Departure

The enormous Alliance fleet surrounded the entire Asha star system. Seated high on Asha's throne, Asalas had never imagined that his dream of empire would end in less than two years.

He clutched the Purple Thorn Zhang Fan had given Asha tightly in his arms. Only one of its kind hatched every three million years.

"Didn't you tell me I was the only true chosen one? That I was the hope of the Asha Empire? Why has it come to this?"

The Purple Thorn's mouth curled upward slightly, as if revealing a sly smile. "You truly are Asha's hope. Without you, Asha would never have reached an agreement with Lila, and there would never have been peace. As for us Insect Race, we went from visitors to rulers in a mere three hundred years."

"Rulers? Under your agreement with Lila, you're nothing more than a subordinate power. You call that ruling?"

"Hahaha, someone of your intelligence could never understand. Accept your fate quietly. A word of advice: while you still have the chance to decide whether you live or die, make the right choice."

The Purple Thorn's mocking gaze made Asalas's skin crawl. He hurled the creature to the floor.

He roared, "Demon! You're a demon, a demon who toys with people's hearts! Why did you make us slaughter one another? You clearly had the strength..."

"The strength to wipe you out? To fight you? Three hundred years ago, we had no such strength. Isn't this much better? All it takes is sacrificing you, and Asha and Lila, two peoples with a thousand-year blood feud, can sit down to negotiate, while we Insect Race control everything about them."

Asalas gave a bitter smile. "To think I was played by a lowly insect. I killed my own elder brother with my own hands. I destroyed all of Asha."

By the time Liya led her troops into the imperial palace, Asalas had already taken his own life. He had also crushed the Purple Thorn, the symbol of peace, into pulp beneath his foot.

Likafeier stepped forward and shattered Asalas's skull with a thrust of her claw. She roared, "Only one Purple Thorn hatches every three million years! Just another hundred years, and this one would have reached the juvenile stage, yet you..."

No one dared stop Likafeier as she vented her fury. They could only watch as she tore Asalas apart and devoured him.

Looking at the Purple Thorn's corpse, Mora felt a flicker of doubt. Why had Asalas killed this pet, this symbol of peace, before taking his own life?

Mora watched Likafeier devouring Asalas. As a Matriarch, she had no need to do this herself. Was she trying to conceal something?

Mora's doubts about the Insect Race kept mounting, and a seed of suspicion buried itself deep in his heart.

Asalas was dead, and Asha was united once more. Lia Gross became the first empress in Asha's ten-million-year history.

The state of war between the Lila People and the Asha people also came to an end.

The Lila People and the Asha people opened all their star systems to one another, jointly mined mujing ore, and exchanged techniques and technology.

With Zhang Fan's help, the first great integration of star systems finally began developing as hoped.

The Lila People became the leaders of the Alliance, while the Insect Race held only two votes. Yet those two votes secured the entire Insect Race a position of immense influence across the Western Universe.

After the Alliance banquet, Likafeier approached Liya and bowed respectfully. "Your Majesty, the Overlord asked me to inform you that he has already left."

"Left?" Liya's startled cry drew everyone's attention.

Karduoduo asked curiously, "Your Majesty, what's..."

"The Overlord has left."

"What? Impossible. There are still so many of the Insect Race outside. He couldn't possibly abandon them."

In answer to Karduoduo's doubts, Likafeier said, "We are merely one stop on the path of evolution. Nothing can stand in the way of the Overlord's obsession with returning to Earth."

"The Overlord really does defy expectations. While everyone was celebrating peace, he quietly slipped away."

Mora suddenly asked, "Lady Likafeier, you're not leaving too, are you?"

A trace of puzzlement flashed through Likafeier's eyes, but it vanished in an instant. "No. I will remain on Camille and await the Overlord's summons. The Overlord said that the enemies he must face are very powerful. When the time comes, he will need our strength."

Karen extended all four hands toward Likafeier. "When that time comes, count me in."

Liya added, "Asha will always be an ally of the Insect Race!"

Electricity crackled across Karduoduo's body. "It was thanks to the Overlord that we Lila People and Asha were able to end the war and unite as the Western Universe Alliance. We, too, will always be allies of the Insect Race."

A Rebecca traveled aimlessly through the universe, constantly transmitting biological signals into space.

Aboard Rebecca, Zhang Fan combined and modified the Asha people's genes, hatching a body to house his consciousness. It had the Asha people's two legs and four arms, with handsome features, but also bore an insectoid carapace and spikes.

Zhang Fan had originally wanted to use a human embryo as a template and hatch a human body for himself. Unfortunately...

The human body was far too fragile to survive in space, and Rebecca's internal environment could not be modified to support human life. After all, Rebecca was also a carbon-silicon life-form.

Zhang Fan traveled through the vast universe for a hundred years. He had thought that, since the universe contained vast races like Asha and Lila that occupied more than a hundred star systems, encountering other races ought to be easy.

Unfortunately, he was wrong. Over centuries of travel, he encountered nothing but lifeless silence. He did discover two planets that harbored life.

However, the life-forms on those planets were all primitive single-celled organisms, of no use whatsoever.

He also discovered a very important problem: planets capable of supporting carbon-based organisms were exceedingly rare. Across Asha and Lila's hundred-plus star systems and thousands of planets, not a single one was suitable for carbon-based life.

The Asha people were boron-based life-forms, while the Lila People were helium-based. Zhang Fan's Insect Race could just barely absorb a little of the Asha people's boron-based Gene Chain.

Zhang Fan desperately wanted the Lila People's energy-body structure, but he could only sigh at what lay beyond his reach. He did not even know where their genes were.

Suddenly, Rebecca let out a furious roar...

Three gigantic metal robots blocked Rebecca's path.

"Robots?"

Although Zhang Fan could not devour the Lila People's genes, he had studied their mechanical technology in depth. Scarab, which fused biotechnology with mechanical technology, was a masterpiece he took great pride in.

Rebecca received a series of electronic signals but could not decipher them. Zhang Fan felt a headache coming on. Communication without a universal language really was a nuisance in space.

Zhang Fan had just relayed the signals to Scarab, which also had a mechanical structure, to see whether a translation was possible.

Then the three gigantic robots actually opened fire on Rebecca.

Fortunately, faced with the robots' powerful barrage, Rebecca had already been modified to incorporate the Asha people's Sacred Barrier.

Yet even with the Sacred Barrier's protection, Zhang Fan could feel the intense pain transmitted by Rebecca.

"Good thing I came prepared. Poison Thorn, all units deploy! Wipe them out!"