This Swarm Could Not Sit Still

In Lu Shang's plan, the swarm only needed to scatter all the second-generation scouts and complete the intelligence network spanning the entire galaxy before this protracted interstellar war, which had begun in the era of the old Sovereign, could come to an end.

In other words, reaching the finish line of victory required no further complicated maneuvers from his side. They merely had to wait for a while.

As it happened, the Galactic Alliance had the same idea.

They were desperately short on time. Relying on stars to construct massive wormhole-generation devices, they could reverse their disadvantage as long as those devices were completed.

As long as they stalled for time, they could win!

Precisely because both sides had thought alike, the intensity of the interstellar war that had persisted in the galaxy for so many years had, with remarkable mutual understanding, decreased considerably.

During this period, both sides primarily engaged in political negotiations. The swarm wanted to use such means to sow discord and divide the Galactic Alliance from within, reducing the difficulty of a full-scale offensive once the galactic intelligence network was complete. The Galactic Alliance, meanwhile, wanted to drag things out through political wrangling for as long as possible.

In the dimly lit residence, the flickering glow of the fireplace cast Lu Shang's shadow high and imposing.

Lu Shang lay in a rocking chair with his eyes closed, as though asleep.

Within the microscopic world invisible to the naked eye, every molecule in Lu Shang's body was controlled by an invisible force. It stimulated cell division, accelerated metabolism, artificially eliminated cells with poor division capacity, adjusted endocrine function...

After a series of adjustments, aside from his memories, Lu Shang's body had been restored through microscopic alterations to the state it had been in when he first awakened.

That was right. Lu Shang had achieved what countless human emperors had dreamed of.

Immortality!

How many emperors had been poisoned to death by heavy-metal elixirs in pursuit of immortality?

How many emperors had spent fortunes in pursuit of immortality, just to extend their lives by even the slightest amount?

Yet Lu Shang had achieved it so easily!

By relying on psionic power and having his psionic brain control every molecule in his body, removing necrotic cells and cells with declining division capacity, then stimulating healthy cells to divide and create new cells to fill the gaps, he had directly solved the problem of lifespan.

Human genes had short lifespans?

No problem. Just keep renewing them!

When Lu Shang opened his eyes, he let out a soft breath, rose, and went to take a shower, washing away the bodily impurities expelled from his pores onto the surface of his skin.

After showering, Lu Shang was drying his hair with a towel when he received intelligence from the second-generation scouts.

It concerned a fleet roughly twice the size of a standard Alliance fleet. Lu Shang was no stranger to the emblem displayed on every ship in that fleet; he had seen it in the swarm's inherited memories.

"Oh? Another vassal race?" Lu Shang paused as he dried his hair.

The Amon Empire, like the Babel Swarm and Bahadun'er, was a vassal race under the Void God.

Unlike the swarm and Bahadun'er, the Amon Empire had developed along a path very similar to the Galactic Alliance's. They engaged in industry, built warships, and assembled vast fleets to wage war across the stars.

Yet they were not entirely the same as the Galactic Alliance. The Amon Empire did not conduct research, nor did it have professions such as scientists. As a whole, they were extremely belligerent and always loved causing destruction and creating massive explosions.

It seemed their technology was inscribed into their genes. Thus, no matter how many of them died, as long as someone remained alive, the Amon Empire's technology would never suffer a break in continuity.

But perhaps precisely because they had no scientists, their scientific development had nearly stagnated. At least, that was what the swarm's inherited memories suggested.

As for how a model like the Amon Empire's had developed to the point of entering space, Lu Shang did not know. The swarm had no relevant records.

Lu Shang considered how to deal with them for a while before issuing an order. "Have the scouts maintain surveillance. Don't act rashly. Once the war between the swarm and the Galactic Alliance is over, we'll consider how to handle them."

The Amon Empire was of little use to the current swarm. They relied on a type of livestock, raised within their ships and possessing level-ten psionic power, to travel across light-years.

If the swarm had not yet adopted level-twelve psionic brains, they would still have been somewhat useful.

Because these level-ten psionic livestock were smaller than Behemoths, more psionic brains could be packed into the same space, making their psionic brains stronger than those of the latter.

