In this early universe, it was currently in the era of "Dawn of the Stars."
In other words, vast amounts of nebular matter had already formed the embryonic shapes of various celestial bodies—red giants, pulsars, white dwarfs, red supergiants, and so on.
But at this point, these embryonic planets possessed more than mere energy. They also carried the sensory instincts of insects, along with temperature, vibrations, and pheromones.
The red giants had become rotting nests. They hung there like dying ovaries that still pulsed slowly—enormous and warm, yet exuding a sweet, fetid scent of decay. Heat traveled through the void, a hatching temperature that made arthropods' limbs go numb.
White dwarfs were like the still-sharp fangs left behind after a predator had been crushed. Their light was a high-frequency hiss, a warning capable of scraping at perceptive nerves. Any life-form caught in the invisible radiation wind trembled involuntarily, receiving nothing but pure, concentrated pheromones of "death."
Blue supergiants were the domains of kings. Their radiance was lethally poisonous, a proclamation of intense ultraviolet light. Like the dominance pheromones released by a queen bee, it made lower-level individuals afraid to look directly at them.
Every pulse of their energy resembled a powerful heartbeat, transmitted through space itself and causing the insectoid race's circulation to resonate.
Even Yuan felt that something was wrong. She furrowed her brows, and her enormous branches began sweeping across distances measured in light-years. Yet everything felt sticky and clinging, as if the cosmic firmament had turned into an infinitely extending, uneven membrane of perception.
Or perhaps... an insect web?
"Impossible. This is the main body of my technology tree, a conceptual existence. What could possibly contaminate this place? The first batch of cosmic evil gods to be born?"
"Damn it. I'm still repairing myself here. If I