocked the connection between the Dark Domain and the outside world, had actually become their lifeline.
Everyone who had ended up in the Dark Domain had their own reasons, but no one was in the same situation as Lin Xiaohe.
Everyone knew that Lin Xiaohe had been terribly wronged, persecuted by the Federation’s Ministry of Security.
Would she extend a helping hand?
If not a helping hand, would she drive everyone away from the Stardust Wall in this critical moment? Or even take advantage of their distress to harm them?
…
On Tigre Star, the military command and the Federation government parliament were running around like crazy. Alerts were popping up everywhere.
Kailyn Renault was in parliament, tearing into the Ministry of Security representative. “Back when you pushed through the Leviathan Plan, what guarantees did your Ministry make? Didn’t you say these Zerg have a strong sense of territory and wouldn’t leave easily?! Then why are wormholes sprouting up everywhere now?! You have to give us a reasonable explanation!”
The Ministry of Security representative said impatiently, “Is there any point in assigning blame now? This is the situation we have. Pandora’s box has been opened. We need to figure out how to close it again now! Not stand here arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong.”
He stood up and activated a projection. “Additionally, I need to remind everyone here. A new Zerg variant has appeared: the [Void Devourer]. It can sail through space and spew torrents of stardust.”
Kailyn Renault stared at that terrifying silhouette and swallowed hard. “How do we defeat it?”
The Ministry of Security representative’s smile was very strange. “Defeat it? Once it’s full or its energy is depleted, it will fall into a long, deep coma.”
There will be extra chapters this week.