But now that the entire swarm had upgraded to level-twelve psionic power, level-ten psionic brains were of no use.

Not long after he finished dealing with this matter, new information arrived through the swarm network.

"Lu Shang, good news! The negotiations between the swarm and the Dias Empire have made progress!" Nanali, the former Sovereign assigned to negotiate with the Dias Empire, excitedly informed Lu Shang.

Lu Shang froze for a moment, then asked for confirmation, "Is it about the Frozen Cycle?"

"Yes!"

After receiving Nanali's affirmative reply, Lu Shang could no longer sit still. He immediately replied, "Organize the relevant intelligence and send it to me at once."

The Frozen Cycle that had sealed the Void God was a terrifying technology that could not be ignored under any circumstances.

Ever since the swarm's first clash with the Galactic Alliance, Lu Shang had remained wary of the enemy using this technology against them.

For some reason, even when planets were destroyed and member factions surrendered, the Galactic Alliance still seemed reluctant to use this technology.

Unfortunately, Lu Shang had never had a chance to get to the bottom of it. The related intelligence was tightly sealed away. Even the intelligence networks spread throughout the Galactic Alliance's member factions could not obtain the slightest bit of information. It was practically taboo.

Until now, the swarm had finally reached an agreement with the Dias Empire.

"All right! Wait a moment!"

Lu Shang sat on the sofa, doing his best to calm his excited emotions as he received the relevant materials Nanali had compiled.

A while later, after digesting the information, Lu Shang frowned, rose from the sofa, and began pacing back and forth.

"It really is just as I thought. What I feared has come to pass..." Lu Shang muttered to himself with an ugly expression.

The technology behind the Frozen Cycle was not particularly complicated. Its principle was to use a singularity to create a closed-loop spacetime governed by rules different from those of the current universe.

Put another way, it could also be called a miniature universe.

By adjusting the parameters of the initial singularity, the Galactic Alliance had removed the dimension of time from the closed-loop spacetime that sealed the Void God. As a result, the closed-loop spacetime imprisoning the Void God had no time.

No matter how powerful the Void God's psionic power was, it was useless. Without time, there could be no further change. It was as though he had been frozen within a patch of spacetime, which was why the Galactic Alliance called it the Frozen Cycle.

Lu Shang was not particularly afraid of this technology itself. It was merely frozen time, after all. No one would die, and the energy level required was extremely high.

Back when the Galactic Alliance had sealed the Void God, it deliberately spread word that an ultimate weapon targeting the Void God and his vassal races was being constructed at the galactic core, forcing the Void God to lead a large number of vassal races in an attack on the galactic core.

With everything already arranged, the Galactic Alliance seized the opportunity to use the energy of the massive jets at the galactic core to create a spacetime loop, sealing the Void God within the Frozen Cycle.

But the technologies associated with it left Lu Shang deeply unsettled.

For example, adjusting spacetime parameters. What if the Galactic Alliance, in order to defeat the swarm, created a spacetime with a lower energy level than the existing universe?

Imagine it: an infinitely expanding spacetime bubble. All matter that fell into it would be deconstructed, then reconstructed into material structures adapted to the rules of that spacetime bubble. Aside from black holes, even neutron stars would collapse.

Terrifying beyond measure!

It was not as though the Galactic Alliance had never considered similar technology. They simply did not wish to research it. After sealing the Void God, they had terminated research in this area. According to the intelligence obtained from the Dias Empire, it seemed to be because it violated some kind of cosmic morality. Lu Shang did not really understand alien logic anyway.

But that did not rule out the possibility of the Galactic Alliance doing something extreme after going mad.

For example, shouting, "A universe without the Alliance has no reason to exist at all."

"No. Hoping for the best isn't my style. I must make preparations in advance in case the Galactic Alliance starts doing something reckless." Lu Shang made up his mind.

He then contacted the former Sovereign, Nanali.

"Nanali, as a member of the Galactic Alliance, the Dias Empire cannot possibly have only this much intelligence. Find a way to make them hand over the rest of their information on the Frozen Cycle."

"Contact the other factions as well. They must have quite a bit of related information too. This intelligence is extremely important to the swarm. We have to get it!"