Chapter 249

Chapter 249

The masked man's gaze was intense as he watched the tendrils moving behind him. He couldn't keep this up; he had to shake off his pursuer quickly.

The tendrils had been led around by him for some time, and their main body occasionally used its mental energy to probe his location. It was likely that the Insect Emperor had already confirmed his identity.

If this kept up, having his location known would put him in a tight spot. He couldn’t turn back to fight either, as his current prince and the chieftains were too weak. Attacking the tendrils might anger an adult prince, who could mobilize any of the chieftains under the Insect Emperor's command to launch a siege on him.

If the young emperor attacked a prince, it would be seen as a challenge to the Insect Emperor—unless the young emperor sent his own prince into battle.

When two princes faced off, their respective emperors usually stayed out of it.

However, Greedy Wolf hadn't matured yet, and the hostility between princes of different emperors was no less intense than that between the emperors themselves. If these tendrils found Greedy Wolf, the main body might not be able to stay hidden.

The masked man couldn't take that risk. After a moment's thought, he led the tendrils toward the edge of the star system, heading for the border planets.

The nearby edge star regions were under the control of the Twenty-ninth Legion, whose commander had once led the fight against this prince.

He led the tendrils to a bug planet, just before the border planets of the star system. This planet had many wormholes already constructed, leading to the human border planets ahead.

These wormholes made it easy for the masked man to find an escape route, so he picked the closest one and entered.

Once through, he looked back. Behind him, low-level bugs scurried about. The wormholes on this planet connected to many others behind it, where one of the bug chieftains had its main forces stationed.

With so many wormholes built here, it looked like they were gearing up for an invasion at any moment.

As the frontmost planets had been battlegrounds before and were reclaimed two years ago, the situation was similar to F73, but without an asteroid belt. Only the Twenty-ninth Legion guarded this dangerous area, with no civilians around.

After the masked man left the wormhole, the ink-blue mass arrived. At this moment, a pure black dot suddenly appeared on its previously round main body, as if it was staring at the wormhole.

The young emperor had actually fled to human territory?

It was indeed strange, considering the young emperor was usually born in bug territories. Before they became powerful, they seldom ventured into human space. The main reason was that their princes and chieftains were born in areas where bugs gathered. Except for those that had been occupied, human planets wouldn't allow bugs to remain and reproduce.

Now, the other party had run to a human star region, specifically the garrisoned territory of the Silver Wolf Legion. This legion had the most intel on him within the entire star system. The garrisoned troops here were not unfamiliar with him. If he appeared, the Silver Wolf might also show up.

For his plan to succeed, he couldn't risk being exposed.

Moreover, since the emperor had learned about the young emperor's situation, there had been no response so far.

The tentacles of the ink-blue mass moved slightly. Even though the emperor hadn't spoken, he, who had been by the emperor's side for so long, knew that this was a clear sign that the emperor had no intention of making a move for now.

Since the emperor wasn't making a move, he wouldn't go all out to kill the masked man either. At least, not until he received a clear order.

The ink-blue mass nibbled on many insect crystals it had brought along, and the surrounding bugs also caught a pile of high-energy creatures, which it enjoyed eating slowly, one by one.

By now, the masked man had been waiting for a long time and noticed that the mass hadn't followed him. His expression changed slightly.

Although he didn't know why the other party wasn't chasing him, he didn't think it was because they were scared of Liu Lingxi's territory. If Liu Lingxi were here in person, it wouldn't be surprising if the main body avoided a direct confrontation. But Liu Lingxi wasn't anywhere nearby, at least half a star region away.

In this situation, even if the tendrils came over and tore through this area, it wouldn't be a problem.

Still, it was good that they weren't chasing him. He could finally relax a little and have time to deal with matters in the Imperial Star.

As soon as the masked man emerged from the wormhole, the garrisoned troops here almost immediately discovered him. But he calmly found another wormhole almost right away and quickly vanished. By the time the garrisoned troops arrived, the wormhole's fluctuations were almost gone.

He switched planets several times and was surprised to find that the wormholes here were more numerous than he had imagined. This was even after many had been destroyed by the Twenty-ninth Legion.

It seems that the Bug had made a lot of preparations, and he hadn't known anything about these arrangements before. He had always thought that these wormholes had been mostly dismantled.

However, at this time, on every planet in this area, almost every time a wormhole was discovered, there would be another one within five steps nearby. There might be one, or there might be several.

That's why he was able to shuttle between the wormholes so conveniently, and the warriors of the Twenty-ninth Legion couldn't do anything to stop him.

Wormholes were everywhere, making them hard to defend against and particularly difficult to find and destroy, which was one of the most troublesome issues that star warriors faced against the Bug.

The masked man eventually managed to hide his presence on a planet that was still inhabited.

Now that he had led the tentacles to this area, he could leave for a short time. The opponent was far away from the star zone of Tianlang, one to the east and one to the west, and wouldn't be found anytime soon.

Besides, after chasing him for so long, these tentacles probably needed some rest and recuperation.

