Chapter 112: Eternal Faith

Chapter 112: Eternal Faith

"Can't I really go with you to Monoye Seat?"

At the starport, ready to depart, Lu Lin'an asked this question for the seventh time.

Yun Huai patiently replied, "Dayuga is very important, and besides you, I don’t know who else can ensure its safety."

Lu Lin'an’s expression was complex: "I think Lailar is more familiar with Dayuga than I am."

Yun Huai looked at him helplessly, and Lu Lin'an changed his stance: "Alright, I'll listen to you first."

Yun Huai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He knew Lu Lin'an's focus was solely on him. Most of the time he was easy to talk to, except when it involved being apart. Yun Huai needed to explain well so Lu Lin'an could come around.

"We're not separating, we're dividing and cooperating. Once I find that insect evolving towards a humanoid form, I’ll come to Dayuga to meet you." Yun Huai raised his hand to lightly touch Lu Lin'an’s shoulder tassel. The man rarely wore such a uniform, but when he did, it highlighted the lord's imposing presence.

Lunen silently glanced at Lu Lin'an again, with the eyes of the Ita at the starport subtly falling on this corner. Yun Huai smoothed down Lu Lin'an’s tassel, as if calming his ruffled emotions.

Dayuga was very close to Monoye Seat. If Lu Lin'an wanted, tearing through space to air-drop there would take only a few seconds.

Yun Huai knew his capabilities, which is why he communicated about this matter. Ultimately, they weren’t separated by much distance.

The dark Ares and the king’s silver-white spacecraft were docked at different ports. The warriors entered their respective vessels, and the autonomous gene in Lu Lin'an’s mind said: [Lailar is more familiar with the terrain of the third system. With him around, there shouldn’t be any major problems.]

Lu Lin'an: "Lailar’s remaining power must have been all invested in his looks."

Gene: "[............]"

Lu Lin'an: "Good thing he wears that mask well."

The gene, speaking wistfully: "[The young Ita king understands you well; he really has great foresight.]"

If it wasn't for Lailar’s refusal to remove his mask, this little dragon cub might still be causing chaos.

……

No matter how much Lu Lin'an “struggles,” Yun Huai has already arranged everything for the capture of the Phantom King Insect. Sending Lu Lin'an to Dayuga wasn’t a whim, but a well-thought-out plan, knowing that if this dragon, possessing the power of space, gets serious, not even a mosquito could enter Dayuga’s airspace.

There are many pureblood Ita and several military outposts on Dayuga. If the alarm system’s countdown is triggered, the casualties there would be a disaster for the empire.

The sound of spacecraft ascending filled the air. The massive body of the Ares swiftly passed by the king’s smaller and more exquisite vessel. Lu Lin'an didn’t slow down and quickly vanished from Yun Huai’s sight.

Yun Huai linked to Lailar: "Tell Dayuga, a dragon is on its way."

Lailar: "Dayuga has been informed."

Yun Huai hummed, his voice carrying the unique clarity and purity of youth.

The lush grass on Uramel Mountain was swept aside by the strong wind, as the silver-white spacecraft glided like a light, followed by countless dense black ships.

The residents of Night Gold City looked up at the departing fleet, as if witnessing a grand, dreamlike procession.

"…Has the king left?"

An elder black Ita patted the head of a pureblood cub: "Don't panic. As long as we maintain our eternal faith, it will always surround and protect us. The king hasn't left; rather, the battle against the storm has just begun."

The children of Night Gold City are not ignorant. For them, they might recognize the image of the Storm Eye before they can fully read the imperial script.

Officer Lailar initially planned to flatten the great calamity with Dayuga and countless thermal weapons, but Yun Huai's birth overturned all his plans – at a time when all the black warriors were ready for sacrifice.

-

Monoye Seat is a small vegetative planet located at map coordinates 354.08°.

There are over seventy such small planets orbiting near Dayuga. If not for Lailar deploying detection forces on nearby planets, Night Gold City wouldn't have known about this dangerous mutation in the insects.

Yun Huai had already ordered the evacuation of all warriors from Monoye Seat.

The pureblood fleet from Night Gold City slowly descended onto the surface of Monoye Seat. At first glance, one might think it a quiet, beautiful, primitive planet.

All the trees here are not very tall; their tops connect to form a canopy, creating the illusion of a new layer of earth's crust in their grey-green haze.

Lailar disembarked the spacecraft, standing beside Yun Huai, "These are Monoye Seat’s unique dwarf trees."

Yun Huai looked at the closest tree. Though called a dwarf tree, it was still four to five meters tall, reminiscent of the black warriors he had seen.

However, for the tall Ita people, these trees were indeed not particularly imposing.

Yun Huai opened his light computer, directly accessing the latest coordinates sent back by the evacuating warriors. Lailar glanced at it: "It's on the east side. The spacecraft can’t fly over the dwarf trees; the startled vines will aggressively entangle the tail of the ship."

The most dangerous part of Monoye Seat was here. To approach the insect exuviae coordinates, they would have to travel on foot under the canopy of trees.

Yun Huai was not surprised; he had encountered many more stringent task conditions before. Compared to those times, he could now accomplish many things that were previously impossible.

He raised his hand, forming some serrated water spheres at his fingertips. The spheres hit the bodies of the Ita people, rapidly expanding into airtight thin membranes.

This was a protective shield created by Yun Huai, imitating Lu Lin'an's space power, ensuring the Ita people were not attacked by unknown jungle insects.

Yun Huai looked at Lailar: "Is there anything else that needs special attention?"

Lailar’s chest heaved for a moment: "No more, I'm honored to have lived in an era with you."

