Chen Gu and Milgray were walking on the ground. Chen Gu's nose twitched as he grumbled, "Damn bugs, they've already started polluting the atmosphere of Tai Star. Soon the air here will be unsuitable for humans."
Milgray didn't mind; she was a super lifeform, capable of surviving even in lava.
She glanced around the environment with her silver eyes and asked, "What should we do now?"
Chen Gu replied, "Find a spacecraft and leave Tai Star."
"If the Freedom Alliance and the Star State adhere to our agreement, I'll help them resolve this insect disaster."
"But now..." Chen Gu chuckled and shook his head, clearly not one to be inflexible. Moreover: "I've already started thinking that once we escape from Tai Star, I'll visit the leaders of both the Star State and the Freedom Alliance to discuss how they will compensate me for this incident."
The fully cloaked fighter jet cannot leave the planet, so they must devise another plan.
However, after walking just a few hundred meters, sharp insect claws burst forth from the ground behind them, three of them piercing through the fully cloaked fighter jet they had discarded. This most advanced fighter of the Freedom Alliance exploded into a fireball with a roar.
Chen Gu and Milgray exchanged a heavy look, their energy gathering in preparation. Milgray's face suddenly flushed as she whispered to Chen Gu, "If it truly comes to a dangerous moment, I'll reveal my true form and carry you out of the Star Sea."
Both of them could clearly feel a large number of lifeforms rapidly approaching from beneath the ground. It seemed that the insects on the ground and in the sky were also closing in.
The insects were always narrow-minded and vindictive; since they had destroyed the flesh blanket nurturing their offspring, the insects certainly wouldn't let them off easily. Facing the planet's entire insect race, even Milgray and Chen Gu couldn't claim certain victory.
Chen Gu was puzzled: "In such a serious situation, why are you blushing?"
The ground began to undulate, as if the sea was brewing a storm. Chen Gu and Milgray rose into the air, looking out into the distance: indeed, in three directions, dense "dark clouds" were converging.
Rumble...
The ground suddenly collapsed, and massive worms emerged, opening their gaping mouths to roar at the two in the sky.
But suddenly, they all quieted down, forming a large circle in an orderly manner, and in the center, a turtle-like insect crawled out.
This creature's insect armor was even thicker than most turtles, and it extended a head from beneath its shell, with one long and two short antennae.
This head was without eyes or mouth, but the three antennae gently waved, emitting a mental wave, surprisingly understanding how to use spiritual power!
Chen Gu's expression darkened. The Freedom Alliance's fools had caused significant harm, and once the insect race gained the ability to harness the skills of professionals, their evolution speed became terrifyingly fast.
Perhaps finding that Chen Gu had no response to its emitted mental waves, the turtle insect became anxious and issued three successive mental waves.
Milgray asked, puzzled, "Is it... trying to communicate with you on a mental level?"
Chen Gu, of course, understood; however, he still had reservations about communicating with these insects. The captured professionals were all low energy levels, yet the insects easily had powerful bodies, acting like an amplification device.
Although Chen Gu was confident he wouldn't let the insects hack into his brain, caution was necessary. He employed the capability of the [Brain Domain Hacker] to construct a "firewall" within his consciousness.
After the turtle insect anxiously sent four more mental waves, Chen Gu finished constructing his "firewall." Only then did he release his spiritual power to intersect with the final wave from the other side, attempting to communicate.
Milgray looked up; countless flying insects had completely filled the sky above them.
The insect's consciousness easily tuned into Chen Gu's frequency, having devoured many human brains in the past.
"Why so slow? You humans are just cowardly," the turtle insect complained with slight dissatisfaction, quickly continuing before Chen Gu could respond, "I must be brief, or the Empress will notice."
"And those flying insects in the sky are to block your human reconnaissance satellites."
Chen Gu had some doubts about these words but couldn't help thinking: The Insect Queen's precautionary measure had finally happened; once she granted certain autonomy to an insect general, a traitor emerged.
It had been less than a year since the Empress decided to birth an insect general to act as a field commander....
Chen Gu asked, "Is this your true form?"
"Of course not," the turtle insect responded. "This is merely a puppet I use to communicate directly with you." The insect general continued complaining, "I'm no fool; appearing directly in front of you on the first exchange would be dangerous. You are of the Eighth Energy Level, and that female beside you is Ninth Energy Level. I don't want to die."
Chen Gu asked again, "Then why are you taking the risk to communicate with me? What do you want?"
"Cooperation," the insect general said. "I learned this word from you humans. We can cooperate. You've been abandoned by your kin."
Chen Gu didn't want to explain the dynamics among the Four Star States: "How do you propose to cooperate?"