The masked man then hurried back to the Imperial Star. He needed to stay here for a while to handle some matters. How long he would stay depended on when he could sense where his other Great Leaders were born. It was just that now he wasn't in the Bug territory, which might affect the awakening of the Great Leaders from the new Bug eggs, as he was too far away.

He had originally planned to return only after gathering all the Great Leaders there, but now being caught between two fronts, he had to change his plan.

Of course, after he returned, he had more than just new Great Leaders under his command after all these years. He had already arranged for his other subordinates to protect them. If there was any movement over there, they would notify him and also stall the powerful enemies, buying time for those little ones.

After arranging everything, he returned with peace of mind. However, the masked man's mood was not good when he returned. Even his usually gentle face now showed killing intent, making the man standing next to him, who looked exactly like him, tremble in fear.

This person was his substitute when he was away, a truly mediocre individual, both in temperament and in handling various matters. His attitude towards the various factions was even better than what he had deliberately shown in the past.

After the man retreated, he quickly handled matters on the star network, his gaze also falling on the little dragon cubs and the cubs.

The dragon clans needed to defeat other dragon clans and dragon descendants to make them submit wholeheartedly. Whether it was a small team leader or a general of the legion, it was all about strength.

This was very similar to the Bug.

So he wasn't surprised to see the little dragon cubs fighting to find followers. However, seeing the cubs being subdued made him think of Tianlang and the other Great Leaders training on those distant planets.

These half-human, half-bug cubs clearly had their Bug instincts, which allowed the little dragon cubs to subdue them on the star network.

Thinking of this, he looked through the profiles of the cubs one by one. He had originally planned to gather his Great Leaders and head to F73 to have the Great Leaders subdue those cubs.

Now, he had also found that the cubs were gradually regaining their abilities affected by the dark substances, becoming lively and intelligent, and learning mech technology at a rapid pace. He watched the battle recordings, from knowing nothing to now passing over a hundred levels, and these improvements surprised him.

He had always been satisfied with the growth rate of the Great Leaders. Except for those born later, the earliest-born Great Leader was earlier than these cubs, and even earlier than the little dragon cubs. Now, it seemed that the speed could still be improved.

So he contacted Tianlang and his high-level Bug subordinates, telling them to prepare youth mechs and special optical brains for use, and to start teaching the Great Leaders who had completed their second transformation mech technology as soon as possible.

He also had Tianlang oversee this to ensure that these cubs could cooperate. Even powerful high-level Bug subordinates had no ability to suppress the young Great Leaders, especially the first twelve.

So Tianlang had to be present to maintain order.

At this time, Bai Xiaoyu was watching a group of cubs passing the levels. When they finished and went offline, the little white tiger was still staring at the first-place ID, "Big White's Invincible Little Treasure," looking at the astonishing record, his beast pupils burning with fierce fighting spirit.

The Little Prince and Little Bai were also staring at the top rank, their eyes fierce. After all, they were princes and didn't like anyone or anything ranking above them.

The ID with the word "invincible" standing at the top was really getting more and more unpleasant to look at.

Only the little golden tiger was in a good mood. He knew he couldn't beat the opponent and wasn't thinking of grabbing the leading position. It was said that this first-place person had shattered Bai Qi's dream of being number one. Just looking at the ID, he knew that this person was of the same kind as him and his brother. Besides that, he felt an inexplicable excitement towards this unseen person, which made him feel more favorable towards this unmet individual.

Seeing the cubs' expressions weren't right, Bai Xiaoyu walked over and pinched each of their little faces, asking, "What's wrong?"

Little white tiger: "Brother, it's said that this person has been maintaining the top rank for almost twelve years. Their record is amazing. I want to take them down."

Little Bai: "White Papa, I want to take them down too. Except for you, no one should be above us."

The Little Prince gave a snort, though he didn’t say a word. His attitude was clearly the same as Little Bai's.

Bai Xiaoyu: “… Go for it. You’ve got my support.”

He thought about telling them but decided against it. After all, there was a 99% chance that the top-ranked player was none other than his younger self.

If the cubs managed to dethrone the top player, it would be quite an accomplishment. They would be nearly unbeatable among cubs their age.

That would be something to celebrate.

Only the little golden tiger didn’t participate in the discussion. Though the top player first appeared on the star network eleven years ago—before he was even born—he still felt an odd sense of déjà vu. “You all like to fight and compete, but I'm different. I like this top player. They’re so powerful; they should be the captain of my future guard squad!”

Bai Xiaoyu flicked his forehead. “Captain? That’s not happening. I’d rather see this little guy show some ambition, like the others.”

With a goal in mind, the cubs worked hard to improve their mech combat skills. Just beating the levels wouldn’t cut it if they wanted to beat the top player. They needed overwhelming power, consecutive victories, and high-quality matches to rack up those system points.

Pulling that off wouldn’t be easy.

While they were training offline, a fresh batch of promising cubs popped up on the star network over the next few days. They began clearing levels from zero and were also eyeing the human-insect cubs.