Chapter 373: Furball’s Scheme

The Tranquil Star Region was just as its name suggested: quiet and peaceful. Due to its proximity to the capital ring, Tranquil was the most populous and prosperous region, right after the capital.

However, this wondrous state had finally come to an end. After the recent big battle, Tranquil Star Region was anything but quiet.

In truth, calling the engagement a fight was inaccurate. The Pan-human Alliance’s seventy-strong guerrilla fleet was barely a threat to the insectoid fleets. The disparity in strength meant the eventual confrontation was bound to be a one-sided massacre.

The wreckage floating around the battlefield indicated the tragic defeat that the Alliance had suffered, but the expression on the victorious general Tanini was not good at all.

This was because these seemingly vulnerable skirmishers had managed to delay them for a full seventy-two hours. Every time the fleets were ready to forge ahead deeper into the Alliance capital ring, the opposing force would suddenly warp in and seek to hamper them from advancing.

Tanini of course gave the order to attack, looking to decimate the enemy fleets completely, but the enemies would simply run away after fighting for a while, drawing the insectoid fleets down the opposite direction that they were supposed to be headed.

“They could have had heroes’ death, yet chose to flee instead. To think these soldiers of the Pan-human Alliance dared to call themselves as the military—they’re practically a shame to all warriors!” Tanini’s vice-admiral Yhan yelled loudly. In his eyes, the human military’s guerrilla warfare tactics were completely a waste of time. Soldiers were supposed to charge into the enemy ranks and fight to the death.

“Bend,” Tanini said in a low voice. Due to his short stature, he would often have to look up to other people.

Vice-admiral Yhan nodded. As a warrior of the Longhorn beetle species, his body was big and thickly built, so he was still taller than Tanini even after he squatted.

“B*st*rd!”

Tanini jumped high and gave Yhan’s head a slap, who was completely flabbergasted at his reaction.

“You may now stand,” Tanini said.

Yhan clutched his head dumbly, absolutely puzzled.

Tanini showed him an electronic report. “See for yourself.”

Yhan took the report in his hand and read every word.

“The humans have managed to move their capital in this time! All that’s left behind for us is a razed Venal Star Region. Our plan to occupy the most prosperous human territory has failed, all because of those few weak, little fleets that kept hampering us,” coldly spat Tanini as he seethed in fury.

Yhan could hardly believe his eyes. This investigation report that their vanguard squad had sent via encrypted channels left him feeling despondent.

“They actually set their capital, which took them tens of thousands of years to build, ablaze! When were humans so gutsy?”

Tanini sighed. “Brother Uti did tell me that the current supreme military officer of the Pan-human Alliance, General Tai, isn’t someone to be underestimated. He’s decisive and excels in strategic planning. Looks like we’ve still misjudged him a lot.”

“What do we do now?” Yhan was disappointed. “I’m afraid Uti will have us executed if the Golden Tent learns of this.”

Tanini laughed mirthlessly. “Brother Uti is the smartest leader the insectoid race has ever had. We won’t be able to hide this from him, so best if we come clean.”

…

The Golden Tent.

Uti finished reading the report Tanini had sent and angrily sent everything on his desk crashing to the ground. He then tore the electronic document into pieces and threw them all into a lit fireplace. Actually, the insectoids also had high-tech gadgets that could be used to adjust the room temperature, but Uti chose to live in a tent like his ancestors did, living a primitive lifestyle.

Uti had a white face, his body small like a baby’s, completely incompatible with that large head he had. If he were to be put into human society, he would most definitely be viewed as a deformed child. High-class insectoids would often look quite similar to humans after they completed their evolution, and no one still had any idea why that was the case.

In any case, Uti looked no different from a human baby born with a huge head, but it was this big-headed baby, who wielded the highest authority among the insectoids, that was almost going insane from the intense rage he felt. “My king, who are you getting so angry over?”

A melodious voice rang out. The tone of this voice sounded as if it had come from a foxy vixen and would make people feel an unbearable ache from the very tip of their hair right down to their very bones when heard.

The Queen Qingyan slowly came sashaying into the tent. She was a breathtaking beauty of the butterfly species with her prominent and high nose bridge and a face that could charm any male insectoids. Every sound and movement she made easily overwhelmed anyone of the opposite sex.

Even if she were to be viewed by the most discerning eyes of humans, Qingyan would still be considered as an absolute knockout. Unfortunately, the pair of feelers on top of her head, as well as the two little wings that had not fully degenerated away on her back, very easily exposed that she was anything but human.

Uti glanced at Qingyan and instantly felt a lot better. Some women would make anyone feel happier just by looking at them, and Qingyan was one such an existence.

“Nothing much. I was just slightly annoyed after reading the military report I received from the frontlines,” Uti casually said.

Qingyan hugged Uti in her arms as she softly said, “My king, it’s already dark outside. I’ve been so anxiously awaiting you in the tent. I truly yearn for your company tonight.”

Qingyan’s words beheld a delicate softness that would make anyone mesmerized. Even the brawniest male would not have been able to withstand her. She kept whispering into Uti’s ear seductively, and her wanting expression only left Uti feeling completely flustered inside.

“Did we not just been together?” Uti lightly pinched Qingyan’s voluptuous bottom as he asked this.

“That wasn’t enough.” Qingyan coyly teased.

Uti, who had gotten aroused by Qingyan, could only acquiesce and promise to return to their bedroom as soon as possible.

