The mercenaries, ordered to fight Liliwa's exploration fleet to the death, launched an assault on Liwana, the fleet's main city.
As the mercenaries attacked, all of Zhang Fan's organisms began frantically devouring their "masters."
"Purple Thorn really is a monster Huateng created. He wants to use monsters like these to rule Rebecca Star."
With the mutated Purple Thorns joining them, the mercenaries found the battle considerably easier. Liwana fell in less than a day.
Liliwa could only lead the remnants of his exploration fleet out of Liwana. But no sooner had they settled in nearby Qibei City than countless mutated Purple Thorns surrounded them.
Liliwa watched in despair as the Purple Thorns surged toward him like a tide. The few hundred warriors who remained were swallowed by that tide in mere seconds.
Having abandoned all resistance, Liliwa closed his eyes and waited for death. The roar of the Purple Thorn tide rushing past his feet filled his ears, and he felt the ground trembling relentlessly beneath him. Yet death's scythe never fell.
Liliwa opened his eyes and stared blankly at his first mate, Xialis, who looked even more bewildered than he was.
"Why aren't they attacking us?"
"Captain... I don't understand either. Could he be toying with us?"
A {Night Ape} suddenly appeared before them. Liliwa stared at the {Night Ape} in horror. "That's... the monster from Rena Star..."
Xialis shouted at the smiling {Night Ape}, "How did you get here?"
Zhang Fan bowed to them. "I came to thank you both for taking me away from the Death Star."
Words could no longer describe the shock the two men felt. Ten years. They had kept {Rabid Hound} for ten years, never knowing that {Night Ape} had already been lurking among them.
Once the shock passed, Liliwa actually grew calmer. "You deliberately let us bring you here, didn't you?"
"Yes! I'm a man who repays kindness."
"A man? You actually call yourself a man? You're nothing but a monster."
"I'd thank you if you called me a demon."
"Demon, what is your goal? To destroy Rebecca? Then you've already succeeded. There's no need to gloat in front of us."
Using the {Night Ape}'s body, Zhang Fan waved a hand and smiled. "Thank you. Though you may find my methods difficult to accept, I really did come here to establish peaceful relations."
"Peace? This is what you call peace?"
Unbothered by Liliwa's furious shout, Zhang Fan said calmly, "Peace is often bought with blood. When you were stronger than my {Rabid Hound}, were you willing to discuss peace with it?"
Liliwa had no answer. He had never regarded {Rabid Hound} as a creature he could speak with as an equal.
Zhang Fan continued, "Now our roles from ten years ago have been reversed, and I'm offering you peace."
Xialis demanded, "Then why didn't you come out and talk to us ten years ago?"
"As I said, I'm grateful that you took me away from the Death Star. You still have the right to stand here precisely because I'm a man who understands gratitude. Besides, ten years ago, peace would have meant nothing to you."
Liliwa's tone softened. "Your terms..."
"I want half this planet. All Rebecca People must hand over their bio-armor technology and space exploration ship technology. I'll allow you to continue reproducing and developing your civilization on this planet, provided you conduct no research into space technology."
Zhang Fan did not forget to add, "I'm doing this for your own good."
"I'm just a nobody with a weakness for money. I can't represent an entire planet."
Zhang Fan slowly approached Liliwa and gently lifted his head with the {Night Ape}'s sharp claws.
"A nobody? Your so-called important people and the mercenaries have all become my servants. And you, the nobody who brought me back, should now be thinking about how to live peacefully on this planet with me and my species."
"After all, my species lived peacefully with you as pets for ten years."
Xialis demanded, "You could clearly wipe us out. Why put on this display of mercy and charity now?"
"Let me repeat myself. I'm a man who understands gratitude. And I'm forbidding you from researching space exploration technology because an incredibly powerful alien race is lurking in the shadows. I don't want the tragedy that befell my planet to happen to you."
Liliwa patted Xialis on the shoulder. "We've already lost. To ensure Rebecca still has a place in the universe, I'm willing to negotiate peace."
Zhang Fan nodded in satisfaction. "I was right about you. Starting today, the Rebecca People and my species will usher in a new era of peace."
Zhang Fan kept his promise. His insect tide stopped slaughtering the inhabitants of Rebecca Star. After handing over their bio-armor and exploration ships, all surviving Rebecca People were permitted to settle in the planet's harshest region... Goblin Canyon.
At the entrance to Goblin Canyon, Zhang Fan's true body, the {Broodmother}, met with Liliwa, the current Rebecca Chairperson, one last time.
"However much you hate me now, that's how grateful you'll be to me in the future."
Liliwa remained silent for a long time before saying, "Overlord, I've thought about this for a long time. If we hadn't possessed space exploration technology, we wouldn't have gone to Rena... to the Death Star. We wouldn't have brought you back, and none of this would have happened."
Zhang Fan nodded. "My original species made the same mistake you did. Unfortunately, I was the only one left in the end... You're the lucky ones."
Vice Chairperson Xialis suddenly demanded, "Overlord, you want revenge. Aren't you afraid we'll seek revenge against you?"
"You're welcome to challenge me anytime! I'll spend about thirty years developing on Rebecca. We have plenty of time."
Faced with Zhang Fan's confidence, Xialis fell silent. Without their bio-armor, they would be helpless against the mighty insect tide.
Rebecca Star had been pacified. Zhang Fan stationed large numbers of mutated Purple Thorns in Goblin Canyon. He had long since decided that once humanity returned to Earth, he would restore the Rebecca People's freedom.
But if the Rebecca People resisted before then, he would exterminate them without mercy. Compared with humanity's great quest for revenge, everything else was insignificant.
Zhang Fan began the enormous undertaking of combining the genes of Rebecca Star's organisms with those of the Death Star's creatures.
Development across different species took longer than Zhang Fan had planned. It took a full forty years before he produced a bio-ship capable of traveling through space... the {Rebecca}.
Since most creatures on Rebecca Star were docile herbivores, their genes were of little use to Zhang Fan's insect-tide army.
Combining the Rebecca People's genes with the {Broodmother}, however, produced a highly intelligent organism: the {Overmind}.
The {Overmind}, a green {Broodmother}, retained the original worm's body shape. It incorporated the Rebecca People's bio-armor for greater defense, while six tubular tentacles also enhanced its offensive capabilities.
The {Overmind} possessed self-awareness and could control Purple Thorns, but could not control the original carbon-based insect race.
Only after modifying the {Overmind} three times to remove its rebellious tendencies did Zhang Fan entrust Rebecca Star to it.
He himself boarded the {Rebecca} with some Purple Thorns, original worms carrying Rebecca genes, and a vast force of Rebecca Star's new mercenaries. They slowly sailed toward the stars in search of Earth...
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