Good News and Bad News

The Void Airship left the Material World and returned to the Void, slowly making its way back on the Void River.

Wisdom Immortal looked back with lingering fear and asked, "What just happened? Why did those insects suddenly become so timid?"

"You're asking me? Who should I ask? Aren't you Wisdom Immortal?"

Li Jinyao shrugged and said, "Think about it yourself."

Wisdom Immortal began to ponder.

"Hmph, is that even a question?"

Bai Qiuran stood with his hands behind his back, and said arrogantly, "It must be the awakening of my domineering aura that scared those insects so much they ran away in terror."

Wisdom Immortal glanced at him, then continued to ponder.

"Damn, what do you mean?"

Bai Qiuran shook her hand.

"Half a fist the size of a sandbag, never seen one like it? I just got you out of danger, and you're not even going to say 'thank you, Brother Qiuran '? Believe me, I'll smash your head in with one punch..."

"Thank you, Brother Qiuran."

Jiang Lan said something from the side, then she reached out and gently pinched Bai Qiuran's cheek, saying, "Let's get down to business."

"All right."

Bai Qiuran suppressed his exaggerated expression and said seriously, "Actually, I don't know why these insects ran away as soon as I released my aura and Spiritual Sense. However, I guess they either have some special ability to sense the threat that pure spiritual energy like Spiritual Sense poses to them, or they are afraid of the aura emanating from me."

"That's a good thing."

Wisdom Immortal said, "This means we've found the weakness of these insects. As long as we analyze it a bit after we get back, with the current strength of the Immortal Realm, it won't be difficult to resist them."

"No, this is both a good thing and a bad thing."

Bai Qiuran glanced at Wisdom Immortal; this guy was a pure researcher, and he seemed rather insensitive in this kind of situation.

"Why?"

I ask Wisdom Immortal asked doubtfully.

"Because if the insects fear pure spiritual energy, or Consciousness life forms, then the culprit behind the destruction of the civilization that established the Consciousness Barrier within the Consciousness Domain would not be the insects."

Li Jinyao explained, "If a civilization could give birth to beings like the Consciousness Demon' from the Ruin it left behind, do you think that civilization at its peak would be afraid of the Void Insect, which are its natural enemy?"

"That's right, that's the point. It means that while facing the Insect Race, we also have to guard against another huge threat that may exist in the Void."

Bai Qiuran glanced at Wisdom Immortal.

"That's just because the insects are afraid of Spiritual Sense."

Wisdom Immortal thought for a moment, then asked again.

"If those insects retreated because they feared your aura, perhaps it was because your cultivation was too strong and your aura too intense, thus triggering their instinctive fear."

"That would be wonderful, but I think that's actually the least likely scenario."

Bai Qiuran explained, "Lan'er was standing on the deck when she released her aura. To those insects, I felt there was no difference between the aura of the Return Ruins Stage and the aura of the Virtual Foundation Stage, but they didn't flinch when they sensed Lan'er's aura... Clearly, if a real fight broke out, Lan'er could easily annihilate them all."

"... That makes sense."

Wisdom Immortal thought for a moment and asked, "Then why are those insects afraid of you alone? Do you smell bad?"

Bai Qiuran kicked Wisdom Immortal, sending him shoving against the cabin wall, and then said, "I'm not entirely sure about this either, but I think the Heavenly Dao might know... After all, we, Heaven's Envy, are creations of its own making. We can go back and ask it."

"That's right, we'll find out when we get back. Zhentian is probably helping Eden build its defenses right now."

Jiang Lan nodded and said, "We also caught a Special Individual of the insect, which we can take back for the Machine God and the others to study."

"Wait, establish a defensive line... Have the Immortal Realm and the Machine God deployed their troops?"

Bai Qiuran became alert.

"Of course it's out."

His young wife, Consciousness Bai Qiuran's thoughts, nodded and said, "Immortals, Machine Puppet Forces, Fleet Void Airship, even a batch from the Consciousness Demon Department and the Book Team have been sent. Otherwise, how can Eden possibly stop these insects? By appealing to their love?"

"That won't do..."

Bai Qiuran stepped forward and said firmly, "I will go back and Zhentian to replace all the troops supporting Eden with Consciousness Demon."

Why?

Jiang Lan asked curiously, "Doesn't the Consciousness Demon Forces also need someone to support them?"

"Lan'er, you don't understand. Fighting these dangerous creatures is dangerous; even Immortals risk death. As for the Machine Puppet Forces, damaged Machine Puppet will be devoured by the insects, and the materials won't be recovered. This is a serious waste of resources."

Bai Qiuran an upright expression.

"But if we only send out the Consciousness Demon, there won't be a problem. Even if the insects suddenly awaken their mental abilities and cause losses to the Consciousness Demon Forces, as long as the Consciousness Demon's original forms are still there, they can keep regenerating."

"But what if the insects evolve mental abilities and become immune to Consciousness Demon?"

Jiang Lan thought for a moment and then asked.

"Then we'll figure something out when the time comes."

Bai Qiuran n't hesitate.

"Where there's a will, there's a way; where there's a will, there's a way."

Jiang Lan opened her mouth, wanting to say something more, but Li Jinyao suddenly grabbed her hand, bent down and whispered something in her ear.

Then, when Li Jinyao straightened up, Jiang Lan's expression changed to one of sudden realization.

"Okay, okay."

She looked at Bai Qiuran for a while, then suddenly smiled indulgently and said, "I'll go with you to remonstrate to the death."

More than a month later, the Void Airship returned to the central territory of Eden. Bai Qiuran copied a video recording of the insects and gave it to the high-ranking officials of the Eden regime. Then, the flying boat passed through the Consciousness Barrier and continued its journey to where Le Zhentian was, finding the Immortal Emperor.

At this moment Le Zhentian was overseeing the battle in the Command Center of the Immortal Realm's front-line Fortress within the Consciousness Domain. Upon hearing that Bai Qiuran and the others had returned with firsthand information about the insects, he hurried over to greet them. Accompanying him were not only the commanders of the Immortal Realm army in the Command Center, but also a "Observer" Machine Puppet of the Newborn Machine God, as well as the Consciousness Demon Clone of the Heavenly Dao Will.

Bai Qiuran showed them the records of these insects, and after reading them, everyone's expressions became extremely solemn.

"What an astonishing level of adaptability and evolutionary speed."

Le Zhentian pondered, "I suspect that if a high-level Immortals were to fall into the bellies of these insects, wouldn't these insects also evolve in a short period of time into an army where each individual could rival a high-level Immortals?"

"There's no need to worry about that, Your Majesty."

The newly born Machine God dispelled his doubts.

"I studied the individual we used for experiments afterward. It should also be Special Individual among the Insect Race, or rather... one of their larvae. There are several other specimens in the Previous Generation's inventory. I later extracted the genes from these specimens, cloned some Zerg, and conducted the same experiments on them. However, the experimental results showed that none of them had the terrifying adaptability and evolutionary speed of the first Zerg."

"That's good."

Le Zhentian breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, we can't be careless. Although they're not quite that monstrous, their evolutionary speed and adaptability are still incredibly formidable."

The Newborn Machine God added, "Moreover, the result of these insects' evolution is that it is a collective process. They will spread this evolution rapidly to the entire group they can reach through some means, just like spreading some kind of terrible Plague."