Summoning a herald to his side, Uti gruffly ordered, “Announce my decree: My insectoid great army has already invaded the Pan-human Alliance. Due to the strength of General Tanini’s command, not a single civilian or soldier in the capital ring escaped falling and being exterminated in the hands of the insectoid great army! In celebration of this victory, the salary of everyone across the army will triple!”

As the smartest insectoid of their race, Uti very clearly knew that there were times when lying called for it, which was why he had falsified this military report to encourage his insectoid army’s morale.

After sending out his decree, Uti strode to his bedroom. Upon thinking of the beautiful lady awaiting him in bed, Uti could feel his male organs engorging.

The herald looked at the back of Uti leaving as he muttered to himself, “Our king is good at everything, but he simply loves the queen Qingyan too much.”

Uti had only done what a king ought to do, but he never did consider that announcing the annihilation of the entire Pan-human Alliance’s capital ring would actually cause quite a stir among certain people—Xia Fei, for example.

…

“I’ll ask you another question: Does the god race have a type of gigantic warship called Titan?” Xia Fei asked, his eyebrows knitted together.

“Titan? What’s that?” The insectoid cerebrum was nonplussed.

Xia Fei was quite disappointed. It seemed that the insectoid cerebrum had not heard of any Titan superwarship, which added a layer of uncertainty to Xia Fei’s hypothesis, unable to ascertain if the god race was the powerful civilization that had constructed Titans.

“What does the god race look?” Xia Fei asked.

“No one has seen them before.”

“Then, how did they establish a master-servant relationship with your race?”

“The master would communicate with us telepathically. They possess powerful perception abilities which allow them to communicate with us via their consciousness even across millions of lightyears.”

Xia Fei kept asking questions, but the information he got became less and less valuable. After all, it had been almost millions of years since the insectoid cerebrum got isolated here; its consciousness had survived over the many years, different from the insectoids of today.

Furthermore, the insectoid cerebrum would be somewhat flashy with its words when asked certain critical questions, which caused Xia Fei to begin suspecting the truthfulness of what the cerebrum was saying.

“Tell me how to reach the insectoid territory,” Xia Fei somewhat impatiently ordered.

A series of images appeared in his consciousness, following the insectoid cerebrum imprinting its race’s starmap into his mind, for him to be able to access it with a single thought.

Xia Fei lit a cigarette. There was only so much this insectoid cerebrum could tell him, and now, there were only two ways for him to dig deeper: First was to invade the brain forcibly and extract a portion of the memories. There was a certain level of risk to this, not to mention the difficulty of the telepathic control necessary. It would also be quite of a loss if he caused the insectoid cerebrum’s death.

Second was to bring it onboard the Impaler, interrogating the brain in his journey back to the Pan-human Alliance. He could slowly torture it until the cerebrum willingly gave up everything it knew. Given the Impaler was a cruiser warship, it had plenty of space to keep the biological life support system onboard, while Xia Fei could rely on his knowledge of machinery and maintenance to have it installed into his ship.

The first had plenty of risk, but it was immediately effective. The second was much slower but was more likely to guarantee a successful extraction of useful information. Xia Fei gave the matter some thought and decided to go with the second option, transporting the insectoid cerebrum to the Impaler for him to interrogate slowly. The Beast Spirit Codex was very effective at invading the thoughts of the insectoid cerebrum, so he was not worried that it would not eventually reveal everything it knew. Besides, now that he had the starmap in his mind, it was best for him to leave as soon as possible.

That was when Furball lazily crawled out from Xia Fei’s bosom. It looked very lively despite having just woken up and was acting extremely fawningly toward Xia Fei, most likely wanting to eat more Hearts of Spirit.

Recently, Furball’s appetite had become greater and greater, yet its body remained as small as always. Xia Fei would often chide it for its greed, complaining how it kept eating but was not showing any signs of growth at all.

Furball’s eyes were squinting as it looked all around, and the large insectoid cerebrum amid the nutrient solution caused it to become very excited. Two trickles of saliva flowed from its mouth as a green glows vaguely shone in its eyes.

Xia Fei was bemoaning his fate deep down; Furball, this pet of his, was truly a peculiar exotic beast. It had only just feasted on an energy ore not too long ago, and now it had its sights set on that big brain!

“You can’t possibly be thinking of eating this too, right? Let me tell you: If you dare eat it, I’ll cook you like oatmeal and treat you as breakfast!” Xia Fei viciously threatened Furball.

That was when Xia Fei suddenly realized that the insectoid cerebrum was acting strangely after Furball’s appearance!

“Fear! Xia Fei, this insectoid cerebrum is experiencing abject fear!” Phantom yelled loudly. “Could it recognize Furball!?”

Furball’s identity had always been a mystery, and all Xia Fei knew was that it was an exotic beast, but he had no idea what kind of exotic beast it was, nor did he know what grade it was. Phantom’s words had alerted Xia Fei to this, so he turned to glare at the insectoid cerebrum and poured a powerful mental assault to penetrate through layers after layers of the brain.

“Tell me: Do you recognize this exotic beast I have with me?” Xia Fei demanded.

At that very moment, Furball’s gaze had also turned toward the insectoid cerebrum, and it had even sent forth an even more piercing gaze than Xia Fei!

*Bang!*

A burst of white light appeared, and that insectoid cerebrum within the nutrient solution suddenly exploded! It had turned into countless motes of energy that was dancing in the air like falling snow!

Xia Fei stared at Furball in shock. There was no doubt that it had done this!

“Xia Fei, this is a rarely seen psi-splosion! Absorbing these energy fragments can be of great help to you in raising your special abilities’ rank!” Phantom excitedly shouted. “You can talk about everything else later. Best to use this rare opportunity and raise your rank!”