"I need some materials to create a container to isolate the Empress's control over me. I can send you off this planet and make peace with you. There are tens of millions of non-combatants on this planet; I can let them go, but this planet is mine."
Chen Gu said, "As you mentioned, I've been abandoned by my own kind. Even if we collaborate, how can I meet your demands?"
"That's your problem," the Insect General replied. "I don't believe a Ninth Power Level and an Eighth Energy Level would fail to accomplish this once they are free."
Chen Gu pondered for a moment and continued, "Why should I cooperate with you? Right now, you're stronger than the Insect Queen. If I give you this planet, you'll grow and become a greater threat to us in the future."
The Insect General hesitated, then honestly admitted, "The Queen limits the gender of the Insect Generals. We're male insects, and there isn't a single female in the entire swarm. We can only cultivate the swarm through flesh mats, unable to lay eggs directly. This makes our growth very slow, so there's no need for you to worry about us rapidly expanding. In fact, the limit for me on this planet is to maintain the existing size of the colony, so I actually don't wish to fight you to the death."
Flesh mat cultivation of insects is similar to human cloning technology, while the Troop Nest Beetle is where the Queen stores eggs in advance, quickly hatching them when resources are found.
Laying eggs to expand the colony remains the fastest way for the swarm to grow. The Queen's gender restriction on the Insect Generals is also a form of constraint.
"What materials do you need?"
The Insect General provided a list, and Chen Gu asked, "What do I gain from such a deal?"
The Insect General said, "I can tell you a secret about the Empress. This secret won't allow you to defeat the Insect Race completely and has nothing to do with the war; rather, it's about the Empress herself, about her level of existence!"
Chen Gu immediately said, "Okay, but I want to know this secret first."
"No," the Insect General immediately refused. "After you fulfill your promise, come to this planet, and I'll tell you."
Seeing its firm attitude, Chen Gu thought for a moment and agreed. "Alright, first send us away, and once I deal with those who betrayed me, I will honor the agreement between us."
At this point, the Insect General suddenly became a bit uneasy. "If you break your promise, I will gain nothing."
Chen Gu replied calmly, "Do you have another choice? Besides, even without your help, I can still find a way off this planet."
Riding on Milgray will do; it's a very legitimate matter.
The Insect General hesitated for three seconds, then agreed. "Alright, you are an Eighth Energy Level, you must keep your word."
Then the connection between them broke off, and those gigantic worms rapidly coiled inward, taking the Turtle Worms underground. Meanwhile, the flying insects above Chen Gu and his companion dispersed in all directions, leaving only one giant creature over a hundred meters long, carrying the two of them skyward towards a large shadow hovering above—it was a [Anti-gravity Shuttle Worm] of the Insect Race, bridging the surface and the starry sky.
Chen Gu calculated the time from when the Turtle Worms appeared until the connection was severed: "One minute and twenty-four seconds." This meant that the maximum time this Insect General could deceive the Empress was one minute and twenty-four seconds; beyond that, it would be discovered by the Empress.
A few hours later, a nondescript spaceship picked up Chen Gu and Milgray from the nearby space shortly after leaving the combat zone.
This was an unmanned spacecraft, and Chen Gu immediately proceeded to the cockpit to connect in a three-way call with Aviloya and the headmaster, irritatedly saying, "The Star State and the Freedom Alliance used me as bait; they must pay the price!"
The headmaster chuckled, "I knew those bastards were up to no good."
Aviloya said, "Then let's proceed as we previously discussed, tracking them down one by one."
Chen Gu was about to agree when he suddenly noticed an email in an account he had registered long ago but never used. He opened it, smiled, and said, "I have a better plan."
...
Chen Gu had returned to the Confederation, while at the same time, the ninth team of the Freedom Alliance's Divine Ones arrived near the area of the flesh mat. From a distance, they observed that the severely damaged flesh mat was completely dead.
However, they did not notice that the size of the flesh mat was much smaller than at its peak.
Their mission target was Chen Gu, so they no longer concerned themselves with the flesh mat, instead trying to avoid the insects and began searching the area.
"Marshal, it's odd; there are no traces whatsoever."
"We've employed our professional abilities to search, yet we've found nothing. Chen Gu seems to have vanished into thin air."
Marshal Kang Kesi frowned, "Did he perish to the insects?" But deep down, he felt uneasy; such a formidable figure couldn't be so easily killed, could he?
...
In his dormitory, Chen Gu connected to the interstellar quantum network and opened that email. At the very bottom of the email was a link, which he clicked softly to enter a strange and desolate chat room.
Entering, another account swiftly logged in.
Chen Gu smiled, typing out a line of text, "Number 21, nice to meet you."
