Chapter 2182 - 25.72 Lone Black Star - Remote Resource Planet
Chapter 2182: 25.72 Lone Black Star - Remote Resource Planet
With the war breaking through all over the territory of the empire, the one leading the military was none other than the crown prince, Ye Qinya. After he and Ye Caoyun completed their engagement party and their temporary bonding ceremony had been completed, the connection between the two had gotten stronger.
Because of this, Ye Qinya’s mental contamination had regressed to 50 percent from the original range of 90 percent. Now he can use his real abilities without worrying about another transformation. However, with the teachings of the God of Destruction and the Sovereign God of Void and Darkness, most sentinels in this world no longer fear full transformation. Instead, they used this form to fight more fiercely on the battlefield.
At the first remote resource planet that was reported to the empire, with the lead of Ye Qinya, the crown prince and his fated guide, Ye Caoyun, they finally landed on the planet with their troops. They were sent here to investigate the planet and then report their discoveries.
Landing on the planet, Ye Qinya and Ye Caoyun took the lead of the troops. As they first landed they surveyed the area and noticed that this planet is simply too quiet. The eerie kind of quietness.
"Qinya, there is something wrong with this place. It’s too quiet," said Ye Caoyun while frowning.
The Crown Prince, Ye Qinya said, "According to the reports of the drones that landed here, all the original inhabitants had suddenly disappeared. There were no traces of blood from battles, which is strange."
Ye Caoyun decided to spread his divine consciousness to check the whole planet. Using the trees as the medium with the help of the quantum beast, he should be able to resonate with all the trees on this planet.
"I will check the whole forest. You protect me," said Ye Caoyun.
The crown prince who knew the real capabilities of his other half nodded his head and commanded the soldiers to surround them in protection. Everyone watches as their Crown Princess approaches the nearest tree and summons his quantum beast. Unlike the beast type quantum beast, the plant type quantum beast is rooted in their master’s soul domain and can use their soul to come out and give their support to their masters.
Ye Caoyun was concentrating as the figure of a towering tree appeared behind him. This is his quantum beast’s soul imprint and this is the soul of a world tree that had grown quite enough to barely qualify as an adult world tree. With the calling of the ancestors of all trees in the world, the whole forest on the planet trembles.
Using this resonance with the forest, Ye Caoyun sees through everything this world possesses. Nothing from the land can be hidden from his divine consciousness. The feeling of spreading one’s soul to the surrounding would cause a burden to someone’s soul. But Ye Caoyun’s soul is that of a god. If not for the fact that his mortal body is too weak to house his soul, he would have ascended the moment he had woken up.
The more Ye Caoyun spread his divine consciousness, the paler his face became. However, he obviously had no intention of stopping until he had scanned the whole world to find what is wrong with this planet.
Ye Caoyun’s thought during his investigation: ’Nothing can be found wrong on the surface of the land. As if something had intentionally removed all traces. If it’s not on the surface of the land then it can only be in the sky or down below, the underground. It’s better to check the latter as I cannot scan the sky with my current strength.’
He did as he had planned and spread his consciousness deeper to the land under their feet. At first, there was nothing and everything was normal until it was 500 meters below the ground that he found hollow tunnels.
His thoughts: ’Tunnels? Why does this look like Ant tunnels? Better check all the routes.’
He followed the paths the tunnels had spread into like a big connected network. What he had seen below made his stomach churned. He had seen zerg ants, each one of them as big as a truck. What made it creepier is that instead of an ant’s face, they had eerie human faces. The expressionless type and they were eating humans who used to live on this planet. It was a living hell.
’What the hell is this?! Ugh~’ thoughts of Ye Caoyun while looking through the scene within the ant tunnels. ’Since these are ant zerg there should be a leader. Where is it hiding?’
He continued to spread his consciousness deeper underground and finally found a tunnel with the biggest open area. It was dark at first and it felt dumpy. Ye Caoyun looked around investigating until he heard a human-like voice, hoarse and sound like a broken track.
