The Destruction of a Civilization

"Hey, no! What happened? Why did they all die?!"

Lu Zhiyu had been busy these past few days and had not paid close attention to the Painting Space. Only when the Zerg Race began dying in large numbers did he discover that, two days earlier, they had actually developed bioenergy. One Insect Queen had created a new generation of Hive and begun endlessly producing troops, bringing all the other Insect Queens under her control and unifying the entire Painting Space.

Then, that Insect Queen who had conquered the world embarked on a path of self-destruction. Her unlimited troop production eventually exhausted every resource in the Painting Space. The oceans became polluted and dried up, the land turned entirely into desert, and all the Zerg Race began devouring one another as they died in droves.

Lu Zhiyu watched helplessly as the vast Zerg Race civilization completely collapsed. Insect Queens and Zerg Race members died one after another, until the entire Painting Space was reduced to ruins.

"Wait... no, they all died?"

Lu Zhiyu felt like he was about to break down. Yet the markings within the silver symbol in his mind began growing madly as the Zerg Race continued to die, eventually breaking through their upper limit completely.

Lu Zhiyu felt the silver symbol change from a sideways eight into a silver Hourglass. A massive flood of information immediately poured into his mind again. Lu Zhiyu had gained further knowledge of how to control the Universe Scroll, including how to create and open dimensional passages in the outside world.

Lu Zhiyu looked into the Painting Space. It had become a wasteland, and even the Zerg Race corpses were gradually being consumed. Yet he discovered that the Insect Queen who had unified the world was gone. She had not died. She had truly vanished!

"What happened?"

Lu Zhiyu immediately investigated and found that, at the instant his control authority advanced, the dimensional passage had become unstable. He had also been adjusting the dimensional passage at the time, hoping to save the Painting Space from destruction. That Insect Queen had seized the opportunity and escaped the Painting Space from the two-dimensional level. But he had no idea where she had fled through dimensional space—to a lower-dimensional plane, a higher-dimensional one, or perhaps the three-dimensional world where he lived.

"She ran away? That bastard destroyed my Painting Space and then just dusted herself off and left? What the hell!"

Lu Zhiyu felt like crying, but there was nothing he could do. He also felt that, given the habits of the Zerg Race, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. They were creatures that devoured every resource to develop themselves, their aggression and voracity extreme beyond measure. His palm-sized Painting Space simply could not contain them.

As all life in the Painting Space died out, Lu Zhiyu recovered all the Source Substance within it. A shallow layer had accumulated beneath the Hourglass, about one-tenth full. If he treated the previously full state as one hundred marks, then he currently had roughly thirteen hundred marks of Source Substance. To fill it completely again, he would likely need around ten thousand marks of Source Substance.

Lu Zhiyu had spent one hundred marks of Source Substance to create the Painting Space. Now that he possessed thirteen hundred marks, perhaps he could start planning to create a more stable and far larger space. Perhaps it could become a world truly capable of holding diverse civilizations and living creatures.

Lu Zhiyu suddenly realized he might have overlooked a detail. He could trace the memories and origins of humanity's ancestors through genetic fragments, but the Insect Queens could not possibly do the same. That meant they had likely already learned that they had not been born in this world, but came from another universe—and that their ancestors had merely been ants on the ground.

Something seemed off about Lu Zhiyu's expression. "Those bugs wouldn't sense my existence and curse me behind my back, would they? And that Insect Queen felt wrong too. It was as though she had long been preparing to escape the Painting Space!"

At that moment, in a distant and unknown extradimensional space, an Insect Queen curled into a ball and transformed into an insect cocoon as she crossed time and space, releasing waves of consciousness.

"World of the gods... bzzz... seek... the existence of the gods!"

"We Zerg Race come from the world of the gods, the Divine Kingdom!"

"Great god, Sunike wishes to find you. I have many questions...!"

Lu Zhiyu waited outside the hospital entrance. After turning down several women who had suddenly approached him for no apparent reason, he could not help but smile wryly as he watched them leave reluctantly. The instant Li Wei appeared, he immediately waved to her. Li Wei smiled as she said goodbye to several female coworkers beside her, then threw herself into Lu Zhiyu's arms.

Seeing the female doctors and nurses at the entrance pointing and whispering, Lu Zhiyu wrapped an arm around Li Wei and said, "We're right at the entrance. Don't be so enthusiastic. Your coworkers are all watching! Those looks are kind of scary!"

Li Wei gave a coquettish snort. "Those are the looks of women trying to seduce you, along with envy, jealousy, and hatred toward me. From now on, don't come inside to find me. Just call me from outside!"

Lu Zhiyu shrugged. "All right, all right, got it. I promise I'll behave and absolutely won't flirt around!"

Li Wei said proudly, "That's right. As my man, you need to uphold your virtue!"

Lu Zhiyu opened the car door, and Li Wei took the passenger seat. He walked around to get in, started the car, and said, "I didn't expect you to be such a jealous woman. So petty too. Besides, virtue is supposed to refer to women, isn't it?"

Li Wei immediately replied, "Who told me to end up with such irresistible meat as you? If I'm not careful, all those fox spirits and little temptresses outside will swarm over you!"

Over this period, Lu Zhiyu had gradually figured out why he was so attractive to women. His enhanced appearance was only one factor. Another important reason was the hormonal aura his body gave off.

Once his body had been adjusted to the limits of humanity, Lu Zhiyu discovered that not only could his physical fitness rival that of a professional athlete, but because his body was healthy and had reached a state of perfect balance, it began emitting this aura. It had an especially strong effect on women.

Lu Zhiyu truly had no good solution for this. He could hardly ruin the physical condition he had painstakingly adjusted over such a minor drawback. Besides, if this even counted as a drawback, men all over the world would probably shout, "Give me ten of them!"

After the utterly ordinary routine of dinner, a date, and a movie, Lu Zhiyu took Li Wei home. This was Li Wei's first time visiting his house. Their previous meetings had been at hotels, and later at Li Wei's home. Coming to Lu Zhiyu's house was a first.

"Your place is pretty nice. A detached house in such a good location too. Your family wasn't one of those holdout households back in the day, was it? The developers actually didn't tear your house down!"

"..."

Li Wei's guess was somewhat close to the truth. However, Lu Zhiyu's house happened to be located at a corner. After being refused several times, the other side gave up, so they had not encountered the sort of forced demolition incident everyone loved to hear about.

Late at night, Li Wei took a tired shower. Seeing Lu Zhiyu sitting on the sofa in a bath towel and watching television, she quietly hugged him from behind. "You're so good to me!"

Lu Zhiyu reached back, pulled Li Wei down onto the sofa, and gave her a strange grin. "Am I really that good?"

After the two fooled around for a while, Li Wei asked, "You've been back for some time after quitting your job in the capital. What are you planning to do in the future?"

Lu Zhiyu thought for a moment. "Hmm! I'm planning to open a pet store. What do you think?"

"Huh? You like pets?"