The Overlord's Plea for Help Was Too Long-Winded

The planetary organisms' testing took roughly five days. During that time, Lu Shang developed quite a few abilities alongside them.

For instance, accelerated thought through spacetime expansion.

Space and time were inherently one. When space was compressed, the passage of time slowed considerably relative to normal space. Conversely, when space expanded, time passed much faster relative to normal space.

Imagine it: one second passed in normal spacetime, while a year passed within expanded spacetime. Would planetary organisms still be unable to keep up mentally?

Obviously not. They could even play chess and fight a war at the same time without either interfering with the other.

Another example was holistic psionic warp: bending the spacetime within a hundred-million-kilometer radius centered on the planetary organisms to create a spacetime warp bubble.

That would allow the entire Scout Nebula to be enveloped within a spacetime warp bubble and make a faster-than-light jump, without waiting for the planetary organisms to reach the battlefield before generating the Scout Nebula.

The Galactic Alliance fleet would not sit around waiting for the planetary organisms to finish deploying the Scout Nebula before attacking.

War was a game of kicking someone while they were down. No matter what methods were used, whoever survived to the end was the winner.

Just as Lu Shang's side stood ready for the Galactic Alliance's final offensive, something unexpected happened.

Rather than attacking him first, the Galactic Alliance went after the new Overlord's side.

One of the main brains that had previously had a friendly exchange with Lu Shang rode over atop a Behemoth beast to request his aid.

"Requesting aid? Didn't you already repel four Galactic Alliance attacks?" Lu Shang asked curiously.

The main brain replied, "The enemy's military strength is formidable. The fleet they have deployed is unprecedented in scale, far surpassing the combined forces of the previous four offensives."

"If it's that massive, what can I possibly do for you?" Lu Shang asked perfunctorily.

The main brain seemingly failed to detect the perfunctoriness in Lu Shang's words and bluntly explained the purpose of its visit.

"You can support us."

Lu Shang casually came up with an excuse to brush it off. "Oh, come on. My Swarm isn't that large. Don't be fooled by the fact that we took dozens of Dias Empire administrative planets. A large part of that was because infected administrative planets didn't require me to dedicate forces to defend them."

"Why don't you gather all the Behemoth beasts you have and have them fight the enemy with psionics? I'm telling you, psionics work better than any acid shell. Numbers mean absolutely nothing before psionics."

The main brain answered helplessly, "After I returned last time, I followed your example and deployed Behemoth beast brains on every Nestworld. Thanks to those mobile Nestworlds, we were able to hold out this long. But now, we have reached our limit."

Damn it! Shamelessly plagiarizing my idea and calling it 'following my example'? Lu Shang cursed inwardly.

The main brain had no idea what Lu Shang was thinking. It continued describing the battlefield on the new Overlord's side.

"The Galactic Alliance has used an attack we completely fail to understand. Their fleets can create many strange devouring objects out of thin air near the mobile Nestworlds. The mobile Nestworlds' psionics cannot defend against these devouring objects at all. They can only use psionics to push them away..."

As it spoke, it did not forget to share its battlefield memories with Lu Shang through the psionic network. Things truly seemed urgent.

Lu Shang's side had already studied black-hole-induced strikes inside and out. The Swarm had even personally experienced the power of such attacks. The battlefield information shared by the main brain was practically worthless.

"Enough. You don't need to describe it anymore. I roughly know what it is."

"How about this? I can divert forces to support you, but I need you to provide me with a copy of the new Overlord's genes."

Originally, Lu Shang had not intended to offer support. But on second thought, the new Overlord possessed level-twelve psionics, something that had never appeared in the Swarm's history. Every previous Overlord had possessed only level-ten psionics.

If such a biological template were simply slaughtered by the Galactic Alliance, would he ever find another psionic brain above level ten?

The universe was vast, so the odds were hard to say. But Lu Shang personally felt that the chances seemed rather low.

And even setting that aside, the new Overlord had a huge number of Swarm organisms under its command.

The Swarm was currently suffering from a severe shortage of combat units. If Lu Shang went over and transformed the new Overlord's Swarm into one like the Swarm he currently led, would his own Swarm's strength not rise rapidly?

Besides, even if Lu Shang provided no support, the Galactic Alliance would still send a fleet to fight his Swarm. During testing, they had tried their best to approximate the Galactic Alliance's fleet capabilities, but simulations were still simulations. Who knew what would happen in actual combat?

If something unexpected occurred on the battlefield and the planetary organisms failed to perform well enough, they could truly be crushed in a single wave. It would be better to involve himself in the Galactic Alliance's war against the new Overlord. That way, even if they were crushed, the enemy's first priority would be destroying the Swarm's new Overlord, not him, Lu Shang.

That would buy him time to adapt and solve problems that only surfaced in real combat.

After weighing the matter again and again, Lu Shang decided that supporting the new Overlord was necessary.

Who would have thought that just as Lu Shang had decided to send troops, the main brain dispatched by the new Overlord was still hesitating.

After hearing Lu Shang's condition for sending troops, the main brain said, "This requires the Overlord's permission."

Since the condition concerned the Overlord, the main brain had no authority to decide on the Overlord's behalf.

But Lu Shang did not care. Rolling his eyes, he said, "Do whatever you want. I'm not the one in a hurry."

With that, he prepared to end the psionic communication. There was nothing to negotiate over. It was not as if he were begging to support the new Overlord.

Yet at that moment, the main brain suddenly stopped Lu Shang again.

"Wait. The Overlord has agreed to your proposal, Main Brain Lu Shang."

Just moments earlier, it had contacted the Swarm's new Overlord through the psionic network. Perhaps the Galactic Alliance's offensive was simply too fierce, because the new Overlord had accepted Lu Shang's terms.

"Wouldn't it have been over if you'd done that from the start? Dragging things out and wasting everyone's time. It's a miracle you've survived this long. I really don't know whether the Galactic Alliance has been deliberately going easy on you or whether you're just incredibly lucky!"

Grumbling curses, Lu Shang ended his communication with the Swarm's main brain. He then issued a new command to all the Swarm's planetary organisms through the Swarm network.

"Move out! Head for the Banner Coalition's starfield!"

Solid planets orbiting their stars, shrouded in vast masses of cloudlike matter, released surging psionic energy at Lu Shang's command. That energy warped the space within a hundred-million-kilometer radius centered on each solid planet, forming faster-than-light warp bubbles—then they abruptly vanished without a trace!