The Weakling Chose to Submit

Miro Star's tragic fate was recorded in the swarm creatures' brains, and through the information stored there, Lu Shang could review the entire process of Miro Star's destruction as if watching a videotape replay.

After the solid planet, with two hundred thousand psionic brains evenly installed beneath its surface, approached within three hundred thousand kilometers of Miro, an agricultural planet of the Dias Empire, the destruction order was issued. The Behemoth brains across the entire planet gathered enough psionic power to warp space-time and form a warp bubble onto a single point on Miro Star's surface, then imparted terrifying kinetic energy to the matter at that point.

The immediate consequence was that, in that instant, the entire planet seemed to have been violently punched by some invisible giant. It flattened from the deformation and shot away like a baseball struck by a bat.

Everything on Miro Star was swept away in that instant by a shockwave spreading at more than the fourth cosmic velocity.

A planet teeming with life one second became a living hell the next.

Lu Shang called this Psionic Impact: directly applying kinetic energy to a target through psionic power. The psionic power released by two hundred thousand Behemoth brains was enough to send a solid planet no smaller than Earth flying away like a baseball with a single strike.

Although Lu Shang had developed quite a few types of psionic attacks, his favorite remained this Psionic Impact, the first one he had devised.

The reason was simple—simple, direct, efficient, swift, and violent.

"Seriously, psionic power is obviously this useful, so why was your Babel Swarm so obsessed with fangs, claws, and swarm tactics?"

As Lu Shang watched Miro Star's devastation in the swarm memories, he clicked his tongue in amazement while also feeling utterly speechless about the old Babel Swarm.

The Babel Swarm knew that psionic power could alter an object's momentum, and could even use psionic antigravity to reach space, allowing many swarm creatures that could only flap their wings to move through the atmosphere to travel through space at speeds comparable to space fighters.

Yet they remained obsessed with swarm tactics. They loved burying their enemies beneath sheer numbers.

There were clearly more efficient and simpler ways to deal with enemies, yet they insisted on choosing the most complicated and inefficient method. Wasn't that just asking for trouble?

"Forget it. It benefits me now, so there's no point dwelling on it." Lu Shang gave up on getting an answer.

Though the swarm was connected through a psionic network, the psionic network did not mean their consciousnesses were completely unified. These swarm creatures naturally had no way of knowing how the old Overlords and main brains had thought.

After receiving no answer, Lu Shang thought it over and abandoned the idea of pressing further. Either way, the current situation was advantageous to him.

If the Babel Swarm had been skilled at using psionic power back then and had developed something like one hundred and eight techniques for using it, what place would there have been for him?

Just as Lu Shang was about to search for his next target and test the power of other psionic attacks, an alert appeared in the swarm network.

Lu Shang raised a brow, and his previously good mood instantly darkened.

"Why are these bastards here again?"

Ever since five fleets had attacked five planets equipped with Behemoth brains, the Galactic Alliance's fleet harassment had become increasingly frequent. Their numbers had risen from the original five fleets to thirty, and the number of ships deployed to encircle and suppress the solid planets under his command had exceeded one hundred million.

As a result, Lu Shang received alerts from other solid planets every few days and had not even been able to sleep properly.

The worst part was that Lu Shang did not dare block those alerts. They were important military intelligence, after all. Among those fleets was a special type of ship capable of affecting the formation of space-time bubbles.

In other words, once his planets entered the influence range of those special ships, they could no longer use psionic warp jumps to escape.

He glanced at the twelve solid planets he had accumulated, each capable of faster-than-light travel and equipped with more than two hundred thousand psionic brains.

Then he looked at the culprits that had disrupted his sleep for the past five months. A cold smile appeared on Lu Shang's face. "It's time. Preparations are more or less complete. This time, I'm going to wipe you all out in one go."

Thirty enormous fleets?

More than one hundred million ships?

Fleets were exactly what he wanted to fight. If they didn't have over a hundred million ships, he wouldn't even be interested!

Hathe, an agricultural planet of the Dias Empire.

It was noon on Hathe, yet standing on its surface, one could not see the slightest trace of sunlight. It was as though night had fallen.

Though it was summer, the temperature was many times lower than usual, and snow had already begun falling in the skies over many regions.

The cause of all these anomalies on Hathe was that an additional solid celestial body, no smaller than Hathe itself, had appeared between Hathe and the main-sequence star of the system.

The shadow cast by this solid celestial body blocking the starlight had completely enveloped Hathe.

Unable to receive heat from the star's light, Hathe's surface temperature dropped sharply.

Inside Hathe's Assembly Hall, a group of Dias people had just finished viewing "Miro Star's Destruction," transmitted by the Behemoths. The entire chamber was silent, and Hathe's governor was so frightened that he hardly dared blink his four eyes.

The destruction of Miro Star had truly overturned these Dias people's understanding of the world. They had never imagined that swarm creatures possessed such horrifying means of planetary attack.

With such a precedent before them, anyone with a brain would no longer entertain the naive thought of relying on the planet to delay the arrival of the Imperial fleet.

"Governor of Hathe, I hope you will make your choice carefully. Do not act on impulse, or the result afterward will be nightmarish and fatal."

In what he believed was a very friendly tone, Lu Shang issued a warning to the Dias people in the chamber.

Every Dias person in the chamber turned their gaze toward the governor seated in the chairman's position.

Though the governor had also been greatly frightened by Miro Star's destruction, he remained relatively composed and asked unwillingly, "If we choose to be infected by you, isn't that fatal as well?"

Lu Shang wagged a finger and replied, "Of course not. Infection is only infection. It won't take your lives. In fact..."

"In fact what?" the governor pressed.

Smiling, Lu Shang continued, "In fact, you will receive unexpected benefits."

Those words left the Dias people present utterly stunned. Swarm creatures ravaged the galaxy, leaving no life other than the swarm in their wake—not even microorganisms.

And now, this swarm main brain before them was saying it would give them benefits?

Were their thoughts too absurd, or had the world changed faster than they could comprehend?

"Benefits?" The governor fell silent for a moment before asking, "What benefits?"

Lu Shang smiled casually. "I won't say much about the details. No matter how you think about it, you only have two options."

"Live or die."

The strong decided fate, while the weak chose their fate. Unfortunately, Hathe was the weak one!

Hathe's governor's eyes were filled with struggle and hesitation. After a moment, his tense body finally relaxed completely.

He chose to submit!

"We are willing to accept infection by the swarm spores." Hathe's governor resignedly closed his four eyes.

"Governor of Hathe, you are much smarter than the previous planetary governor."

Satisfied with the outcome, Lu Shang cut off communications with Hathe. Vast numbers of Behemoths warped into the skies above Hathe, their bodies stretching for more than ten kilometers as they swayed and scattered swarm spores across the planet.

Under an order issued by the governor's office, countless Dias civilians across the planet voluntarily left their homes and accepted infection by the swarm spores.