The Swarm Brain's Mind Was Far Too Empty

Because the inside of the Behemoths' bodies was a tangled maze, coupled with harassment from some hostile swarm creatures, the worker bees spent two days searching through the Behemoth herd's bodies despite being unfamiliar with the environment.

At last, inside the largest Behemoth, they found a swarm brain the size of a truck.

In appearance, this swarm brain looked like an enlarged silkworm. It was pure white, long and fat, with no visible eyes.

Unlike ordinary swarm creatures, its body was relatively soft. The only hardened part was the mouthparts on its head.

They seemed capable of serving as weapons. When the worker bees first discovered the swarm brain, they were caught off guard and pierced straight through by its sharp mouthparts.

However, before overwhelming psionic confinement, all such tricks were meaningless.

Following Lu Shang's orders, the worker bees carried the massive, truck-sized silkworm before him.

The moment it saw Lu Shang, the swarm brain identified him as another swarm brain.

Abruptly, a clear stream of information surfaced in Lu Shang's mind.

"You are not a swarm brain chosen by the Overlord."

Compared to other swarm creatures, the swarm brain's messages were very clear. Lu Shang did not need to deliberately sense them to grasp their general meaning.

"The swarm chose me, so I am the swarm brain," Lu Shang replied.

"That is wrong. Choosing swarm brains is the Overlord's task. An inferior individual like you is unqualified to become the swarm's brain," the swarm brain answered.

Lu Shang raised an eyebrow and asked teasingly, "An inferior individual led a swarm and defeated the swarm led by an exceptional individual?"

The swarm brain immediately fell silent.

The facts could not be refuted. Lu Shang's swarm was powerful—powerful beyond imagination. The swarm creatures led by the swarm brain could be said to have possessed no ability to resist at all.

Honestly, the swarm brain could not understand why it had lost to this individual before it—an individual without fangs or claws, whose body was not as strong as its own, whose brain was not as large, and whose psionic power was so weak it could practically be ignored.

"This shouldn't have happened. There must be... there must be some mistake..."

The swarm brain found it impossible to accept. It was clearly the one whose genes had been optimized by the Overlord. Every aspect of its body was superior. It was clearly supposed to hold the advantage!

Yet reality was that such a weak, useless creature had commanded a swarm and defeated it!

"That's right. There is indeed a problem," Lu Shang said.

"What problem?"

"Your brain may be big, but you never use it. If you don't use something good, it's no different from not having it," Lu Shang said solemnly.

High emotional intelligence: If you don't use something good, it's no different from not having it.

Low emotional intelligence: Your brain is completely empty!

"..."

Capturing a swarm brain from the Babel Swarm fundamentally solved the problem of gene editing.

Using the swarm brain's brain as the genetic template, they cloned vast numbers of copies.

Although these cloned brains were rigid in their thinking, they were perfectly capable of carrying out gene editing.

The brains directed the hives on how to connect the swarm brain's gene fragments with the hives. Once complete, both the hives and brains were incubated on the spot. The brains incubated into hives, while the hives upgraded their own brains during incubation.

As for the swarm brain Lu Shang had captured, once its value had been completely drained, Lu Shang had planned to simply throw it away.

However, before he could act, he received a piece of information from the swarm brain that changed his mind.

The Babel Swarm had a new Overlord!

And the swarm brain Lu Shang had captured had not actually been created by the previous Overlord. It had been created by the current new Overlord!

"Go back where you came from. You're no longer of any use to me."

Lu Shang stuffed the captive swarm brain into the body of a captured Behemoth, then directed immense psionic power and flung the beast beyond Nestworld.

It was not because he feared the other side's backing. He simply did not want to make enemies of the entire universe. He was already hostile to the Galactic Alliance—was he supposed to fight the Babel Swarm of his own faction as well?

There was no need for that. He was not some battle-crazed maniac. Besides, those from the same faction also possessed psionic power, so Lu Shang had no particular advantage. According to the swarm brain, the new Overlord seemed to possess level-twelve psionic power, and its swarm had even repelled four attacks by the Galactic Alliance...

At the very least, he did not want to make a move before finding out what was going on.

"You won't return to the swarm?" the swarm brain asked in confusion. It had assumed that once Lu Shang learned the news, he would join it in rendezvousing with the new Overlord's swarm.

After all, that was the swarm's Overlord.

"Return for what? I'm developing just fine here, and one message from you means I should give up this territory I seized from the Galactic Alliance? Why don't you just explode where you are?" Lu Shang rolled his eyes, though he knew it could not see him.

Although it did not understand the exact meaning of "explode where you are," the swarm brain still understood Lu Shang's intent.

Watching the Behemoth carrying the swarm brain enter faster-than-light travel and vanish from the vicinity of Nestworld, Lu Shang gradually fell into thought.

The swarm's Overlord possessed absolute authority over the swarm.

But the problem was that Lu Shang did not want some great leader hanging over his head. Living under someone else's roof was not the life he wanted.

Could it be that I really can only make enemies of the entire universe?

Four months after the Battle of the Bogu Grand Nebula, in a binary star system located at the southwestern edge of the Franlo Nebula.

A spacecraft roughly the size of an ordinary Galactic Alliance battleship was anchored within the star system, its spinal cannon aimed from afar at a solid planet.

Inside the ship's bridge, two octopus-like aliens were conversing.

"Commander Rayford, thanks to you persuading the Alliance to allocate funding, we were able to build this prototype weapon."

"There's no need for unnecessary words. I only want to see whether you can achieve what your report claimed," Commander Rayford said, waving a tentacle.

Hearing this, his companion repeatedly waved its tentacles.

"Of course. You'll see it soon enough."

As he spoke, he turned and ordered the operators, "Charge it!"

"Power at 50%!"

"Power at 74%!"

"Power at 92%!"

"Power at 100%!"

"Fire!"

About a minute later, a massive depression appeared inexplicably on the surface of the solid planet serving as the target. Rather than a crater formed by a heavy blow, it resembled a gigantic whirlpool in the ocean, with countless fragments of planetary matter continuously falling toward its center.

At the vortex's center, an extremely intense light was continuously released. Its radiative energy level had reached the gamma rays only produced during a supernova explosion.

With an incredibly violent burst of light, the spacecraft's optical sensors were instantly burned out.

"Activate the backup detection equipment immediately!"

After the operators scrambled to work, the spacecraft's backup detection equipment was quickly activated.

What appeared before them was a solid planet that looked as though some invisible colossal beast had taken a bite out of it. The planet's core still emitted a faint crimson glow.

All the aliens aboard the ship stared fixedly at the planet's miserable state.

"Commander Rayford, is this power sufficient?"

"It is. More than sufficient," Commander Rayford answered blankly. But he quickly snapped out of it and pressed, "Is this the only kind?"

The other party replied, "Of course there are others."