{Human...Mental Energy... Smells... Delicious...}
Before Ye Caoyun can react, his divine consciousness was cut off, no part of his mental energy was eaten and it backlash directly on him. Above ground, Ye Caoyun’s body suddenly trembles and he has coughed blood suddenly falling onto his back.
Cough!
The Crown Prince and the soldiers all panicked when they saw that. Ye Qinya hurriedly caught his beloved within his embraces. He looked so worried as he embraced his partner. At this moment, Ye Caoyun was bleeding not only from his mouth but also at the corner of his eyes, his ears and even his nose. Such a backlash which had this much effect on the body meant something had directly attacked his soul. Divine consciousness is no different as a part of the soul leaving one’s body to investigate.
Normally, this kind of investigation is the hardest to notice and only someone with the same powerful soul can detect such consciousness. But the thing that Ye Caoyun had met underground not only detected him but even devoured the consciousness he was controlling. That’s the reason for such a backlash.
Ye Caoyun could hardly speak loudly and had to whisper. Talking to him at this moment is the hardest. As if reading his other half’s mind, the crown prince lowered his head and listened to his beloved’s words.
"Retreat... Danger... mental level power... More than SSS-grade... Zerg race."
When the crown prince heard Ye Caoyun’s whisper, his face turned extremely serious and sharp. He didn’t waste any time and issued a command.
"Retreat! We are retreating! Abort the mission! Return to the Empire! Go now!" Ye Qinya commanded as he hurriedly carried Ye Caoyun in his embrace who had now fainted.
Everyone followed the command of their leader and rode back to their spaceships. They didn’t waste any time and flew out of the resource planet. As soon as they left the atmosphere of the small star, everyone who was watching the small planet got further from them and noticed something happening on the smooth ground they were standing on before. It broke down into fragments and countless ant zergs with the size of the truck and a human face came out from the underground, but what truly terrified them was the last thing that came out from the underground; its size was half of the original size of the planet.
It’s a huge ant zerg with the human body. Except for the fact that its head is that of an ant they would have mistaken this mutated zerg as a gigantic human.
{Humans... Escaped! How... Dare you... Escape! SHRIEKS~}
Everyone in the spaceship was terrified by the scene that unfolds on the resources planet they were in just now. Such a large zerg with the human body and worst of all it can even speak. That is no longer just a simple mutated zerg but a demon who had mixed its genes with the insect race, an abominable existence that shouldn’t have existed.
The last shrieks had affected those in the spaceship and some even lost consciousness. Thankfully, there are guides onboard who are capable of materializing a barrier that protects the spaceship enough for them to escape from that place. Though almost all of the guides had suffered a mild backlash from the large difference of power between them and the monster just now.
"Dammit! What the hell was that just now!?"
"It comes out of the land, from the underground!"
"Think about our ending if we didn’t leave when the Crown Princess had reminded us!"
"Hiih~ I don’t want to think about it. We would have all died there and then!"
"Did all the original inhabitants of that planet get eaten by them?"
"More likely... You have seen their sizes!"
"It’s terrifying that it knows how to camouflage the terrain and erase all traces. That is not something an ordinary insect race can do!"
"Do you still think that is an insect race!?"
"A bug with a human face and an ant head with a human body the size of a giant!?"
"What the hell is happening in this world?!"
Everyone looked at the Crown Prince who had just placed their Crown Princess to the medicinal pod. Most guides were also placed in the medicine pod for healing. Even though this pod cannot heal mental injuries, it can at least heal the backlash their body had suffered.
"Your highness! What should we do next?!" A soldier who is only a second in command after his highness asked.
With a serious expression on his face, his eyes lingered longer on Ye Caoyun inside the medicine pod.
He said, "Return to the Empire! This is not something we can defeat on our own. We need to call on reinforcements."
"Yes, your highness!"