Yun Huai's expression was strikingly beautiful, his eyes like precious amethysts. He smiled, "The feeling is mutual in meeting you all."

……

Walking with royal power felt completely different from surviving in the apocalypse. Yun Huai navigated under the tree canopy for an unknown duration without a hint of fatigue. The Ita people beside him, blessed with excellent physique and combat strength by the universe, found such progress even less intense than their daily training.

It was just that Lailar was overly concerned about the king’s safety.

Passing through a large area of toxic spores, the officer cut every poisonous plant in half without leaving a single one intact.

Fortunately, such overprotective behavior didn't last long. The latest coordinates of the exuviae were increasingly close, and after bypassing a dense jungle, a small moss-covered hollow suddenly appeared in front of them.

There was a signal transmitter left by Ita warriors. Yun Huai glanced at the overlapping coordinates, confident they were on the right track.

Lailar didn’t speak but slid into the hollow first. His broad back obscured the view until he stepped aside, and Yun Huai could clearly see the exuviae, almost identical to the information in the photo.

"Arms, legs, neck," Lailar’s voice was low, "and the head."

Yun Huai stood on the edge of the hollow. The moss, deprived of sunlight, emitted a faintly rotting and fishy odor.

"This is its fifth molting. Its appearance is already very close to a human," the youth lowered his gaze, looking towards the direction of the hollow.

Lailar: "The exuviae are cold but not yet hardened."

Yun Huai didn't know what the Storm Eye was trying to do. Did it sense the Heiyao System's counterattack and thus spawned a potentially intelligent Phantom King Insect to disrupt them?

But no matter how many swarms it awakens, they will ultimately be destroyed by the Ita; it's just a matter of time. Yun Huai frowned slightly, pondering the true purpose of the Phantom King Insect.

A thick fog began to rise around them, and the Ita following Yun Huai tensed for a moment, then relaxed involuntarily.

Lailar: "It’s your power."

Yun Huai curled his palm, and the fog dispersed tightly around.

"Under the tree canopy, it's very humid. There's too much moisture accumulated here. Anything related to water, I can control." The new king looked at the officer and paused before uttering a number: "Ten."

What?

Yun Huai looked up towards the light filtering through the tree canopy: "Nine."

Lailar suddenly realized what Yun Huai was doing.

He was counting down.

The power of the mature king had reached such perfection that, as soon as they approached the target range, the search time entered a precisely calculated countdown.

"...Six," Yun Huai turned, his toes pointing toward the darker depths of the forest, "Five."

The young king didn't know what he meant to the warriors of Night Gold City at this moment. Yun Huai only felt he was doing something very ordinary that he could achieve. He didn't see that every warrior's eyes looking at him were filled with insane devotion and faith.

He had reached perfection.

A perfect and powerful king was the ultimate attraction for Night Gold City, where everyone admires strength.

The fog spread finely and densely, and Yun Huai suddenly hummed softly.

Lailar immediately asked, "What happened?"

Yun Huai suddenly raised his hand, and a massive burst of royal power cleared the fog and underbrush. The startled vines, under the residual force of the power, whipped around and broke into segments, revealing a deep passage that seemed to have no end.

The warriors stepped on the upturned ground, seeing in the depths of the passage what appeared to be a dark, grey-winged humanoid figure curled up.

Yun Huai, without hesitation, moved so quickly that Lailar took a moment to catch up.

Despite his lightning-fast abilities, Yun Huai reached the mysterious figure even faster than Lailar.

Yun Huai landed silently like a wisp of fog. The humanoid king insect in the corner of the mud shuddered momentarily, then slowly turned its head.

It had no whites in its eyes, only pitch-black pupils, and wore no clothes, covered only by dark insect exoskeleton on key areas - which were completely flat and featureless, appearing neither male nor female.

Lailar instinctively covered the king’s eyes but was stopped by Yun Huai, who meticulously examined the king insect's face during a brief moment of breath.

Although a month had passed, Yun Huai still remembered the hateful face of this figure - Moseri.

In a flash of realization, Yun Huai thought of the strange genetic sequence sheet.

……

One should never underestimate a twisted madman, especially one who had been conducting audacious genetic human experiments.

Yun Huai silently inhaled deeply as the humanoid king insect slowly opened its mouth to reveal densely packed, sharp serrated teeth.

Thinking it was about to attack, Lailar pierced the king insect’s chest with a stick sword without taking a sample, thinking there was no time.

But the weapon didn’t feel like it entered flesh; it was more like piercing a fragile balloon.

Moseri had fused his own genes with the king insect's, escaping from somewhere in Ita to evolve into a creature neither human nor insect. It lacked human memory and rationality, only possessing the cold, terrifying aspect of an insect.

The body of the Phantom King Insect deflated rapidly like a balloon losing air. Lailar violently pulled out the stick sword, his aura heavy with suppressed anger.

This wasn't a king insect; it was a molted exuviae—

A molted exuviae that retained some of the king insect's power and successfully lured the Ita king.

Its intelligence and physical form evolved rapidly, preferring to risk its soft shell not yet fully formed to escape the king's pursuit.

Lailar suddenly looked up, and at the same time, the foreign code that Yun Huai had not removed began to flash rapidly.

It was Lu Lin'an.

The holographic screen expanded instantly in front of the Ita, accompanied by Lu Lin'an's erratic yet urgently rapid voice.

"Still at Monoye Seat? Stop playing around there, I think we can meet now."

Lu Lin'an, flying above Dayuga, turned the screen to show a massive swarm of mutated insects completely covering the stars, endless and dense.